Christmas in a Castle

**Disclaimer**
Please note that it took me hours to write this entry because it was 4 days worth of happenings, therefore ignore any errors and gaps in my stories. I couldn't put everything but one day I may tell the full story. Until then this will have to do.


Part One: Intro

Where to begin. First of all I want to note that I hate this blog sometimes. I had a hell of a time logging on. I had wanted to just before I left for the castle but it kept kicking me out. And today it wouldn't let me sign in at first. ARGH. It's been frustrating.

I'll start off with thanks to everyone who sent me Christmas cards. The notes in them meant a lot to me and helped me feel that I wasn't so far away from everyone. (sniff sniff I was truly touched). *Cough* Enough of the mushy stuff...

Part Two: Festivus

Festivus was a better success than I thought. I made a festivus carol. It goes like this...

(To the tune of Oh Christmas Tree)


Oh Festivus, Oh Festivus,
How shiny is your pole this year...
My pole is soo shiny this year,
It brings me joy, it brings me cheer,
Oh Festivus, Oh Festivus,
How shiny is your pole this year.
Oh Jerry, George, Krammer & Elaine,
They don't compare to Franks Festivus fame,
His feats of strength,
I know at length,
The grievances are quite a treat.
Oh Festivus, oh festivus,
How shiny is your pole this year.
Frank throws his son quickly to the ground,
The laughter spreads to everyone around.
Oh Festivus, Oh Festivus,
It's the holiday for the rest of us.

I'll give you a minute to wipe the tears from your eyes. So we didn't really have anything planned for Festivus so we just went out for dinner with some friends, and then went to a Christmas Party at a pub that ended up being a bit of a dud. As we wandered back to New Town to wander the pub scene we decided we wanted to go on the swings at the festival in the garden. It was really cold, but oh so fun!! After we went to a few more pubs we sang the Festivus song and then departed. Overall it was a good night and Festivus can only get better from here.

The night unfortunately could not go on that late because we had to get up early the next morning to catch our bus for the castle. Our friend who was coming to the castle too ended up staying the night at our place to make life easier, and we all ended up sitting up half the night talking.

Part Three: Christmas in the Castle

So we left Edinburgh at the wee hours of the morning on Christmas eve and made our way to Carbisdale castle, just outside of Inverness. Because we were going with a tour group (Haggis) we had planned stops all they way and a tour guide/driver to entertain us all the way up. Our first stop was about 1 1/2 hours into the trip, in the town of Doune to see Doune Castle. Doune castle, for those of you who don't know, is where Monty Pythons Holy Grail was filmed. Great castle, but only a 15 minute stop as the tour intended (that includes the potty break). I've already been to this castle on another tour so I just used the loo, and stood around talking. It was pretty cold and I had intended to stay on the bus but when I came out of the toilet the bus was gone. We all stood there, 28 of us huddled together when the bus finally came back. Did we want the good news or the bad news? she asked us. The good news was there was a great pub in Doune, the bad news was the bus was broken and she had to find a mechanic on Christmas eve or get a new bus for us. So off all 28 of us went wandering into this little down in search of a pub open at 10am. We all filed into the pub out of the cold only for the owner to come up and tell us it was closed until 11. So we all filed back out onto the cold streets of Doune.

About five minutes later we had walked through the town and alas there was no other pub. Being as cold as we were, all 28 of us squished into a little convenience store and bought chocolate bars as slow as we could so we could stay in the warmth. Thankfully when we got back on to the mean streets of Doune it was announced that one of the guys from our bus had explained our predicament to the bar owner and he agreed to open up early for us. Hooray!!!

So at about 10:30 Christmas Eve I dived into my first whisky of the trip. It would become the first of many. About 12:30, and 3 whiskeys later we were on the bus again heading to the castle. We now had a new addition to our group. Craig. One of the guys who works in the office at Haggis. Poor guy had to pack up for Christmas and come rescue us within a hours notice. He was great though. We pretty much sped the rest of the way there, stopping places for only about 5 or ten minutes at a time so we could get to the castle before too late. The fog was really heavy so we couldn't see most of it anyway. For me it was alright because they took the same route that we had taken on another Haggis tour. We saw Hamish the Hairy Coo. He is a big hairy highland cow, as you can see.

My favourite stop, everytime is Glen Coe. This is a 3 huge mountains call the Three sisters. It was so beautiful, and the mist made it even more amazing. The fog had started to lift and the sun was starting to come out.

This day also ended up being the day of odd injuries for me. Now despite having had a few drinks, this honestly had nothing to do with how sober I was. Before I had even had a drink in me, I was talking so feverishly (as you all know how I can get), and I somehow bit right down on my lip. I killed the cells so the flap of skin is dead and in turn it swelled up making it very hard for me to eat. Everytime I eat even still I bite it and boy does it hurt!!! I ate the best soup of my life but didn't enjoy it as much as God intended me to, because it burned my lip. I tell you this because it was the oddest thing I have ever done to myself and I still can't figure out how I actually did it.

Injury #2. On the new bus that we got there was a step down from the seats. We all kept forgetting and taking a tumble, problem was though, there were arm rests, and we kept hitting our legs on them. The first time I slipped it hurt and left a little bruise. The second time I did I ended up limping, and I couldn't sit on that side of my bum all weekend. And the bruise is HUGE and DISGUSTING!!! I write this not because I think you care, but the bruise is so hideous and disgusting I have a need to share it with everyone. I even made Cheryl look at it, well I kind of tricked her into it, she thought I was kidding when I told her to look. Hey she can't say I'm a liar, just a bad friend.

To keep us amused on our long journey Clare bought the bus something to play with. He was a blow up man and someone named him Santos. He was a big part of the weekend, and at one point ended up in the Christmas tree. He was very popular with the ladies and all the girls wanted to dance with him.

Just outside of Inverness Craig pulls our bus over and another bus is waiting there. Our bus is broken again and we need another one. By this time the other buses had gotten there hours before so one of the other Haggis guides drove up to pick us up. Claire and Craig stayed back withe the bus and our luggage, trying to fix the bus.

After a long but eventful journey we made it to the castle. It was a beautiful castle. A right proper castle we all agreed. This castle was built for Lady Sutherland, but was not completed before she died. In 1945 the owners donated the castle to the Youth Hosteling Association so that everyone could stay in a castle. On our first night there we got a Mexican meal, and then a folk band came and played for us. The leader was trying to teach us some Scottish dances but we were all getting a little drunk and he wasn't very happy with us. In fact he sooshed us!! Who sooshes drunk people?!!?? Needless to say I didn't feel very encouraged to dance much.

On the second day, with our bus still not working properly, after a champagne breakfast, our group went for a hike. The frost was thick and almost looked like snow. It was some of the best scenery I have seen thus far and I took a lot of pictures. I don't know what it was, but all of the fresh air must have gotten to me because I did something a little crazy. We stopped at a brook and for some reason I decided (I was perfectly sober mind you) that I wanted to dip my feet in the water. Now by no means was this a mild day, but when I put my hand in the water it felt warm enough so I decided to go for it. And after I pushed the chunk of ice out of my way I stepped in. Haha I know your all thinking, my god she's crazy, but the water was fine at first. I only felt the cold when someone decided to take a picture and then fumbled with a camera for what seemed like ages. Suddenly I started to feel how cold the water was. When I got and tried to put my shoes back on my feet were shaking like crazy. Now I'm starting to think, 'how stupid am I, I can't feel my toes'. I tried to get my socks on and move my feet to warm them up but I was thinking, 'oh god I've given myself frost bite and I'm going to lose a toe now, but I know I'm going to be too embarrassed to say anything so I'll just let it rattle around in my boot til we get back'. Thankfully within 10 minutes my feet were as warm as fresh pie and my feet weren't even wet for the rest of the walk. Fabulous!

The point of the hike was to get to an outlook point where we could see the battlefield where Robert the Bruce (Scotland's Greatest Hero) and his army, defeated the English army. I convinced Craig to tell us the story instead of just reading the plaque they had, and he did a great job of it. He used sticks as swords and acted out the entire thing for us. It was fantastic.

When we got back to the castle we stole another groups bus and headed out to the beach...seriously. The beach was beautiful, cold, but beautiful. The day before Clare had collected a £ from each of us and bought a couple bottles of whisky for us. Now having been in Scotland for about 3 months now I have grown to love Whisky, but I do recognize that it takes time and effort to fall in love with it. Some of the other people on the tour were new to Scotland and didn't have the time or the effort...so they gave their whisky to me. Now when I drink whisky I add some water to it and take my time to savour the flavours that make every whisky so different and so good. On this day I had very little time to savour anything and without thinking drank a half bottle of whisky in about 15 minutes. Hmmm. By the time we had walked back to the bus I realized what I had done and was starting to feel the effects of it.

From what I heard the next day I was very loud on the bus on the way back. When we got back we were running a little late and we all still had to get changed before dinner started. On the way up the stairs to get changed I saw a guy I had noted before was Canadian, so I randomly asked where in Canada he was from. I still cannot believe his answer...DUNNVILLE!!! What are the chances of that, not to mention he went to St. Mike's too!!! He was a 3 years older than me and we tried to figure out who we both knew. We talked, sorry I talked for a a really long time before Cheryl finally dragged me up the stairs to get ready. By this time I was feeling pretty good and my poor friends had to help me get ready for dinner, and even brush my hair for me. We were almost an hour late for dinner.

The table we sat at had a family from Wisconson, and two girls from our bus. For their sake I was trying very hard to sober up, and all I remember is eating lots and lots of bread and drinking lots of water. After dinner I was feeling a lot better and my new Dunnville friend and I sat and talked more about St. Mike's and Dunnville. Ahhh the good old days.

That night they had a band playing and there was a raffle. Cheryl won tickets to go on a tour of Dublin for St. Patty's day!!! It was perfect because we were planning on going on it anyway and were going to buy our tickets when we got back from the Christmas tour. Funny how things like that work out.

Boxing day we all had to be on the bus by 8:15. This was hard for all of us and no one was out for the buses until about 8:30-8:45. You could tell that everyone had had a good night the night before because we all just wanted to sleep on the bus. Luckily Clare wouldn't let us. On the way back we stopped at Loch Ness, and a few other spots. At one point we went for a little hike and saw the most beautiful falls. We also had a pop quiz about the weekend to see if we were listening to Clare, and Cheryl and I were very surprised when we won!!! Unfortunately she only had one t-shirt to give away, but being the generous person she was, Clare gave us the shirt off her back...literally, so we could both have a t-shirt. At one of the stops we got her to sign it and we are going to hang it on one of our walls. We are also going to take it on anyother tours we go on with Haggis and collect their 'autographs'. Because there are two of us we've decided that when we stop living together and she moves back to Canada, we will rotate years with the shirt on display and since this was a Christmas tour we will wrap it up and send it to the other when the year is up. Wrap it in aluminum that is. (Only my immediate family will get that one).

All in all it was a great Christmas and I'll never forget it, but I did miss spending Christmas with my family...

...Just kidding, I've already booked a tour for next Christmas!!