YE’LL TAKE THE HIGH ROAD AND I’LL TAKE THE LOW ROAD

“…and I’ll be in Scotland afore ye!”

Happy first of April to all the fools out there! 

I can add another country to my list in 2016! Always a great feeling. Scotland is such a beautiful country that I had to take a look for myself this past Easter weekend. This being the first of three installments about Scotland, I might as well jump right in and start at the beginning.

Sarah and I took the 7:00 pm train from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley on Thursday evening. With the rest of London. Little did we know that our “general tickets” allowed us on to the train, but did not account for the fact that we technically do not have “reserved seats”. Therefore, we hopped on board to the surprise that all the seats were accounted for.

We squeezed our way into an aisle of one of the compartments {suitcases and all} and stood for a good 10 minutes. That’s when we contemplated the idea of standing for the entire 4.5 hour journey and got a little more comfortable; me on my suitcase and Sarah on the floor. We found ourselves in between a small group attempting to converse with one another from opposites sides of Sarah and I. It was almost impossible to keep from listening in to the conversations taking place, all of which were stomach holding hilarious.

As the two parties {the strangers and Sarah and I} all continued to attempt to form separate conversations, we finally gave up and congregated. We met two lovely sisters and a boyfriend. They were living in London and caught us up on some local suggestions for exploring town and having a night out. This was one of the best accidental conversations to join. We were all in tears from laughter. And they were those really deep, throw your head back laughs. A couple sitting next to our new friends left at a stop about 2 hours into the journey, allowing Sarah and I to take a seat for the rest of our journey. We exchanged contact information and promised to stay in touch when we were all back in London!

^the most photographed castle in Scotland, Eilean Donan Castle

Sarah and I checked into our hostel for the remainder of our night. We had to be up about 5 hours later, so went straight to bed upon arrival. 

In the morning we packed up our stuff and took a short walk to the Haggis Adventure Group location in Edinburgh. If you book any tours through Haggis, make sure you do not book separately! We assumed it would be one tour leaving for the weekend, but learned that about 3-4 tours were occurring and Sarah and I were not guaranteed to be on the same bus {keep in mind each bus routes a different way and experiences a different tour}. LUCKILY, we were on the same tour and managed to stay in the same hostel rooms throughout as well. However, some groups were not so fortunate.

The engine started and we were off on our way to the Highlands! Like most bus trips, the first day is usually quiet and individualized as nobody knows one another. We had a very knowledgeable bus tour guide named Dave, straight from Scotland.

Side note on: Later on into the trip, one of our new friends asked us,

“What does the expression, ‘That is very kill’ mean?”

He thought it may be the Scottish way of expressing their excitement over something. Which it was. But just like many of us, the expression is pronounced as, ‘That is very cool’. That Scottish accent will get you! If you want to know what it sounds like just simply substitute the word cool with kill. 

The views along the way were stunning. We had to bundle up as it is even further north than England {And I thought London was cold}. Since I have been “preparing” for the cold weather I knew to keep my head and hands warm and was nice and toasty for our outings.

We did get some blue sky when we passed through Stirling on the way to Isle of Skye. We stopped at the Wallace Monument which commemorates Sir William Wallace aka Mel Gibson in Braveheart. 

I was impressed with the background knowledge about the actual William Wallace, how the film differs from the reality, and was inspired to watch Braveheart again. I must do that when I return from Bali next month. 

Our first day in Scotland was a success and once settling into the hostel in the Isle of Skye, we made friends with a few people from {ironically enough} Melbourne, Australia! {and Sydney} Little did we know we would form some incredible bonds, and quite quickly, with these fellow vagabonds over the course of the trip.

Scotland, you’ve stolen my heart.

p.s. every time I spell ‘Isle of Skye’, I automatically type ‘Isle of Skype’ first. Thank god there is no Isle of Skype. I already feel as though I live there. And participate strongly within the community. I’m basically the mayor of Isle of Skype. And would like to resign.