A friendly bowling match arranged by the client marked the beginning of the exciting long Easter weekend. It was a 4 day weekend and my first trip out of London - to Scotland. The whole trip was planned and I was gonna tour Scotland with the MacBackpackers tour starting from Edinburgh. The bus ride from London to Edinburgh was memorable one, not because of the sights, but because of the snoring which kept me up the entire night. And after a long night I reached Edinburgh.
From the moment I met Haimish - the tour guide - I knew this would be a joy-ride. Haimish wore a Kilt and looked like a silly goat. Not because Kilts are silly, but because he was wearing one with army print on it. As long as the engine was on, Haimish also was on. He talked and talked and talked.. And when people were not listening, he talked to himself. Not really, but you get the idea. From the time we entered he regaled us with interesting stories about Edinburgh and Scotland's bloody past. From the rebellions to the murders to the myths to the legends. And when there were no stories he made fun of himself and the other travelers. He swore and then turned to the tour group and apologized and then swore again.
The tour first stopped at the William Wallace memorial and Haimish gave us some context on the building and the great hero.
For lunch we stopped by a beautiful lake – or Loch as it is called in Gaelic - with snow covered mountains visible in the far horizon.
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Post lunch the scenery only got better and better. Never before had I seen such stunning landscapes. Snow covered mountains, rolling hills, meadows, lakes (Lochs) at every turn, moors.. So tranquil, so quiet was the place, so unspoilt by human intervention. We passed by some moors which were actually the least inhabited regions of UK because of the harsh winter climates. Everything around was so peaceful, including the water in the lakes which did not have even a single ripple. The reflections of the hills in the lochs were breathtaking. It's a pity that we could not stop by in many places and could only have a passing glance because it was a no-stop zone on the highway. So I was constantly clicking away from the bus trying to capture the sights, with many a photo having my co-passengers reflection in the window. We also stopped by a lake that looked like the map of Scotland and the Eilean Donan castle which is probably the most photograph castle in Scotland. And it is in this castle that the title song of Kandukondain Kandukondain was shot.
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And it is on this trip that I fell in love with my camera. All along I thought there was something fundamentally wrong with the cam, but every pic I clicked this time came out perfectly. And the anti-shake is brilliant. The pic below was clicked from the bus by zooming up to 10X and there was so much vibration, and not the smooth undercurrent kid of vibration but the proper jumping kinds, but the pic came out so well that I was astounded.
We reached the Isle of Skye sometime around 6:30 in the evening. After quickly taking bath I set out click some pics of the beautiful, but weirdly asymmetrical, bridge which connects Skye to the mainland. A few great sunset pics later and after a short walk in the isle I headed back to the hostel. My fingers and ears were hurting by then, the temperatures in the highlands would dip notoriously low and though Skye was not technically the highlands, the temperature was equally bad. My hostel room had 6 beds and all six of us were IT Indians and for dinner we went to a Indian hotel in the island. It was zzzzzzzzz time after some real spicy food but thanks to my cold I had a blocked and runny nose together and the bouts of sneezing through the night kept me well awake.
The entire second day was only to explore the isle. Haimish took us to the Old man of Storr, a fairy river, Portree town center and then to a hill for trekking. The trek lasted for 90 minutes and the views all along were breathtaking. From atop the hill, I could see a huge lake in the far distance and a tiny port and the roads and the striking landscape below. It was time to try out the Panorama mode in my camera to cover the sweeping landscape. And surprisingly the Panorama pics turned out very well.An old lady in a make-shift shop at the base of the hill was selling exotic burgers (there was bison, zebra and kangaroo burger), I settled for a cuppa of hot chocolate topped with loads of cream. Hot chocolate never tasted better J
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The last days itinerary held nothing exciting except for the Loch Ness (the river Ness flows into the Loch Ness). Loch Ness is the biggest lake in Scotland and is home to the famous Nessie (Loch Ness monster). We visited Haimish's village Dores, one of the banks of the Loch Ness. Haimish had some interesting theories on the Nessie, which were quite Darwinian (am sure Darwin rolled in his grave). We then went to the Culloden battlefield where the last battle between the Scots and English was fought. Ruthven barracks is where we had lunch and got some great views of the mountains.
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After a few more silly stops we stopped at Pitlochry, a small town which was made famous by Queen Victoria's constant visits and by her mention of it in her memoirs. We spent some time shopping Pitlochry (where I bought some shot glasses with a very obvious indication to do bottoms up) and set off to Edinburgh.
Other than the cheerful banter, Haimish also gave us an Easter egg filled with chocolate, a MacBackpackers T-shirt and a bit of the 12 years old Highlander's whisky. We reached Edinburgh at 6 on Sunday and the whole tour group split. It's a pity that nobody thought of getting a group photoL. The next day's tour of Edinburgh is not worth mentioning due to some unbloggable reasons as my blog has public access, but I did have a good time with the Free Edinburgh Tour. Ronnie, the tour guide for the free tour turned out to be Haimish's baap. At the end of the funny and informative tour I paid Ronnie a 10 pound tip on behalf of me, Ageesh and Siva.
The trip was all that I expected and more. However, I am kicking myself for a few things like:
- Wearing a Kilt and playing a bagpipe
- Not posing enough for the photos ;)
- Not going on the Ghost Tour in Edinburgh
- Not going on the Pub Crawl in Edinburgh (The crawl takes u to 5 pubs with drinks/shots in all pubs and a free entry to a disco for only 9 pounds)
- Not getting even a single group photo (because there was a very cute Chinese in the group, whom I called Pazhtha Pazham)
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