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.