My Heart's In The Highlands

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,

The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;

Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,

The hills of the Highlands for ever I love. 

Robbie Burns couldn’t have said it better. I feel like a piece of me I didn’t know was missing has been found. Scotland has the most beautifully stunning landscape, jaw dropping architecture, and unbelievably dark history. I will try my best to fill you in on my adventures with Diana, the things we saw, the people we met, and the memories made!

Saturday – An early start to Victoria Station in London to hop on the Mega Bus for 10 pounds all the way to Glasgow (ugh!) where a relative of mine, Georjean, met us. She brought us back to her flat where we met her 15 year old daughter, a barrel of laughs, Kirsten! Georjean had prepared an AMAZING dinner that I still dream about, a week later! We spent the night in with them, getting to know each other and talking about all sorts of things, including our plans for Glasgow the next day.

Sunday – We woke early for a traditional Scottish breakfast prepared by master Chef Georjean that included haggis and black pudding! For those of you who do not know the ingredients in either, try them before you look it up! I polished mine off no problem, however, Diana struggled a little bit J then, we were off into the city! Diana is an incredible travel companion, as we are both fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of girls who really like to look at old stuff! We checked out the Medieval Cathedral and the Necropolis (really, really cool old graveyard with massive memorials and tombs) for the majority of the morning and got some amazing pictures! We also went to a Medieval Tower where they used to drag witches to pierce their tongues so they couldn’t cast any more spells before they were burned at the stake!!! We walked the city seeing the sights and also went to the Glasgow School of Art (where my housemate studied) the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Religious Life, Sauchiehall Street, and the seedy part of town where I stumbled upon the “Oldest Chippie in Glasgow” where I found a deep fried mars bar! That’s right, it exists! I am positive I am now going to die a day earlier, but I think it was worth it. We went back to Georjean’s for a traditional Scottish Sunday Roast and good conversation.

Monday – Up early with nice breakfast by Georjean and packed lunches for our travels! I can’t say how much Diana and I appreciated her generosity and thoughtfulness, as well as her skills in the kitchen! A big warm THANK YOU goes out to Georjean for being so incredible to us! I can’t wait to come back! We left Glasgow with full bellies on our way to Inverary! We mostly took the Scottish City Link bus between all of our destinations – cheap, dependable travel! In Inverary there is a castle, still inhabited by the current Duke and Duchess of Argyll, who Diana is related to! Very cool! We also got up nice and close to some Heiland Coos! (er, Highland Cows!) We sat by the pier and enjoyed our packed lunches while we waited for the bus to take us up to Oban. Arriving in Oban mid afternoon, Diana had a plan. Her ancestors originated in the Oban area and so we thought we might be able to track some down. So, we found a phone book and looked up all the McMillans in the area and started knocking on doors! Unfortunately, we didn’t seem to make any connections to Diana! While trying to find a road a McMillan may have lived on, we came across an old abandoned castle high atop a rock! Obviously, we tried to get in. Very successful! Inside I climbed up a wall to get a better look out of one of the top windows. The view was unreal! After that, we went to our hostel and got settled in. After a bite in a local pub we continued pub-crawling and met some really cool folk! It was really busy everywhere we went because unfortunately, a funeral for a 24 year old had taken place that day, and all his mates were out. It was still a really fun time – I even played darts with some locals! Back in bed by 12:30 for our next adventure!

Tuesday – We hopped a bus from Oban up to Fort William. We had no intentions of visiting this little town, but had to use it as a connection to the Glenfinnan Viaduct… also known as the Bridge used by the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter! This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. It was POURING rain out, but that didn’t stop us. We took a half an hour train ride to the little town of Glenfinnan, over the beautiful bridge, and were the only ones to get off at the stop. We trudged through the forest until we were soaking wet and covered in mud and came to a clearing where we could see the infamous bridge. To see it from ground level wasn’t enough for us – we hiked the highlands to get a closer look! It was one of the most adrenaline filled experiences of my life. It was ABSOLUTELY breathtaking. We spent a good few hours hiking and returned to the tiny town (which only had a little hotel and a run down candle shop!) and went for hot tea and biscuits in the dead quiet tea room of the hotel. We sat by the fire alone and dried off until our train was due. Back in Fort William we found a bus to Inverness for the evening where we just went straight to sleep!

Wednesday – Off to Loch Ness to see Urquhart Castle and to search for Nessie! Honestly, this was TOTALLY overrated. The castle was packed with tourists, and of course, the monster was shy. We saw a short film on the history of Urquhart, which was very interesting, and I learned so much, but I quickly came to realize I enjoy doing things much differently than mainstream tours! I guess we just felt that we couldn’t go to Scotland without going to Loch Ness. Now that it’s out of the way, my next trip will be to see things that are completely off the map! Mid afternoon we took a bus to a tiny place between Inverness and Edinburgh called Pitlochry. We happened to just stumble upon the town’s Autumn Festival! The main highlight of the festival was something called the Enchanted Forest. Diana and I decided to get tickets and go for it. It was amazing! It was a music, light, and sound production that had visitors walking through a misty (naturally misty!) forest, wandering through Scottish myths and legends brought to life! We even bought the soundtrack it was so incredible! Back in the town a live band was playing – the lead singer a 60 year old Scottish man proudly tattooed wearing his tartan kilt and singing his heart out! That night we had the best sleep!!

Thursday – Up early for a hike up the highlands! We climbed about 3000 ft up into the mist just to do it! The one thing that never ceased to amaze me was the SHEEP. Those animals are EVERYWHERE!!! Even way up there! Did you know that there is still an offense you can be hanged for in Scotland?!!! I’m not sure it’s still in practice, but the law has never been changed and that law states that you can be tried and hanged for STEALING SHEEP!!!!! Good thing I didn’t try! HA! After a good 4 hour hike we went back to the town to catch a bus to our final destination, Edinburgh. We arrived and found our hostel, the Castle Rock Hostel, right beside the Castle (duh). Since we had our share of Scottish food we decided on Thai food, right beside the hostel. Grabbed a nice relaxing dinner, headed back to the hostel where we found out they were hosting a “fancy dress” pub crawl! We both thought, why would a hostel have a fancy night out?? BUT, that translates to COSTUME PARTY! They had a trunk with all sorts of costumes in it, so Diana and donned some garb and out we went! What a HILARIOUS time! With people from all over the world! 5 different pubs and a few different karaoke songs later we were snug back in bed resting for the next day.

Friday – Up early and out to explore one of the most haunted cities in the entire world! We went to see Edinburgh castle and inside saw Scotland’s crown jewels, the place where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son, and the Stone of Destiny, among other things. From the castle we went on to see Princes St, the road from the opening of the movie “Trainspotting”, walked the Royal Mile, which ends with the Queen’s palace when she is staying in Scotland, as well as various other landmarks! We ended the night with a ghost tour in the underground – one of the most haunted places in Scotland – the South Bridge Vaults. It was here that criminals, pregnant women out of wedlock, and the scum of the earth were sent to live. The life expectancy in these vaults was 6 months. What haunts these vaults is not a ghost, nor a poltergeist, but both, something called the South Bridge Entity – and the stories that have come from this place are more than enough to send a cold chill down your back. Being in them and experiencing cold spots and feelings of being watched sure was fitting for Halloween! On a brighter note, if you like Harry Potter, there are other things in Edinburgh that are worth seeing! The small coffee shop where J.K Rowling wrote Harry Potter, as well as the school that inspired Hogwarts, and the graveyard where she took names for many of her characters, including Hermione Granger and Tom Riddle are there to see! After all of this exploring, Diana and I thought it was about time to go to the airport. Yes, that’s right. Our flight wasn’t until the morning, but we weren’t about to pay for another night in the hostel! We arrived at Edinburgh airport at around midnight and attempted to sleep until checking in for our flight at 5am. Unfortunately, the airport was testing its alarm systems…and someone also thought it was warm enough to put on the air conditioning. It was a long night.

Back in London now I feel so lucky to see the things I got to see and Diana and I have already made some plans for the late spring to head back to Scotland. We never got the chance to see the islands and those are definitely on the list! It is back to school tomorrow and it is also my birthday. Low-key plans for Thai food are on the agenda, but nothing more. I am getting old now! 26! AH!

I hope all is well back home – I know this was long winded and I haven’t eloquently described my experience, but that is it in a nutshell! Until next time,

All my love,

Amy