Isle of Skye Pics Pt.2

View of the bay by our hostel

Falls by Kilt Rock

Dipping my face in the "Waters of Eternal Youth and Beauty"

The Old Man of Stoor (about 150 feet tall)

Melanie on the way up to the Old Man of Stoor

View from the Fairy castle of the Fairy Glen. A really peculiar spot that is believed to be home to fairies. We were warned not to remove anything from the glen as it was bad luck, our tour guide told stories of people who had ignored the waring and 6 months or a year later sent back a rock they had taken from there, due to a string of bad luck. A group of small hills that pops out of nowhere, and had a really magical feel to it, along with a really great legend of a bagpiper enchanted by fairies.

Isle of Skye Pics Pt.1

A hairy Coo

Perthshire

Old style Scottish house

Loch Ness - Can't see him

Scotland, Isle of Skye Pt.2

The bulk of our time in Scotland as I said in the last post was spent on the 3-day bus tour of Scotland that went up to the Isle of Skye. The Isle of Skye is in the north-west corner of Scotland, and luckily the route one takes to get up there goes by a couple of cool sights.

On the way to the Isle, we got to stop at Loch Ness, which was a definite necessity when visiting Scotland. We had a look and a cup of tea on the shore, but I unfortunately didn't see Nessie. It is a nice loch, miles long and fairly narrow. We also stopped at Perthshire, a park the used to belong to some lord or aristocrat, and had a nice walk along a stream that had some nice stonework going over it and some waterfalls. Am interesting fact about it is the fact that the forest is artificial. The guy that used to own the place loaded seeds into a cannon and shot them over his property. So there is trees there that you wouldn't see elsewhere.

Our guide on the tour, Tim, was a funny guy and was full of stories and tales about the history and mythology of Scotland. I really learnt some interesting things that you would never know or hear about outside of Scotland. I was surprised to hear that many older Scots believe you can't trust Campbell's, due to nasty business in clan days. Tim also named me "King Doug", and I was sitting in the centre seat of the back row, and I was one of the few people that would banter back and forth with him. He was quite proud that I had tried haggis.

In the Isle of Skye, we went to a bunch of really cool sites. We dipped our heads in the "Waters of Eternal Youth and Beauty", visited the Old Man of Stoor, and saw old style Scottish houses. We also visited Kilt Rock (a really tall cliff that has pleats like that of a kilt), saw hairy coos, and went to a local tent party where they actually played a Canadian jig.

The time spent in the Isle of Skye was awesome, we stayed in a small fishing village, in a house that had a really nice coal burning fire and incredible view of the bay. Even though we never got to spend much time in Edinburgh the bus trip was worth the sacrifice. I have so great stories from it and it was a definite highlight of the trip. If you are ever in Scotland, check out MacBackpackers, good prices and takes some of the work out of a trip.

Edinburgh Pictures

A few pics from Edinburgh, sorry if some of them aren't of the best quality my monitor is really poor and I can't tell if a problem is with the picture or my display.


The first view we saw after leaving the bus station in Edinburgh

Another awesome view

The view from our dormroom window

Riders preparing to enter the Tattoo

Edinburgh Castle lit up for the Tattoo

The Isle of Skye, Scotland

First of all let me say, I am very sorry for not updating this in such a long time. I got back home relaxed for a little bit, and then was without the Internet for a couple of weeks. I have been looking for work lately as well, which has taken up much of my time. Either way there is no good excuse for not updating. My apologies.

Edinburgh

Scotland, what a great country. After the game in Manchester we took the bus up to Edinburgh. The bus ride there, unlike most bus rides, was actually enjoyable. We got to see lots of countryside and drove through a few cities along the way. When we arrived in Edinburgh, we were blown away. The city of Edinburgh is absolutely beautiful, possibly the nicest city I have been to. The old style houses, the breath taking castle situated right in the middle of the city, and overall feel of the city was great.

We stayed in an old stone building called "Castle Rock Hostel", that sat below Edinburgh castle which we could see out our dorm room window. As an added plus the night we stayed there was the first night of the Edinburgh International Tattoo. The tattoo was sold out, but we saw some of the Calvary getting prepared and could hear the pipes being played, the atmosphere was great.

The amount of time we got to spend in Edinburgh was really short, as we had booked a 3-day bus tour up to the Isle of Skye in northern Scotland that started the next day. I really regret not getting to see more of the city and see some of its attractions, but we did a fair bit of walking and went up and down the Royal Mile so we got to see some of the city. I even had a serving of Haggis for supper, which despite peoples ideas of what it might taste like, was actually pretty good. I have the policy of trying everything once.