Highlands Adventures

Though waking up to a 6:30 alarm was pretty rough, I managed to roll out of bed by the fourth time it went off and make my way up and down the stairs (without falling!) to get ready. The five of us must have been running on some serious adrenaline because within 20 minutes we were all up and out of the flat heading down Nicholson and towards the Royal Mile.

Not only were there no flyers being thrown in our faces, but C Venue was down to just the scaffolding, the Fringe banners on High Street were gone, and CARS WERE DRIVING DOWN THE ROYAL MILE!!!!

When we went to check in for our tour, the woman behind the counter looked at my ID, looked at the tour list, looked at my ID, looked at me (and did this 4 times) before I finally  asked if there was a problem.  This was the issue:

I thought I'd seen them all--people come up with some pretty creative ways to spell my last name. I really don't think it's all that difficult to sound out, but it's at the point that I find it mildly amusing. This is definitely by far the best yet.

So we got on the bus and began our journey north towards Stirling Castle, Rannoch Moor and Glencoe, the site of the massacre of the McDonald Clan. Our tour guide, Greg, explained the roles of the clans in the highlands, and how the highlands have an entirely different set of laws, regulations and often speak a different language than the rest of the country.

We then passed Fort William and Ben Nevis (Britain's highest mountain). The fog was extremely thick this morning so at times it was hard to see very far out, but we weren't concerned because the weather here tends to change faster than we are able to put on or take off a rain coat! And that's exactly what happened. We stopped briefly to take pictures, and the moment we got off the bus it began to mist and moments later they sky opened up. Two minutes later it was sunny without a cloud in the sky. I really don't understand!!!

Next up was the Great Glen and our big stop in the village of Fort Augustus and Loch Ness.  We ate lunch on a bridge with a view of the loch. While exploring the stores and shores around the loch it suddenly got very hot and sunny so we began to feel very daring and decided to actually go in the water!

We then came across a rare species "petting farm" where we could get closer to hairy coos (?), goats, sheep, deer, bunnies etc. I'm not sure why they're conisdered rare species, but the fact that I was about a foot away from a huge hairy cow was enough to draw me in. (Don't worry MSTE '10 people, I won't tell customs I touched a cow...cough Barry cough)

The return ride passed through hours of beautiful scenery and stopping at a small highland village where (among other things) I paid 30p to use the bathroom. I mean don't get me wrong, I admire their ability to secure a steady and reliable source of income on tourists that really need to pee, but come on...

Over 12 hours and hundreds of pictures later we passed the Forth Bridge for the last time and before we knew it we were back in the heart of Edinburgh on the Royal mile. We took Nicholson back to the flat so we could stop in Pie Maker one last time. Ali, Sam and Katelin are leaving super early tomorrow morning so it was haggis now or never......we did it. We got one haggis pie (about 2.5in diameter) and split it 6 way. I had the teeny tiny itsy bitsy smallest smidge I possibly could....but I ate it!! So now I can say I tried haggis! Go me! Haha.

Tomorrow's my last full day in Edinburgh. It's also our last set of deadlines for class so I'm trying to get as much work done tonight as I can so that I can spend all day tomorrow out and about. Athena, Gayle, Emily and I are going to try to make it up to the Royal Botanic Gardens if the weather is nice. Then it's time to pack up and hope the Heathrow customs guy lets me go home. Or not...I guess I'd be okay with that too.