Manchester/Scotland 2025 - View from Train to Edinburgh Scotland

Sitting on a 3hr plus train ride from Manchester to Edinburgh Scotland, staring out the window all the way. Before this trip, I didn't even know that Scotland is part of the United Kingdom. I've always been confused between England and UK. Now I am solidly clear what UK refers to. Initially I also wanted to visit Ireland. Now I am also solidly clear which part of Ireland is considered UK and which part is not. I don't know why they make everything so confusing! After much consideration, I decided to drop Ireland from my trip due to cost. I figure Ireland would probably looked similar to Scotland, so why waste more money! Lol. 

The train pulled out from Manchester, and the usual landscapes of rolling hills and sheep welcome us into the English country side. To this day, I still have no idea how big England is. I've been to London, and Bath, and Cotworld, and Stonehenge, and maybe even Oxford. I might have been to Liverpool too, but I have no mind-map of England in my head. But now that I've visited Manchester, I roughly know the map between Manchester and Scotland.  

It was fun going through all the English town with their names too. For instance, I was surprised there was a station called Carlisle. I mean, was Belinda Carlisle from that town? Well apparently not. She is American. 

I love looking at the dotted white sheep on the hills and on the fields. I imagined this was how Tiffany Aching grew up in the Challk. After my visit to Bath, I now know why it's call chalk, cause the low laying rocks around there really do looked like chalks. It is amazing how much I've learned from my travels vs what I've read in books. I don't think I will ever get bored of that. I do think I should start reading more fictions though. Cause it's kinda hard to day dream of faraway places when you're reading non-fiction, unless you're reading biography, or maybe National Geography? Lol. 

As the train pulled into Lake District, the scenery took a change, and suddenly I really found myself in the middle of my story books! The misty landscape filled my heart with butterflies. I've always wanted to walk through the moors with a mist hanging over it, perhaps with a greyhound by my side. Those were from the days I'm stuck at home reading Oxford collection of English Classics. For some reason, I'm very well read in terms of classics, cause growing up alone at home with nothing to do, you tend to read anything you can find at home. And what we had at home then was a collection of Oxford classics, and an Oxford Encyclopedia.  I also visited the Penang Library every weekend or two, and they have such limited books there that I eventually ventured into psychology and self help books very early in life, lol. Strangely I have a very solid understanding of schizophrenia and serial killers, and for some reason religion. I also have a membership at the British Council in Penang, and their library is filled with English classical movies and National Geography. So from young, I've been trained to watch very dull movies, lol. And now I seems to find slow movies very relaxing. 

I would have very much liked to stop here and go out into the damp air. I've not been to many misty places. Once was in Japan Hakone where it was difficult even to cross a small country road cause you can't see any cars coming at you, and another time was in Sapa during the rainy seasons and we were hiking from one village to another. I have no concept of travelling during peak seasons then, I still don't now. I just travel when it's cheap, during window period cause it's cheaper, and most importantly to me, less crowded. 

Here is proof that I was at the lake district. I've heard much about this place. Our friends would come here yearly during Spring time. They have invited us to join them, but we've never once said yes. Maybe one day we should? I'm just scared about how much it would cost. Everything seems expensive to me here.

More misty scenes with a cluster of white buildings forming a village in it. I guess not all travel photos need a blue sky background. If it's unique and reminded me of the place I've visited, it was good for me. If everything every time was just blue skies, my travel would be very boring, and I would have less comical stories to tell. For instance, our tour guide in Sapa told us that did you know, when you wash your clothes during the misty season, your clothes would never dry! Hahahaha. 

I don't even know when we crosses the Scottish border. There was no announcement or anything. I guess it's all considered as one United Kingdom. I do envy places like UK, Euro where you could just cross the border into another country without any border control. Why don't we have that in South East Asia? It would make travel so much more seamless. 

Giant wind mild as we moved into Scottish territory.

We saw some burnt hills along the way, and later read in the news that it was a bush fire. Initially I thought it was a volcano! Lol. That is how bad I am in Geography! But this was the most memorable scene as we moved through Scotland into Edinburgh. I bet I would learn even more about the country in my upcoming trip as I travel, for some unknown reason, to Orkney! Yeah, I don't even know why I pick Orkney. Just like I don't really know why I was set to go to Isle of Skye in this very trip. It was just an intuition. A feeling that was just very strong inside of me. A voice so strong it was hard to ignore :)  And I've been listening more to this voice, especially when I am travelling on my own :)