Sunday, November 7, 2010

[October 28] Scotland: Day 1: The Scottish Highlands & Fort William

Wow, I'm kind of catching up on blog posts! Maybe I should stop doing cool things here so I can catch up on them completely! JUST KIDDING I will never stop doing cool things here. :D

Last weekend, a group of IES students took a trip to Scotland for 4 days. This was the trip I was most looking forward to. We made the short trek to the tube station (which seems like a long trek at 6:30am with luggage) to King's Cross Station (yes where Platform 9 3/4 is) and took a 4-hour train ride to Edinburgh where we got on our Wild & Sexy Haggis tour bus (pictures later will explain...) and drove and drove and drove to Fort William.

But along the way... lovely sights were seen! BTW, some of the pics that I'm in were stolen from Facebook so if you recognize one of yours... Thanks. :D

I really think it looks like a troll ought to live under this bridge:

First, we stopped at the William Wallace tower:

The view was pretty spectacular:







And here is our Wild & Sexy bus... we had a really 'interesting' tour guide. He wore a kilt, which was really cool. He was very informative when it came to Scottish history and I really enjoyed what I learned from him. He also had a lot of jokes... some were a bit entertaining... but I really didn't appreciate most of his humor which was really beyond being tastefully chauvinistic and crude... (tastefully chauvinistic meaning chivalry, but this is a different issue) Well, other than that, he was a great guide!

We stopped for a beautiful view!


Even though it was cold, it wasn't anything to terrible and I think we were in Scotland at the perfect time because the trees were changing colors.

I really like this pic I took (and edited a bit):


HORROR STORY SETTING:






...And then we stopped at what was perhaps my very favorite place of the entire trip:


I frolicked a bit with Jenna:

But then took the TREACHEROUS path down the hill... these mountains were WAY too gorgeous to view them from the gross side of the road!!!


Josh and me, another kid who needed to see the mountains a bit closer too:


Apparently, I carry orbs of magical light in my left hand whilst frolicking in the Scottish Highlands. It felt amazing to run over all of that fluffy grass! Actually the trick to not tripping or slipping was to run as FAST as you could and to NOT run on the trail! Sounds awfully counterintuitive but it worked and I didn't fall down at all, nor did my feet get wet. All of the grass was really cushiony and SO MUCH FUN to run on!


Josh, America's Next Top Model, perching:




Later, we arrived at our hostel in Fort William. One of the places that was recommended to us was the Grog & Gruel... they had a variety of food there but a lot of Mexican...! I didn't NOT expect to venture into the Scottish Highlands and eat MEXICAN food but when you're with a group of people and you don't really know where you are... you just have to be flexible. And most people ended up eating here. I had chicken enchiladas and it was good but... I miss Mazatlan at home.

The hostel:


I liked the more homey feel of this hostel. There was a nice little common room and in the evening, a lot of us sat by the fire and I read a bit and played a bit of guitar since there was a guitar in there... and I haven't touched one the whole trip until then! 

That night I also went out to a pub with a few guys and tried some Scottish whiskey which actually wasn't bad! The kind I had smelled sweet and with a few ice cubes in a shot, I liked it. One of the guys was from Australia and was doing the backpacking thing/working his way through Britain, and he ended up at Fort William because he didn't have money for the bus and his name was William so he stayed? Something like that, which I got a kick out of... I also loved the accent of the receptionist that came with us, cause he was actually from Scotland, and I felt so bad because I kept having to ask him to repeat himself.

I really love Scottish accents.

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