The Search for the Heilan Coo Part 1

It's that time again! When I write about the trip late, forget details, and totally forget the names of most of the places I have pictures of. I am one week into this year's two-week European adventure and I am EXHAUSTED. I left last Wednesday and took my first ever non-stop flight from home. It was brutal, but overall, it was better to do 10 hours in the air rather than having a four hour layover and an extra two hours in flight. Once landed, I headed to Paddington to take a train down to Plymouth. It was just the same as when I used to live down there, which made me a little bit sad. I do miss my room in Astor. So I spent two nights down in Cornwall (with a couple hour visit to Plymouth) with Alice and her family, and then we hopped on a plane to Edinburgh!

 

Once we arrived in Edinburgh, we crashed. We lay around until I was so hungry that we had to go out. So we went to a pizza place just down the road. We were in a very nice area and we were lucky enough to stay in a flat that is the biggest I have seen anywhere in Europe so far, with some sketchy stairs to get into it. The next day was our only full day in Edinburgh this time around. We shopped a bit, sat in a park in the sunshine, and I climbed to the top of the Scott Monument. The Scott Monument was pretty awesome, it was 287 steps up and there were some parts where the spiral staircase would narrow as I was walking up and my shoulders would be touching either side. It was a bit scary the first time it happened, but I managed. We climbed up Calton Hill again this year and then we went back and got ready to have some dinner. We made our own back at the flat and had a lazy night in. 

 

 

 

The next morning, we headed off on our tour of Scotland. I’ve never done an overnight tour before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Basically, there are 16 of us, our mad Scotsman tour guide, James, and a Wee Red Bus, which gets incredibly hot and stuffy. The first day, we jumped on the bus and headed out of Edinburgh. We stopped by the Forth Bridge, Dunkeld Cathedral (where I made friends with a cat), on a nature walk to a waterfall (I need to take better notes of the names of these places, I can’t remember anything). We then went to the Dalwhinnie whiskey distillery where, with the little sample of whiskey, you get a cup full of hot, melty, chocolate ganache. BEST WHISKEY TASTING EVER. From the whiskey distillery, we stopped at the Clava Cairns, which are ancient burial grounds from around 2000 BC. It was interesting, but not as eerie or at all what I expected.

 

 

 

 

 

Our final stop of the first day was Culloden Moor. I was cheap and did not pay for the exhibition, but even without doing that, Culloden was something else. It was beautiful and peaceful. It was incredibly hard to imagine the brutal battle that took place so long ago. It went on for miles and miles with flags marking the fronts of the English (red flags) and the Jacobites (blue flags). Being an Outlander fan has helped me understand the history of many things here. I never would have been prepared for a bunch of these sights if not for that book. Culloden was a nice place to wonder around and just think about things. It was quiet and peaceful. It would be interesting to go back again someday. After Culloden, we headed to Inverness, where we spent our first two nights of the tour. In Inverness, Alice and I went out to dinner at a place called Hootananny’s (where I unintentionally started a steak & ale pie obsession) with a fantastic Australian woman that’s on our tour. We had an excellent night eating, drinking, watching the attractive Scottish servers, and listening to the live music. We walked back to our B&B (which had a cat named Tache and it was magical) and turned in for the night.

The second day of the tour was just as tiring as the first one. We started off by heading to Ullapool, where we stopped to have tea and coffee and walk along the harbour. After Ullapool, we were on our way to Lochinver for lunch where we went to Lochinver Larder and had amazing pies (mine was steak & ale, obviously, with peas and mash). We headed to Achmelvich beach, which is a gorgeous, soft, white sand beach. There were dead jellyfish everywhere, shells all over, and it was sooooo sunny, sunnier than I’ve ever experienced in the UK. It was almost like we were in a tropical place, not the Scottish Highlands. It was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to. We then were taken to Ardvreck Castle, where we were allowed to explore the ruins. I have never been allowed to get that near castle ruins before, and it was so interesting. Castles are endlessly fascinating to me. We finished the day at Corrieshalloch Gorge, which has been around for 2 million years. It was incredible. It was 10,000 times deeper than I ever would have imagined. I even walked out on the little lookout that is only connected on one side and has nothing underneath it. We had dinner at a terrible restaurant recommended to us by our B&B owner and I ordered chicken enchiladas. NEVER order chicken enchiladas in Scotland. Not worth it. At all. 

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed this update so far. I will update again in the next few days. You’ll get to see pictures of Loch Ness, The Five Sisters of Kintail, and more castles!

Also, pictures in each section are not in order. I can't be bothered to rearrange them, because I honestly can't remember where most of them are without looking through the thousands I have to figure out timelines and such. I'll do my best though. 

Thanks for reading! 😊