Advertisement
Published: September 10th 2006
Edit Blog Post
The Scotland Loch
I can't remember the actual name, but this Loch is famous for looking like Scotland apparently. Can't really see it myself. Well, it's been another week of doing the tourist thing. I found out that my cousin Sarah was living in Edinburgh, which (although I knew she was in Europe somewhere) was a really good surprise. I meet up with her where she works and had a big catch up on our various travels. She invited me to stay with her after I got back from the 3 day Highland tour which I had booked.
The tour was great. 3 days in the Highlands with an excellent guide and some really good people (29 of us). The highlands are amazing. The scenery is very dramatic, much like the south island in places, I can see why so many Scots headed to Dunedin. It was amazing to stand in such historical places, we stopped in the beautiful Glencoe where the Campbells infamously slaughtered the MacDonalds in the late 17th century and stood where the houses had been before the clan was massacred. We stayed at a hostel on the banks of Loch Ness no less, a small village with some real Scottish pubs. The first night we were crammed in while a guy played traditional Scottish songs, I drank whisky with some guys
Church
A ruin of a church just above Edinburgh. Bout 15th Century. Bit of a climb up to it! from New Zealand and tried to sing along! It was a great place.
The 2nd day we headed up to the Isle of Skye and spent the day there. We visited various places (and I can't name them all!) and bought some lunch at a local supermarket where the local "checkout chicks" (60yo+) were chatting away in Gallic. Very cool stuff.
Back to Loch Ness for the 2nd night where noone seemed to have the energy to go out so we spent the evening with a couple of pints and watched Rob Roy on dvd. I was still up when everyone else was in bed and ended up having a chat with a couple of the locals and our guide. I was told of the ghost of a parson who haunts the old section of the hostel. One guy in particular had seen it several times and in fact refused to sleep alone in the place! I was particularly amused when he mentioned the room and bunk he was on one sighting, it just happened to be my exact bunk! Getting back to the room to get some sleep, the other 3 were out for it and I must admit
R the B
Robert the Bruce statue at Bannockburn where he defeated the English after Willie Wallace was done in. it took me a wee while to settle down for some shuteye.
The last day we spent heading south again and stopped at Culloden Moor, where the jacobite highlanders where thrashed by the government forces in 1746, and was the start of the "ethnic cleansing" of the highlands as our guide put it. I found the battlesite had an amazing sobre feel to it. Especially walking around the mounds of earth that are still visible showing the mass graves of the clans.
I can't write down everything I did, but if you're interested have a look at the webpage of the tour company. www.haggisadventures.com. I did the 3 day Skye high tour.
When I got back to Ed' I meet up with Sarah and her partner Jamie at their work and bussed home with them to stay on their couch! I stay last night also, and am staying tonight before heading to Rome to meet with Matt and Hayden. I'm looking forward to hanging out with the guys again, although I'm not looking forward to the travel! I've gone for the super cheap option this time so my travels are as follows...
10:30pm Coach from Ed' to London @ £14
Bannockburn
Flag thing where the battle was. and 10 hours -
2pm Bus from London Coach stop to Airport @ £?(can't remember) and bout an hour -
530pm flight to Rome @ £45 and bout 3 hours
Then try to figure out how to get from the airport to my hostel in central Rome! I'm actually really nervous about this, I'm going to get to the airport at 8:40pm, then have to go through customs and then have to work my way to the central tube station where I can walk to my hostel. I think I can get a bus from the airport to a metro station that will then get me there, but it's all well and good to read about directions untill you actually arrive! I had to ask 3 times for how to get to my hostel in London, but I don't speak Italian so that could be difficult in Rome. Not to mention all this after 24 hours of travelling and probably limited sleep.
Well, that's about the gist of it. I suppose the next entry will be from Italy. I'll try to get a few pics from Scotland up, but we'll see how soon I get tired of labelling and uploading
Glencoe
It's impossible to show just how dramatic the scenery was in this place. photos.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.274s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0929s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Starlit Wave
non-member comment
Hmmm... Still cannot understand why you dipped your face in that stream? :) A great journey! Thanks for keeping taking pics. :)