well, after a night of keeping savage brits at bay, i was definitely ready for some tranquil scenery. the next day didn't disappoint! we began at the eilean donan castle...see for yourself! i would give you some of the history, but i've forgotten most of it (and, no offense scotland, it was pretty boring)
every castle needs a duel!
after our tour of the castle, helen and i finally got to take pictures with our wild & sexy bus, the best bus i have ever had the privilege to ride on.
so, after everyone piled back on, we continued our jaunt around bonny scotland. becuase time was such an issue for our group, our tour guide said that we'd have to invent punishments for the last people on the bus. i think it was on this day that bryan had to pick a punishment from the hat. he had to tell the story of "the three little pigs," uk style. it went something like this:
"the wee british pig made his house of crumpets (because he was british, and they don't think ahead), and the welsh wolf ate it...
the wee irish pig made his house out of guinness, and the welsh wolf drank it...
but the wee scottish pig (the most cunning of all uk pigs) high-tailed it to the highlands, where he lived in a cave and eludes the welsh wolf to this day"
as we listened to bryans brilliant rendition, we passed by some more gorgeous scottish scenery. the pictures speak for themselves
eventually we stopped by this river, where (legend has it) back in the day, a beautiful maiden was meant to marry a man from the opposing clan, in an effort to unite the clans. on the way, while crossing this river, her horse slipped and the maiden's face was horribly mangled (eyeball hanging out). however, fairies appeared to her and told her to dip her face in the river, which magically cured her mingerness. our tour guide told us to dip our faces in if we wanted to be beautiful. some of the boys lowered themselves in, but helen and i delicately dabbed ourselves for a touch-up...
the waters of the one-eyed woman
more sceneryah, in case i forgot to mention, by this time we were on the isle of skye. besides having a beautiful name, the isle has stunning natural beauty. have a look..
this cliff has a legend, too! apparently there was a giant who hung his kilt here (the ridges in the cliff are his kilt)!
my favorite place on the trip.however, apparently saucy mary's is the hotspot of skye nightlife. there's a pub attached to the hostel, and they have live music and nightly parties. we hung around to see the action unfold, which consisted primarily of everyone getting shlammied and a few people dancing. it wasn't all that saucy! it was a fun night, though...made all the more so by the fact that the pub served sticky toffee pudding! and i befriended a nice australian girl who was traveling all around europe with her friend. they'd been on the go for three months already, and had three more to go. that takes some chutzpah!
well, needless to say, we all slept really well that night, haha. the following morning, our last of the tour, we headed to glen coe to take in the mountainous scenery.
unfortunately, helen "tiny bladder" moser had to take a wee, so i followed as her watchguard as she scoped out a place. nothing like peeing out in the open! passing cars i'm sure got a spectacular show.
looking for a potential toiletmelting snow from the pristine mountains formed a river that ran through the coe, and i figured that this was my only opportunity to drink fresh, pure scottish water straight from the source. so i cupped my hands and drank its sweet, sweet liquid--yum!
note the lack of fish. no poop in my water!after romping around glen coe, we headed to see the "most photographed highlander," named hamish. he's an authentic highland cow! isn't he gorgeous?
apparently, one of the tour guides from "haggis adventures" did a trick where he'd feed hamis ha carrot out of his mouth. this was fine for weeks, until the tour guide fell extremely ill with bovine herpes. hamish, you dirty slag!
i opted to keep my distance from his slobbering herpes-filled jowlsthe last part of the journey was a trek to the monument/castle(?) (i was near comatose by this point) dedicated to braveheart. here it is:
view from the top. look at the wee scottish town!finally arriving back in edinburgh in the afternoon, helen most graciously offered to host me for the night. we spent it pigging out at a delicious potluck put on by her fellow interns, then hit the sack early--we were totally pooped after the action-packed week.
the next morning, hel had to head to the scottish parliament for work, so i took it upon myself to explore edinburgh by foot. i walked around for about two hours, and daresay saw much of the city (it's pretty tiny). oddly, some parts i ventured into were deserted, and fairly sketchy, so i opted not to take pictures in fear that i'd be spotted as a tourist. maybe not, since my hair suggests otherwise! either way, in some parts i felt like i had to keep moving, lest some scottish creepers make a move.
i found my way to the parliament to meet with helen for lunch--the parliament building was really impressive! it's extremely modern and expensive looking, haha. they were supposed to spend 50 million pounds on it, but ended up shelling out 350 million--oops!
i got to sneak into helen's rep's office, as well, and got to sit in the special "thinking pod," a little nook that was cut into the window. hope that doesn't get you in trouble, helen!
anyways, after lunching and walking around parliament a little, we stopped by the university of edinburgh to take a gander. it's that little dome in the distance:
the next morning, hel had to head to the scottish parliament for work, so i took it upon myself to explore edinburgh by foot. i walked around for about two hours, and daresay saw much of the city (it's pretty tiny). oddly, some parts i ventured into were deserted, and fairly sketchy, so i opted not to take pictures in fear that i'd be spotted as a tourist. maybe not, since my hair suggests otherwise! either way, in some parts i felt like i had to keep moving, lest some scottish creepers make a move.
i found my way to the parliament to meet with helen for lunch--the parliament building was really impressive! it's extremely modern and expensive looking, haha. they were supposed to spend 50 million pounds on it, but ended up shelling out 350 million--oops!
i got to sneak into helen's rep's office, as well, and got to sit in the special "thinking pod," a little nook that was cut into the window. hope that doesn't get you in trouble, helen!
anyways, after lunching and walking around parliament a little, we stopped by the university of edinburgh to take a gander. it's that little dome in the distance:
and after that, we headed to the famous "elephant house," the cafe where j.k. rowling wrote harry potter! it was very exciting! the place was really cute, and had a great view of edinburgh castle from the back room. here i am with my demolished cappuccino--
the back room...was i sitting at j.k.'s table??by the time we were done, i had done all i wanted to do in edinburgh, so i threw my things together and walked with helen to waverley station. i was a bit worried about problems with my railcard again, so i put my ticket on the table in front of me and pretended to be asleep for 90% of the journey so that they wouldn't ask me for the railcard. sneaky ging!
luckily, once i got home, i found the other part i hadn't known i needed. whew!
that happy ending so concludes my recounting of the scottish adventures. in two days, i'll be jet-setting over to roma for easter! che buono!
gingerly,
lilly
Pure mountain stream water, eh?
ReplyDeleteDissolved goat poop is invisible.
ciao
papa
We have the same "favorite spot." I made a panorama of that place.
ReplyDeleteAnd how awesome are the highlands? I hope you had lots of Talisker when you were on Skye. We had a drunken snowball fight with some Scottish Navy guys when I stayed at Saucy Mary's.