the highlands!!

Last weekend me and 9 friends went on a tour of the Scottish highlands. It was a very fun trip, and we had amazing weather (considering it is Scotland). I didn't get to see Nessie (although I managed to get into the Loch Ness up to my knees) but I did learn a lot about Scottish history, and saw Hamish the Heilan Coo.

Loch Ness in the morning (and now, with swan!):

Glen Coe (glen means valley). It is very disconcerting to me the lack of trees in Scotland. And the trees that are there are obviously for industrial purposes. It is kind of sad in a way that almost a whole country's worth of trees could be cut down. Anywho, I'd really like to go hiking in Glen Coe at some point in the nearish future.


Generic Castle, and road leading away from generic castle:




I've always been intrigued by neolithic stone circle-type arrangements. So I was very excited when we got to see this ancient Pagan Cairn and standing stones:



The Atlantic Ocean from the view of the bus:



Fort Augustus, a little town on the Loch Ness, and where we stayed the night:



A little interesting fact about the highlanders: they loved to fight naked! Our tour guide told us many battle stories about the highlanders just whipping their kilts off to fight! Ha ha. Especially funny to me was the "shirts battle". So named because the highlanders took their kilts off and let their little buddies fling freely. Now, if i were a man in battle, I would think it would make more sense to take my shirt off, and leave the kilt on! But that's just me...