Scotland!

This weekend I traveled to Scotland along with a group of students from my study abroad program!

We left early Friday morning, arriving at the train station in Edinburgh around 2:30. We then headed straight to our hostel which was a short walk just up the royal mile. 

We stayed at Castle Rock Hostel which was conviently located next to Ediburgh Castle. So once we got settled into our rooms made our way over to go explore!

I'll have to apologize for my lack of knowledge about this castle, for Gina and I were much more concerned about capturing the picturesque views!

From here we moved onto the Royal Mile which lies in the heart of Old Edinburgh. We spent the rest of the day popping in and out of shops and wandering around.

Gave Hume a rub on the toe for good luck!

Treated ourselves to some yummy food from our long day of traveling!

Once it got dark out, we all reassembled for a ghost tour... yes I know what your thinking, I hate anything and everything scary. But luckily my sidekick for the weekend, Gina, also felt the same way. So we clenched onto eachother the whole time!

After telling us some history about the town, our tour guide led us into the vaults that lay underneath the city streets. He told us about the evil spirits and ghosts that have been known to reside in each of the different vaults. After an hour of scares and screams we were thankfully back on the streets of Edinburgh, never looking back in fear we may catch a glimpse of one of the ghosts!

The next morning we were up bright and early, ready to go find Nessie the Loch Ness monster! We headed out on this Wild and Sexy bus for the rest of our day!

Along the way the made three stops. While two of them we're just in small towns for comfort stops, our one scenic stop was Glenco!

Glenco is known as Scotland's most famous glen.

Some other places we passed along the was was the town in which William Wallace (Braveheart) was from, the town and castle where most of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed, Scotland's two national parks, and Glen Olge or The Valley of Death. 

We also learned some typical Gaelic words:

loch: lake

glen: valley

ben: mountain

And that there are about 31,460 lochs in Scotland!

We finally arrived at Loch Ness just before 2, perfectly on time for our boat cruise!

Here's some quick facts about the loch:

1. Loch Ness translates to deep lake. It is the deepest lake in all of Scotland.

2. Being the deepest loch, it plunges about 755 feet down.

3. Not only is it deep but also long. The loch stretches 23 miles.

4. Having so much length and depth, you could fit the entire population of the world in Loch Ness ten times!

5. It also holds more water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined.

Now the moment you've all been waiting for: 

NESSIE THE LOCH NESS MONSTER

My entire life I've thought of this just to be a silly old wives tale, but after our trip out on the loch I can honestly tell you some type of massive creature lives in the loch.

While I could tell you about all the scientific background and such I'll just tell you what really made me believe. The man which leads the tour has lived on Loch Ness all his life. He believes he has spotted this creature or it's species 7 times. The last time being in 2004, he was able to take a picture. 

After much talking, he finally pulled the picture out for us to see. It was a massive hump that seemed to be the back of the creature. It's skin looked a dinosaurs with a boney lumps down the middle of its back.

I know what your all thinking, I'm crazy for believing this but hey! Think what you want.. I believe in Nessie and the rest of her family!

Once back on land we jumped back on the bus and headed back to Edinburgh. We did make a couple stops, one planned the other not... (our bus had some "mechanical problems.") But we were home by 9 and made it out to explore a couple pubs where we relaxed from our long day of traveling.

Sunday morning we had to ourselves to wander around some more before catching the train home. Gina and I finally got our cashmere sweaters we had been dreaming about since Friday and we also stopped at The Elephant House where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. 

Gina and I were mostly impressed by the bathroom!

Can't forget about the kilt and bagpipes!

I took lots of GoPro footage so hopefully I'll get around to making a video soon!

Here's one of my favorite Scottish songs I heard this weekend:

Burke and Hare: Scocha

Have a great week everyone!