After a lovely evening in Edinburgh we headed North to explore the Scottish highlands. Our first stop was the small village of Dunkeld. Dunkeld seemed like the type of village where everyone knows everyone else. There was a beautiful cathedral and several cute shops and cafes which all had a very cozy feel.
On our way further north we were taken to a whiskey distillery which was really cool and interesting and unexpected. It was in the middle of nowhere and the scenery around it was gorgeous!
Next stop: Loch Ness, home of the infamous Loch Ness monster!! Despite the rainy day, the views of the lake and the foggy mountains around it were beautiful. Some of my friends decided to do the “Loch Ness challenge” and go into the lake and survive despite the supposed monster and the 7 degrees Celsius water. The lake was so clean and clear (definitely puts Sharon’s Massapoag Lake to shame!:) ).
As we were driving north the scenery outside the windows of our bus made it seem like we were transported into an entirely different fantasy world...so I guess it makes sense that a lot of Harry Potter scenes were filmed nearby. But more than Harry Potter, the desolate and foggy hills reminded me of how I imaged the settings of novels like Wuthring Heights or Jane Eyre to be like. And while we were on the bus our tour guide told us a lot about Scottish history and Scotland’s relationship to England. I just can’t get enough of hearing about Mary Queen of Scots and all the Tudors!
And then came my favorite part of the day. As we were driving up even further north to Glencoe (it was getting colder and colder at each stop) our tour guide told us we would be stopping to look at some really nice view. We get off the bus and in front of us was the most breathtaking, overwhelming, beautiful view I had ever seen. It was extremely windy, and I definitely had not been so cold since my trip to Ukraine a few winters ago. We were standing on the edge of the highway looking out onto the remote highlands and foggy hills and even though it was so freezing that we were only out fro a few minutes, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that view. Even the actual photos just can’t do it justice! (Mostly because I was too freezing to keep my gloves off to take pictures and just wanted to take in the view before we had to rush onto the bus a few minutes later.)
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| Dunkeld Cathedral |
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| Dunkeld |
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| Emily, Alisha, Miriam, Sarah and I |
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| More Dunkeld |
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| MEN PLAING BAGPIPES IN DUNKELD...I love Scotland |
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| So many farm animals randomly wandering the highlands... |
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| View of a castle from a bus! |
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| Whiskey distillery... |
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| Loch Ness! The monster's somewhere there, I swear! |
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| Alexandra and I enjoying the view |
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| casual swim in freezing water...in the rain... |
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| beautiful view... |
Our last stop today (where we’ll be spending the night) was Oban, a town right on the Atlantic ocean. Oban is very famous for its fresh seafood, so my friends and I went to a nice seafood place for dinner and had the best, freshest salmon ever. Hopefully we’ll get to explore the town a bit more tomorrow morning before we leave for our next destination.
xoxo,
Sarah
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