a highland fling

In our relationship, the differences between men and women are never quite so obvious as when it comes to making decisions about travel. Having left our Easter weekend plans to the last-minute, Fox and I made a spontaneous decision to take a tour of the Highlands. With it being a long weekend, we were left with little choice but to endure a gruelling nine hour bus ride to Edinburgh and back. We also opted for a Wild in Scotland tour which covered an extensive part of the Highlands over a course of three days. Since I’d left Fox to organise majority of our trip I was not at liberty to comment too much on the choice of tour or accommodation but it is no secret that our ideas of travelling ‘comfortably’ differ somewhat. Although pleasant enough, being guided by a wacky kilt-clad Scot in a minivan with fourteen fellow travellers and staying in hostels probably would not have been my first choice.
Nevertheless, from Stirling through Glencoe and onto Skye, we found ourselves in the most isolated setting I’ve ever experienced. My sense of peace, however, was shattered approximately five minutes later when we were told that the Glenbrittle hostel, which was to be our first night stopover, required girls and guys sleep in separate dorms. It was at this moment that I declared the final nail had been hammered into the coffin wherein lies any future hostel prospects.
The following morning we hiked up through the Cuillin mountains for a soggy but spectacularly scenic Easter egg hunt and then drove along Loch Ness to Drumnadrochit for our second night. To my delight, Fox had booked us into a B&B for the evening and as the rest of the group filed into the backpapckers I resisted the urge to squeal with delight at the thought of a comfy ‘bed bug free’ bed and a full Scottish breakfast. On arrival at the Aslaich B&B, the friendly owner welcomed us and after a bit of ‘housekeeping’ presented us with a bottle of champagne, congratulating us on our honeymoon. I’m still not sure how we managed to hide the confusion from our faces, or perhaps we didn’t and she just took it as surprised gratitude. It was later that we discovered that Wendy, who runs the backpackers and is mildly eccentric, decided that she would tell the B&B owner that it was our honeymoon and score us a couple of freebies. In my defence, I would like to say that I was not the one who decided it was okay to drink the champagne. However, I can’t deny that I too enjoyed partaking in it. Come on, a freebie is a freebie! I somehow managed to abstain from wincing when we were wished a continued good honeymoon the following morning. We left as quickly as possible without looking back.
After another day of history and rugged highland scenery which boasts glistening lochs, mountain passes and castles, we returned to Edinburgh feeling somewhat enlightened. Danny, our guide had spoken much of Scotland’s struggles and if anything, we learned how proud the Scots are of their heritage. Being half Scot, I can’t deny that there is something in me that stirs each time I see the majestic castle up on the hill. We finished the trip with a wonderful dinner at Mussel Inn and then a drink at Brown’s where I was served the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted. And despite our gender differences I think we were both in agreement that this was a pretty great way to end our brief but enjoyable highland fling.