Backpacking Trip: Day 33

Day 33!!! Alright - Day #1 of my 5 day tour of the Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Skye! I did the usual and got my instant coffee to start off the morning before heading off to meet my 5 day tour. I checked in and we left a little after 9:00am. As it turns out, I am the only American out of like 30 on the tour, and I am one out of 3 whose first language is English. But it's not so bad. I was talking to a nice French Canadian girl who was sitting next to me, and I hung out with 2 Swedish guys a bit later on. So, our first stop was at the Hermitage National Park near the town of Pitlochry. We walked through the park, which was basically a nice forest with a river running through it. It also had the tallest tree in Britain, which wasn't astonishingly tall or anything, but still interesting to see. Moving on, our next stop was in the town of Pitlochry in the highlands where we got lunch. I got a chicken salad sandwich and ate it in about a minute. Then we got back on the bus and continued north through the highlands, and our next stop was a quick one at the Ruthven Barracks which were built to house British soldiers (I believe) during the 18th century. After that we moved on and stopped at the Tomatin whiskey distillery where we got a free sample and read about how their whiskey is made and distributed. Our next stop was at the Balnuaran of Clava which was an ancient burial ground of people who lived in the area during prehistoric times. There was also some really old stone circles similar to Stonehenge, but smaller in size. From there we got back on the bus and made the short drive to the Culloden Battlefield. Sadly, I fell asleep when our guide was telling us the story of it, but I believe it has something to do with Scottish tribes fighting against the British in the 18th century. It was a very large battlefield and took a while to walk around it, but it was a nice day out so I didn't complain. Andddddddd finally - the most anticipated stop of the day - Loch Ness. It was still a very nice day outside so when we got there the lake looked really amazing. I kept my eyes peeled, but did not see any Loch Ness monsters. Although, I found 3 pounds in the rocks along the shore of the lake, so I'm thinking it was a gift from Nessie. I kinda what photo crazy at this point and took a million pictures of the lake. I tried to recreate the famous black and white Nessie shadow photograph with my finger, but I failed miserably. Eventually we left Loch Ness to our final destination for the day - Inverness. Once we got all checked into our hostel I took a quick shower, and then we all headed out as a group to a really cheap restaurant where I got the beer and burger special for only 4 pounds. A lot of us were tired so we headed back pretty early, so I've just been here in the hostel on my computer for a bit typing up this blog. Another fun day is on the way for tomorrow! Goodbye!