The next morning we took a taxi to Enterprise to pick up our rental car. Amy was the driver and was a little nervous about driving on the other side of the road and car. She did very well though, and Katie only had to tell her to get to the left side of the road a few times! Once you get past a certain town, most of the roads turn into one lane. There are 'passing zones' that you have to pull into if a car is coming the other way. Although it was kind of annoying to have to pull over all the time, at least Amy didn't have to worry about staying on the right (and by right, I mean left) side of the road! We spent most of the morning driving to the very top of Scotland. Our goal was to get to a town called Durness, where we knew there was a huge cave you can go in. When we got there, we were surprised that they were even allowed to call Durness a town. There were maybe five buildings in a cluster, most of them homes, and that was it. We don't even know if there was any kind of store. There was a beautiful beach in Durness, which we walked around for a while. The tide was coming in, though, so we had to leave quickly!
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After leaving the cave we drove to our hostel in Tongue. It was really nice with beautiful views overlooking a lake. Tongue was another one of those towns with nothing to do so we stayed in the hostel and played Pictionary with two of our roommates. One was from Burlington, ON and the other was from Syracuse, NY. The were backpacking together and hitchhiking their way across the top of Scotland in the opposite direction that we were headed in.
The next morning we drove to Thurso to pick up some sandwiches for lunch. We were headed to Dunnet Head, which is the most northernly point on the mainland. We bought some lunch to go and two millionaire slices (amazing desserts...bottom layer is shortbread, then a layer of caramel, then a layer of chocolate) and drove to the point. The cliffs were amazing. Think Cliffs of Doom in Princess Bride. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we could see the Orkney Islands in the distance. Once again, we were the only ones there so we had the cliffs to ourselves. It did start to rain, so we ate our lunch and dessert in the car, with the ocean and a full rainbow in front of us.
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The rest of the day was mostly spent in the car, with a few stops for pictures. We did stop at a few castles but because it was late in the season, they were closed. One castle we went to was open, though...our hostel for the night! We stayed in Carbisdale Castle, which was built between 1906 and 1917, so relatively new compared with most castles. We had read about this castle quite a few years ago and always thought it would be neat to be able to sleep in a castle for a night. We were quite excited to be able to fit it into our schedule. We spent most of the evening exploring the castle and trying not to get lost. It is said to be haunted, and they even have pamphlets for you to read, but we both decided we would wait until we left the next morning before reading them. We actually wanted to sleep that night! Two of our roommates were Austrailians who had been living in Edinburgh for about 5 months, so they told us about good places to eat and things to do.
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While we were waiting for our bus back to Edinburgh we ran into the two North American girls we met at the hostel in Tongue. We had coffee with them and ended up on the same bus back to the city. We knew they didn't have a place to stay so we offered up the couches in our flat. They ended up staying for two nights and we had a lot of fun showing them around the city.
5 comments:
Hi girls! I stumbled across Lindsay's blog via Facebook and saw her mention of you guys in Scotland! I lived in Edinburgh for about 6 months while I was supposed to be writing my thesis from UW. Absolutely loved it. Had family interests drawing me there, but had also read the Diana Gabaldon books and it remains my favourite book series! Loved reading about the things you've done so far. I was there back in 2004 but still remember it all so well. Take care and enjoy every minute.
Cheers
Lauren MacIsaac
Girls, this is so awesome. I know you know it, but you are living the dream! I'm so glad you actually did it, instead of just thinking about it. Everybody dreams of doing something out of the ordinary, but few people actually do it.
Here is an actual quote from your mother: "...I am glad now that they are fulfilling a dream. I am even enjoying having the house to ourselves for the most part." :)
Just in case she hadn't said anything and you were worried that she was still boo-hooing. Well, she probably is, but at least you know she's glad you went.
Hey girls! Thanks for telling your old mother that you had a blog! I had to find out from aunt holly. ;0
we went and handed in our passport applications today! you know what that means ... scotland watch out! here I come!!
No way! I loved the Outlander books! And I am still looking for Jamie Fraser!(And he in nowhere in Calif!) I have no idea how I found you, but I will be back often! Too cool!!!
M ^..^
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