Whoaaaa, Nessie!

I finally crossed off another thing on my "things to do while in Scotland" list this weekend!!

I went to Loch Ness and visited Nessie!! My friend James had been more excited than I was when I mentioned that I was coming to Scotland -- I believe the first words out of his mouth were "You have to visit Nessie!" No, sorry, I think it was more like "YOU HAVE TO VISIT NESSIE!!!!!!!!!!"

Now the only things left on my list are meeting Susan Boyle and take part in a caber toss.

All in all, it was a great trip!! Mia, Julia, Agnes and I all woke up around 5am, and called a cab to come at 5:30. Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE my sleep, so I set 4 alarms, just in case I missed one or two. Or three. I don't know if it was excitement or what, but I couldn't sleep that night! I woke up about 4 times in the middle of the night, each time with the "ohmygoshImissedthecab!" feeling. But you'll all be proud to know that I got out of bed after my first alarm went off, got myself all ready to go, and was out waiting for the cab at 5:25am. I can't remember the last time I saw that time of day. (Wait, I may have been up that early to go to Leeds....I forget...).

Anyway, Julia and I are out there waiting, when 5:30 rolls around, and the cab pulls up. And Mia still isn't there! So I run up to her room (in a different building than ours), knock on her door, and hear her stumbling to the door, hair a mess, pyjamas on, and eyes open only a slit, and says to me in the morning groggy voice "Shit! Sorry, I slept in! I'm coming!"

SO THERE! I was on time!! Let this be a reminder to those who didn't think it was possible. But then again, with motivation as big as seeing/being eaten by the Loch Ness Monster, who wouldn't be?

Somebody's tired! :)

We eventually got to the train station, sky still pitch black, and met Agnes, got our tickets and were soon en route to Inverness (the closest town to Loch Ness).

Fun fact: Did you know that there's an Inverness in Canada too? I saw an ad for something in Inverness (UK) that made some kind of worldly conclusion about their company and had a picture of Inverness (Canada) beside a picture of Inverness (UK). I Googled it, and apparently it's a tiny town in Quebec with a population of about 838 people. Looks like whatever business it was, was really looking for some kind of wordly connection...really looking hard. My googling did, however, make me feel like a better Canadian than I originally thought when I had never heard of Inverness (Canada).

*on a side note, let me say that I have found myself to be VERY patriotic since I've been here! I suppose that human nature leads us to pick out things about ourselves that make us special, and here, being Canadian is something that makes me special. I've always been proud to be a Canadian, but I've never before felt like I was being obnoxious when referencing my beautiful homeland. I don't know if I'm actually coming off as being obnoxious, but I kind of feel that way when I find myself saying "well, back in Canada, we do it this way..." It's made me realize how much I take for granted!

Anyway, so our train got into Inverness around 8:45am, and we had about an hour and a half to grab some breakfast. We went to this cute little cafe place, where we got REAL breakfast (as opposed to the crap we get on weekdays in Halls) and it was half as cheap! (we've worked out that we pay 5 pounds per day for a breakfast with options of of cold toast, tea, juice, cereal, fruit, yogurt and croissants if you're lucky). The cafe even came with little books about Inverness and the history of the town. Cute, really!

 

From there, we caught a coach to Loch Ness, with our happy, adorable (and funny) little old-man Scottish tour guide:

He showed us little landmarks in Inverness (which to be honest wasn't anything too special. A football field here and there, a town sports complex, a church or two...you get the idea).

Soon we were traveling along the loch (aka lake, for those of you who might not know) and the sky was so gorgeous! I couldn't wait to get on the cruise!

Finally, we saw it!

No, not Nessie. I mean the Loch. We saw the loch!

And soon enough, we were transferring over from the coach to the cruise :) A little unsettling that it was about the length of maybe 2 cars, but hey, if Nessie is going to eat us, she's going to eat us, right?

 

And all this time, we're looking overboard, scanning the water for any signs of her.

And then, we saw her.

We saw Nessie.

WE.

SAW.

NESSIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the thing is, I have proof! It's not one of those clay ones that they have on land for you to pose with, it's not one of those souveniers you can buy,....it was Nessie. Please see below a picture I captured to prove my sightings. All you non-believers, see you here!

My great surprise/fear/excitement at this highlight of the trip!

And, what you've all been waiting for:

PROOF!

Neat, eh?

Soon after our sighting, we got off the boat and onto safe, dry, land.

We visited Urquhart Castle, built sometime in the 1200's. I don't think it was as impressive as Dunnotar Castle in Stonehaven, but the very fact that it's the place where most Nessie sightings have occurred, gives it a bit of extra charm!

 

 

Luckily, it didn't rain on us all day! We took a look around the castle and the tourist centre (where I found some clan drams [a dram is a measure of whisky] and I found the Stewart one, so I had to buy it!) and then were back on the bus at 12:30. We arrived back at the bus station and had a few hours to shop around, get some lunch, and go down to the water and take some nice pictures before heading back on the train! We got back to Aberdeen in the evening, and then had supper and Mia and I went out to a friend's christmas-themed birthday party. Which, as you can imagine, ended fairly early for us because we were so dang tired.

So there you have it, folks! My very own Nessie adventure!

In other news, I've been eating my advent chocolates every day and it's making me realize how soon it is until I'm home for the holidays! Which has also made me realize how much work I have to do! aack!

Another realization I made lately is the true kindness of the Scottish people. They're very dependable, honest, generous people, acting for the good of others. They don't care if there's nothing in it for them, and they don't do good deeds with the expectation of something in return.

.....for those of you who haven't caught onto the event that spurred these feelings of amicability towards the Scottish people, yes, I found my student card!

Which means that I'm in an EXCELLENT mood today! I can go back to the gym, I can get into the dining halls without a fuss, I can get into the library, and all is well!

Tonight is a concert I've been promoting, and I should probably do some practicing as well.

The only sad thing on the horizon is the realization that my trip to Edinburgh this weekend will very likely be canceled.  A combination of lack of interest from others, lack of time spent organizing it, and lack of time before assignments prior to the holidays doesn't seem like much of a promising trip at all :( But let's stay positive, shall we? I'm counting the days, and there's only 11 more days until I leave to come home for the holidays!!

That's all for now!

Until next time,

Beckers :)