July 3-Michelle Cunningham

On Friday July 3rd, we woke up to take our final for the course in Edinburgh. Our last day at St. Colm’s International House, which had been our home for the past two and one half weeks had arrived. Having packed mostly everything the night before, I made and ate a leisurely lunch and hung out with some of my new friends. At one o’clock, I threw a few last minute things into my bags and headed out. There was a white minibus with “Rabbie’s” painted in blue across the side; our tour guide, Pete, helped us load all our luggage into the back of the bus and our group of 13 loaded onto the 16 passenger vehicle. I sat in the second to last row with my bus buddy, Colin. The travel company had a map of Scotland hung up in the front of the bus so that Pete could show us where we were at any given time and where we would be going next. As the bus pulled away, we all waved goodbye to our home and headed out on a new adventure. I wanted to get some reading in but little did I know that Pete is an expert at filling silence. He was enthusiastic and talked about all the things we had just learned about (and tested on just hours before) he spouted facts about the old monarchs and the bloody history of Scotland as we drove across the city and into the country side. The scenery was amazing and was only going to get better as we went on for the next three days through the Highlands.

Pete had to take a little detour because of the “road works” that were on the highway that would take us into Dunkeld, which was our first stop. We rode by the River Tay which passes through Dunkeld and right next to a church we stopped in. The church was built centuries ago (I don’t remember exactly when. Editor? Editor: 15th Century) and the sanctuary is still used for services today. Behind the church was an old grave site which was surrounded by old walls. Some of which were beginning to erode. Behind the cemetery was a belfry’s tower with a really small door way I am only 5’6” and I had to duck to fit thorough. The river flowing next to the church made the area very peaceful. The Five Squad decided to sit on the grass and take some fun pictures because it was so green and soft. Jen took the pictures for us when we decided to get cheesy and lay in a circle with our heads at the center in sort of a sunburst pattern, and the good doctor walked by and Jen joined us in our sunburst. This was one of the best parts of the afternoon.

Back on the bus, Pete filled us with more and more knowledge of Scottish history, which we are all experts on now, and took us to a little tourist place. I am sure that Rabbie’s had a contract with this place because it was just a money grabbing tourist trap, nothing historical or even very interesting about it. Luckily we only spent 30 minutes there. As we left, one of our group members accidentally got on the wrong minibus, but she realized it pretty quickly when there was no one that she knew on the bus so a crisis was avoided, but the rest of us got a good laugh. Thanks Inverness roomie =)

We finally arrived at our destination, Inverness, where we would stay the next 2 nights. A few of us went out to eat at a little Spanish restaurant. The food was good and the service was ok, but when we asked for separate checks, the waitress looked at us as if we were crazy. I have noticed that when we go out and don’t pay together, we are definitely not following “normal” behavior. I believe most of the time only one person pays for dinner. Especially, I think when they are in large groups but I don’t know the exact rules of etiquette when paying here.

That evening a few of us went out to a place called Maverick’s; they were celebrating their 1st year of being open and had free drinks at the door and contests to win free drinks. The bartender was really nice and carried around a whistle when he was making drinks and after I had a couple, he called me over and put a whistle around my neck too. Xuan and I won some mavericks dollars I think because we were having so much fun, and got to play black jack for drinks and won a shot each. We were feeling pretty good by the time we got back to the hostel and decided to let the other girls in our group know how much fun we had. They were staying in different rooms so we went to the one on the ground floor and, to make a long story short, tried to get everyone out of bed to go back out with us. When they all turned us down, Xuan decided to hide in a locker, at first she thought she couldn’t fit in it but I was convinced she could so I started shoving her into it to help. She finally got most of the way in when the bottom of the locker dropped out and she was folded in half with her feet next to her face. I tried to help her but I was laughing too hard so Cierra pulled her out. (We did fix the locker before we went up to our room, like responsible adults) At this point bed was the best option, but low and behold, Sarah and Tamara were still up (they were our roomies for those 2 nights) so we recounted the story to them and started talking about all kinds of things laughing and carrying on probably a little too loudly, when a knock came on the door. The young woman who works in the hostel came into our room and scolded us like five year olds for being too loud in a “family hostel.” When I offered up that we were sorry and we would be quiet, she looked at us and said “No. You need to go to bed.” She stood there for probably 30 seconds waiting for us to climb into bed or something, but we just reassured her that we would be quiet. She told us again to go to bed and shut the door. We were very quiet after that, talking and even laughing in whispers. Eventually, we all did go to sleep because we were excited to travel from the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean the next day, with Pete, one of the best tour guides I’ve ever had. =)