Scotland!

I have just returned from one of the most amazing trips I think I  have ever been on. The past few days have been extremely busy, but it was an absolutely amazing experience! So, as usual I will break down the trip by the days for you all to follow along!

Thursday

Since the trip up to Scotland is a 9-10 hour drive, we decided to take an overnight megabus that way we didn't waste a whole day traveling. We took a bus that went from central London to Glasgow, Scotland

The drive up was pretty much what you could imagine it would be like, a little crowded and loud, but hey it was a cheap ride up. We left around 1 am and got into Glasgow around 11:30am. We spent the day exploring Glasgow, backpacks and all. We went to a neat place called the Lighthouse (which is not really a lighthouse) which is basically a museum about architecture. The neat thing about this place was that it had a view tower that you could climb up and get a birds eye view of the city. We climbed the 135 steps up to the top and were memorized by the amazing view this little tower in the center of the city had.

view from the tower

After visiting the Lighthouse we walked around town, visiting the Glasgow Museum of Art, town center, and a few other places. One place we went to was the Tenement House. This was an apartment building dating back to the very early 1900s. The room of one of the occupants has been left unchanged since 1935, and is now used as a museum. We explored the city a little more and grabbed some dinner then visited the city's Modern Art Museum. The place is full of odd pieces, including this one:

If you can't read it, it says: "It doesn't matter which one you pick, they are all poison

After the museum, we hopped on a bus that took us to Edinburgh. It was a little late when we got there, but we did have enough time/light to take a few snapshots of the city before calling it a night

the Edinburgh Castle

Friday

On this day, we booked a group tour that took us out into the Highlands of Scotland! I don't think my words could do nearly enough justice to how pretty Scotland is! Hopefully my pictures on here and on facebook leads you all to think the same thing. Here is the route we took to for the trip:

One of the first places we stopped on the trip was the Deanton Whiskey Distillery. We got a short tour of the place and a talk on how it was made followed by a short breakfast break. 

Deanton Distillery 

Afterwards, we drove into the mountains making occasional stops to get out of the caravaan and take pictures followed by a quick lunch break in Glencoe! This area is known widely around here due to the Massacre of Glencoe. This occured during the reign of King William, who was king of both Scotland and England at the time (long story behind that one). He wasn't pleased with the clan of Highlanders that lived in Glencoe (the Macdonald clan) because they did not immediately pledge their allegance to him. Because of this he had the town brutally massacred one morning, which started lead to uprisings against the King's ruling. (more information can be found here: Massacre of Glencoe, Glencoe Massacre) 

In the Highlands

Driving through Glencoe

After lunch, we made our way up to the famous, Loch Ness. Sadie and I got to go on a boat cruise on a small portion of the lake (and by small, I mean very small since the lake is the 24 miles long!) The rumor of the Loch Ness Monster was first recorded 1,500 years ago!! While there is no proof of the existence of a monster living in the lake, the people in the area are strong believers that there is some sort of monster down there! On top of that, even though you can't really tell in my pictures the lake's water was pitch black. It definitely made the situation a little spookier!

Nessie!

On Loch Ness

After Loch Ness, we made our way back to Edinburgh which also included a few more photo opportunities and some snack time.

Saturday

The day started off pretty early with a hike up a hill in the center of town called Calton Hill. This hill is a public park with tons of greek/roman-like statues. The Hill offered a nice view of the entire city, included the now-extinct volcano, Arthur's seat. On my way back I managed to walk right by Mel Gibson!!! Crazy start to the day right?? Afterwards Sadie and I went an ate breakfast at the Elephant House, which is where J.K. Rowling did most of her writing for her first few Harry Potter books!

view from Calton Hill

Afterwards we got to go on a walking tour of the city and learned a lot about Scotland and Edinburgh's history! The walking tour went all over the old town (Edinburgh is split up into the old town and new town, which are both pretty much self explanatory). We learned about some of Scotland's crown jewels, major battles that took place, the development of the town, as well as some interesting facts related to Harry Potter!  After the tour, Sadie & I went to visit Dolly the Sheep, also known as the first organism to be cloned.

Dolly the Sheep

We then walked around town for a little longer, both the new and old and eventually decided to take a long hike up the extinct volcano! We definitely worked our muscles and killed our feet getting up there, but the view was totally worth it!

on top of the extinct volcano overlooking the city!

We then had some dinner, hung around the town for a bit and then took another overnight bus back to London this morning. Here was the route back for us:

As you can hopefully tell by my pictures the trip was gorgeous! I hope to back here again and see more of what Scotland has to offer!