Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties - oh my!

Wondering what that means? Yep - so was I, as I stared perplexedly at the menu at The Witchery, an amazingly good restaurant in Scotland this past weekend. We had Thursday and Friday off for Dutch holidays, so Kristin and I ventured off to beautiful Scotland for the 4-day weekend. :) We flew into Edinburgh on Wednesday night, spent Thursday there, and then on Friday took the ferry over to the Isle of Arran. This was my favorite trip yet... I think it had something to do with getting off the beaten path. I live in a very busy city, and most of the time when I travel, I go to really busy cities. This trip was way more relaxing - the Isle of Arran was small and relaxing. I had pegged myself as a city girl, but I guess as they say, "you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl." :) (Oh - and, if you were wondering, haggis is a Scottish dish that is made up of sheep's intestines, which is actually quite tasty, neeps are turnips that are pureed, and tatties are potatoes - yikes! And that is in English!)

Edinburgh was a cute city. Kristin and I decided to stay in a youth hostel to save on money a bit, and, after checking in, immediately decided that we are too old for youth hostels. The fact that we forgot to bring towels should have clued us in... oh boy! We got in pretty late, so that night, we had our first sampler of whisky (Kristin is quite the afficionado) and haggis (and, yes, as I mentioned above, it was delicious!). After dinner, we went to a cute bar called Sandy Bell's and listened to some live Scottish music... this is one of my favorite things to do in any city, so it was a treat. The kindness of the Scottish people was apparent as soon as we got there, and it lasted for our entire trip. :)

Thursday morning, we first ventured off to Edinburgh Castle, which is high on a hill and has been built and re-built many times (common story in Europe). We took a guided tour of the castle, which included a few chapels, a moving memorial to those lost in WWI & WWII (1/3 of the male population died in WWI - staggering!), the royal jewels, and the prisons.


KP & KJ with the guard at the Castle - poor guy must HATE his job!


St. Margaret's Chapel at the Castle - the oldest building on the site

After the castle, we stopped into a factory to see how the traditional Scottish tartans are made... that was cool! Each of the original families of Scotland has their own pattern... wish I was Scottish! :) There was also a good exhibit of how kilts have been worn over the years - this was especially interesting to me as I have been reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, which takes place in Scotland. The characters just came to life in my mind when I saw this. :)


Fabric ready to be made into kilts...

We also took a "ghost tour" of the vaults that were built under one of the bridges. It gave me the eebie-jeebies, but I'm still not sure I believe in ghosts. KJ's camera did stop working during the tour, but I'm not quite sure if it really was broken or if it was just user error. ;)

After our tour, we had to pick up our rental car... which is usually not a big deal. Except it was a manual... and you drive on the other side of the road. Yep, which pretty much ruled me out from doing ANY driving. I'm lame... what can I say? ;) I was a good navigator though, KJ told me so! :)

The next morning, we got up with the sun, as we had a 2 hour drive to get to the ferry that was leaving at 9 for the Isle of Arran. KJ drove like a superstar, and we made it there with plenty of time to spare.


Entering the ferry... and feeling like we were getting swallowed by a whale!

After about an hour ferry ride, KJ, Elmo (our little car), and I made it to the beautiful island. I was instantly relieved. The week prior had been extremely stressful, as the layoff announcements at Nike were finally announced. I am lucky to have a job, but did lose a few friends. It's not easy to stay or to leave. :( So, this was a great break to get my mind off of things.

Here are some words to describe the island: tranquil. green. peaceful. breathtaking. full of free-range sheep. mysterious. mountainous. welcoming. I could go on... I think you can tell how I felt about this place.

After checking in to our cute little hotel (which actually had forgotten to write down our reservation!), we took a tour around the island. We stopped at the local brewery, which uses the strain of hops from Mount Hood! (small world!) Next stop: the Isle of Arran Distillery, which makes the best whiskey in Scotland. I'm not really a huge fan of whiskey, but the location was amazing!

Isle of Arran Distillery

As we were leaving, some of the free-range sheep invaded the front yard! Unbelievable! :)

We continued North up the island, and our next stop was to the ruins of the Lochranza Castle. It was magestic:

Next, we did our first hike, which was just a short 1.5 mile out and back through 6 stone circles. These were used as burial sites during the Bronze age.

The biggest of the 6 stone circles

And, alright, loyal readers, you know I can't go on a trip without taking pictures of my food. :) Here is a collage:

Top: Our whiskey the first night and haggis
Bottom: Fish 'n' chips and mushy peas, meat pie with chips and steamed carrots (um, I didn't eat the carrots!)

After all of our adventures, we stopped for dinner at a cute seafood restaurant. You know how cute we think it is when we hear British people talking? Well, I think that Americans on the Isle of Arran are just as rare, so when we ordered our food, the waiter kind of giggled at us... we were not sure what was going on, and when we asked, he said, "it's your American accents". hehe. Cute.

We got a good night's rest (as we had pretty much every night, with the exception of the day we had to catch the ferry), and the next morning, had a hearty Scottish breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, potato scone, tomatoes, and mushrooms), and then hit the road for the hardest hike on the island: Goatfell Mountain - 2800 feet of climbing fun! The only problem was that it was raining and windy!!! Okay, now, I had brought water RESISTANT clothes, but they were no match for this weather. I was soaked before we even got to the trailhead. But, not wanting to be a whiny baby, I sucked it up and hiked for 4 hours. We didn't quite make it to the very top, but it was so foggy that we really didn't miss much in terms of view... just lost a little pride when we turned around. It was a real butt-kicker.


The trail on the way up Goatfell Mountain


KJ and I about 1/4 of the way up - already totally soaked, but still smiling! :)

We spent the afternoon at a Scottish pub (no, I am NOT an alcoholic!), talking with the locals, who again were entralled with the fact that we were Americans (it's kind of nice for people to think that it's cool to have Americans around - usually I feel like people think we are idiots.) We had our last dinner at a cute little pub, and I had my most pleasant customer service experience yet. I collect pub glasses, and there was one at this pub that said "Isle of Arran Brewery". I really wanted it, so I asked the guy at the bar if I could buy one. He just smiled at me and said, "Aw, just stick it in your purse when I'm not looking. It's no problem." Wow!

The next day, we had to catch the ferry back to the bigger island, and then we drove to some amazingly beautiful abbeys along the coast of Britain and Scotland. These were abbeys built for the monks around 1100, and they were destroyed by fighting between the Brits and the Scots around 1500. The shells remain, and, though they are not what they once were, they were beautiful. We stopped at only 2, but there are several more. I would love to come back and have more time to spend.

Melrose Abbey

Dryburgh Abbey

We got back late on Sunday night. I didn't want to leave. Scotland will definitely be a place I go again! :)