Today Geeta, Carrie and I went on an organized bus tour called the Highlander. It was put on by this tour group called Haggis Tours, which is a semi-youth-oriented company that prides itself on its fantastic tour guides. True to form, our tour guide was amazing - his name was Fergus, and he was hilarious. He kept playing completely random music off his ipod across the entire bus, telling really inappropriate jokes, and getting me to answer his cellphone. The tour started off in Edinburg, then went to Doune Castle (where the french scenes from Monty Python's Holy Grail were filmed - you know, the fechez la vache part). Doune is just north of Stirling, and thus not quite in the highlands themselves yet. Before entering the Trossachs (which are traditional McGregor land, and the entrance to the highlands) we stopped at the Hamish Cafe, which is this little coffeeshop opened on a farm in honour of their famous, prize-winning highland bull. As you can see for yourselves, he was an exceptionally handsome cow. After that we went to Callendar (Anneke, remember we stayed there for a couple of nights?) to pick up lunch and hear some of Fergus' incredibly gruesome stories about William Wallace and Rob Roy (most of his stories involved evisceration of some sort), then onto this tiny highland town called Killin to eat our lunches and enjoy the scenic waterfalls. After Killin we went further north into the Highlands and drove along this windy little road between Loch Tay and Ben Lawers (which is apparently the second highest mountain in Scotland) where everything was dotted with these fat little sheep and kept making me want to say "och aye." Actually, Fergus gave us a little lesson on correct useage of the word "aye" in Scottish conversation, which is apparently always and for everything. Depends on intonation, I think. Anway, we stopped briefly in a town on the edge of Loch Tay called Kenmore for some more photo ops, then went to Glen Turruch to tour the oldest functioning whisky distillery in Scotland (opened 1775) and find out how single malt whisky is made. The tour included free whisky, and thus was inherently awesome. Also, Fergus bought himself a Glen Turruch commemorative rugby ball and we played catch beside the bus for a while after the tour was over. It was really great to get out of the city and just see a little bit more of the country - it made me realize how much I would like to go further north into the proper deep highlands - obviously we couldn't get that far in eight hours. I'm dead tired this evening, so for the first time in a very long time I am not going out... instead I'm going to do my readings, do some laundry, and get an early night. I'll save my partying, and my money, for my wild and crazy trip to London this weekend. My god, could my life BE any more exciting? I think not.
For pics of the trip (which are abundant) check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/91173227@N00/
Really I should add a link for this site to my blog but I am barely computer literate and have no idea how to add a link in when it isn't already conveniently set up for me. Aw well. Or should I say, och aye.
1 comment:
Hmm... not as wacky as you'd think. Sort of a scottish-leprauchan. Apparently he used to have really long hair, but like two days before our tour he got really drunk at a party and convinced a friend to shave it off, so he had a buzz cut, which tends to make guys look sort of generically respectable. He was pretty spry. No photos, unfortunately. I'll double check with my flatmates to see if they have any...
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