huilin

These were the glorious breakfasts we had over the course of 3d2n (4d3n for the rest) at Ashaig B&B. This is truly a wonderful B&B, a little house perched on the edge of a very scenic loch in the middle of nowhere. They have chicken coops outside where Kathleen and Colin (our hosts) rear free range chickens for their eggs, and a little motor boat in case they want to go out in the loch. The rooms were really comfortable and nice, and my favourite part of the house was the little drawing room where guests can feel free to sit around, play games, browse through their collection of books on Skye, and borrow from their extensive dvd collection to watch in the room. The little library was really useful as we were able to get a book enumerating several scenic walks on the island, ranked by difficulty level, and we tried one of them out! (in a later post)

The breakfasts were completely awesome too, with a choice of free range scrambled eggs with smoked salmon/mackerel, a full Scottish breakfast with haggis/black pudding, or pancakes with eggs, all homecooked by the hosts. Amongst the few of us, we managed to sample everything, and apart from the black pudding which I personally found gross to eat because its really coagulated blood and who wants to eat coagulated blood right, it was all really yummy. We also got to help ourselves to as much cereal or yoghurt as we wanted, placed on a side table.

Kathleen and Colin also have a wonderful dog, Brea, who’s so friendly that the moment anyone goes up to her, she rolls over and expects to be tickled/rubbed. She’s tremendously lovable, but moves about so fast that I was not able to get a picture of her. When anyone comes to her with a camera, she also tries to lick the camera lens – not good for the camera!, so that made the job doubly hard too.

On the way up to the Isle of Skye, we also stopped by at the infamous Loch Ness, home to Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. Lawrence and I decided to skip the detour up north to Inverness in order to try and get to Skye before nightfall, so we stopped by Fort Augustus, a small town on the southernmost point of the loch. And no, we did not see the monster. It was a humongous lake, and very windy and cold too. It was a short walk out to the jetty to take pictures and try not to get blown away by the wind, and off we went again towards the Eilean Donan castle and Skye.

This castle is, of the few that I’ve seen, my absolute favourite here. The magnificent view of the little castle perched on an island in the middle of a huge loch, with the late afternoon sunlight casting shadows, adding dimension and creating sparkles on the water surface completely silenced me. I had expected it to be bigger, but this quaint little castle’s interiors are furnished in the style of the late 1800s early 1900s, which made it very interesting to browse around and see too. More fun though, was exploring the grounds around the castle, perching on rocks to take pictures and sitting in the garden with daffodils all around with the Scottish flag flying high in the background. I’d first seen it in the movie Made of Honor, and have been raring to come visit ever since. Its located just next to Kyle, where the Bridge to the Isle of Skye is. It definitely has not disappointed, and I really think that the locality makes this one of the most beautiful castles ever.

This must have been the road trip which I was most psyched about. Having heard wonderful things about the scenery and sights of the Highlands of Scotland, I’ve been fervently looking forward to this trip for months. Lawrence’s flight in from the USA was unfortunately delayed due to inclement weather, hence we both had to rent another car and start off 1 day later than initially planned.

It was such a fantastic trip, the sights were stark, cold and beautiful. The scenery varied from cold blue lochs to dry brown plains. On Friday, we went up north from Edinburgh towards Loch Ness and Inverness, then through the Eilean Donan Castle to Kyle where we took the bridge to Skye. Saturday was spent in Skye, and on Sunday, we took the car ferry to the mainland, and drove back via Fort William, Glencoe and Stirling. I must have taken about more than 700 photos on this 3 day 2 night weekend alone, which will take me ages to sort through. Above are some of the pictures that I snapped from the car window as we drove through these spectacular sights. They’re not the best photos ever, since they were taken from the car window of a moving vehicle, but will suffice to serve as reminders.

My lovely friends who’re in Edinburgh with me and putting up with me on a daily basis. Thanks guys =) This was taken at the medical school in the University of Glasgow.

Area near the harbour filled with pubs and restaurants. The boat in the picture is really a pub. Martin Wishart’s 1- Michelin starred restaurant is just around the corner from here too.

Monday was an Easter public holiday for us, and the 4 of us took a bus down to Glasgow for our first venture out of Edinburgh. The journey took about 1h45min. Ambika met us at the bus station in Glasgow, and kindly brought us around! First on her itinerary was Buchanan Street, pictured above, the main shopping throughfare of the city. It certainly lived up to its reputation as the 2nd best place to shop in the UK just after London, with a wide array of stores available. We (being thrifty and trying to limit baggage weight for our flight back to London in May) only went into Primark, where I bought insanely cheap plain tshirts for only 1.50pound apiece!

After shopping, we went to Mussel Inn for an insanely good lunch of mussels and bread! It serves huge pots of mussels in your desired serving size of a bowl, half a kilo or one whole kilo, with really yummy sauces such as Shallot (my choice, containing garlic, white wine, shallots and cream) or Morrocan (a mix of really tasty spices such as coriander and cumin). With the mussels, they serve a free flow of crusty white bread and butter. The bread dipped in the mussel sauce was soo satisfying! Being absolutely famished, we kept eating and eating until even the waitress finally refused to bring us more bread, which was disappointing (we wanted more bread!) but hilarious.

We then took a short subway ride on the world’s oldest subway system (super quaint, the tunnels are so small and trains are barely high enough for me to stand straight! and it sways from side to side as the train travels!) to the West end, where the University of Glasgow is sited. I must say that the University here is really really beautiful. Some of the buildings pictured above were used in a Harry Potter set in one of the scenes where they were learning how to fly on the broomstick! It was completely lovely and happifying, even the weeds were pretty daisy-like flowers. I was so happy I just lay on the grass there to soak in the beautiful atmosphere. Luckily it was a public holiday and the campus was deserted except for the odd passerby.

It being spring, Glasgow was also abloom with flowers! We strolled through the campus grounds, and then through a park nearby, and completely swooned at the array of colourful daffodils and tulips and other plants that were all around us. It was a wonderful afternoon just walking about admist all this beauty. We then visited one of the science museums (free entry!) and had fun looking at all the exhibits of animals and dinosaurs.

Dinner was at a quaint little Scottish restaurant tucked away in one of the back lanes – we would never have found it on our own if we did not have Ambika and Sarah leading the way. It served traditional Scottish fare, just a little more dressed up. I had a 2.5course meal (shared the dessert) which cost about 12pounds (it was the pre-theatre menu, and hence cheaper), and consisted of the traditional haggis, teets and tatties in a whisky sauce (haggis + potatoes + turnips), a main course of lamb, and sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce for dessert. It was so absolutely divine and was just such a lovely end to the day.

Thanks Ambika and Sarah for being such lovely hosts!

Sorry for the picture-heavy post. I’m a little behind in posting my pictures now, but rest assured they’re coming! Last Saturday, we went to Arthur’s Seat – the main peak of the many hills and large expanse of open space that constitutes Hollyrood Park. There’re actually many routes up the to the peak, but we chose one of the tougher, steeper climbs up. The simpler ones are so gradual that you even see people pushing baby prams and walking dogs up. Its a small hill, about 241m high, but it affords a spectacular view of the entire city of Edinburgh and beyond.

We took a leisurely 4h walk here climbing up the hill, taking many photos, sitting on a patch of grass near the peak to enjoy the view and our homemade sandwiches (smoked salmon, egg&mayo) and hot chocolate we brought in flasks, then finally scrambling down this steep incline to get back down. It made for a fantastic (and tiring) day out.

The Edinburgh Farmer’s Market, held every Saturday from 9am-2pm at the Castle Terrace is such a delight. Its situated in the shadows of a cliff, with the Edinburgh Castle looming above, and consists of rows of stalls run by local producers selling their artisan produce. We ventured there with an empty stomach and an adventurous attitude, ready to try anything that seemed interesting.

Marcus and I got a Roasted Hog sandwich each (pictured above) that consisted of a huge heap of tender roasted pork flesh, with vegetable relish, a large piece of crackling and a generous dollop of chunky applesauce in a soft warm roll. It was supremely delicious, with us fervently copying down the address of the shop (Oink!, 34 Victoria Street) so that we could go search for it again in the city whenever we need a fix of roast pork. Li and Wenkien also got a Buffalo burger, with the juicy looking patty fried on the spot, which they said was very good too!

We also got organic chocolate from a producer who makes them in a village just outside the city – 3 bars for 6pounds, and I got Sea salt&caramel, Strawberries&pepper and Ginger flavoured dark chocolate bars. They also had the most delightful looking chocolate bunnies, which I regret not getting for Easter.

The boys got chips fried on the spot by a chatty guy who told us where to get the best Haggis in town. Li and I shared a pink cupcake, and camembert cheese that was superbly flavourful and melt-in-your mouth was purchased (3.50pounds) from an old lady who made them herself too.

Halfway through our visit, Li tapped on my shoulder and led me to a stall. She took a piece of cracker from the plate laid out on the table, selected a jar from the many varieties available, and placed a dollop of jam on the cracker and gave it to me. It was the most amazing jam I had ever tasted. Home made jam in about 20 different flavours from a farmhouse located just on the outside of Edinburgh. Even the simple Strawberry jam was more delicious than any that I’d ever tasted before.

I love Farmers Markets and purchasing produce from the people who make it themselves. Unfortunately, we won’t get the opportunity to come back to this Saturday market since we’ll be away the next few weekends, before heading to London, but there’s another market on Fridays at Ocean Terminal that I’m raring to go to next!

I don’t particularly like burgers, but boy do I LOVE Wannaburger. I first knew of this because its West End outlet is along the route my bus to the Royal Victoria Hospital takes every morning. Looking down from my seat in the upper deck of the bus, it always looked like a swanky, interesting restaurant to try. Yesterday, when the 4 of us were cold and hungry (having gone without lunch) walking back from the Edinburgh Castle, we passed by its branch at the Royal Mile and decided to give it a try.

My order of the Camembert Cheese burger – with an amazingly juicy burger patty, a huge piece of melty fragrant camembert cheese, chunky cranberry sauce, the usual burger toppings and a perfectly toasted sesame bun, was freaking mind blowing and completely satisfied my every pore. Li and Wk shared the Classic and the Cheeseburger, and Marcus had the Blue Cheese burger with Roquefort in it, were all completely happy with their orders as well. In our effort to save money (burgers alone ranged from 4.99 to 6.99 pounds), we didn’t order sides or drinks but the serving was large enough to satisfy us.

A quick search of this place on Google reveals it as the winner of Best Family Restaurant 2008, and that its availability is only confired to Edinburgh. Gosh. I’ll definitely be back here again before we leave this place!