Highland tour 2006 pt. 1

Highland Tour 2006

So, in my last entry I mentioned that the weekend was whole lot busier, and boy I was not kidding. Let me explain what we did and why. Several of the others guys who I live with here in Glasgow are from the Highlands. Iain is from Inverness and Jaime is from outside of Fort William. Since we had a long weekend this week I figured it would be a good time to go for a little tour and Jaime and Iain were keen to show us around. So, Friday afternoon we (and by we I really mean 8 of us) hustled for the train off campus and made our way to the bus and a highland tour.

The bus trip was an adventure. It’s about a 3 ½ hour bus ride to Inverness from Glasgow so we had a pretty extensive trip. Now, I rarely like travelling by bus in Canada, but in the UK I might like it even less. They have discount bus lines which are more crowded, have poorer seats and generally very uncomfortable. We drove for an 1 ¼ to Perth, stood outside at the bus stop for 15 minutes, climbed on the bus to Inverness and drove another 2+ hours way up north. It was ok, I mostly read ( it was too dark for photos) and arrived in Inverness with no idea what to expect.

Fortunately Iain had arranged for a few of his friends to meet us at the bus station in Inverness and they took us all off to play a little bowling. It was good times! Lots of fun was had and we all admitted to being whipped from all the travel. When we were done bowling we went off to where Iain is living with his girlfriend and her family. Leah (Iain’s girlfriend) and her mother had graciously agreed to let the three of us (Mark, Martin, and myself) stay with them, while the others stayed with Jaime in Fort William (Lauren, Melissa, and Andy…they went separately on Friday night). We made plans to meet up with the other bunch on Saturday and then we largely just headed for bed.

On Saturday we headed for Loch Ness, but instead of hunting Nessie we visited Urquart castle which is right on the shore of Loch Ness. It was a beautiful day, as the photos will clearly show, and it was a super morning. Now, don’t worry, we didn’t forget about Nessie, we just had other things we wanted to see, although I did get some neat pictures of the old girl. Take a look for yourself.

If you are familiar with Scottish football (yes soccer…they call it football) then you know that the two biggest clubs in the Premier League are Celtic and Rangers. When they play the whole country comes to a standstill. Well, at 12:30pm on Saturday Celtic and Rangers played once again and we were forced to go and watch. We went back to Leah’s place and watched the game. Final score…Celtic 2…Rangers 0. However, after the match, back on tour we went.

We drove into Inverness and walked around the centre of the city. It is beautiful!! As we were walking along the river we stumbled across a small park and found that it had a putting green. Sweet! So after a quick Ice cream stop, we borrowed some putters and balls and played a little mini putt. I wasn’t much good and Iain won handily (he goes golfing regularly). We walked back down the river into the town…took some more pictures, and headed off for Leah’s place once again.

Back at Leah’s place we waited for a bit for Jaime and crew to show up and then we all had dinner together. Leah’s mother cooked an enormous meal for all 9 of us (obviously including Leah…for those who were trying to do the math) and was spectacular. We had fresh salads, pasta, and a really nice evening. Once we were all done we headed over to the local pub, which was just down the lane and was really very cute and had an enjoyable evening. It was really good. We headed back to Leah’s place where we all crashed and made ready for a busy day on Sunday.

This post is getting really long…so I’ll write Sunday up in a bit…but there’s more to come. Fret not. Stay tuned.

Al the best from Scotland,

Bruce