Scotland

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This morning I woke up at 7:30am. Pretty good considering I had everything packed and ready. I checked out and walked down the Royal Mile to the Wild in Scotland office. There was a bunch of people sitting outside with luggage. I joined them and grabbed a cup of fruit, crossant and coffee from the cafe next door. By the time I returned, everyone was paying their kitty and slitting up into our 2 tour groups.
12 of us boarded a bus for the 4 day tour. Wild in Scotland wrote that I owed 21 pounds when my confirmation said 81 pounds because I changed from the 3 day tour to the 4 day. Thank goodness for them I'm honest. Regardless, they would have figured it out when they started buying food and didn't have enough money.
I took my seat on the bus/van. My seat had the best view out the window. I also met our tour guide, Neil. He was lively and excited to begin. I have a feeling this is going to be a glorious trip. I soon learned everyone's names:
Pam - Canada
Mary - Boston, USA
Basel - Australia
Dave - Tasmania, Australia
Chris and Rave - Canada
Kyle - British Columbia, Canada
Sarah - South Africa
Erin - Australia
Carly - Australia
Sarah - Australia

The last 4 girls were all together. Two sets of lesbian couples. They were all lively and exctied for Scotland as well. Carly was basically crazy and I know that she would insure that during this trip there would never be a dull moment.
Our tour started toward Stirling where we could see the giant castle up on a rock overlooking the city. On the nearest mountain/hill (it was pretty flat in these parts) was a tower. We would soon be informed by Neil that this was the WIlliam Wallace memorial. Neil becgan telling us stories, to set our understanding of the Highland battles with Britian/ King Edward straight from our twised understanding because of the movie Braveheart. We heard about Andrew Curry who, with William Wallace first defeated the British. Andrew Curry was critical because of his ties to rich nobility and calvery. William Wallace didn't win a single battle without him. The view from the monument was beautiful though.
We all got back on the bus after climbing back down the mountain. I walked with Pam and she complained the entire way down (I would hate to have heard her as she was going up) Next stop made us climb as well, I walked up with Dave after making sure he wouldn't complain. Dave's an interesting folk. awyer from Australia who is traveling during his month vacation. He specializes in Employment law so he really didn't have any cool sotires. Regardless, he's a shy characer, and this suprised me because in the US you'd be hard pressed to find a shy lawyer.
We reached the top of the next stop to find out it was the meeting place for a clan in Scotland (I think it was McCallegh) The view was breathtaking. We were now in the Highlands. Picturesque mountains with Lochs of water between them. Everhting couldn't have been greener. I took some more pictures and Neil began telling us more stories, now about Queen Mary of Scots and her poor luck with men. We sat and ate our lunches (which we'd picked up at the grocery store during a pit stop from the bus. I had a sandwich and some mustard chicken pasta, which was delicious (see mom, I'm eatting). We hung out and I started to become one of teh guys. Basel, Kyle and Dave were my new travel buddies. Basel was picked up at Edinburgh airport on our way to Stirling. I didn't even know Wild in Scotland would do that. Unfortunately we had to make 2 trips back once we couldn't find him and then received a call halfway to Stirling. It took up a lot of time and it wasn't fair to the rest of us, but it wasn't Basel's fault.
Anyways, we climbed back down from the fantastic view and saw Rob Roy's grave. Neil told us a story about him and pointed out that his grave is the only one in the graveyard that is facing the opposite directions. Pretty strange - he said it could either be because he was well liked and people wanted it to stand out, or because people disliked him and wanted to make sure the sun never shined on the front of his tombstone (there was an old ruined church right next to it). Eventually we made our way back onto the bus and Neil put his blaring music on. Later, once he put traditional Scottish music on, I wouldn't mind at all.
Next stop: Glencoe. This country just becomes more and more beautiful. Too bad the stories within it don't. As if the Marry Queen of Scots story wasn't bad enough (All 3 of her lovers died, and she was eventually beheaded- where the exectutioner had to swing 3 times!) This story regarded the clans beng required to pledge their alligence to England and this clan residing in Glencoe was late. The Brits slaughtered them. Neils stories are very detailed. I've never met a better story teller in my life. Once Neil was through story telling he pulled out a bottle of Tamdhu Scottish Whiskey. It was only aged 3 years, so it wasn't nearly as great as the MacAllan I had last night. Neil presented us with a challenge, could our tour group throw back this bottle of whiskey in less than the record 2 minutes and 30 seconds? Boy I love this country¬ We were told to toast before we drank with Salante Va Maha which is Gaelic for 'To good health my friend'. I'm pretty competitive, so I was all about this. we decided after we finished some better ways of doing this. regardless, we started passing and eventually it got to me. It barely burned. It went down extremely smooth. Kyle tok home the gold in terms of size of swig. It was going around the group for a second time and everyone really stepped it up. We finished in 2 minutes, 19 seconds, Champs!
We climbed back into the van as we discussed how much faster we could have done that. We stopped at the supermarket to pick up some drinks for the night and the ingredients for dinner.
Dave, Kyle and I split a bottle of Whiskey. Aged 12 years - so some good stuff. We were now heading into the middle of nowhere to our hostel for the night. we traveled past a weaving mill and took a quick stop to visit Hamish the Highland Cow. Huge, hairy, red hair - absolutely nothing like the cows I'm used to in the states.
Eventually w met up with a guy in a pickup truck that would lead us to the hostel. We arrived at the brand new, hand built hostel right on Loch Lochie with snow capped mountains in the distance. The entire time I was there I just imagined how cool it woudl be to live there. the Austrailan girls started cooking our roast for dinner. I offered to help, but there was nothing for me to do. Dave, Keyle, Basel and I decided to wander while we wait for dinner. we clibed around to a thin penisula parallel to the hostel. There were so many sheep. (Kyle took a picture of a dead one, I didn't really let that go for the remainder of the trip.) Once on the peninsula Basel took a group shot of us 4 with the self timer on his camrea (remember I need to get that from him). And we skipped rocks. I've discovered I am an awesome skipping rock finder, but I could use some practice on my technique with the actually skipping bit. My best was 7 skips, but I'm not consistent. Dave got the record with 9 skips. Kyle's just awesome at skipping an insane distance.
Dave and I found some stork eggs. That doesn't happen everyday. Then we headed back to the hostel just in time for dinner to be finishing up! Yes! Dinner was by far the best meal I've had since I left home and mom's cooking. Roasted chicken really hit the spot. I also had brussels (little cabbages) for like the scond tim in my life. I didn't hate it. Kudos to teh Australians. I did dishes with the boys and everyone headed outside to sit around the fire and get to know everyone. Grahm is a 30 something ex tour guide who built this whole thing all by himself. He lives here by himself. Kind of made me feel bad because this truely is the middle of nowhere and I could imagine it could get really lonely fast. But that's just me. I need people to talk to.
Much to Grahm's disconcern, Pam hit on him and follwoed him all night. She was relentless. sincredibly different. Very "look at me". I think she really was lonely, but it was getting on EVERYONE'S last nerve. Including mine.
It was a great night. Graham, Mary, Dave and I were the last to go to sleep. we just kept finding things to talk about. Though Dave didn't say much. I was in a room with the guys, espcially after hearing plans of a pillow fight in theri underwear in the other room that consisted of all teh girls, but me (all lesbians or bi). I was so lucky that none of the boys snored and I instantly got to sleep.

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