This week I haven't left the town of Stirling. But I have been keeping busy. Monday I did something I never thought I would be able to do. I climbed a mountain. It is considered a hill here, but it is a mountain because its over 1000 feet high. I climbed a 1300 feet mountain and I have never been so proud of myself as I did at the top of that thing. To get up and down it took us about 2 1/2 hours. It was absolutely freezing at the top, and my hands were frozen until we got back to the bottom. The "hill" we climbed is called Dumyat (Da-my-it). It sits behind campus and every time I look at it, it seems impossible that I have been at the top.
Tuesday, some friends and I went into town to finally see Stirling Castle. Problem was that we went later in the day and got to the castle at 5:15, when they close at six. They let us in as one of the last people, giving us 45 minutes to see the castle. I thought it would be bigger, but there wasn't that much to see. The pictures I got though are gorgeous. Once we finished in the castle we went to a Texas themed restaurant to eat (two of my roommates are from Texas, and they were craving food from home very badly). When we finished eating, we went back to the castle to watch pipe bands and highland dancing. But it had started raining and the wind was blowing pretty fiercely. We watched the little girls dance and I was scared the whole time that they would slip. They were dancing on a platform and it was covered in water. Once the girls finished and we listened to the pipe band play one song, we left to go back to the campus.
Yesterday was a bit of a mess. One of my roommates and I had to do a field trip on our own because of a mix up with one of the trips we had signed up for. So we had to make our way to Killiecrankie, a battlefield from the 1689 Jacobite Revolution. Getting there was freaking mess. We left Stirling by train headed for Pitlochry, the nearest town to Killiecrankie. First we got on the wrong train, which terminated at Dunblane. Thankfully the train we were supposed to get on came through Dunblane so we hopped on that. Once we got to Pitlochry, I found the building that served as the bus station, but it really wasn't. This woman owns a bus company that kind of shuttles people from Pitlochry to Killiecrankie. She told me that at the bus stop opposite the building us, the bus(her bus) would stop at 12:25. Michelle and I went into a shop for about ten minutes then went to stand directly under the bus stop sign at 12:15. At 12:35 I went back to talk to the woman. A bunch of buses had stopped at the stop, but they were all either tour buses or not going to Killiecrankie. I know because I had asked all of them. I told this to the woman and she decided to yell at me because I was dumb enough to miss her bus. She said that she had watched it drive past full of people. I asked when and she said on time. She accused me of trying to blame her for us missing the bus, saying we were late and that it wasn't her fault. I proceeded to tell her that I had been standing under the bus stop sign since 12:15 so I couldn't have missed it. We came to an impasse and I left. Michelle and I hired a cab to take us there since the next bus wouldn't come for another hour and a half. The cab driver then told us that the bus I had been arguing over had picked people up from around the corner. I was so frustrated at this point, I just wanted to get to Killiecrankie. We went to see Soldier's Leap at Killiecrankie, which was really pretty. Soldier's Leap is a jutting rock overlooking a river where an English soldier had jumped 18 feet to the other side, and made it, just to escape the highland warriors chasing him. They let him go after that. We tried to leave after that so we went to the bus stop and waited for a few minutes. When no bus came, I went inside to ask when it should be coming. I have noticed that the timetables at the bus stops are not always accurate. The next bus wouldn't come for another hour, so I called a taxi and we went to the train station. When we got to the train station the cab driver told us the next train left in five minutes, so we hurried inside to catch it. We waited and waited and fifteen minutes later, I went inside to figure out how to get back to the university. We had to wait another twenty minutes then change trains in Perth and then we would finally be back in Stirling. I was worried about getting back before 4 because I had signed up to do kayaking/canoeing on the campus loch which was to start at 5. Once we finally made it to Stirling, it was 3:45.
For my weekend trip to the Isle of Skye, we are supposed to wear pants that aren't denim, so my roommate Lindsay met us up at the mall in town and showed us where she had bought hers. Hurriedly I tried on and bought a pair of 'trekking' pants. We stopped in the McDonald's right next to the mall because Michelle and I hadn't eaten since eight that morning and it was four at this point. I finished mine at the bus stop, that's how hungry I was. But in order to get to the university we have to take certain buses and while we stood at the bus stop three buses we could've taken passed right by us. The bus that finally picked us up, also picked up forty people at the next stop. And all forty people had to get off before us. It took about 35 minutes to get back to the university when it should've taken ten. When we arrived at school, it was five and I was stressing. The worst feeling in the world to me is being late. And this was especially bad because people were waiting on us. Lindsay and I ran back to our flat, changed and ran out to the loch. When we got there they split the group of 13 into a group of six and a group of seven, since there was two instructors.
Kayaking is fun, but I liked canoeing better. Maybe its just because of the games we played on the canoe's. In the kayaks we just went around the loch, trying to get a hang of it. Then we switched to the canoes, with two people in each one. Once we got to a certain point in the loch we were to tie the three canoes together and make one long line. Once we did this, each pair had to practice balancing. We stood at each end of the canoe and had to raise one foot each. Then stand on the seats. I fell at some point into the loch and my partner and I ended up switching with one of the other canoes. In the end I was partners with the instructor, Ian. Getting back into a canoe is no easy feat. Once Ian and I were both in our canoe, we had to stand in the center of the canoe, facing each other. Then we had grabbed hands and leaned back. We fell in again. After this each group was to stand on the very tip of the canoe and try to unbalance the other. I felt at a disadvantage because my partner was the instructor. But I stood for a long time, compared to the other girls. And I was the one who unbalanced Ian. Apparently, the first time anyone has ever done that. Very proud of that fact. After this we headed back to the shore and started to goof around with the other group. We flipped our canoes over and all took turn turns standing on them.
After canoeing I hurried back to the flat to shower and get ready because we were going out to the pub. But when we went out, there weren't many people there, not fun, and it was kind of boring. I left early because my legs were hurting terribly. I got home and put on shorts and saw why they hurt. I have bruises covering my entire left leg and my right knee was swollen. All from trying to get back into a canoe multiple times. I was supposed to spend the day in Edinburgh today but I stayed back because I don't think I could have walked around all day. Just walking to the kitchen kills. I tried to put ice on my legs but the bags I used started leaking so that was out. Tomorrow I leave for my weekend in the Isle of Skye. I will update as soon as I get back.
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