Highland Photographs

Hamish, the Highland Coo

Another breed of Highlander...

Unfortunately, our guide Stevie did not feel man enough to don a kilt for us. And, no Mom, I did not ask the nice guide what was under his kilt, not even for you.

Pretty loch

Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in Scotland

Sean Connery's Highland house

Laurel & Me at Ben something or another...

("ben" is the highland name for mountain)

Glencoe

Urquhart Castle

Me, Laurel, and Nessie

Laurel & Me at Loch Ness

The HIGHLANDS

I know I promised an album of Edinburgh first, but I am having some difficulties with loading the pictures, so in the meantime, I thought I would write about the Highland trip Laurel and I took.

We checked out of the hostel and 7:30 on Sunday morning, and then walked up the street, grabbed some Starbucks to go, and arrived at Haggis Adventures Tour Co. to check in before eight.  We were loaded on a small tour bus by our guide for the day, Stevie.  Stevie was a Scot from a town in the Kingdom of Fife (known as just "the Kingdom" by locals, and also the region St. Andrews is located in).  Not only did he have a great Scottish accent, but he could really tell a tale, which made him the perfect tour guide.  Although the English might disagree with Stevie on some of the finer points of some of his stories, almost all of which contained an English villain, it was fun to have a Scottish perspective.  Anyway, before I talk about the places we went, I figured I'd post a map with our tour route.  We actually went up through Inverness on our tour, but otherwise, this map is pretty accurate:   

 In case you don't know Scottish geography very well, the Highlands cover most of the northern part of Scotland, excepting a narrow strip up the eastern coast.  They are, as I found out, characterized by their mountainous terrain and abundant lochs (or lakes, as we call them), with countryside unsuited for most crops except for cattle and sheep.  Historically, the Highlanders were not only separated by their dress (the tartans, kilts, etc), but also by language.  Most spoke (and still speak) Gaelic as their first language and English as their second.  All the signs in the Highlands have both Gaelic and English translations on them, sort of a Scottish version of Quebec.  Highland cattle are also different, very hairy and apparently have no body fat, because they have a double layer of hair on them to keep them warm.  We met Hamish, the Highland coo, at a rest stop on the Highland border:

After crossing into the Highlands, we were met with the most gorgeous landscape.  Although I was a bit disappointed not to notice any moors of heath and heather (probably because the heather wasn't blooming yet), the view was as spectacular as I imagined.  On our journey to Loch Ness, we passed the William Wallace Monument, the castle where 99% of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed, many historic battle places, the countryside where Rob Roy lived before becoming an outlaw, and Sean Connery's "country cottage."  Along the way, Stevie told stories non-stop about historical happenings that seemed to come right out of a swashbuckling adventure novel.  I have to say that William Wallace and his rise from petty thief to national hero is a little more captivating than George Washington and his cherry tree.  

We stopped for lunch in Fort William after stopping for pictures at places such as Glencoe (where the famous Glencoe massacre occurred).  Apparently, the Campbells, the Highland clan responsible for the Glencoe massacre in 1692 (if you want to read more about it, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Glencoe), are still not served at pubs and hotels in Glencoe.  So, basically, if you are a Campbell, avoid the area next time you are traveling in Scotland.  About an hour later, we got to Castle Urquhart on the shores of Loch Ness.  We were only given 15 minutes to walk around, but Laurel and I had Explorer Passes that would get us into the castle grounds, so we ran down the stairs, down the path, and across the footbridge to the castle, took a couple pictures, and ran back.  Laurel got this lovely candid of our crazy plan in action:

Loch Ness, on the other hand, was a much more leisurely visit.  It's a gorgeous lake, but besides Nessie, there is really nothing that separates it from the other lochs we passed, besides its size and depth.  Apparently, if you take all the bodies of water in England and Wales, you could only fill half of Loch Ness.  It's something like 1000 meters deep, which means Nessie may never be found.  There is in fact a million pound reward for an authentic picture of the Loch Ness Monster, but no one so far has been able to collect the prize.  

After a little Nessie watching time on a bench along the loch's shore, we headed on our way, passing through Inverness (the capital of the Highlands), before making the journey home.  The drive back included a view of the highest Scottish whiskey distillery (single malt), a castle whose inheritor donated to the Scottish people after deciding he missed his cottage in South America, and a ride along the highest road in the U.K.  We got back at 8 pm, waited for the next train, and then headed back to St. Andrews, exhausted but happy from our weekend adventure. 

P.S.  I will post some Highland pictures soon, as well, before I continue on to St. Andrews with Laurel and Stirling.  Oh, and if you guys ever have any questions or requests to hear more about something, I'm pretty sure you can post comments on the blog, and I will be happy to answer you.  I am pretty much a sponge when it comes to any sort of information of interest to me, which is basically everything over here, so really, I could go on forever if you asked.  On that note, I will end with saying how much I miss all of you.  

Some Pictures of Edinburgh

Me and my Scottish Man

Holyrood Palace

The "Birthplace of Harry Potter" (also where we ate lunch)

The Royal Mile

Edinburgh Castle (the sign in the left-hand corner is for our hostel)

P.S. I promise to post the full album soon!

Sorry...

Okay, so first off, I just wanted to apologize for not posting anything in over a week.   I think I got overwhelmed at how much there was for me to post, which is completely illogical if you think about it :)  So, where to begin?  I think maybe I'll start from the beginning, when my roommate from Hamilton visited me in Scotland for a week.  Laurel, if you don't know her, is studying abroad in London this semester, so she decided to come over and see me for her birthday.  I will post pictures soon, but basically I took her around St. Andrews, which you guys have heard about, and then on Valentine's Day, we took an early train to Edinburgh for the weekend. 

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, and the first thing you notice when you get there is the huge castle on the volcanic rock (creatively called Castle Rock) towering over the rest of the city.  Our hostel was very easy to find since it was literally right across from the steps up to the castle.  After we dropped off our bags, we went straight for the castle which looks something less out of a fairy tale and more out of a medieval war film, probably because the castle has been on Castle Rock in some form since AD 600 when King Mynyddog and his band of warriors fortified themselves in their preparations to invade and attack the Angles (one of the peoples in Briton at the time along with the Picts, Gaels, Saxons etc).  Inside the walls of the castle, we saw everything from the Scottish Honours (the Scottish Royal crown, sceptre, and sword), the room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James VII of Scotland (James I of England), and the oldest building (excluding the castle) in Edinburgh (Queen Margaret's Chapel).  Queen Margaret was wife of Malcolm III and died brokenhearted when news was brought to her sickbed that her husband was killed in England.  She was declared a saint by Pope Innocent IV in 1250.  The chapel itself is a simple building most likely meant for private prayer, but the stained glass, especially the image of Margaret, is quite striking.  My other favorite part was probably the Highlands weapon and dress demonstration.  Apparently traditional kilts were formed from a single piece of tartan and hand-pleated each morning in such a way that left a tail of fabric that was slung over the man's shoulder and pinned.  If you have ever seen Braveheart, you will have noticed that he wore this traditional garb.  However, William Wallace was actually from the Lowlands, so he would most likely have worn trousers, not a kilt.  He did, however, carry a claymore (or claighmore), the two-handed broadsword typical of Highlanders, which you see slung over Mel Gibson's back in the movie.  They had to carry them this way, because the typical claymore was 55'' long and couldn't be worn on a belt.  Because of its length, it was dull most of the way up the blade so it could act as a shield as well (the highlander could grip the actual blade to parry a blow), but it's razor sharp edge was quite effective at chopping a man in half before the English soldier could even reach the Highlander with his shorter sword.  I actually saw William Wallace's claymore this weekend in the William Wallace monument in Stirling, and it was GIANT...66 inches long (the blade alone is 4 1/2 ft!).   Studies say that in order to actually wield the sword, Wallace had to have been at least 6'6'' tall in real life (basically a foot taller than Mel Gibson).  Anyway, back to Edinburgh.  After a lengthy tour of the castle, we headed off to lunch at the Elephant House, the cafe in which J.K. Rowling penned the first Harry Potter book.  Apparently, she was so poor that she couldn't afford to heat her house, so she would go the Elephant House and drink coffee and scribble lines on napkins and notebooks.  From our seat we could see a view of Edinburgh Castle up on the hill, and the resemblance to Hogwarts was striking.  Btw, Uncle Jay, you would have loved this cafe...I have never seen so many elephant figurines in my life!  Even my shortbread was shaped like and elephant.  After lunch, we went to the Writer's Museum, and I got to see lots of artifacts relating to Robert Louis Stevenson (author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, etc), Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Burns, the three most beloved authors of Scotland.  I had never heard of Robert Burns (or Rabbie Burns as they call him over here), but he is basically a national hero over here.  Guaranteed, the first statue or portrait you see over here will be of Robert Burns, unless you are lucky enough to run into Robert the Bruce, the first king of independent Scotland (also featured in Braveheart).  Apparently, you're name is pretty popular over here, Daddy.  After the Writer's Museum, we headed to the National Portrait Gallery, which was incredible.  They had tons of royal portraits including that really famous one of Mary Queen of Scots that you see in all the history textbooks.  By then, it was dark, so we wandered down to the end of the Royal Mile, which starts at the castle and ends at the Holyrood Palace, which is where the Queen and royal family reside when in Scotland.  On the way to the palace, we passed this really strange modern building that turned out to be the Scottish Parliament Building.  Scotland was awarded a separate Parliament from England in 1997, almost 400 years after the two nations were joined governmentally under James VII/I.  Their Prime Minister is called the First Minister, and the Scottish are very proud of their new government.  After eating, Laurel and I headed back to our hostel, which was actually pretty nice and clean.  We ended up in the Classical Room, and I slept in the Topus Bunkus (Laurel got the Bottomus Bunkus).  I will post details of our Sunday Highland adventure after I get the Edinburgh pictures posted!