Haste ye back part 2

Day 2:

The Scottish Highlands

The much anticipated day had arrived.

I got up a little early than others. Very much excited.. It was 7 degrees in Edinburgh. I still decided to have a hot shower that too at 6 am. I brushed showered and got ready wearing my full sleevee tshirt jeans and jackets and boots n scarves 

We rushed to have breakfast as my bus was to leave at 7:30 from the Royal Mile.

We had lovely hashbrowns and eggs and my dose of caffeine

As we stepped out to walk towards the bus stop I realised the meaning if 7degrrees :-) I finally wore my gloves .. I got some stares from the locals but they smiled back after seeing me smile innocently

My bus took off as decided and I took the first seat, wore my shades , plugged in my ipod and started my journey as my bus took the beautiful road.

My bus driver kept his commentary on as to what are the places we are passing by. It was difficult to pick every word due to a heavy scottish accent , but appreciated his effort to speak and explain. I then switched back to my bollywood themed iPod playing hopelessly romantic songs making the romantic idiot in me happy

The bus was gliding on the beautiful route and I was enjoying Scotland on the beautiful landscape with bollywood songs in the background in my ears.

My playlist shuffled and picked up ' Is mod se jaate hai ' from Aandhi.

The song was so beautiful..the poet  Gulzar has used beautiful play of words.. While passing through streets of Scottish highlands the lyrics made even more sense. " in reshmi raahon mein.. Ik raah toh woh hogi.. Tum tak joh pohachti hai.. Iss mod se jaate hai" ... Sometimes we wonder where our life takes us .. But I am sure every route we take up leads to our destiny. My destiny had got me here..and I was just living in the moment enjoying the nature 

Scotland is all about " lochs" "ben" snd "glen" meaning lake, mountains and valleys in Gaelic language

My first stop was a village called Perth. I had just heard about its namesake down under that too due to my cricket love. But this place was beautiful . We just took a loo break in this city while my sister got some souveneirs in one of the shops. 

Our next stop was a place called Pitlochry .. A tongue twister.. But i learnt to say it after trying .. Pit.. Lock and ree

This indeed reminded me of those fairytales I read as a kid and wished I could be one of those princesses who were trapped in a castle , waiting for my prince to come in and rescue me :-)

The place is home to some beautiful churches, abbys and some fine whisky distilleries. 

An interesting observation about Whisky is the Scots spell it as Whisky and the Irish add an extra e to it. Americans do add an e to it. So when you mean 'scotch' it is often Whisky

Our bus passed through some of the most scenic towns and I met those lovely  creatures called " Hairy Coo" the cute looking hairy cows. I landed up buying souveneirs as a memory of those cute creatures

We also saw the Glenfinnan, the bridge where the Harry Potter was getting attacked by dementors on the train

We were slowly moving towards the town of inverness and the vegetation was changing every 40 kms.this part of Scotland has everything from lush green landscapes with tons of sheep ,cattle walking and relaxing across on them to rugged mountain landscapes

We reached Inverness at about lunch time and I kind of got used to see beauty around. But this did not mean that I wasnt enjoying, but was much calmer now and living in the present. We had lunch overlooking the scenery and proceeded to watch the lake. We could not see the nessy monster , to my dissapontment. However I considered it as a sign from the universe to visit the place again

My journey back towards Edinburgh began and this time the bus driver took a different route. By now I could comprehend a bit of his accent and picked up on my journey.

 

Our way back we glanced fort Augustus, from a real far away distance. I have kept all to watch for next time.

We then moved to fort William at Inverlochy castle though snd spent some good time there. It is quite full of ruins and it reminded me of Kuch kuch hota hai title track which was shot in one of the scottish castles

By the time we reached Stirling, it had started raining and after taking a coffee break , we moved towards the way back.

I didnt realise when I fell asleep on the bus and opened my eyes to see myself back on the historical town of Edinburgh.

It was end of my highland tour.

We had to catch a flight back to Bristol next day early morning so had only todays evening to shop. So in addition to my highland shopping did lot ofvsouveneir shopping like the typical checkered scarves , shortbreads and chocolates.

It was 10 pm but i could hardly stay awake but i crashed

Next day as i walked towards the Edinburgh airport to catch my flight back to Bristol , i read the sign " haste ye back" which means come back soon

Keeping fingers crossed and hoping i reach there sometime soon