Scotland
Written: Oct 23 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Scenery, friendly people, majestic mountains, loch's, castles, pubs, music, elegant dining, farming, Scottish accents
Cons: Cold, damp, RAIN
The Bottom Line: A must place to visit if possible. Prepare yourself for being swept off your feet and walking where people lived 5,000 years B.C. Scotland is steeped in history.
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| ddustyrose's Full Review: Scotland |
This past summer I had the great pleasure and opportunity of visiting SCOTLAND along with a cruise to NORWAY and several jaunts into ENGLAND. I'll just be writing about SCOTLAND here. I was fortunate enough to have a pen pal from SCOTLAND so her and her husband invited me to spend a few weeks with them and see their country. She's coming over here next summer so I hope to show her my beautiful TENNESSEE.
I flew out the 23rd of June and come home on the 14th of August, and if you're from the SOUTH, I suggest you visit during these months as their summer is NOT like ours. It rains off and on constantly and the wind seems to make it a cold rain so I wore mostly pants and fleeces. I don't think I went anywhere without that jacket! And having said that it's hard to believe that in the blink of an eye you can go from such weather to sunshine with skies so blue you wonder if God painted them just for you? White fluffy clouds hang low from the skies and if you were tall enough you could pluck them from their resting place and put them in your pockets as you'd love to bring a few home with you.
SCOTLAND'S beauty can make you ache with wonderment and leave you speechless. It is steeped in history so far back that we, as AMERICAN'S can't even begin to scratch the surface of their lives. Driving through GLENCOE you weep at the beauty surrounding you knowing that forever more your heart has been captured by an intangible force that knows no name. You are nothing but a speck of humanity between mountains so glorious, so awe inspiring, that they bend down and clutch you to them as a mother would hold her babe in her arms. Maybe you've been touched by the hand of God? Or rocked gently in his arms.
SCOTLAND is a farming country and your first visit to the supermarket is an eye opener! FRESH potatoes straight from the ground and such a VARIETY! There were many other vegetables I couldn't give names to as I'd never heard of them. They get this YEAR ROUND and not just by the season as we do in the SOUTH. The floors were always sparkling clean, no litter anywhere, and the buggies! WONDERFUL! They moved around and not just forward or sideways. No clunky, squeaking, cantankerous buggies for them! How I loved those buggies along with the thoughtful people as there was no standing in the middle of aisles with people talking and blocking traffic!
SCOTLAND'S castles. What can I say about them? Would magnificent block structures housing ROYALS suffice? You walked in the same places they did, you felt the COLD they lived with all their lives as castles were not centrally heated back then, you saw some of the fashionable clothes of their time, their kitchens, cutlery, silver, beds, art, rugs, jewelry, and if you listened carefully enough, you could hear them laughing or crying in the shadows. Their spirits forever captured in those walls and due to their lineage, prisoners who'll never know freedom. I DID NOT envy them.
I LOVED the SCOTTISH accent! Did I understand it? HARDLY! Not at first anyway. Lucky for me, my friends slowed their speech patterns down so I could keep up with them easier. There would be times when I'd figure out what was said and feel confident enough to comment on it, but by then, they'd have gone on to something else and I was usually 2 or 3 steps behind. A favorite saying in the SOUTH when you don't understand something or someone is HUH. The SCOTTISH version of that is EH so you have a SOUTHERN girl and a SCOTTISH family sitting around talking with one constantly saying HUH and the other saying EH. I tell you this, we certainly got some ODD looks when in public talking to each other!
MONEY. Oh my! Such a trip that I had would NOT have been possible without my GOOD friends! You may THINK you have more than enough to do you but the American dollar and the Scottish pound are poles apart! Gasoline in SCOTLAND is terrible! As far as I could see or tell, everything in SCOTLAND cost more than what we'd pay for it in AMERICA. Be prepared to pick your jaw up off the floor more than once.
FOOD. Some is quite horrible and some is very good! I'm a lousy cook so I was quite pleased to discover my friend was a WONDERFUL one! Those meals! No wonder I gained weight. I remember the first barbecue we had (or Barbie as it was called), I actually thought all THREE of us were going to eat off the plate as it was overflowing! But no, that was MY plate and mine alone. The meals put on their table was fit for a king or queen so I was very ROYALLY treated. You should have seen my room! Duvets (those had to be shown to me for me to understand what they were), French pillows, and a bidet! GOOD HEAVENS! That was a luxury indeed.
We ate out at some posh restaurants. I was SHOCKED at the amount of ice given you in your glass. ONE piece. No more. I was constantly asking for ice. Being from the SOUTH, I'm use to having lots of ice in ALL my drinks. It didn't take long for the restaurant to discover I was AMERICAN. If you want a delicious dessert, try their Sticky Toffee Pudding. It's to die for.
Their PUBS are an experience in themselves. Good food, cheaper than the restaurants, lots of congenial company and the service in both the restaurants and pubs is excellent. The SCOTTISH people go out of their way to make you feel welcome and you find yourself feeling rather special. It's very nice.
I was fortunate enough to see the SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS, bagpipers, SCOTTISH dancers, Loch Ness (Nessie wasn't at home, she was out getting her hair done), The Orkney Islands (which I'll talk about here in a second), Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and while in Edinburgh, I attended the MILITARY TATTOO where I was once again awed by the castle and this yearly tradition of musical talent (not only from Scotland either, other countries as well). I was at St. Andrews, Forfar, and many other places that left impressions that will be forever etched in my memory.
THE ORKENY ISLANDS was cold and rather gloomy but when we went to Skara Brae the cold was no longer felt. A wild storm in the winter of 1850 stripped the grass from the dune known as Skara Brae in the Bay of Skaill and there a huge midden (or refuse heap) was uncovered. So too were the ruins of ancient dwellings. The storm uncovered the best preserved neolithic village in northern EUROPE. The village of Skara Brae was inhabited before the Egyptian pyramids were built, and flourished many centuries before construction at Stonehenge. It is some 5000 years old. The semi-subterranean village survived in impressive conditions and so did the furniture in the village houses. On Skara Brae you can gaze out at the North Sea and know you're gazing upon the very waters other women gazed upon over 5000 years ago. It's very humbling.
STIRLING JAIL. I walked in Stirling Castle, the place where William Wallace died (I'll not go into his horrible death). I was taken on a tour of the jail where, unbeknownst to me, arrangements had been made that I was to be the chosen ONE the tour guide picked to, shall we say, be hanged, shut in the dungeons, shackled and generally have heaps of tortures heaped upon my head. It was great fun and for a while, I was the center of attention. I'm still deciding if that's good or not. :)
A party was given in my honor where many friends and family members welcomed me to their country. A party catered no less than by a chef who had once catered a gig for Celine Dion a couple of years ago. Much laughter, lots of fun, dancing (OK, so I'm southern and dance barefooted), a four piece band, and best of all, my friends singing, and they all have great voices. I'll forever see Kate, my friend, belting out Patsy Cline (and she sure has the pipes to do it) and her brother, Ginger, singing Elvis Presley's American Trilogy just for ME. I've never been so honored in all my life.
SCOTLAND is full of wonderful, wonderful people, scenery that leaves an impact so potent you ache from it all, food that is beyond describing, and I don't think I could even closely come to describing its many wonders, but if I had to chose one word that said it all, I guess I'd chose AWESOME. Be prepared to leave a part of yourself in this country and take a part of it back home with you. It changes you and only you can know how much when you open the door to your soul and look inside.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Singles
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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Epinions.com ID:
ddustyrose
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Location: Tennessee
Reviews written: 151
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