Scotland Threeeee

This is the end of the Scotland postings. It has to be, because I'm leaving for Ireland/Italy/Fall Break 2010 tomorrow!!! I'm crazy excited. 

Okay, so night 2 was spent in a sketchy hostel in Inverness, which is the only true "city" in the Highlands, seeing as every other landmark place doesn't have enough people in it to be considered a true city. So, it was rather ironic that the one city we stayed the night in, was rather sketch. We were too tired to complain, though, and went out for dinner and some drinks and then went to bed!

Toast to Scotland!

Very very awkward body bag that acted as a sheet in our dodgy hostel

The next morning on the bus - happy to be departing to see more of Scotland!

Our first stop of the day was at Blair Castle, which was lovely. The Athole clan have resided and owned this land since long ago ... feeling rather sleepy and rambunctious, I thoroughly abused the "athole" jokes while we toured the castle. Just keeping everyone awake and alert, you know :)

Blair Castle

ADPis love castles!

A lot of deers sacrificed their antlers to this wall

I like castles!

Random peacocks outside the castle?

 After Blair Castle, we went to the Blair Athole Distillery where they make Bell's whiskey and got to take a tour of the factory and sample some whiskey! It was a lot of fun ... and interesting to find out how it's made. It sits for years and years and years in barrels! The oldest one they had was 1967 (which is a familiar year to me, but I won't tell you who I know that's born in that year!) ... and our tour guide averaged that bottles of whiskey at that age would be worth about 600 pounds per bottle! That's more than 1,000 American dollars. Yikes. The factory was really fun, but I'm not a big whiskey fan and sipping it was almost unbearable. It smelled great though! Very nutty and spicy.

Hanging out with Mr. Bell

I'm so adoring of his delicious whiskey

A very very large whiskey bottle on sale in the gift shop. It was my friend John's birthday, so I suggested he buy it as a gift to himself. He didn't take my suggestion.

So hoity-toity about our whiskey tasting

The last exciting thing we did in Scotland was visiting the Edinburgh Castle! It sits on a hill overlooking the entire city. You might recall some pictures of it at the beginning of my trip, and perhaps even a certain dynamic duo attempting to climb to the top. Hm. Well, we got to go in and peruse it for a while before boarding the coach and heading to the train station. 


The castle itself was massive and gorgeous. And the views were breathtaking!

Castlin'

Peering through the itty bitty hole

CHARGE!

Heyyy

Tyler, honey, do you even know how to use that thing?

A doggie graveyard for pets of soldiers

Don't fall!

Schoolboys playing with the canon

THE CROWN JEWELS! They were gorgeous. And I wanted them.

The soldier's barracks

Nooooo! The dungeon!!!

Bu-bye Edinburgh Castle!

And bu-bye Scotland!

Phew! I'm done I'm done I'm done ... with Scotland, at least. And exciting news of the week, I'm done with all of my mid-terms and I'm free to explore Europe for Fall Break tomorrow! Ah! Tyler and I are headed to Dublin first to visit my relatives and then Milan, Italy, to visit with one of our professors and see Italy. Be jealous, because I'm excited :) Who knows how long that entry is going to take ;) Ciao! Toodle Pip!
 

Scotland 2

As promised, the rest of my Scotland trip! Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you see it) I took 500+ pictures on the trip. Soooo, I don't think I'll be forgetting what I did/saw any time soon. The morning after our night in Edinburgh, we packed up and headed further North to the tippy top of Scotland to see the Highlands!

Our suitcase was happy to see us!

Our first stop in the Highlands was the William Wallace memorial! If you've seen Braveheart, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If not, he is known for leading a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence and is today remembered in Scotland as a patriot and national hero. His memorial is a tall building at the top of a big hill, overlooking the city of Stirling. 

The William Wallace pub

Tyler, trekking to the top!

It. was. steep.

A wild blueberry! I ate it!

The view was gorgeous

Us!

The William Wallace Memorial - there he is!

Woooooooo!

 Thus began our looooong drive further into the highlands where we were to see some real mountains (seeing as Texas mountains are speed bumps ... I was rather excited).

The memorial from further down

Beautiful Scottish countryside

Tyler appreciated it ... but was sleepy

So I took pictures.

 
 Then, we saw the hairy coos! These are what the Scots call "hairy cows" ... I'm not sure why cow became coo but it's really cute and the cows were too!

This is Heather

Behind her is her man, Hammish

She is smiling for the camera. Handsome!

After the coos, we fooled around in the gift shop. These pictures are the result of this. 

 After that, we headed to Glencoe ... a beautiful beautiful spot for photos. And MOUNTAINS! It was glorious - everything I expected Scotland to be. Green, lush, wide open spaces, very few people ... 

And pictures:

Gorgeous, isn't it? We stopped the bus to take pictures at the "Three Sisters" formation in Glencoe ... there were 3 mountains that people were hiking up (a long way). The formations were massive and it was magnificent!

IT'S BIG

Yay Highlands!

Glencoe Girls Jump!

Epic Tyler Kristi Jump

And then ... Loch Ness! It was awesome to be able to see it/touch it/search for the monster. I didn't actually see Nessie .... but that doesn't mean she isn't there!

Woo!

It was pretty

Us with Nessie

I see her!

Me too!

I touched it

I didn't appreciate this "kick you in Loch Ness" humor

:)

 I'm sorry to do this to you (and me, because frankly this is getting ridiculous) but I'm going to have to make this the end of Scotland 2 ... and leave you in suspense for Scotland 3! We're about to go to a sports bar and watch the UT/OU game! Yay! I'm more excited about the wings than the game, but it all evens out in the end :)

Also, exciting news, MY BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW! I will be 20 years old. In London. Yikes. 

x's and o's