Fun Hideout

Enough of the city, I personally much prefer sceneries & nature which are so scarce in Singapore, thus I enjoy this part of the tour more. I signed up a Day Tour with Rabbie to travel up from Edinburgh to Loch Ness & Inverness Highland. The tour guide was pretty good and humorous, who entertained us with his wide knowledge of the English History, Tourist spots etc. Commendable indeed!

Doune Castle

This was more like a toilet break than a tourist spot. Castles were almost everywhere, that we went to 3 castles ( Stirling, Doune and Urquhart Castles) in our 2 days tour.

Highland Cow - The Drawing

A real Highland Cow !!

Wasnt he cute? His name is Hamish, born in Feb 1993, almost 15 years old. Basically Highland cows have no layer of fat to keep them warm and so they have an extra coat which also maintains weatherproofing. The long fringe keeps the driving wind and rain out of their eyes in the winter and insects in the summer months. Well, apparently the long fringe protect them from the weather but polly the Highland cows got to live with the poking of the fringe in their eyes. You cant just have the best of both worlds, I guess. Hahaha..

Magnificent Highlands

The land is so vast, I'm so tiny.
( P.S For those who dunno me, actually I'm also tiny everywhere coz I'm so petite in size -_-")

Harry Potter Photo Stop

This was the railway bridge for the Hogwarts train to ferry the students back to school in Harry Potter 2. To help you recall easier, remember the flying car that Harry & Ron took to return to school?

The Commando Memorial

This was just another view at the Memorial. You must be thinking, what's so special about grass and a straight road. You are so wrong!! You got to enlarge this photo to see clearly. There, across the road, can see trees right? More on the centre left. The trees were formated in such a way that it was actually showing Scotland Flag ( below). Amazing yeah... remember to look out for this when you are there!

Loch Ness

This was the place where we tried to spot for the water seahorse, aka Nessie! I really wanna came here after I watched the movie. The sceneries were so nice and magnificent, and of coz Nessie was so cute in the movie ( until it grew up and turn "ugly" & gigantic), that was part of the reasons. Needless to say,we dint manage to spot any big animal in the water lah. If not, you polly can see me in the newspaper liao... keke

Just a little knowledge sharing, the word "Loch" actually mean lakes. Beside Loch Ness, there was also Loch Luibnaig, Loch Earn, Loch Laggan etc. in Scotland.

Inverness

These photos were taken at Inverness, where we stayed for a night before moving on. You polly find a lot of B&B ( Bed & Breakfast) here, which are usually homes of the people who stayed here throughout their lives. The one I stayed belongs to a granny, whose children have moved to the city area, while she stays in the town, visiting her children occasionally.

A funny ( maybe not so funny to us) story to share. On the way to our respective lodging, our tour guide was driving us around, showing us where were the better places to eat and he specifically said " Dun go Macdonalds!!" Nth against Mac, it just that we ought to try some local food since we were there mah.

However the moment we checked in, granny said there would be some water works and so no water supply after 9pm. No choice, we got to quickly bath before going out again for our dinner, which by then was oreadi 8pm. By the time we reached the town center, walked around before deciding what to eat, the kitchens for most of the restaurants were closed. Well, you guessed it.... YES, we went Macs. SOBZ. And when we came back, there was still water supply... SOBZ, granny bluff us... SOBZ

The next day, our driver was asking so where did we dine yesterday. He dun believed us when we said Macs.. -_-"

Well, that was my short story.. Okay, let's move on...

Loch Beinn

River Affric

The next morning, we started off the day with a nature reserve walk at Glen Affric. Here, you would find River Affric flowing down through a dramatic gorge, surrounded on all sides by the beautiful Caledonian pine.

Along the walk, we actually picked blueberries to eat ( YES, FOC!! =p) and drink from the river, which tasted like => Distilled water, out from the fridge! Cooling & refreshing!

Nessie found!! Erm, in wires leh

Urquhart Castle

My tour guide said there used to be no barrier around the castle, and people can just take photos. However now, they planted small bushes to "hide" the castle so that they can start charging people to go into the castle. No choice, that was the best picture I can take in that kind of "circumstance"... Hee

Loch Laggan

Updates in Pink - 21 August

After much (very) procrastination, I finally decided to pen down ( blog) about my trip to UK & Paris. It serves as a memory track for myself as I cant remember things very well nowadays, polly due to aging ( *_*~~~). For others, it serves as a peek to the other side of the planet Earth, and of coz, for those who are planning a trip, I would be much pleased if you decide to take up some of my recommended places to go.

Basically, I would be blogging about the trip in a few entries, coz too many photos! I took 1000+ lor.. hee. That's the "problem" with digital camera, you just snap at everything and then end up spending time deleting those uglier photos.

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Streets of Edinburgh

Street Performers

Princes Street Garden with Edinburgh Castle in the background(P.S Try to imagine, coz it was too foggy when I took this photo.. hee)

Edinburgh Castle on a clear day

Paranomic view of the city from Edinburgh Castle

Cannon view ( self invented vocab) of the city from Edinburgh Castle

A portion of Edinburgh Castle

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Camera Obsura

This was the most fun stop in Edinburgh, a break from castles, museums and old architectural buildings. There are lots of things to see, from optical illusion, bendy mirrors to light fantastic and many mores. The Victorian " Eye in the Sky" would allow you to spy on people in the streets realtime! You can even lift people on the streets, create bridges for vehicles to cross over etc. Confused? Haha, find out yourself when you are there! But try to go on a clear bright day, you dun wan to miss the scene of someone showering because of the fog, dun you?? * Wicked smile*

Shadows Captured!

What's on a man's mind?

I love this lor! It was so very true!! Any guys wanna debate???? ............ DUN BLUFF!! =p

Bf's manga transformation

My transformation

I love this!! Did I say I love sth else earlier on?? Hmm... dun care. This is better than comestic surgery. In a split second, I was transform to cute Japanese animation looks, with big eyes, sharp nose and small mouth. ^_^

Greyfriars Bobby

This was erected as a tribute for a faithful dog which kept constant watch and guard over the grave of its owner for 14 years until its own death in 1872. Read more here.

You can find this along the street of George IV Bridge, in the direction towards The National Museum of Scotland. If you are keen, dun forget to visit Museum of Edinburgh to see Bobby's collar given by William Chambers ( The Lord Provost of Edinburgh), with a brass inscription " Greyfriars Bobby from the Lord Provost 1867 licensed".

Scotland Piper

Easily you would be able to find a man wearing traditional kilt playing bagpipe in the street. Here I found one standing outside The National Museum of Scotland. The bagpipe is a traditional Scottish wind instrument, consisting of three drones and a melody pipe (called the chanter), which are fed continuously by a reservoir of air in a bag.

Btw, my day tour guide mentioned that the sound frequency of the bagpipe is quite damaging to our ears when subjected to prolonged listening ( which I cant remember whether it was 28 seconds or minutes). So dun be too engrossed with photo taking with the piper, remember quickly take and run!! Anyway, from very far distance, you would be able to hear it.

Holyroodhouse

Once the home of Mary, Queen of Scots, the Palace of Holyroodhouse stands at the foot of the Royal Mile. Today, the Palace is used by The Queen for State ceremonies and official entertaining.

Well, are you expecting pictures of the palace interiors? Sad to say, they are only meant for the eyes of those physically present, i.e, no cameras and videos allowed!! =(

Needless to say, the palace is majestic with the detailed carving, the furniture, the drawings etc. But very very old.. Okay I know, I'm being dumb to say so, since the palace existed a few hundred years ago. Kinda eerie too, as murder was said have been done in its chamber.

The ruins of Holyrood Abbey

This being the burial place of several Scottish Kings and the site of the coronation of Charles I in 1633, the Abbey was abandoned after the roof collapsed in 1768.

So practically, we were like stepping on the tombs of Kings & Queens ( the rectangles on the ground) like nobody business. I'm not too sure whether their bones are still there, but I tried not to step over them lor. Give respect to ancient people mah. And hor, a bit dumb & pai seh to ask " eh, really got corpses underneath mah??" A unsolved "mystery" indeed.

We all love food, regardless where we are! And if you are hungry and poor in a country that uses pound ( almost 3 times of SGD), basically you have only three options:

(a) Starve and mentally convince yourself you are VERY full
(b) Share a meal with your partner, so that you are only semi-hungry or semi-full ( depending on how positive you are =p )
(c) Eat bread, eat bread and eat more bread! In fact, the sandwiches & burgers are good

Ya ready? Let's take a look at some of the food that I ate at Scotland then =>

Technically, this was not a food item from Scotland. I bought the breakfast set ( 2.99 pound) at King's Cross Station, but ate it in the train to Scotland ( 4 hours ride from London to Scotland via the National Rail). So Scotland or London? Aiya, they are both the same under UK and Scotland will only attain its independence in 2010 ( if I'm not wrong).

Macho Nachos ( 3.95 pound) from Grassmarket

Tortilla corn chips covered in Mexican style meat chill, baked with cheese and topped with jalapenos. Served with sour cream & freshly made salsa

This was great! Well, at least better than the pepperoni pizza we ordered along ( forgot to take pictures coz kinda hungry). It had all sort of taste: cheesy, spicy, sweet, crunchy etc. Never eaten nachos in such a manner in Spore. The total bill for the meal was around 20 pounds and if you are re-calculating, you are not wrong. YES! It was about S$60 for a meal of nachos and pizza!

That should give you a rough gauge the amount of money to set aside for food there, so I shan't be "reporting" the cost anymore. Keke, actually because I forgot most of them lah. Hungry man is Angry man. So heck care the cost liao, just eat le, cant be bothered!

Traditional Scottish Food => Haggis

Haggis is one of those national dishes that is both beloved and reviled by natives, and sometimes horrifies people who hear it described for the first time. It's actually a dish consisting of the heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep, calf, etc, minced with suet and oatmeal, seasoned with salt, pepper, onions, etc, and boiled like a large sausage. Let me do the honor to horrify you further with a close-up of it..... Wahahahhaa

What does it taste like, you ask me? Frankly speaking, it didnt taste as bad as the ingredients. It just tasted like mashed up of everything such that you cant really differentiate anymore. But I didnt finish it though.... Why? I leave it to the adventure seekers to try & tell me whether you like it!

Fruit Beer ( Raspberry)

Scotland is actually famous for their Whisky. In fact, there is a tourist spot ~ The Scotch Whisky Experience @ Royal Mile, Edinburgh which offers a tour of the making of Scotch Whisky. I'm not a great fan of Whisky myself, so I dint go. But for those who are interested, please email me to get a 35% discount voucher on the Standard Tour ( Valid until 31/12/08).

Since I'm talking about Whisky, I got to mention this whisky liqueur that tasted like Bailey.

It tasted sweet & creamy like Bailey, yet gave you a spicy after-taste like normal Whisky. Super good! We drank it on its own or used it as a topping on ice-cream, super yummy! Must try!

Keke, actually I was showing the picture of the fruit beer hor.. a bit side tracked liao. But the fruit beer was nothing compared to Heather Cream Whisky Liqueur. Must try!

Burger with Aberdeen Beef & Cheese

This was a gigantic burger, from a burger shop along the street of Royal Mile, High Street. The size polly comparable to that of Carls Junior, if not bigger. You can basically mix and match the filling and the patty ( chicken, beef etc). Recommendable but then hor at that time, I was having a craving for burgers, so I leave it to yourself to judge lah!

Macaroni with Cheese

This looked good on picture, but was actually too cheesy after a few mouthful. When the menu stated macaroni with cheese, you better believe that it was really Macaroni AND Cheese only!! Dun count your luck that the chef will top off with some chicken bits etc.

But the fries in UK or Paris were really good. They were those chunky kind, similiar to MOS. But they just tasted better, maybe the potatos were grown with classical music?? Hahahaha..

Chicken breast coated with oats

Cheesecake with oats crust

Oat has been a staple of the Scottish diet since medieval times. It is used to make porridge as well as such other traditional favourites as oatcakes, bannocks, skirlie, haggis, mealy pudding and for frying fish. It's not unusual if you find oats as the ingredient for their dishes.