I'm back from my weekend in the highlands! It was incredible. Really just unbelievable. I took a ton of pictures and videos, but I'll try to only put the highlights on here. There are plenty of pictures on facebook for you to look at if you want!
Saturday started off early. As evidence, here's a picture of the sunrise from my kitchen window:
We all met at 7:45 am at a hostel near where my flat is. 8 of my friends went, and there were 7 others on the tour. Everyone on the tour were girls so our male guide, Graeme, faked disappointment. He was really great though. He's 35 and lives in a town in the highlands (which we passed through) so he was really fun but also really knowledgeable and passionate about everything we saw. He told us great stories and facts and was really just all around great.
But anyway we met at the hostel, took the bus to a different hostel in Edinburgh to pick up the rest of the people, then started on our way. We crossed the Firth of Forth and after a little while ended up in St. Andrews. This is the town famous for its university and for golf. We had about an hour to wander around so we went down to the beach (where that famous scene from Chariots of Fire was filmed) and saw some ruins there (and an AWESOME rainbow. We could see both ends of it and they were really close! I thought it was cool...):
The Rainbow:
Beach:
Ruins on the beach:
Then we wandered over to the old cathedral which is completely in ruins but looks really cool:
Then we went to a cafe in town before getting back on the bus.After St. Andrews we started heading north. Our next stop was for lunch I think, at a little town (I think the name was Pitlochry? I could be wrong). It was picturesque. We went to a cool little deli where I got a venison and rowanberry jelly sandwich on brown roll. Delicious!
Deli where we ate lunch:
I think the next stop was Culloden Battlefield. There was a huge massacre of the Jacobites here so it's a pretty solemn spot. It's a big field and they have flags that mark where the British line was and where the Jacobites were. There are stones along the walking path that name the different clans that were there, and there's a big memorial to them too. It's pretty intense.
Next we stopped at one end of Loch Ness for some great pictures and... swimming. Yeah some people went swimming (aka running in, dunking their heads, and running out as fast as possible). They were freezing but glad they did it. I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever about not doing it.One end of Loch Ness:
The obligatory awkward single picture in front of famous places:
I don't think we stopped again until we got to Inverness. Inverness is the only city in the highlands, and it's where we spent the night. First we went to our hostel to check in and drop off our stuff. It was a nice hostel, very cozy. I was in a 6 bunk room with 3 of my friends then 2 girls from Spain (who weren't on the tour). They were really nice and we talked to them for awhile before going out for dinner. We had a really awesome view from our window:
I didn't get any pictures of our actual room but it was pretty standard- 2 bunk beds and 2 single beds. Each bed had a clan name (i.e. MacGregor) and everyone was assigned a room number and a bed so that made sleeping arrangements easy. One weird thing about this hostel (and probably a lot of hostels) is that the bathrooms aren't separated male/female so like this morning I was getting ready and Graeme walked in for a shower. I dont know it was just strange. Also there weren't any electrical outlets so I couldn't dry my hair after my shower in the morning. I think that's going to be a pretty common occurrence in hostels. Oh well.
Our guide recommended a place called Wetherspoons for dinner, which is just a typical pub/bar so we went there and had decent food. It was only like 7:30 by the time we finished dinner so we decided to go looking for ice cream (some people just really wanted ice cream...). We couldn't find any places that were open for dessert so....... we went to McDonald's. I know, it's terrible, but it was just for ice cream. So yeah we sat in McDonald's for awhile, drawing way too much attention to ourselves, then we went to a pub called Hootinannies for drinks and live music. That place was pretty cool because above that pub there are 2 other floors with like live jazz and rock music and bars for younger people which makes up The Mad Hatter. We decided to stay on the bottom floor to listen to traditional music. It was really crowded but we had a good time and it's always fun listening to live folk music in a pub:
We went back to the hostel early, around 10, because we were exhausted. Emily and I didn't go up to our rooms right away and we met some people that were hanging out in the lobby. My Spanish roommates were down there, then we met a group of guys from Quebec who are spending a few months just traveling around Europe so they were interesting to talk to.
We woke up at 7 the next morning, ate breakfast at the hostel (it was like 50p for most stuff so that was really nice), then headed out at 8. I was a tiny bit disappointed by the scenery the first day, but the second day was just incredible.
We drove down the coast of Loch Ness going away from Inverness and it is beautiful. It reminded me of Megunticook as you're driving towards the cottage from Camden because as you're driving along a cliff goes up your right side then some trees on the left just in front of the water, and the lake itself is pretty narrow. It's really long though (23 miles) and incredibly deep. We stopped twice to take photos by Loch Ness, once for pictures with mountains and the loch and once at Urquhart Castle, which is beautiful.
Loch Ness again:
Urquhart Castle, on Loch Ness:
I think we stopped for coffee and stuff somewhere but I don't remember much about that. The highlight of the trip was after that though. We drove through Glen Coe, which is what pictures of "The Highlands" show. It's just incredible. Completely indescribable. The clouds were really low so they sort of hovered around the mountains and it was beautiful. It was really cool because as we were driving towards it we could see all this beautiful scenery and Graeme was playing Scottish music on the speakers so it was really quite something (more on bus music later). We stopped in two places in Glen Coe for pictures; it was so cool. I really encourage you to look at my pictures of that on facebook, they're pretty awesome. As we drove through the area Graeme pointed out the places where scenes from Harry Potter and Braveheart were filmed.
Apparently the Harry Potter scenes with Hagrid's cabin are filmed around here:
Check out how low the clouds were!
Apparently all the brown is purple in the summer because it's heather:
Probably the coolest picture from the trip:
A note about the music on the bus:
The music was really fun. At first we listened to some crazy stuff, some of it was American but there was some Scottish folk music too. Then we listened to some Johnny Cash because we passed through the town where his ancestors are from. Then as we passed into the really scenic stuff we listened to Scottish fusion music which was awesome (traditional Scottish music mixed with everything from Salsa to African drumming), then some other stuff I don't really remember, but it was all timed really well with what we were seeing.
With that in mind, here's a compilation of videos I took approaching, going through, and leaving Glen Coe. I realize that it's pretty long (5 minutes) and most of you won't watch it but if you're at all interested in the highlands it's just incredible scenery (and the music is kind of cool too). It gets especially good towards the end. Sorry about the shaky camera work!
We drove past Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Britain, but there was so much fog that we couldn't see it at all! I've seen pictures of it though, it's nothing especially different from the other mountains.
I think our next stop after that was for lunch, at a little rest stop. Then we went to visit Hamish the Hairy Coo (cow). That kind of cow is like native to the highlands or something so they're kind of a symbol of it. It was huge and very photogenic. There was also a weaving place there so that was kind of cool.
There are sheep everywhere in Scotland:
Our last stop of the trip was at the Wallace Monument in Stirling. There's a little hike up to it then cool views of Stirling, the castle, and Loch Lomond (Dillon and I are going to the castle and Loch Lomond when he comes). The weather got to be really nice and sunny about half way through the day so that was nice (although the highlands just don't look right without a thick layer of mist!).
William Wallace (Braveheart) Monument:
Stirling Castle in the distance:
Then about an hour drive and we were back in Edinburgh! What an incredible trip. If I have any time and money left in May I want to take a trip to the west coast and see that scenery.
Here's a compilation video of a bunch of videos I took of the scenery while we were driving. It's more for my memory, but if you're interested, it's a really cool overview of the highlands. The sound is just what was playing on the bus at the time or Graeme talking.
Tomorrow I really need to get some work done on my papers (after I sleep as late as possible of course), then small group tomorrow night. This should be a pretty easy week class-wise since I don't have Society and Politics, but I do need to write two big papers. My birthday is on Thursday, then Sarah and Alex (my aunt and cousin for those of you who don't know) get here Friday morning!
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