Happy Fourth of July from Scotland! It is a funny thing to basically be in the country that our country is celebrating independence from. Ha! Our bus driver even told us (jokingly) that today is a great day in history because they finally got rid of us. He liked to pick on the Americans, but it was usually pretty funny. Since our group could be kind of quite at times I always piped in to keep things entertaining and this made Katie, Julie, and I good targets for jokes. Collin our bus driver liked us since we always chatted with him and answered questions he asked. He is a funny man, but he sure does love the history of Scotland and is proud to be Scottish. I am kind of glad to have a break from history after today (it is our last day of the bus trip).
So to start Independence Day, we had breakfast in the lobby before taking a boat tour on Loch Ness (Loch = body of water). The boat driver asked all of us where we were from and when we said America he made a few jokes then pulled out a small American flag for us. I was so pumped! For the next hour three of us took tons of pictures with it and probably annoyed everyone else. Katie and I even said the pledge of allegiance to the flag and hummed a few patriotic tunes. We were hamming it up and loving it!
After our boat ride which lasted about an hour, the entire group hopped on the bus to finish up our tour of Scotland. We headed through Inverness and then to a battle ground where the Jacobites fought. To be honest I fell asleep on and off all day because it was hot in the bus and I missed a lot of the history he was telling us. Also I wasn’t too interested in the war stories from way back when. Now if it had been something I had studied in school I might have cared more, but I don’t ever remember learning about Scottish wars. We then headed to an old burial ground in the country side. It was real pretty and we took more pictures of the cows and the stone fences. We are easily entertained ha! Then we stopped at a small Victorian town called Pitlochry to grab lunch (at 3pm so we were really hungry!). Then we were back on the road and were headed back to Edinburgh to complete our trip!
The trip was great and I learned so much history. We basically saw all of Scotland, or at least the main sites. Scotland is a beautiful country and reminds me of so many other places. At times I felt like I was on the coast of New England and then maybe in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Crazy!
After Collin dropped us off we caught the next train to Leuchars, which is the closest train stop to St. Andrews. For the next two nights Katie and I are staying in a cute bed and breakfast right on the Eastern coast of Scotland in St. Andrews. It is beautiful here and when we were walking on the beach earlier I felt like I was in Georgetown, South Carolina where my family goes for family reunions. The only difference from South Carolina is that I was wearing a coat and that the buildings look more Victorian and castle like, but the beach looked similar! Tomorrow Katie and I are taking a tour of Balmoral Castle which is one of the Queen of England’s private estates. I think it is going to be a great tour! Then we will bum around St. Andrews tomorrow night before we head back to London on Wednesday morning.
Oh and I almost forgot! So when we arrive in St. Andrews we were about an hour and a half earlier than we had thought because we caught an earlier train. Thus when we go to the B&B no one was there and no one was answering the phone. Both of us were pretty hungry so we decided I would sit on the stoop with our luggage and Katie and was going to walk and get us some food. As I was sitting in the doorway on the phone with my family, a couple walked up and let me in. I guess I wasn’t very threatening looking ha! Then two men walked in and we got to chatting. Come to find out they were both from Union City, TN which is about 60 miles north of Jackson. It was such a wonderful 4th of July treat to be with some of my natives!! Yay Tennessee!!! Right after that the lady in charge walked in and got us all settled before we headed out to walk around the beach. On the beach I got the chance to call my grandma, Memaw, and then I called Julia. It was great to hear their voices!
Well hope everyone has had a lovely 4th! Cheers yall!!
I LOVED hearing your voice too!!! talk to you again soon!!!
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