(Mis)Adventures: March 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Inverness, Scotland

The next morning, we awoke to yet more snow falling and worries of whether or not the highway would be open for us to get back to Glasgow. We left our hotel and headed down to Loch Ness, Scotland's famous loch(lake in Gaelic) that is located about sixteen miles outside of town. The loch is really quite large(2nd largest in Scotland) and is 23 miles long of fresh water. There was another castle right on the edge of the lake called Urquhart Castle, a castle left in ruins after a great fire hundreds of years ago. We wandered around the grounds, part of our castle pass, and enjoyed all the views of the loch and reading the history of the castle. After our search for "Nessie" ended in disappointment, we headed back through Inverness to a place north of the town on the coast called Fort George. The fort is one of the largest in Europe and was also one of the first built in Europe and houses the Black Watch, part of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The fort reminded me of Fort Pulaski back home but without all of the canon holes. The weather continued to be uncooperative and the wind and rain proved to be too much so we decided to head on south to Stirling, our next stop on our castle tour. The drive through the snow was not quite as treacherous but it definitely provided its share of interesting moments as parts of the road were completely covered in snow. We had to detour through a small town because part of the highway was completely impassible but we managed to make it back to a part of the country where snow was not everywhere. We found a wonderful little road that was designated as a tourist route to Stirling so we followed it and were able to take some great pictures of other small towns in Scotland. Overall, the people were extremely nice and welcoming and most of the people we talked to seemed intent on one thing: that we enjoyed ourself in their country. We arrived in Stirling and relaxed in our hotel, which had some of the biggest rooms we've ever stayed in for such a cheap price.

St. Andrews, Scotland/Road Trip

On Tuesday morning, our road trip began and what was awaiting us couldn't have been better. We picked up the rental car near the edge of the city around 11 a.m. As no one else in the group wanted to drive on the left hand side of the road while driving on what is normally the passenger side of the car, the duty of driving was graciously handed to me. The task isn't all too challenging but keeping yourself in a concentrated zone is necessary because as we all learned a couple of days later, slipping back into right side of the road driving is quite easy and since everyone in the car is from a country where we drive on the right side of the road, no one even picked up on my mistake. We pulled out of Edinburgh and made our way towards St. Andrews, a small town northeast of Edinburgh and home to the birthplace of the modern game of golf. They also have an impressive array of old buildings and castles. We winded our way through small towns to St. Andrews. The weather there seemed like a hurricane about to make landfall back home. The town and golf course run right to the edge of the coast and we even had waves crashing so hard that ocean water was filling the parking lot where we parked the car. We wandered through the streets of the town being blown side to side and found a beautiful abbey and graveyard in the middle of the town. Around the corner, we found the castle but it was to open April 1st(2 days later) so we had to snap some photos from the road and walk on. Our desire to stay longer waned as the wind and rain became unbearable at times. We visited the famous golf course and club house and headed out of town towards Perth. Around Perth, we found two nice castles that also open to the public on April 1st. After our quick lunch, we headed on north towards Inverness. After a short time of driving, we started to see snow, which we thought was cool but then it turned into a nightmare. The driving became quite treacherous at times and a journey of two hours turned into four hours and in some places, the only time we saw the road was after the truck in front of us cleared some snow off with his tire tracks. Throughout the country, a few trucks jackknifed and a school trip bus crashed twelve minutes after leaving the school. We arrived in Inverness and settled into our hotel for the night, trying to keep warm from the bitter cold. Enjoy the photos.

Edinburgh, Scotland

On Monday morning, we packed up and headed to Edinburgh(pronounced like boro not burg due to tricky English rules no longer observed). The weather started to decline rapidly as we approached the city and by the time we arrived, it was raining pretty steady, something that continued throughout the day. We met up with our friends at their hotel and headed out to see the sights. Our first stop was the Edinburgh(boro) castle as it is one of the most famous castles in Scotland but that doesn't mean its the best. We stood in line at the ticket counter in a line longer than one would think would be there standing in the rain in near freezing temperatures. Apparently we weren't the only ones who had Easter week plans challenged by the cold, rainy weather. When we stepped up to buy our tickets, the girl starts into a prepared speech trying to sell us this multi-pass thing but it turned out to be quite a good deal. We paid .40 more than the cost of Edinburgh castle and were able to see 3 more castles later in our trip for free. The pass is a great way to travel through Scotland if you are castle hopping and sight seeing outside the major cities because there are a ton of historic sites included in the umbrella of the plan. The castle at Edinburgh was well preserved and had lots of historical things with great explanations of the history of the castle. It sits right between the old and new town on a hill high above the rest of the city. One can easily see why that spot was chosen for the castle. After the castle, we walked over to another hill that had a dome building and some Greek style columns. It wasn't anything spectacular, just 1/3 of a building preserved quite well that looked like it had been transplanted from Greece to Scotland. For the rest of the day, we simply wandered through the streets looking at the amazing architecture of the buildings and just trying to see as much as we could since we were only going to get one day there. We went to a restaurant near the castle at the recommendation of our friends and it was quite tasty, the food that is. The drinks on the other hand were a whole set of different issues. We tried to types of Scotch upon recommendation from another friend in Madrid who lived in Edinburgh for years, and according to him, we had to try some here. We ordered a peaty Scotch filled with iodine and another that was more fruity. Needless to say, the fruity Scotch was much easier to get down and the peaty, iodine glass was never completely emptied. The amount of water didn't matter much because the smell and the taste was just too much for the senses. We all also decided to take the plunge together and order haggis, the traditional Scottish style sausage made of sheeps heart, liver, and lungs minced with oatmeal, onion, and other spices and simmered in the animal's stomach for three hours. It was tasty and spicy and we all enjoyed our fill. It was made famous as a national dish, according to some, by another poem by Robert Burns, the poet we met earlier in Ayr. Enjoy the photos.

Ayrshire, Scotland

On our second day in Ayrshire, our friend picked us up early and took us out to the southwestern coast of Scotland in the Ayrshire county. We visited several castle ruins that were standing along the coasts on the beach and the wind was whipping about ferociously and the rain that fell was quite cold. The first castle had a band of gypsies parked on a small piece of land opposite the castle. Somehow they were casually relaxing in an open air tent with the strong, cold winds and rain. The castle had an entranceway that led inside the castle but some of the steps up to the second story were gone but I was able to use a rope hanging from the top to pull myself up and take some shots of the water and views from the upper level of the ruins. As usual, dumb kids had left their marks everywhere by spray painting different stupidities inside the castle. We left and drove on to another set of castle ruins a little further up the coast. These ruins though, were actually protected by the Scottish Heritage something and had fences up inside to prevent people from going into the dangerous parts of the castle. The Heritage something had put up a board outside the castle that described what they thought each room served for and who had previously lived in the castle. Around a small bend, a group of conservationists had put together a labyrinth in 2008 that, to me, looked like a giant mushroom. After this, we set off for another castle called Culzean Castle and this one was quite well kept and of course, closed to visitors to walk inside. The grounds had a deer field, where one brave deer had ventured up to the fence to be rubbed and scratched by gawking tourists. We walked around the grounds, which were immense and found an old gas chamber that was built. It wasn't a room for killing people but rather a room where they were able to siphon natural gas off of things in order to heat the castle. One thing you notice in Scotland as well, even though they are part of the United Kingdom, you never see the Union Jack flag flying, only the Scottish flag flying alone. After our castle tour, we headed out to a small but famous town called Turnberry. Turnberry is home to a famous golf course used by the Open Tour for major tournaments and boy did they know they could milk that. The hotel was quite spectacular, with its castle style looks and the course looked amazing and on that cold, blustery day, it would cost you a mere 95 pounds to play or $160 for a round of 18. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through Ayr as our friend had wedding duties of his girlfriend's sister. We later were taken to the wedding party where we were able to see some interesting wedding party traditions Scottish style and the whole wedding party of men was dressed in kilts of the military regalia as the groom was a soldier. Everyone at the party was super nice to us and just interested in the fact that we were having a great time in Scotland and we were. Thanks again to our friend Darren for taking care of us our first few days in Scotland.

Ayr/Glasgow, Scotland - Day 1

On Friday we caught one of the last British Airways flights before the weekend strike direct from Madrid to London. For the most part, it was a smooth flight save for the tons of English teenagers running everywhere on the plane and snapping photos at every chance. Landing over London as it was lit up at night was a really cool experience not ruined by the typical British rainy weather. From Heathrow, we caught a bus to the bus station where we picked up an overnight bus from London to Glasgow. The bus experience in total can be summed up with thank god we're young because I would never have tolerated that otherwise. In the seat in front of us was a baby that cried strong until 3 am. Needless to say, we didn't get too much sleep that night but pressed on as Scotland awaited. We caught another bus to a town outside of Glasgow called Ayr in the county/province/region of Ayrshire, famous for the its Scottish poet Robert Burns, "Scotland's favorite son". He wrote a poem called "Scots Wae Hae" that served as an unofficial national anthem for many years. We met up with a friend of ours there and headed back to Glasgow after settling into a nice and cozy little hotel in Ayr. The trip back to Glasgow was better because we were finally in a car with legroom and the sun was shining so we could actually take in the wonderful scenery of the Scottish countryside. Glasgow was cold and windy but surprisingly clean. The architecture is also very static as compared to other cities we've visited in Europe. There aren't a lot of curvy buildings except for the occasional dome on top of a building and the town center seems to be laid on straight lines instead of the typical winding curvy roads of mainland Europe. We walked around the center for a few hours, visited a free art museum, and headed back to Ayr. Glasgow will be returned to on Thursday at the conclusion of our drive through the highlands. In Ayr, we visited the famous bridge of Robert Burns' poem "Tam o' Shanter" where a man escapes the clutches of a witch by crossing a bridge over running water but not before the witch manages to rip the tail off of his horse. We visited a graveyard that had a tomb bolted to the ground because underneath was a witch and by bolting her in, they were hoping she wouldn't come out and get anyone. As I noticed the houses directly next to the cemetery, I wondered how many parents brought misbehaving children into the graveyard and threatened to set the witch lose if the children didn't stop misbehaving. If none, then some should try it because it would work like a charm. We spent the evening meeting some more local folks that are friends of our friend and called it an evening as our lack of sleep on the bus trip finally caught up with us. Hopefully today will be a day in which we can understand Scottish English easier than Spanish.