Sandy and Erin take on Scotland!

Well folks, it's time for another update. This time it's all about Scotland!! I have always wanted to travel to this country, and this year my dream became a reality. My friend Erin and I went to school together at the University of Ottawa. We always had a grand old time wandering around Parliament and the Byward Market. So when I found out that she was doing her Teacher Training at the University of Edinburgh I realized we just had to get together. So I hopped on a plane and took off for a visit.

Now I don't know about all the rest of you, but when I think of the north I think Northern Canada and Russia. Oh ya, and Alaska too. But I certainly don't think of Edinburgh. But turns out it's much further north than I thought. Toronto sits on the 43rd parallel. Edinburgh on the 56th. That's the same latitude as Moscow! Which meant that even though it's far into spring, the air still had a wonderful crisp feeling to it. And that the sun got up every day around 4:30 and set around 11:00.

The other thing I had heard, was that Scotland was a fairly wet country. So it came as no surprise when I checked the weather forecast and saw that it was supposed to be rainy and fairly chilly all weekend long. So imagine my astonishment when the day turned out like this:

We just had a beautiful time frolicking about in the Royal Botanic Gardens all afternoon. And eventually we stumbled across the Giant Hedge That Tried To Eat The World! See it's huge, and I'm very little (for once!)

Now if there's one thing that is associated with Scotland, it's Haggis. Minced lamb meat boiled in a sheep stomach. How's that for appetizing? Anyone? But it was Scotland, and I could just picture the looks of horror on everyone's faces when I came back and said that I hadn't tried it. So we headed up the Royal Mile to the Royal McGregor and ordered some traditional "Haggis, neeps and tatties".

Here's the before picture - "Look ma, it's Haggis!" And surprisingly enough I look fairly excited. (That could be because it smelled absolutely delicious!)

As you can also see it's piled nicely (possibly to look more appetizing?) - the haggis meat on the bottom, then the mashed potatoes (that's the tatties) and mashed turnip on top (neeps).

So I took a deep breath, grabbed a forkful, and...

Well you can see the results.

It was one of the best things I've ever eaten! So flavourful, with a bit of a kick at the end... Mmmm...

That was just day 1. On Saturday we decided to take a Scotline Bus tour so that I could see the Highlands. It's a 600 km, 12 hour journey from Edinburgh up to Inverness and back - with several stops along the way. Like Loch Ness! That's right folks - I have officially boated on the famous Loch Ness. But even though I searched and searched, I didn't see Nessie. Shucks...

The day started out pretty gloomy - it was a sky just waiting to rain on all the tourists. But once again, the weather turned out lovely. It only rained while we were on the bus, and it actually got so hot on the lake, we had to take off all our layers.

Yep. That's Erin and me sitting on the front of the boat as we approach Urquhart Castle (a famous ruin of a castle that sits on the shores of Loch Ness). It was so beautiful with all the craggs surrounding us. And the gorse bushes were in bloom, so there were lovely spots of yellow dotting the hills. Unfortunately, the heather doesn't bloom until later in the summer, so we didn't get to see any of that.

We had about 45 minutes to wander among the ruins of Urquhart Castle - again, so beautiful. I just loved the highlands - it's such a stark, wild beauty. And windy as anything!

Now when you get into the Highlands, everything goes biliungual. English and Gaelic. Very neat sounding language, but super hard to learn. I read once that it's a language with "slippery vowels" and it's so true! The yellow on the road signs is Gaelic.




On the way back we stopped for a couple photo opportunities. The one below is by Ben Nevis - the tallest mountain in Scotland.

We also passed through Glencoe - which has a very neat story of treason and murder and escape to go with it. Finally, dinner in Stirling, and then back to the capital.

Sunday was a nice lazy day. We slept in a little - the Highland air plain tuckered us out! But after lunch we decided to go climb Arthur's Seat. It doesn't actually have anything to do with King Arthur, it's more likely a corruption of the gaelic word for archer. In any case it was a nicely strenuous climb. That's Erin and a couple of her friend standing below the cragg that Arthur's Seat lies on.

There's a path most of the way up, but to actually get to the monument at the top, anything goes. You could climb up everyday for a month and never take quite the same route. Yay climbing. Now for all you LDPer's out there - we certainly should have been clipped into something!

This is a view up the Royal Mile. We took a free walking tour around Edinburgh on Monday. It was a fabulous, informative, funny 3 hour tour. Which, by the way, also got me a free upgrade on my Starbucks before it started!

One of the things that I learned on the tour was about this seemingly random heart located on the sidewalk. There used to be a tax booth here, and they decorated it with a heart (who knows why, possibly to try and make people enjoy paying their taxes?). People used to spit on the booth as they passed by. When the booth was eventually taken down, they left a tribute to it, in the shape of a heart in the cobblestones. It is the only place in Edinburgh where it's legal to spit on the ground. So Erin did. Or at least pretended to :)

All in all it was a fabulous trip. We didn't do too much on Tuesday either - Erin had an end of year barbeque to go to, so I wandered around the city myself. I checked out the Tartan weaving museum, the National Museum of Scotland and had Haggis one more time before I left the country. But, I think my favourite part, was that I got to have a cup of coffee in the Elephant House Cafe. Yep, that's the cafe in which J.K. Rowling wrote most of the first Harry Potter. It was so cool!!!

Now, I know this picture seems a little random, but I just couldn't leave it out. Because, if you look closely (and I apologize for the angle, it was way above my head), you will see a figure of an angel playing the bagpipes. Only in a church in Scotland would you find this. I got quite the chuckle out of it. Hope you do too :)






Well lads and lassies, bye for now.