Inverness

1 August 2012

Well today, I don’t have a whole lot to write about. Most of my day was spent in a bus. We left Stirling today and drove for nine hours to get to Inverness. On our way out, we were supposed to stop at the William Wallace monument (which I was extremely excited for, by the way), but for some reason we didn’t. I was not very happy about that. I came all the way to Scotland and didn’t go see the monument built for arguably the most influential man in Scottish history. No big deal.

We did stop at the Commando Memorial, which pays tribute to all the Commandos who lost their lives during World War II. So that was neat but still not as cool as William Wallace. We also stopped at what’s called the Neptune Staircase. It’s a waterway that boats take to get out to the ocean. They enter into one step of the “staircase,” letting the water rise around them until they enter into the next step.

Commando Memorial

Neptune Staircase

The best stop we made was at Loch Ness. We got pictures with Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, and we got to touch the water where she lives (don’t worry, she didn’t get me!).

That took up the bulk of my day. I had a headache through most of it because of the long drive (the winding highland roads didn’t help). But we finally made it to Inverness and checked into our hotel.

As soon as we had checked into our rooms, my friends and I left again to go get dinner. We found a great place that had good food for less than five pounds. Not bad! After dinner, we just walked around town looking at shops. Then we hung out on the bridge until we went in for the night. This city is beautiful, especially at night. I loved being on the bridge! I got some good pictures out of it:

2 August 2012

We’re still in Inverness today, but our group had a few scheduled things. First, we went to the Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre. Culloden Battle was a critical turning point for the Scottish. It’s a battle that they lost to the English, but if they had won, the Scottish people today probably wouldn’t be speaking English; they’d be speaking something more similar to their ancient Celtic language. It was similar to visiting the site of the Battle of Hastings in England.

We went through a museum first and watched a video. The video was projected onto four walls so that it felt like you were in the middle of everything. And it was a little graphic, so it was kind of intense. For example, it actually showed one guy being shot in the eye. So it shook me up a bit, but it was also really cool the way they set it all up.

After the museum part of it, we got to go outside and walk through the actual battlefield and learn more about the battle itself. Unfortunately, we were running out of time so we had to rush a little, but it was still really neat.

When we left the battlefield, we went higher into the mountains and got to hike the Cairngorms. It was such a cool hike! It was absolutely beautiful. And it was really cloudy, so we were walking through fog. The scenery was wonderful. There was stone everywhere and a river randomly in the middle of our trail. It was awesome.

After our hike, we went to a sheep farm. We got to watch the sheep herder explain and demonstrate how every one of his dogs has his own set of commands so that he always knows when he’s being spoken to. It was incredible to see how well trained they were! He would yell a certain word or do a certain whistle, and one dog would stop mid-stride and lie down. It was so cool. The sheep were funny to watch too because they would try to escape the herd or try to get in the middle to get away from the dogs.

After the demonstration, the sheep herder pulled out a bunch of bottles so people could feed the lambs. There were too many people and too few bottles, so I didn’t actually get to feed one. But here's a picture of a sheep trying to escape into this barn:

But I got distracted as soon as I saw the puppies. They were SO adorable! I wish I could bring one of them home as a souvenir. I don’t think that customs would approve though. But I have officially decided that I want a black and white border collie when I’m older.

The rest of the day was free time, and we spent it going through more shops and hanging out in town. We ate dinner at the same place we ate last night (and again, it was delicious!). Then we decided we better get our last interview for class done. So we approached a man and three women. They turned out to be from New Zealand, so not Scottish like we had hoped, but they were still awesome. They were hilarious! I’m really glad we talked to them.

After that, we just hung out on the bridge again until it was time to go back to the hotel. It’s weird, though, because at ten o’clock at night, it’s still light out. It’s kind of weird.

When I got back to my hotel tonight, I checked Facebook and found out that I have a new nephew! Benjamin Matthew Stutz was born yesterday on his dad's birthday at 3:05 PM. I told my sister so many times to wait until I got home to have her baby, but I guess little Matthew had other plans. I can't wait to meet him when I get home!

Tomorrow we’ll be going to Edinburgh, and I’m excited for that. They’re in the middle of some huge annual festival right now, so that will be awesome! I’ll let you know how it goes.