Scotland continued.... Highlands Adventure!

Monday- 7am wake up call.
730am-  fast breakfast at hotel
8am- boarded bus for our 12 hour adventure in scenic Scotland!
8pm- assumed arrival back to Edinburgh

It was a early morning but well worth it! A bus a little smaller than a coach bus was our means of transportation for this adventure. There were probably 30 people packed onto the bus, all from different countries... seriously! Mom and I were the only Americans besides a couple from LA. There was the cutest older couple from Ireland, a group of boys my age from Spain, a couple people from Germany, a couple from Hong Kong, people from Czech Republic and probably more but I didn't get a chance to talk to everyone. The funny thing about this was everyone was talking in a different language.... just listening in on other conversations was amusing to me, trying to understand what people were talking about. To top it off, our bus driver was a true-blood Scottish man who had a thick gallic accent. A melting pot bus is a good way to describe it. haha. The first half hour, it was really hard to understand our driver, but I easily overcame that because he would not stop talking so I was forced to understand what he was saying.  His name was Chris, and I would say out of the 12 hours we were with him, he talked for a good 11.5 hours of the trip. I loved it! He was so amusing and brutally honest about everything! When we were going from place to place, he had a microphone and would just babble the entire bus trip. I learned more about Scotland's history in my time with him than any history class I have ever taken.

Our first stop took about an hour and a half to get to.... we sped through open land of sheep land and rivers and old buildings! We also passed through the town William Wallace hung out in, back in the day and his castle... Stirling Castle. William Wallace is considered royalty in Scotland. It is understandable why but it is interesting hearing a true Scots perspective on him.  Not only did our driver nonstop talk about Wallace and his triumphs, we learned about how historically incorrect the movie Braveheart was. Apparently, William was a 6 foot 7 man with short hair..... Chris was astonished that Mel Gibson played Braveheart in the movie, considering he is an Australian, 5 foot 6 man. This was not okay to Chris. ha. Also, Wallace would not have woren a kilt like he wore in the movie... Not to upset anyone butttttttt he said he thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and the motive itself was politically correct but the details and storyline, not so much.

Anywho, back to our first stop. We stopped at a weaving mill where I met my best friend Hamish... a sheep who gets a lot of attention. There was a little museum, right by Hamish's place to described how wool was made and different types of sheep... Little fun fact, there are 25 different breeds of sheep, who would have known? We only were for about a half an hour then we were on our way to the Hiiiggghhhlllaaaannnddssss.

It made my mom and I a litttttle nervous driving with Chris. One because he drove like a maniac on the narrow, graveled rows going up the mountains and two because he seemed to be too busy talking that whenever someone would talk to him, he would turn around and answer to them, totally not paying attention where he was going.. a girl got car sick because of it.

On this little journey was passed about some of the most amazing scenery. One in particular was a bridge and mountain range where Harry Potter was filmed! In the film, it was when the little wizard children were on the train going to Hogwarts. I also learned here that J.K Rowling is from Scotland and the most down to earth person. Chris informed us that he had her number and once she divorced her husband, he was the second man in line...

Ahhh I just can't get over how beautiful it was up there!!!! The mountains were nothing like the one's in Colorado because they weren't as tall and not really in a range but it was unique seeing them almost kind of randomly placed throughout the land. That may be confusing but the pictures will make more sense. Supposedly, mum and I lucked out again because it was a gorgeous day in the neighborhood. The sun was shining was approximately 15 degrees Celsius (yes I have been forced to use the metric system here on the other side of the pond). We stopped at Glen Coe where the famous battle between the Campbell's and MacDonald's took place many years ago over religion. Campbell's are still not welcomed in this area FYI. I can go into more detail in person about this battle on a later date... it is quite interesting but too long to type out. The battle took place in between these two GORGEOUS mountains, got a pic right in the middle where the blood was shed.

Next stop... Fort William where famous Scotland Whisky is brewed. Scots were the first to brew whiskey BUT whiskey is not a Scots drink of choice I learned. It is the irish that drink it more than scots, just in case anyone was curious. We got to sample some true Scotland whiskey.. which blah I did not like at all. Very bitter and strong and I was not into it. I did see really cool whiskey bottles though. One with a ship inside and one with a fooooootball. I am still astonished and wondering how they do that.... so impressive.

Back on the bus to LOCH NESS woooo to see where the Loch Ness Monster lurks! This area was pretty dang small. I pictured it to be enormous with a lot of action but the town seemed pretty dead. Could be because no one wanted to get eaten by the monster but seems too probable. It was not what I expected... still lovely though and unbelievably gorgeous. Sun was still shining and a got to wip out my sunglasses for the first time I have been here wooo hooo!

Sped down down the mountains and valleys to a memorial for all the soldiers in Iraq war. It was stunning really. Ahh so pretty. Here is where Chris proposed to me. He always dreamt about having an American girlfriend and he thought he would never get a chance again to find one as young as me hence why he  he proposed on the stop so  I was stuck with him. I couldn't resist because of the view so I am currently engaged to a 53 year old Scottish man. Throughout the rest of the bus trip, on the microphone, he kept referring to me in front of everyone has his Chicago finance. At least I will be marrying someone with the same Scottish bloooooood who is very entertaining.

We drove to a town _____ (can't remember) but it was Queen Victoria used to spend her summers. It was ADORABLE! The buildings and town were so old and unique it made me want to move there! Everything is also so old fashioned. Brilliant really. BUT one very very veryyyyy odd thing we encountered was the bathroom sitch. We had to pay 30 pence to use the toilets. (Yes they prefer toilets here instead of restroom and once some lady would not tell me where it was until I said toilet, very strange I know). But yeah it was so weird. Since when do you have to pay to go to the bathroom? I disliked this greatly and almost refused to go because of it.

After the stop in the cutest town ever we were on our way back to Edinburgh. Everyone had fallen asleep on the bus, yet Chris was still babbling away as if we were all awake and paying attention.... great guy.  Amazing trip over all, completely exhausted by the end of it but loved absolutely all of it.

The last day.. sorry I forgot to mention, we saw my absolute favorite thing! Can't believe I forgot it but at the bottom of Royal High Road was Queen Elizabeth's summer Palace.... Holyrood Palace!! It was gorgeous! We got to go inside and see the whole thing too.

One of my favorite things that happened to my mom and I on our trip was in the airport when we arrived in London... mom was waiting for her bag next to the most adorable, little Scottish man. The bags were taking forever to come down the belt out everyone was starting to get a little impatient. Finally, a stroller comes down the baggage line and there was a rip on the belt behind it. My mom says to the man.. " ohhh the stroller is what is the caused the baggage to take so long."
Man responds.. " Stroller? Is that what you call that thing? Oh my dear lord it makes sense now! I was in Connecticut and I saw signs saying 'No strollers in area' and I could not believe it! How am I not a lot to stroll in a public area. What am I suppose to do instead? I was so nervous walking around that I sat most sat most of the trip!"
- Imagine this also in a scottish accent, coming from a little old man. It was adorable!
Apparently in Scotland, they call strolls hamis? Doesn't make sense but it is what it is!