Day 23: Wednesday November 2nd, 2011
That morning I got an e-mail from my Dad telling me to listen to the Peat Bog Faeries, because he clearly did some research into Scottish music due to my time in the highlands and they were a local band. Just 30 minutes later, Richard had them on in the bus with no prompting from me. My Dad’s a genius.
Bright and early we rose and drove out to Glencoe, perhaps the prettiest sight of all, but it’s like choosing between your favorite beers or Pokemon. You can’t do it. Glencoe is a vast glacial ravine, lined by mountains and haunted by the massacre for which it takes its name. Straight out of Game of Thrones, guests accepted into the McDonald’s hospitality broke the medieval standard and slaughtered 38 of their family and 40 more women and children died after their homes were burned to the ground for not accepting William of Orange’s allegiance fast enough (thank you Richard and wikipedia).
Right around this area was actually where Hagrid’s cabin was set and filmed during the Prisoner of Azkaban. After this we stopped at a commando memorial and then for an early snack where I had a delightful haggis roll. Later we stopped at another cafe where I had the Scottish specialty Cullen skink, a thick, creamy soup with haddock and potatoes. It was nummy.
Toward the end of the day we stopped at the William Wallace Monument and saw Stirling Castle, and learned the real story behind the battle and Wallace’s life. We also passed Doune Castle, the castle used during the filming of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. All of this made me promise myself if I ever have a vast fortune that I will live in a castle. So tell your friends about this blog.
Finally, after my only nap during the tour, we returned to Edinburgh. We made our sad farewells, to Jess especially since she was flying out that night and to Richard, because he was an actual resident of Edinburgh and didn’t want to hang out with us on his free time. The rest, I would see later, and it wasn’t the end yet.
I didn’t have a plan of attack for what was next yet, so I stayed at the same hostel as Jess and Jordan, where we met the most terrifying person I’ve ever met. Jess and I were trying to nap, and then KIMPOSSIBLE saunters in. No joke, that’s what this overweight, pink and blue haired punky Australian called herself, and had a tattoo to prove it. She had no money, was already drunk and drinking some mysterious concoction that Jess actually tried, and within 6 minutes of meeting us was telling us about her mile high experience flying over here. She was crazy. Jordan and I combatted this by trying to get her to be more graphic, to gross her out, and soon she had passed out. She slept through the night and past when we woke up the next morning, the poor thing.
We all went out with the Sweden duo, and Wera, another Swedish girl that Jordan had met in Edinburgh previously staying at our hostel. We found a place with 1 pound drinks and went nuts, soon finding ourselves at Frankenstein (a famous bar/nightclub I forget if I touched upon during the Halloween pub crawl) basically dancing like crazy like we did at Saucy Mary’s. We attracted more Swedes like moths to a flame, and soon there were about 8 of them, forming Team Sweden. More on them later. I probably could’ve done some work that night, but I was content to dance, sweat and drink. Rihanna’s “We Found Love” came on a couple times to reinforce my decision.
Next: Final Day in Edinburgh with Team Sweden.