Rating
: 
Stirling, Scotland
October 30, 2003
Pros:
Views from Stirling Castle are spectacular.
Cons:
The weather
Today I am going back to Edinburgh as I have completed the circuit
of MacBackpackers Jump-on Jump-off tour through the Highlands. Yesterday
was spent in Oban, which is a real gateway to other Scottish Isles,
but the weather was horrid, raining and cold, so I decided to head
back to Edinburgh, via Stirling and then carry on to Ireland. However,
not before heading into Stirling to see the William Wallace Monument
and the gaudy Braveheart statue. Braveheart is always a discussed
topic when entering Stirling as this is where the event took place,
however, Scots have real issue with the movie as it contains many
inaccuracies, however, they also value the attention brought to
that even by means of the movie. I must say though, the stupid braveheart
statue really cheapens the look of the monument. However, there
is slight walk uphill to the actual monument and my legs were suffering
already so it was a slow journey. However, once up there, I was
glad that I had made the tough ascent as the views over Stirling
and Stirling Castle were fantastic. As well, Stirling is known as
the gateway to the highlands, as from this point, you can see how
the landscape changes form flat to the jagged peaks of the highlands!
The rest of the trip back to Edinburgh was fairly relaxed and laidback,
which was well needed after the last few days. Once back at the
hostel, the part mood was high as it was October 30, and the hostel
was having their Halloween party that night. So I threw on my Cowboy
hat, bought a few toy guns and a sheriff badge, completed by my
rodeo princess t-shirt, and I headed out with 3 other Canadian guys
for a night of rocking Karaoke (again, lost my voice). Now just
to back track quickly, a few days before I came over to the UK,
I went to nursing conference, and caught a ride down to Edmonton
with Dr. Daviduck (a fellow country-music lover). Anyhow we were
listening to the song Ain’t going down till the Sun comes
up and decided that we needed to learn the word to the song, so
it took almost the entire trip there, but we got though most of
it. So needless to say, during karoke, dressed as a country cowgirl,
I sang this song, with NO WORDS on the screen, only music. It would
have made Dr. Daviduck proud and I considered briefly to quit nursing
and break into country music. But the 3 dudes convinced me not to. |
