Day four of the coach tour, and I am sitting in the dining area of the Clachaig Inn in the boonies of Scotland! It is 2.5 miles from Glencoe, deep in the Scottish highlands, and it is completely lovely and unspoiled by man’s “improvements.”
I suppose I should start where I left off though, which was on day two of our tour, in the town of York. Saturday evening we went on a ghost tour of the town. I got scared only once, when our guide suddenly yelled. The ghost stories were pretty cool though. Our guide was an excellent storyteller, and it was clear he enjoys his job. I am not sure if I believe in the classic “ghost” but I do know that there are unexplainable sights, sounds, and visitations, if you will, that could definitely be explained away as ghost activity. After the tour, four of us went out to a club. My friend Megan has wanted to go dancing ever since we have been in Britain, and we finally obliged her in York. We went to a place down by the river called Club Salvation, and spent about three hours dancing. The clubs in the UK are different: the music is very homogenous, while in the US there is always a great mixture of hip-hop, country, techno, and other types of music; the people don’t really dance, they just kind of gyrate, and such gyrations are done in single gender groups; and there is much more drinking of alcohol than I’ve ever seen in any club in Texas. Most people in Texas don’t take their drinks out onto the dance floor, while these Brits do. Consequently, there were broken bottles and liquid all over the floor! Regardless, it was fun to do something that wasn’t scheduled for us. Though we stayed up much too late, and have been paying for it the past few days with incredible fatigue!
Sunday we had breakfast in our hotel. I tried black pudding for the first time. I asked what was in it, and the waitress told me “pig’s blood,” and I stopped her right there. But I tried it all the same! The taste was good, but I just could not get over the fact that I was eating pig’s blood and other “undesirable” parts of animals. I nearly vomited, so I stopped after one bite. The rest of my full English was lovely though! I like having baked beans for brekkie.
After breakfast we loaded up the coach, checked out, and then headed to York Minster for matins. I find sung services very boring and dry…
Then we drove to Edinburgh! We stayed in the Murrayfield Hotel out on the edge of town. We had dinner there, and I had some gourmet macaroni and cheese. Quite delicious. The evening was spent in my room with Diana and Megan watching The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and snacking. Before we realized it, it was 12:30 am. So much for going to bed early and catching up on the sleep lost the night before at the club! We had to go to breakfast at 7:30! I refused to try the haggis. J We loaded up the coach, and took a bus tour of the city with a guide in a kilt named David. There was just too much to see of the city and not enough time. We ended up at Edinburgh Castle and took a short tour. Then we had 2 hours on our own. We spent one hour in the castle exploring and taking pictures, then walked down the hill to the Elephant Café, where J.K. Rowling began Harry Potter. The food actually was good, and the place wasn’t kitchy at all. It has maintained a unique charm, not changing the décor or general atmosphere to fit with the famous series it is linked to. I really liked that about it. We passed an Italian place that did takeaway ice cream. We just had to stop. I got amaretto flavor. The guy tending it was young Scotsman named Kris, and he was very nice. He even gave us a discount on our treats. Back to the coach, and onwards!
We stopped several times on the way to the highlands. It is a law here that coach drivers must stop and rest for thirty minutes every two hours. We stopped at Loch Ness for one of our thirty minute stops. I did not see Nessie, unfortunately.
About forty-five minutes out from our final destination of Glencoe, the o-ring in the bus broke. Which means no more bus… We were stranded for a few hours until our savior in the form of Willy Stewart came with his bus to rescue us and carry us to Clachaig Inn. We finally arrived at 10:45 pm. No going to bed early again! They had prepared our dinner for us, and had been keeping it warm for a while, so we took our bags up to our room and then headed back down for a meal. I had ordered salmon with veggies and potatoes. Very good, though my dad makes better salmon! We didn’t have our luggage because it was stuck in the cargo hold because the hydraulics system was broken and the doors would not open. So we just had to do without our toiletries and sleepytime clothes, and horrors, no brushed teeth. Willy again saved us when he delivered our luggage at 11:45 this morning!!
We had a free day today, which was primarily meant for our driver, Paul, to rest. Unfortunately he had to stay with the bus all night and day, and the bus still isn’t fixed. So Willy will be our driver for a little while until Paul can get rested and the coach fixed.
I spent the day outside, enjoying the unprecedented summer-like weather Scotland is experiencing. I was just fine in athletic shorts and a t-shirt today! Sunny all day, and just perfect weather. We walked to the village of Glencoe, realized that nothing is really there, and then walked back. We did enjoy the beautiful scenery, and sat at the Massacre Monument and had a hodgepodge picnic lunch while soaking in the clean highland air and sunlight. It reminds me a lot of Colorado with the mountains and water streams and the heather all over the ground. No moose here though.
We had a fabulous dinner again, this time I ordered the Cajun salmon. This was better than the other salmon, and maybe it could give dad a run for his money. I’ve decided I want to be a pescetarian, which is vegetarian that eats fish. Fish don’t have feelings, and they are good protein. Other types of meat, especially what we eat in the US, are just kind of gross. I’m thinking of sausage at the moment. Sausage is probably worse than black pudding or haggis, but we eat it because, well, we don’t know what is in it. Ignorance is bliss. Disgusting bliss though. We’ll see how this goes…
Well, that is a very general recap of the past few days. So sorry it has taken a while to post anything, the internet is very spotty everywhere we have been staying. Pictures will be added later, hopefully tomorrow! I don’t have my camera with me, and I am feeling a bit lazy and don’t want to go upstairs to procure it. I am going to post this, and then go upstairs and GO TO BED!! It is 9:30, and I am so tired. I am also getting a nasty hacking cough. So I need all the rest (and prayers) that I can get!! We are off to the lake district of England tomorrow!
Cheers,
Faith
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