Travel Journal:

As a Postgrad in Edinburgh... - The Highlander, Pt. 1


The Highlander, Pt. 1 6/11/2007
 
Note: another installment of my weekend in the Highlands will follow this entry; keep your eyes peeled!


Friday, November 2, we headed out to the Highlands. We started off by catching a bus to the airport, and easy stop because it was, in fact, that last one on the route. Once we got there, we hopped over to Enterprise to rent a car. This might seem an odd step for a student studying in a country that uses the pound, but we decided that for what we wanted to do this weekend, we would go ahead and get one. A lot of the walks we wanted to do would be hard to get without a car/lots of time to hitchhike. Buses don’t run regularly to many parts of the Highlands. So Jonmikel was the lucky one who got to drive (me being too young to do so without high fees attached). First we get to the rental place, and they ask if we want a Saab for 5 pounds a day extra. We say no, plus we really wanted a ridiculously small European car. So they say “OK,” and move one. They ask us one more time if we don’t want a Saab, and we say no again. That seems to be fine, until we get to the car, and they bring out a Saab. We complain, saying we said we didn’t want it, and the guy is like, “Well, we’ve given you a free upgrade.” Except a smaller car would get TONS better gas mileage, which is what we were looking for. But apparently, it’s all they have (something about a kid who was underage and didn’t tell them when he rented the car online so they HAD to give him their last small car). So we take it (the left side, or passenger side here in the UK is already all kinds of beat up) and make sure the guys knows we are not happy.

So we get one the road finally, and it feels freeing, for me anyway. I’m sitting and relaxing in the passenger seat while Jonmikel is concentrating hard on driving on the wrong side of the road. He makes it my job to say, “curb” every time he is starting to run off the road on the left. In actuality, he fares swimmingly, only hitting a couple of curbs and making me suck in my breath sharply 3 times. I was quite impressed. So we make our way northwards.

First of all, the countryside in Scotland is some of the most beautiful I have seen. And I used to live in Yellowstone. Perhaps because it was fall, and I have missed out on fall the past few years. This was probably the last weekend for the beauty of fall, with all the reds and yellows and oranges and greens. Hillsides of evergreens traversed awkwardly by lines of aspen and other deciduous trees in full color. Small farm houses and imposing castles at every turn, tucked away between craigs and forests and in valleys. I haven’t even seen such colors on the drive from Cincinnati to Athens, Ohio. Granted, the sky was gloomy, as per usual in the afternoons, and the sun was already beginning to set (anymore, it’s dark here by 4:45). We finally made it to our destination: a small bed and breakfast in Kingussie, right in the middle of Cairngorm National Park. Note: unlike national parks in the States, national parks here are almost all privately owned by various individuals whose families have probably owned the land for hundreds of years. The little town was quite quaint, with a couple of small grocery stores and pubs. It shut down at about 6, when the pubs opened up to serve food, but the streets were more or less silent, as this is the off-season. A lot of the museums and such would also be closed down this time of the year, so we decided to stick to hiking. After filling up on pub grub, we walked back to our bed and breakfast, past the Ruthven Barracks, old 18th century barracks now in ruins but kept lit up all night long. It was quite a site, very romantic in all of its history. We were in a great location, outside of the noise of the town (not that there would be) but within walking distance.

Oh, and also a point of interest to many to close out today’s entry: I never want to hear anybody in America complain about gas prices ever again. Here in Britain, they’re paying about a pound a liter, which is about 4 pounds a gallon, which is well over $8 a gallon. And many of the people here aren’t driving little Smart cars or small cars; many drive the same kinds of cars as we do in the States, only all their SUVs are Mercedes and Land Rover. Everything is more expensive Across the Pond. When we filled the car up (thankfully the ONLY time we had to put any gas in it), we started at a quarter of a tank, and had to stop at $100, and didn't fill it all the way up.
 
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