Return to London

After arriving back in Edinburgh on Boxing Day we had one more night there. So, I took my camera and tripod up Calton Hill and attempted to get some night shots of the city. It was blowing a bit of a gale and bitterly cold, so we soon gave up on that endeavour. We continued walking and got to Holyrood Castle at the opposite end of the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. Walking back up the Royal Mile we passed the new parliament building and my ‘boyfriend’ from the first time I came to Edinburgh.

Tuesday 27th December – Happy Birthday Mum!!

Most of mum’s b’day was spent on the train from Edinburgh to London. We decided to take a daytime train for two reasons: 1. We could see the scenery, which is quite nice, and 2. The 5 hour train ride actually takes about the same time it takes to get from town to the airport, fly to London, and then get back into town and our accommodation once in London. After arriving in London and checking into our accommodation mum and I saw We Will Rock You. It wasn’t anything like I expected, but I quite enjoyed it… But what’s not to enjoy about Queen’s music? I think maybe Brian May, the Queen guitarist played a bit on the night, I didn’t recognise him though, so who know, lol. The crowd in general seemed rather pleased that he was there though, giving the guy a large round of applause.

Wednesday 28th December

Being pushed by the 'little force'. I think she did better
than I did :/

Today was the day an old school friend of mine – Adam- arrived in London. He wasn’t due until the afternoon, so mum and I went to the Science Museum in the morning. This is my second time to the museum, and I still haven’t seen all there is to see! We watched a few of the shows they put on that are primarily aimed at the kids (read that as under 5’s – at the bubble show, Mum and I were the only one’s without a rug rat hanging off us). Although at one point they needed a ‘big kid’ volunteer, so I put my hand up. It was only fitting as I DID come with my mum! the show was about rockets and forces, and I had to push a little girl who was sitting on a wheeled office chair. I was scared of pushing her too hard, and ended up failing dismally, only pushing her about a centimetre :P Another show was about explosions – Did you know flour is flammable? The great fire of London actually started when flour exploded in a bakery.

Going to visit H.P!

After exploring a bit and watching 3 shows, it was time to meet Adam back at the hostel. We were a bit late, and he was already there, so he had obviously survived the 20+ hour flight. That night we met up with Gill and Ronnie (who have since gone home ) at Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland, where we had a drink on the carousel bar – only THE. BEST. IDEA. EVER!!! And the great thing is you don’t even need to drink to feel a bit drunk, as you spin around.

On the Carousel Bar

Bundy Bear Represents!

Thursday 29th December

Didn’t really do much today – In the morning we saw the Changing of the Guard, and then did a walking tour in the afternoon. We don’t even have many pictures from the walking tour – but tonnes from the Changing of the Guard, which mum said was a waste of 2 hours of her life! We also had a look at the Christmas lights in Oxford Street.

The police had a tough job controlling the people

A statue at the beginning of the walking tour

Macbackpacking It to the End

Boxing Day was the final day of the Macbackpackers Christmas tour. We left early on that grey morning, and had a quick stop at 'the Well of the Seven Head's’ at Loch Oich. It is a reminder of Scotland’s ore gruesome past. It shows a column with a sculptured hand holding a dagger, surrounded by 7 stone heads. During a time when clan rebellions and warfare were common, two brothers of the MacDonald clan (one of them the chief) were murdered by rivals in their clan. Eventually the brothers’ deaths were avenged, and the seven murderers were killed and decapitated. On the way to present the heads of the murderers to the new chief of the MacDonald's, they were washed in the spring to make them presentable. Richard told us that comparatively recently 7 headless bodies were found at the bottom of the well, but a Google search suggests they may have been buried in a nearby mound, which has since been exhumed… We couldn’t actually get too close to the well though, as it was flooded, but it was interesting none the less.

Continuing on we stopped at a memorial for Scottish soldiers, before reaching Glencoe. In 1692 multiple members of the MacDonald clan were massacred, lead by the chief of the Campbell clan, simply for pledging allegiance to the new monarchs, William and Mary. To this day there is tensions between those with the last name MacDonald and those with the last name Campbell. We then had a quick stop at Doune Castle, where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed.

The hills of glencoe

Doune Castle

Wallace Monument

Our final stop before heading back to Edinburgh and the end of the tour was at the Wallace Monument in Stirling. William Wallace was the Guardian of Scotland’ who defeated an English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. Wallace wanted freedom form England and Kind Edward I, and peace for Scotland. But he was captured, and then hung, drawn and quartered for high treason against the king. To this day though, his is still a hero in the eyes of the Scottish.

To get to the monument we had to walk up a bit of a hill. Unfortunately, due to the season, the monument was closed – you can pay to go inside the building. But it was still pretty impressive and the view from the top of the hill is good. On the walk back down the hill I finally got to see a red squirrel!! Well… at least I think it was one. All I saw really was a red streak, as something ran across the path. Oh well, even if wasn’t a red squirrel, I’m going to say it was, just so I can say I’ve seen a red squirrel :P Then it was back on the bus, back to Edinburgh, and the end of a pretty damn good Scottish Christmas tour.

Stone carving of rope around the monument

The view down on to the town of Stirling

Macbacky Christmas

Merry Christmas

 Christmas day started with a nice lay in, followed by a champagne breakfast supplied by the hostel. :) We also got a present each!! We all got a scarf, which I have since left on a train. :( When we got back up to our rooms there was another surprise waiting for us at the foot of our beds – stockings! well actually it was a sock, stuffed with lollies, a mandarin(?!) and the other sock :P While waiting for lunch we played trivial pursuit, without actually playing trivial pursuit – we just read out the questions and yelled out the answers. It was pretty fun! Then it was down to the pub for Christmas lunch. Most of us had the turkey, which was yummy. After dessert we were well and truly stuffed (like a turkey, you could say).

Yummy!

After lunch we listened and danced to some tunes, then headed back to the hostel for some more trivia fun. We got sick of the trivial pursuit questions, so relied on the internet for some, before finding some ‘Australian’ trivia questions (as about 80% of the tour group was Aussie). We all cracked up laughing when we found out that King James I of England introduced the tradition of having turkey at Christmas… For those of you who don’t know, King James I was also King James VI of Scotland. And Richard had been going on the whole trip how much has been invented/discovered by the Scottish – so he can add one more thing to the list!

We didn’t really have dinner that night, as we were still so full from the huge lunch, but somehow we managed to find a bit of room, and we shared cheese and biscuits, etc. As much fun as we were having, unfortunately we couldn’t have too late a night, as it was up early the next day for our final day of the tour. But it was a great Christmas, and definitely great actually sharing it was family this year :) (and with new friends too).

Not actually Xmas related, but this was in the toilet
of the hostel :S (I suppose the dolpin is pooing
candy canes... so that counts - right?)

Macbackpacking it – Part 3

Our home for the next three nights was at Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye, where hopefully we would be having a white Christmas… hahaha, I think the joke was on us – it was about 13 degrees during the day, which is the average temperature in Scotland for Summer. The week before however (about the time we got the snow in Ireland), the place was covered in snow, about knee deep in some areas!

Christmas eve we went for a bit of a drive around Skye. The first place we stopped at was a river that apparently has ‘beautifying’ and ‘deageing’ properties. So we all stuck our face in the rive for no more or no less than 7 seconds (otherwise it wouldn't work). I’m not sure if I came out any more beautiful or younger looking, but it definitely was refreshing. And it certainly wouldn’t be the wettest we were going to get wet that day.

The bottom of the hill and waterfall

Next we stopped at a waterfall… guaranteed to give us 7 years good sex… Getting to said waterfall was a little trickier than getting to the river. We had to climb a waterlogged and very muddy hill, jump across a fast moving stream and then rock climb down a little bit to stick not only our faces into the water, but our whole heads! I think mum was a little too enthusiastic, sticking half her body under the water o.O What on earth does my MOTHER want 7 years of good sex for?! Oh the horror! (parents just should not be doing it. It’s just wrong… never mind how I or my sister got here!) Now remember I hugged the fertility stone in Ireland? Well now I’ve got 7 years of good sex. And less than 3 weeks later I had a dream I was pregnant! LOL. So apparently I was getting it good in my dreams – nothing since then though. sigh.

Get in there mum!

Drenched!

My turn

The waterfall

What the Old Man of Storr looks like...

Anyway, back to the tour… On the way back down the hill my foot got stuck in the mud, and mum had to rescue me We continued on the the next stop of the day, where we were going for a hike to see ‘the Old Man of Storr’, which is apparently the remains of a giant who was turned to stone by some beautiful maidens while aroused. Now you would think that you can’t get much wetter after having stuck you head under a waterfall. But it is possible. It was windy. It was wet. It was awesome fun!! Hiking up that mountain, almost getting blown backwards. It was the best day ever! And our snow boots/gumboots were so effective they actually stored water that had trickled down our legs into them (remember I said it was raining, and we got drenched… don’t go getting any ideas about trickling water!!). When mum took of her gumboots she poured about a cup of water out of each one!

...What we saw - wet, windy, and foggy.
Also the risk of rocks falling =
awesomeness to the extreme!

Back on the bus Richard gave us the option of more sightseeing or going home. As we were all drenched and just a little cold we decided to go home. He also had a bottle of Scotch whiskey for us to share. And after three rather large swings mum was gone. Oh how embarrassing! Walking around the shops getting tuff for dinner on our way home was an interesting experience with a drunk mother, that’s for sure After a nice, hot shower we cooked a meal (the one and only meal I cooked over the 57 or so days I was on holiday!). And then if was off to the pub down the street

Macbackpacking it – part 2

Friday 23 December

After leaving Inverness, our first stop of the day was at the ‘Clootie Well’. It is a ‘fairy’ spring that comes out of the ground about half way up a random little hill. According to legend the water has healing properties. If you soak a piece of clothing associated with a particular afflicted body part and then leave the cloth hanging on a tree, that body part will heal as the cloth disentigrates (no one ever said it would be a quick process!). So, for example, you would soak a sock if you had a foot problem. As you can see from the pictures there are cloths, or cloots, everywhere!

Continuing on, we stopped for a walk around Corrieshalloch Gorge. there was another bridge here – a suspension one – and it definitely had a maximum limit of six people, which we actually adhered too! Although there was one girl on our tour who was a bit ditzy, and didn’t really listen/pay attention to much. She wanted to go on, even though we had been told to wait. We then headed further up through the Highlands, which was very scenic. I have always maintained that I like Scotland more than Ireland, and I think half the reason is because even when the weather is grey and dull, Scotland still has bright greens, whereas Ireland just seems grey. But then again, when the sun did come out in Ireland… wow, it was quite amazing. Who know, I could just be imagining the difference in ‘greeness’, but I just <3 Scotland

Big Waterfall

Little Waterfall

Mum thinks we had lunch at Ullapool (I have no idea what the name of the place is, so she is one up on me . A quick googlemaps search says she’s probably right though). It was a sleepy seaside village, with most things shut for the winter, but I could imagine it being quite lively in summer.

  

The view

After lunch we continued along the scenic west coast, and less than an hour from Kyleakin Richard found out that there was a landslide on the road we had to use and it was closed! So we had to have a break in Lochcarron – where we could see the workmen on the other side of the loch – so that Richard didn’t break his driving limit for the day. It was then about a THREE hour drive, almost back to Inverness, and on to Kyleakin where we were spending the next 3 nights and Christmas…

Richard taking multiple pics of the tour group :P

Our tour group :)

Looking across Loch Carron - you can see the work vans

Looky here, I did something smart! I had to embed this map using HTML (I don't even know if that's what you do, or if that phrase makes any sense hahaha) But the top map is the short route, while the bottom map shows the long route we had to take (Note we didn't actually go all the way back into Inverness, but it was easier this way).

Oh, I forgot... when we arrived at the Kyleakin hostel, they gave as a welcome gift of Haggis. Now I have had haggis before, and the thought of what is in it doesn't bother me at all. But after having had it about 3 times I can definitely say that I do not like the taste. There is just something about the spice mix they use that I don't like. I mean I will eat it if it's in front of me, but I won't go out of my way to get it. After the haggis we went to the local pub for dinner, which is an extremely long walk from the hostel; about two buildings down the road..