Huge-Ass Inverness Weekend

I can't keep up! I've got so many things to write about and so many pictures I want to post and not enough time to do them any justice. Right now I should be reading lecture notes, but instead I've decided to catch up a little bit with my blog. I'm only a month behind now . . . . .

We left at 8:00am, which my body interely did not approve of. As demonstration of it's disapproval, it decided to sleep through the alarm and not become conscious until about 7:55 when Celeste called. No time for breakfast, I barely managed to dress, grabbed my bag and ran out the door. I am happy to report that I was not the last one on the bus! I am, however, unhappy to report that I didn't manage to get my camera packed because it was charging overnight. That means all the following pictures are stolen, which I will also use as my excuse in case they are of poor quality. That means we're taking another trip back in time! This time were going to Friday the 13th of Oct (creepy, I know).

After about an hour, our little Stirling group joined up with the IFSA kids from Glasgow, Edinburgh, and St Andrews (130 people in total!!) and we headed off for our first stop.

Scone Palace (that's pronounced "skoon" for all you US Americans out there). You can see it on the left there. What's really awesome about it is that it has been continuously inhabited for a bunch of centuries, and we were only allowed to visit the bottom floor because the top floor is the living space of the family! Imagine living in a Palace. That's crazy. It was really lavish but we couldn't take any pictures inside, so just imagine it for me.



While we were there we also got to see a falconry display. I'm not quite sure how these events were related, but it was pretty cool to see. The one on the right was the best trained and the oldest, but the owl was hilarious! The best way to discribe it is by comparing it to a cat. Just in the attitude. It wouldn't do anything the trainer asked until it was sure that there was going to be a good chunk of food at the end. So funny.



Also near the palace was the chapel/church were all of the kings (of scotland I'm pretty sure) had been corinated. It was gated on the inside, so I couldn't do more than just look in.












And, of couse, there was a graveyard. I've been seeing a lot of those lately. I think I'm drawn to them because they tend to be very green and overgrown and quiet. Not a lot of tourists in the graveyard unless there's some one famous buried there.







Then back on the bus! Obviously we're college students, and this whole "getting up at 7:30am" thing is wreaking havoc on our systems. I managed to get a couple of good shots of the snoozing beauties. That's Mary and Marguerite, and then Gregg and Daniel. Such Cuties.











The next stop was a working sheepdog farm in Kingussie. It was actually quite amazing. The guy had about 12 sheepdogs (all Border Collies of course) and he could command them each with individualized sounds from a whistle. He did a demonstration and sent one of the dogs out to round up maybe 20 sheep and bring them back. Then he would tell the dog which way to drive them, which direction to circle; he could even tell the dog to just lie down where it was. Now, this was all about 1000-1500 feet away. Absolutely amazing. Appearently there aren't many sheepdog farms left because there was environmental laws passed that crippled them, and then they retrospectively realized that the sheep were a necessary element to the loval environment and now they're trying to reverse the damage. I'm shady on details though.

Oh, and he used ducks to train the puppies!! Soooo cute. I wanted to steal them all.






















We also got to watch/help him shear a sheep.


I want to take you home with me!!!














That night we got to our hostel in Inverness and went out to a pub called Hootinanny's. And with a name like that, of course we had a great time! They had some delicious ales from the Black Isle Brewery, which I enjoyed immensly. In fact, I enjoyed them so much that I convinced Celeste to carry me! (Don't worry, I'm not as drunk as I look in that picture. I promise. Is that a little wierd for y'all? Yeah, little ol' Q enjoys his beer. Oh well, moving on)















The next day we went to Cairn Gorm Mountain, as you can see from the sign below.

To get to the top, we took this interesting train kinda thing. There are two carraiges, and they are connected to each other so that they can operate as counter weights against each other. The track was built with one line most of the way, but it divides for about 50 feet in the middle into two tracks so that the trains can pass each other. Pretty impressive I thought, and probably the most efficient use of energy. There was also all this jazz about how they had taken 50 billion pictures of the landscape when they were building the track and when they moved a rock or a piece of moss they were sure to put it back exactly where it came from. ... Maybe a little over the top, eh? Dad, Karen, (anyone else) why would they be worried about being sooo exact?


From the top, the views were pretty awesome. We only had a few minutes before the clouds rolled in though. Once the clouds surrounded us, it kinda felt like buckhorn on those years when we couldn't see from one lodge to the next for all the fog.























Nathan should like this next part. Our next stop was the Glen Grant Whisky Distillery. We got a tour of the distillery and then got to taste the two malt whisky's they produce. The process starts very much like beer. No hops though. Malt, water, yeast. But then they distill it 3 times by basically boiling it in a thing like the one in the picture below. That helps seperate the alcohol from the water. Then when it's around 50-60% ABV, they stick it in casks to age. The ones we tasted were a 12 year old in a bourbon cask, and a 6 year old in a sherry cask. The Sherry was delicious. A lot heavier and sweeter.



This is where they stored a tiny amount of the barrels they age it in. I think it was warehouse number 7, out of maybe 12? It was the only one still on the same property as the distillery.













Behind the Distillery there was a lovely garden where Mr. Grant would go to entertain his guests. He was also awesome enough to have a safe built into a rock so that he could store a bottle of whisky and couple glass to offer his justs a wee dram after viewing the gardens! How awesome is that! Here is the path leading into the garden.










Then back to Inverness for some more Hootinanny's and stories from Dave, our scottish guide. And some food and sleep.


On Sunday we get up early and head out to get on a boat, which took us about half way down the very long Loch Ness. Sadly, not very exciting. No monster sightings, and lots of cold stinging wind. I took more pictures with Mary's camera, but I haven't gotten them yet, so this is all you get.










Our boat then landed at Urquhart Castle on the shore of Loch Ness. This was a very pretty castle, and the sun had decided to come out by now. The only problem was, we only had about half an hour here, and it was full of tourists. Not the best combination. I would like to go back some time when it's empty and just wander around and enjoy the views of Loch Ness.













Then we started heading towards home, but on the way we stop at the most amazing place I've seen here so far. The only name I have is Glencoe, but I don't know if that's the name of the mountains, the valley, the exact spot we were, or what. Whatever it was though, it was absolutely beautiful. This picture doesn't even begin to do it justice. Big rolling peaks with streams cascading down the sides. Patches of lush green trees. Some crags sticking out here and there. I wanted to just start walking and climbing and wander around for a full day and see where I ended up. But no. Instead, we got 20 minutes to frickin' take pictures. That was it. I was so pissed. I am definitely going back there.











And that was it! We hit a little gift shop on the way home, but nothing too exciting.

It's nice to have a beautiful campus to come back home to though. It makes it feel less sad when you get back from an amazing trip. The wallace monument still makes me smile everytime I walk outside my room.


I love you guys and think of you often! An update of more current stuff is coming soon, so just hold your horses till then.