Scotland

So, let's add another notch to the side of why my study abroad program (IES) is better than IU currently.  IES gives a fall break.  This is a foreign concept to IU students so I'll explain.  We took our midterms Monday through Wednesday.  Then we got Thursday off (and the rest of weekend per usual) and part of us went to SCOTLAND!

Thursday

So, we got up and headed to King's Cross Station to catch our train to Scotland.  Tube was crazily not busy for it being 7:30 am on a Thursday.  British business hours are weird. We got on our train and I selected a primo location for window gazing and sleeping.  We all felt more refreshed around 11 and had some fun conversations.  English/Scottish countryside is gorgeous so you know.  The train took a coastal path to Edinburgh so we were seeing the channel/North Sea as we chugged along.

"If I could live in a trailer park, I'd live on the coast as well" - Garret

Seriously.  Trailer park....next to the sea.  Nice.  And tons of sheep.  Sooooo many sheep.  And pretty little towns to pass through.

"Oh look!  A blue sheep!" "Of course...how do you think they get blue jumpers?" Myself and then Allison

So finally, we got to Edinburgh.  And then immediately left it on the WILD AND SEXY HAGGIS ADVENTURE!  Seriously.  I can't make that up.

We blended in quite well

So, we set off through Edinburgh to head into the highlands of Scotland.  I didn't expect much from the highlands, but it was beautiful.  I'm not even a huge mountain fan, but everybody was astounded by the views around us.  It really reminded me of the Smokey mountains...minus the trees.  In some parts, it got so windy that trees just could not survive.  And then you'd have the stubborn tree growing out of a rock. Yes, a tree was growing out of a rock.

We stopped at our first Loch (pronounced Law-CHHHHHH.  If you don't sound like you're hawking up a loogie...you're doing it wrong).  Apparently it had been pouring rain the past couple of days cause everything was kind of flooded.

We continued on and saw these random waterfalls due to the amounts of rain they got on all the mountains. Very cool. I would have liked to stay longer, but it was raining at that point.  Like legitimate rain, not this annoying mist stuff that they call rain.  I miss the whole "storm for an hour and done" weather of the midwest.  This "let's mist and be damp all day" kind of stuff is annoying.

Anyway, we eventually made it to our first hostel of the trip in Fort William.  It lacked bathroom space for my liking compared to other hostels but we made due.  We ventured into town to have a meal and went to a nice little pub where I had a very Scottish meal.  Chicken quesadilla.  Yeah...I was in a Mexican food mood and Europeans seem to love it.  Weird.

So after a nice pub outing watching the boys play some pool (and then a woman in a pink tracksuit. lulz), we headed back to the hostel for a nice evening in.

Friday

A group of us got up a bit early to eat and then explore the town a little bit in the daylight.  We went to a bakery where I got a donut that rivals Kinsers.  Yes...it was that good, possibly better due to it's chocolatey nature.  We then played Frogger to get across the street to take pictures of another loch.  Loch Linney if I remember right.  We hiked back up the hills to the hostel and packed up to head out on more adventures.  Only, instead of bus adventures, we walked down to the train station and picked up the Jacobite steam train.  Yes, it's the same type of train used for the Harry Potter films.  Yes, it was epic!

The train was a fun experience.  We all just got to enjoy the views of more mountains and lochs.  Beautiful train ride.  We stopped for a little photo session/at a train station and there was a nice little train car that doubled as a restaurant.  So, of course, I got a chocolate cake and hot chocolate since it was a special.  We then continued on and went over the viaduct that is used in the Harry Potter film.  I think I took like 50 pictures during that part of the trip alone.  That perfect of scenary.

So we got to our destination of Mallaig.  It is a cute little coastal town that has THEE best fish and chips I've had in the UK.  We grabbed those real quick and got back on the Wild and Sexy bus to head to Loch Ness.  All was well until the wheel fell off the bus.

Yeah....the wheel fell off the bus.

So, being the mature adults that we all are, we decided to frolick around the area we got stuck in.  Since it was raining (not the annoying misty rain...it was almost real rain), I cut my frolicking short and headed back to the bus cause the driver put on Trainspotting.  That amused the entire bus until the new bus arrived.

Then the saddest thing that could happen, happened.  In our rush to switch buses, my ever faithful camera got left behind.  I realized this....1 mile down the road after switching buses.  Eff.  Thankfully, Mieke, person in charge of my dorm, has done the trip before and let me use her camera rest of the trip.  So, that cheered me out of my sulking/being angry at myself.

Then they revealed we wouldn't make it to Loch Ness in time for our planned boat tour....so that part of the trip got scrapped.  Booooooooo.

So, we stopped at a rest stop/tourist attraction area and hiked up to a top of a mountain and viewed the viaduct we went over a couple hours earlier.

Totally worth it and I thankfully did not fall going back down since it was, of course, raining.  We got back on the bus and I took a little nap inside of watching the sun set.  At 5 pm.....  We stopped at a castle ruin, but I was not interested cause A. It was still raining and B. ruins of a castle aren't easy to see when it's already dark outside.

We finally made it to our Loch Ness Hostel and it was my favorite of the 3 I believe.  It was run by this family who were all awesome.  The parents were so nice and we planned on kidnapping the youngest boy cause he was so awesome.  So we unloaded the bus and got divided up for our rooms.  Allison, Megan and myself got stuck in the "chicken coop" out back next to the boy's rooms.  It was a fine room, don't get me wrong, but it was weird being in a separate building from the house.

We quickly then gathered for dinner cause we were starving college students and this was our prepaid meal.  Traditional Scottish broth and delicious bread to start with.  Delicious fyi.  Then some Haggis and a potato dish that I don't know the name of.  Haggis was ok on its own but I mixed it with the potatoes and really enjoyed it.  Dessert was some raspberry cream thing was decent as well.

Before dinner we had a rousing game of Uno (not epic like the never ending game of Spring Break '10) and we found out that they had a poker set.  So we set up a little game of Texas Hold 'Em and started to play.....when the Claddagh started.

Ohhhhhh the claddagh.  A bunch of American kids learning traditional Scottish dances.  In a room too small.  Yes, pictures were taken of us dancing.  No, I am not posting them on here.  It was mainly jumping and waltzing around like fools.  Tons of fun though.

After 2 hours of dancing, we got back to our poker game.  I epically lost.  Steve loaned me some chips to get back in....but I never had enough time to get back in the game.  Thankfully, I was spared the agony of defeat again when the game Things was brought up.

Things is a simple game to play.  You make up categories like "Things that remind me of milk" or "Things that remind me of Scotland."  Then, everybody anonymously writes down something.  Likkkee...for the Scotland one you could write men in kilts.  You want to make it not obvious that it's your answer cause then you go around and guess who said what.  My main goal was to make the outrageous ones.

Both of those categories are real ones that we used.  Also included were "Things that remind me of Jacque", "Things I do when I'm naked", and "Things I love about Roy."  About 20 people shoved into this living room and played.  Epic amounts of hilarity ensued.

It soon past midnight and we broke up the game.  Nothing better than a nice game night.

Saturday

We packed up and left the hostel bright at early.  We stopped by Loch Ness (Still saying Looccccchhhhh?) so we could properly see it in the daylight.  And boy...did we need it.

No Nessie sightings unfortunately.  Though we did have a rousing conversation about how easy it would be to hide a body in Loch Ness since only sonar can reach its deepest points.  Yeah....we need to lay off the Bones, Law and Order, CSI, etc.

We then took a nice bus ride to a reindeer center.  Yes, you read that right boys and girls.  A reindeer center.  If you are in that area in Scotland, do it.  First off, it's an amazing hike to where they keep them.

It's not even that long of a hike too so that's even better.

Then....you see this.

Or this

And you get to feed them!!!!  I feed a reindeer.  Very cool.  They don't have top teeth so no worry about biting.  They used their lips mainly and it felt really cool.  You just had to watch out for the antlers.

Best quote of that hour:  "Alec, why are you standing so awkwardly?  We're feeding reindeer!" "I don't want an antler up my ass."  "Good point" - Me and Alec

I headed down a little bit before everybody else cause it was freezing up there.  Breath takeningly beautiful...but freezing.  So we went back to were the bus dropped us off and since we were wearing Wellies, we played in mud puddles.  It was the obvious choice.

After dropping off our Wellies, we went into the town, Aviemore, to have lunch.  For being in Scotland/Europe in general, they like to make Mexican food there.  Really random.  We piled back on the bus and headed to Dalwhinnie Distillery.

So, the Distillery was cool.  We had a nice guessing game of the tour guide's age.  He looked like a guy I work with at IU so that kind of freaked me out.  Only he had less facial hair and a Scottish accent.  So I based my guess on that.  We don't know the answer though sadly.  Kind of interesting to see how they make Whiskey.  The boys were excited cause they had been buying 4 pound bottles from Tesco and then got to try something actually decent for once.

Again, we piled back onto the Wild and Sexy bus and headed into Edinburgh.  We really did ping pong our way around Scotland if you look at a map.  Before I continue on, if you go to Scotland, please go to the Highlands.  They seem like they are from another world.

So, we checked into our hostel which was more like a hotel.  I had to resist collapsing into bed cause all the traveling really gets to you.  So, to avoid this, we went in search of dinner.  The search ended when we discovered the cheap restaurant/bar in the hostel.  haha

So that's how my Halloween night started.  Having an okish meal with some awesome people.  Jacque did one of her blogs and Josh made this great comment about me.  Link to la blog.  Quote is around 4:07 "We have an issue: Stacy and I have no hung out since Dublin.  Dublin was a month ago and I know nobody wants to admit it but it's November on Monday.  It means yes, Dublin was a month ago.  This is an issue cause I quite enjoy Stacy's sense of humor.  Stacy has this odd ability to make me laugh just as much as everyone else does.  I quite enjoy that in a human being.  I think it should also be mentioned that Stacy has an amazing bone structure in her face that makes her more a woman"

Such a compliment right there.  Oh yeah.

So we then changed into our costumes for Halloween.  Seeing as I'm cheap and not wanting to try a lot, I recycled my last year's outfit.  Only, London had NO Santa hats for sale when I went looking.  You know what I see the Monday we get back?  A rack of Santa hats at Tesco.

So, other costumes included a rainbow (people dressed as colors, a leprechaun, and a pot of gold), a cool Cat, Canadian, the InBetweeners, Fancy Dress, Indiana Jones, Dan Brown, and Big Ben.  We're awesome, I know.  However, apparently the Halloween fashion in Edinburgh is more undead than funny.  So...that was kind of weird.  But I did see a Wallace and Gromit costume pair that definitely reminded me that I was in the UK and not the US.

We got all dressed finally and headed for our Ghost Tour of Edinburgh.  So, this tour consisted of us walking around a block and being retold information about how the word shitfaced came into existence. (Drunks would literally get shit on their face cause back in the day when walking home from the pub, people would throw out their bathroom...stuff....and it was land on the drunks.  Gross).  We also wandered through some chambers with former torture devices and other lovely objects.  I don't recommend this tour at all.  There are better ones that are actually tours!  What a novel idea.

So we then got back to the hostel and enjoyed the features of it once again.  Great games of Thumper and Save the Queen were played.  Blah blah blah....you don't want to hear about my night ;)

Sunday

So, some brave souls took the option of climbing up another mountain to watch the sunrise.

I did not cause Stacy needs her sleep.  So I woke up at 9 instead and got a REAL BREAKFAST!! OMG!!!  Gross from a powder scrambled eggs, hash browns, BACON!!!, and more cereal.  Yesssss.

So, we set off for the Edinburgh Castle.  Castles are getting a little tiring.  I never knew that was possible.  I mean...it's a freaking castle.  But they are kind of redundant.  But we enjoyed the views of Edinburgh.  Jacque took me on a personalized tour.  It was very factually based, of course.

We then stopped at the Castle cafe for some water, and dessert to legitimize the water, but it evolved into a whole lunch outing.  Stupid food going by and tempting us.  But it was great just talking with Jacque, Allison, and Kelly.

We went and got our luggage from the hostel and Allison and I went to visit the Gothic Rocket.  Which makes me question what it was called before Rockets were invented....

Anyway, we took some nice pictures and then enjoyed ourselves in this little park area.  It was a nice relaxing way to end our time in Scotland.  We headed back to the train station and started back to London.