So after agreeing to all visit Xiven in Scotland some time this year the time had finally arrived for us to go through with it and head on out to Scotland. I hate travelling though and in this case I had to go by Bus->Train->Plane->Plane->Bus->Train->Car to get to where Tom was living. Pretty much took all of a day to get there but luckily this kind of thing is the perfect situation for my Nintendo DS. I have far too many games for it so I never got bored on my trip over and it went surprisingly quickly considering.
Since Phil, Claire and Damian hadn't arrived yet we just watched various TV shows, played some Super Smash 'still great after all this time' Brothers and some classic Mario Party action. Was also nice to see where Tom worked, I had built up a mental picture of where he worked and I have to say it was nothing like the actual reality.
When the others did arrive we played some Guitar Hero (a very fun game just ashame I don't really like guitars or rock music) I was also pretty useless at it, Tom was pretty good and picked it up way too quickly. I would have played it more but it's somewhat more fun if everyone sucks as much as you do.
Since the weather wasn't too bad outside Tom convinced us that we should go on a short walk. Unfortunately me and Phil are extremely unfit and it was pretty hard work even though it wasn't a particularly long walk. The scenery was beautiful (though I find cities just as scenic) and we even saw a deer. Was a pleasant walk even though it was a bit too much of an ascent for my tastes.
We then proceeded to play World of Warcraft : The Board Game. Being avid fans of WoW we enjoyed the game a lot and even the non-wowers amongst us seemed to enjoy it. It does however take quite a while to play and is pretty heavily influenced by luck. Still it stayed true to the game and presented some interesting game mechanics. It had a large amount of random tokens but the large plastic creatures were pretty detailed and made the game more fun.
Ian left us on this day to return to where ever he came from. I think we were quite lucky to get a few days of his time. We then decided since it was now Monday to take a trip to Inverness. Not really to do anything Scottish but to simply go shopping and pick up some supplies. I managed to obtain Season 6 and Season 8 of SG-1 on DVD at a bargain price aswell as finally getting season 1 of Atlantis on DVD. I do enjoy shopping in the UK, much more sensible prices than here in Norway, everything is in English and they have a much better selection of stuff.
After our first attempt at "hiking" we decided to go on a shorter walk this time after first taking a drive by the place that Monarch of the Glen was filmed. Couldn't really get a close look but it was cool none the less. We also ended up at a dam and stopped to take a look at the view across the loch.
We then arrived at the "short walk" by a "waterfall". While there was indeed water and in places it was falling it wasn't very impressive due to the lack of recent rain (well it rained a lot during our week but not the week before we arrived). Anyway we then walked along the path, much shorter and more pleasant than before. I would have liked to gone on longer walks up here in scotland but I know that I would have probably died rather than finish them especially the ones with steep hills.
Today we headed up some mountain on a cable car. Very nice views, crappy cafe, weather held out most of the time aside from a spot of rain. Cable car ride was fun if a little bit scary especially when the thing wobbled!
We went to visit the local wildlife center today. By far the best trip of the week. The weather was a bit iffy at times but it held out when it needed to and we even had some sunshine. We saw various animals including Wolves, extremely close up during feeding time watching them tear apart dead rabbits, Boars, by the far best animals there, they had some ever so cute baby boars, Owls, Squirrels, Polerat, Otter, some large animals that looked a bit like horses I don't recall the name of, Lynx and many others.
Pictures should be coming soon when Phil gets around to uploading the pictures he took. Wish I had bought a camera before the trip. I did get myself the obligatory plush toy. A delightfully cute furry wild boar this time.
We also went out to a local pub type place somewhere with the family of the people who Tom works for. They were in fact no scottish and seemed like nice folk. We played some pool and ate some food (curry and chips ftw). They invited us in to watch some Monarch of the Glen but I don't think anyone but me was at all interested so we head back to where we were staying instead.
The family also had a couple of HUGE dogs who roamed around while we were there. They were very friendly which unfortunately meant you got covered in dog hair no matter how hard you tried not to. They also seem to enjoy slobbering over Damian which he didn't seem to enjoy.
While Tom, Claire and Damian went off on some walk up a hill, I decided to stay in today since I would probably have not made it back alive. Not to mention the high chance of rain. Phil also stayed behind and we played Naruto for a while, unlocking various characters I had yet to unlock. As it turned out they did get rained on so I was glad I opted out.
During the week we played random games of cards, the obligatory pictionary, charade type games and watched random TV including episodes of Naruto. Ian exposed me to Drawn Together while he was here, and though funny in places it was somewhat too extreme in its attempt to be as politically incorrect as possible. I don't particular wish to see any more of it.
All in all was an excellent week away, my first real "holiday" in a long time. Normally just visit home when I take time off work.
Sounds like you had a good time!
We have a cable car in Tromsø too BTW, with a pretty crappy cafe when you reach the top *hint hint* :)
Inverness is just a stones throw along the road from where I am - should have paid a visit to scenic Ullapool in your travels:)