A cheeky wee tale Pt III.

It must have been the cold weather but I found myself constantly craving coffee. I like european coffee, most definitely because it usually comes with a little chocolate or a biscotti. Yum. It's all about balance - bitter with sweet - makes me happy.

The last couple of days were pretty good. Yes, yet another bus trip. This time it was to the highlands. We toured up the west coast to Loch Lomond, a place that inspired a fairly well-known yet annoying song :) Following Lomond, some fantastic scenery on the way to Loch Ness, especially in Glen Coe. It's so funny how so many cities in Ontario can be traced back to the UK...Glencoe, Stratford, London, etc...but I digress. Although I did end up falling asleep as we approached Glen Coe (a bad habit I have while on buses), when I awoke to see the green mountains with mist rolling across the tops, it was absolutely remarkable. I think that given the chance, everyone should go see this, as well as the cute Scottish cows (known as "highly coos"). Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to stay very long...we were off toward the famous chain of 4 Lochs, of course ending in Loch Ness. Loch Ness was a bit of a let-down after all the anticipation. Our tour guide informed us of a one million dollar reward to anybody who could capture a video of the Loch Ness Monster. An apparent sighting was made just a couple of weeks before we left for Scotland. I don't believe in monsters but I wouldn't have minded some excitement! When we arrived, we took a tour of Urquhart Castle. There wasn't much to see given that the last occupants blew it up to bits before vacating so that the enemy couldn't use it. Then we took a boat cruise on the Loch, but the experience was eclipsed by the fact that it was bone-chilling cold. Everyone on the boat looked as disinterested as I did and seemed to want to get off ASAP hehe. The trip proceeded, without the million dollars, to Inverness, the most northerly city in Scotland. Down the east countryside, we stopped at Pitlochry, a picturesque town, for dinner. A lovely place, I would have also liked to spend more time there, but I was glad to be sleeping in a familiar place in Glasgow by the end of the night.

So after touring most of the country, there were only a few things left to do. On Thursday, we went to the Sudirman Cup - World Team Badminton. We happened to be in Glasgow during the week of the tournament. We watched China play Malaysia in the morning and Canada play France in the evening. It was all coincidental that we were there, but I was really glad to be able to go. The highlights involved seeing Val play for Canada (and get the only win for the team) as well as to watch team China, some of the world's best players. Lin Dan had a really disappointing match against Chong Wei but there were some damn good rallies. I also developed a huge crush on the Chinese men's doubles team, but I confess I like Yu Haifeng best.

All that was left to complete the trip was another food adventure: haggis and a traditional scottish breakfast, complete with black pudding. I like to tell people that I've eaten haggis but to be honest, I don't think that I ate the authentic stuff. It was more like minced meat with some spices. It was served with mashed potatoes and turnips with oat cookies. The haggis on its own was not distasteful, but certainly was better with the sides. The black pudding also was not what I expected. It had a really mild taste, which really detracted from the fact that I was eating sheep's blood.

All in all, the trip was memorable and interesting, but definitely a once a lifetime destination. I'm satisfied that I did just about everything while I was there. I'd say that the people are quite nice, but not friendly. Everyone keeps to themselves. Even Paris Hilton was furious that nobody made a big deal about her when she was in Scotland - they simply don't care for celebrities. I quite like that about Scotland. I could actually feel the difference when I came back here, where strangers seemed interested in what you were doing. Scotland is a nice place, but I can honestly say that it's the only place I've visited where I couldn't see myself living. I certainly won't miss the weather, or the food.