Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen (Scotland)

We landed in Scotland, and it was green. That was actually the main reason I wanted to go to Scotland. But I didn't expect to see a sunset that would rival Florence's.

We arrived at a distant Ryanair airport, and just missed the train to Glasgow. Stranded for a while, we looked beyond the station and saw an incredible sunset above the brilliantly green landscape. It was so nice that we considered passing up the next train to wait for it to set, but decided to get on board anyway. But about 5 minutes into the ride, we went along the water, and the sun was setting on the water, and I thought, "I have to get off this train and go to the beach." So the next stop, we got off, not knowing if another train would be coming soon or at any point that night. Luckily, the next one would come in an hour. We walked, and then ran, through a small, nice beach town. I ran to the water and took probably close to 100 pictures. I think it was the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. That's how Scotland began.

That beauty was upstaged on Day 2. We took a train and ferry to the Lonely Planet-recommended Isle of Arran, about a two-hour journey from Glasgow. As we docked, I noticed that the island was shockingly similar to Milos, the island I went to in Greece. The shape of the island was similar, and where there were mountains on Milos, there were mountains on Arran. But the white and blue of Milos turned into intense green, everywhere. The first thing we did was picnic on the beach with food from the grocery store there (Where the aisle markers were in both English and Scottish). The pincic concluded with two problems and one solution: What do you do when there are too many Pringles and your chocolate bar metled? Pringle fondue! It was delicious.

After lunch we embarked on a journey toward Brodick Castle, which was a much more challenging walk than either Audrey or I expected. But we saw all kinds of birds, some wrecked boats, and managed to make it across all of the streams that crossed our path. We walked through the huge territory of gardesn around the castle for a while, and had some authentic Arran ice cream, which was the best ice cream I've had in a long time (I'm not including gelato). But then it was on to Glen Rosa, which was my favorite part of Scotland.

Glen Rosa (Rosa Valley) came at the end of an hour-long hike through green hills, passing flowery fields with sheep and horses. When we first saw it, I instantly thought of the Great Valley from the Land Before Time. There was a river flowing through, some very isolated and interesting-looking trees, and just green everywhere. Audrey took a break so I went on a little farther, and came across a very simple bench, and sat for a while. I was in this huge valley, listening to the river below me, and I could not hear or see anyone. It was amazing.

Edinburgh is a unique city. It's classically gray and there's a valley that cuts through the city where there's a beautiful park. The castle reminded me of the Akropolis (keeping with the Greece comparisons) because it just shoots out of the ground into a plateau. On the first day we went on a free city tour with an exceedingly awkward guide, but the stories made the tour worthwhile.

The second day was more interesting. We stopped by a coffee shop in the morning so Audrey could get a latte. This should not have been complicated. She asked for a "latte," and he looked confused. "A watte?" he asked. Audrey paused... "A latte." He said something like, "Do you want a watte?" At this point I couldn't contain my laughter and ran out of the shop and started laughing on the street like a crazy person. Audrey eventually got her "watte" but threw it out in favor of better coffee a block away.

For lunch we went to the Elephant House in Edinburgh, where J.K. Rowling began Harry Potter! So that was exciting. We also went to the Scottish National Museum, which had a stuffed Dolly the sheep, and a fun but very difficult simulated F1 racing game. We ended the night on a free pub crawl from the hostel (my first), where we met a really nice Australian, and a Puerto Rican who knew all about Wash U (It's rare that I find anyone who has heard of Wash U).