Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Waverley Station and Sir Walter Scott

 

Photo of the exit we came out at from Waverley Station. There are a few exit, and this was the one closes to our hotel. We actually went to deposit our bags at the hotel first, but since we were still early, we couldn't check in yet. So we decided to go back to the station to look for some food as we've spotted a Mark and Spenser inside the station.

The small but crowded Waverley Station waiting lounge. The main highlight was the ceiling design. You would often see this in social media post on the station. So I also wanted my very own photo. I did thought it was rather crowded. But I've seen worst in photos posted by other people.

Here is a wider view.

While walking inside the station, I also noticed a Great Scott! Exhibition kinda being displayed all over the place. I have no idea whether it was permanent or just a pop-up, guess I'll know when I visit again. But I love it so much I went around taking photos of all the word display I could find. It seems everything was by Sir Walter Scott, a Scottish author.

The wordings can be found all over the station. I bet I missed a few as I didn't really went into all the places. I only captured those I saw on our way to or from our destination.

 

Something about story telling seems to be a very strong concept here in Scotland. And my my do they have amazing stories to tell. Even now, I often watch one influencer sharing stories and folklores or Scotland. I find them all so fascinating, especially their faeries, and monsters. Very Very cool! 

Some wordings to ponder and stay curious in life :)

Leaving you with this one. You can also find a similar heart on the road at the Royal Mild :) I like how Scottish people seems to love reflecting on things and talking about it, from their movies to their songs to their poems and stories. One of my favourite comedian Danial Sloss is Scottish , and he has this amazing set called Jigsaw that really makes you ponder about love. I was going to go watch his show when he finally perform in Singapore in 2026, but the irony of it all, I'll be in Scotland when he is in Singapore -________-   

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Arriving in Edinburgh Premium Inn Hub Area

When you hear about how bad and unpredictable the Scottish weather would be, it seems amazing that we pulled into Edinburg with just nothing but blue skies! I wasn't sure what to expect of this city. All the buildings looked so old. Naturally I am always afraid and have my guards up when I'm in a new city. And Edinburgh did looked scary with all it's old buildings. 

We went looking for our hotel upon arrival. I've booked us into a pretty central but cheap location, so it was slightly at one end of the Royal Mild. The photo above shows the Balmoral Hotel behind (I think). I just thought what a contrast the little red car was, parked there among the gloomy architecture behind it. I guess if it rains, the whole of Edinburgh would just be one gloomy looking city. 

Can you fault me for conjuring images of English crime stories in my head, with rowdy Scottish people rolling out of bars? It would have smell of damp air and mold too, but luckily the weather was pretty cold to smell anything :P

I was trilled to find that the Scotsman Step was just nearby. I've seen it many a times on my social media. I've always though it was a building named as such, but later found out that it is actually a public walkway, connecting you to the elevated part of the Royal Mild. Yes, Edinburgh is a city of layers. I find myself pretty breathless here without knowing why, but then again, you're climbing steps and walking up and down hills everyday when you are here. 

Yes, the entrance looked eerie enough. But inside it's all stone or marble stairs leading up. It's pretty wide too, so it was very comfortable to walk. I think I only took it once time, when I go lost along the way and walked down from there while carrying my luggage. Breathless indeed -____-

Almost every building in Edinburgh is a historical monument. Here are some information about the Scotsman Steps. There are no modern skyscraper in the city of Edinburgh, making it one of the most unique city in the world that looked stuck in a time long gone by.

The drinking culture is also strong here. There was a lovely big brewery nearby our hotel too, just opposite one of the exit/entrance of Waverlay Station. We didn't visit any pubs on our own on our last trip, but I do plan to visit one in our upcoming trip, a pub that was part of a scene from Good Omen :) Don't worry, I did visit at least one scene from Good Omen on our trip in 2025, will post more about that when the time come.

I'm stunned at how beautiful the brewery looked. It's almost like a work of art. So very different from my concept of a drinking place that is gloomy and rowdy, and probably smelly. This one looked bright and shinny and almost flowery!

There were some very weird shops along the walk to our hotel. I'm not much into themed dining. But I like looking at shop decos, and this one kinda stands out too, cause they have dinosaurs!

After going to the wrong hotel on our first attempt, we finally found the correct one. So Premium Inn has a Hotel, and a Hub on the same road. Hotel is a  more expensive and higher class accommodation compared to a Hub. A Hub is almost like a dorm, super cram, but also a lot cheaper than a Hotel. We were going to be spending most of our time outdoor anyway!

And here is what our room looked like. That is basically it! Haha. Behind the glass is our super small toilet and bathroom. And I actually paid more for a bigger room since we were going to be staying here a few nights. I did the same for our upcoming trip too. There was hardly enough space for our luggage! Thankfully, Japan business hotel has trained us well! Hahahahaha. We have become very good at playing sokoban in the room with our luggage.

What I love about the room was the bed headboard, which has the whole map of Edinburgh on it. So every morning, or evening, while resting, I could just look at it and reflect on my day plans without looking at my phone. Aren't it awesome! I think more hotels should do this!

After the day's hard work, above is our food spread from Mark & Spencers. Although we ate out from a supermarket most of the time, I think we ate quite well. We always have great seafood, and lovely fresh fruits and milk. It was a lot cheaper to eat well in Scotland than it was in Malaysia or Singapore! I enjoyed every meal there, and it was often below my daily meal budget too. Plus, the milk in Scotland is so much better than the one in England! More about food in future post! Promise!

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 :)

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Train from Manchester to Edinburgh Scotland

 

After spending a wonderful day with our friends in Chapeltown, we went back to Manchester City and packed up. We were leaving England and headed to Scotland the next morning. My friend got me to pack some leftovers home since it was just the two of them at home. So I did. I got a box of goodies back, along with a bag of chocolate that she gave me. The above is probably my light breakfast with milk :P

After that we head back to Oxford Road Station to catch our train to Waverley Station Edinburgh. 

We took a Transpennine Express direct train there, which is around a 3 hours plus ride. The price one-way was actually cheaper than the return train we took to visit our friend. But in 2026, I didn't manage to get a direct train at all, and the price was almost double. We have to transit at Doncaster too, which was interesting.

Our seats information. We found out later that the lights mean whether a seat is occupied by someone or not, and from which station to which station. So you could actually go and sit on an empty seat if no one is there during that duration. 

I got my snacks to entertain me on my ride too. And of course I got window seats. I love looking out the window.

There are Tony Chocolates, and they are lovely! I've never heard of this brand before, but now I can identify them in my local shops. The different colours indicate different flavours. And my favourite is always the dark chocolate type. 

Train watching as we waited for our train.

Cool cargo trains. 

Our direct trains went through many stations on our way to our destination. At some station, the train stopped for 5 to 10 minutes so we managed to see some of the station in more details. When entering Scotland, you could see some of the station names with Gaelic languages too. Sometimes I plan my travel, and I don't really know what to expect. I guess that is the best type of travel, cause you're constantly surprised and amazed by what you encounter. I hope I will always have the curiosity to explore new places for as long as I live. It gets tiring now as I am older. And although I felt fitter in terms of walking and climbing than I did when I was younger, I knew that it would be just a matter of time before I started to slow down..... May that be another 20+ years away!

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Afternoon Tea at Friend's Place

The highlight for my whole day out with my friends was probably this Afternoon Tea at her place! I mean, just looked at the table setting! Wouldn't you say that it's better than having it in some impersonal place like a restaurant or a cafe?

So after visiting Wentworth, the last place we stopped at was at my friend's house. Most of the photos I took inside won't be shown here for privacy reasons. But here are some selection which are more generic, as well as the tea room. Above, my friend at her front door. I love it. I don't know why Asian houses don't have doors like these that is kinda like a stained glass. We always get solid doors. I guess cause it's safer?

Inside, let's just say her house is like a mini museum. It's a house that sits on a private property, so they kinda added on to it as the years went by. So it kinda has 3 storeys, but everything is cosy inside. Each room is decorated with care, just like something out of an Enid Blyton book. It's really exciting visiting an actual English family's home. I mean, I've visited other friends/family staying in other countries, but when they are the same culture as you, the inside kinda tends to look the same as yours too. 

When I say visit, I meant we went into every single room. And the kitchen overlooking the garden was delightful. It was smaller than I imagined her kitchen to be, but it was filled with so many cool items! Later I also discovered that she has another room where she stores her food item! Cause she kept pulling out food from there for our Afternoon Tea!

The sink area filled with trinkets, overlooking the bright sunny garden. I could stand here all day washing dishes! My home in Penang also have something similar, a kitchen sink that looked out into the view of Pearl Hill. It's a joy to cook inside, if only the morning sun wasn't tanning up your skin as you cook!

Tulips were in season. And she has some lovely ones in her garden. They have a huge garden, and even a small summer house. There is also a patio where we could sit, or where Tom would sit and read his books all day :)  Such a lovely set up. I've always wanted a house with a garden too. But as I grow older, I kinda given up on the dream cause it's expensive and troublesome to maintain. Plus all the security you have to factor in too from where I came from. So I ended up in flats instead. I'm still pondering whether to give up my dream of staying in a flat with a sea view..... I guess that is still not too late. 

The grand event of the day, tea! And we'll be having it here in her dining room. I asked her isn't a chore to do all the dusting? But it was so nice to see someone who actually bring out all their tableware to be use! I know it's not just for us, cause I've seen pictures of her Christmas dinner as well. 

The dinner room looks out into the garden as well, so it was a splendid place to have our Afternoon Tea. I was kinda scared that I may break something in the room, it's practically filled wall-high with ceramics and plates and what-not!

Knowing how much I love cheese, she also went to the trouble of preparing a cheese platter! Only, there was just too much cheese!!!! With  that amount, I could easily made 3 or 4 platters that would probably last me for a month! (one platter a weekend!)

The full spread. She got us meat pies, mince pie, scones, macarons etc. It was nice to try those English specific delicacies. I found the meat pie was surprisingly nice. 

Macarons! I love these! In 2025 December alone, I think I ate a total of 14 macarons. TWG was having a 1-4-1 promotion so I went and got 12 from them. I also visited Pierre Hermes shop in Sentosa, and got 2 of their signature macarons to try too.

This would forever be one of the most memorable day out in my trip, cause I knew it was thanks to our friend that I get to have this extremely unique experience in the UK. We'll be visiting them again in two month's time, and although they have gotten older and nursing some health issues now, I hope we can still manage to spend some memorable time together.