Haggis Scotland Tour - 13th November 2006
It
was an early start as I hauled my backpack the 20 metres from my Hostel to
the Haggis Office across the road. Most of my new fellow tour mates were
already congregating out the front. At first none seemed to be very lively,
possibly something to do with the early morning dreary Scottish weather. I
gave a few smiles then stood around waiting for some Haggis person to show
up. While waiting I secretly checked everyone out, as you do on tours, and
came to the conclusion that everyone seemed normal, and thank god for no
groups of teenybopper girls. One up on Contiki already!
The doors soon opened and we filed through to check in. Some sort of identification was required so I pulled out my Drivers Licence which was immediately spotted by some fellow West Australians. Rod and Sarah were from Bunbury and back outside we chatted. Another guy, Rob, jumped in when he overheard where we were from as he was a Perthie too. Sue heard this and also piped up that she was a WA girl. Suddenly there was conversation and the insta-friends syndrome came into effect. Have I mentioned how much I love tours?
We were soon given a Tour Guide/Driver in the form of Laura. She was a Scottish lass who seemed very excited to be back doing Scottish Haggis tours as opposed to the English ones she'd be doing recently. We quickly piled our backpacks into the ass end of the coach and boarded the wee blue beastie.
I opted to be a backseat bandit with Sue as we found there was a lot more leg room up there. Laura got on the mic up front and went through a basic rundown of the tour and a few rules for the bus, then we were on our way!
She drove us through the city of Edinburgh, making
hilarious sadistic comments along the way of her urges to run over the
cyclists - I was liking her already!
Shortly out of Edinburgh we came to Stirling where we were to visit the tallest monument in the world that is to a person that's not JC. It was, the William Wallace Memorial. Stuck high up a mountain was a big tower in his memory. The area being significant as it was the site of the battle of Stirling Bridge. What was perhaps more memorable was a small statue at the bottom of the mountain. It was a Braveheart statue in Mel Gibsons likeness, although a really bad likeness. The locals were embarrassed about it and I was embarrassed for them.
Once we were on the open road we were hit with a plethora of sickeningly beautiful scenery. We pulled aside to take a photo at one particularly photogenic site (see main photo at top), and Laura sprung on us that this is where we would do a round of introductions. We stood around in a circle and had a go at telling everyone about ourselves. I could hardly even remember faces at this point so it was a bit hard remembering names and info, although Glen stood out and I automatically remembered his name when he said something along the lines of,
"My name is G, its short for Glen, but easier to remember."
Something like that anyway. It came to my turn and I was two sentences in when it started raining. Laura got us to go back on the coach. Half of me was glad I might have got away with it but the attention whore half was screaming for the spotlight to come back haha. It came back. I gave a quick run down, the usual name, location, job. No chance though for any jokes like on Contiki, but oh well, my job got a few laughs.
We
bused on heading towards the Isle of Skye. Laura spoke constantly on the mic
while driving and told us plenty of lil fairie tales which I thought quite
entertaining. A few stops were made. The first being a visit to see
Hamish, the Hairy Coo! He stood in a small paddock beside the road near a
wool mill. He was gorgeous!! So there he was, seemingly smiling at us,
turning his head in a slow movement as though he were making sure everyone
got a face front shot of him. He later came over to the fence. I was highly
amused as my voice reached chipmunk style while I coo'd over the Coo. That
Hamish, he's so hot right now.
Next was a lunch stop with Skanky soup the highlight of the menu. I know its called something like that anyway, basically smoked fish soup, I opted out of that one and got the macaroni cheese instead. I sat with Annie and Glen and got to know them a bit better (and learnt names!) Had a quick look in the obligatory gift shop before we moved on.
A few visits along the way included a whisky shop, trying to find Ben Nevis through the clouds (UK's highest mountain at 1344m) and being told that Haggis buses are commonly used as target practice by the military, which use the area for training.
Just before reaching Skye we stopped at a castle called Eilean Donan on Loch Duich. It had got quite dark by this stage and the castle was lit up quite nicely. Laura told us that it had been in a few movies, including Highlander, Tomorrow Never Dies, Entrapment and a range of others. We didn't go inside as the plan was to visit after we'd been to Skye.
It was pitch black as we drove over the long bridge that connected the Isle of Skye to the mainland. Our hostel was just off to the left in a micro-village called Kyleakin. The hostel, Saucy Mary's. Saucy Mary's was named after a Viking queen of some sort that ruled the island with her husband, presumably a Viking king. Mary would charge ships a toll as they passed through the area and the Saucy part of her name came from her apparently flashing her rack at the ship after they had paid the toll. Obviously one classy chick.
It seemed that we were the only ones staying at Marys, in fact it seemed that we were the only gays in the village, the place seemed deserted. We paid up the room price, I was to be sharing with Alice and Rachael, and we all settled into our rooms before heading to the bar for a feed and drinks. I noticed that they served Magners, the UK equivalent of the Irish Bulmers which I had developed a taste for while travelling in Ireland. £3, bargain!
Sat around and got to know everyone. Whispers of "What's their name?" were pretty constant, but I was confident of being able to name half the bus by the end of the night.
Day Two - Isle of Skye
After a mediocre breakfast it was back on the bus so we could go explore the Isle of Skye.
The Isle is actually quite big and comprises of two main
mountain ranges, the Red Cuillin and the Black Cuillin, the red range is a
lot smoother and well, red, and the black range is a lot more imposing with
its black jagged skyline. Not far into our day trip we stopped at Sligachan
River. Laura told us one of the first of many fairie folk stories. It was
basically about an arranged marriage between two hotties in rival clans, but
on the day of the wedding the bride was out a riding when she either got
hijacked or fell off her horse, either way her face hit a rock and she
became horriblly disfigured, including a dangly eye ball which had popped
out of its socket. Anyway, so her lil handmaidens tried to patch it up as
best they could and made her promise to only take off the bridal veil at the
end of the ceremony. So off course they get married, the dude announces "You
may kiss the bride", the groom takes off the veil and gags. He pretty much
sends her packing, his Clan thinking the other Clan had done it on purpose
and the poor lass runs away to the river for a cry. The fairie folk see her,
feel a bit sorry for her and say
that if she plants her face in the river for 7 seconds she'll be forever
beautiful. So she does. There was a catch to this story, there always is
when fairie folk are concerned, but I forget. Maybe she lived forever or
became a hill or something. Anyway, so now it was our groups turn to 'look
beautiful forever'. Laura showed us how it was done and one by one a handful
of the group decided to get a quick face lift in the river. It was pretty
funny and we all got a good laugh. A few more photographs of the area,
including a weird looking cone shaped mountain called Glamain and we were
back on the road.
We stopped shortly after at the main village on the island, called Portree and had a look around. It was quite quaint with that ye olde world highland charm. The bakery here came highly recommended by Laura so most of us dropped by for a snack. The place was amazingly cheap and I got a sausage roll, piece of shortbread and an Iron-Bru for about £1.60. Iron-Bru is the biggest selling soft drink in Scotland, even surpassing Coke, but I still think it tastes like a mix between red creaming soda and bubblegum hehe. It was here outside the bakery that we spotted a little old man walking up the road in a kilt. Annie and I went into commando mode as she ran off to get a photo of him while I filmed him walking up the street but he was just so cute!
It was back on the bus and the last
time we'd see civilisation for a few hours as we coasted along the roads
enjoying the pretty scenery. Regular stops were made for photo opportunities
including a cool little waterfall which overlooked a mountain area called
The Old Man of Storr, Laura had told us a story about the old man, who with
his wee wife would walk up the mountain every night together. But as they
grew older it became harder until one day the wee wife couldn't go but urged
the old man to go on. The old
man once up on the mountain realised that his wee wife would never be able
to join him again and so he had a sad. The fairie folk who had watched them
go up there every night came and offered him a chance for him to always be
with his wee wife wherever he may be and so he accepted. But as Laura told
us, the fairie folk are tricky creatures, and they turned the old man and
his wee wife into giant pillars on the mountain where they still sit today.
Awwwwwww.
An hour or so later, lunch was at a big country house. Haggis was on the menu and a few people tried it. It looked ok but there would be plenty of time to try it later. Most people said it tasted nice though.
We then visited a cemetery where Laura told us stories about some of the inhabitants including a lady called Flora MacDonald who helped Bonnie Prince Charles escape to America. It was all pretty interesting.
A few more photo stops were made before we headed back to the hostel where we had dinner and drinks again.
Day Three - Isle of Skye to Ullapool
An early start as we headed back to the mainland, our destination that night being Ullapool, a small old fishing village on the coast.
We
stocked up on snacks at a supermarket and then made our way back to Eilean
Donan Castle, the one we had seen two nights earlier. Laura made a pit stop
just up the road from the castle to show us what she thought was
ridiculously funny. There was a 'Toilets' sign that when positioned
properly, could be seen to be pointing at the castle in the background. I of
course, had to take this photo. While doing so and getting some nicer photos
of the castle, we heard a large noise that got increasingly louder. A
fighter jet soon came roaring up Loch Duich and straight over the castle. It
was awesome! Thankfully my camera was ready to go so I got some pics of it.
I loved it. Along with big cats roaring, eagles screeching and the
sound of a turbo kicking in in a car, the noise of a fighter jet is high up
there with sounds most likely to send me into orgasmic bliss.
Excitement over we bused over to the castle for a tour. A guy came out in full highland gear and showed us around. It was a pretty cool place. The current owners still live here but most of the castle is on display to the public. Got to see some great old artifacts in one room, including locks of hair from famous royal people. Although the room which was the most intriguing was the kitchen. It had been made to look like a real kitchen, including people, animals and of course food being prepared. Except.... they were all made out of plaster or plastic. It was eerily creepy! It all looked so real! I had to touch everything to made sure it was fake as it looked incredibly realistic.
Of course there was also a gift shop. The lady who worked here was so adorable, she called everyone 'Treasure' and 'Pet' hehehe, so cute. I bought a book on Scottish fairy tales.
Laura had intended to take us on a picnic but it was semi-crap weather so most of us had our supermarket lunch on the bus on the way to some waterfalls where the intended picnic would have been. We went and had a look at them anyway and they were quite cool. There was even a suspended bridge hanging over the river. Took lots of pics and then walked through the forest and back to the bus. It was a bit of a small hike, but well worth it for the prettiness of the place.
We
then headed for Ullapool. When we got there we went straight through the
village and out to a beach nearby where Laura said she had a cool surprise
for us. The beach was covered in perfectly flat round pebble stones, ideal
for skimming. So we all got out and had a rock skimming contest. It was good
to do something different, besides looking at pretty scenery all day.
Then we finally headed back to our hostel. This time I was in one of the bigger dorms with Sarah, Rod, Rob, Rowena and Brent.
It was a cosy place and most of us set up camp in the lounge room while watching the nights entertainment..... a bunch of guys trying to work a DVD/VCR hahaha. At our supermarket stop a few of us had picked up some grog and happily went through most of it in the lounge room, some (ok one) probably would have rethought this had he known the hangover that would hit him in the morning hehe. (I'd blame the home brand cider ;)
Half the group went to a fish and chip shop down the road which came recommended, although when they came back it looked pretty crap. My experience with UK fish and chips is that its all crap but crap can come in different levels so I guess the best crap is good to them. Some of us decided to bail on the fish and chips and went to a bar instead. More Magners!
Later back at the hostel, I crashed early, had a shower and went to bed. Even the symphony of snoring failed to keep me awake for long.
Day Four - Ullapool to Fort Augustus (Loch Ness)
Back on the road and by late morning we had come to Corrieshalloch Gorge. We made our way down to another suspended bridge. Scott had great fun in trying to scare people as he jumped up and down on it. Up along the other side you could walk to a look-out point which came out over the gorge a bit. Again all very pretty.
Next nature stop was at a Caledonian Pine Forest where we were to visit Dughall, the tallest tree in Britain. Had nothing on the Karri trees in Pemberton, but still was all very scenic, especially the ruins that lay about.
We travelled on and finally got to Loch Ness. Commence Nessie spotting now! Headed down one side of the Loch and stopped at Urquhart Castle for a quick photo stop. It looked nice all lit up in the light of dusk.
Our destination for the evening was at the other end of Loch Ness in a small town called Fort Augustus. We were told that the hostel we would be staying in, was haunted *cue creepy music*. Laura told us of some of the eerie things that had happened there, like how things would fly across the room, linen would be dumped on the floors and people would claim that something had brushed their forehead or grabbed their ankles while they lay in bed. I was fine with this whole poltergeist thing until she mentioned the brushing and the grabbing. I don't do touchy-feely ghosts.
It was 'All-you-can-eat Pasta Night' at the hostel, but I feel duped, it should have been named 'All-you-can-eat-while-it-lasts Pasta Night' as not much was replaced once the first bowl had gone.
After
dinner we hung around in the bar. Another Haggis group was also in, but some
of us found them mildly irritating. A karaoke machine was brought out
and although I love karaoke, I wasn't drunk enough to be the first to get up
and belt one out.
Instead we watched a game of drunken Jenga. Admittedly it did prove more entertaining that I originally thought.
A few of us decided to head into town to check out the pub. I was surprised to find Bulmers (the Irish, and original name of Magners) on the menu and promptly ordered one. A few girls from the other tour were there much to Glens delight. Rob and I watched Glen make his moves as we commentated on who was interested in who, who we thought was the hottest, and which lines had the best success rate.
Headed back to the hostel to find the other group had taken over the bar AND the karaoke machine! I watched in envy until they finally seemed to let up and let us join in on the fun. Katie and I eventually decided on doing the Shoop song by Cher. I wasn't sure if it were in my vocal range, but hey I wanted to sing, and didn't want to do a solo haha. It went well, I think. You can never really be sure when you hear yourself sing, I'm sure my brain makes me think I sound better than I do. Later a guy from the other tour started singing Green Days Basketcase. I LOVE singing this song and when the guy faltered and forgot how the song went, I had the trusty second mic in hand and came in on cue to the cheer of his mates. I felt special haha.
Glen though, had to be the most entertaining of the night. Katie being serenaded by the other tour guy, well that was a close second, but Glens take on MC Hammers - You Can't Touch This, with two other guys from the other group, was god damn hilarious.
It was pretty much a blur after this.
Day Five - Loch Ness & Inverness
Today we were to visit the largish Scottish town of Inverness. It was a quick photo op of the Loch, the site where we found that Sean had taken a midnight dip in the Loch the night before!
We made our way back up the Loch and stopped again at Urquhart Castle for more photos.
Back on the bus we rounded the end of
the Loch and pulled in at a tacky Nessie gift shop place, complete with
obligatory fibre-glass giant Nessie out the front. I bought a few things
including a soft toy Nessie and a Hairy Coo. 
A little further on we stopped at a small beach area where Laura taught us how to do a local secret Nessie calling dance/song which remarkably resembled the Haka.
Chanting "Come Nessie, Come Nessie, Come, Come" at the water seemed a bit silly but everyone got in the spirit.
Again back on the bus and headed for Inverness, one of the larger cities in the north of Scotland. As we drove into the city Laura told us that Inverness had been voted the 'The Ugliest City in Scotland'. They didn't mean the architecture, they meant the actual inhabitants. Laura, who was an Invernesian herself was quite offended by this and urged us to ding the little hostess bell above our heads if we saw anyone who was above par in the visual stakes.
The first bell to go off went to a dog. No, a four legged one. A cute little white staffy was sitting in a car next to the bus. The second bell went to another fibre-glass Nessie. Things were not looking good (literally) for the locals.
Laura dropped us off at a shopping centre and gave us directions on general places to go. Unfortunately the city didn't have much going for it for tourists so most of us ended up walking around the shopping centre and grabbing some lunch.
Sarah, Rod, Rob, Scott, Brent and I went to a place called 'The Filling Station'. I usually abhor tacky American restaurants but I have to admit, my steak sandwich with wedges was damn good.
Lunch over we pretty much headed back to the bus. It had started to get quite cold and rainy by then and we huddled together under a trolley area. We waited for the bus for awhile, it finally came, but Pablo our Argentinean had not. We thought maybe he had got lost, but he finally made it. Had it been a Contiki tour, I'm sure the bus would have done a runner in no less than a minute.
A few metres down the road at a round-a-bout, we saw what would be described as one of the highlights of the day. A car covered in snow!!! There were a few snow virgins on the bus, and snow had been forecast for the area, but with only 2 days to go we thought we may miss it. I yelled out to turn right, the direction the car had come from but we turned left. Oh well, still a chance.
Heading down the highway we passed numerous signs warning that snow had been forecast, the bus was starting to get excited. (The majority of the people on the bus, not the actual bus.) Eventually we started seeing sleet hit the windscreen and tiny bits of ice all along the roadside. But it was not until we got back to 'our' side of Loch Ness that we started seeing some real snow! As we neared Fort Augustus it was starting to lay thicker and thicker beside the road. When we finally arrived back in town it was snowing very lightly and ice covered the ground. How exciting!!
We had headed straight into the village to go to a Highland Cultural show of some sort. It was held in a little cottage on the side of the Loch Canal and part of it had been made to look like a traditional Scottish black house. Black houses were what poor Scottish people would live in in the reaaaal old days, think middle ages and onwards. They were thatched houses that housed everything, including the animals. Inside there would be a big fire that was always lit and as there was no hole in the roof to let the smoke out, it only could go out the front entrance thus the whole interior would be black from smoke. Hence being called black houses. The guy who ran the show was pretty interesting. He also had a cool dog. We were told all about the houses and how they were used. The inhabitants had short lives owing to all the smoke and usually died early due to respiratory problems. The occupants also hardly showered, so along with all the muck inside and the animal stuff, they would have been pretty smelly.
The
guy (Ken?) then taught us about tartan and kilts. He himself was dressed in
the full highland peasant garb. He asked for one male volunteer, only Glen
offered. He was stripped to his, well thermals as it seemed and laid on the
ground as Ken? did his thing and voila! Glen was now wearing a traditional
kilt. But no traditional Scottish peasant can be without a wife, so a
volunteer was called for and Katie and Glen became husband and wife. Katie
was not required to remove any clothing as any clothing she was wearing
would add to a nice big booty which Ken? said was a great asset back in the
day. He also had to constantly check that Katie's would be good enough for
the Scots.
Ken? then brought out the big guns! Ok not exactly guns, but weapons all the same. Lovely long swords and broadswords and testicle removers were brought out and of course another volunteer was requested. Ajay, who was from London, was called on for the job. The Scots don't really like the English. Ken? then proceeded to show us in slow motion, just how some of the weapons were used. I'm sure Ajay thought he were about to say goodbye to any chance of future children, but he survived. He celebrated by offering everyone some Whisky he had bought earlier.
Damn, that means at some point we had already gone to the Glen Ord whisky distillery (I thought we went on the last day hah). Ok so we went to the distillery, at some point, that day? And were taken on a tour. It was actually interesting, some weird smells emanated from the place though. At the end we were given a sample shot. I took the tiniest of sips and gagged. Rob was given the rest. Ok back to the black house.
It was then, of course, gift shop time. This tour was just like being on Sale of the Century! 'Ok contestants, its gift shop time!'
The snow had subsided outside and the ground was quite slushy. We went back to the hostel but having now known their idea of dinner, we ditched the 'All-you-can-eat Potato Bonanza!' Fool us once, but not fool us twice.
Instead we headed back into town. It started off as a small group but soon 17 out of the 21 people on tour had come. I remember this number because I saw the look of horror on the waitresses face when we told her how many seats we needed at the pub restaurant. Granted they did a pretty good job. Can't remember what I got for dinner, but the dessert, oh my god, that was good. Actually everyone's dessert looked good. I had the apricot crumble which was really, really nice.
Went back to the hostel for the 'live band' which was pretty much one guy on a guitar. He was alright, but due to Laura constantly playing traditional Scottish folk music on the bus sound system, I was pretty sick of bloody Scottish folk music.
Another tour group was in. They were very annoying hahaha. Particularly the group of girls who had set themselves up at the back and were yelling constant 'Woo's!' and 'Yeh's!' to the singer. One in particular I named Thrusty. The name caught on quick. Thrusty was Russian *coughbullshitcough*, she was really American, but had been born in Russia and she wore a very low cut top. But that wasn't enough attention for her. I watched her for awhile (hey it was nice rack) and noticed that she'd constantly thrust out her chest if she thought anyone was watching. When she thought no one was, she'd readjust her rack and make sure everything looked pretty.
Then there was Pinkie. She was less entertaining than Thrusty, and more annoying. She offered to tune the singers guitar. WTF?! You just don't do that!! I think the exact words she said were;
"I play guitar, I'll tune it for you, but I'll take it outside so I can hear better"
I would have slapped her silly, but the singer seemed to be one of those nice guys. I'm sure inside though he was thinking 'don't fucking touch it bitch!'
See this was my entertainment while trying to drown out the folk music being played. Although he did play Dire Straights at one point which I was quite happy about.
Anyway, thankfully he didn't play the whole night. And
thankfully some of the other group left so we could grab some space. 
At one stage Rod came into the room....... with a snowman! He'd made it outside and it was so cute. I went outside to see how the snow was going and it was pretty much still there. I was only wearing one top though and it was freeeezing! Took photos of the snowman and went back inside. The poor snowman later met its fate with Glens piss.
Slowly most of the people went to bed until it was just a small group of us left. We talked a whole load of crap, watched Glen fit a pint glass in his mouth, again. Made more fun of Thrusty and friends, and then headed to bed.
Day Six - Loch Ness to Edinburgh
Woke up slightly miffed that I yet again had not experienced any ghostly encounters during the night. Packed everything up, skipped breakfast and hauled my bags to the bus. I stopped to pat the remains of lil Snowy, but promptly remembered his demise. Don't touch the yellow snow.
Don't really remember much of what happened today. May or may not have gone to that distillery, I still thought it was on the last day. If it was, then read above.
We did go to a little town called Dunkeld for a look around. They had a cool cathedral there where the back was in ruins. But the highlight of this town was when I was walking down the street, and saw, a Ferrari!! Mmmmm, and to top it off, the owner came back as I walked past and sped off. Gotta love the sound of Ferrari engine!
By about 3pm we had arrived in Perth! Hooray! For 5 us, it was just like coming home hehe (we all being from Perth, Australia). We dropped Alice off at a bus station as she was going to meet a friend and then it was back to Edinburgh.
Pulled up again outside the Haggis office. Six days earlier, we had all been strangers and now it was time to say goodbye to half of them. Did the rounds and then Rob and I went down the street to our hostel. I had checked this place out before the tour as the hostel I had been staying in, on the same street, was absolute crap (Note: High Street Hostel = crap) This one however was brand new and very very nice. It was called the Smart City Hostel. We walked into our 8 bed dorm to find that we were the only ones in there. The room also had two showers AND two toilets! Luxury!
Settled in, then headed back to the Royal Mile (big road in ye Olde Edinburgh) and up to the Bank pub. Carol and Grant were already there, having had to wait around for their bus later on. Got a Magners (of course) and sat around waiting for the others.
Went further up the road to our meeting point for the Edinburgh Ghost Tour. A chick in a big black cape took us around the back of the Cathedral to a statue/monument/some thing (it was dark) where she told us how this was the area where they used to hold public executions. She then dragged Ajay and Rob up (never admit to being an Englishman in Scotland) and acted out some whipping and general torture.
We were taken to various locations around the Royal Mile and told stories. It was pretty uneventful. Our last stop were the underground vaults which provided some level of interest. It's pretty much a mini town underneath the Royal Mile, made out of limestone and said to be highly haunted. Hooray!
More stories were told but I found greater pleasure in scaring people. Rachel was the nights target as it had previously got around that she would be scared. But my first victim was Sue. I hadn't planned to, but at one point I put my hand on her shoulder and pressed down hard. She got scared. I laughed hehehehe. Later on in the last vault Scott grabbed Sarah's ear. She turned around and blamed all those around her except Scott. I could see on his face 'It was me!! Ask me!!' But obviously Sarah thought Scott was far too nice a guy, as he had been known as the 'nice guy' on tour. Shortly after with Rachel in front of me I started lightly running a finger through her hair, I think she was scared, but I was hoping for a bigger reaction.
With the vault and ghost walk over we headed across the road to a pub called The Advocate. I liked this place, simply because you could get double shots for only £1 extra! We sat at a table sharing with a middle aged couple, nah actually they were old. Pablo and Glen struck up a conversation with them and the rest of us watched on as the old girl flirted away with them. Hilarious.
I was up for a big night but after going hard on the drinks for a bit, everyone decided to go. The hugs and goodbyes started and then we headed back to the hostel.
Sat around a talked a lot of crap (in a good way heh) and went to bed.
Tour over, awwww. The next day I woke up pretty sick. Went with Rob to the train station, said bye, then checked out prices for a train home. Was told I'd have to decide that day if I wanted the cheap ticket as the price was due to go up the next day. Grabbed a bagel and went back to the hostel, slept.
Spent the next few days bumming around and hanging out with Sarah and Rod. Slept a lot due to sickness but thankfully the three extra nights I had at the hostel I was by myself so that worked out well. Left Edinburgh on Wednesday and caught the train back to London, but was back up in Edinburgh by Saturday for the Australia vs Scotland Rugby Game. We won! Yay!
I really had a great time on this tour. After 3 Contiki's over the years it was nice to have such a laid back change. I made some great friends and only wish the tour had gone at least a few more days. I highly recommend Haggis. :)
As some of you found out, I started to loathe Scottish folk music due to overexposure, but I really liked this song. Loch Lomond. You know the one that goes..
You take the high road, and I'll take the low road and I'll be in Scotland before you. For me and true love will never meet again, on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond..
If you want to download the song, the one Laura played for us click here. If you want more of a rock version that I kinda spliced with the National Anthem for Scotland, click here.
If you want to watch the Badgers click here