Scotland

Hi friends and family that still read this blog. I'm excited to tell you that I love Scotland! Wish I had had more time to spend there. Only a week... Anyways I want to show you all where I have been and share a couple of stories from along the way! A MAP! c

We, my sister and I, started in Edinburgh to visit a great friend from my college days. He kindly let us crash with him while we were in Edinburgh and he even played tour guide showing us the city and his life for the past year. Climbing Aurthur's seat gave me a great view of the city, and a great chance to practice taking pictures with the new camera. The city feels more like a town with it's cobble streets and small alley ways. Very cozy. After having a great time and meeting new friends over fish and chips we all got in a car and started a journey North West. First stop was Isle of Skye. OK maybe that wasn't the first "stop" there were so many places to pull over and the country side is so beautiful I feel like I am disrespecting it if we don't pull over and enjoy the view. (I will post some more pictures of the trip a bit later). Beautiful green expansive landscape with rolling hills that makes it seem like it is endless. Bodies of waters, called Lochs surrounded by tall hills or mountains. Just endless beauty. Also driving on the left side of the road... weird, and to add onto that having a manual car just made driving very challenging. Skye was really windy and rained all night long. It also had an eerie mood to it, can't really figure out how to describe it maybe the pictures will do a better job. Next stop was Invernes where we drop off my friend and Char and I nestle into a great hostel near the river. Also get to watch Bat Man the Dark Knight Rises in a very modern looking theater. Onto Cairngorms National park for a walk around the trees. Very quiet and very peaceful. With a couple of bumps along the way we made it to Oban where we jumped on the last ferry to the Island of Mull. This island was small and only had a few roads (which to our surprise were a single lane with many pull offs). Char and I got a delicious dinner from a fish and chips truck and sat out to watch the boats rock in the water. We camped that night to an early start to get to the Island of Iona. Which I was told had green marble! I didn't get to the quarry, but walking around the island was something of a dream, the whole thing seemed out of a movie or some alternate reality. The island was super small and we didn't have our car, we got to walk through fields and see wildflowers everywhere. This was the last of our journey through Scotland as we had to drive back to Edinburgh to return the car and catch a train to London where I sit now. We made friends on the train and shared great stories. Now we are checked into our hotel and settled restoring our energy for the next journey