Weekend in Scotland

Hey folks,

Scotland was incredibly BEAUTIFUL. The scenery was more than words can describe. We arrived in Edinburgh Thursday, took a tour of Edinburgh castle (which I had been to before) and settled in for the night at a very cheap and dirty hostel. The next morning, a smaller group of us (about 18) boarded a bus with a very funny tour guide named Neil Matthew. This was our bus tour for the weekend under Haggis Adventures (Radical Travel company). We spent the whole weekend with Neil as our guide driving up through the whole country of Scotland to Inverness (which is at the northern tip) then back down the west side (closer to Ireland) and visiting many scenic spots. We got lots of pictures and spent lots of downtime with each other in the bus, the hostels, and the local folk from each small town we stayed in. We went to visit the loch (what they say for lakes) where the Lockness monster "Nessie" is located. We didn't see her, although we looked for a bit! :) We also got to go to the Isle of Skye, which is a region separate from Scotland, so it is considered a different part. It was beautiful.

Now I am back in London and am happy to be. I missed the busy city. Today I was a little grumpy because of the cloudy and gloomy weather and also because we got back from Scotland at 11:30pm last night so Monday morning was quite a hit with all the assignments due.

I'm having a blast though. My advertising class requires that we take lots of pictures observing the cultural differences between the U.S. and the UK, so I will gladly put them up as soon as I can!

Feel free to leave comments. Below are a few pictures from the weekend.

Love to everyone!

Until next time,

Lauren

Picture 1: The beautiful countryside in the Isle of Skye (a region separate from Scotland)

Picture 2: Shearing of sheep. It was sad to watch!

Picture 3: The loch where "Nessie" is supposedly hiding. We had a few jumps.

Picture 4: The beautiful coast facing westward toward the rest of the Scottish mainland. (opposite from the coast facing Ireland)

Picture 5: Me with Neil, our awesome bus driver! He is a Scottish native from Fife, near Edinburgh. He has been driving buses and giving tours for awhile.