Europe 2017

We check out of our Airbnb this morning & our hosts were amazing. Really went out of their way for us.

We went to our meeting spot to start our 3 day isle of skye tour. With a full bus; 3 ppl for Philippines, 2 from china, 3 from India, 1 from US, 1 from Sweden & 1 from Denmark... and of course 2 from the best country in the world CANADA.

As we start moving, the Swedish lady asks me to switch seats cause she gets car sick (ps. I had the best spot on the bus) then the Indian people had a kid who wouldn't stop crying & they were always late.. it just wasnt starting off well hahaha.

Anyways, here are a few facts & what we saw on our first day of the tour:

City chambers has the largest marble staircase in Europe and also has the same marble as the Vatican

Glasgow 600,000 population

Queen Elizabeth Hospital with helicopter pad is the largest in the EU

60% of the whiskey industry in Scotland is owned by the Japanese

Paisley is largest town in Scotland- 50,000
City of Inverness (capital of the highlands has a population of 45,000)

The west highland way is a 96 miles hike- takes between 5-10 days from the city of argyll to the city of Fort Williams

When the bottle whisky, they lose about 20% of by vaporization. That's what they call angel air & it turns the trunks of the trees near the whisky plant black & if you walk by them you can actually smell the whisky coming off the trees. The trees are black because they grow a type of fungus due to the whiskey.

Scotland has these "like" mosquitos called medges but apparently are 100 times worse ... there's even a song about them that our driver played for us. "They bite like pirañas, they'll drive you bananas"

First stop- The city of Luss, we stopped to take some pictures by the water & pet some dogs.

We stopped at Drovers inn for lunch: a pub built in 1705, nothing has changed on the inside or out except the food a little bit. It is called drovers in because people used to drive their cattle through there back in the days. "Do you know why it's called a kilt? cause the last person that called it a skirt got kilt"

Brocken long a song played during the Second World War while drinking whiskey (movie whisky galore)

We passed by the railway bridge that was used in the scene is Harry Potter when the dementors were chasing the train.

Lochs are lakes
Lochans are smaller body's of water
Glenn is a valley
Ivern is a city at the end of a loch

We then stopped at Glencoe
In 1691 there was the massacre in Glencoe. There was the MacDonald Clan that were sent to Iveranne to pledge allegiance but ended up in Fort Williams by accident then were sent south to the city of Iveranne but they were too late. They went back to glencoe where the Campbell's Clan were sent to kill all the MacDonalds under the age of 17 by King William. They came and stayed with them for 12 nights and on the 12th night they killed 38 ppl from the MacDonald Clan. The rest of them fled but didn't survive because of the harsh weather conditions.

Glencoe has 3 towering peaks which began 470 million years ago when the ancient continents of Laurentia and Avalonia collided. Over a period of 5 million years, at least 8 massive volcanic euruptions lifted the rocks of the continents thousand meters above sea level. These peaks are now called the three sisters; hope faith and charity.

"What do you call a deer with no eye? No eye-dear. What do you call a deer with no eyes or legs? Still no eye-dear"

We arrived in Portree where we will be staying the next two night in the cutest little hostel. Every wall has a different color & the shower floor is hot pink & sparkly (now that's my kind of shower)

We went out for dinner & had fish & chips in the Harbor. This is such a cute little town (mom you would love it here!!)

We are just hanging out at the hostel & getting ready for the big day tomorrow: ISLE OF SKYERead more