Skye High

I've just returned from a weekend trip to the Isle of Skye... at the moment, my legs are a tad sore, given a spur of the moment decision to walk all the way back from Buchanan St Bus Station in the CBD to the West End (took me around 40 mins)... I'd swear the city is uphill most of the way.

Anyways, I got home, greeted the Canadian housemates and made a quick dinner. Clan Campbell made the soup for me =P
I realise that this could be a long, long post. A lot happened on this weekend. Anyways, I went to Scotland with a list of things to do... and managed to cut through a good swathe of the list this weekend =)


No. 1: Eat some haggis (Evan's suggestion)

For those not in the know, haggis is basically a sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs), minced with some other stuff, and boiled in the sheep's stomach. Doesn't that just make you hungry thinking about it? Here's the dish the traditional way: "Haggis, 'neeps and tatties"

I had it with some friends at the Royal Mile. I was told it didn't taste bad. Our guide Tony said: "if it tasted bad, we wouldn't eat it". Well, it actually didn't taste that bad...
Tasted like a slightly spicier sausage roll filling...if you close your eyes, you can almost taste the lungs... it's abit chewy (actually to be honest, I quite like it)

Actually, the Scots are quite similar to us Chinese people. We don't waste food. If they did, the Highlanders would have starved to death. And us Chinese? We're just cheap =P


No 2: See some castles...

Urquhart Castle

• Random fact no 1: The castle sits on the banks of Loch Ness
• Random fact no 2: There's a trebuchet on the castle grounds (can't see it in this pic)
  

Ruthwen Castle

• Random fact no 1: The castle is close to the battlefield of Culloden - possibly a battle that changed the face of the earth as we know it.
  
• Random fact no 2: 12 Redcoats once held this castle against a besieging force of 200 Jacobite troops through some improvisation - using spare uniforms to make it look as if the castle was bristling with troops...

Eileen Dornan

• Random fact no 1: This is the most romantic castle of all time... apparently
  
• Random fact no 2: The movie "Highlander" was shot here
• Random fact no 3: This was my favourite place in the whole trip. And no. Don't even think that way. Random fact no 1 is completely irrelevant to why this was my favourite place.

Obviously, there's a load of history to go with these castles (which I won't bore you with). Actually I love history so I was just soaking it in as Tony told us about the Stuarts, Robert the Bruce, William Wallace and the Highlanders.

But I'll leave you all with one of the highlights =)


No 3: See Hamish the Highland 'cou'...
Obviously beef was on the menu that night...