A Monstrously Good Time

When I discovered that I was attending the Dollar Academy through the ESU scholarship, one of the first actions I made was to make a bucket list of sights I wanted to see in Scotland. You know the drill: cruising Loch Ness, witnessing Ben Nevis, et cetera. It has been my intention this whole year to do all the touristy activities of the country, but I had little chance of actually experiencing them due to my preoccupation with travelling throughout the rest of Europe during breaks.

That is, until I felt the kind and generous manners of a family friend, Mrs. Rutledge, and her son, Evan Fischer, a long-time friend and fellow ESU scholar. The two of them (along with Paul, a family friend) offered to rescue me from school early to see the best that Scotland had to offer. Not only was it fantastic to see an old friend and reminisce about our fond Culver memories, but the trip also served as a nice big satisfying check mark on my mental bucket list for the year.

So, I left school early on Monday to catch a ride to Edinburgh, where we would start our tour the next morning. After a joyful reunion, we spent the night unpacking and settling in, not to mention catching up on sleep for the long tour ahead. Around a 12-hour-plus bus ride starting at 7:45 AM, the tour would take us clockwise around the mainland of Scotland, through the Highlands and with a stop at Loch Ness, before heading back to Edinburgh.

Despite the gloomy, cloudy weather, Paul, Evan, Mrs. Rutledge and I still managed to enjoy the tour tremendously. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking, as you can imagine, since that's what Scotland is known for. In fact, the Highlands are so beautiful that they have been the background of countless iconic movies throughout history: on the first half of our journey, we past the familiar locations of Harry Potter's Hogwarts Express Train scene as well as James Bond's family home in Skyfall. From the perfectly reflective lochs to the majestic views of the munros (Scots for mountains), there was never an underwhelming moment. The tour guide especially made the trip entertaining, recounting tales of William Wallace and Pitlochry's famous "salmon ladder" while occasionally playing "The Proclaimers" or the "Red Hot Chili Pipers" on the radio (and no, I'm not making that band up).

We made a few stops along the way, of course, to keep the blood flow in our legs. Here we had the chance to visit charming pubs, stroll the tiny villages, and even pick up some tablet or a cheesy tartan souvenir from a gift shop. But the best break, hands down, was to the famous Loch Ness. On our pleasant cruise across the iconic Scottish lake, we entertained ourselves by drinking local Scottish beer, appreciating the scenery, or trying to make hoax pictures of the Loch Ness Monster by shaking our phone cameras and zooming in unnecessarily far until maybe perhaps you could see something.

As geeky as it sounds, I did have the intention to see a hairy coo (what non-Scottish people would call a "fluffy cow") before I left Scotland. I am pleased to say that I did in fact meet this goal-- well, sort of. Technically, we did drive past some on the way back to Edinburgh, but we didn't get to stop and bask in their glory. Maybe I'll get the chance to do that before I leave sometime. Anyway, I think that Paul, Mrs. Rutledge, and Evan would agree with me that we had fully Scotland-ed ourselves out by the end of our tour-- but not before stopping for some delicious pub grub afterwards.

 The next day was our last full day of Scotland sightseeing, so we decided to visit the Edinburgh Castle, which in my opinion is the best one in the country. The Castle was as striking as I remembered it to be at the beginning of the year, with its Crown Jewels and Stone of Destiny. I still sometimes forget that Scottish history goes back thousands of years, to it was an effective reminder of Edinburgh's grand and rich offerings. Afterwards, we amused ourselves with a Scottish Whisky Tour, including tastings and a detailed history of the drink. I wouldn't say that whisky is my go-to-drink, and I can't tell the difference between Islay and Highland whisky at all (it all tastes like fire to me), I did appreciate the effort that made it happen and even developed a small fondness for the burning taste... A little. Maybe. But then we destroyed our taste buds even more by a visit to Nando's, a popular Portugese chain restaurant in Britain, which specializes in spicy food. I may or may not be still recovering.


The next day, after Mrs. Rutledge and Paul left to catch their flight to London, Evan and I did a bit of shopping before saying goodbye for the time being. I am just so lucky to enjoy the generosity of the Rutledge family, and to have caring friends even 3000 miles away from home. I don't know how I will ever be able to express my gratitude enough for the kindness they all showed towards me, welcoming me like I was part of the family. And I thank Culver for this, as well, for giving me these social connections and surrounding me with wonderful people during my time there. My experience with ESU has really helped me to appreciate what I had, and what I have now-- I mean, I'm writing this in Germany just a 15 minute walk from the Brandenburg gate! But that's for another blog post sometime else. For now, I would just like anyone reading this that I am grateful, no matter where I may be.