Aye, We're in Scotland!!

Aye, we're in Scotland!! The past few days have been great, but boy, have they been busy!! Saturday was hectic as we raced to get on the bus in Exeter to make our way to London.  We made the bus 5 minutes before it left!! What luck!!  The ride was pretty uneventful, but when we got to London, everything was all a-bustle! We arrived at London Victoria Station around 1:15 PM and it was PACKED.  We'd never seen that many people (real or flat) in our lives!!  We navigated through them though and made our way onto the Tube (the Underground system in London) to head to our hostel in Saint Russell's Square.  It took us an hour to get there and we were SO glad to finally  make it.  We checked in and then had lunch at an AMAZING little Italian restaurant.  We are surely going to be gaining some weight on this trip-so much good food!!

On Sunday, we woke up early to head off to Edinburgh.  We spent 9, yes, 9, hours on the bus to get there.  Needless to say, we had to do a lot to keep ourselves busy.  We played cards and did word searches, ate lunch and took naps.  We finally made it to Edinburgh around 7:00 in the evening.  After getting settled in our hostel, which looked like an old castle, complete with several suits of armour, we were absolutely knackered (an English/Scottish term for tired), so we went to bed pretty early.

On Monday, our tour to the Highlands of Scotland began.  We met up with our tour group, which has been led by an awesome guide named Chris and we've made our way around the Scottish Highlands in a bright blue bus.  Poor Kara has had some seriously bad luck since she got here.  Poor thing spilled a cup of coffee yesterday and then slipped and fell in the mud today.  Luckily, these little mishaps haven't gotten her down. 

We've done and seen some great things since we've been here.  It would take ages to explain everything.  Luckily, Kara has been keeping pretty good notes and taking lots of pictures, so we'll remember everything we've done here.  We've seen lots of beautiful scenery-Scotland, despite its stereotypically described awful weather, is really quite stunning and we think the mist and clouds only add to its appeal.  We've met hairy 'coos' (this is the way it's pronounced-promise it's not a spelling error) and been introduced to the faeries that live in the hills.  We were even inside a castle today.  Yesterday, we went to a whiskey distillery and learned how whisky is made.  We might even have had a little sip or two!  Today, we went to a wonderful little town on the Island of Skye called Portree for lunch.  They had carrot cake that rivaled Kara's mom's-it was delicious!!!  Tomorrow, we're hoping to get to see Nessie, the creature in Loch Ness.  Then we'll be back off to London to embark on the next leg of our adventure-Italy!!

Stay tuned for more about our great adventure!

-The Flats