6/9/06 - Finally, Summer

Edinburgh, Scotland
After a month of drizzle, overcast skies, unreasonable cold (even for the British Isles) and only sporadic sunshine, I was starting to worry about developing my own case of Fair Irish Skin. Thankfully, my week+ in Scotland has been dry, and the past few days (in Ft. William, Inverness, & now Edinburgh) have been absolutely beautiful. It's amazing what a few rays of warm light can do: the scenery of the highlands, impressive even under grey skies, positively crackles, pubs & cafes spill their customers out onto the sidewalks, and parks fill up with people looking for a bit of a tan (read: sunburn). Everything is suddenly all that much better. This is the Europe it's hard not to fall in love with (although granted, with weather this good, you might not have much trouble falling in love with New Jersey). After a few hours under the warm summer sun, the beer tastes (even) better, accents that were frustrating become charming, and the occasional Eurotrash fashion foible or unwashed armpit becomes more forgiveable.
I've long had a theory that the general mood of a place is intricately intertwined with its climate. Though I haven't had that much extended interaction with the Scots, having spent more time hiking than socialising, in general they've struck me as a bit gruff but also friendly, a quality that is clearly accentuated under a wee bit o' summer sun.
And it's not just the mere existence of sunlight, it's the abundance of it, because the days this far north seem to last forever. Scotland is actually at the same latitude as southern Alaska (thankfully the temperatures are kept a lot more mild by the moderating effects of the Gulf Stream), and the sun now sets around 10:00. This means it stays reasonably light until after 11, which has more than once been the source of some confusion when I've walked out of a pub at 10 or 10:30. By 4:30 it's light again, so forgetting to properly draw the curtains in your hostel room leads to a bit of a rough morning.
According to the (notoriously unreliable) weather forecast, the next few days are supposed to continue to be nice. I'll take all I can get...

Daily Summary

• Tues, 5/30 - Arrive Glasgow. Bit of shopping to prep for what I anticipate being even cooler weather up in the highlands (apart from a fleece jacket & a rain jacket, I only brought one long-sleeved shirt that wasn't a button-down). Watched the England v. Hungary soccer friendly in a local pub, and very quickly figured out that the Scots *won't* be supporting their southerly neighbors in theWorld Cup
• Weds, 5/31 - Bus to Oban, ferry & bus to Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. Tour of the Tobermory distillery, which was cool because they were actually in the middle of a distilling batch, so you could smell the barley, feel the heat coming off the pot stills, etc. 7-mile hike to & from Ardmore Bay, which wasn't all that scenic because much of the timber had recently been harvested.
• Thurs, 6/1 - Bus/ferry to Iona, an early Christian monastery / holy site from where St. Columba spread Christianity into Scotland. Actually pretty boring. Ferry, bus, & ferry back to Oban.
• Fri, 6/2 - bus from Oban to Fort William. Climbed Ben Nevis, at 4408 ft the highest peak in the British Isles, in just under 5 hours. First 2/3 of the way up was great, then it was pretty much just cloud, cold, wind, and snow near the summit. Coming down was arguably worse than going up, because I didn't save much energy for the descent. Went with some of the hostel staff to a housewarming party thrown by a couple of local Scottish guys, where I was reacquainted with International Drinking Rules.
• Sat, 6/3 - hiked up through Glen Nevis to Steall Waterfall. The hike was absolutely beautiful: classic highland scenery of rough grey mountains and cliffs intermingled with lush green forests.
• Sun, 6/4 - bus to Inverness. traditional Irish/Scottish music at local bar.
• Mon, 6/5 - visit to Cawdor castle (the setting for much of MacBeth, although that was a bit of poetic license on the part of Shakespeare, since MacBeth the historical figure dates from approx. 1100 and the castle wasn't built until the 1480's). But the castle is still the residence of the current Thanes of Cawdor for 6 months out of the year, so it's immaculately maintained and offers an interesting glimpse into the lives of modern-day aristocracy. Then Culloden battlefield, where the Jacobite rising of 1745 was crushed by the forces of the English king and thousands of Highland Scots were slaughtered, due to both incompetent leadership and English cruelty. Then ancient tombs known as the Clava Cairns, interesting really only because they were constructed such that the rays of the setting sun on the first day of winter would illuminate the insides of the tombs.
• Tues, 6/6 - bus to Edinburgh. while standing in line to board the bus, ran into a German guy I had first met in Fort William. Ended up hanging out with him for most of the rest of the day.
• Weds, 6/7 - toured Edinburgh Castle. Went on a literary pub tour, tracing Edinburgh's role in Scottish literature from Robert Burns to Irvine Welsh (the guy who wrote Trainspotting). Met a few Aussies & Canucks, & ended up boozing pretty hard with them after the tour.
• Thurs, 6/8 - Bus (although not as early as intended) to Stirling to see Stirling Castle. Probably one of the largest, most intact, and most historically significant castles left in Scotland, and currently the site of some interesting archaeological and restoration work. Also wanted to try to see Bannockburn battlefield, but ran out of time before the last bus back to Edinburgh. Evening hike up to Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano overlooking Edinburgh.
• Fri, 6/9 - Scottish National Museum in the morning, then watched the kick-off of the World Cup (Germany v. Costa Rica). Had the obligatory Scots meal of haggis, tatties & 'neeps (the latter two actually being potatoes - mashed - and turnips). The haggis wasn't bad, as long as you try not to think what's in it. Kindof like a hot dog, except less finely ground, meaning it's easier to try to figure out which of the bits are the lungs, and which are... like I said, all you have to do is keep that out of your head.
  

The World Is An Amazingly Small Place, Especially On The Travellers' Circuit. It's now happened to me more times than I can count on one hand that I've run into people I've met previously, either in a different hostel or pub or randomly on the street. A lot of this is attributable to everyone relying on a handful of guidebooks (Lonely Planet being by far the most ubiquitous), and my so far having spent time in relatively small countries where there are pretty logical sequences of places to go, but a lot of it is also just pure, random coincidence. The strangest of these happened while I was driving around Donegal. I spent a night in a tiny hostel in Malinbeg at the end of the Slieve League peninsula, where I met a group of 4 European students driving around northwest Ireland for the long weekend. The next morning, we went on our merry ways. I was driving up to Dunfanaghy on the northern coast, & gave a lift to 2 other Americans who were also heading up that way but didn't have a car. We stopped in Glenveagh national park to hike around Upper Lake Dunlewy for a few hours. Towards the tail end of the hike, we ducked into a gas station to pick up a snack, and who was standing outside but the four I had met the previous night. On their way to Derry, one of the guys in the backseat had gotten a bit carsick on Donegal's spaghetti roads. They had stopped in order for him to get a breath of fresh air, only minutes before I strolled up to the very same gas station...

Reading

• Almost done with David Copperfield

Photos

Next Stop: St. Andrews for a week or so of golf, then back to Glasgow & down into England