The Scottish Highlands

I just got back from the Scottish Highlands, however, the trip didn't go exactly as planned, and I'll tell you all about it. So this was not my first time to Scotland, I've been to Edinburgh and Glasgow a few times before and really like both cities, but I thought it was about time I went up to the Highlands. I started out with a night in Edinburgh, I booked a bar crawl for that night so I got ready as quickly as I could when I arrived and had just enough time to go to the hostel bar for food before I needed to leave for the bar crawl. The hostel is Safestay by the way, and their bar serves a pretty decent pizza and it gets busy on the weekends. Now I've done a bar crawl in Edinburgh before but decided to go with another company this time, from what I could tell there are two companies that do these crawls in Edinburgh, and now I can compare the two. I'm going to say they're both good, but both end in a place that isn't really me. This time I met some guys from Finland and talked a bit with them, but I really connected with two girls, a Kiwi and an Aussie. I had a lot of fun dancing the night away but I wish I had paid more attention to the names of the places we went, a couple of them were pretty great, and I only remember where one of them is. The girl from New Zealand and I went back to the one I remembered, Stramash, instead of staying in the last place the crawl took us, and we danced the night away there.

I had an early bus the next morning so I probably had about 3 hours sleep before packing up and heading for the Highlands. I caught a nice glimpse of the sunrise on my way to the train station and then spent the next 5 hours on buses, I naped a lot, but the scenery just got better and better so for the last hour or so I mostly looked out the window, feeling inspired for another trip to the area.

Arriving in Fort William I headed for the hostel to leave my backpack and change a little then went for a walk. I hadn't fully decided where to walk but headed out to a trail by the hostel and ended up walking most of the Cow Hill Circuit. I really recommend this walk if you like mountain views. This trail takes you up the hill, through forest and you get great views of Ben Navis, Britains tallest mountain. I had originally planned on trying to walk up Ben Navis but as there wouldn't be enough time the day I arrived and the weather forcast didn't look too good for the next couple of days I changed those plans just before leaving Norway, I'll get back to that. After my long walk I was really tired and it was time to get checked in, perfect timing really, as check-in had just started when I was finishing my walk. Oh and by the way, I found some great little paths around town, not all of them are marked on google maps.

So I checked in and when I got to my room there was one other girl already in the room, a Norwegian girl. So I found another new friend, we got along really well and decided to go to dinner together in town before an early night. We ended up at a Wetherspoons, I often do, and had a nice meal and great conversations.

The next morning I got up really early as I wanted to take a walk, now I was supposed to walk towards Ben Navis, but because of the weather forcast I'd changed my plans, and I could soon see that that was the right decition; it was raining a little and the clouds where heavy around the mountain tops. So I had decided to move up my plans and see a famous Harry Potter scene this day in stead of the next, but wanted to walk through more of Fort William first. So I checked out as early as possible, 7am, and walked toward Corpach train station and the lower end of the Caledonian canal. However, I soon realised I was taking too long, I wanted to take it all in, and take photos, but there aren't many trains in this area and I was being too slow to make the 8:30 train as planned, in fact I'd have to walk really fast if I wanted to make the next bus too. But luckily I didn't have to opt for a taxi, one little message to my new friend, who had a rental car and was going in the same direction fixed my problem. She picked me up on her way to Glenfinnan and we got there just in time to find a good spot by the Viaducts where we could wait for the Jacobite steam train, or as it's now better known as; The Hogwarts express. And the train did not disapoint us, and the dozens of tourists waiting with us. The train said a loud hello before letting out loads of steam at just the right time for us to get the Harry Potter feeling. And I'm so glad I had a friend to share this magical moment with.

After the train had passed we went for a little walk, I found the first geocache of the trip, and we went up to another nice viewpoint, this time to see the lake, or loch as they're called in Scotland. After a short intentional detour in the car, I was dropped off at a pub like restaurant by the Banavie train station, The Lochy, where I had a lovely lunch before yet another walk. I walked a little up the Caledonian canal, by Neptune's Staircase, before turning towards Fort William again. Now I was supposed to have stayed in Glenfinnan this night, but the weather forcast said heavy rain, so I was instead heading to Drumnadrochit with a bus this evening. I want to tell you about my original plan though, see I was supposed to spend the night at a museum, basically. At Glenfinnan train station there is a train museum, one I didn't end up going to because of my change of plans. And they have an old sleeping car, so an old train carrige, placed at the station. I really liked the idea of this and it would have been a cool thing to have done, but there isn't much in the Glenfinnan area and because or the rain I figured it wasn't really worth it. Instead I arrived in Drumnadrochit, a small town by the Loch Ness, just past 7pm. I went to check in at the hostel but something had gone wrong when I booked and it was booked for the wrong date, luckily they still had a room for me and I got it for a good price. I even got a room to myself, I had for the first and only time on this trip booked a single room, I was lucky to still get that after the mix up. At this point I was so incredibly tired, I really need a shower and my legs hurt after all that walking. I got new hiking boots for this trip and they're heavier than I'm used to. So I showered, ate the food I had gotten from Tesco's before leaving Fort William and went to bed early. Oh, and I really liked this hostel, the 1 Lochness hostel. The door to my room was on the side of building, so it almost felt like a small apartment and the floors were wooden, no carpets, that's huge to me.

After a good nights sleep I left the hostel round 7am, again, for a morning walk to Loch Ness. I'm really glad I did this, that I changed my plans like this, because I thought I'd be returning to Loch Ness the next day, but those plans were changed for me, I'll get back to this. I walked towards Urquhart Castle, it was closed this early however, so I couldn't go on the grounds. On my way back I found some paths in the forest, unfortunately I didn't have time to follow the path for too long, but what I did follow was great and I'd recommend a walk on these paths. I got back to the room just in time to get changed and packed before check out at 10. Then just waited for the bus for Inverness, my home for the next 3 nights. I went for a walk to orient myself a little around Inverness before I could check in, it's a beautiful little town, and I even got to see a perfect rainbow over the town. When I checked in there was a girl already in the room, she was from Germany, and it turned out we had some common interests and we got on really well. We relaxed and talked for a bit and then I invited her to come for a walk up to the coast with me. We had a lovely walk, talked about Supernatural (the tv-show) and watched the sun set in the horizon before heading back to town for dinner and a drink.

On the walk I also got some bad news, apperantly my daytrip for the next day was cancelled, there weren't enough people signed up for it. This really threw me and to be honest I feel it ruined my trip a bit, next to the Jacobite steam train it was what I was looking the most forward to. But there wasn't really a lot I could do about this. I guess I'll have to get back here again and try to book something like that daytrip again, but maybe with another company (as I feel they should have made a better effort at making sure I got this message, not just send me emails that didn't even look professional, until the night before the trip), and maybe I'll go earlier in the year next time. With the daytrip not happening I got a bus out to Black Isle instead, I got the last parts of the sunrise in Avoch and then started walking towards Fortrose on a path through the forest. At this point I was really disapointed about everything and needed to talk, so I called my mum and had a long nice talk while I walked. When I got to Fortrose I made my way to the coast and headed out to Chanonry point, an area known as a good place for dolphin spoting. I found a couple of geocaches while keeping an eye on the water, and I actually spoted one. Unfortunately I only saw it graze the surface a couple of times and it was quite far away. It did make it difficult to leave though. But as I was getting a little hungry and tired, and needed the toilet, I decided to get back to Inverness.

Back in Inverness I did a little bit of shopping before getting ready for dinner and since my plans for the day had changed I also decided to check out the nightlife. So I went to Revolution for a couple of good cocktails before checking out Johnny Foxes, a local bar with live enternainment, this evening it was karaoke. The place was quite busy even though it was the middle of the week, that might be partially because everybody loves karaoke and partially because a large group of Aussies on a guided tour had decided to go out that night. I talked to several of the Aussies and they were all really nice, and some of them decided to sing too. I figured I'd spare everyone from my singing, but enjoyed listening the others. The next day, my last full day in Inverness, was my shopping day. I was traveling with a backpack but if I ended up buying too much I had decided to find a suitcase, so I started with Primark hoping to start my christmas shopping. The Primark in Inverness isn't as big as I'd hoped though and I didn't find as much interesting as I'd hoped. Still, I did start the christmas shopping, slightly. I also found inspiration for my Halloween costume, and managed to help my cousin with hers as well. When I felt I was done with the shopping I stopped by Domino's pizza, because this is a must for me whenever I'm in the UK, although we do have Domino's in Norway now, it's still too far away from my home. I went to the common area at the hostel to eat, and was quite surprised I didn't see anyone, at all. In fact the staff had left early, which surprised me, especially since they hadn't cleaned the female toilet/shower room and the bin in the room hadn't been emptied. I wasn't exactly left with a great impression of this place. Anyways, I headed out for a few quality cocktails at Revolution before Johnny Foxes again. It wasn't as busy as the night before but I found some people to talk to. The entertainment was okay, but I'm not going to say it was fantastic. On my last morning in Inverness I packed my bags, and was scared half to death by a spider. I'm "slightly" arachnophobic. I quickly backed out of the room and finished getting the last few things into my backpack in the hallway. Then I went for a walk, unfortunately the weather wasn't great though, it was raining and it was a bit chilly. So I'll be honest, I was quite ready to leave Inverness and head towards Edinburgh for my last night in Scotland, for now. After a 3,5 hour packed train ride, I was lucky enough to get a seat though, we finally arrived in Edinburgh and I could check in at Safestay hostel again. After checking in I saw I would make it to a lookout point before sunset if I hurried, so I changed quickly and headed to Holyrood park. I walked so fast I felt quite sweaty by the time I got to the trail I wanted to walk up, just in time, but it was so worth it. It was an absolutely beautiful sunset!

Now I thought this would be my last walk and a nice ending to the trip, but no. After eating at the hostel bar and getting ready for an early night I got a text from the airline, there was a problem and my flight the next morning was delayed by 5 hours. This was not good for me as I had Halloween plans at home and now had 5 hours less to get ready for it, but I wasn't about to sit and pout about it. So I slept an hour longer than planned, checked out, but left my luggage to go for a walk. I had breakfast at a cafe, found a few geocaches, walked in areas I haven't been to before and got tempted to go into Primark. I didn't have time to try anything on, but found a couple of things I really liked and decided to chance it. Then it was finally time to get my luggage and leave, and i really was ready for it at this point. So what did I learn from this trip? Cause I always end up learning something. Well, The Scottish Highlands are beautiful in the fall, but the weather is unpredictable (somewhat expected) and there are less tourists. And although that can be a good thing, it's not always, in the Highlands less tourists mean less activities running, and I suppose like in my case, a bigger chance of activities being cancelled. I also learned to double check the dates when I book stuff, something I normally do, but I guess I forgot when I changed my plans last minute. So my tip if you want to check out the Highlands; go a little earlier in the year, I think August/September might be good. And do a little research, find out what you want to see, the highlands are huge. And beautiful.