Hiya to the world!
This month was filled with many weekend trips and day trips. I think I can feel the countdown of my time here beginning—I sort of feel a rushing towards the end, like I’m falling through time and can’t find any landing point. I think that feeling is pushing me to do more with my time here. Additionally, there are so few hours of daylight now (it starts getting dark around three or four PM now), so I’ve found my activities have to be pretty planned out and immediate. I’ve also been sick twice in the past month; this may be a sign that perhaps I’m doing too many things at once. School has also kicked up, with essays and major assignments being due. All in all, it has been a rather hectic month.
I wanted to share another recent trip I took: my weekend stay in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. I had been looking forward to this trip for a while, as my parents actually got engaged in Inverness, and I had been hoping to visit some of the spots they did in the 90s.
The journey started out somewhat hectic. I stepped out of my flat and was immediate met by a flurry of snow. I was travelling on Glasgow’s first snow day of the winter season! While I was very happy, I had a 20 minute walk to the subway station to get through, and so I pulled on my winter boots and got to work.
Once I had taken the subway to the train station, I saw that there were other side effects to the inclement weather—my train to Inverness was delayed by several hours. I ended up stranded in Perth for a time, waiting for a bus route to Inverness. Eventually, however, I got to my destination. Due to the time change, Inverness was already dark, and so I grabbed a quick dinner at the beautifully decorated Victorian Market before heading to my lodging for the night at the impressive Lochardil House Hotel.
The next day, I had a hardy breakfast at the hotel before taxing to the meeting spot for the bus tour I had booked.
Over the course of the day, we travelled to many fascinating sites. I was astounded, for example, by the size and age of the Clava Cairns, and my heart hurt to visit the Culloden Battlefield and hear of the Highland Clearances. I learned that the Highlands were a place of not only great beauty, but difficult history and resilience.
The tour also had the opportunity to take a ferry ride across Loch Ness. As a child, I had always wanted to see Loch Ness (it is actually written in my 11-year-old diary as a bucket list item), and it did not disappointment. I was actually very surprised at how dark and viscous the water was; I can easily see how people would think there are monsters lurking beneath the depths. When the wind kicked up, the waves moved in odd and strange ways, making it seem like there were large forms moving beneath the black-buttercream surface.
Finally, our tour group made it to Urquhart Castle. This is where my parents got engaged, and so it was the pinnacle of my trip. I definitely shed a few tears as I compared pictures they took to the modern-day site; I even got to recreate a few photos of my own.
Overall, Inverness was one of my favorite side trips away from Glasgow thus far. Learning about the culture and past of the Highlands, as well as partaking in some of my own family’s history, was the experience of a lifetime. A bit of my heart will always lie up in Inverness.
