My heart's in the Highlands...

A little over a month ago, I got an e-mail from our program director about a weekend trip to the Scottish Highlands. I thought, "Sure, that sounds like a nice time" and signed up immediately. BEST decision I have made on this entire trip. I had the most unbelievable weekend.

I took the train to Edinburgh on Friday morning. I was supposed to meet the group at 4:45, so I had about 4 hours to kill after I arrived at the city. I found a pub that served a traditional Scottish breakfast all day, and then I wandered around the city. I went into St. Giles' Cathedral, which was dark and gorgeous. There were beautiful stained glass windows at both ends, and a large pipe organ stood against the wall near the center. After that, I wandered some more until I found a beautiful cemetery on Calton Hill where David Hume is buried. As soon as I walked through the gate, it felt like I had completely left the city; it was so still and quiet. Across the street was an opening to a "scenic overview," which immediately caught my interest. I had an absolutely gorgeous view of the city from up there.

Next, I set out for the castle, which wasn't hard to find once I started walking on the Royal Mile. I wasn't intending to go inside, but once I got there, it seemed a shame to just snap a few photos and turn around and leave. After all, how often am I in Edinburgh? So, I paid the 10 pounds and set out to explore the castle. It was really neat, but I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed...I guess I was expecting everything to look a bit more original, but instead it was filled with museums and modern displays. Oh well, I got to see the original crown, sceptre, and sword used in the coronation of Mary Queen of Scots, which was awesome.

I met up with my group that evening, and we all hopped in a minibus and rode for 2 hours to the lodge in Firbush. What an incredible place...it's all wood, and it's pretty big and really nice. We were immediately served a 3 course dinner, which is how all of our meals were...I was very well fed! All of the rooms have 2 sets of bunkbeds and were very cozy. I had 2 roommates, Sally and Jay, and it made me realize how much I miss living with other people. They're great girls, and we had a lot of fun joking around and staying up talking til 2 a.m. Everyone else on the trip was super friendly as well...it was definitely the most comfortable social atmosphere that I've been in this entire semester. The program director could have been Katie Heaton's twin--I'm still not convinced that it wasn't actually her in disguise.

On Saturday, we gathered together, checked out gear from the shop, and headed out to climb Ben Lawers, a mountain in the highlands. It was pretty cold at the beginning, but once we had been climbing for a while, we all worked up quite a sweat...it was hard work! We stopped for a lunch break at around noon, and the weather chose that moment to begin raining as hard as possible. We were all huddled over our soaked sandwiches in between rocks...it was pretty funny. The weather was not very kind for the rest of our journey...by the time we neared the top, it was sleeting and was so foggy that I could barely see the person ahead of me. After some time, Dennis, our leader, gave us two options: we could follow him on the quicker, steeper journey up to the high summit, or we could follow Bob, the other leader, on the easier path to the other summit. I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle the climb to the high summit, but I really wanted to do it, so I mustered up all my strength and followed Dennis. It was quite a climb and I was completely out of breath by the time we reached the top, but I did it!! It felt incredible, especially since I wasn't sure I could do it before. It was soooo windy and snowy up there, so we didn't wait long before coming back down and moving on to the other summit. That's right, I bagged not one, but two Munros! (A Munro is a Scottish mountain that is over 3,000 feet high...there are 284 in all, I think). The fog was too thick to see anything the entire day, but as we came down the mountain, it began to clear and Loch Tay slowly began to come into view...there are no words to describe how beautiful it was.

A ceilidh, which is a Scottish social dance, was held at the lodge on Saturday night. We had a 3 course dinner beforehand, and the main course was chicken wrapped in bacon and filled with...you guessed it...haggis. It was really good! There was also a rich chocolate cake at the dessert table...mmm. All of the men wore kilts, and they told stories, read poems, and gave a very humorous history of the kilt (I have photos of it). We got to listen to a man play 3 different types of bagpipes--he's a retired University of Edinburgh professor who now dedicates his time to perfecting his bagpipe skills. I know I've always said that bagpipes are my least favorite instrument of all time, but I think that this experience has changed my mind. A cute lady taught us Scottish partner and group dances, which I was absolutely thrilled about. Bob, our adorable 60-year-old group leader, is an incredible dancer, and we always tried to pair up during the more difficult dances. We danced circles around the room the whole night, and I couldn't have been happier. At the end of the evening, everyone held hands in a circle and sang Auld Lang Syne, the traditional ending to the ceilidh.

Sunday morning, I hobbled out of bed (my legs were SO sore!), had breakfast, and prepared to go mountain biking. I hadn't been on a bike since age 11, so it was a bit of a rusty start before I got the hang of it. We biked on some mountain trails up to an old castle, which we got to explore for about a half hour. It was so beautiful. We also walked down to an old cemetery before coasting back down to the lodge--that was my favorite part; I got to go so fast! :-) After lunch, I put on a wetsuit and went kayaking with 4 other girls. It was a fun group; we had all gotten to know each other pretty well during the weekend. Kayaking, like biking, took a few minutes to get the hang of, but pretty soon we were ready to head out into Loch Tay. It was beautiful...there's nothing like sitting in a kayak in the middle of the water surrounded by snow-capped mountains and watching the sun set. What a perfect ending to a perfect weekend.

Here are some photos...I didn't take all of them; the really impressive ones I stole from Jay's facebook album.

I love you all! See you in 4 weeks...can you believe it?

Maria