Bonnie Scotland

Once again, I’ve experience the immense joy of sharing beautiful places with people. There is something that magnifies the wonder of a place, when you have someone at your side. And here in Scotland, that someone is my cousin Deeptha. I had back-to-back events in the UK, and it seemed a pity to waste my company holiday without a trip, so we decided to explore Scotland together.

Almost seven years ago to the day, I flew into Glasgow, after graduating the previous morning. I met a childhood friend at a place where we had breakfast and were catching up. One of my favorite memories of the kind Scots is an anonymous lady who paid for our breakfast, and asked the waitress to tell us to enjoy our first European adventure. From there, we went to Edinburgh, before continuing on through the UK and Europe.

This year, I flew into Edinburgh with a colleague. It was nice to have someone to share the taxi and airport waits with, and it was quite a delight to explore perfumes and smell whisky at the airports. After landing, we joined colleagues for a nice dinner, and then we took a brisk walk around the castle and Edinburgh. She had never seen Greyfriars’s Bobby, so I happily introduced her and recreated my picture from many years prior.

The next few days were busy with an insurance conference. Long hours on my feet, with lots of people energy, followed by email follow-ups on the few snatched minutes away… but you’re not here to read about the daily grind.

After the conference ended, Deeptha and I took the train to Glasgow. Luckily, I left her to navigate and buy the train tickets. The first train was cancelled, the next train got stopped about half-way, and then we had to disembark. Finally, we got on the 3^rd train, and made it into the Glasgow city center and checked into our hostelesque hotel. The Grasshopper Hotel featured fresh baked pastries, and bowls of homemade ice cream that we definitely enjoyed. We walked around the city. Surprisingly, many things were already closed when we walked around close to 630PM. I had the distinct honor of introducing Deeptha to Taco Bell. We got a mini quesadilla, chicken burrito, and nacho fries. The tastes and composition of all the items were slightly different from the USA, but still captured the T-bell essence I missed. Deeptha was over the moon trying it.

The next morning, we grabbed the 520AM train to Oban. It was a small train but a beautiful journey through the mountains and along the rivers. Oban is known as the seafood capital of Scotland, and we were delighted to arrive there. Due to the large amount of luggage, we grabbed a taxi to our Airbnb. There was little service when we got there, and the driver’s credit card machine didn’t work. Neither of us had any cash, but he graciously wrote his name and number on an index card, and dropped us off. I was astounded at that! That was one of the first kind Scots of Oban. Mary, our Airbnb hostess was next. She was extremely communicative, and kindly let us drop our bags off way earlier than our check-in time. We walked back to the central area, and grabbed breakfast before our boat trip from the North Pier of Oban. The weather was brisk and the rain intermittent, but the boat ride was gorgeous. For almost two hours, we witnessed three different castles, piles of seals, various sea birds, and many islands. We also saw an entirely solar powered lighthouse, and the largest granite quarry in Europe! It was a wonderful trip, if not a bit chilly.

I had some work meetings, so we had to head back to the Airbnb. On the way, we stopped at Oban Fish and Chips, voted the 3^rd best fish and chips in the UK! It did not disappoint- probably the best fried fish I’ve ever had! After my meetings, we tried to go to the Oban Distillery, only to find out the tasting room had just closed. We went to two different whiskey shops. The first, we were ignored. The second shop, had a very helpful person, who directed us to go to the Whiskey World. There, the bartender excellently explained several different whiskies. We first tried 2 from the Oban distillery. While the priciest we tried, it was both of our least favorite. Deeptha tried a Laphroaig, while I tried a Glen Scotia I fell in love with. After the drinks, we headed back to our whiskey shop friend and I purchased a few Scottish gins for myself and others. Our kind proprietor directed us to McCaig’s Warehouse, a souvenir shop across the pier, where we found some lovely sweets and presents.  Along the way, we ran into our taxi driver from earlier, and were able to settle up.

As Oban is known for their seafood, we wanted to try it for dinner. A restaurant on the pier had a great deal on an early evening tasting menu, that we took advantage off. Deeptha had never had oysters or mussels, and she fell in love with both. Both were local. I found the oysters much milder than North America, and the mussels way fatter and buttery than any I’ve tasted. I also had a delightful piece of local salmon, possibly from the salmon farms we had seen on our boat ride!

Our walk home after dinner took us back through the town square, where a kids bagpipe band was playing, complete with two dancers. It was a lovely end to an incredible village.

The next morning, we tried to call a taxi, but were unable to reach anyone. We went down to ask for Mary’s assistance, as we didn’t want to walk the 25 min to the station in the torrential downpour, but she graciously offered us a life. We had a coffee before taking the West Coast Motors bus to Fort Williams. Despite a good night sleep, the crazy of the conference still lingered and I unfortunately slept most of the beautiful bus ride up. At Fort William, we ran into an absolutely incredible ticket person, who helpfully told us the schedule and got us a discount on the tickets. We hopped on a train towards Glenfinnan, and got to drive over the incredible Viaduct.

Once in Glenfinnan, we randomly walked to explore the beautiful area. Our meanderings took us to an old Catholic church, with the most incredible vistas. We continued and walked to the water’s edge, near the Glenfinnan monument. The stunning views included the water and the mountains. We found the viaduct path, and had the most beautiful blue skies for a few minutes, while we enjoyed some crisps on a stone. The ever present Scottish rain began a bit, as we made our way to find a warm meal.

We finally found the Glenfinnan Hotel, a gorgeous old building along the water’s edge. Deeptha ordered mussels again, and we shared them with some lovely ravioli and prawn cocktail. We finished the dinner with an absolutely delightful blackberry panna cotta, as well as 2 homemade shortbread cookies from our request for the chef! After the lovely meal, we had the unfortunate hike back up to the station, but made it onto the train back to Glasgow.

We had ditched our bags in a luggage storage bin at Fort Williams, and had been assured there was enough train stop time to retrieve them, but we were a bit nervous. Nonetheless, we got the bags, and back on the train in time- and here I write.

The people of Scotland are so kind and it is truly a beautiful country. It reminds me so much of Maine and New Hampshire, both in the landscape and the hearty people who live there.

Wrapping up this trip, we headed back to London, where a few more intense days of work awaited me before back to Lux!