My wee Scotland adventure

The train is off, and with it so am I. To my left the spires of Edinburgh Old Town architecture, to my right, miles of farmland, browned by the Scottish winter. Goodbye, Scotland, it's been a treat.


I went for a wee bus ride or three this morning, down to the port town of Newhaven, where I was all but blown over by the wind. Nevertheless, it was a journey well worth it, the Scottish coastline proving itself to be as romantically inclined as literature would suggest. Weather-wise, Scotland has quite lived up to its rainy reputation, my two days here filled with a mixture of wind, rain, and snow. Despite all of this, the sun seems to have decided to mock me, breaking through the clouds and shining in my eyes as I write this. It has been a strangely familiar experience, where I feel almost at home, I'm not sure exactly why. I've been trying to logic it away, but the climate, the landscape, the architecture are all so different from kiwiland so I'm putting it down to Scottish bloodline and leaving it there.



Yesterday was amazing. I went on a day tour with Rabbie's (highly recommended). We stopped at the Kelpies, some pretty impressive horse heads, apparently the biggest in the world? Tu
rns out if you ever encounter a Kelpie, don't get on its back or you'll be stuck there and it'll run into the water and drown you.


We then travelled across to Loch Lomond (had to get my gutteral Gaelic out for that one), which is half in the lowlands and half in the highlands, with a faultline running through the middle. Even through the fog and the rain and snow, it was beautifully serene. I'd love to go back in spring, here's hoping.


As part of the bus ride, we drove past the Lake of Menteith, named after Menteith, the noble who betrayed William Wallace, and is called a lake instead of a loch just in case anyone was going to forget about his betrayal. I had a little smirk to myself when the American lady sitting in front of me asked if it had any water in it, but I was impressed with the tour guide's remarkably straight-faced reply, "Yes, it's just we've driven past it now."

Our last stop was Stirling Castle, where several kings and Mary Queen of Scots spent most of her time in Scotland. Strategically located and with incredible views of the surrounds, it has been the source of many a war over centuries. I left feeling incredibly sympathetic towards Scotland, who seem to have been under siege from all sides fairly continuously since its birth, as far back as the Romans. Despite coming out on the worst end of most of these encounters, they've never given up and lost their fight, proving themselves to be quite the plucky bunch.

 

I also learned that everything is fairly relative; travelling into the highlands and the tour guide saying, "The highlands haven't been popular for tourism until recently with it always being thought of as a dangerous area." It turns out that "recently" means since the start of the 1800s, further back than my known family history goes.

Anyway with three sleeps until school starts and two until I meet my new house family, here ends my 'summer holidays' and begins my working OE.

 Happy New Year everyone!