Oh, the Places You'll Go! - Edinburgh: DSL: Deep Scottish Love

The weekend before last I went on a trip sponsored by Edinburgh University's International Student Center. Away from Friday to Sunday night we traveled up and around the AMAZING Scottish Highlands to the Isle of Skye. While the trip was organized by the ISC it was actually run through the group Haggis Tours - "Wild & Sexy Scotland!" -- I went in not really knowing how everything was going to be set up, but I was SO happy to find that we had a "real" or professional tour guide for the weekend. Kay, our guide, was absolutely hilarious and sooo passionate. It was amazing how much she really knew about Scotland. It must be such a cool job. Ray, our driver, was equally great.

After a LONG bus ride Friday, we arrived in Portree, the capital of Skye. Other than Lochs and Glens, much of the Scottish Highlands consist of many islands - or Isles - Skye, being one of the most beautiful. While I call Portree the capital, do not get the wrong picture. It was very much of a "one horse town" - which I , of course, LOOOOVED. Appropriately, much of Skye's market is holiday and fishing. Everything there was so cute - SO many little bed & breakfasts, and so many nice people - and of course an absolutely breath taking landscape. It reminded me a lot of Ireland. I could totally see myself staying there on a relaxing break for a week or so! Our hostel was absolutely adorable, with rainbow paint (weird? haha) and a nice kitchen and lounge, it had such a family feel. Saturday morning we woke up nice and early to begin our journey all over the island! First, although, we were told by Kay that it was absolutely necessary that we get some Scot pies from the bakery across the street. TO. DIE. FOR. So delicious. Not to mention, the bakery itself was a great experience on its own. The women working there with their funny little hats made me feel as though we had traveled back a few decades.

We spent the whole day on a very extensive stop and go tour of the beautiful island - and somehow completely lucked out on weather!!! Up in the mountains we managed to get blue sky and sun, I didn't even need a jacket. Being Scotland this is a very rare occurrence. I guess mother nature is trying to make up for the huge slap in the face let down I received in Ireland. Anyway, it is hard to remember the specifics of everything we saw - if only I had written more down - but I do have a lot of pictures to make up for it (see facebook). There were so many historical and geographical highlights - Kay really had the story for everything we saw. A few of the places included: A hike up to the Storr rock formation (to see the old woman who lost her knees - cursed by the Faerie King Elvin!), Peat farms, waterfalls, ocean cliffs, Kilmuir graveyard (Flora MacDonald's grave), the Red Hills and Cuillin Traverse, the River Sligachan, etc. etc.

In the next picture I am sticking my face in the freezing River Sligachan. Tradition has it that newcomers to the Isle of Skye must dip their faces into the icy water of the River Sligachan for eternal health and beauty. This stems from the legend of a princess (MacDonald) whose eyes were ripped out; when she dipped her face into the water, she was cured. Really feeling the DSL in this one... I mean, when is the next time I am going to be in Scotland? I HAD to...

Upon arriving back in Portree for the night we went out to dinner (delicious fish & chips), ice cream (obviously), and a good ol' Scottish pint. While looking around for a pub to go into we were pretty limited. Upon finding the one with the most people in it (no more than 15 or 20) we settled with The Skye. I'm pretty sure the people in there that weren't on our tour probably didn't even know what the internet was hahahaha...Even better.

The majority of the next day was spent driving home, but it was designed really as the rest of the tour. We stopped many many times to see various places and hear more Scottish history from Kay. Eilean Donan castle was absolutely beautiful. It's used in a few movies, although I forget what they are - I want to get married there!! We saw Ben Nevis - the tallest mountain in the UK, SO many different Lochs: Katrine, Lochy, Garry, etc, the Commandos memorial, Stirling bridge and the William Wallace memorial, Cullodean battlefield (last major battle on British soil)...but my favorite was GLENCOE. Wow. If only the pictures could do it justice. Glen means valley in Gaelic and wowww I felt like I was at the Grand Canyon. We hiked a little through it and it honestly felt fake! So unbelievably beautiful (the back drop is used in all of the Harry Potter movies, too). In fact, pretty much all of what I saw over the weekend felt fake. Not only did the perfect weather make it 100x better, but the Highlands themselves really do have this mystical feeling of beauty. Not to mention the amount of history I learned also made it all the more better (#nerd), a lot of people do not understand Scotland and it's sad history - the poor poor clansmen and Bonnie Prince Charlie ): - Mel Gibson's awful and incorrect interpretation does not count! I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope I can make it back up there before I have to leave this wonderful country!!!