Skyflier's Adventure to Scotland

August 4th-12th 2006

My family and I drove up to Boston to catch our flight. Starflower came too but she forgot to bring her pony persona so she brought along Paradise.

"Do you want........Freshener?"

The meals that they gave us on the plane were pretty good and they came with all of these packets that said "Do you want..." salt, pepper, etc. Starflower and I thought they were humorous. ; )

Our plane had a giant shamrock on it!! We actually stopped in Shannon and Dublin Ireland on the way to Glasgow. We so wanted to run out of the airport and yell " I'M IN IRELAND!!" and then run back in and say we were actually there.. besides being in the airport. ;) 

We met up with out French exchange teacher friend, Guilhem (right), who we had hosted for 3 months while he taught at the local high school. He brought along his friend Alex (left) from England too. They were soooo thrilled to hold pretty ponys for a picture! lol

We stayed in Aberfoyle which is a town in the mountains which had a small town and the biggest attraction/store was the Scottish Wool Center. The first day we went into town we saw a Sheep Dog Demonstration in the pasture which was cool. : )

Me and da sheepy! ^_^

Haggis in a can!!

For those that don't know, haggis is a traditional scottish food that they used to cook back then which had all the left over organs and meet cooked in a sheep's stomach.

That's definitely something we don't  have in the states. ; )

This is the name of the hotel where we stayed.

They had a giant chess set out in the lawn and Skyflier just had to check it out. ; )

Skyflier stopping to smell the flowers.

Sitting high on a rock.

The landscape was really pretty and had little pony sized waterfalls.

Starflower dared the stream as she perched Skyflier and Paradise up on some rocks.

Starflower and the two ponies actually DID fall in. Soggy ponies are no fun to carry around. >_<

This is my dad and I. The hotel was right across from Loch Ard. One of the days we actually went swimming in the loch but it was sooo cold. I got in, swam to the other dock, swam back, and got out. We did it just so we could saw "we swam in a loch!"

 ; )

Skyflier approves!

We took a nature hike of the area which was really cool. Our tour guide Sean told some great stories. Aberfoyle is rich in faery tales and folklore which was really neat. This is the Fair Tree on Fairy Hill.

 The story goes that a Minister named Robert Kirk of the town, wrote a book called The Common Wealth that told all the secrets of the Fairy world. The fairies got upset with him and took him away and turned him into this tree. The story also says that the minister appeared to his wife as a ghost and said that on the day of their daughter's christening, the fairy spell would be broken if their cousin threw a dagger when he appeared. On the day of the christening the minister's ghost appeared and caused the cousin to be too scared to throw the dagger. The minister's apparition was said to have disappeared while shaking his head because the curse was not broken.

On this hill, people are encouraged to leave behind a ribbon or a piece of clothing and a wish of theirs written on a piece of paper that is suppose to be granted.

One of the wishes we saw read: "I wish I had a pony named Moonshine. And the pony would be a girl"

We thought it was cute ^_^

Sean lead us to the Aberfoyle Cementery and told us stories of the "Noddies and Burkers" from back then. The "Burkers" were the people that would steal bodies for the "Noddies" who would then study them.

This was the grave of the ministers from the fairy story. On the stone is says the grave is empty because they never did find the body. In one version of the story though, it said that people did find his body but they believed it wasn't his and that it was a "fairy shod" and a fake.

This is the Falkirk Wheel which is this electric thing (which requires the same amount of energy as 10 toasters!) that helps pass boats from the different channel heights in a matter of minutes instead of hours. We took a ride in it but were kind of disappointed because once it got up there, it just turned around and came back down...Laaaaame!  But I'm sure it's a ingenious technological  invention. ; )

After spending the day in Falkirk, we returned for Scottish Night at the hotel. This was when they were "pipping in the haggis". 

This is Briana (aka Starflower) and I before we ate the haggis. You should have seen what we looked like after eating it. ;P lol j/k

Here was the "tatties, neeps, and haggis" that we ate. Tatties= potatoes, Neeps= Turnips, and Haggis= Haggis.

It actually didn't taste that bad. We ate haggis the last time we went to scotland so it wasn't horrific to us. It tasted like liver patte.

After finishing dinner (and a couple drinks;) ), dinner which also included cock-a-leeky soup, rib, and a desert, we danced in a Ceilidh. A Ceilidh is a type of scottish folk dancing that was a lot of fun.

This is me in my kilt with my pony back at the lodge. ^_^ It's hard to see but its a "black watch" kilt.

The next day we went on a farm tour next door to the hotel. The house on the right is really old and Greggor (the tour guide in the kilt) said that Sir Walter Scott spent some time there and Rob Roy had actually spent some time on the farm as well.

Rob Roy MacGregor= The name of a Scottish hero from back then who was like a Robin Hood of the highlands of the time.

Sir Walter Scott= The author who wrote about Rob Roy

We even saw REAL ponies!! Here is Starflower feeding a Shetland. :)

Though my dad said he'd never wear a kilt, because he's British, he did volunteer to be dressed in a traditional one for a demonstration. What he didn't know was that Greggor would put the finishing touches of a red beard and a scottish Tam (hat) with fake red hair attached to it at the end. My dad was a very good sport and was then rewarded with a very strong shot of Whiskey. ^_^

We spent one day in Edinburgh too. Here is Skyflier with the Edinburgh Castle in the back. : )

Last time we came, in 2003, we stayed in Edinburgh for a week which was a lot of fun. Our vacation this time was different because we were more in the countryside.

We didn't stay for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo this time (like we did in 2003) but it was fun returning to the sight. : )

Edinburgh Military Tattoo= is a show given by military bands and display teams in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. The event takes place annually, as part of the Edinburgh Festival (a collective name for many independent festivals and events in Edinburgh in August).

We took a walk in the center. The Tattoo is really cool and is almost even like the opening to the Olympics, it was that grand. At the end of the night they shoot off fireworks and have a "lone piper" on one of the far towers pipping Auld Langs Syne.

Niffty Shop name. ^_^

The Thistle is the national flower of Scotland. Legend has it that a Viking attacker stepped on one at night and cried out, so alerting the defenders of a Scottish castle.

Me, Guilhem, Briana (Starflower), and Alex. The guys parted from us here on the trip so that they could go hiking, and because Alex had to return to work back in England.

We came across a really cool shop with girl kilt dresses. The first dresses that we had seen that were really gorgeous. There was even a scottish wedding dress that was beautiful. They were all very pretty but very expensive. Especially since the pound is worth two time the amount in US dollars.

One of my goals during the trip was to get a scottish piper to hold Skyflier for a picture op. but I was too shy to ask anyone. ^_^;; Ah well...

The skyline of Edingburgh. *sigh* So pretty and filled with history.

Me in the car afterwards. My hair is all messy >_< but I wanted a close up of me and Skyflier. ^_^

We came back that night and my sister and I went on a Ghost Walk with Sean again. It was really interesting and we found some spooky graves by the light of the moon.

The day after Edinburgh, we went back to the town of Aberfoyle for some shopping and returned to the Scottish Wool Center to watch a Sheepdog demonstration and show. Greggor's father and family runs the Sheepdog school there.

This sheep was really strange. I've never seen one with four horns before.

We met some nice scottish lads too. ; ) Alex (left) is from South Africa and Tristan (right) is actually from Scotland but they both worked at the hotel. We hung out and got to know them a bit and had a lot of fun playing a card game with them. Hopefully they'll keep in touch with us and we'll see them again because we had a good time with them. ^_^

"We drew a King!" *snicker snicker* (inside joke) 

;)

On the last day we went to a local nature park and at the park center we came across this guy who made some really interesting pictures just by melting wax in no time at all.

This was a picture my sister commissioned to give to my grandmother for her birthday. The man said that he "signs" his work by making an "eye" right in the middle. You can see the eye in the blue sky in the back. It was really interesting because you could see it in all of his pictures.

We visited many other lochs on the last day too. The landscape of Scotland was so beautiful.

We also went to Killin and saw "The Smallest Bottle of Whisky In the World" as it is in the Guinness Book of Records. : ) They actually sold some of these for a pound in the gift store.

While in Killin we went to a museum which talked about St. Fillan who had healing hands and helped bring Christianity to Scotland. It said that a wolf killed a friend of his who was helping him build a church, and St. Fillan then commanded the wolf to help him finish building. Or something like that. ; )

This was the stream right outside the museum.

By this time Skyflier really felt like the "Roming Gnome" when I put her on a rock wall next to a house with gorgeous gardens.

This was in Callander. Just thought it was another funny name of a store. ^_^

And Hammish!!! We met him last time we came to Scotland and we were soo glad to see him again. Hammish is a highland bull who are known for their long red hair. Sean, our tour guide from before, even said he had a hand in raising him when he was younger. 

And home again once more. We left just a couple days after the terrorist issues in London. It was really scary. Security was really tight when we left from Glasgow, we even saw security guards walking around with big guns. We could only take essential things in a clear plastic bag. That even meant No books! When we got to Dublin and Shannon in Ireland, however, almost everyone had a carry on!

But we made it back safe and sound. *sigh* Back to reality. :/ How we wish we could have stayed.

Did you like reading about our little escape? :D

Please leave a kind comment and let us know where you're from. ^_^

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