Well i'm attempting to name this article something scottish - but i find my knowledge quite limited there .i.e. my 'scots' vocabulary is kind of limited to kilts, lochs, and haggis.
Anyhow, i spent the easter long weekend in scotland. And quite frankly to say i had a bloody awesome time would be understating it a touch. On good friday i had to get out of bed at 330am - a ridiculously early time that i gernerally only see if i'm on night shift or still at the pub. I arrived it Aberdeen quite early in the morning and it snowed, alot, all day. This is the first time i have ever experienced a white easter. Different certainly. Aberdeen is a very very grey place. Apparently they call it the granite city- which i reckon is pretty spot on. I had a pretty uneventful day there- shopping (no i didn't buy anything much- just a book), looking at the art gallery (quite disappointing after the national gallery- i don't understand alot of modern art- i think most of it looked like strange furniture or some sort of trash.) - i will say that they had some excellent watercolours though. (Nadia the art critic- i know pretty ridiculous hey!)
So, i caught the afternoon train to Elgin where Rocky lives. It was snowing there too, alot. I'd just like to say Rocky is the best ever. She cooked an awesome roast dinner. The next day we took a trip to Loch Ness- big, cold, pretty damn impressive. No i didn't see nessie apart from all the damn souveneirs of him. It was still snowing - alot. The we went to Urquart Castle which i think was totally worth the £5 entry fee. Rocky was ridiculously excited that they had a treberjet (sorry if that isn't spelt right- i'd never heard of one before) which is like a big catapault thing that is one of the weapons in age of empires. I have lots of photos- whether i liked it or not.
After a lovely lunch- macaroni cheese pie- a traditional scottish dish according to Elaine- we went quad biking through the forrest at a place called rothiemurchus. Best fun ever! I got in trouble for going too fast- especially through the river crossings. Needless to say i was covered in mud by the end of it but it was totally worth it.
On Sunday we had a lovely relaxing day. I woke to find that the easter bunny had visited and left me a trail of easter eggs and a chocolate quad bike- thanks rocky! Sorry i mean easter bunny! Lunch at the Pub was lovely. And then we took a nice trip to the Glenfiddich distillery. It was still snowing - alot. We did a tour of the distillery which i must say has givem me a whole new appreciation of whisky (which i intend to continue appreciating on a regular basis). After the tour we built the worlds best snowman. I'm not kidding, it was brilliant. (See my facebook for photos- coming soon). We had all the traditional things......well not really. It did have a carrot for a nose, and sticks for arms, but we had to improvise on the rest. It had potato eyes - quite difficult to do, funny seed pod things for a mouth, £1 coins for buttons, Rockys furry hood thing for a scarf, my beanie- after much arguement: it was bloody cold- and still snowing, and some very dashing eyebrows made out of twigs. The finished product was brilliant and we even had other people taking photos in front of our snowman. I think they were indian tourists- so our bloke is now internationally famous. It was totally worth the wet, crippling, freezing cold.
Monday involved a nice sleep in. A trip to a shortbread factory. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. And another trip to a castle. They seem to have one every few k's up there. Good on em i say. Castles are brilliant.
Due to the continuing snow my flight home was delayed but nevermind no dramas. I'd like to thank Rocky for a brilliant weekend, Elaine for letting me crash at her lovely house, and Poppy her black Labrador for reminding me of home.
