Days 11, 12, 13, 14 &15. 7th -12th August, 2024

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Days 11, 12, 13, 14 &15.               7^th -12^th August, 2024

Fort William → Edinburgh → South Korea

Relatively sunny. 13º – 17ºC

On the 7^th, the weather held the rain off just long enough for me to pack up, then fell just as I was waiting for the bus into Fort William. From there, it was a straight forward train ride back to Edinburgh via Glasgow. I stayed back at Pollack Halls again. Once again, my Achilles was giving me hell and honestly, I suspect it will be for months to come.

The last couple of days were spent just hanging out in Edinburgh. On the 8^th, I spent most of the day at the amazing (and free) National Museum of Scotland. 

This is Dolly the Sheep. 

The first cloned animal.

A real mummy.

Then that evening, I went to watch my one Fringe Festival show: Jenny Tian, Chinese – Aussie comedian. It was a tiny venue with maybe 30 people in the audience but very entertaining. I got to meet Jenny after the shoe. I think she’s a bit shy / awkward when talking one-on-one but that might have just been because she had a lot of people to meet and didn’t have time to chat.

The next day was basically souvenir shopping, then packing up to move to a travel lodge closer to the airport. Looking for souvenirs for the kids was easy, but finding something for HaYoung, not so much. Every shop was selling the same basic stuff, with slight variations between them. I found out near the end, ALL the shops are owned by the same company. So I knew the bag I wanted to get, but finding the right style in the right colour and material was difficult. I could find the style, but not the colour. Or the right colour and material, but not the style. Or half of it the right colour and material and style, but the other half wrong… grr. Eventually I settled on one and grabbed myself a Harris Tweed wallet from the same shop.

While shopping, I made my way down to the Tollbooth Tavern, one of the coolest buildings in Edinburgh. It was a toll booth for travelers entering the walled part of Edinburgh from right back in the 1500's. In 1820 the ground floor became a pub, but the building was also used as a court house, a police station and a prison. 

If you look closely at the side of the building, you can see shells amongst the bricks. Legend has it that this is were they kept the witches before putting them on trial. The shells are there because "witches can't fly over water", so they wouldn't be able to escape their cell by flying away.

So shopping & sightseeing done, I packed and moved to the Travellodge. The last day was upon me and it was time for the 20 something plus hours of travel back home; kicked off with a 3am start.

It was the usual mix of hurry up and wait that is checking in, flying, connecting at another airport and flying again. One thing I will say is I was very surprised by Air France. I’ve heard nothing but good things about them prior to flying, but honestly, I wasn’t impressed. They stuffed up my initial booking, gouged every cent they could out of me buying tickets, have the narrowest seats I’ve sat in, then hardly give any service on the plane. The flight attendant’s call button was ignored multiple times and when one did finally come past and I asked for some water, she just said, “Oh, there’s a bar there, just help yourself”, then just walked off to the back of the plane, where I found all the attendants just standing / sitting around chatting with each other. Talk about a flying bus with wings.

But anyway, I’m back in Korea now, spent the 12^th with HaYoung for her birthday and am now preparing to go back to work.

All in all, this has been an amazing trip in which I was able to re-visit all my most cherished places in a land I still consider my second (third?) home. I found a couple of new, incredible landscapes, pushed my body to its limit and achieved my goal and generally had a wonderful time.

I can’t thank HaYoung enough for looking after the kids and basically giving up her summer break to let me go off on this adventure. Now it’s great to be back at home with the family… but it doesn’t stop me dreaming of the next time I’ll get to go to the Highlands of Scotland, this time, with family along for the ride!

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