Couch surfing Nottingham Part 2

After eating a Thai lunch I was fully stuffed and ready to wander around town, after doing several loops and stopping in Nero to grab some coffee it was time to meet my next host. I figured I would get more from staying with another host. Plus this would mean that I would get to see more of the city.

Troy and I walked over to the Burger Kitchen to meet her and her friend. After chatting for a while we all went our separate way. Ili and I went over to her place in a fancy upper class student apartments. Shared kitchen but their own en suite bathrooms. I really liked this place reminds me of the high rises we have back at home with a gym and other amenities available on site. The building itself seemed to have very high security and lots of rules but I guess that is just to enforce proper living within the building.

She flashed her key card on several doors through corridors and on a lift we finally made it. This place is much larger than I had expected. I wonder how many people live in this building alone, must be a lot since there was three flats per one kitchen. Maybe more!

Ili and I had a nice Big Bang Theory marathon since I hadn't watched any of the new season, so she caught me up. I think I have re kindled my love for the show as well. After the mini marathon we stayed up talking into the night about life experiences and adventures abroad. Ili is one awesome girl! I had a great nights sleep and was ready for the next day.

I had told her about the music festival Branch Out we did a bit of research on the venues and ended picking one in the same. Called Malt Cross but the music didn't start until earlier hours of the evening. We still had some time to explore and get into town. Ili mentioned a vintage fair, sure why not it was a £1 to get in and we would get a chance to find some antiques.

We entered this old building which I am sure was used for a theatre or still is, there was tea, cupcakes and all sorts of things for sale. From jewellery, clothing, accessories, tie dye, military camouflage and tonnes more of nick nack type items. What I wasn't quite prepared for was all the people that were going to be there, swarms of people of all types and sizes were there trying to muscle through to the next stand. I couldn't tell who was selling goods verses the consumers. After a short while we believed we had seen it all and were tired of the crowd. Time to find a nice place to get a hot beverage.

Their speciality drink is a hot chocolate with Maltesers, they also do a pretty good Chai Latte.

Since we really didn't have any place in mind we figured we would head over to the Malt Cross early to check out the venue. we had a back up place in mind since the music started at 3 pm at one of the other stages. When we arrived though I absolutely loved the converted style that had taken from this old theatre into a pub venue. A balcony level giving full view of the stage from above and also a more private seating area, the stage itself was on a mezzanine where it looks like only staff can get to. Which was a nice change from the usual pub seats shoved aside for a dance floor and a stage at the end. The bottom floor has nice long cozy sofas for more a booth feel. Ili and I loved it we were engaged in conversation until the bands started playing I think we spent about 6 hours sitting there, luckily for me I enjoyed every moment of it.

What a wonderful time I had with Ili now I must say good bye to Nottingham.

Couch Surfing Nottingham

Since I had a weekend free to do whatever I wanted I figured that it would be a good idea to see the sights of Nottingham. After doing a bit of research I was able to locate some people that I could stay with and not only that I had found a music festival that I could go to. With many venues and all for free no less, local musicians and tonnes of talent to be displayed. Since that was only Sunday I had some time to kill, what better way to pass some time than to meet the locals.

I headed off to meet my first host from Couchsurfer (I highly recommend this site) he was very friendly and we had a long conversation in regards to travelling, teaching around the world, music, movies and even relationships. He was very easy to get along with. The next day I got a nice hot shower and it was off to see some sights in town.

Robin Hood!

I think it speaks for itself. 

Inside the oldest inn in England the rooms were all part of the inner workings of the cave, my host was very nice to give me a historic tour whilst we were walking towards the inn. They had lots of beers and ales for people to try offering three mini pints for £4 where you can pick and choose. Pretty good deal! So we indulged a bit and had an early afternoon drink. There were also swords and gauntlets of all sorts in the display cases along the walls. They have a pretty comprehensive menu but I didn't order any food so I couldn't tell you if it was any good. I can however let you know that it was packed in there and finding a seat could prove to be difficult. The bar itself was labelled crematorium which I thought was a nice touch and the ceiling above the bar had all sorts of bank notes from around the world. Even saw a 20 dollar bill from Canada. I didn't realize how long it has been since I had seen one. :P

We considered going into the history museum but there was a door fee on  the weekends and there was a children's event going on at the Nottingham Castle mind you I did get to take a quick peek through the gates. I guess after seeing the Edinburgh Castle this one seemed small. Mind you their gift shop had lots of interesting Robin Hood swag.

He was nice enough to wait with me at the town centre square where I waited for my friend for a wonderful lunch.

Leaving Edinburgh

Greyfriars Bobby

From check out we had 9 hours to kill, what to do next? Since Danny and I are so fond of our museums off to the national museum of Scotland. A place that matched the British museum. With tonnes of unique animals that I have not seen before a rarity for myself since I have been in so many.

The best thing I saw there was the Crysophase, or 'time eater', a crazy clock adorned with a massive decorative grasshopper that kept irregular time, resyncing every five minutes as a means of representing the varying speeds of time's passage as humans perceive it.

The Time Eater 

 The second one was the 'millennium clock', it was made in the tribute to human suffering with many layers of historical figures of war time. Like Lenin, Hitler, Stalin I can't remember the last one. Not only that it stood so very tall with tiers that mirrored other evils humanity had to suffer through.

The Millenium Clock. 

When our feet started to ache once more I dragged Danny to Dim Sum since it had been far to long. I researched a place after looking through the to do guide for Edinburgh in our hotel room. The restaurant we ended up eating at was called Saigon Saigon, I had initially been looking for a bowl of pho. This restaurant served very little Vietnamese food despite the name. When I did get on their website it had a very colourful menu, with an all day a la carte section. Making it very enticing and hard to refuse.

Now it was time to sample their food, the staff all spoke Mandarin so I couldn't communicate with them very well. Most of the wait staff seemed to know enough to take an order,  after ordering exactly what I wanted and some more to go I was supper happy.

1.  Beef ho fun
2.  Chinese doughnut wrapped in rice noodles
3.  Steamed pork buns
4.  Rice noodles with peanut sauce
5.  Sticky rice with Chinese sausage egg and chicken in a banana leaf

The food was good but the prices for each dish seemed expensive £ 3+ per plate, the noodles were from the main menu costing £8. 

Either way I was pleasantly full and it was time to start the journey down country. Let's quickly recap.

1. Ferry 1:40 
2. Bus 4:20
3. Gondola 0:30
4. Train 5:15
5. Train 5:00
6. Train 0:45
7. Bus 0:20
8. Car 0:20 

From Tarbert to Long Eaton, over 18 hours!

Finally made it into a bed, time to sleep and get things sorted in the morning.

Arthur's Seat

The ascension is the incline upwards towards the right.

Today is the day that we aimed to climb Arthur's Seat. A uniquely put together volcanic mountainous hills in the middle of Edinburgh. A historical and very interesting piece of land with all sorts of terrain making it a very enjoyable 'hillwalking' adventure. Plus we were blessed by the gods with beautiful weather!

The sun was beating down after the uphill climb we came around the corner to find this. 

On our way up became higher than the hills around us. 

When we reached the top I thought we were finished but the seat was still ahead of us. 

 Accessible from every corner and surrounding hills we came across a little bit of everything. From a steep dirt incline to largely formed rock staircase but not without a bit of slippery slimy rocks and muddy patches.

This was taken when I first thought we reached the peak.

from upon Arthur's seat.

The scenery was breath taking and give you a much better perspective on how big Edinburgh city really is. With the old town, new town huge landmarks like the Stadium you can see it all even out to the ocean and around the bay to the other side.

On our decent down on the other side since we didn't want to backtrack there was so much more to see.

Having climb few mountains in Scotland Giolabhal Glas, Ben Nevis and now Arthur's seat this one is the best by far. mind you climbing your backyard mountain is a great adventure when you are accompanied by mystery and a wilderness explorer kitty.

This walk was by far the best one I have done since I have arrived in the UK. I would highly recommend this free walk to anyone in or travelling through Edinburgh.

Day 3 Edinburgh

Most of the morning and early afternoon was spend on Arthur's seat since it was quite a journey up as it was down. I couldn't help but feel that this city has so much more to offer. I already knew that our three nights in Edinburgh wasn't going to be enough.

Where the Queen stays when she is in Edinburgh.

I forgot to mention the queen's gallery since it was in front of Scottish parliament and it was near the path before the climb. We took a quick peak at the building the queen stays at when she is residing in Scotland and remembered to take a bathroom break.

When we reached the bottom once again we wanted to walk back into town to take a break back at our hotel. We were delayed by Danny's curiosity for the building that we saw on our way up Arthur's seat. Up again since it was still quite a distance  past a cemetery, my legs aching and feeling the uneven steps and various types of landscape we had already come across.

I thought we had arrived at the same building that was at we had seen so far away, it turned out to be the Burns Monument. The people of Scotland must have really enjoyed his poetry, I'll be the first to admit that I haven't read much if his works outside of the writer's museum. Across the street from it was a very abandoned looking Greek building, with the tall pillars.

Finally making it back to Cockburn street which really wasn't all that far we were enticed by a street performer. A sword swallower with a great sense of humour and showmanship. The first of his crowd it was hard to say no to the man working in a chilly night. He put in a wonderful show with a very amazing finale, that really had you thinking that he might get hurt. Ohhh, the suspense.

I had found a flyer when we walked into Edinburgh backpackers hostel sporting some drum and bass at a night club near by. Called Sneaky Pete's but they didn't open until 11pm. With a lot of time ahead of us we rested for a little while in the hotel warmed up a bit and caught up with one of the free daily ghost walks.

Our tour guide played the role of a ghost that was hung in Edinburgh, calling us all 'mortals' as we followed him to the next bar to pick up more tourists. He had flare in his story telling and walked around showing the places those true stories originated from. He had tricks and enthusiasm plus he was in character the whole time, I absent mindedly reminded myself that I should have asked the gentleman how long he had been telling ghost stories for.

Most of the ghost walks in Edinburgh charge about £ 11 per person that include a trip through the catacombs under the city. So I would much rather  pay a small donation to someone who isn't just a tour guide reading from a script.

Our ghost walk tour guide.

The evening was just only half over now, time to get some food and get ready to head out dancing. On our way we met some wonderful people, a busker named Jamie who had an obsession with Cantonese to be specific, Ryan from new Zealand told me I had the best answer for relationships and Ben from the east coast of England ho played hockey and has family in Canada. Haven't made it into the club yet and we already started chatting up strangers.

Lastly dancing was to be had, the bar reminded me of a small bar at home called level two but more narrow. The dance floor was small but it had been ages that I had been on one with more than 12 on the dance floor. The DJ was playing dub step when we walked in and spun some all right tracks But I was there for the  d&b which he didn't play, when the next DJ came on he switched to house even though it said on the flyer that it was suppose to be breaks/d&b/dub step.

Whatever danced for an hour any ways, I'm sad we are leaving tomorrow.