While in Scotland I am traveling with Adam (my fellow Colorado IFYE) and staying with Kim, Robert and Ross who are the Scottish IFYEs we met at the National conference before we left the states. It was amazing that we all became good enough friends for this kind of a visit when we had only known each other over the four day conference. What can I say, IFYEs are good people!
Kim met me at the airport and we set off on a tour of Aberdeen! We ate fish and chips and then ice cream (all of which was out of this world amazing) then we started looking at sights. There is a large set of castle ruins called Dunnottar Castle that are on an island on the coast. It was a bit of a walk, but the castle was worth it. Then we drove to the top of a hill for a great view of Northern Scotland.
Eventually we made our way back to Kim's house and met her Mom, Dad and brother. Even though we had both had a long day and were tired we had one more task for this day, to pick up Adam. Adam is my fellow Colorado IFYE traveler and he is coming on my travels for the two weeks. He just happened to get in on the 10:00 pm flight, not the 10:00 am, so off we went for another 3 hours in the car.
By the time we got home we were all ready for bed!
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Kim is quite the planner. During the four days that we were there we saw so many things.
There was the day trip to Inverness, home of the Loch-Ness Monster! Where we saw a wool mill, various churches, castles and the Ness river, but sadly, we didn't see any signs of Nessie. Lunch at Johnny Foxes (we were told that it is one of the best bars ever). We did this on a day that Kim had to work, so the hour and a half train ride there and back and the
touring the town covered the time she had to do that.
That evening we went to a Young Farmers meeting with Kim. At home young farmers is mostly adults and they do adult things, although I have heard that they throw a good party. In Scotland Young Farmers is actually a group of young farmers (crazy, eh?) and they organize events and activities for the club and the comunity that really do sound like fun. I am truely jealous of the program that they have. It is also the organization that sent people into the IFYE program that we met at the orientation, like Kim.
One morning we toured one of the only carrot factories in Scotland that happened to be located close to where we were staying. Kim's brother Mark is a welder for the building so we got a private tour!
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I think we saved the best for our last day though, a distillery tour where we learned all about Scottish whisky making. At the end there was a tasting, after not drinking hardly at all in Finland for three months the "tastes" had me quite giggly. After that we came back to Kim's, packed, said our goodbyes to her family and headed down the road (with Kim) to meet with our other Scottish hosts, Ross and Robert, for dinner.
The second half of our time in Scotland will be spent with Robert and Ross who live near Dumfries in Southern Scotland. Being boys they are also a little less plan oriented. We looked around the town of Dumfries, which had great old buildings full of history, including the building where the book Peter Pan was written! Also the poet Robert Burns is from Dumfries, they were disappointed when I said that I had not heard of him, he is kind of a big deal here. Another fun fact is that the singer Calvin Harris is from Dumfries, Ross used to buy sandwiches from him, that made me laugh.
All of Scotland was great and it was wonderful to see some friends and have a more relaxing stay for a bit. I think a visit back is certainly in the future!
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The second half of our time in Scotland will be spent with Robert and Ross who live near Dumfries in Southern Scotland. Being boys they are also a little less plan oriented. We looked around the town of Dumfries, which had great old buildings full of history, including the building where the book Peter Pan was written! Also the poet Robert Burns is from Dumfries, they were disappointed when I said that I had not heard of him, he is kind of a big deal here. Another fun fact is that the singer Calvin Harris is from Dumfries, Ross used to buy sandwiches from him, that made me laugh.
In the evenings we went to the bars, which was to be expected when staying with two Scottish boys for the weekend, don't worry we always took a cab home.
Being the daughter of a romance writer I was told to visit Gretna Green since we were so close. Gretna Green is the first town you get to when crossing the border from England and back in the day you had to be 18 to get married in England and only 16 in Scotland so many couples eloped in Gretna. It was a bit awkward going with two boys but I do like to keep my mommy happy :).
Anyone who knows me knows that I really don't like most American sports. We went to a rugby game and I was really worried it was going to be like watching American Football at home (which I find outright painful) but it wasn't! It was quick and more athletic and just all around better. We also stopped by a "Proper Village Cricket" game, I'll be honest I wasn't paying that great of attention but it still seemed better than US Football!
I have to mention the vote that was going on during our stay. Since I don't have extensive knowledge of the British Government system I can't get too in-depth but the idea is that Scotland wasn't getting enough of a say when it came to the decisions made by the UK so they decided to vote on becoming an independent nation. People were really getting into the campaigning, there were "YES" and "NO" written on pretty much everything; signs, buildings, livestock, hay bales, hill sides etc. The vote happened on the 18th (after we left) and it was a no, which pleased our hosts :)
