as of right now, that's tomorrow - a day trip to bordeaux with katie.
i start work again on monday, have four full weeks of work, and then my parents come visit for a few days. and yes, we will be leaving tours for a couple days to head off somewhere else, with the end of the trip in paris. next moment to leave will be my birthday.
since it falls on a friday this year, i'm thinking of switching my one friday morning class to thursday morning, giving myself a long weekend, and heading back up to edinburgh thursday night. ran this one by stimmer and this is the response i got:
come in the spring and it will be green and the days will be super long and you will sing proclaimer songs.
i see nothing wrong with that.
but yes christmas and new year's. i will now tell stories. katie and christine and i all meet up at CDG airport since christine had been in paris. flight is delayed for a couple hours which leads to mass toblerone consumption. see beautiful katie with toblerone. we then arrive in edinburgh, eat some food, and take a walk around the city at night. check out the christmas market and how they do them in scotland vs. france. katie gets a venison burger. she used to be a vegetarian too. what were we thinking? i get mulled wine. christine and katie see a shooting star, i'm too distracted by the skating rink. whoops! but really, i haven't gone ice skating in SO LONG. next day, we wake up, we head out, we start the tour. charismatic
hilarious wonderful tour guides introduce us to various aspects of edinburgh - only city with a castle and a volcano. oooooooo put your excited faces on. william wallace monument was one of the first stops. although - it was pointed out that they have this super ugly fake tree cell towers, just like that super ugly cell tower on 89. so we trek up this hill to the monument, christine falls down on the way back down cause it's steep and slippery. we stop at kilmahog and meet hamish, one of the most famous hairy coos on the planet. ever. see right. what's up hamish. we check out dun castle, a statue of david sterling who was buddies with ian flemming (man who wrote james bond - dad - i know you're excited about that) loch lumnic (this is spelled wrong but i'm not completely versed in gaelic yet) the falls of dochar which are some of the most painted falls ever, check out a castle that we weren't supposed to check out with a beheading pit - i see that i have dunlarig underneath that in my journal - believe that's the name of it. dun means fort in gaelic. check out another loch, go to glen coe and learn about how the campbells massacred people and took advantage of the highland hospitality. stop for the night in inchree to sleep and mingle with the people. met a family of americans from malibu, and older scotsman who was on the trip because his son was one of the guides on the other bus, and a host of australians. day two - christmas eve - we check out inchree falls, quite beautiful, had a nice little chat with the guide about the holidays and the hogmany celebration i was going to for new year's with christine. head out to glen finnan - where bonny prince charlie landed, and there's an incredible view of water and mountains and sky, and the bridge used in the harry potter movies for the train. we head to fort william to grab food and spirits for the night in the castle, because they are not available in the castle - and what's a fun holiday in scotland without spirits? go to glen nevis and ben nevis - huge mountain, the mo
untain of gods, or "venomous one" translated into english. next stop - loch ness - and the hostel we stayed in that was right next to it. quite a beautiful area. day 3 - christmas day, we head up to loch garry - which looks like scotland! have a group photo taken. christine and katie and i are right in the middle. loch is behind us, obviously. we head to ileandonan castle - which is quite beautiful, and used in one of the james bond movies (yes, dad you can see that in the photo album). we pop up to the isle of skye to have a quick look at the remains of a viking castle that was inhabited by a woman named saucy mary. quite a long story with this one, but i'm realizing how long this post is, and will tell it at some other point. we come back for christmas dinner and hilarity ensues. that's all i have to say. it was a wonderful christmas. day 4 we head up to the castle, and to do so we drive up the length of loch ness. first sighting of nessie was in 565. that was quite a while ago. we head to colodden, where some intense battle action took place between england and scotland, and where they cleansed the highlands of their clans. banned gaelic. quite intense. you see how the battle was laid out and then you see the stones marking the buried bodies of the clans, and some that say "mixed clan" because people were torn apart and tossed in graves. *deep breath* head to the clava kirns, these huge burial grounds. quite cool. go up to inverness. make our way up to the castle for the night - carvisdale castle. has quite the marble collection, and secret passages. katie wandered around the outside of the castle looking for ghosts all night with a bunch of other people. day 5 was essentially a driving day. went to loch an eilan, heard a wonderful story about a man who got the nickname of "wolf", checked out the cathedral where he was buried, at last - everytime he was buried the cathedral went up in flames three days later, which went up into flames once they stopped praying that it wouldn't. so they rebuilt and pray every day. we land back in edinburgh around 5 at night. go back to christines and crash. next day, christine and katie and i do some shopping and whatnot, katie's on a mission to buy a kilt and i'm on a mission to find the jacket i wanted. head out for a few drinks at pubs for the night, meet some friends, enjoy ourselves. next day we go to the castle, check out the military museum, the crown jewels of scotland, go to the torchlight processional that they do here. everyone lines up by the old parliament and has a torch and parade down the streets to this recreation of athens they have here, light a boat on fire, and a deer, and celebrate the start of the new year's celebration - hogmany. head back into the town, crash at stimmer's again. next day, we were supposed to go on a ghost tour, but it was full, so we got lost in the pipe band processional before the ceilidh (traditional scottish dance - kind of like a barn dance). we head to jekyll and hyde, and the dome, for some pre dancing drinks, then head to get our dance on. what we found was a HUGE kareoke stage, and people singing ridiculousness. so we did that for a bit then had ourselves a good night's sleep. next day is new year's eve. we hang out, grab food in various places, go to the hogmany celebration. we had tickets into the ceilidh there, and we danced our way into the new year, with a huge fireworks display. it was quite magical. new year's day was spent watching movies, and going on a ghost tour of the city at night. then katie and i headed to the airport early in the morning. flew back here. and now i'm in france.so, when my camera batter wasn't dead - i took pictures. i will now give you the links.
although - with the christmas day album, i will forewarn you, we had some christmas spirits. so i apologize in advance for any ridiculousness that you will see.
but take note of the beautiful country. cause it is beautiful.
links are:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034361&l=82362&id=10400438
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034362&l=c28c2&id=10400438
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034364&l=912a4&id=10400438
it was a fantastic and wonderful and silly time.
quite possibly one of my favorite trips of all time.
i think i may become a world traveler for the rest of my life. win big in the lotto and never have to do anything and just enjoy what's out there. yes indeed, i think that's what i'll do.
and if i like you well enough, well then i may just bring you with me.
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