Inverness Weekend - Day 2

Greetings all!

On Day 2 of our Inverness trip, we started by visiting the Cairngorm mountains, which are awesome. Unfortunately, it was too windy for us to ride a little rail carriage through the mountains, but we got to see them and we also attended an educational presentation about flora and fauna in the Cairngorms, which are radically different than flora and fauna in the rest of Scotland because the tips of the Cairngorms are actually above the clouds...Or something like that.

Here's a picture of Sarah and a 5,000 tree trunk.

And here's a picture of the general beauty of the Cairngorms:
Sarah: I promise I didn't up the saturation on that photo.


One of the coolest things about going to the Cairngorms was learning about a new eco-friendly initiative for all hikers/campers who visit the area. It's called the Cairngorm Poo Project. Instead of letting the visitors use the Earth as a toilet -- and instead of providing them with toilets that would send the waste into the local streams or lochs (lakes) -- everyone bags their own waste and disposes it at a poo disposal point. The waste then travels to a special water treatment facility.
After the Cairngorms we went to another distillery. This time it was the Glenlivet Distillery. It was pretty cool, but just not as cool as the Glenfiddich Distillery that we already visited.
Sarah: Ya, that's basically all we do in Scotland. Another day, another distillery.

After the distillery we went on a cruise! Okay, it wasn't a cruise that we are familiar with; instead of the gorgeous, bright, warm Caribbean, we saw the dark, cold, mysterious Loch Ness. We searched for Nessy intently but she eluded us this time.

The cruise took us to the Urquhart Castle. It was mostly ruins but there were still a few awesome structures, such as a stairwell in which I performed a reenactment of a hostile invader preparing to put an end to the unjust oppression of the local dictatorial royalty:
Of course, due to my inexperience with hostile takeovers, I had to hold onto the roped guardrail and my most formidable weapon besides my limbs was my glasses.


This is Sarah's William Wallace impression (with more cuteness and less sword):
Finally, we stopped at Glencoe, where are more stunningly massive mountains. I believe it was Sir Walter Scott (or some other famous Scots literary figure) who said Glencoe was a "burial ground for giants." It made me feel like I was in the Lord of the Rings. I searched for hobbit-sized beings but only found sheep.
Sarah: The name of this formation is 'The Three Sisters'. There's a third peak outside the frame of this pic. Anyway, we thought that was interesting because there's a bar right next to our apartment block called the Three Sisters, and on Wednesdays we can hear their sound system all night long. Kind of like a lullaby.

Zach: Not really....especially when they play such a weird playlist as Johnny Cash, Alanis Morrisette, and Nickelback at 2am.

Cheers!
Zach and Sarah

Inverness Weekend - Day 1

Happy Sunday!

Sorry for a bit of blogging delay; our school work has been rather intense lately but I'm finally able to catch up with our beautiful adventures.

The weekend directly following the Isle of Skye, we went on a trip to Inverness (a mid-sized city in northern Scotland), as well as other places in between. It was arranged by our orientation organization, IFSA-Butler, so we didn't have to worry about transportation or where we were going to sleep, which was fantastic. We had to leave our flats at the wonderful hour of 7:00 AM (or so). We had to walk to another dorm building in order to get to the buses, which is relevant because it was rainy and there were (approximately) 30 MPH winds. We stopped to get coffee/breakfast at Starbucks (a silly American moment) and then realized we were running late. Sarah was... stressed. We spilled lots of coffee, but we made it!

Sarah: I burnt my fingers, but I was glad for caffeine. Isn't it funny that sometimes I freak about about being late and Zach is the optimistic one, and sometimes Zach freaks out really bad and I couldn't be bothered? I guess its good that usually one of us cares, or we'd never get anywhere.

Our first stop was the Scone Palace (pronounced Skoon.. I was repeatedly corrected for calling it the equivalent of a Pastry Palace). It's an important Scottish place because for a while it housed the Stone of Destiny (a large sandstone brick), which is what the Kings of the Scots sat on during coronation. I actually encourage some further reading about the Stone of Destiny; it has an interesting history (e.g., the English took it and put it in the throne in Westminster Abbey to be used in English kings' coronation ceremonies, to symbolise the fact that England is "Lord Paramount" of Scotland with right to oversee Scotland's king.)

Sarah: Gives another meaning to the phrase, "I'm gonna sit on you!"

Enough history, here are two pics outside the Palace, which is made of red sandstone.


One of the coolest things we did at the palace was watch a falconry display. Falconry is a Scots tradition; men would take their birds of prey hunting to help catch food to eat. Basically, a guy showed us three sweet-looking birds. This next pic is an owl.


Sarah: HEDWIG!


After the Scone Palace we made a pit stop for lunch in Pitlochry, a small town. Sarah and I actually had Indian food, which we've discovered to be a pretty Scottish thing to do. Following the lunch break, we arrived at an incredible sheepdog farm. It was one of the coolest places I have ever been. (I'm quite the sucker for smelly animals.) The first thing I noticed at the farm were the uncountable sheepdogs. I estimate that there were fifteen, not including puppies (which were adorable and still blind). The next thing I noticed were SHEEP, the most under-appreciated of all farm animals. Everyone in the group wanted to pet the dogs but no one wanted to see the sheep, so I gave them some attention. They might not be smart (well, they actually aren't smart at all, in any way), but I think they're cute.

Then we got to see the farmer shear a sheep! I was worried that the poor animal would get hurt, but it doesn't hurt at all. For those who want a visual exercise, try to count all the dogs in the picture.



Sarah: Okay, really look at the above picture. The sheep is UPSIDE DOWN. When sheep get freaked out, they just go kind of limp. The farmer was holding the sheep's head up by one of it's horns, and when he let go, the sheep just kind of toppled over (like it was dead or something). It was fine, just ridiculous looking.


We also got to see the dogs herd the sheep! It was amazing. The farmer had over 20 commands for each dog, which were combinations of musical whistles and Gaelic commands.


Then, we got to feed the sheep! The farmers gave us little milk bottles, and the sheep frantically demolished them. They also tried to steal the bottles.

Meanwhile, the farmers brought out all the puppies. Many of the females in our group rushed to pick them up as if they were going to steal them. We actually had to queue to get one. (Queue = British talk for wait in line. It also takes on a noun form.)

After the farm, we drove to Inverness. It's a nice city, and it's somewhat new (it was given city-status in 2000). We had dinner and went to a couple pubs. The most memorable moment of the night was a near-fight between two drunken locals and a guy in our group. We were standing on a bridge, taking pictures, being Americans, and two guys walked by us. One of them drunkenly said, "Ohhh, Americans! Cowabunga, dude!" Then one of the guys in our group walked up and said, "You like Ninja Turtles, too!" To put it briefly, our fellow American had an alcoholic drink in his hand and the local... wanted the drink. I backed away slowly... thankfully the locals kept walking after seeing that they were not going to get the drink.

Well, that's about all of day 1. The day 2 post should be finished soon!

From the land of the Scots,
Zach