Scottish Experience

How naive I was about travel in the British Isles! I always considered London as the whole of Britten, so I could tick it off my list now. An hour on the plane, and I was in a different world! Different culture, history, music, accent, food... Definitely experienced some, as Leo would put it, DSL - Deep Scottish Love. Here is a selection of my daily doings...

Day #1: My morning began with me almost not getting there. The temperamental lock on our gate forced me to jump the spiked fence at 6:45am. I landed in Edinburgh at 11am and made my way to High St. Hostel. I started my Scottish exploration with a free walking tour, seeing: Parliament, Holyrood palace, Pubs, Flodden Wall, The Observatory, Statue of Ferguson, Historic water pumps, St. Gilled Cathedral, Guillotine sites, The Elephant House and a whole pile of other historical and interesting sites in the Old Town. I then met up with Annie and we went to the White Horse, a tiny little pub, to get some chow, attracted there by the little band playing in the front and the quirky bar man. After the music finished, we met some friends from the hostel for a pub quiz night. We went spectacularly bad. But it was fun.

Day #2: The start of our 3-day, Skye-High tour. All 22 of us piled into the yellow Haggis bus at 8:30am to start our Highland adventure led by the charismatic, geeky and hilarious Leo. Our first stop was in Sterling at the William Wallace memorial. Then we met some Highland Cows - Heather and Hamish. We drove through Callender, the oldest town (demographically) in Scotland, and saw Falkirk. Tyndrum was next, before we drove through the largest uninhabited space in Europe. A whole 58 square miles. We then stopped at Glencoe and heard some Scottish history in the shadow of the Three sisters, before seeing our first Scottish Loch - Loch Leven. Another first was in Fort William - The Ben Nevis Malt Whisky distillery. It is potent stuff. We charged through to Fort Augustus to see a presentation on the Scottish clan's and their way of life; led by a man who has climbed Everest, twice, and climbed every mountain over 3000m in Scotland with his dog. he also went to school with John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It was really eyeopening. I also volunteered to dress up in traditional dress, and wore a costume which has also blessed the shoulders of Madonna and J-Lo. We also saw David get his kit off to wear a kilt. We went to Morag's Hostel and had a really good feed before hitting the sack, listening to all the party animals in the pub downstairs.

Day #3: Today was the Isle of Skye. After starting the day with some authentic Scottish porridge, we drove through the mountains and it was the most beautiful thing I think I have ever seen. Everywhere looked like a postcard. We stopped off at Loch Garrie, which is in the shape of Scotland and had some fun in the snow. Next was Eilean Donan Castle, at the meeting point of three Lochs. We then went across to the Isle of Skye; saw fairy falls, the Old Man of Storr and Kilt rock. We then went past the Cullondin Mountains and listened to Leo tell us folklore stories at the River Sleikin. The story goes that if you immerse your face in the water for 7 seconds, you will have eternal beauty. Not sure how that went... Then we climbed up some mountains and enjoyed the scenery. Absolutely breath taking. We then made our way back round the Isle of Skye to Fort Augustus for a good feed.

Day #4: We started the day with a hearty Scottish breakfast before going to the inspiration for J.M.Barrie's Never Neverland in Invermoriston. We then saw Urquhart Castle, the only castle on Loch Ness. Then we went down to the waters edge and did out Scottish Haka to summon Nessie. Ross also took the plunge and went for a dip in the famous Loch. After that was Drumnardroicht, home to Grounds Keeper Willie. On our round route back towards Edinburgh, we went through Inverness and saw the place where Macbeth killed King Duncan. Then we stopped off at Cullonden Moor, a really sombre location where the Jacobites were defeated by the English. For lunch we stopped in a little village pub and I popped my Haggis cherry. It just takes like a hamburger patty with mashed potato and gravy to be honest... We hit the road again, stopping once more at a little hermitage to see the unofficial tallest tree in the UK, before making it back to Edinburgh over the Forth Bridge. After such a massive tour, an early night was needed.

Day #5: We (Annabelle, Lucy, Georgie, Bex and I) had a slow morning, before tackling Arthur's Seat. Unfortunately the weather was against us, and the fog hadn't burnt off by 11 when we reached the peak... We can cross it off the list though. We got a bit lost in the mist on the way back down and went on a round about walk through Holyrood Park back to the Old Town before walking around the cemetery and going to the museum of Edinburgh. We then said our goodbyes to Annie. I went shopping for a while and then went to the Scottish Library to see some original works of Scotland's literature greats. I then had a night of unfortunate events and missed two Ghost Tours but ended up in a little Jazz Club for some Thursday night tunes which was cool.

Day #6: I started the day with a walk around the Botanical Gardens, admiring all the first spring blooms. Then I went up to Calton Hill, the first public park in Edinburgh and home to Nelsons Memorial and the National monument amongst others. After that I did some souvenir shopping before browsing around the Museum of Scotland which took me from prehistorical Scotland, through the Roman settlement and the Viking invasions to the Modern Day. Then came the time to day goodbye to the capital as a caught the bus to the airport for my journey back home to London.