On Thursday, about 20 of us from Richmond took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland! (We took Platform 9 3/4 pics at King's Cross Station before hoping on our train!) We had the evening to explore, so we found the cafe where J.K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter and her inspiration for Hogwarts as well as the grave stones of Harry Potter characters, Tom Riddle and Professor McGonagall in Greyfriars Kirkyard cemetery! Next we checkout Edinburgh castle and walked along the charming Royal Mile (main drag in town with shops and pubs/cafes, etc.). This is where nobility has historically paraded through Edinburgh to get to the castle! Lastly, we enjoyed a traditional Scottish dinner at Albanach's Whisky Bar!
Saturday we went to the Island of Skye!! The scenery was absolutely breathtaking! Highlights of this day included: meeting some hairy coos (special Scottish breed of cows), Eilean Donan Castle (Disney/Pixar based the castle in BRAVE off of Eilean Donan! and it is also featured in the movie "Made of Honor"), Jacobite Roderick Mackenzie grave site, heard the story of "Bloody Mary" and the history of the Jacobites, Giant's knuckle mountain, Fairy Wish Waterfall (where if you take a drink and spit out the water on this one special rock your wish is sure to come true!), Kilt Rock and viewpoint where you can hear fairy music, the five sister mountains in the Glen, and the healing river! We also saw many deer, goats, and sheep with their babies too!! The whole island is very mystical and tons of movies have been filmed there including: Braveheart, Monte Python (saw the castle), Pirates of the Caribbean, Macbeth, Outlander, Stardust, and Harry Potter (we also saw the location of Hagrid's hut!) It was also SUPER windy there... at the highest viewpoints we had to be really carefully because the wind could have easily knocked you right over!
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After dinner back at the lodge, we went to see a show about life in the highlands! It was really funny and interesting to learn about the clothing, weaponry, and culture of Scottish clans throughout history!
By the end of the evening it was great to hang out in the pub with people from our group as well as others staying at our hostel! There was a pub quiz, and I even won a round of shots for everyone there... it was very exciting!! =)
On Sunday, we spent most our day exploring the Highlands some more before heading back to London! Highlights of this day included: Loch Locky, Commando WW2 Memorial Site, Inverlocky Castle, Massacre at Glencoe Memorial (Campbell clan attacked the McDonald clan in the middle of the night... a very sad part of Scottish history and any Campbells are still not welcome in Glencoe), Highland Hospitality, Weeping Glen, Glen Shepherd Rock, Stirling Castle, and the Wallace Memorial!
What a trip!! I loved the traditional storytelling, castles, terrific views, music, and I almost forgot, we saw TONS of rainbows throughout the weekend!!! It was raining off and on the whole time, and we must have seen at least three rainbows each day... it added to the magic of the trip!! Feeling so blessed to have experienced so many terrific adventures this semester!!! Only one month to go here... and I plan on taking advantage of every minute!! =)
