Scotland, Day 3

The Highland Games

Day Three found me waking up far too early (8:30 AM), as I awoke well before my parents. I slipped on some clothes and went downstairs for breakfast. I assumed that some friendly Scot would see me sitting alone, take pity on me, and join me and I could then record their accent (I brought an audio recorder for just such a purpose). What a nice thought!

Reality, however, sunk in as I realized that half of the food that was offered was inedible to me (I have a violent allergy to milk products: my stomach cramps up and I pray for death.) and the other half tasted vaguely of cardboard. I ate – quickly – got some coffee for my Dad (instant coffee. He hated it) and helped my parents get ready to leave.

Before we could leave the hotel, we had to go to the local supermarket to load up on food. In America, it’s Wal-Mart. Here, it’s “Tesco.” They are exactly the same, only Brits have weird names for stuff. None of the British food looked edible, so we grabbed some American-looking food and bolted.

Irrelevant side note: European Cola tastes better than our stuff because they use Sugar where we use high-fructose corn syrup. It may explain why Brits have awful teeth.

We traversed to some far-off location with an unpronounceable name to see the last of the Highland Games. The Scottish Highland Games are much like our County Fairs combined with Track Meets. Lots of big, sweaty men in kilts throwing heavy things all over the place. Lots of food, very expensive, though quite tasty. Did not take the opportunity to sample Scotland’s signature dish, haggis (sheep guts).

The games were fun and we got to experience loads of bagpiping, caber-tossing and hammer-throwing – Mom even got to watch the Scottish lasses’ dance competition [snore] – but we stayed for 4 hours, which began to get a bit dreary. We took our lives into our own hands to again travel down the Scottish Motorway. It took another three hours to find our new hotel near Loch Ness. Nothing eventful happened. Correction: nothing REMARKABLE happened. We were almost driven off the road (or died from head-on collision) several times. Loads of fun!!!!

However, it is safe to say that the scenery was/is remarkable. Americans have no concept of age. We think a building that has been around since the Revolution is old. That’s not old. Buildings that have been around since the Magna Carta was signed are old. Scotland has hundreds of such buildings, many of which are still in practical use and are in relatively good shape. In most Scottish cities, the landscape is dotted with soaring chapel steeples, all of which were constructed in the Pre-American era.

We found our cottage (The Coach House) and met Mrs. MacDougal; a nice lady who lived in the first floor of our cottage. Our cottage overlooks Loch Ness and some mountain (Comparison to Oregon: it is roughly as tall as Mary’s Peak but has fewer trees).

Dinner consisted of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. By this point, I have lost 5 lbs and .5 inch around my waist.

Sleep came at 10 PM that night as we were all exhausted beyond all rhyme or reason.