After a good nite sleep of 10 hours, I woke up at 7am, freshen up and went downstairs to cook noodles. While cooking, I had a brief chat with the elder man who was playing some wonderful guitar tunes last nite. He’s from Ipswich and he plays at wedding ceremonies. After breakfast, I set off to Edinburgh. Soon I was stopped by the highway maintenance guy telling me that the Skye Bridge is closed so I need to take the ferry from Armdale Ferry Terminal to Mallaig instead to go back to the mainland. Reached the terminal at 9.45am and the next ferry is set sail at 10.15am. The ferry cost GBP18.45 for the car and another GBP3.50 for myself. While waiting, I asked the ticketing officer what happened at Skye Bridge only to found that its now opened again after an accident last nite. Bummer... could have saved all that money but then just treat it as an experience :)
Under the instruction of the ferry officer, all the drivers drove their cars onto the ferry and nobody is allowed to stay in the car. Everybody went to the upper deck where there is a lounge and a small cafe bar. You can choose to stay indoor at the lounge or go outside to the open space where there are also some seats. I off course went outside but then it's really windy and cold out there. The ferry ride just took about 30 odd minutes and along the journey, one of the car's alarm went off non-stop. Five minutes before we reach the terminal, all the drivers and passengers were requested to go back to the car and get ready. Upon reaching, once again we were instructed to leave the ferry one car after another.
I continued my journey towards Edinburgh. The weather this morning has been cloudy and grey. At times, it was just a mild drizzle but other times its pouring down hard. The traffic along the route is generally slower as everybody is driving at a slower pace. I welcomed the slow moving traffic as it gave me more time to enjoy the scenery, contrasting with the views a few days ago in bright and sunny weather, the gloomy, misty and wet terrain presents a totally different feeling. There were quite a number of serious cyclist braving the rain, wind and cold at the oncoming direction. No doubt, they have my utmost admiration and applaud.
After about 5 hours, I arrived at the Hermiston Park and Ride site. It's free to park here and I only need to pay for my bus fare (GBP1.10) into Edinburgh town center. This is a very good deal as I heard it would be difficult to find a parking slot in Edinburgh town and not to mention the expansive parking fee. I am now carrying my full-size backpack plus another day-pack and walking on foot now. This is actually the first time on my entire trip that I have to carry everything on my back... and it's definitely not an easy job. Well, I guess this would be the exact situation when I go on my Euro trip next year so I better start getting used to it. Some guessing and asking for directions later I checked in to the Edinburgh's St. Christopher's Inn Hostel located one street away from the Royal Mile. I was located at the top floor (5th floor), OMG !!! But then staying up high has its own benefits as I am now further away from the bar downstairs (not sure what the situation is like for those at the lower floors) and also I get a good view of the Edinburgh town from the window of my room.
After days of grassland, hills, the mother nature with more sheep than human, I am suddenly walking amidst beautiful old buildings crowded with locals and tourists. It's the last day of the Fringe Festival 2008 so there are still some street performances going on. The authority has blocked up the Royal Mile making it inaccessible to public vehicles. I just wandered along the Royal Mile stopping off and on to watch the performances. There was one guy performing at the middle of the road and his performances was hilarious. He did a pretty good job imitating Micheal Jackson's moon walk and I am particularly impressed by his show of the Matrix in 'slow motion'. We all know how the slow motion scenes on movies is done but to see it being performed in real life, that is just incredible. At the other corner, there's a group of people playing various instruments (violins, drums, etc) and there is this crazy lady who put an electric drill through her tongue!
As the sunsets, the temperature drops and I decided to go back to the hostel for shower and also change to a thicker jacket. Later, I got myself a Subway sandwich as dinner and while munching, I heard some drum thumps and also bagpipes music. It's actually a band playing some really good highland music. Their performance were brilliant but too bad I arrived a bit too late as they are doing their last piece of music for the nite and also for the festival. I enjoyed it very much hence I bought their CD album and got them to signed it. I lingered around a little longer after that before going back to the hostel.
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