We have just returned from a five day Haggis Adventure in the Scottish Highlands and are feeling a wee bit weary!
Loz was kindly waiting for us when we arrived in Heathrow early on Saturday morning, despite having a sore head from birthday celebrations the night before – thanks Loz. Although our flight from New York to London was not overly long, we pretty much missed an entire nights sleep, so by Saturday afternoon we were feeling it. After settling at Lauren and Jamie's place, we headed to Notting Hill to the Portabello Road market and wandered around there for most of the afternoon. It was very busy and the sun was out which was a bonus. Here Lauren introduced me to cider and I have been drinking it ever since. We headed out for dinner later that night to a pub on the river. It was absolutely packed with Australians. We far outweighed the number of Brits in the place. It was great to catch up over a few drinks and it didn't feel like it had been over 12 months since we had seen them.
After a great nights sleep, we left fairly early to catch the underground to Kings Cross Station to board our train for Edinburgh. After getting on the first underground, it was announced that the next line we needed to get on was closed for repairs until later that morning. Panic set in – it wasn't so much that we couldn't work out another way to get there, I was just convinced that we were going to miss the train to Scotland. After a frantic phone call to Loz and talking to a guy at the station, it was all sorted and we arrived with plenty of time to spare. Talk about worry over nothing.
We chose to catch the train to Scotland, as Nat had said that it is a beautiful train ride. I will have to take her word for, because I slept for most of the 5 ½ hour trip. Our accommodation at Smart City Hostel in Edinburgh was very central and easy to find. We both commented on arrival in Edinburgh at how beautiful it is; very old cobble stone streets and little alleyways leading down gorgeous little lane ways. We spent the afternoon wandering up and down the Royal Mile and through a park near the train station, and planned what we would do on our return from our tour.
The tour left on Monday morning and out of 23 people on the tour, I think about 16 were Aussies. We boarded our wild and sexy bus and headed for the highlands. Our guide Martin was terrific and he had us all laughing from the minute we boarded the bus. On day one we visited a gorgeous little town called Dunkeld and a couple of other towns (the names of which I can't recall – they are sending us a detailed itinerary next week, so I will fill in some gaps then). We spent the first night in a haunted castle called Carbisdale Castle. The building was enormous and very easy to get lost in. It has been operating as a youth hostel for many years. After a massive 3 course tea, we headed off on foot to a little pub about 15 minutes walk away, then spent the night getting to know the people on the tour. We met a great couple from Sydney and spent quite a bit of time with them over the 5 days. We left the pub at about 11pm and it was still light outside! That is taking us a little while to get used to. We heard no ghosts, thank god, and were in a room with only one other guy from England.
The next day we visited a number of places all of which were stunning, including a beach. That morning we visited a Glen Ord Distillery, a whisky distillery, which was really quite interesting. After the tour, we got to taste their single malt whisky which has been aged for 12 years – straight up mind you! I wasn't overly impressed and I spent about 20 seconds coughing after it took my breath away. Guess I'm just not a hard liquor kind of girl!!! We also visited a little well, that is thought to have special healing powers. People who have ill family members bring a piece of their clothing or a scrap of material from their clothing, soak it in the water from the well and then tie it to a tree. It is thought that as the fabric rots away, so will the illness or disease until it no longer exists. It was very eerie and a little bit Blair Witchish, but people still do it to this day.
We also learned a lot about Scotland's history in battles with the Brits and between the different clans. We visited a battlefield where 700 Jacobites (Highlanders) were killed in the battle of Culloden in 1746 in a matter of minutes. There were also mass graves,with headstones stating the clan that the people belonged to with some graves just reading “mixed clans”. Although not the same battle as portrayed in Braveheart, it occurred exactly how it did in the movie, with the two fronts charging at each other across a field.
Later that day we visited Loch Ness and did a wee bit of Nessie spotting. The water is freezing cold and has a constant temperature year round of 5 degrees. In the evening we did a boat tour of Loch Ness which was really good. We even spotted Nessie (check out the photos). It was so exciting!!! That night we visited a guy called Sexy Ken, who put on a demonstration of how highlanders lived hundreds of years ago, what they wore and demonstrated the weapons that they used in battle. This was really interesting and it is obvious that the Scottish are very proud of their history.
We spent two nights at the hostel in Fort Augustus and one night played Welly Golf, which involved throwing gumboots in a drum to win free drinks. It was a lot of fun, and Turls was one of the few that actually landed the Welly!
The next day we were in for a special treat. Because the weather had been stunning (24 degrees – hot in Scotland), Martin decided to take us to the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye to go swimming. We weren't so sure that we would actually get in the water but quite a few of us did. It was about a 20 minute walk up into the mountains, and then you stumble across a number of pools that have crystal clear water and waterfalls splashing all around. We braved it and went in. The water was absolutely freezing cold and in took your breath away when you jumped in. It improved a little as you got used to it, but it was spectacular and will certainly be remembered as a highlight of the tour. Later that day we also visited Eilan Donan Castle which is the most famous castle in all of Scotland. It was restored about 100 years ago and is beautiful.
Yesterday we stopped for views of Ben Nevis, which is the highest peak in the UK. Although the weather was great, you could still see patches of snow on the peaks. We also visited Inverlochy Castle, which was built in 1296 and is now in ruins. We had a picnic lunch on another beach which reminded us a bit of Whitehaven, with supersoft white sand. We stopped for a little while at Glenfinnan, which is where the Hogwarts Express scenes (going over the bridge) were filmed for Harry Potter. I was very excited and would have paid good money to see the train going over while we were there but it didn't. We moved on to Oban for the night and again it is a lovely fishing town.
Today we visited Glencoe, which is a stunning valley famous for yet another brutal killing between clans. Even hundreds of years later, the pub still has a sign out the front saying “No Dogs and No Campbells” allowed in. We stopped at another viewpoint that had a cranky Scottsman playing the bagpipes. If people were taking photos of him and not tipping he would just stop paying, and he had a go at one girl for giving a lousy tip – miserable bastard he was!! We also visited Hamish, the famous Hairy Coo (cow), who really wasn't all that interested in us when he realised we had no food.
Our last stop was at Stirling, which is where the Stirling Bridge Battle occurred, with William Wallace taking charge. It was a bit disappointing to find out that some of the things in the movie were untrue, but William Wallace was killed in the same way as portrayed in the film. A massive monument has been erected to honour him in Stirling.
As I said first up, we are now back in Edinburgh and head back to London tomorrow afternoon. The Haggis tour was fantastic (by the way, we tried Haggis and surprisingly thought it was quite good) and we met some great people.
Sorry about how long this post was, but we did a lot of things through the week. Hope everyone is well!
I think it's time to go to bed now, aye!!!
Ange & Turls xx
