On the 20th Katie and I arrived in Inverness, Scotland. We had more of a plan than when we went to Belfast, so I was pretty ready when we got to the airport and had to find our way to the hostel.
The funny thing about Inverness is that their bus system is very sensitive to the fact that some people go to school, so even though the bus schedule said that there was going to be a bus 15 min after we got there, the truth of it was that there was not going to be another bus for another hour and 15 min :( That was our first confusion and stress. But it was not that bad. In our grumbling we ended up talking to two other women trying to get into town, so we all shared a cab for the 20 minute drive into the city center.
And it was GORGEOUS! The countryside as we drove was breath taking. Sheep, cows and mountains. That is all I saw. Oh, and gorse. Lots and lots of beautiful gorse.
Anyway, once we got into the city center we sorta got lost. I had a book on Scotland, and it had a map of Inverness, but somehow I had it upside-down :) We did find the hostel though, and everything was alright.
The hostel was wonderful! I had thought the hostel in Belfast was nice, but it had nothing compared to the home/relaxed feeling of the Bazpackers Hostel in Inverness. I am totally advertising them, 'cause the whole stay was wonderful. Katie and I had reserved beds in a female "dorm", which was a room with 5 beds. It was the cutest little room, the beds were very comfortable, and it had a 5 star view! To the left was the castle. In front was the river. To the slight left was a huge church, and then to the far right were mountains! Cant get much better than that :) The hostel also had a full kitchen, TV room, living room with fire place, and internet. It seemed like the best sort of thing for a home way from home.
We had arrived in the afternoon, so we spend the rest of the evening shopping and finding a place to have dinner. Our taxi driver had suggested a pub not far from our hostel, so we found it and decided to see what they had on menu. It was all very Scottish and hardy (not a good combination for Katie) but we each found something that interested us. Thus, with a pint of beer, we enjoyed a leisurely dinner that took us a little more than an hour. Katie isn't used to taking her time eating, so I had to set the pace, but it was all very worth it.
Dinner was SOO filling! So we took walk before out plans to get back to the pub and listen to a live band. That is where most of my pictures of Inverness came from. We found out that the river that we were beside was the river Ness, and that the next day it would not be hard to find a bus to take us too Loch Ness (or rather, the little village that was on Loch Ness called Drumnadrochit) so that we could have a day to do that. I can't describe how magical the whole sun set was. I mean, it lit up the city so beautifully!
I just love the fact that Castle and Toilets were there together....
I just couldn't resist :)
We did go back to the pub to listen to the live band. They turned out to be to very talented, very funny, little old men. The one played the keyboard (which was more like, 4 keyboards all stacked up on each other) and the other played the drums. They only really played cover songs, but they were still very fun. At one point an older man asked me to dance and I had my first real encounter with a Scottish gentleman. Smile, I call him a gentleman 'cause he was very nice, rather old for me, and endearingly bad at dancing. But it was all in good fun, and the dance did not last long :)
The next day we took our time to get ready, and then headed to the bus station to catch a bus to Drumnadrochit. We were right on time and boarded the bus just before we were supposed to leave. It felt like such an adventure, since we didn't fully know what to expect when we got there, but the countryside was beautiful. All we could see out our windows was the loch, mountains, and gorse. My favorite :)
Once in the village we shopped at one of the little shops, and then we headed to the tourists information. We knew that there were trials up in the mountains, but we didn't want to just go find one on our own. They had a nice idiot proof map at the office though, so we set of in good spirits for a good two hours in the hills :) It was like walking around in a hidden valley or something. The houses were fairly modern, but the fields... so full of cows and sheep and gorse; it just didn't really fit together or make sense. It was hard to believe that it was all real and that people actually lived there!
The trail was not hard to find thankfully. It was paved at first, and I was very afraid that it was not going to be nearly as much of a real nature walk as I wanted. But as we turned one corner I found that it was JUST as I wanted. You couldn't see any trace of humanity ANYWHERE! It was pretty steep at times, so we had to take a few minutes every now and then to rest and catch our breaths. But it was worth it. I left Katie sitting on a rock at one point and climbed to a small cliff to see the view of the loch from above. It was heavenly! Like, actually, one of the best things I have ever seen in my life! After I made my way back to Katie, we made our way down the mountain and back to the village.
The climb didn't take us as long as we thought it would, so we went to the local cafe and got some tea and cake. That is one thing that was wonderful about being with English people: how they love their tea! I loved it. I am seriously going to be drinking more tea in the future :)
After we got back from Drumnadrochit, we went and bought dinner makings and made ourselves dinner back at the hostel. We were thinking we would do this just to save money, but it ended up being so much fun as well! We met an American family staying in the hostel who were making dinner as well, so that made it all the more fun. I realized something. I keep on forgetting that there are many reasons to travel. I have always had a reason to go to a place, and it is not until I really start to talk to another person traveling that I realize that not everyone there is there for the same reason as I am. There are almost endless reason to travel. Business. Family. School. Some travel to escape, or maybe to find something. Some go to try to feel at home where they are from. Travel is a good way to broaden your horizon, but also to make you see just how small the world can be. For me, I have always wanted to travel because I love the action: the movement from one place to another. Add to that all the different things that you get to see at the different places just makes it all the more reason to go!
The next day we again took our time to get ready. We had to check out, and then leave our stuff before we did anything. We decided we would go and find the bus to Clava Cairns.
This is actually a funny story. I had read in my book about this Bronze Age burial ground. It was advertised like a cometary where there were all sorts of graves, but a bunch from the Bronze Age. I didn't understand exactly where it was, but it said that it was in Culloden, so we took the bus there. Now, I guess we should have sorta caught on when the bus took us to a shopping mall, but Kate and I both had no idea what we were doing, so we just kept on going. When we seemed to be turning around and heading back to town Katie decided we should ask the driver. It was really rather confusing, 'cause I didn't understand that Clava Cairns was the name of the place, so we just kept on asking where the cemetery was! Then I remembered the name and mentioned it, and the man was like "Oh!". Kate and I both felt very stupid when he explained that we needed the bus to the battle fields, but then it would be another mile and a half walk from there. We had already bought our return ticket, so we decided we would walk to the next bus stop and then see how close we could get from there.
This may have been a mistake, or it was the best thing ever, but in any case we ended walking the whole way to Clava Cairns. Close to 5 miles I think. And it was not JUST 5 miles, but it was about 5 miles in the middle of the Highlands. Meaning: hills. We had to climb one mountain and go over it and then, on the far side of the valley, were the Cairns. A long walk.
But it was worth it. The country side was BEAUTIFUL! Kate and I were both exhausted, but we took our time and rested in the shade. I got some of the coolest pictures :)
The experience was made all the better when we got to a sign that said "Clava Cairns 1/2 mile" and it pointed down a dirt road with cows along the side.
And then when we went down the road we found a field fenced in, and on the fence a map of rock rings. We looked up from reading the sign with the map and there they were! Big rings of rocks :)Once at Clava Cairns Katie was content to sit and read her book, while I took pictures and soaked up the Cairns. As I have said, I didn't really understand what we were in for before getting there, but once there I was in love with the spot.
The Cairns are 3 large rings of stone. They are all in ruins now, but they are supposed to have been tombs that had roofs. They were incredibly carefully built, using different colored stones and decorated with small "cup marks" that literally look like cup holders carved into the stone :) Two of them are lined up with a solstice: one for the summer, one for the winter. The largest one, in the middle, is not lined up with anything, and its supposed not to have been a tomb, but rather a stage where they would put the pyre or perform some sort of ceremony. The coolest part about this ring was the fact that the stones were divided up into sections, like a pie. Each section was sorta hard to find, but once you found it, it was hard to loose. They were each a different color! It was so cool. Around each of the cairns were a ring of standing stones. A few of them were taller than me (I know, not saying much :) ) and all seemed huge! Some where leaning, which just made them all the cooler :) There was also a small ring that researchers think was built later, but in the style of the large ones. Its not complete, but it is of different colored stone, and it also has cup marks. It was so cute, I sorta fell in love with the look of it.
An explanation of the main cairn
I just love how well built it was!
Mini cairn
Cup Mark! The marks that have helped researchers identify the date of the ruins. They don't know why or how they were carved, but there are only a few of these markings at the site.
Kate having a rest while I went picture crazy!!
Cup marks.
After wandering around the cairns for about a half an hour, we made our way farther down the path to the "Chapel and Cairns" that were on another little map posted outside the fence. When I saw that there was supposed to be a chapel and more cairns, I thought that maybe this would be closer to what I was thinking when I read about it. Again, I was mistaken :) The chapel was simply a small plot of unmown grass that had been fenced off by the farmers who farmed the surrounding fields. In the plot there were lots of stones, some big, some small, and very squishy ground :) Don't get me wrong, it was awesome, and the cairn had one HUGE standing stone that was WAY taller than me, but, again, I was somewhat unprepared for exactly what there was going to be. I loved the fact that the farmers really had plotted it away. It seemed like it could have been separated for the sake of history, but I would not have been surprised if they had just separated it 'cause it would have been too much trouble to move the stones :)It was very very pretty out there in the middle of the field though, and I was very glad to have gone.
The chapel ruins
The chapel ruins and cairns
The walk back was not as pleasant as the walk there. It was mostly up hill, and we had less idea of what to expect. We didn't want to walk all the way back to Inverness, but we didn't know where the closest bus stop was. Thankfully we only had to walk up a few of the hills before we got to a pub. We went in, got a coke, and asked where the closest bus stop was. Just down the road. We wanted to hug the girl behind the bar we were so happy it was so close.It was the funniest bus stop I have ever seen. It was rock. Seriously, a huge rock. It was the Cumberland Stone. Funny, no?
The bus came soon though, and in about 20 minutes we were back in Inverness.
The Cumberland Stone. It was a huge stone on the side of the road that had carved on it "The position of the Duke of Cumberland during the battle of Culloden" So cool!!!We had a while before we had to leave for the airport, so we went back to the hostel and pulled our books out of our bags and sat by the fire and read. It was a really great way to end our time in Scotland. It had been important to both Kate and I that this leg of my break would be relaxed and slow, so we both were thankful for the fire, cups of tea, and a good book. I read two books over that break :)
Getting to the airport was no big deal. The bus was working that day and so we got there with plenty of time. We went through security no problem, and were on our way back to East Midlands by 9pm. Kate's mom picked us up at the airport and we had a great ride home listening to my ipod on the car stereo.
All in all, I cant ever really do Scotland justice. It was AMAZING, WONDERFUL and completely HEAVENLY. I went there in hopes of getting the beauty of nature all around me. And that is what we did. I loved it. I want to got back to Scotland so much now! Some day, Kate and I determined that we will meet again in Drumnadrochit and enjoy the local cafe :)
My last suggestion: go to Scotland!
