The Highlands and Hairy Coos!

Yesterday a bunch of us went on a bus tour with the Hairy Coo Company through Sterling to the Highlands.  A long but great day trip, such beautiful sights.  The sky was kind of overcast but at times the sun was shining through the clouds.  We stopped at many points along the way, the first being at the Forth River.

 So not even 20 minutes into the tour, at the Forth River, our friend Laura sadly dropped her camera over the edge and into the river (I have never seen someone so calm after having just ruined/lost her camera and all the pictures on it).  It was funny afterwards for everyone else, but of course we did feel bad.

We continued traveling to Sterling where we stopped at one of the twenty William Wallace (Braveheart) monuments.

After, we continued our tour and stopped at a small, but very famous castle, thanks to the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  The castle below is indeed the one used to shoot most of the movie.

We next stopped in Sterling to grab lunch.  Had a delicious lunch of fish and chips, topped off with the best creme filled doughnut.  This nearby bakery made everything fresh, I also had an apple turnover which was good too.

Next we entered into the Highlands, named for their higher level of elevation in relation to the rest of Scotland.    The vast, green rolling hills leading to mountains were truly a sight to see.  Pictures don't do it any justice.  As many people imagine much of Scotland to have, herds of sheep were everywhere.  We stopped to feed the most famous hairy coo in Scotland, Hamish.  I'm sure most are wondering what hairy coos are; they are just a unique cow found here in Scotland.

This is Hamish the hairy coo, a perfect depiction of his name.  Also with him is his partner Heather.

We fed the coos, pretty interesting as they have such long tongues...

As I said the views of the Highlands were amazing...

Our final two stops were a loch and the only true Scottish lake.  They call lakes lochs here in Scotland, but for some reason they named one a lake instead.  They revealed great views of the mountains in the distance...

The trip was well worth it, not costing anything other than buying our own food and tipping the guide in the end.  A very fun day trip!

Haggis..."It tastes like a Christmas candle"

This past Tuesday night was the celebration of Burns Night, in honor of a famous Scottish poet named Robert Burns.  A couple friends and I attended the Burns Supper and "indulged" in the traditional Scottish meal of haggis, neeps, and tatties.  For those who aren't familiar with these foods, neeps refers to mashed turnips and tatties are mashed potatoes.  Haggis is very popular in Scotland and is known as the leftovers mashed together.  A typical recipe is as follows:  

• 1 sheep's lung (illegal in the U.S.; may be omitted if not available)
• 1 sheep's stomach
• 1 sheep heart
• 1 sheep liver
• 1/2 lb fresh suet (kidney leaf fat is preferred)
• 3/4 cup oatmeal (the ground type, NOT the Quaker Oats type!)
• 3 onions, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 cup stock

After you've read the first few ingredients I'm sure you can imagine how awful it tasted.  I only managed to get through a few fork fulls, with the help of the neeps and tatties killing the repulsive taste.  Fortunately the scotch broth and bread beforehand was delicious!  Also it helped that the table was given a bottle of red and white wine to wash the haggis down (typically I don't enjoy wine but when your eating something that gross anything tastes better).  

Just to clarify the title of this post, my friend Abby was served the vegetarian haggis and described it as tasting like a Christmas candle (not sure if she has ever actually tried one before).

We did enjoy the night overall, as it was a great cultural experience.  The whole dinner was conducted in the traditional manner, with bagpipes and readings/singings of Burns' poems.  There was also a cheers to the lads and lassies, in which the lassies cheer ended quite humorously:  "so up with the kilts and down with the trousers!"

There was a benefit to attending the Burns supper...there was a raffle at the end of the meal.  My luck continues here abroad; I won a nice University of Edinburgh sweatshirt!  There were probably about 75 - 100 people at the dinner.

The Partenon on Calton Hill

After our Harry Potter excursion we walked across the city to Calton Hill.  There is a monument that greatly resembles a portion of the Parthenon in Greece...

In addition to the Parthenon monument, there were many other beautiful monuments on Calton Hill.

Calton Hill provided a great view of Arthur Seat and the new town extending to the shoreline...

Across the street is a very old cemetery, in which we found a statue of Abe Lincoln, honoring the Scottish-American soldiers.

Home of Harry Potter!

So if you didn't know, right here in the heart of Edinburgh the Harry Potter series originated.  J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book in the small cafe, The Elephant House, which overlooks Greyfriars Cemetery and the Edinburgh Castle.  Me and a friend visited the cafe today along with Greyfriars Cemetery, where it is said Rowling found the ideas for some of her characters' names.

Greyfriars Cemetery is extremely old, having been built in the 16th century.  Within is a very beautiful church, still used today.

The cemetery is home to William McGonagall, known as the worst poet in British history.  Coincidently, McGonagall is a character's name in Harry Potter...

The grave thought to be most connected to the Potter series is that of Thomas Riddell.  'Tom Riddle' is an important character in Rowling's books.

Other graves contained names that appear in the Harry Potter books as well, but there is no telling whether or not Rowling took these names from the cemetery too.

Right around the corner from the cemetery is George Heriot's School.  This older style school is thought to be basis for Rowling's Hogwarts school of withcraft in her series...

Touring the Scottish Parliament

Saturday during the day four of us went and toured the Scottish Parliament.  The architectural design of the building is amazing.  From a sky view it is supposed to resemble a leafy tree or something (yes, I know most trees are leafy).  

The inside of the building was incredible as well...

The coolest thing inside was the two monuments of someone's head, made strictly from matches...

Chinese food...

This past Sunday was a beautiful day, so we hiked up Arthur Seat again with a few others who were not able to go the first time.  It was incredibly windy at the top, gusting enough that we had to really lean into it to stay upright.  Kind of hard to see, but you can imagine the wind by observing my hair blown back like Trump.

Afterwards we were all pretty hungry, having worked up an appetite from the hike.  Passing a Chinese buffet we figured we would give it a chance.  Very disappointing turn out, nothing like American Chinese buffets.  They haven't even heard of crab rangoons, arguably the best Chinese food there is.  The best part of the lunch was by far the music playing.  The song "Get Low" came on, which is a rap song that typically is edited out due to all the swears and offensive message it portrays.  Apparently here in Scotland the Chinese don't know of this editing concept, so amongst all the families and little children eating this crude song is sounding throughout the restaurant.  We all found this hilarious!

National Museum of Scotland

This past Saturday it was unfortunately raining out, but at least we have been getting great weather other than that day.  A group of us got together and grabbed breakfast/lunch at noonish and decided a museum would be best for a rainy day.

The National Museum of Scotland was pretty interesting, many floors to check out.  Perhaps the best part of the museum was in the kids' play section, in which there was a mini catapult I managed to successfully use to demolish toy blocks.  At 21 we were all still amused by this section.


Just a few random pictures of the exhibits...