We are currently on a bus to Amsterdam, and these past few days have been a whirlwind, we didn't stay in one city for more than a day.
We started in Dublin, Ireland. Dublin is the cheapest place to fly into from the US because of taxes. It's a beautiful city, and the city centre is pretty compact, with quiet neighborhoods close by. We arrived on different days, so Twana and Dori stayed with an AirBnB host, and I stayed with a couchsurfing host. Trinity College is definitely worth a walk through, most of the buildings on campus are older than our country! I also saw the Charles Beatty Library, a collection of old and rare books.
The next day we took a bus to Belfast, and took a ferry to Scotland. We originally did not plan on going to Scotland, but we had a film job in Aberdeen. Here is where we had a few travel problems! The ferry was great, but apparently we didn't buy the correct tickets to connect from the ferry to the train station. None of us had enough £ (GBP) to catch the express bus to the main train station, and there was not an ATM, so we had just enough to catch a local bus to a local train station. On the bus we met a crazy old cat man, and his 20 year old cat threw up on Dori.. The whole situation was so bizzare, and we were glad to get to the train station. When we arrived, they told us they printed tickets on the train, but after the train started moving, and the ticket man came around, he informed us that we did not have the correct cards. Europe uses chip cards (http://www.tomsguide.com/us/chip-and-pin-credit-cards,review-2013.html) and sometimes our cards won't work. Luckily the man was nice and he let us stay on the train all the way to Glasgow.
The countryside was beautiful, and when we arrived in Glasgow, two young ticket control officers let us through without paying. Things were looking up! We found a cheap taco place, then stayed at St. Enoch's Hostel. Going into the hostel didn't look good, but it turned out to be a nice place! We shared a double room, had our own bathroom which was great, and got some much needed sleep.
The third day we made it to our train to Aberdeen with literally seconds to spare! The ride was beautiful along the coastline.
Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Aberdeen. There is a reason we were the only three backpackers that were there. We had to go there to film a pickup interview for a documentary. No one seemed to know where we needed to get to, and people looked at us like we were crazy people. We took a bus to the wrong place, then had to walk a mile or so to another road to catch another bus to take us to Balmedie, a small sleepy village on the coast. We just missed the bus, so we tried finding food. We found a little sandwich shop, and I mean little. We barely fit in the line and everyone was gaping at us. When we finally were about to leave with our lunch, our stash of jelly fell onto the floor and spilled. We were a hot mess! Luckily one older Scotsman helped us, and wished us a good journey. We missed the bus a couple more times because you have to wave the busses down for them to stop. When we finally got to Balmedie, we met the man we interviewed and went to his home to set up. He didn't want his face shown.
Day four, we arrived in London early in the morning hoping to purchase connecting tickets to Amsterdam, but they were all sold out. So we found Generator Hostel London, and headed towards it. Luckily the big sites in London were on the way!
Big Ben.
We found a grocery and made dinner at the hostel, then played card games with some Australians. We left this morning and are currently crossing the channel into France, on our way to Amsterdam!
We will be in Amsterdam for a few days, so will update more often.
Thanks for reading! We are excited about being in continental Europe!
-Chels
Sounds like you girls are having quite an adventure! Stay safe and have fun!
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