Scotland Final Part - Edinburgh

My last trip to Scotland was in early May up to Scotland's capital of Edinburgh. Often compared to Glasgow, this bustling city had many sights to see and a lot of history. First, my friends and I walked up the 'Royal Mile,' a wide street that runs straight to Edinburgh Castle at the top of the hill. As expected, the castle was very large on the inside and had many exhibits. We heard the loud bang of the One O'Clock gun and wandered about for a couple of hours in the castle. We then left the castle, walked down the Royal Mile, past the modern building of the Scottish Parliament and headed towards the Holyrood Palace, where the queen stays during her visits to Scotland. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures on the inside, but the experience itself was amazing. It was almost like walking through time to see all the luxurious furnishings and historic antiques. Our final attraction for the day was to take a tour of Mary King Close, an underground street and sub-passages of Edinburgh's original roads. The tour guide was very informative in telling us how unsanitary and difficult it was to live in the old times. A few scares and a couple of creepy feelings made the tour much more enjoyable. Though I only had one day in Edinburgh, it was overall a wonderful experience one of Scotland's best cities.

Scotland Part Two

After staying the night in Morags Lodge, we got up early to do a nature walk in Invermoriston. It was partly rainy, partly sunny and partly foggy...the dynamic weather patches reminded me of Cambria. We then headed to Loch Ness, home to the famous monster, Nessie. We boarded a boat and took off on the lake, trying to catch any glimpse of the legendary creature. To our dismay, it began pouring and the wind picked up, so most of the time we stayed inside the boat. Yet I went out onto the deck every now and then when it temporarily stopped raining. We got a nice closeup of Urquhart Castle on the bank of the Loch before finally turning back. Though I didn't see the creature, I still like to think that it's out there. After lunch, we headed south into Perthshire, making our last stop in Dunkeld, a town on the River Tay. We took a look at an old Cathedral near the river, and stopped to admire the scenic beauty. Finally, made it back safely to Glasgow and I boarded the train back to Lancaster, still full of the beautiful imagery that I had witnessed in the last forty-eight hours.

Scotland Part One

In March, I was fortunate to go on a free weekend tour of Scotland, sponsored by Boston College. Along with other BC kids studying in Liverpool, Lancaster and Glasgow, I rode on a guided tour bus throughout Scotland's most scenic and historic areas. Before the bus, I took a train up to Glasgow and stayed at a hotel near Glasgow University for one night, where I met many of the other BC students. The next morning we left early and made our way north. Our first stop was at the William Wallace monument, adjacent to the town of Stirling. The area was beautiful and the monument itself (which looked like part of a castle) was giant. The hill where the monument was situated provided a great view of the town and its own castle. After Stirling, we made a quick picture stop at the Doune Castle, where the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail shot many of its clips. The next stop was at The Famous Grouse Experience in Perthshire, one of the oldest Scottish whisky distilleries. After the tour of the distillery, I was given a free sample :) For lunch, we had some sandwiches by some nice rapids in the town of Killin. Next, we drove for a couple of hours through the heart of Scotland, finally getting into the famous "Highlands." We drove through the beautiful valley of Glencoe, where the notorious massacre of the MacDonalds took place. Our last stop for the night was at The Clansmen Centre in Fort Augustus. We watched the Clansmen expert give a presentation of the ancient culture of Scotland, demonstrating how the Scots fought, what they wore and how they lived. We spent the night in a great hostel in Fort Augustus, where we had fun games, good accommodations and funny moments dressed in kilts.

Update

Hello everyone. I apologize again for this belated entry, but to make up for it, I will be adding three new entries in the next two days. Since the photos I put up are very large making it cumbersome to scroll down all the time, I will be temporarily taking down my older photos to make room for the new ones. Once the new ones are up for a while, I will put all my photos back up.