Highland experience

Wednesday 11th – Thursday 12th September 2019

Having gotten back from Ireland Sunday night, I had itchy feet and by Monday midday had booked a 5 day bus tour of Scotland plus an extra few days tacked on the end plus a weekend catching up with the Geordie. Sometimes I just blink and there’s another trip booked…

So having spent a few days regrouping, by the Wednesday I was off to Edinburgh and you seriously could not contain my excitement. I can’t even explain in words how Edinburgh makes me feel, that feeling when you get home after a long holiday, a feeling of safety and relaxation and love… but it’s for somewhere I’ve only been once before. Maybe it’s a premonition that it’ll be home one day??

So off the train and straight into the Royal Mile, no wiping that smile off my face for days!! Spent the afternoon and night just legging it around Edinburgh, seeing all I could while wearing a goofy grin on my face…

Not sure if it was the high of being somewhere I loved or having plenty of time to kill but when I saw the Love Hate tattoo parlour, the decision was made, I was getting the tattoo I’d been longing for… looked pretty shit after, blood and eww but here’s one from later when it was looking schmick, and I was in Florence…

Up bright and early for my Thursday tour, I was keen as beans to get started on an epic Scottish adventure. Finding my group and securing an awesome seat on the bus, I was set and ready to go, then I looked up over all the grey heads on the bus tour, oh crap, what had I signed up for?? Did I miss the note about the trip being for 55+??? Oh well, lots of early nights and living easy for the next 5 days… Note: oh how wrong was I!!!

Driving through Scottish countryside is stunning, can’t even explain well enough the natural beauty of the rugged hills, the lochs and streams and all the green, so gorgeous. Everywhere you look is photo worthy, just stunning. First stop in Luss at the gorgeous Loch Lomond. Luss got its name, meaning herbs, cos back in the day one of the graves buried under the church started sprouting herbs… would ya eat them though? Interesting way to get a name… Should have just called it Lush aye Geordie?? So Loch Lomond, one hell of a big freshwater lake, the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area as Google tells me, and considered the boundry between the central lowlands of Scotland and the highlands. Not sure what a Loch is?? Picture a massive massive lake, surrounded by rugged mountains, pebbles shores and grumpy grey skies. They just feel like magic to me!! Now I didn’t quite remember everything about Loch Lomond so quickly jumped on their website and now I have the giggles, check out what’s on their homepage… I have the maturity of a 5 year old…

While in Luss I wondered the village and was all stalker like taking pictures of the cute houses, I really am a horrible tourist…

Back on the bus and made our way through the Trossachs National Park, the smallest National Park in Scotland, but there are only two… tour guide thinks he’s funny… Our next stop was for a view over the Argyll mountains, beyond stunning, low clouds, green valleys and empty roads, somehow expected some highland warriors to jump out of the bushes, god I would have loved that!!

Back on the bus and Inveraray bound for our lunch stop, apparently there’s a castle, a pub and a loch to check out… guess which one i did?? Surprise, or not, the castle won out, looked like something from a Disney movie, half expected Prince Charming to come galloping out on his white stallion… gorgeous!! Not so keen on the inside, realised I much prefer the outside of castles and like them in ruins… starting to psychoanalyse myself now!!

Managed to leg it around the castle and gardens in the rain, only stabbing myself in the eye once with the umbrella and won the game of chicken with the cars coming down the castle road. Wandering down the road in the Scottish countryside, rain on the umbrella, music in my ears, not a care in the world, have to say I was feeling pretty damn happy. Back in town it was a quick bite to eat, check out the town and loch and then, you guessed it back on the bus… is it time to abbreviate that yet??? BOTB, seems appropriate…

I think it was on the way to the old stones at Kilmartin that I started singing out loud on the bus, not sure the oldies appreciated my rendition of Eminem’s Lose Yourself but was feeling pretty damn amazing, Scotland does that to ya!! In the lead up to arriving at the Standing Stones, Daniel, (our tour guide who I’d only just realized was also our bus driver, usually they are two separate people right?), was talking up the stones, older than the pyramids apparently, over 2,000 years old that’d be, the whole area of Kilmartin Glen has over 650 monuments, some 5,000 years old if I’m writing my numbers right.. according to Dan the Man, people have been in Scotland since 8,500 B.C., like before the ice age… that doesn’t sound right? Were they around with the dinosaurs?? Now I’m getting confused, how long ago were there dinosaurs??? Well travelled but not overly smart… back to Dan the Man’s account… Around 70 something A.D. the Romans arrived, marked their territory and called it Britannia, obvs it’s name has since derived from that. Some Roman dude called Hadrian, who apparently hated women, built a massive wall to keep out the savages to the north… that includes you Geordie!! Scotland was referred to as Caledonia, who knew??? I’m sure there’s more to the story, maybe Dan the Man didn’t know or maybe I tuned out, buses make me sleepy… but low and behold, we arrived at the standing stones. Yeah, they were kinda cool. Think Dan the Man may have talked them up a bit, mention anything in the same sentence as pyramids and my imagination goes a bit cray cray!! But they were interesting, back in the day can imagine they meant something useful, Dan who possibly is no longer the Man suggested they showed the longest and shortest days of the year when the sun shone through in a certain way, but did they even have years back then… could google it but that just takes away all the fun of still being confused about when dinosaurs were around… Anyways, apparently it’s bad luck to touch the stones, oops…

BOTB and like no one is perfect, no country is perfect. I’ve found the one thing I don’t like about Scotland, Scottish music. I’m not talking bagpipes, that I can do, I mean Scottish folk music… hurts your ears, give me some good Aussie rock anyway! Last pit stop of the day, an old church but really it was all about the toilets. Having a 30 something year old bladder, unlike my older counter parts I had time to take a looksie around the church. Not a good idea, gave me the heeby jeebies, love me a church but something about this one I did not like, just felt off and angry, spidey senses said no…

So finally rocking up into our stop for the night, a cute town called Oban. And here was my first taste of tour accommodation, about 7 different BNBs to stop at, Dan the Man calling out names like a cattle call, get off, grab bags, check em in then back on the bus, Dan deserves a decent tip… I lucked out this night, paid for the second cheapest option, BNB no en-suite and got the top one, a hotel room. I’d love to say I was adventurous and had a massive awesome night but I’d aged 20 years that day and joined the other grandmas in having an early night… little did I know the Colosseum place on top of the hill was actually open, contrary to what Dan the Man said. Had I known, I would have hiked up there. Take my tip back Dan…