Adventures Overseas 5/16

These sixteen updates will be the condensed and often more erratic version of my adventures overseas, comprised of the updates that I sent home to my family at the time.

Author's Disclaimer: The following were written when I traveled overseas with my sister. They were the short and sweet version of what was going on in my daily journal. Often, I watered things down so that our parents wouldn't know how scared we really were or how bad a hostel really was. We didn't want to scare them. Also, I wrote these updates on my iPod, and in the interest of authenticity, I haven't edited or changed the formatting much. This may be less to do with authenticity and more to do with all those darn buttons I'd have to press if I edited it all. Anyway, there are plenty of little typos to go around I'm sure. I'm sorry. They bug me, too.

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Update 5: September 19th, 2018 – WEDNESDAY

Last time I updated you, we were just on our way to Inverness. Now we’re on our way out, heading back to Edinburgh, where we’ll be flying to Dublin, Ireland.

Inverness s is a pretty nice little city of around 60,000 people. It’s the largest city, and the capital, of the Highlands of Scotland. There were many times we stopped to listen to conversations on the street, wondering if they were speaking English, and only being able to discern a few words, even if they were. Not everyone had such thick accents; but a lot do.

The first thing I did when we got there was head into a touristy store (finally! There are plenty of those in Inverness! Tartan and kilts everywhere!). There, I found a cheep-ish fleece sweater to wear. It is soooo cozy!! It’s cool enough now that I pretty much have to wear it all the time.

The next day in Inverness was Sunday. This day was lovely. We went to a tiny chapel right by a hospital, where there were about six in the congregation (with us), and two priests. The Mass was a mix of Roman and Anglican rites, and Sister and I agreed that it was a beautiful Mass. it was extremely prayerful, and had a traditional feel. Like it was a Latin Mass simply translated to English.

After Mass, one of the old ladies wheeled out a trolley with cups and a kettle, and we had a cup of coffee with the lovely people. They gave us some tips on getting around and where to go they also told us that their friend, a young woman, was cycling through Saskatchewan, or had been the previous day. She was trying to set a record for a round the world trip. I thought it was kind of neat that we had swapped places.

After Mass, we were veritably starving, and made it a priority to get to a store and buy us some edibles. The number one priority was finding a free public toilet, but after that, it was food. We managed to complete both tasks, but by the time we found a picturesque view of the River Ness, seated up at the castle, it was 2:00pm, and we hadn’t eaten yet that day.

The cream cheese dip and various breads we’d gotten from the bakery really hit the spot, so we were ready for a long walk after that. We went up to some islands along the River Ness. They’re maintained like a park, so they’re really nice. After that, we went out to coast to see some lookout points and scour the beach for shells.

It was a lot of walking, but nice to get a good look at Inverness.

The next day, Monday, we had a tour booked that would take us out to the Isle of Skye, and sights along the way. This was a beautiful tour, but I would do it differently next time. Next time, I would somehow get myself out to Quiraing early in the morning, then just hike around there all day. It was by far the most stunning terrain, though there was great beauty all along the tour.

That tour lasted all day, and we were pretty soggy from it, as it rained most of the day.

The next day, our last full day in Inverness, we had planned to take a train out to a nearby station and go for a hike. Unfortunately, it was raining and, having just experienced the chilly unpleasantness of a day in the rain, we decided to just hit up some of the second hand stores and the Victorian Market, then chill out at the hostel.

It was a nice, relaxing day, and we were able to do laundry when we got back, as well as make some meals, eat some junk food, and watch some Netflix. It’s nice to chill like that sometimes.

Today is the day we left Inverness. We planned to take an earlier train from Inverness to Aviemore, but something had been derailed, so a lot of trains weren’t operating. Getting refunded for our useless tickets, we went instead to a bus station and found a bus out to Aviemore.

It was sunny when we began our hike in Aviemore. It was sunny when we ended our hike.

But the middle was miserable.

As we climbed, the weather got steadily worse, until we were battling gale-force winds and torrential downpours to got to the last and highest peak. We got all the way to the stones at the top of Craigellachie National Nature Reserve. I don’t even think we took a picture. Just a soggy, windy video of our misery.

After that fiasco, we were grateful to get down to the station again. It wasn’t even a comfort to have the sun shining, then, as the golden beams on the distant peaks were only mocking us for our bad timing.

We were able to change at the station and are now, as we bus to Edinburgh, only damp and very cold, rather than wet and very cold.

The point is, we’re still cold, though.

I hope this next hostel has good blankets...