500 Miles

This past weekend I traveled with other IFSA-Butler students to Inverness in the Highlands! My ipod died after about 2 minutes (typical) so I turned to the music on my phone. Wow, talk about the old days...flashback!

Any sort of mental stimulation was desperately needed; the first day on the bus was absolutely brutal. I had had almost no sleep the night before and seriously debated about the 25 minute walk to Pollock Halls at 7am. But I somehow dragged myself there (the walk involved a stand-off with a huge black cat that appeared out of thin air...good omens, eh?) and made it.

It was worth it! The Highlands = incredibly beautiful; the mountains and fields reminded me of Williams. We first stopped to see The Hermitage in Dunkeld:

Walking to see the falls..my Scottish version of Mountain Day?

The next highlight was arriving in Glenfinnan to watch the Jacobite Express cross the viaduct. Just to clarify, this is the train that takes all the lucky wizards and witches to Hogwarts! I am so sad I'm just a Muggle...

I was consoled by the beautiful scenery of Glenfinnan:

The next day we visited Culloden Battlefield. It was very misty and foggy, which really added drama to the experience:

To cheer us up from the sad battle stories, we next traveled to Kingussie to visit a sheepdog farm! It was really cool to learn that the sheepdog trainer was the guy who trained Babe the pig for the movie Babe! He has 18 adult sheepdogs that each have their own separate set of commands for right, left, stop, sit, lie down, etc. No dog will respond to another dog's whistle. Isn't that amazing?

He literally grabbed a sheep with one hand and flipped it over to shear it. BAMF.

He also had really cute lambs that loved our attention. We got to feed them!

But, what really got everyone squealing and going cray cray were the sheepdog puppies. The trainer brought them out in a bucket and started handing them out like candy. They were absolutely adorable!

They kind of looked like guinea pigs...

An older puppy eating my ear.

We somehow tore ourselves from the puppies and left the farm to visit the Glenlivet Distillery. It was really cool to learn how whisky is made. They have a couple of casks that will eventually be aged 50 years! So crazy (and expensive!). 

Maybe my water to whisky ratio was off but I thought this tasted NASTY. 

The last day of our trip, we visited Loch Ness. I think this was probably my favorite trip. We got on a boat and traveled across the huge lake, while trying to spot Nessie, and arrived at Urquhart Castle. The views were unreal! 

Before we left for Edinburgh, we stopped at Glencoe, which was spectacular. It was really sad to learn that this was where the English betrayed the MacDonald clan and their "Highland Hospitality," which resulted in what is now known as the Massacre of Glencoe.

Overall, the trip was a great way to see new parts of Scotland. I leave you all with this epic song (aka our trip's theme song) by The Proclaimers: 500 Miles.