If you’re interested in seeing some of the photos we took in Scotland, take a look at my Flickr page. I haven’t added comments or anything yet, but hopefully I’ll get to that later.
Scotland was beautiful. The drive up there was amazing. It was so crazy how the scenery changed and it wasn’t anything like I expected. The house we stayed at was also very beautiful. It had a massive fireplace and was stocked with plenty of firewood so that was really nice. I hadn’t sat by the fire in a very long time.
The area we were in was so strange. I don’t know how many of you have experienced this, but there are some places I’ve been that have this strange feel to them. I call it the “end of the earth feeling” because that’s precisely what it feels like. Standing there at the time, I can totally understand why people thought the earth was flat. It feels flat, and it feels like I’m standing near the edge. I can never imagine at the time that there is anything beyond my location.
These areas also have this strange light. It's always due to strange weather patterns and cloud movements, but at times it seems like you’re in a different world, bathed in an eternal twilight. Of course, that only continues until the sun pokes out and its dazzling rays shoot down in a truly stunning display. I really don’t know how to do it justice with words. Anyway, this part of Scotland was one of those places, and another is Cornwall during its less sunny periods.
We got to do some fun stuff up there. We went over to the Isle of Skye on a ferry and drove around the island. There were a ton of beautiful mountains and a lot of cool scenery there, as well as some pretty cool towns. A lot of the people there still speak Gaelic, I guess. There were also a lot of strange sheep (and the occasional cow or two) on the roads. They don’t seem to care much about fences in that part of Scotland and everything just kind of roams around, crossing the roads when they see fit. We walked around part of Loch Morar on a really nice day and saw some really nice scenery. We walked around in Mallaig during a pretty windy/rainy period of time (we were bundled up in hoods and coats) and were told by a local to be happy and that we should be wearing shorts and t-shirts. He was wearing a t-shirt, by the way. We walked out during low tide and gathered mussels, cockles, and oysters (we searched for some razor clams but couldn’t catch any) which I later ate. I think I swallowed some pearls as well, but I’m sure I’ll be fine. We also saw 3 red deer on our last day as we were driving back. We scared them, but I’m sure they have recovered by now. I guess we didn’t actually do a lot while we were there, but it was a good time anyway. A lot of our time was just spent relaxing in the evenings by the fire.
I had a really good time, and I think Steph did too. It would be really cool to live somewhere like that someday. No idea what I would do for work, but it would be cool anyway. We plan on going back next year sometime, hopefully with my friend Ryan. He leaves the UK next year so it will probably the last chance we’ll have time to hang out together outside of work before he leaves. It really sucks when you actually meet someone you can relate to and they aren’t going to be around for very long.
Anyway, that’s the basic rundown of our trip. I might post a bit more about it later, But I should probably do at least a little bit of work now. You guys have a great day/night.