My second day in Scotland was filled with The Hairy Coo highlands tour and I have to say it was probably my favorite part of the trip. It is a free, alternative highlands tour and it just takes donations at the end. I wish I could have given them more because they really deserved it, but anyways...We met up with the tour bus at 8:45 Friday morning to see a man in a kilt named Donald standing next to a burnt orange bus with two horns on the top and a smiley face with a tongue sticking out on the bottom... they had painted their bus like a hairy coo! (by the way, coo=cow in Scotland). We hop on the bus and Donald introduces himself. He asks if everyone speaks English, to which we all reply yes, and he says "Oh, well that's fine but I speak Scottish!". He was a hoot the whole tour. We had people from so many different countries on the bus (a "mini League of Nations" as Donald called us). It was a very odd feeling to be the only Americans, because here in Bangor the Americans all came in a group and we kind of stick together a bit, but it was very cool. We drove through some of the less-traveled streets of Edinburgh and Donald gave us some history. One big thing that stuck in my mind was this school that is in town that is now one of the most expensive private schools in Scotland was originally built to teach orphans. Oh, how things change! I think it was called Fettes college. *Side note- "college" in the UK is actually the last two years of high school in which students can either choose not to participate and leave school or continue on focusing on only a couple of subjects of their choosing and then they proceed onto university.* He also asks if anyone has any Scottish ancestry and, if so, what clans. I spoke up and said "McAlpine" and he looked surprised and said "I should have known! We have royalty on the bus! McAlpine was the first king of Scotland". So that's right folks, your reading the words of Scottish royalty right here ;-) It was amusing.
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| The Forth rail bridge |
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| From the hill of the Wallace Monument |
Our first stop on the tour was the two bridges- the Forth road bridge and the Forth rail bridge. The rail bridge was built in the 19th century and is still standing strong. The road bridge, however, was built in the 1960's and has to be replaced soon. Just an interesting tidbit... Then we drove up to Sterling and saw one of the Wallace monuments, dedicated to William Wallace- the "braveheart" of Scotland. It was on a hill and the view from the hill was amazing. Donald gave us the history of William Wallace on the bus ride which was a good story and, shocker, different from the Hollywood version.
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| The Wallace Monument |
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| Clacking Coconuts at Doune Castle! |
And what was our next stop? Doune Castle..a.k.a the castle used in the filming of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. I was probably the most excited person on that bus.. especially when Donald pulled out the coconuts for us to play with if we so desired. And yes.. I skipped around clacking coconuts in front of the castle like an idiot and I loved every single minute of it. I even got Molly to clack behind me like Patsy so I could be King Arthur for a picture.. because we are just that cool. (Side note: "doune" actually means castle... so the castle's name is Castle Castle...) Then we stopped in this cute little town called Callander in the highlands for lunch and ate at a bakery called "Mhor Bread". I had steak and haggis pie with mashed potatoes. That's right people; I ate haggis. And it was actually pretty good... the spices were a little strong for my taste but it was still pretty good. Also.. when I was eating it I couldn't help but think about Sweeny Todd... lovely mental image when you're eating, I know.
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| Molly as the Patsy with coconuts and me as King Arthur :-D |
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| steak and haggis pie with mashed potatoes |
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| Hamish |
Next up? Hairy coo! We stopped and paid a visit to the most famous hairy coo in the world, Hamish, and his expecting girlfriend, Heather. We fed him parsnips. Hamish was actually personally saved by the queen. There was a disease going around all of the highland cattle a few years ago but they could not vaccinate all of them so they decided that they would only vaccinate coos 7 years old or younger and the others would be killed. Hamish was ten at the time. The lady who owned Hamish started a petition and with all of the people who visit Hamish on a daily basis she received thousands of signatures. The petition landed on the queen's desk and the queen, being a Hamish fan and a lover the hairy coos (she has her own herd of them), granted Hamish a royal pardon. Hooray for Hamish! Then we stopped by a couple of lakes (or "lochs") and they were gorgeous. One of them was frozen solid and I was oh so tempted to try and walk on one. But then I decided that would probably be a bad idea and refrained.
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| Loch Katrine |
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| Me with a mommy and baby coo :-) |
Last main stop? More hairy coo. SO excited! (I think they are beyond adorable...) We found some right along the road behind a fence and I was beyond thrilled because there were two baby coo too! There was also one that Donald designated as the "Justin Beiber" coo (see the picture and you'll see why...). The coo's real name is Kyle. So we fed them some carrots and a flock of sheep came running over. They quickly gave up when they realized they were not going to be able to get past the coo. Then we hopped back on the bus and began our journey back to Edinburgh. We made a couple of scenic stops along the way and he told us the story of Mary Queen of Scots. Something about driving though, especially when it's dark out, makes me sleepy and I woke up just in time to hear "and that's the story of Mary the Queen of Scots"... sad because I actually wanted to hear the story. We met up with Swede after that and got dinner at a place called "Garfunkle's" and then headed back to the flat around 9:00 that evening. We were going to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but Molly and I were really tired and we just called it an early night.
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| Justin Beiber Coo |
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| Justin Coo with his flock.. |
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| Some earmuffs I found in a gift shop :-p |
So that was my second day in Scotland and it was probably my favorite. Don't get me wrong, I liked the city too.. but I'll always be more of a nature girl. I loved the landscapes I saw in the highlands and, of course, gotta love those hairy coo :-) I'll post days three and four tomorrow!
<3 Melissa
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