That day, after we accidentally took a slight detour, we were soon on our way towards Loch Lomand (of the "You take the high road, and I'll take the low road..." fame). Our first Scottish loch was lovely and we got out quite a bit to take pictures. We drove up through the Trossarch Mountains towards the Isle of Skye. On our way, we stopped to again take pictures and were surprised by a man in traditional Scottish dress playing the bagpipes at this perfect overlook on the side of the road. We, being quite nerdy, got very excited. We also drove past the well-known Eileen Donan Castle on our way to Skye, which we barely arrived at before dark. We drove along the island until we came to the main city of Portree (not too big of a city) where we shopped around for a place to stay before settling on a hostel. Then we went to the nearby pub that seemed to be the only thing open for food at that point (since it was a bank holiday, most things were closed) and had a tasty meal, including Scottish venison stew... mmmmm... However, after dinner, it was only 7:30, though it was of course pitch black. With no options, we returned to the hostel to watch some movies in the common room. We met a guy who was hoping to teach history at Hillsdale College (yes, in Michigan. He'd been studying in Glasgow for a while) and thought that history was getting to be "too revisionist." After he left, a guy who lived/worked at the hostel came and chatted with us all the way through Batman (our second movie of the night) telling us everything about himself, his music tastes, his Christmas presents, etc. He did inform us that part of the most recent Harry Potter movie was filmed just outside of town (the part with the dragon), so seeing that became our goal for the next morning. (photos: Loch Lomand; roadside bagpiper in the highlands; sheep!!!; sunset in the highlands with the usual frost and fog; and Eileen Donan castle)
We woke up, had lots of weird porridge and toast before getting on the road. We stopped to take pictures of its v. picturesque harbour before getting towards "The Old Man," a stone cliff face that of course looked nothing like an old man without a LOT of imagination. We also did some hikeys on the moors (pronounced "moooorrrrrrrrrrrrs," thanks to Katie C and Sandy Safford, et al) and saw tons of sheep and highland cattle (also on t-shirts "heilan coos"). The sheep were everywhere and grazing on some of the most absurd parts of the terrain, including cliff faces, and the cows were covered in a thick oarngey-red hair that made them look v. punk rock. We kept looking for the puffins that were on all the postcards, but didn't see any of them either. Soon, obligated to get going due to winnowing daylight hours a long drive ahead of us, we got on the road. We headed towards the Northeastern tip of Scotland, catching the last ferry over to Mainland, the main island in Orkney. Sick of our two cds of Scottish music that we'd bought that day (since we had no antenna on our car, we often didn't get any radio stations and we were in dire need of entertainment), we began to also appreciate bizarre Scottish comedy serials on the radio. After the nearly 2-hour boat ride, we drove towards the main city on Mainland, Kirkwall, and after searching for any open hostels, we settled on a hotel accross from the harbour before heading to a pub we'd found with local Scottish pub music. (photos: The Old Man where part of Harry Potter was filmed (with some smallish moors; Trace and Kara; cliffside at Skye (objects in photo are larger than they appear); coastal Skye;
The next day, when going down to breakfast, we found only three places set in the dining room and realized we were the only three in the entire hotel and that we were only part of the handful of tourists on the entire island. We also discovered that the strange boards on the windows (see photo) were for a game that the locals play on Xmas and New Years Day (they divide the TOWN in half and each team has to try to get a ball to the other side of town, but there are no rules at all and it's apparently like a gian rugby scrum a.k.a. free-for-all). We took some pictures of town and the cathedral before heading out to find some wildlife. The guy at the tourist information centre told us where to look for seals, puffins, and even whales. However, with the cold winds and probably our inexperience whale-watching, we didn't see anything in our breif (10-30min) stints on the coast. We did see lots of other birds and tons of fabulous sheep. We even went to an island just off mainland that was only accessible by foot during low tide when the tide exposed a concrete walkway to the island covered in old Norse ruins. Also on Orkney are some of the best stone-age and Norse ruins, which we saw at Skara Brae (an old settlement recently discovered), and also some of the best standing stones (we saw a couple more henges, which I remembered meant "standing circle" approximately...). We had to catch our boat at 4:45 that afternoon, since we decided not to take the 6:30 or 11:30am or the 9:00pm boats (the only others off the island that day), so we knew we'd be doing our drive that night in the dark. We drove through Lybster, a small town twinned with "Fort Mackinac, USA" since it's founder was also the founder of Fort Mackinac and former Lt. Governor of Michilimackinac, Patrick Sinclair. We'd hoped to see his grave, but had to settle for the road sign and a plaque since it was quite dark when we got there. However, we finally got into Inverness, got a room at a hostel, found some food, and settled in for the night. (photos: downtown Kirkwall with the weirdo boards; part of a henge with the mountains of Orkney; the "gently undulating hills" that characterize the island interiors; coastal Orkney; sheep!!!; Skara Brae; island with the exposed walkway (red speck is a woman walking on the walkway); one of my favorite road signs, often with the phrase "Elderly People" under it; Trace and I at Lybster (hard to see us, but we're there next to the sign)
The next day, we were up to do some shopping, continuing our ongoing quest for a Scottish cableknit sweater. We hadn't found one in the Highlands, but I did at last find a lovely green one that smells delightfully of sheep and wool (seriously, not in a bad way at all) at a kiltmaker's shop. We also got a sampler pack of fudge, since it seemed so traditional there as well. We then paid a quick visit to Loch Ness and then headed back through the Carignorms towards Edinburgh so that we could return our rental by our assigned time. We made it, cought the bus into town, and got to our hotel.
OK, so the hotel was flippin weird. It was the cheapest thing we could find in town, since Hogmany (the New Year celebrations popular all over Scotland, though over-the-top in Edinburgh) guaranteed most everythign was gone months ago. It was also of a weird modern/contemporary decor that left us feeling cold and like we were in a painted warehouse. It was comfortable, but v. weird. After getting in and resting, we went to dinner and met Trace's acquaintences before going for a second dinner and then back to be the token Americans hanging out in a group of British and Scottish university studnets. Kara and I were quickly getting tired and we made our way back to our weirdo hotel. (photo: Loch Ness)
The next morning, we were up and on our way to Edinburgh Castle where we saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, a great exhibit about prisoners of war at the castle during the American Revolution, and a large crowd of people gathering to watch a v. dull cannon firing. The castle, being New Year's Eve and the night for most of Hogmany, was packed so we were glad to leave. We then made our way to food and then to the train station to change/buy train tickets before heading to a lovely vantage point over the city. By this point, it was starting to rain and Kara's and my shoes were both still soaked from hiking in the wetness and mud in the highlands, so we were anxious to head back to the hotel to rest before catching dinner and going to Hogmany. (photos: Edinburgh from the Castle with the area for Hogmany being the low part in the center; Trace and the Big Cannon; UofM is flippin everywhere; and Edinburgh Castle and the run-up to Hogmany (festival-looking area))
We got to the main street that night still an hour before festivities started and were some of the few people not drinking, etc. in the huge crowd. We met 3 American military guys stationed in Germany, one of which was from Mackinaw City, MI (he was v. excited when he found out where we worked, since we'd actually heard of his hometown), and also got into a discussion with random people about the most recent Harry Potter movie. Luckily, we'd bought a special ticket that got us out of the ridiculous crowd and into a less-crowded area that had tradtional Scottish cleidh dancing (like square dancing, but more twirly!!!) and special bands, including some strange takes on traditional Scottish music. At midnight, we had an excellent view of the fireworks over the castle and then returned to the bands and dancing before heading back after everything ended at 1. (photos: Hogmany when you could still move in the street; dancing in the gardens; rocking out in Scotland (the guy on the banjo looks like Dennis, for those of you that know him); Happy New Year! Castle is barely visible behind the fireworks; and more rocking out)
The next morning, we packed, went to breakfast (had haggis for the second time!), and then counted the piles of vomit on our way to the train station. We'd decided to leave a day earlier to get back to London since we were all exhausted and wanted to save money. We had a lovely view of Northumberland (sadly, no flowers since it's winter...) and the moors from the train. Back in town, we returned to my flat, caught a quick dinner and then heading home to bed. I didn't think I was going to be that excited to get back to my flat and my crappy bed, but it was lovely.
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DID YOU REALLY TAKE THOSE PICTURES??!?
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