Exploring the Highlands
(by Amina, Greta and João)
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Today was our last morning in Glasgow. After doing our best to pack all our luggage the evening before (making sure to fit in the loads of things some of us bought in Glasgow), all that was left to do was take off the bed sheets, have breakfast and frantically check if everything was packed and nothing was left behind. At 9:15 two buses were waiting for us in front of the hostel. The bus drivers were two very Scottish looking men who were there to drive us around all day. Once we had settled comfortably into the buses (where we even got some goody bags with little Scottish specialities), Collin and Dave, wearing Kilts, started telling us loads of facts about various aspects of Scottland.
Whilst driving through Glasgow, we learned about its university and received many inspiring words about our education from Dave. Overall, he was really uplifting and kept us entertained during the long drive. After a while, we reached our first stop in the Scottish Highlands, Dumbarton Castle. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking, and we got to take loads of pictures with some Scottish flags from the bus. It was really windy, and we were close to “getting blown away right back to Glasgow” as Dave said. We made multiple stops on our drive, every stop only getting more beautiful, but also more windy, rainy and cold. Layering up was definitely the key here to avoid freezing to death. How did the bus drivers manage with their breezy kilts?
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On our next stop we saw two very cute and fluffy highland cows and took some very nice pictures. Back in the (way warmer) bus, we were showered with some more facts. Dave told us something about the cows we just had seen: the original cows were black, but now, other fur colours like ginger or blond exist. A long time ago, Queen Victoria said she preferred the ginger ones and that's why these orange ones were bred more while the others’ population declined. This whole story resulted in black cows being quite rare and more expensive nowadays. The most expensive highland cow was actually sold for more than 100 000 pounds! .jpeg)
After a while, we reached the area where several scenes of “Harry Potter” and the James Bond movie “Skyfall” were filmed. It was interesting to see these places in real life and hear some fun facts about them. The bus driver also made some (debatably) good Harry Potter impressions. The journey continued with the fitting soundtrack of Adele’s Skyfall and Hedwig’ theme just before we visited the spot, where Hagrid’s hut once stood, but sadly had been torn down.
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At about 14:20 we arrived at Glencoe, where we had our well-deserved lunch break in the visitor center, where we could heat up with some warm soup or hot chocolate. After our little break, we listened to a presentation about Glencoe and its history with clans and a massacre that took place. Mrs. Hänggi also told us a bit about the geographical location of Glencoe and that once there was a volcano where we now stood. After all of this interesting information we headed back to our buses and continued our journey.
We had a few more stops where we could take a lot of pictures and at about 17:00 we arrived at our hostel in Oban. We said goodbye to our two very nice bus drivers, and they even gave us one of their Scotland flags as a souvenir. After getting settled in our rooms most of us were pretty tired and we enjoyed our first evening in Oban. We had some dinner and relaxed in our rooms. All in all, it was an eventful day, and we had a lot of fun.
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