The Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond
On Monday, I had a fairly average day! I had class and then went straight to Pilates. I was pretty excited to feel like I was actually making progress with my flexibility/strength in Pilates! On Tuesday, I had French and Film Society before heading to Trampoline club on Tuesday night. The movie this week was Stardust, which was not what I expected but was lighthearted and fun to watch. I love going to the movies even if I have no idea what the movie is about, mostly because you get free popcorn and a drink. This time, there were extra popcorns, so I got to have two!!
But my biggest accomplishment on Tuesday was finally consistently landing my front tuck. I've attached a few videos below so you can see me landing it! I don't land perfectly, but I land on my feet every time, and that's all that matters to me...
Both Wednesday and Thursday were relatively normal days as well. On Friday, I packed up and met my friend Alyssa at the Dublin airport. She had just flown overnight from the States to Dublin but we immediately hopped on a flight to Scotland for the weekend! We've both always wanted to go to Scotland, especially since getting into the Outlander series. Her flight was delayed and we just barely made our flight to Glasgow, but it just made things interesting. The flight was so quick, and we landed amidst mountains and lovely rivers and lakes.
By the time we got to downtown Glasgow, we were hungry and ready for an early dinner. So we walked around the city centre for a while, ate dinner, and headed to our hostel. The people at the hostel were very friendly, and we ended up going out for a few drinks afterwards in the restaurant right next door. I tried my first Scotch Whisky! It was pretty good, but not something I could drink a lot of. Here are some pictures from the first night.
On Saturday, we headed out pretty early to do a day trip to Loch Lomond (hence the title of this blog post). We walked around Loch Lomond and the Trassachs National Park. It was a wonderfully short trip to feel like we were out of the city and into the Scottish Highlands! I wish we had had more time to explore/hike the mountains and even go to other places in Scotland, but I'm SO glad that we made our way to the famed banks of Loch Lomond. It started out as a gloomy/kind of dreary day, but it quickly became clear and cold. The fresh air was so nice! We got to see Balloch Castle (and Castle Gardens) as well. Take a look at some more pictures...
After our hike, we went back to the hostel to grab our bags. We then walked around Glasgow for a bit, and saw some of the sights that one of the locals had pointed out to us. We had dinner at a really cute cafe (I got macaroni pie... which sounds very Scottish but is macaroni and cheese in a pie) and then headed to the bus station. We took a quick bus to Edinburgh! Once in Edinburgh we basically settled in for the night.
The next morning, we tried to squeeze in all of Edinburgh that we possibly could in one day! Edinburgh is situated in between mountains right on the eastern coast of Scotland, and it was absolutely beautiful. Tall hills and cliffs were inside the city itself, making for some picturesque views. We started by seeing the Edinburgh Castle and Castle Gardens, walking the Royal Mile, visiting Holyrood Palace (where the Queen stays when she visits Scotland), and checking out the Edinburgh Museum. Our favorite part of the day was the Harry Potter Walking Tour that we took. JK Rowling lived and wrote a few of the Harry Potter books in Edinburgh. As we learned, she was even inspired by some of the things in Edinburgh. We also saw some locations where the Outlander series was filmed!! It was really exciting to be part of a city that was so old and full of history. Here are some pictures from the day.
Edinburgh Castle is above, and the view from Edinburgh Castle are the next three pictures below!
The picture in the above right is of the grave of Thomas Riddell in the Greyfriars Kirk Graveyard. If you notice, the son is also Thomas Riddell. Coincidence? I think not, considering this graveyard had some other spooky resemblances to the graveyard used in the fourth Harry Potter book/movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Below you can see what is believed to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley. It was so cool to see JK Rowling's old haunts and inspirations for many of the elements of the HP stories.
The last picture was Hollyrood Palace! It's crazy that even in Scotland, the Queen has power. Coming from London last week, the accents, the food, and the culture of Scotland is so much different from that of England. It's amazing that the two places have remained connected through the British royalty.
Scotland was chilly, windy, and sometimes rainy, but it was absolutely beautiful. The people were just as friendly, kind, and loud as they are in Ireland, which made me feel at home again. I look forward to returning to Scotland (hopefully) in the future to see more of the wonderful countryside! This week will be relatively normal! I'll also be staying in Dublin this weekend as my friend Alyssa is spending the weekend with me as well. She'll journey to Germany to visit our friend Abby (who I've talked about a lot), and then she'll be back in Ireland for the weekend.
Thanks for reading my blog and as usual, I'll see you all again next week!!
Comments
Post a Comment