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It had been one of my dreams for a long, long time to visit Scotland. Thgis dream became true a couple of weeks ago when I finally had a chance to visit Caledonia with a German friend of mine. I was very excited about this trip for several weeks and it most deffinitely was one of the highlights of the whole exchange period in the UK!
We booked a hostel frm Edinburgh for three nights. The hostel i found wa an old church converted into a hostel and I must say it had a certain atmosphere in it! The twin room we had was very cosy and nice, more likefrom B&B than from a hostel really and the beds were probably the best ones I have slept in so far in the UK..;) They were very much unlike the ones we had with Sanna and Anna when travelling in Oxford and London. Those beds were just shaky and sqeaky and VERY uncomfortable to sleep in!
Edinburgh is a beautiful old city with lovely houses from differetn periods of times. There are some marvellous Gorgain houses in the New Town and lovely old buildings in the Old Townwith small alley ways on the hillside. One of the nicest cities I have ever visited probably BUT..there is a but..;) The weather! It was freezong cold and misty and cloudy all the time we were there. We spotted a little sentence on one of our guide books sayng that it never gets very warm in Edinburgh due to it's location on the eastern coast of Scotland. During the summer the maximum temperature they have is +22 celcius. Thsi explains a lot....;)
On our first evening in Edinurgh we decided to take part on a bit different city tour, a ghost tour of Edinburgh. This was an interesting tour indeed and we learned quite a bit of city's history and also some things you would never ever spot in the guide books.
he tour started in the Old Town and our first good stop was an old Calton cemetary! I must admit it was aquit spooky atmosphere in the graveyard in a misty evening like that one was...When we were standing among the old grave stones I spotted one stone and thought "Funny,I could sware I can see a face on this stone....well,I must be a bit tired or just being silly...." Literally 10 seconds after this thought of mine the tour guide pointed at that stone and said that "There are people who try to deny what they rreally see but as you can all see there is a face on that stone....and it has not been made man or by any tools. It has just appeared there during the long years.....". This was the first time I have seen one of thosobjects where people claim they can see a fae...and funny enough...the face looks like the face we usually connect with Jesus Christ. I have already added a picture of the stone in the album called "Scotland" and everyone can see it by themselves and decide what they think about it. This just gave a bit more spice in the ghost tour I think..;)
Usually teh graveyards are not the first sights I go to see when I am in a new place. Why niot though? What couyld better tell the history of a place than the names of the people who used to live there?
The very next day after the ghost tour we took a day trip tothe highlands of Scotland. This was really worth some 30 pounds we paid for it! We had a mini bus and a nicest driver ever who was even wearign a kilt..:) He told us a lot about history of Scotland and I must say it was justa pure pleasure to listen to his lovely Scotsman's accent!!!!!I think I could just marry some guy who would just speak to em with that accent....he could say anything....read some news of the world economy and I would just be delighted....;)
Thatbus tour was full of great places to see and we did stop quite a few times for take a little walk and get some photographs taken. One of the best stops in my opinion was the one on Loch Ness! I have heard stories of Loch Ness since I was a very little girl and i has alwasy been somehow special place in my mind. It is one of those famous places you always hear but you have never been to by yourself. This happens to Finnish people quite a lot I think. Almost all of the fampous places we hear about are located abroad. After reading about them for several years seeing them in real feels somehow magical. At least to me!! I had this feeling when saw Eiffel tower in reality and museum of Louvre. Also the famous sights in london, like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the British Museum. I remember when entering Louvre it was a strange feeling to recognise so many famous painItings ont he walls which had alwasy been ont he pages of my school books. It is a feelign of enetring another world..;)
Nevertheless, locj ness was magnificent. It was cloudy day and you could feel tha the rain was coming. We took a niceboat cruise on the lake andsomehow that place has a bit of a magical feeling in it. I loved the landscape it had: rocky shores with rising hills and deep dark water. Wilderness. Not many houses to be seen. Erämaa,in Finnish.
The boat was big enough to have a small cafe inside and we sat there quite a lot as the wind was freezing cold. There wre two tv screens there in the cafe as well which showed the sonar system of the boat. On the screen, we would have been able to spot Nessie if she happened to be swimming around...;)
After the lovely stop on the loch (lake) we continued our ourney towards Glencoe which had breathtaking views over the mountains of Scotland! Here,I learned,they also have a chance to go for down hill skiing in the winter! I never knew that it is possible in Great Britain but apparently it is.:) The mountains were so high actually that they still had snowy peaks! I had a feeling then that I was back in Finland, somewhere in the north..;)
The last full day in Scotlnad we spent wonderign around Edinburgh itself. It was another cold and windy day so we wanted to visit some placewhere we coudl actually stay inside We chose Camera Obscura. They ahve a 150-year-old camera on top of the building and they can move it from inside and show people imagies of Edinburgh. You can see people walkign on the streets and cars driving around. It was still amazing thing to see and the guide who was with us told ushow amazed people had een 150 years ago when they saw the little moving figures! I can imagine their faces..;) The rest of the museum was full of different illusions and tricky objects. It was grea fun I must admit and we had several good laughs there with false mirrors and with a machine which took a picture of you and you could see how you would look as a monkey!
The following day it was time to start a journey back towards Birmignham agan but before that we took a half day journey to Glasgow. It was completely different city than Edinburgh. More modern and kind of mixture of different type of buildings from diffreent decades. The city centre was beautiful though and we visited an inetersting museum which showed the history of people anf living in Glasgow through centuriesdand decades.
In the evning we had few more delightful moment son a train as we drove through the easter coast of Scotland and England and saw magnificent landscapes with cliffs and sea shore before the darknes fell around us o that we could not see more than our own reflections on the train window.
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