Shows, Shows, and More Shows

Macbeth: Who is that Bloodied Man? was good. I think if I had read the play I would've known what was actually going on, instead of being solely amused by the stilts, fire, rolling lawn mower of beheaded ..heads, and the added bonus of motorbikes. Yeah. It was strange.

Best of Scottish Comedy was a typical stand-up comedy club/show, except everyone talked so fast I barely understood them half the time. Additionally, they had "standing room only". More amusing was the guy dressed up in a penguin costume all day (Stag party).

I was home around midnight to catch the fireworks over Edinburgh Castle from the window in my hallway:

International Students Trip

Who says Thursday can't be a little fun?

I ended up in Dunkeld again. So I crossed the bridge over the River Tay and ended up in Birnam (as in Beatrix Potter's childhood vacation home...or "Birnam Woods" from Macbeth). I had to cover my ears as Fiona revealed the plot to Macbeth. I really should become literate again. Anyways. Photos.


Blair Castle with a wee piper.

Blair Castle without the piper (and generally a fuller view).

The Falls of Bruar. Slowly becoming commercialized...the ice cream is okay.

And last, Edradour Distillery. The smallest whisky distillery in Scotland.

Isle of Skye Trip

Friday

I knew the trip was starting off well, when I saw a rainbow on my way down the hallway on my flat (photo is darkened so that maybe you can actually see the rainbow):

From here on, I'll just list photos/things we saw.


A monument to William Wallace, built sometime in the late 1800s. The guides spent a fair amount of time dispelling lies from "Braveheart".


The view from atop the Wallace monument, supposedly you can see seven battle grounds. We had only 15 minutes here, but Thomas and I decided to climb the 67m up anyways


Next up was Hamish, the highlander cow (or "hairy coo"). Apparently voted sexiest animal of 2007 (some ingredient from the cow's horn is used in Viagra...)


Next up was Glencoe (Gaelic for "Valley of Tears" due to the numerous waterfalls)


Glencoe is the site where the Campbell Clan broke the Highlander hospitality rules, and killed the MacDonalds who were their hosts on February 13, 1692. Campbells are still generally disliked in this region.


We stayed at Fort Augustus on the shores of Loch Ness both nights. This photo is of the ferry that gives one hour tours of Loch Ness, along with sonar images taken from the bottom.


The boat departs at 8pm...


But tonight happened to be the date of the monthly Loch Ness "Booze Cruise". 4 hours of live music and ferrying around Loch Ness. Once you get on...you can't get off the boat. Our guides noted how dressed up the locals weree; this monthly booze cruise appears to be the event of the month.


The turn around point was Urquhart Castle (above).

Saturday

Saturday started off with another rainbow, seen here over a loch.




We even got to see the end of the rainbow! It was the brightest rainbow I've ever seen.


Next was Eilean Donan Castle, rebuilt in 1932.


"The money shot" of Eilean Donan Castle. It appeared in a James Bond film, and was the scene of the "Highlander" movie.




Then we stopped by a stream that supposedly makes you beautiful, so half the bus stuck their face into it. There was a story associated with it, how a beautiful young Highlander clan princess was to marry a clan prince. When she was rushing to her wedding her horse slipped and she slammed her face into some rocks, losing her eye. When the prince saw how ugly she had become, he determined it was some sort of treason, and he killed her attendants. Somehow everything became right when she put her face into the water.


We stopped for lunch in the fishing village of Portree.


Then we walked up Fairy Falls, which is called Fairy Falls because anyone who does not believe in fairies falls on their way down. It was very slippery (all grass and water).


The Old Man of Storr once was an old giant and his wife. The old woman became too old to climb to the top of the mountain and gossip with her husband. When the fairies found out, they turned them both to stone. The Old Woman (which fell a few years ago) had a weak hip, which lead to her crumbling. Now all that's left is the Old Man.


Kilt Rock (the formation in the back) is so named because it looks like a kilt. An Irish giant tried to woo a Scottish giant-ess, but when he found out that she had a husband, he decided to fight the husband. The giant-ess had her husband take the place of a giant baby, and hung a giant kilt up to dry so as to make the Irish giant think her husband was much larger than he. It worked, and the Irish giant tore up the bridge he had built and never came back.


We stopped at a Dynamite mine, which was very pretty.




Sheep scaling the edges of the cliff at the Dynamite mine.


The way back. Straight up.


Pretty scenery on the way back to the hostel.


A shot of one of the locks on the Caledonian Canal back at Fort Augustus.


The canal at Fort Augustus links Loch Ness with Loch Oich.

Sunday

Another view of Urquhart Castle.


The moors at Culloden where Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Highlander troops were massacred by British troops.


4,000 year old Burial Cairns made of rocks from 25 miles away.


The last stop was at the Cathedral at Dunkeld where I bought myself some honeycomb ice cream and butter tablet (which is like butter flavored fudge. Sort of.)




The Cathedral is on the banks of the River Tay, pictured above.

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All in all a good but exhausting trip...and despite spending two nights right next to it, I know absolutely nothing about Loch Ness, lol.

6 Bus Trips, One Day

Today I got my money out of my Ridacard bus pass...

Craigmillar Castle

I hopped on a bus going east and went to Craigmillar Castle, a few miles outside of the city. This castle was where Mary Queen of Scots sheltered after the murder of her friend Rizzio, and also where plans were made to murder Mary's husband, Darnley.






Edinburgh Castle can be seen on the hill to the left. There is one smaller hill next to a larger hill on the right. I believe the smaller one is Arthur's Seat.

Just before it began raining (of course) I got on the bus and headed back to the city.

Botanical Gardens

The gardens were nice and green. The only excitement was that I missed my stop the first time, and ended up in a residential part of town by the sea. I figured it out though, and eventually ended up where I meant to be.


There was a very nice/large rock garden, emulating plant terrain in the Himilayas.

I had lunch at the cafe, and then headed back into town (once again).

Harry Potter

Met up with some of the international students to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was good. There was a scene or two they rushed through too much. Death shouldn't be a 5 second thing. Afterwards we attempted to find a pub without a cover, which is tricky on a Saturday night...but we found one. It was full of hen parties, lol. Kinda strange, but whatever.

Falkland Palace, St. Andrews, and Pittenweem

Another International Students trip, another day of quaint villages and crumbling castles.

Falkland (Palace)

First, the quaint village...

Falkland Palace is technically owned by the queen, but it has been under the care of keepers for hundreds of years.

...In 1402 the eldest son of King Robert III of Scotland was imprisoned at Falkland Palace, and died there due to starvation. The Scots have this great culture where it seems that someone important has been murdered at every castle.

It is also the home of the oldest tennis courts in the world. The precursor to lawn tennis, royal tennis (very exciting, I know):

St. Andrews

Next it was onto St. Andrews, the home of golf and the centre of much activity during the Reformation.

Since St. Andrews was the seat of the Bishop (and the seat of Catholicism in Scotland), much violence during the Reformation focused here. Many of the cathedrals have crosses marked on the ground where prominent Reformers had been burned at the stake by the Bishop to prove a point.

The Bishop lived in St. Andrews Castle. At some point in time, the Castle had been overtaken by Reformers and the Bishop's body was thrown into the bottle dungeon. There is an underground siege tunnel that goes from someone's basement to the castle, where the Catholics tried to gain back the castle. The occupiers dug three different tunnels to try and intercept the others. the third was successful.

And then St. Andrews Cathedral...which has been blown down by storms twice, burnt down once, and pillaged in the 16th century. It was once one of the largest and most magnificent cathedrals in Britain.




St. Rules tower, all that remains of the original church.


The view from St. Rules Tower


Only at the seat of the governing body of golf would there be a golf headstone.


???

After being all castle-ed and church-ed out, we went for a walk on the beach (after the castle, we all were essentially let loose on the city, which was very nice). I found some of the most delicious ice cream ever. Vanilla with chunks of butter "tablet" (i.e. butter fudge) in it.


Must pass the Old Course to get to the beach...


St. Andrews from the beach


See, proof that I was there.

Pittenweem

And as a final bonus trip, we stopped at the fishing village of Pittenweem on our way back. Of course, it began to rain. But we had nothing but nice weather earlier in the day, which was very un-Scotland-like.