Traveling Adventures: Part 1

So a good friend of mine has come to visit me in merry, ole Scotland. It is my dear friend Mandy who has provided you with excellent reasons to hate _Twilight_ in a previous post.

The first leg of our journey was Scotland...

We started off in Edinburgh. I met her at the airport and we bused back to the City Centre via the airport shuttle. The bus driver was a bit rude, but we got there safely enough with no real queue. I was lucky enough to have friends, the Kidwells (they have a blog, too ... and Katy has an Etsy site: Sparrow's Hope), who were gracious enough to let us stay with them. They are friends from Regent College. They provided us with warmth and hospitality and the best food ever! The highlight dish for me was Katy's homemade peanut butter ice cream with brownies and homemade fudge. Yeah, you should be jealous.

The bravest act I have performed thus far is driving in Scotland. Yes, we were on the left sie of the road. No, I did not get in an accident.... but my blood pressure noticeably increased. We picked up the car from Edinburgh airport and went northeast so as to catch some coastline. We stopped in Anstruther -- known as the first and best place for fish and chips. [http://www.anstrutherfishbar.co.uk/]

The portions were more than she or I could finish and everything tasted wonderful. The only draw back was the unsustainable serving dishes -- styrofome cups and paper plates.

After sitting on the harbour and soaking in some rays, we continued north to St Andrews, the place I am currently making home. I showed Mandy the obligatory areas: east sands, the Cathedral, the Whey Pat Tavern. Breakfast at Northpoint was a must. She had the vegetarian brunch; I had the American Brunch (which, ironically, was served with Canadian maple syrup...not that I'm complaining). Northpoint is one of those rare places which both locals and students enjoy. The happy hour of half-priced hot drinks (including their monster hot chocolate) certainly doesn't hurt.

The next day we went further north to Aberdeen. Here we visited the University of Abedeen Botanic Gardens [http://www.abdn.ac.uk/botanic-garden/]. We joined the other picnic goers after grabbing a quick sandwich from a near by grocery store. We also enjoyed the cherry blossoms and elaborate gravestones at the Church down the road. We could have stayed there most of the day, but we needed to continue our drive toward the highlands.

After some undesireable traffic, we arrived in Inverness. Our B&B, The Ivybank Guest House, was supurb. The Cameron family were friendly and willing to serve breakfast early on our last day. [http://www.ivybankguesthouse.com/]

Our outtings during the two-day stint in Inverness included Cawdor Castle and Gardens, Urquhart Castle Ruins along Loch Ness, and the Culloden Battlefield. My favorite stop was Cardhu Whiskey Distillery, a small distillery known for being the key of the Johnny Walker blend and lesser known for being the only distillery pioneered by a woman in 1824. [http://www.scotlandwhisky.com/distilleries/speyside/Cardhu] I expect to have a few of the gals over for a femininst whiskey night in the near future.

We also enjoyed a river walk in town which boasted a few islands lined with fairy lights and hand-carved benches.

We left Inverness at 7:30am to head through the Grampian Mountains (mere hills by Rocky Moutain standards) to make our way, through Perth, to Dundee. After dropping off the car, we grabbed the bus back to St Andrews. By 1pm, we felt like we already had a full day. But we still had arrends to run, including shipping parcels from the post-office, printing e-tickets from the library printer, and getting our itinerary sorted for the next leg of the journey: France.