Day 67

Today can be summed up in two words: wet and beautiful. We ate breakfast at our hostel at 8, then got on our tour bus at 8:30. Our tour guide, Mary, is only slightly older than us and is really fun. The bus is small as there's only 17 of us total, and basically for the whole day we would drive for a while, Mary would talk while driving about some historical moments in Scotland and different sights, and we would get out at different stops. She also played Scottish music in the meantime. We learned a lot about Mary Queen of Scots and more about the Stirling Battle which Braveheart was focused around. Our first stop was the Wallace Monument in Stirling. Wallace was the person whom Mel Gibson portrayed in Braveheart, although that movie is terribly inaccurate says the tour guide. It was a very, very, very steep hill up to the monument, but it was worth the view. After that we drove by the castle that was in Monty Python and was Winterfell in Game of Thrones. We couldn't stop, but our tour guide pretended like her bus was having problems driving over the bridge so she slowed down to take a picture. It was misting this whole time, but the views out the windows were so amazing. Our next place was just an area where Skyfall was filmed, so we parked on the side of the road and got out to take pictures. It started to rain now, but the next place was a lot more wet. The next place was the wettest but the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It was called Glencoe, and there was history behind it surrounding two clans called the Campbells and the McGregors. She even had stories about Ewan McGregor and her uncle having the same name. She let us get out in the valley and there were just mountains surrounding us. The mountains had waterfalls streaming down and it was magical. There was a path to get to another parking lot, so our tour guide agreed to meet us there.  However, at this time it was torrential rain and wind. Umbrellas could not be used with the wind, and the rain was literally coming from every direction. Needless to say, everyone of us were soaked to the bone. But it was worth it 100%. I didn't even feel the cold while we were walking the 20 minutes to the other side because it was so beautiful. After this we stopped for lunch at at rest stop, which wasn't bad but wasn't really good. We then went on to Glenfinnan to see the bridge where the Hogwarts express came across in Harry Potter. There was also a monument dedicated to the followers of King James V, and right near that was a huge body of water. The rain had stopped at this point and the sun was setting, so it was an amazing photo op. So far already, this trip has been my favorite despite the weather. It is so beautiful here and the history is actually really interesting. I felt guilty today because Mom and Dad weren't here to see it. This is a place where I want to come back to in my future for sure. I never thought Scotland would be so great. After Glenfinnan we stopped at a monument dedicated to the Commandos, and passed more sights on the bus. It then got dark and we made our way to our hostel located right outside of Loch Ness. Our hostel is made up of people who are just on our tour; there's 3 buses in total of college kids. We got lasagna for supper at our hostel paid for, and our breakfast tomorrow morning is paid for too. Tonight there's a trivia game we're going to, but there's nothing else to do because our tour guide said that there's basically nothing around us because we are in the Highlands and everything is rural. Overall, this day was the best thing ever. I love it.