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Edinburgh Castle
The parking lots doubles as the venue for the Military Tatoo Day 25 and Big Bertha and I left headed north to Scotland in search of warmer weather, whiskey, the loch ness monster and the mysterious Haggis. For those of you know don't know (pretty much everyone reading this) I have renamed by backpack Big Bertha.
I arrived at Edinburgh airport after a pleasant ride with Easy Jet (another one of those budget airlines, but no technical difficulties this time!) jumped onto the bus into the city for only three pound!!! Compared to the nine pound trip to London, things were looking up already. I was greeted by Ashley (another gracious IH connection letting me crash on their couch) and we immediately headed off into the highlands to hunt haggis and the lochness monster... Not really there wasn't enough room for Big Bertha so we had to ditch her first.
One of the first places I explored was Edinburgh Castle. Depending on the path you take to castle it can be nice stroll or a hike switchbacking up the side of the hill that it sits on. Turns out that hill is the plug of an extinct volcano. No one cared about that piece of information till about one week
One O'clock Gun
fires every day at 1pm later when the volcanos started to retake the world... I took the nice stroll up through the Royal Mile (the street leading up to the castle) and through the car park. Turns out its the car park is where the Edinburgh Military Tatoo. The inside of the castle is quite exciting but the best bit is the one o'clock gun. Fired every day at suprise... One o'clock. The reason for this is the Scottish like to shoot stuff, so if you're unlucky enough to be flying to Edinburgh at one o'clock, then you'd better hope your life insurance is in order... Not really. It's actually a time signal and was used in conjunction with time ball back in ye olde world when ships sailed by the stars and used sextants etc. If you're walking along Princess st (the street directly below where the gun is fired) at one o'clock it certain gets your heart started again.
On our adventures to find Haggis and the Lochness monster we came across one of the many Whiskey distilleries that dot country side. We visited Glengoyne (Glen of Wild Geese), which is located not far from Loch Lomand. Aside from distilling delicious whiskey,
Glengoyne is the only distillery in Scotland that distills their whisky in the Highlands (it is a Highland Single Malt) and mature in the Lowlands. This is because the boundary line between the Highlands and the Lowlands runs through the distillery. Sadly this was the only distillery that I visited, but quality is better than quantity.
Hunting Nessie is hard work and sadly whisky cannot sustain you entirely, at some stage you have to stop and enjoy the local culinary delights of haggis, black pudding and deep fried mars bar. Its essentially a three course meal, although black pudding is usually eaten at breakfast with bacon etc. Despite being made up of sheeps heart, liver, a few vegetables and then cooked in a stomach of sheep, it is quite delicious. I would describe it as a spicy mince mix and taste excellent when served with neeps and tatties (turnip and potatos). By far the most amazing thing (and I say thing, because I'm not sure how else to describe it) is Deep Fried Mars Bar. Its like a little slice of heaven. Warm mars bars slightly melted with a crunchy coating. Why they haven't wrapped them up and sold
them instores everywhere I don't know.
It could well be the unhealthy effect that deep fried mars bars have on your body that causes Nessie sightings. I'm not entirely sure if that explains the first recorded sighting of a water beast, by St Columbas in th 7th Century. The waters of Lochness are a dark peaty colour, similar to coca cola. There have been various sightings over the centuries. If you talk to the locals they won't give much away, but I have heard that any sightings they have, they either keep among themselves or share it with this one guy who is completely obessed with Nessie and apparently lives in a caravan somewhere along the shores of Loch Ness. Apparently they're sick of being mocked, I would say that if you live there, the chances of seeing things would be far better, especially as one of the most delicous beers I had in my travels was at one of the pubs in Fort Augustus (southern end of the loch). Everyone has there theories and some are more widely publish then others, but I love a good conspiracy theory so I'm a believer. Mock me if you will, but
The Robin Hood Tree
The tree from one of the opening scenes in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. until you go to the villages surround Loch Ness talk to few people, go out on the water and have a look for yourself its hard to completely discount it.
Enough of conspiracy theories, Scotland is by far my favourite place. The people are awesome (once you can understand them), the whisky and food is great, the scenery beautiful and while I was there, there was more sunshine than the two weeks I spend in England! Since I successfully hunted some haggis my next trophy was to find some mooses that live in cabooses in Sweden (what an adventure that turned out to be)
**sorry the video doesn't work, and I have no idea how to remove it.
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