Welcome to the sessions. This is a space where I will periodically journal and post updates on stuff that happens.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
~Day 7: The Scottish Highlands, Part 2~
Maybe I really do have a strange accent. I've been paying attention to the way people talk around me, and I think I'm starting to pick up things here and there. I'm trying to see how Canadians/Americans may sound brutish to the British, and trying to correct some bad habits (enunciating my T's, paying attention to vowels we skip over, etc.). Trying to pronounce Scottish names, you can't help but assume some of their speech mannerisms...I'm pretty sure I'm going to sound funny to some of you when I get back.
Blogger seems to be broken, so I'm having trouble getting these up online after writing them offline.
Between the jetlag from last week and our irregular sleeping schedule (getting up at 4am to catch planes, etc.), I still haven't adjusted to the time over here yet, and I think it showed last night. I just lay in bed forever, unable to sleep. I couldn't really understand why; my room was quiet, I had clean, comfortable linens, and the only thing I could complain about was the fact that I couldn't stretch out (the bed was too short). Still, I lay there and counted the hours. I'm sure I fell asleep for brief stretches, but woke up frequently enough that it felt like I wasn't sleeping at all. 2:00am, 3:00am, 3:20am, 3:29am...the hours just stretched on as I kept drifting in and out of half-sleep. The maddening bit was 6:00am, when I knew I only had a couple hours before getting up...then I finally got some solid rest, for all of 2 hours.
So for the rest of the day, I was constantly falling asleep on the bus, but it might not have been just the lack of sleep. Today was largely uneventful. In comparison to the absolutely beautiful sunny day we had yesterday, we got a wee taste of more typical Scottish weather...except it was twice as warm and half as rainy as it should be, I was told. Still, our bus drove through dreary, grey, rainy weather all day. In contrast to the dramatic landscapes we saw yesterday, we spent today going through the more 'mellow' parts of the Highlands. The rain splashing against the window made it impossible to shoot while moving, and standing outside in the rain didn't exactly motivate me to expose my camera gear to the elements. I did have time to walk down to WH Smith in Inverness and pick up the 2nd Harry Potter book before we left, though.
A few pics:
The town of Inverness in the morning.
The Plodda Falls
LEFT:Another look onto Loch Ness. Notice the castle in the corner; it was very important strategically, well, hundred of years ago) looking out onto the loch. I don't remember the name, and we didn't go in because they charge a fortune and we'd only be there for all of 30 minutes. RIGHT:Fort Augustus, the swing bridge. Instead of raising, it would swing to the side to allow ships to pass through the canal between lochs.
LEFT:A ship passes through the canal towards Loch Ness RIGHT:Part of the staggered canal system at Fort Augustus, allowing ships to pass from loch to loch regardless of whether one is higher or lower than the other, just like the lock system back home.
LEFT:My first and only taste of haggis, with a nice pint of bitter ale from the Isle of Skye (in a Fosters glass). I really liked the haggis; it was a little gamey, but very earthy and very flavourful. Combined with the potatoes and neeps, not to mention the pint of beer, I was completely stuffed. I can only have a meal like that a few times a year...how do those crazy Scots eat so much??? RIGHT:The opening from Fort Augustus out to the Loch Ness.
The only thing the weather really inspired me to capture was the classic image of the Highland mountains shrouded by low-hanging clouds. This was the mysterious, mythical Scotland I imagined when I signed up for this trip. It was beautiful, and almost made the crappy weather worth it. Unfortunately we had no photo stops planned near these mountain views, so I wasn't able to grab any photos. I was tempted to ask our guide to pull over so I could get just a couple shots, but I was feeling so tired, so lazy after lunch, and our guide was in a rush to get home (Scotland's soccer team is in the qualifying round for the EuroCup), so I didn't bother. Besides, I figured I'd already lucked out with a fantastically lit sunny day yesterday; I can live without those shots. A sunny day is much more rare than a misty day anyway.
Got dropped off on Princes St. in Edinburgh. Was happy to see the bustling shopping area again, and went to grab some Chinese food for dinner (after the haggis, I really couldn't think of much else I wanted to eat in Scotland). The Chinese restaurant I went to had been there for over 20 years, and the staff was very happy to speak to me in Cantonese. When they heard I was from Toronto, they fully admitted their food was going to be nothing compared to what I was used to, and it turned out to be true. The food wasn't bad by any stretch of imagination (it was better than Waterloo...except Mikey's and Grand China, of course =)), but I still can't get over the price. A plate of minced beef fried rice take-out cost me 7.00GBP...that's like $15CAN! $15CAN for a bowl of fried rice with minced beef and shredded lettuce! Jiffy, the night I get back we're going to a real Chinese food place and I'm going to order everthing on the menu...and it'll still probably cost less =P
Came back to the Globetrotter Inn in Edinburgh, but I have no idea where Alfred is right now. He had all our laundry detergent, but the girl who sold me my laundry machine tokens was kind enough to slip me a small packet to use for this load. It's funny how a small act of kindness from a stranger can warm the heart so much.
