After slaving over my costume for the past week-and-a-half, tonight I will see my vision realized!
Stay tuned for photos from what is sure to be the best Halloween ever! Yes, even better than last year's Halloween that was, er, "the best Halloween ever.."
A couple Saturdays ago, while on the lawn bowling courts at Kelvingrove Park, I had the odd and utterly awesome privilege of playing beside Belle & Sebastian front man Stuart Murdoch and his wife. Although I recognized him, I was unable to place his face, even after one of their balls rolled into our court, it was not until I went home and Googled who I thought he was that I indeed discovered it was Stuart Murdoch.
Two weeks later, that's yesterday, I was working the regular Saturday night shift at my job and guess who sits down at a table in the back? None other than Stuart Murdoch and his wife. We ended up chatting about Glasgow for a while, my master's degree, and the state of the journalism industry! He even suggested that I write a novel to curb the economical impact of the recession!
Star-worship aside, the music nerd in me thinks that this is probably one of the coolest Glasgow experiences that I've have. After all, we are talking about the genius behind Dog On Wheels, Tigermilk, If You're Feeling Sinister, and The Boy With the Arab Strap!
Stuart Murdoch, lead singer of Belle and Sebastian
Fortunately, the first part of the hike gave decent weather.
We even lost the trail and had to come down a bit early.
Here's the last photo of the trip, a waterfall on our long journey home.
When we woke up, it was Nick's birthday!
It is thought that the protruding pinnacle of the rock resembles the nose of an old man.
Another view of the landslips and vandalized sign advising hikers that
"[we] are advised (not) to go beyond this point"
I decided that the mountaineering life is not for someone prone to vertigo.
Here I am defeated and humbled.
Hiking down we found a little pond carved into the side of the mountain.
Two things you can find everywhere on Skye.
Okay, phone booths, sheep and ruins.
When we made it back to Portree for dinner, a flock of seagulls massed to our parked car.
This one landed right outside the window.
It was one of the windiest and rainiest camping experiences of my life.
As it turns out, we had inadvertently stepped into the middle of parking lot dispute
between the hostel and neighboring residents.
At this point, he was thinking about writing a hateful note to the Slovak that keyed our car.
I think it closed with something like "you're a horrible, horrible person."
I tell you, we barely made it out of Inverness alive.
At Johnny Foxes, I found a piece of steel wool in my Guinness pie and, on the way back to our car,
a stranger accidentally punched me in the stomach.
Then, we confronted the suspected vandal and I thought Nick was going to get punched out.
For one, we found this giant Nessy statue.
Proves there's always a rainbow after 18 hours of very strange (and intermittently painful) dark clouds.
Nick looking very dad-like again.
Urquart rhymes with...
Between 1919 and 1932, the castle was restored to its original splendor.
Across the Loch, I found a patch of blackberries.
I always get so excited when I find edibles in the wild!
They were mostly good.
and onto to our campsite in Portree, at the base of the Trotternish Ridge.
Nick said it was like driving a roller skate.
Snobs!
The ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral,
built in 1158 and destroyed by Protestants during the Reformation.
Still exploring the St. Andrews cemetery.
Nick looks like a dad in every picture of this trip.
Most of these tombstones predate the United States and some of the occupants
died in other areas of the world, as part of historic American exploration efforts,
and were shipped back for proper burial in Scotland.
Everyone loves a good Scottish ghost story, right?
The Haunted Tower is part of the fortified Abbey Wall around the St. Andrews Cathedral,
used to bury bodies during the plague of 1605 and sealed until 1868.
This is home to "The White Lady of the Haunted Tower."
St. Andrews Castle, the former Bishops' Palace prior to the Reformation.
This is the home of the British Open, the best green in the world.
Famous golfer such as Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods regard this course to be the best in the world.
The expedition launched in 1901 and brought five years worth of provisions, a flock of 45 sheep, and 19 sleigh dogs.
As an early birthday present, I gave Nick an Antarctica patch on the decks of the Discovery.
Can you spot me?
In every other bunk there were creepy wax figures of the men from the crew.
I swear I must have jumped at the sight of these things at least three times.
Nick was OBSESSED.
Yet another great example of a "dad" photo.
All you need to do is Photoshop a six-year-old child beside him.
"Into the ice, men!"
After leaving Dundee, we made our way up the rural two-laned A92 toward Inverbervie.
She told us that we just had to visit the Bervie Chipper, voted best chippy in Scotland in 1998!
It's name and flavors precede it.
Nick got the fish and chips, a noble selection.
Sadly, there was no whiskey in sight.
Just south of Stonehaven and about ten minutes north of Inverbervie, we found Dunnottar Castle.
This was the site of many murders, including William Wallaces victory over the English in 1286
and a Covenanters torture and massacre in 1639.
with the North Sea in the background.
Totally not Denmark!
This place, with its mossy cliffs, wind-torned walls, and "grizzly" past, was by far my favorite of the trip.
yielding high winds, rain and a gradient of colors in the sky.
The cows were unfazed by the weather, the landscape, or even the rainbow overhead.
I've lived in Scotland for just over a year and I've seen only a small fraction of the dramatic mountains, crumbling castles, crystalline lochs, and mythic biology that attracts so many to this ancient land. For this reason (and for someone's approaching 29th birthday), Nick and I are renting a car and setting off into the Scottish countryside for a four-day tour that will take us along the eastern seaboard, swinging left to Loch Ness, over the Eilean Ban, and onto a surely idyllic hike on the Isle of Skye.
Here's a map of our route, along with some of the anticipated highlights. Are you jealous yet?
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