Highland Fling (Oct. 7)

The title of this post is highland fling, simply because I spent the weekend in the highlands in and around Inverness. The trip was part of IFSA-Butler. There is a large group of Butler students in DRA, so we ordered a taxi to pick us up and bring us to the clock tower where we would meet the bus (all the way across town). However, the taxi never showed up. We waited and waited. We tried to stop a bus. Brendan got there first and got on. As we approached the door, the bus driver shut the door and drove off with Brendan still on the bus. He was not willing to wait an extra 10 seconds. So we got stuck walking to the Bus station and meet the bus there. Ruth our coordinator was nice enough to get the bus closer to us. So that was an interesting way to start the highland fling.

We drove to Perth where we were able to get food at ASDA (part of the Walmart family) and get breakfast at McDonalds. The American in every one of us was glad for some piece of home away from home. We met our tour guide Ross on our Bus, the Ben Nevis. It's named for the tallest mountain in Scotland. We then traveled to Hermitage in Dunkeld where there were the largest waterfalls in Scotland. Let me just say they were pretty and all, but they were not the Niagara of Scotland. They were probably closer to the size of the falls in Minneapolis.

We got lunch in Pitlochry, one of the sites for the Highland Games. Sadly, they happen in the summer before I arrived. My time in Scotland is sad in the way that I missed the Fringe Festival, Highland Games, and the Military Tattoo. Everything seems to shut down in the winter.

The highlight of the day for many of the students was seeing the Jacobite Express (aka. Hogwarts Express) cross the viaduct (stone arch bridge) that crosses the Glenfinnan valley. It was quite beautiful there. Many fans of Harry Potter played music on their iPhones and waited for the train. So those big fans of Harry Potter, I saw the train, NBD.

I like how the light comes through the clouds onto the loch. Really cool. 

We ate Dominos for dinner and went into town and enjoyed the night life of Inverness. We watched some football in a pub, and found another pub with live traditional music. It was pretty modern and not that good, so we just hung out with students from Glasgow that we had orientation with.