Scotland – Day Seven

We are heading back to London. Sadly, the trip is coming to the end. We have been to the most northern, western and highest point of the mainland of Scotland. Unfortunately we couldn’t visit the islands because of time shortage( except the Island of Skye where we could drive).

Summarizing our experience I can say that Scotland is a very beautiful country. It lays on a huge land which is fully nature! There is not much to do in Scotland except discovering and enjoying the nature and the magnificent landscapes. All the northern sea side is gorgeous. Regarding the visits to the big cities (e.g. Glasgow and Edinburg) we cannot give any recommendations simply due to the fact that we have not been there. From the accommodation prospective, if you do not mind staying in hostels we suggest Youth Hostels, they are warmly recommended. They are quite cheap, 13 pounds per night and well located all-over Scotland. If you prefer tents, there are many camping areas around, but the joy from it would probably be weather depended.
The distance we have traveled from London, through Scotland and back is about 3400 km. We spend about 180 pounds per person for the whole week, everything included (except petrol which was free).
For the food, we can definitely recommend the traditional Scottish food (e.g. lamb, fish) because it comes from the local area, sea or land, and therefore fresh.
While driving the car back to London and listening to the local news we have heard a familiar word: Ben Nevis. Apparently there were 2 people stuck on the mountain over the night, the rescue team was on the way. It made us wonder if we saw them a day before.
For the record, we have to admit that we were not really impressed by the local girls. We did try pull some by asking for the way to a train station but nothing interesting got out of it. Probably the locals don’t really like foreigners or maybe we were too smelly after the mountains.
Writing about Scotland and not mentioning the bloody midgets would be a miss. Midgets are mosquitoes of a strange type. You can’t really see them, you can’t hear them but when they bite, you know it’s a midget! Do not forget to take a spray or stick with Deed, it should help to protect you. Or take additional bottle of whiskey and get wasted. It might help, might not.

Following the recent comments and queries from the worried girls community, I want to state that the whole adventure does not look like a honey moon at all. You have nothing to be worried about. Quoting my Israeli friend I must admit: Girls, we cannot live without you, and that’s it.

Scotland - Day Six

Have you ever walked 1344m horizontally ? I’m sure you did it …. and how about going this distance vertically? The Ben Nevis Mountain has a height of 1344m and is the highest mountain in UK. I thought that climbing this one would be easy due to a small secret: for the last half a year I do not use elevators at all, only stairs. I truly believed that this practice would help me to climb this big mountain. Unfortunately, it didn’t help me at all. Frankly speaking, Dimi’s shape after jogging in Belgium seemed to give better results. One day I might consider doing it myself as well…

We started the day at the youth hostel. It was quite difficult to wake up because we knew that today we have a hard task to fulfill. Finally, around noon we arrived to the foot of the mountain were the walking path starts. We were lucky, the weather conditions could not have been better: sunny, warm and just a bit windy. After ignoring the recommendations of having proper hiking shoes and a proper map, we started to climb. We were quite surprised; the walking path was touristy and well shaped. You could literally walk on the prepared path to the top. Half way through, which was not easy, on the high of 500m, there is a small lake, there we had our first breakfast break; a sandwich with tasty Scottish salmon refilled us with energy which gave a bit of hope to reach the top. The way to the top was difficult; we made many small stops and it took loads of swearing and sweating, especially me on the swearing part.

On the way we raised an important philosophical question: Why people climb mountains? If it’s just for the view, you can always get a postcard. What makes people to do these silly and challenging things? Discussing this issue ….. we finally reached the top.

It was freezing and the snow was laying aside, but the view was breath-taking. We almost touched the clouds and we could look over the mountains into the ocean. It was an amazing feeling to stand on the highest mountain of the UK. I’ve sent a text message to a number of friends, and my sister replied with a good one: “Write my name there”.

At the top we had another Salmon sandwich and a proper rest. My shoes, the famous Dr Martins, which I wear for the last five years, tried to prove once again that they are the strongest on the market, unfortunately the (sole) is completely flat which caused me to slip a dozen number of times. Probably this was the last trip of my favorite shoes. It took us 3 hours to climb the mountain and 2,5 hours to get down again. At the bottom of the mountain there was a nice restaurant where we had a pile of soup with crispy bread. It was truly delicious!

The adventure made us quite tired but we had to drive 2 hours to the Youth hostel in Glasgow. It is located in a posh area in Glasgow. Taking off the stinking clothes and taking a hot shower were the first tasks, which followed with a pub tour. The hostel receptionist suggested us to be careful because Glasgow is known as the murder capital of Europe. In a pub we had a pint of beer and listened to an open mic event with local people singing with the strange Glasgow accent…..

Scotland - Day Five

Sharksssssss! Have you seen ever seen sharks in the nature? We did! Dimi says it was 20m long, I say it was definitely 40m. But let me tell you the events as they were before that …

The goal of the day was to explore the island of Skye and to get to the most Western drivable point of Scotland.
We woke up in Torridon under the highest mountain of the area. It’s one of the Monroe’s mountains. Apparently, as we were told by a nice woman (mountaineer) who climbed all over Scotland, Mr. Monroe was an explorer and climbed and listed up all the mountains in Scotland which are higher than 3000 ft. It seems there are about 270 mountains in the list. For our friend there were only 47 mountains yet to climb while for us it will be 269 by the end of the trip, but only if we do manage to defeat the highest one tomorrow.
We had a very nice breakfast in the harbor of Plockton village which sometimes referenced as the ‘jewel of Scotland’. We sat at a table located on the edge of a lake with a magnificent view and a bird who was begging for food by making sounds and tricks.

The entrance to the Island of Skye is via a remarkable bridge which was built 13 years ago to connect the island with the mainland. Thought the day we drove all over the island and saw a lot of nice views including a very high waterfall at Kilt Rock.

For us, the most interesting and probably the breathtaking place of the island is the most Western point, where a lighthouse stands. It was not easy to get there. Small roads with a lot of sheep and narrow roads with small passing points for coming traffic eventually brought us to the parking, which is about 2 km from the lighthouse. It was really an amazing feeling to be at the most western point of Scotland, to stand there and be almost surrounded by the sea. Actually it was also a great fun to climb and jump between the strangely rocks carved out at before the cliffs.

Even more breath taking was the view is from the hill located next to the lighthouse, after some climbing where you end up on a high cliff. We spend there almost an hour just sitting, enjoying the sun, wind and trying to spot any life in the ocean. We were inspired but some tourists who told us that a number of hours before there were whales going to the right and sharks going to the left. Unfortunately we saw none.

On the way back, suddenly, just next to the coast, we saw a strange triangle moving slowly. We couldnot believe it. Bloody hell! It was a shark! We almost jumped into the water to take a picture of it. Apparently there were two of them and they were moving very slowly. We wandered what brought them there, sharks like warm water while in Scotland the water is quite cold.
On the way back we invented a silly game. We called it - Hunt a sheep! The idea is simple, you drive slowly to a sheep, open the window, remove your safety belt and just catch it by the wool with a hand. The surprised animal is rushing away from the childish tourists. After many unsuccessful trials, Dimi and me scored one each. Have a look at the short video … http://www.youtube.com/v/DohG-wSL0lY
We couldn’t find a sleeping place in any of the youth hostels, but luckily we found a place at the backpackers hostel in Kyreakin, close to the bridge, the exit of the island of Skye to the mainland.

Scotland - Day Four

The Belgians say, you can never trust a French. We have to admit that the saying is right but there are exceptions. First, French hitchhikers bought us a pint of AnTeallach. Second, they recommended a village with nice restaurants and it seems that they were right. We are waiting for the meal while writing these lines, we might change the opinion later.
To summarize our day we have prepared a list of keywords : green, grass, sheep, water, hills, mountains, lochs, beach, crabs, rainbow, sun and rain.
Ohh, one more thing not to trust, is the GPS navigator. The reason for that is that we trusted it to navigate us to the most North-Western point (Cape Wrath) and it showed the route. Apparently it brought us to the East Keodale Piere. The navigator said that there is a bridge but it was only a river and a ferry. To be honest, ferry is a big word to describe small rowing boat with an engine. It could have taken us to the other side, but unfortunately due to the strong wind the man on the boat decided to cancel the service. To our surprise, taking the small boat is the only way of getting to the place. Yes it is not an island but apparently there are no roads to the place.

Keeping in mind that there is nothing on the west coast except amazing nature we drove slowly along small villages, magnificent landscapes and astonishing sea side views.

One of place we found on a sea side was a good place to stop and we spent there almost two hours. Dimi climbed the hill and the rocks and he said that there was a great view and worth every moment. He explained that it was watching to the island in the ocean, the beach laying at the left and rocks rising out of the water which all made it into a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the sunshine together with the strong Atlantic wind. After exploring the land we moved to the rocks in the water and climbed on one of the biggest ones, there we found some fossils. Really tiny fossils, try to imagine that they are thousands of years old! At least we do believe so :)

After these historical findings, we hit the road further to follow the coast which went along some villages. At some point we were hungry and wanted to try the famous Scottish fish tried to find a good fish-restaurant. Unfortunately we could not even find people to ask for a restaurant. On the way we passed LochInver, Alchitibuie and Ullapool. Between these small villages which hardly can be called villages with a house and a half, we found nothing except a dead end road and two lost French Doctors (PhD). We took them to a village and as a reward they bought us a pint of local beer and claimed that they do not like to work (but who does ?) and directed us toward this fish restaurant where we started to write todays blog.
[4 hours later]
The fish and lamb was goooooooood. Expensive though. It costed us fortune, but we are not complaining. Not at all. It is just to mention that it was expensive. Really expensive. If you want to have a cheap meal you better catch some fish or hunt a sheep, which is not that hard. Going for a meal in this place is not recommended if your second name is not Rothschild.
Now we are at a Youth Hostel at Torridon. It is a great chain of hostels and if you are planning to travel cheap in Scotland go for it. Yesterday we had three snoring guys in our room so we hardly slept, but we are not complainging. Not at all. Really, twelve persons in a room is not that much. Not at all. Especially if three of them are snoring and three children taking piss of their silly jokes. Hope this night would be better.

Good Night.

Scotland - Day Three

First of all, just to show off, we have reached the northiest point of UK which we could drive to ! But for the order lets follow the events.

We started the day in Inverness and took the right decision of NOT going to the island Kirkwall. This allowed us to drove slowly on the east coast. For our surprise, we found a perfect breakfast point: it was the famous whiskey distillery Glandmorangue. It is the third biggiest producer of single malt whiskey. A tour around the distillery is a bit short but it shows all the process and very interesting.

The most important in whiskey is water and to make sure that the distillery has enough of fresh and not polluted water they bought all the land around the distillery. (650gektars) Additional spying information we can provide is that they produce 3.5million liters of whiskey a year. But think about it, they distill it now and make the profit only ten years later. The freshly produced whiskey has 60-70% of alcohol. For me, standing there, it was hard to hold a bottle that aged for 30years , knowing that I am 30 this year.
Following whiskey breakfast we drove north passing small villages on the way. The nature is great with beautiful landscapes but nothing attracted our attention to make a stop. On place did attract us, it was a Tescos shop. We bought a roasted chicken and kept if for the right moment. The right moment has come half an hour later when we arrived to the Duncansby Head. It is the Northiest Eastern point in UK. There, sitting on a cliff and watching the sea we enjoyed sun, wind and the roasted chicken.
For our surprise we saw stones in the middle of the sea. Apparently ten minutes later we decided that it is divers because the points were apparently moving. Our surprise had no limit when we realized that it were sea lions who were coming close and probably were disparate for the chicken. We made our way back to the car as fast as we could but not because of the lions, it was the Midjets, a type of mosquitoes who bite us instantly.
The northiest point is located at Dunnet Head and it is a beautiful sight seeing point with view for the sea and the landscapes and cliffs. Being there was really the highest point of the day. We even opened a whiskey bottle to celebrate the event.

Then we drove on the north coast roads to the Durnell, where we found a Youth Hostell. Cheap and clean, perfect for us. Have to mention that most of the roads are very narrow one line roads with many wider places, called Passing Points, which we used as a Pissing Points.

To summarize the day, it is great area of UK. Very quiet with almost no people,no civilization and no WiFi, it seemed that the only habitants who took over the land were sheeps. The othe fact which made us wonder is that the landscape had no trees at all. Only at the hostel we were explained by a nice lady that it is probably due to the strong winds and salty sea side environment.
Writing these lines on a hilllllllllll !!!!

Now its time for bed. Goooood Night.

Scotland - Second Day

People, we do like Scotland! It is still a mystery why I did not enjoy that much of the Scotland yesterday, probably because of the tiredness. Today we had a great day.
We started from walking in the Inverness. Inver means Mouth and Ness is the name of the river the city lies on, which makes it The Mouth of the Ness. The city is not big but beautiful. Everything is close by foot so we did not use the car here. One of the most amazing places we visited here is the Kilt visitors centre. Kilt is the traditional skirt wearied by men. Apparently kilts developed quite straight forward from the robe style clothes. (How is the white clothes wearied by Romans called ?) The tradition tells that men wear nothing under the skirt, but as our photographer has spotted, they do wear underwear! The other interesting thing is that is takes 7 meters of material for a skirt. We have tried wearing it and it is heavy indeed! The price range is about 60pounds for the kilt and 500 for the whole wear.


The second half of the day we spend watching the Highland Games. This is traditional Scottish festival which has a flavor dance, bagpipe music and ofcourse games which involve force. We saw the stone throwing competition, the weight throwing competition and the hammer throwing competition. After the games there was a nice clan playing the traditional music and a group of girls dancing.


The last part of the day was full of hunting. Poor Nessy hide under the surface or between the bushes so we did not see it at all. Yes indeed, we finally visited Loch Ness Lake ! The story about the monster is so famous that somehow even I heard about it. Through the day I wondered where did I hear about it first. After spending the day on the lake we still puzzled and speculating about the monster. The lake seems to be a bit small from the outside but apparently it is quite deep and one of the biggest lakes with fresh water in the world. The fact that nobody took a proper picture of the monster does not mean that it can not exist. Actually we spent quite a lot of time trying to find a place to get close to the water and we hardly found one! The conclusion is that poor Nessy can hide almost anywhere.
During the trip around the lake we came across a castle. Unfortunately it was closed. Spending little time on hesitating we jumped over the fence and walked quietly and freely to the castle. The agreement was that if we get caught, then Dimi will speak French and we pretend stupid tourists. Luckily us, nobody was around and judge the pictures to see how much fun we had !




Just to recap, we are staying at the Inverness Student Hostel.

BY THE WAY, DIMI DID SEE NESSY !!!!!! THE PROOF IS HERE :

Scotland - Day One

- Left London at 00:30 and passed Glasgow at 6:30
- First stop at Perth (the previous capital of Scotland) nice, small city with nothing to do there. By the book, the most interesting place – “The Scope”, was closed and out of scope.

- Second stop, Saint Cyrus - a nice beach with big cliffs. Ya was tired and stayed in car and sleept. Dimi went to a bakery and met nice girls. They persuaded him ... for a sandwich.
- Third stop, Dunnottar Castle next to the StoneHaven village (?). It is a ruined castle, which was filmed for the Hamlet movie where Mel Gibson participated. This is probably the most interesting fact about this place. In one of the rooms there was a faked skeleton and a note next to it saying: Prisoner 700, James Bond. The castle area is relaxing and nice to walk. We havenot entered the castle due to the high entrance fee. (5pounds)
- Fourth stop, The Aberdeen. This city is considered to be the third biggiest city of Scotland. But for our taste it was not that amazing. At the tourist info they suggested to visit local Art Museum, it made us wonder if this is really the most famous tourist attraction in the city. The architecture is grey and straight.

By books, most of the city citizens work at the oil extraction from the northern sea. Therefore most of the city inhabitants should be tuff sea sailors, but we met none. For lunch we had a pint and a burger for 3.50 ! At the old city we witnessed a traditional Scottish wedding, men wearing kilts and women wearing fab dresses. Do the man really wear nothing under the kilt ? It is freezing !

- Fifth stop was the whiskey distillery of Glenfiddich at Dufftown, probably one of the most famous whiskey distilleries in Scotland. Unfortunately we were late, and the place was closed.
- Sixth stop is at Inverness at a student hostel for 14pounds pppn.

Summary of the first day.
Very long day. It is possible to drive all the night, change every two hours and visit places but it is tiring.
To be honest, the first impression from Scotland is slight disappointment. It is big and amazing from the nature point of view, but not much to see from cultural point of view. Raining constantly and the only sun spots were when we drove.
Hope it will get better tomorrow. Good Night.