Scotland

Jessica and I took a trip to Scotland, just the two of us, and it was really great. We left on Wednesday morning after taking a major Humanities test, so we were glad to get out of there. We took a train from Oxford to Inverness, which took a total of about 10 hours. It was very long, but not AS bad as I was expecting because we changed trains twice. We arrived in Inverness late Wednesday night.
The next day we woke up and went to the tourist center right away to book our Loch Ness Tour. We had the morning to explore before our tour so we set out by the river to the Ness Islands. It was so peaceful and beautiful. There were bridges connecting the little islands together and nature paths went along them. Jessica and I took our time exploring. It was really cool. We noticed right away that people in Scotland are very friendly. Almost everyone we passed, smiled brightly at us and said, "Good morning!!" After the trails, we spend some time going in shops and got some lunch before our tour.

This was taken back along the nature trails of the Ness Islands

You can't see the whole thing here, but there was a huge tree trunk that had been carved to look like the Loch Ness Monster

The tour started out with an hour and a half boat ride. It went along the Caledonian Canal and out into Loch Ness. I was worried that it was going to be very cold, but we got blessed with the weather because the sun was out. We started out sitting inside but moved outside because we wanted the real "experience." They had Scottish music playing in the background on the boat and periodically a recording would talk about historical facts and landmarks. It was a beautiful boat ride and I really enjoyed it. I find the Loch Ness monster stories very interesting. The little town of Inverness knows that Nessie has put them on the map, and they seem so proud of the stories. One man has moved out here from the states and is living in a van, and is making his living by creating Nessie figurines, just hoping to catch a glimpse of the monster. There have been historical accounts of sightings as far back as 560 AD. I'm not saying that I really believe that that Loch Ness Monster exists, I'm just saying that I find in very interesting.

Jessica and I on the boat

Loch Ness.....can you see Nessie??? I managed to capture TWO Nessies ;)

The tour then took us to the Urquhart Castle(above) where we got off the boat and had an hour to explore the Castle. The Castle was in such a remote location, in the middle of Loch Ness. It was really neat and Jessica and I enjoyed exploring it. We even stuck our hands in the freezing cold water just to say that we touched Loch Ness.

This was somebody's room....

The next morning we took the train to Edinburgh. The train ride was beautiful. I even got to see snow, although it was only from the train, I was not actually "in" snow.

After arriving in Edinburgh, we went right to our hostel to drop off our stuff. Our hostel was located 15 min. outside of the city, but they offered a bus transport. The reason we were persuaded to stay here is because of this picture below....it was on the beach. Even though it was quite cold, we went exploring for a little bit in the "back yard" of our hostel. We went back into Edinburgh later that night, went exploring some more and got dinner.

Edinburgh Castle

The next morning, we got up early and went to climb Arthur's Seat. It is an extinct volcano up on a hill, that is said to be somehow connected to King Arthur. I was not feeling that up to climbing it...but Jessica persuaded me, and I am glad that I ended up doing it. We saw the whole city below us. I have also never felt the wind so strongly in my life, and it was scary at some points, as I thought I might be blown from the mountain. The picture below shows just a small taste of the wind, as we were genuinely just trying to smile normal.
We did not stay that much longer in Edinburgh. We did walk around a little bit more and ran into this guy playing the bagpipes. I am surprised about how many guys I actually saw wearing kilts. Either they are wearing them to draw tourists into buying them, or they are just darn serious about being Scottish. Either way it was quite amusing.
We took a 6 hour train back to Oxford, and here I am. I have the whole week in Oxford, which will be nice because I have been gone so often. Then on Saturday we are going as a group to Paris. I am very excited about this trip, especially because everyone gets to go together.
I hope to get caught up on all my schoolwork this week.
I really feel disconnected from my "other world" back in the states sometimes. I have gotten into such a routine of things here that I am fearful of post culture shock upon returning. I know that there is nothing I can do to change it, and that there is no use worrying about it now. I just did not expect to feel this great of an attachment to Oxford and just Europe in general. God has truly blessed me, and I hope there is not a day that goes by that I don't forget it.