canny good: Day 7: Scottish Highlands + Loch Ness

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9

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Today's bus tour with the Hairy Coo bus company around the Scottish Highlands and Look Ness was lovely. We saw some highland cows (or "hairy coos" as our driver called them) and highland ponies on the way up.

Our driver Graham was a funny, crazy, yet informative Scottish man who kept the ride interesting. One of our first pit stops was Doune Castle, where they filmed pretty much every castle scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I was over the moon, even though it was closed and we were only there for about 5 minutes.

We then made our way up the Scottish Highlands. Years ago, when I did the highlands bus tour, I told myself that's where I wanted to live if I could retire anywhere in the world. And today I was reminded why. Gorgeous, rugged mountainscapes and lakes (or "lochs") everywhere you turn. I felt my heart ache a bit when we turned the corner into Glencoe - one of the most breathtaking areas of the highlands. No pictures can do it justice. In a weird way, it felt like I was coming home. We had pretty good weather too - partly to mostly cloudy, but not a drop of rain. It was quite cold though, dropping down to the 20's. Plenty of frost on the ground and a bit of snow on the mountaintops.

We then arrived at Loch Ness and took a boat tour around the lake. No Nessie sightings this time, but I still believe (See my blog post from last time if you don't believe).

By the time we left Loch Ness at 3:45pm, it was getting dark again. A couple of short pit stops at the Commando Memorial & in Pitlochery later, we were back in Edinburgh by 8pm.

Tomorrow we'll have a few more hours to kill in the city before our flight back to Dublin. The trip is winding down & we'll be back home soon!

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Travel tips:

Souvenir clothing: This is a sheer personal opinion, but I don't buy touristy shirts with big, "GUINNESS STOREHOUSE" or "I HEART NY" or "VISIT EDINBURGH" writing across the chest. When I shop anywhere, even at home, I don't buy clothing with a lot words on it. So I'd hate to buy a souvenir t-shirt somewhere and then never wear it because it's not my style. Instead, I buy stuff that's part of my normal style, that I'd wear every day. I have a black hat from Newcastle, a scarf and jacket from Sunderland, some shoes from Paris, and now a *new* gray toboggan from Dublin. I wear them all the time. And every time I wear them, I think to myself, "I got this in ___." Other people might not know I visited these cool places when I wear the hat, but it reminds me of my trip and warms my heart.
Small world: Don't listen to your mom on this one; DO talk to strangers. Find out about them and where they're from. You may find the world is smaller than you thought. For instance, our Ireland bus driver Paul had been to Charlotte and had friends who lived in Ballantyne. In Edinburgh, we ran into a couple wearing an App State hat who, as we soon learned, lived in Raleigh. Years ago in Pisa, I had met some fellow App State students because they were carrying a Harris Teeter bag. And last time in Edinburgh, I met a lady in our hostel who had a house in Blowing Rock. It's a small world, after all.