Fort Augustus, Scottish Highlands

I am in a hostel in the middle of the Scottish Highlands right now. Our group is staying in a quiet town called Fort Augustus on the banks of the Loch Ness! I'm halfway through the last USC-funded trip, a tour of Scotland. It has been pretty amazing so far. I better rewind and talk about yesterday, because that was a pretty swell day.

I arrived at the Edinburgh train station yesterday at midday and immediately spotted several men in kilts and I heard the faint screech of a bagpipe in the distance. Very cliche Scotland. I wandered up to a castle on a hill with some friends and generally had a pretty grand time learning about events that happened 1000 years ago. Edinburgh is a beautiful city.

After another of those heavenly USC-sponsored meals, we headed out on the town with some SC students who were studying in Edinburgh, and had the lay of the land. The first place we went was called the Royal Oak. It was a pub with live folk music. We sat on the floor for about half hour and listened to some of the most famous Scottish tunes. I especially liked the one about Caledonia. We left afterward to partake in one of Scotland's finest desserts, a deep-fried Mars bar. I'm not sure why it was Scottish, but it sure was delicious. And deadly. Mostly deadly. We headed afterwards to a jazz bar, where we listened to some awesome jazz for a couple more hours. It was an open-mic night, so one of the USC kids serenaded us with some sweet saxophone loving for awhile.

I had some trouble sleeping. I was a little too big for the bed. My feet touched the metal foot of the bed, so it was not a comfortable situation. I haven't slept much, but that's cool, you shouldn't waste your time sleeping when you're in Scotland.

Today was great. Most of it was spent in a bus listening to a Jemaine-from-Flight-of-the-Conchords-esque tour guide wearing Elton John glasses tell us about Scotland and make jokes in a funny accent. I learned some Scottish history, and saw some important sights. This evening we attended a show on Scottish Highland heritage and learned about their way of life. They showed us a six-foot sword which the Highlanders would swing around their heads when they went into battle, inflicting damage equally on their own side and the enemy's. After dinner, I went with some friends to explore this small town, and we found a rope right by a river to swing on for awhile. I was a little worried the rope was going to break and we were all going to fly to our deaths, but that didn't happen. I've taken some great pictures, but unfortunately I have no way to share them at the moment because I can't upload to this hostel computer. But rest assured, they are great.

The landscape of the Scottish Highlands is actually very similar to Klamath Falls. For the first time since coming to Europe, I'm surrounded by actual hills, covered in beautiful forests. Klamath Lake and Loch Ness are pretty comparable too, surprisingly. Loch Ness is 37 km long, and Klamath Lake is pretty long too. The only problem is that Loch Ness has a monster and is 900 feet deep at places, compared to Klamath Lake's average depth of about eight feet. Haha, we stopped at a skiing-type village on the way here today, and their mountains were about as big and as snow-covered as a typical hill. The town was at 4000 feet! But I expect to be thoroughly amazed at Scotland's nature tomorrow when we tour the Isles of Skye. I don't know what they are, but the name suggests blinding beauty and eternal happiness.