My Scotland journey started late at night on Wednesday, January 30th when I, along with my friend Leah, took the night bus to Edinburgh, Scotland arriving at around 8:00 AM. After arriving in the pouring rain, we walked to our hostel, Castle Rock. This hostel was in a great location. When we walked out the doors we were greeted by a breathtaking view of the castle, which is actually on top of an extinct volcano. After unpacking our minimal things and bundling up for the day, we got breakfast and lots of caffeine at a diner where we heard our first Scottish accent. I will always remember, my friend Leah asked if she could have salt and she said, "it's on the taaaaable" in her awesome Scottish accent! Following breakfast, we went to a couple of tourist shops and tried on Scottish hats until it was time for the walking tour to start. I got a Starbucks before, yes more caffeine. After the night bus it was much needed so I could fully enjoy the day! They wrote on my cup that my name was Gloria and got my friends name wrong also so we asked a women on our tour to take a picture of us with our cups with the wrong names, claiming they must be our scotland names. Since this sparked conversation, I continued talking to her. She was originally from England but had moved to China and then was living in Spain, and I continued to get to know her better as the walking tour went on. From her stories, I learned quickly that people in Europe seem to travel a lot more than people in the US making for some amazing stories!
The walking tour was fantastic. We learned a lot about Scotland's history and specifically Edinburgh's. We saw the market square, where people had their ears nailed to the stone and had rotten food thrown at them if they broke the law, grass markets, where public executions were held and many famous murderers of Edinburgh lived, the elephant house cafe, where JK Rowling wrote many of the Harry Potter books, Greyfriars Kirk graveyard, where JK Rowling found many of her names for her characters, and George Heriots school, which JK Rowling based Hogwarts Castle off of. After the tour, Leah and I visited Edinburgh Castle and saw the Scottish Crown Jewels along with many beautiful sites. At night, we created our own Scottish pub crawl going to multiple pubs, one of which we tried Scottish whiskey! One of the pubs we went to was called Maggie Dixon, this is the character JK Rowling based nearly headless Nick off of, Maggie was sentenced to death, hung, pronounced dead, and when she was on her way to her burial site the person driving heard a knock from inside her coffin and when he opened it he found Maggie still alive. Everyone said since she was able to survive being hung God clearly did not want her dead, so they let her live.
View from hostel!
Where we ate breakfast!
Cathedral!
Market square--people who were caught stealing would have their ears nailed to this building and have rotten fruit thrown at them. They had to stay for 24 hours and if they wanted to leave earlier they could, but they would have to rip off their own ear to do so.
Thomas Riddle (Voldemort!)--second line from the top
Building JK Rowling based Hogwarts off of. It is a private school.
Cafe where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter!
View from Edinburgh Castle!
Inside the castle!
On Friday, February 1st my two other friends arrived and we boarded the bus at 8:00 AM to start our tour of the highlands and isles of sky. Our first stop was Dunkeld Village where we saw Dunkeld Cathedral. Dunkeld was completely destroyed during the battle of Dunkeld except for most of the church, which is still intact today. Our next stop was the Ruthven barracks. This was a beautiful horse stable on a hill with horses running around the outside. After, we went to Loch Ness (loch means lake in Scottish) and searched for Nessy. Then we went to a Tomatin whiskey distillery where we watched how they make whiskey and taste tested 15 year old whiskey. I actually really liked it! Really close to our hostel, where we stayed the next two nights, was the Eilean Donan Castle, which is the most photographed castle in Scotland, and the castle in the film Maid of Honor. We stayed in the village of Kyleakin, which was a cute little town on a ness (lake) with the population of 400. We went to a pub called Saucy Mary on Friday and Saturday night (both nights that we stayed there) where I had delicious fish and chips and amazing beer they made in the town.
Cathedral in Dunkirk
View from bridge in Dunkirk
Ruthven barracks
Loch Ness!
Donan Castle
Eilean Donan Castle
On Saturday, February 2nd, we went to the stream of eternal beauty, which I would describe as heaven on earth. It is a Scottish belief that if you splash your face with the water you will have eternal beauty. I did it, so watch out you might not recognize me anymore! Next we hiked about 1,200 feet up the Old Man of Storr (halfway up). We climbed up to the "thumb" and it is said that if you touch it you will have good luck! Next we visited Portree, which is the capital of Isle of Skye, and after that we went to the Fairy Glen. Here, Scottish people believe you can connect with nature, get energy from the land, and ask it questions and it will give you answers. Just when I was thinking there couldn't be a more peaceful place in Scotland, we went to the Fairy Glen. At night, I had dinner again at the pub where I, along with my 3 friends from my school and new friends, 2 from Canada and 2 from Australia that were on our tour, watched a live performer called Dave Sidley. He was actually really good and we had a ton of fun!
Stream of eternal beauty!
View starting the climb up!
Made it the old mans thumb!
yay!
that little dot about halway up on the right side is the "old mans thumb"
Town we stopped in for lunch!
Stopped to see this view on the way to the Fairy Glens.
Fairy Glens!
I walked up there! It was awesome! Sorry mom...
On Sunday, February 3rd, we went to Glencoe Mountains. These are 3 mountains known as "sisters". We also went to Doune Castle, where they filmed part of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Next we went to the National Wallace Monument. William Wallace is the greatest hero in Scotland history and the main character in the movie Braveheart. After this we drove back to Edinburgh and went and had tea and the Elephant House, where JK Rowling wrote HP, before going back to London on yet another night bus ending one of the best weekends of my life.
Donan Castle (maid of honor)
Glencoe Mountains!
Doune Castle
View from William Wallace Monument!
Tea at The Elephant House!
Interesting things about Scotland:
- Scottish people call every drink juice...they want a coke they ask for juice
- wee bit = little bit
- water of life/scottish first aid kit = bottle of whiskey
- aye = yes
- neh = no
- hyland time = ish time I'll be there at 5 = i'll be there at 5 ish
- all students have to learn how to play the bagpipes
- Scotland is where strippers were started and the pub we went to (Saucy Mary's) is named after the first stripper (learned that after we went there twice...too funny!)
