During this past week, I worked all week on a paper, visited London with my class and saw a play called Welcome to Thebes, and ate the best Thai food i've literally ever had in my life. At the end of the week, it was time for the much anticipated trip to Scotland with my roommate, Alex. Of course, 2 weeks ago when we planned the trip, we thought we could do anything. I think its called the Superman effect.... I'm not superman, and we couldn't do everything. We thought planning a trip leaving at 4:30 on Friday morning would be a great idea--especially if we could save a little money. Not a good idea....
On Friday morning (after having been awake til 1 a.m.) my alarm decided it didn't want to work. And not just one of them. Two of them. My roommate Alex met a similar fate, and at 5:30 my body clock told me it was time to wake up, for I was extremely late and out of place. Of course, I jump out of bed, my heart races, and I pick up everything in sight and scream probably not-so-nice words at Alex. Within 10 minutes, we're out the door, running towards no where amongst 16th century stone buildings, statues, and beautiful gardens of Oxford. I decide the direct us to the train station where maybe we can catch a last minute train to London to catch the 6:50 flight that we were supposed to make easily. I run in the train station, whip out my train card, and have a train to the airport within 2 minutes. Alex does the same. At this point, we have about an hour and some change to get to London via train, hop on the subway, go through the whole 30 mile city, get off and on another train to Luton airport, get on a bus to the terminal, and check a bag, all to arrive at the gate before the plane literally takes off the ground. By this point, it is looking grim, and we may have just wasted 200-250 bucks on this trip to Scotland. My heart is racing the whole time.
When we finally arrive in London, of course the subway made several stops and had several problems. With only 30 minutes before the plane lifts off, we're waiting on a train to take us to the airport. When it finally arrives, we're in terrible moods just knowing that the plane has left us. We get on the bus, and of course it takes forever. At this point, we have 10 minutes (the gate had closed 20 minutes ago) until its gone. I run through the airport, leaving Alex behind to check the huge bag of tents and sleeping bags and etc. At this point, every man for himself. I get through security in record time, and after running faster than i've ever ran, I run up to a gate that literally is closing as my feet are pounding against the concrete. I push it open, slam my ticket on the counter in front of the desk assistant, and run out onto the tarmac begging at the same time to wait for my friend. "Nope, you better run if you want on that plane." So I did. And Alex is stuck in London.
I arrive in Scotland, and at this point, Alex is on a train headed my way (9 hour train ride).... I step off the plane into the mountains (a bit snowy I might add) of Scotland. IT was so cold I thought I may cry, but I trucked my way onto a bus with just me and a bookbag and a bottle of water. I get into the city and look around to see one of the quietest but most beautiful places I've ever been. The whole afternoon looking for a hotel/hostel/bed/rock/somewhere-to-sleep was great because I got to see so much of such a lovely little city, adorned with stone, rivers and lakes, mountains in the background, beautiful bridges, beautiful castles and churchs, and nice little pubs. It was a wonderful city. I ate a Chinese buffet for lunch (ironic, right?), and enjoyed the scenery all day until Alex finally arrived late that afternoon. Since he had missed the flight, I didn't want to leave him again so we missed the train we were supposed to take to Kyle of Lochalsh, and we decided to stay in Inverness for the night. I booked a wonderful hotel on the peak of a hill overlooking Inverness Castle (see MacBeth references). It was beautiful and very nice, and after this crazy expensive day of travelling, I wanted nothing more than a plate of fish and chips, a bottled water, and a big bed. And thats exactly what I had.
So, we wake up early the next morning to make a train to Kyle of Lochalsh. We hop on the train, and it whisks us on a 2 hour ride through the Highlands. Now I had always heard it was a cool place and very pretty, but I wasn't prepared for what my eyes were about to see. On the train ride, I literally had an emotional breakdown it was so beautiful. Something that doesn't happen TOO often with me. Its really a long intense story of emotions, but I lost it. I met two friends on the train (Mara and Luke, both aged 3 and 4), and I'm sure they thought I was a complete weirdo crying on the train as it took us through the mountains, but I literally couldn't help thinking what an awesome God I serve who can move mountains such as these. It was absolutely overwhelming, but nonetheless, aboslutely beautiful. We passed several Lochs (note Loch Ness, where the mythical or real Loch Ness Monster resides), and we rode through towering green mountains with huge cliffs overhanging the edges of the train tracks ascending miles into the sky. Clouds topped the mountains, and I wanted nothing more than to touch those clouds at the top of one of those rocky peaks. Little did I know, within 12 hours I wouldn't only be touching one, but spending the night inside one.
In Kyle of Lochalsh, we tried to get a trip together to hike, since that was the original plan. I wanted to go to on a glassbottom boat trip, and Alex wanted to go to nearby Dornie to figure out the route of excursion for the hiking trip along with seeing Elian Donan Castle. We both did our respecitve things. The boat tour was absolutely incredible, and on this trip I learned that I was closer to Iceland than my home is from Atlanta, Georgia. No wonder it was so cold! And I in shorts!... I saw beautiful scenery at the edge of the Isle of Skye in Scotland, and I saw a lighthouse on the edge of a bridge that was something out of a book. I saw at least 20 wild seals lounging on rocks in the Loch and Ocean, and under the water I saw absolutely huge jelly fish spanning a 2-3 foot diameter. It was a great trip, and within an hour I had disembarked to get a phone call from Alex telling me to hop the next bus to Dornie, as he had planned a hiking route for the afternoon.
Within an hour, I was on a bus edging the mountains and the ocean headed to Dornie. When I arrived, I saw one of the quaintest smallest seaside towns. I instantly fell in love with it. Alex had met several of the residents of the city, and they allowed us to leave one of our bags in their pub until the morning so we wouldn't be carrying so much throughout the mountains. They were all so hospitable, and the pub was incredible. Off we go hiking beside the pub into the mountains. I have never hiked. Its just not my thing. But I was brave, and with the scenery I knew it couldn't be horrible. We hiked along the small paved trail in absolute awe by the beauty that surrounded us. We stopped at least 50 times to take pictures of what a magnificent world we live in. Finally, within an hour or 2, we had arrived at the point where the paved path split into a small trail through a sheep pen off into the Highlands. And there it began.
We hiked along literally a little path laid for us by the previous hikers and trail-goers. We continued along and saw numerous beautiful waterfalls falling off of the tall glorious peaks and rocks that towered above us. Again, I can't tell you how amazing that feeling was. As we hiked further into the mountains, the clouds I had so desperately wanted to touch began to become closer to my reality than I thought could be possible. We hiked hard and slowly throughout the mountains. It was FREEZING, and within an hour or so, the light drizzle we had started with turned into a torrential downpour (or so it seemed as we were carrying 30 pounds of luggage each with blue jeans and tennis shoes. It was about 50 degrees and falling, and the longer the hike, the more beautiful the scenery, and the more uncomfortable the temperature and conditions. By 10 p.m., we were lost. We were at least 5 miles from the closest town, we were in the middle of miles and miles of completely deserted mountains, and we were IN the clouds. Not just seeing them, we were in them. I finally made the call that we shouldn't search for the campsite we had originally intended to find. We had to go back and quickly. Darkness was falling, and so was the temperature.
We hiked as quickly as possible back in the direction from which we came--again a good 5 miles or more. It was probably about 40 degrees at this point, and the cold rain came down so unpleasantly. By the time darkness had almost fully arrived, we knew we had to find a place to pitch the tent immediately. We were both shaking from the cold, and the darkness made the travel even more impossible. We climbed to the peak of a small mountain, surveyed the land, felt the dampness of the area, and decided this was our spot. I'll be honest with you, blog, I was FREAKING out. I was freezing--probably colder than I have ever been. Soaking wet, freezing, tired, and wanting to go back. Irrationally, I almost decided to continue the 5 mile hike back to the city and try to find somewhere to stay (which probably would have been impossible at that hour). But Alex convinced me that we had to stay and set up the tent, and all would be okay. I was shaking, but luckily Alex found the necessary equipment to set up the tent, and within 10 minutes we had put together a structure that at least blocked the freezing winds that whipped around us in that cloud. Within 10 more minutes, we had an interior installed and we were unravelling our soaking packs and undressing from the heavy wet garmets we had been wearing throughout that day. We were a mess. Muddy, cold, tired, and stressed. But we were on the top of one of the worlds most beautiful regions.
We finally got everything sorted through, and we started cooking on our miniature grille. Alex MADE me buy freeze dried pasta and chicken, despite my opinion on how awful that sounded. But at the moment, it was probably the best food I've ever eaten. We finally drowned into sleep, and a wonderful (but freezing) night lay ahead.
The next morning, we unzipped our tent at 7 a.m. to see yet another overwhelming sight. The fog from the lochs, falls, river, and ocean had set around our tent and through the rolling green mountains around us, and we had awoken on top of this. That night we were put to sleep by the roaring sounds of at least 4 nearby waterfalls, and that morning the sound had increased due to the torrential rainfall of the night. IT was an amazing experience, and it made the pain worth it!
Fast forward 5 hours, and were about to board a bus back to Kyle where we would catch a train back to Inverness to resume the "normal" portion of our trip to Scotland. Wow, what a wonderful, crazy, stressful, cold, but inspiring weekend. We ended our trip by staying a bed and breakfast we found upon arrival back into Inverness. The place was great and very affordable. It was an English Chateau type place, locally owned by a lovely Scottish family "obsessed" with Southern American culture. Apprently, it was the one place in the world they ALL wanted to visit so badly. As they had seen Paula Deen and other various travel shows that travelled to Georgia and South Carolina to see the countryside, history, and good southern cookin'. We had a great expereince there, and in the morning she had prepared a wonderful breakfast for us before we had to depart for the airport. We talked to her that morning, and we gave her our information so if she came to America, she could look us up. And back to the travelling world we were off. This time, we had plenty of time to spare and eat at the airport.......... Not as fun not being rushed. But we also weren't in dire need of Xanax and Valium.
What a crazy trip. One of the best I've ever been on.
Cheers mates,
Andrew
