Is There No Sun in this Cursed Country?

Dad and I met up with Ashley, Melissa, and Teresa and walked down to the train station that morning. The train took 5 hours to get up to Edinburgh, Scotland (it was a very long train ride) and when we arrived, we parted with Dad while he went to go find his hostel while we found ours. It was a little jaunt to get to ours but when we arrived it was very nice. We walked around for a little while after we dropped off our stuff and then we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe! I have never ate there before so this was my first time ever in a Hard Rock Cafe. And in Scotland too! It was extremely small but that's okay, it was very good. We went back to the hostel and rested and then went out to get some snacks and ate them while watching a movie. The next morning we met Dad at the Edinburgh Castle and went through it. The entire inside of the castle was massive. It contained so many different buildings. There were museums, a war memorial, and the crown jewels. After the seeing the castle for a while and eating lunch at Pizza Hut (classy, I know), we left Dad who went to the museum, Mel who went to the Palace of Mary Queen of Scots, and Teresa, Ashley, and I went shopping. We ate dinner at Burger King (classy again, I know) and then met up with Mel and Dad and we climbed the Salisbury Crags, a huge mountain type thing that gives a great view of Edinburgh. It was gorgeous but boy was it freezing! We were all so very, very cold. We didn't stay up there too long so we said goodnight and met up the next morning.

Now this is the day we took our Scotland Highland Tour of Loch Lomond. We were supposed to get a nice blue bus for the tour but when our tourguide took us over to our wheel of transportation, this is what we got. A bright yellow bus that said WILD AND SEXY!!! Apparently they didn't have enough of the blue buses so they had to use this nice bright one from another one of their tours. Oh well, we got plenty of looks when we went through the towns. Our first stop was at Doune Castle. Dad and I were pretty excited about this because this is the castle that was used in the Monty Python and the Holy Grail film. We got to take a tour of it inside which was pretty neat and had an audio guide to listen to where one of the actors from the movie was the tour guide. It was funny to listen to. The next stop was to see the most popular celebrity in the whole of Scotland. Hamish the highland cow!! He wasn't very active that day and the tour guide didn't know what was wrong with him. He usually gets up a lot when the people were there but he just sat there that day. Hopefully he isn't sick. Loch Katrine was the next stop and we only stayed there for a little while. It was cold and it was raining, typical Scottish weather. We walked around for a little bit and learned about Robert Roy MacGregor. Did you know that the Mac before a name means 'the son of'? Just a little tid bit of information there for ya. The tour guide had a very thick Scottish accent and it was awesome. I loved listening to it when she talked. During the drives she would tell us the history and stories of Scotland but in a fun way. She would then repeat what a person would say in this funny Scottish accent. When we were back at home I tried imitating it and actually it was close to what she sounded like! Hopefully I can still do it when I go home and I can let you hear close to what it sounded like. We arrived at Loch Lomond and took a short little 'cruise" around the lake. The word loch means a narrow inlet of the sea that is landlocked in Scotland. There are over 31,000 lochs in Scotland and only one lake called the Lake of Menteith. That is another story for another time however. I'm dragging this day long enough as it is. The cruise around the loch was very cold and rainy so we were not able to see much of the highlands. The clouds did part for a short while and we got to see a little glimpse of them. We got back in the bus and drove over to Stirling and along the way the tourguide played some celtic music. I love celtic music, I find it absolutely beautiful sounding. However, it was cloudy and raining outside and all of us were exhausted and do you know what happened? We all fell asleep for a short while. We arrived at Stirling to only get out and take a picture of Stirling Castle. We didn't have time to go into it and we wouldn't have been able to anyway because at the moment it is under construction. We arrived back in Edinburgh in time for supper and I spent the rest of the evening with Dad. We went to Garfunkels (third time I have ate at this restaurant this semester, twice in London and now in Scotland) where Dad got cottage pie and I tried the haggis. Now haggis is sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs) with several spices, minced onions and other things. It sounds absolutely disgusting but actually, it wasn't too bad. Now I can say I tried the local food in Scotland. Dad and I walked around the city while drinking a white cafe mocha from Starbucks before parting.

We got up around 5 the next morning to catch our train at 6:52 and it was goodbye to Scotland! After about an hour, we arrived at Carlisle, England and this is where Dad and I parted with the rest of the girls. They were heading back to Bangor and we were too but we were making a pit stop at Carlisle to see Hadrian's wall for Dad and just being in Carlisle for me. I figured it would be pretty cool to say that I have been to Carlisle in England and in Iowa. We got on a train to Haltwhistle and then a bus to Housestead. Hadrian's wall was built by the Romans that stretched for several miles. We walked along the wall for an hour looking for a tree. But not just any old tree. The tree that was in the scene of Kevin Costner's film Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It is when Morgan Freeman plays an arabian who swears his allegiance to Robin Hood and they find a boy being chased by guards up into the tree. And we found it! It took a little while but we actually found it. Dad was so excited. We walked back fairly fast to catch our bus and our train back to Carlisle. Once we got back to Carlisle, we wandered around looking at shops, eating at McDonald's, and got a white cafe mocha at Starbucks again. We had a lot of time to kill before our train headed back to Bangor. We took the extremely late train because it was cheap but it was bringing us back to Bangor around 2 am. But don't worry, we made it! We got back in my room and just crashed.

Now the video (hopefully you can see it) is just for kicks and giggles. It is the part in the Monty Python and the Holy Grail film where the French are taunting King Arthur and his knights from the castle. I just thought this part is hilarious.