On late Sunday evening on November the 7th,
Kelsey and I departed for our adventure to Scotland. We took the overnight bus to avoid a hotel
stay and had a fairly open bus to spread out and try to get some sleep. We arrived in the early morning on Monday and
took a taxi to check in at Haggis Adventures in Edinburgh.
We didn’t really know much about Scotland, although we heard
it was gorgeous. We wanted to see as
much as possible so we researched and found Haggis Adventures 5-day Highland
Fling. This sounded very appealing to us
because you would have transportation all over Scotland with a local tour guide
to teach you about their country.
We check in and, with about 27 others, we wait for our
bus. Down the road we see this big,
bright, yellow bus come at us, and out pops our tour guide, Chris. We load our luggage, find our seats, and let
the adventure begin!
As we depart, Chris begins with some history about Edinburgh
and we start making our way out of the city.
We kind of play some “break the ice” type games and we learn we are 2 of
3 Americans and the other 26 are from Australia.
The majority of our group was young independent
travelers. A few were coupled up and a
few were with their family members.
Australian’s have what they call their “gap year,” which is a time after
you graduate from high school to travel the world. We should incorporate that into the States!
We are making our way to our first destination, which is in
Fort Augustus on Loch Ness. We stop at
Tomatin whisky distillery along the way, where we learn how they make whisky,
see where they age it, and get a free sample.
Kelsey was not a fan, but I didn’t mind it!
As we drive we are introduced to the wonderful sceneries and
landscapes. We make a few stops to get
meals, tea breaks, take hikes, take photos, and use the restrooms. We took just the perfect amount of stops per
day.
We arrive in Fort Augustus just in time to go to a small show depicting Scottish lifestyles from the past. We all pile in this room and listen to a man tell us about their history. He told us how they lived and how they survived over the years. He had a volunteer from the audience dress up in front of the group in a traditional Scottish kilt.
The poor guy had to drop his drawers in front of us all, revealing he
was wearing bright red tighties! There
was an uncomfortable laugh from the audience, as he had to lay down which in
turn made his shirt rise up. It was
humorous for us, probably not for him!
Think twice before you volunteer!
Kelsey and I sat down and grabbed a pint. She usually drinks cider beer, such as Strongbow, and I like to try the local beer. We then got into teams with the people around us. This was a pretty interactive pub quiz compared to some I’ve played. Since we were in teams of four, you had to figure out the “smartest”, the “most responsible”, the “best dancer”, and the “multi-tasker” of the group.
Not only were we answering the
questions, but we also had “side tasks.”
For example, the “smartest” had to hold their drink above their head and
the one who outlasted the others won points for their team. The “best dancer” had to get on their chair
and bust a move every time they heard a TV show theme song.
Kelsey, the multi-tasker, and I
were on different teams and she had to dance “provocatively” with the “responsible”
one of the group when a Disney song came on.
I was the “responsible” one who got danced on while wearing a robot
hat. I also had to get the drinks. Needless to say there was a lot going on!
The finale of the quiz was that
you had to dress up one of your team members up in traditional Scottish attire.
We got our props and started dressing
up, Lee from Australia. We got pretty
creative with it and then he had to model it for everyone. We didn’t win the quiz but it was pretty fun
and a good way to get to know people the first night!
We called it a night after the pub quiz and looked forward to the adventures that led tomorrow!
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