highlands

Hey guys, hope everyone is having a lovely day! I'd like to apologize in advance for the formatting of this post- things got a little janky and I could only spend so long trying to fix it before I threw my computer across the room. Here I will be recapping our trip to the highlands. This is northern Scotland for anyone (like me) who didn’t know that. I went with the girls who are in my study abroad program, plus a few of our other friends came along with us. This was a guided tour through our program, where we drove through on a tour bus and saw lots of sights very quickly. 

Friday

We started in the morning around 8 am, and now that I am no longer a morning person I was exhausted yet again. So obviously I get into the bus and proceed to sleep until our first stop, which was apparently around a 2 hour drive. We made it to a castle that is apparently in some tv shows (game of thrones I think?), take a picture, then get back into the car. That was basically the theme of the trip; we would get out, explore or take pictures, then drive to the next place. It was definitely a great way to see all of the highlands, but it was hard to be on a specific schedule. 

Anyways, we get to the next stop and get to FEED a highland coo. Amazing!! The main reason most of us wanted to go on the trip. Maddie and I had to get a pic with the coo and our highland coo backpacks. You can tell that we’re a little bit obsessed. 

For our next stop, we went on a nice little hike. It was such a beautiful view. Here, we ate some sandwiches that we had picked up for lunch, and listened to stories that our tour guide told us about clans. I obviously had to flex the Campbell clan (aka my ancestors) and he told me that we were the most aggressive of all of the clans. Love that. 

We stopped at a few more picturesque spots for photo ops, then we got to our house for the weekend. Myself, Anna, Susan, and Mary sprinted into one of the only 4 people rooms in the house so that we could all be together. We had some tacos and drank some wine by the fire. It was a fun and lit night.

Saturday

We woke up early (again, ugh), and went to the Isle of Skye. This is one of the most beautiful places in Scotland and is very famous. We went to the Fairy Pools, which had lots of waterfalls and deep “pools” that would’ve been so fun to swim in. Too bad it was like 50 degrees outside and drizzling. 

We went on another hike and half of us were almost too lazy to make it to the top, but we did it. It was a beautiful view. 

We then went to the Fairy Glen, which was some sort of labyrinth type thing with rolling hills. Again very pretty, but very muddy. Obviously we are all struggling to walk in the mud and I fell in the mud which wasn’t ideal but thankfully I didn’t get mud all over myself (just my hands). I kept slipping because apparently bean boots just aren’t the best for rough terrain (they should be though..im mad). 

Nory, our guide, made us a traditional Scottish meal of haggis, potatoes, and turnips. I didn’t love it, and will probably not have haggis again, but it was definitely good to try it. Some of the girls loved it which was kind of funny (because ew). Again, we all stayed up again and hung out, and it was really fun.

After this, we began traveling back to our little house for the weekend. The ride was longer than 10 mins so obviously I fell asleep (it was like 2 hours-yikes). I woke up and we were back to the house-perfect!

Sunday

For our last day, we got to sleep in until 9- what a treat! This day consisted of mostly driving because we were making our way home. My favorite thing we did was swim in Loch Ness with the Loch Ness monster. The water was around 40 degrees, so very chilly. About half of us decided to jump in. I have done enough polar plunges in my life to know that you jump in and jump out as fast as possible. However, the others dilly dallied and were in the water for a few mins trying to muster up courage to dunk under. Mary took a video of me and I was literally in the water for 15 seconds, because BRR!

Similar to the other days, lots of in the car and out of the car took place on this day, but we did stop at a cute coffee shop that had some really tasty cake. Glad the cake was the highlight of my day.

Finally, around 7:30 pm we returned back home. We were all exhausted, and decided to order some Dominos takeout so that we didn’t have to cook. All in all, it was a really fun weekend, and it was good because we all were able to bond and get a lot closer than we were before. As always, #stayclassyscotland