Let the Road Trip Begin!!

I woke up Friday morning still unsure if we would be able to get a hire car or not. Liam dragged me out of bed down to the common room so we could call the hire car company. (Lucky hes so organised!!)

When he called the company we were told the car we wanted was unavailable, but they would give us a medium sized car for a similar price instead so that it would still be in our budget. We booked it in!!

After waking up the crew and getting organised Liam and I headed down to get a taxi to the depot. We were going to pick up the car then drive it back to the hostel to pick up the others with our bags. Once we got downstairs we realised it might be more difficult that we realised... All of the roads were blocked off for protests! Traffic was blocked up everywhere. There was cops directing traffic but no one really seemed to know what was happening.

We figured it would sort itself out so carried on our way. We got the car and headed back towards the hostel. Lucky we had a last miinute decision to grab a gps, it definitely came in handy!!

We made it fairly easily back to one block from the hostel before we hit bad traffic from the protest. I told Liam to jump out there and I would keep blocking while he went and got the others. Here begins the most stressful hour of my life!!! None of us had phones and the traffic got worse. I couldnt even make it around a block! I turned around and headed against the traffic trying to avoid eye contact with the police and play dumb... but when I got back to our meeting point, they werent there!!! I parked the car, but couldnt figure out how to lock it! They keys were so confusing. I started panicking. I figured I would just keep going round the block and I would find them somewhere.

After an hour of sitting almost dead still in traffic, I saw Liam! It was the biggest relief!! He came over to the car and I told him to get the others and meet me around the corner where I could pull over. I dont think I had ever been so happy to see them! Being lost, stuck in traffic in a strange country with no way of getting in touch with anyone... really tests you!!

After a long delay we were finally on the road. Everyone was getting hungry but we decided to just get out of Edinburgh and we would stop for food at the next big town. We spent the following hour discussing what sort of subway we wanted. We were all describing it with mouthwatering detail. We couldnt get to Perth any faster!!

By the time we drove into Perth my nerves had settled down, they were playing good music on the radio and we were having fun. Poor Tommy was starting to get a little edgy, as he does when hes hungry! We needed to find Subway FAST!!

We drove into the centre of town and started looking around. We found plenty of other shops... McDonalds, KFC, Pizza, Burgers, but no subway. We even stopped at an information centre to ask if there was a subway!! To our disapointment, the very helpful people at the info centre broke Toms heart when they told us there was no Subway in town.

By this time I was tired of driving in circles so I told them they need to find somewhere to eat or I would keep driving to Aberdeen and they would go without!! lol. We drove past a few cafes in one street so decided to park and everyone could get there own. Me Tim and Laura went with the safe option of a burger, but Liam and Tom found a curry buffet! They laughed at us because we would be jealous of their buffet, but we were happy with our selection.

After lunch everyone was happy and ready to go again. We left Perth and headed straight to Aberdeen. Not far up the road we realised what a good choice we had made by having burgers rather than the curry. Poor Liam and Tom werent handling it well. By this point I was also extremely glad that we had GPS, because there was no stress trying to find turn offs or the right way. Especially when everyone else was asleep!!

When we got into Aberdeen we hadnt booked any accomodation so we just had a quick drive around to see what we liked. We found a big parking area and decided to walk around. It didnt take long to find a hotel. I was worried because I hadnt budgeted for hotels, but we were suprised to get a room for 30 pounds each!! Me and Laura got a huge double room with a nice big bathroom, a toilet that flushed (which was rare) and a shower that didnt flood. We were so happy! We stayed there for a while to settle in before dinner.

We walked into town later that night to find some food and some entertainment. We found a pub that had live music. It looked like a nice small pub which was nice compared to clubs. The band started and it was great! We spent days in ireland trying to find good live irish music, turns out we just had to go to Scotland to find it!!

After dinner and a few drinks we went for a bit of a walk. (I would have much rather stayed at the pub and listened to the live music all night... LOVE live music!!) We looked around and there were a few clubs but I wasnt really feeling in the mood for a club and I was pretty tired. Turns out that driving for an entire day after not driving for 2 months really wears you down.

Laura and I went back to our massive room and had the best shower we had had since leaving Australia. It had been a great start to the trip!!