I'll Take the High Road

Scotland! Okay, I know, that was ages ago. Where's the post?? Well folks, *hint hint* you'll get more posts out of us if you demonstrate you read the blog. That means, *hint hint* we want you to leave comments.

So Scotland was quite amazing. We started our journey by meeting Alex at the trainstation in Birmingham. From there was a direct train ride, four and a half hours, up to Edinburgh. We got great seats and just enjoyed being together after what I maintain felt like AGES apart.

We got into Edinburgh at night time. It was about 6:30 or so. Dark. WINDY. We went to Scotland and met weather. We laughed basically the entire way to our hostel because the wind was blowing so hard we could barely walk into it. We found the hostel with little issue. It was a cool place. A converted 19th century church, which meant it had all kinds of character. It also meant that the individual rooms did not have their own roofs. The three of us were in a room with six beds and there was no one else for the first two of our three nights. Sounds perfect, yes? Well unfortunatelly the no-roof situation meant that we heard every little sound that everyone in the hostel made. Now this might not have been a problem if it hadn't been for some very noisy people. Most notable of them was the guy who shouted out every few seconds "Has anybody got a joke?" along with a few other sundry comments.

Well the first night there Alex and I stayed up chatting until a silly late hour (made more silly because we knew we had to wake up early) and we kept up later because of the yelling guy. And the laughing obnoxious Italians. And the chipmunks. Well those were Italians too, but they were doing this *tch* *tch* *tch* sounds that as bizarre as it was annoying. Well we all got up early anyway, and headed out to our first tour.

We took a tour from Rabbie's Trail Burners called Highlands Lochs, Glens, and Whiskey. Click the link to see exactly where we went. We had a chance to go on a little nature walk in the low lands, which was a little unnerving because it almost felt like we were in Lynn Valley or something. The scenery was very familiar to home. We were at a place known for it's salmon jumps for goodness sakes. But it was neat anyway. A highlight of the day was definately the tour of Blair Atholl whiskey distillery. We're now whiskey experts. We know how it's made, we know how to drink it (never put ice in a single malt!!) and it was generally very cool. There was then a scenic drive through the highlands, which were spectacular.

That night we were pretty bushed and we happy to go to bed fairly early. It's a good thing we did, because at our early bed time there weren't that many people in the hostel. It wasn't until later when the people got back that things got noisy. "Anybody got a joke?" *the hostel grumbles as one* "Anybody got a joke?" *We turn over and try to ignore obnoxious guy* "Anybody got a joke?"

Pause.

"I'LL SHOW YOU A FRIGGIN' JOKE!!" In steps angry scottish man.

We hear doors opening. We hear general threats, not all of which are PG-Blog rated. We hear some furnature. We hear joke guy say "Holy **** you're like twice my size!" We hear some running. Yelling. Oh the excitement. By now the three of us are kind of sitting there hoping they just don't come near our room. We kept hearing doors open and didn't know why. Was joke guy trying to hide? Was scottish guy systematically looking for him?

Well after a couple of thoroughly exciting moments we hear the distinct sound of police walkie-talkies. The commotion is broken up. Somehow all this excitement made both Susan and I have to pee so we go out to the washroom and on the way see police talking to various people. Commotion over. The next night was nicely quiet.

So the next morning we had another tour. This time it was through Scottish Tours and went to Loch Ness & The Highlands. Yes, we went up to Loch Ness. How very... legendary! The bus ride was a bit longer and both Susan and Alex grabbed a few moments to nap. Loch Ness was beautiful. The monster, they say, comes twice every day: five minutes before you get there, and five minutes after you leave. We also went into Urquheart Castle, which at one point was held by the Grant clan. Grant, of course, is Susan's born surname. When we found out that the Grants were suck ups who literally blew up their own castel, it became something of a joke for poor Susie who was glad to have abandoned that clan for the Curries who are known in Scotland as the "Warrior Poets" -- at much better fit, I'd say.

We also had a chance to see the capital of the Highlands on this tour. Inverness was very cool, though we spent most of it in a pub eating appetisers. Yay.

That night, when we got back to Edinburgh, we did a ghost tour of the city. It was a fun nighttime walk. Amusingly, the tour was given by a Canadian. We got to go into a really old cemetary, climb a faerie mound, and go through some neat areas of town. The tour ended at a pub where we got a free drink. We took advantage of that drink as well as a few more, occupying ourselves until the establishment closed at 1:00 -- what kind of pub closes at 1am? Really now.

We went back to the hostel, had a slightly better night of sleep, and checked out the next morning. When we got to Wannaburger for breakfast we were surprised to hear that daylight savings had just gone into effect. Cool, another hour in Edinburgh! We did some casual shopping on our way to the train station.

The train home was less fun than the one there. We had a really long ride on a train where we were only able to sit for a small portion. Then we changed train, and there was a grumpy guy. Travel wasn't fun that day, really. But we got back just fine.

Alex spent a couple of days with us, and has now gone off to flitter about the country again. We'll see him next week.

Overall scotland was a blast, and I'd love to go back to Edinburgh some day. The city was beautiful with so much history and so much that we didn't have a chance to see. Who knows, maybe one day we'll go on a 100-mile trek through the highlands.