Left Thursday morning with 6 of the girls on the trip to take a bus from Glasgow to Perth, switched buses, headed to Inverness, which is quite possibly the most beautiful city in Scotland. Quaint, but modern (it has a shopping mall
and an imposing looking, authentic castle), with lots of little (overpriced) restaurants, and these amazing islands in the river Ness that you can walk from one to another.
Thursday was spent primarily exploring the city. We found a large aquadome and admired the enormous slide. Had drinks at a chic establishment--for future reference, Guiness Extra Cold is 400% better than regular Guinness. Had horrible dreams in the night at the hostel. Roomed with three of the girls from the trip and two Spanish guys.
Next morning awoke early to catch a bus to Loch Ness. The actual lake was no great shakes and neither was the museum bit about the monster, but we did get to tour the Castle Urquhart (ER-kert), which is just ruins, but amazingly powerful. I climbed to the top of the ramparts and stood for a long while with the wind in my hair, listening to Damien Rice who, I know, is Irish, not Scottish, but it fit my mood and I needed some voice to accompany me and lessen my oppressive loneliness. Came back and took a long nap, awoke for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I think I stayed in the room and read and talked with the girls. An Australian couple moved in some time that day and came back that evening. The girl, who was amazingly attractive, slept in the bed at my feet. So "sleeping with" is misleading, but not exactly inaccurate. We did have a nice discussion of the vagaries of international finance at some point, but nothing much more. She did change into her pijamas in the room, though.
Saturday was spent looking at windswept battlefields (Culloden, where the Stuart army under Bonnie Prince Charlie, was defeated resoundingly), the large ceremonial graves at Clava, the 18th century Fort George, and Cawdor Castle, which is traditionally the site of Macbeth's castle, but which was built sometime in the 14th Century (I think) and has a very loud cow somewhere on the grounds. Some of the girls and I went looking for this cow, and, in our travels, climbed over garden walls, climbed trees, got lost in the garden maze, and found some black sheep (literally). No cow though.
I decided to go to mass that night (last night) instead of trying to get to a service today. I went to this small church on the banks of the Ness, only to find that mass was an hour later than i had thought. I decided to eat a quick bite, then catch up with the girls after I had finished mass. After some searching, found a fish and chips shop (a "chippie" as they call them) and soon had a styrofoam take-out thing full of more salt and vinegar than I have eaten in the past three months combined. I decided to be charming and eat on the banks of the Ness. Found a lovely little bench and began to tear into the fish. Down swooped first one sea gull then another, then another. I kicked at one which started them scattering enough for me to cautiously eat my chips whilst I glared at the unperturbed birds and murmured obscenities about their genealogies and sexual histories. Things were going well until this dynamic duo of Asian women come over and stood
directly behind me and started throwing bread to the seagulls. Within thirty seconds every fucking bird from here to Norway was at my feet. I got up and walked further down the river, sat down muttering on the next bench and re-commenced eating. Then some kid came along and sat down at the other end of the bench and took out about 3 sandwiches. I had attracted 2 seagulls when I had sat down as the odor of fish wafted grotesquely from my meal; this little pudgy-cheeked Scottish twat started feeding them, bringing the entire flock away from the Asian women down to my position once again. I muttered something grim about impending divine vengeance and drifted further down the river. I ate the rest of my meal in peace.
Mass was inordinately short--only about 30 minutes. It was nice to be in a church again. I wasn't able to go last week and definitely missed it.
After that, met up with the girls and celebrated Grace's birthday with a few drinks.
Went to bed, awoke this morning to catch the bus back here.
