Afternoon everyone!
We did an awesome tour with Macbackpackers last week. Basically we bought a ticket that was valid for a year, to use the jump-on jump-off bus service which drives over all the best parts of the Highlands of Scotland. The tour guides were a lot of fun and gave us heaps of info on Scottish history (we are now experts) and gave us a bottle of whisky to drink on the bus, and one of our guides even stripped her gear off and went for a dip in the freezing cold Loch Ness for us - how cool is that?
We made friends with a few different groups of Aussies (most of our tour seemed full of aussies...) and met lots of people who had the same ticket as us but had stopped off on the way to work a few months. We would have loved to have done that, but, well we couldn't..certian selfish people are getting married and uni awaits for some back home ;p
Firstly - Highland Coos. Possibly the best part of Scotland. Apart from the whisky. They are those big yak looking things with hair all over thier faces..they are the hippies of the cow world. The baby ones look like little grizzly bears and you just wanna chase em and hug em till you have blisters.
Second - Whisky. The blood of the scots. We liked it. Very much. mmmm warming
Thirdly - Glen Coe. Simply amazing. We would love to see it when its snowing. After learning the history of the place though, we don't wish to associate with anyone with the last name Campbell. If you know anyone by that last name, push them over. Down some steps preferably.
Edinburgh festival was in full swing when we left for Dublin and we were quite dissapointed to be missing it all. Our favourite live aussie band, True Live, was playing next week too! Performers lined the streets - singing, street theatre, comedy, bagpipers, bands, all combined to make the place alive. We stoped to watch a band of older guys in highland dress (like braveheart) bash on big drums really loudly, and they sounded awesome, and then the cops came and stopped them because they weren't in a designated perfoming area. They only got through the first 3 or so minutes of one song and the crowd surged forwards and bought thier CD! That included us..so we are looking forward to listening to it and seeing if we got ripped off.
I think we will be coming back here next year :)
Other random funny things that have happend to us -
1. Ize bus surfing (on the tour on a really bumpy windy part of road, Ize and others stood up in the isle of our bus, to the tune of 'Surfing USA', and without touching anything they had to see how long they could stay on thier feet for. Loads of fun for the family!)
2. Hearing stories of Tequila Stunt man (a couple of aussie blokes shafted some dumb american who reckoned he could out drink anyone at any drinking game. So they played 'stuntman' and he didn't make it through a drink)
3. Drinking a bottle of whisky straight on the bus (part of our tour included a bottle of whisky for everyone onboard. It was passed around until it was finished..only took us less than an hour!)
4. Eating the best sandwiches we have every had whilst in Pitlochery at a local deli.
5. The seagulls in Inverness are as large as Nikkie. Perhaps larger...we were frightened. One of them is a master thief who has made it in the local papers. Apparently this bird had worked out how the automatic doors worked on a newsagent, walked in, grabbed some chips, and then walked out and ate em.
6. Learnt all about how non factual Braveheart is...like the fact he was never married, didn't wear tartan, was very tall, and that welsh princess he got it on with was really only about 3 years old..so that didn't happen either.
We did an awesome tour with Macbackpackers last week. Basically we bought a ticket that was valid for a year, to use the jump-on jump-off bus service which drives over all the best parts of the Highlands of Scotland. The tour guides were a lot of fun and gave us heaps of info on Scottish history (we are now experts) and gave us a bottle of whisky to drink on the bus, and one of our guides even stripped her gear off and went for a dip in the freezing cold Loch Ness for us - how cool is that?
We made friends with a few different groups of Aussies (most of our tour seemed full of aussies...) and met lots of people who had the same ticket as us but had stopped off on the way to work a few months. We would have loved to have done that, but, well we couldn't..certian selfish people are getting married and uni awaits for some back home ;p
Firstly - Highland Coos. Possibly the best part of Scotland. Apart from the whisky. They are those big yak looking things with hair all over thier faces..they are the hippies of the cow world. The baby ones look like little grizzly bears and you just wanna chase em and hug em till you have blisters.
Second - Whisky. The blood of the scots. We liked it. Very much. mmmm warming
Thirdly - Glen Coe. Simply amazing. We would love to see it when its snowing. After learning the history of the place though, we don't wish to associate with anyone with the last name Campbell. If you know anyone by that last name, push them over. Down some steps preferably.
Edinburgh festival was in full swing when we left for Dublin and we were quite dissapointed to be missing it all. Our favourite live aussie band, True Live, was playing next week too! Performers lined the streets - singing, street theatre, comedy, bagpipers, bands, all combined to make the place alive. We stoped to watch a band of older guys in highland dress (like braveheart) bash on big drums really loudly, and they sounded awesome, and then the cops came and stopped them because they weren't in a designated perfoming area. They only got through the first 3 or so minutes of one song and the crowd surged forwards and bought thier CD! That included us..so we are looking forward to listening to it and seeing if we got ripped off.
I think we will be coming back here next year :)
Other random funny things that have happend to us -
1. Ize bus surfing (on the tour on a really bumpy windy part of road, Ize and others stood up in the isle of our bus, to the tune of 'Surfing USA', and without touching anything they had to see how long they could stay on thier feet for. Loads of fun for the family!)
2. Hearing stories of Tequila Stunt man (a couple of aussie blokes shafted some dumb american who reckoned he could out drink anyone at any drinking game. So they played 'stuntman' and he didn't make it through a drink)
3. Drinking a bottle of whisky straight on the bus (part of our tour included a bottle of whisky for everyone onboard. It was passed around until it was finished..only took us less than an hour!)
4. Eating the best sandwiches we have every had whilst in Pitlochery at a local deli.
5. The seagulls in Inverness are as large as Nikkie. Perhaps larger...we were frightened. One of them is a master thief who has made it in the local papers. Apparently this bird had worked out how the automatic doors worked on a newsagent, walked in, grabbed some chips, and then walked out and ate em.
6. Learnt all about how non factual Braveheart is...like the fact he was never married, didn't wear tartan, was very tall, and that welsh princess he got it on with was really only about 3 years old..so that didn't happen either.
The pics are in!
1. Hairy Coos!!! The cutest things ever...they are actually cows. Our tour guide said they are the hippies of the cow world, because they have long hair all over thier face, and if you brush it out of thier eyes, they always look really suprised.
2. This is Hamish, Scotlands largest Hairy Coo. You could by a bag of feed to feed him with if you wanted.
3. Kez and Hamish
4. Edinburgh Castle
5. A band of Scottish street performers we passed on the way to the airport, we bought thier CD.
6. Ize treaking through mud to get to the ruins of a castle on the Isle of Skye. (castle to the left)
7. Ize Otter hunting. Aparently this river thing had them...but we didn't spot any. We were quite upset, especially Ize.
8. The castle in the movie Highlander...can't remember what it's called though.
9. Glen Coe. This place is simply stunning. This is a must see before you die.
10. Ize chugging some whisky from the bottle on the bus. Mmmm. free whisky.
11. A fort...can't remember its name..but it was cool. It was built by the English as one of many bases, in thier attempts to control the land and the Scots.
12. Us at Lock Ness. Didn't see as many monsters as we wanted though...but the Loch was beautiful. And huge.
13. Our tour guide with her gear off heading into Loch Ness.
14. Part of the Distillery at Pitlochery.
14. Part of the Distillery at Pitlochery.
15. More distillery
16. More Distillery
17. More Distillery
18. The main street of Pitlochery.
19. Cute Thistle
19. Cute Thistle
20. Us at Edinburgh after a few brewski's
21. Our dorm in Edinburgh
22. A lake running through a beautiful forest we went for a stroll in.
