August 13, 2004
Day 11 - Lake District
Well, we're back from our 6-day tour of the highlands and if I were to fill a hundred journals it wouldn't be enough to describe the beauty the Scottish Highlands have to offer. I'll start from the first day and move forward until the train I'm currently on arrives in Oxenholm.
HAGGIS BUS TOUR
Day 1 - Edinburgh to Oban
We started off with an early and rather brutal morning in Edinburgh. After our rampage through the Grass Market the night before, 6:00 a.m. came mighty early, and I have a feeling I was still drunk until we were on the road to Oban by about 9. Lauren and I met our tour on the Royal Mile. Ruaridh, our quite attractive tour guide, herded us all onto our big (and brand new!) yellow bus. Ruaridh was a great guy and a true Scotsman. No sympathy for anyone who complained, and a wit as sharp as an axe. He would take every opportunity possible to take the piss out of the nearest target, but always did it with a joking smile and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. I don't think we could have had a better guide. He was so knowledgeable about the history of the land we were traveling through, and I very much enjoyed our moments spent sitting on the bus hearing stories about great warriors, battles and clans in his soft and engaging Scottish brogue. I think of all the Scots I've met so far I'll miss him the most.
Our fist stop was the William Wallace monument, the second largest monument in the world dedicated to a single person (the Taj Mahal is the biggest). Ruaridh told us the story of William Wallace and his heroic, though often brutal ways of fighting the British (skinning a man ALIVE?! That's just disgusting...). It was a small walk up to the monument (if I'd written on that day I may have said a long walk, but I've thought better of that now. You'll see :D). We walked around it for about half an hour, taking pictures and gathering a souvenir or two in the nice sunny weather before heading back down to the bus.
Lunch was had in a small town a little ways outside Oban. Ruaridh stopped at a Safeway so we could get groceries and then we sat in the village by a waterfall and ate. A small drama ensued when a pair of young boys, who's parents were enjoying lunch in a nearby pub, started playing on the rocks. One fell into the water, and was getting swept downstream. The current wasn't strong and the water wasn't deep, but panic can be fatal to a small child and Robyn, Lauren and Mike, the first ones who heard the scream, dashed over and pulled the shaken child out of the water. The rest of us concerned ourselves with his slightly older brother, who had made it safely to the other side of the rocks, but was now too scared from his brother's fall to make the leap back. After some coaxing and an outstretched hand he made it safely across and both children were returned to their surprisingly unworried parents virtually unscathed. This was the first of many activities which bonded us into such a tight-knit group; all of whom I will surely miss.
Back on the bus, we (Lauren, me, Robyn, Mike, Fabio, 'A', and Isabelle) told Ruaridh and the others our tale as we continued on the road to Oban. Our next stop was a special treat Ruaridh had planned: a shinty game (sort of a cross between field hockey and UK football) between the locals and what the Guinness Book of World Records has called "the most successful sports team in the world." This team has apparently had more victories than any team in any sport anywhere in the world, and their skill was highly apparent at this game which, obviously, they won. It was really great to see a real Scottish sport, and was a really good way to rest away the hang-over!
Next was a trip to the beach in Oban. The weather was far too nice to sit on the bus and drive around, and we were in need of some activity after sitting around watching the shinty game, so Ruaridh got out a child's cricket set and a Frisbee and let us run wild in the sand. Lauren and I had never played cricket before, though what we wound up playing was a sort of skewed version of the real game. We found is was a lot like softball, and thus excelled rather well for a first try. A young local boy who was full of beans and had quite a mouth on him asked if he could join us, and we had great fun laughing at him every time he tried to hog the cricket bat. His first turn had lasted so long that if the rest of us wanted a try, he couldn't have another until we were done. Half the fun was trying to beat him to the bat! We left him after about an hour and a half, all of us with smiles on our faces. He waved goodbye to us from the beach as we drove past him on the bus, looking like the little angel he certainly was not!
Oban is a beautiful sea-front town. Ruaridh actually grew up not to far from there and would be going to a birthday party for one of his high school mates while we spent the night in town. Wanting to save money on dinner, we walked over to the local supermarket and about 11 of the 19 of us split the grocery bill for a nice dinner of pasta with three sauces, salad, chicken and even wine. We got back to the hostel and cooked up a storm, getting to know each other along the way. We were all quite impressed at how people who hardly knew each other could work so well as a team, especially with difficulties such as language barriers to break through. The meal was great and the company even better. Isabelle, a French-Canadian from Montreal was a great treat to have with us to share stories of home. The other large group of us were Aussies (five in total) and I found it really neat to learn about life on the other side of the world. Fabio taught us about Italy and Pilla, Lucia and even Vanessa who hardly spoke a word of English, were anxious to teach us about Spain.
After dinner we headed out to the pub where we met up with Ruaridh and his mates for a bit before they left. A couple of pints later we were full and satisfied and took a leisurely walk back to the hostel to explore the town at night before heading off to sleep.
