Almost time to go...

Well, another week has flown by here. Amy and I have been enjoying the good weather as much as possible. And we've been keeping ourselves so busy that it's hard to believe I'll be leaving in a few days. We haven't talked about it much.. it's a scary topic for both of us I think.

But we've also been having a great time getting to know Amy's flat mates and their friends. Every new person we've met has been super friendly. Tonight I believe one of Amy's flat mates will be cooking Haggis for us - neither of us have been brave enough to try it before so hopefully it goes well! So far it's been fun meeting people from here and exchanging all our cultural differences. I do believe I'm leaving Amy in good hands. :)

A few days ago Amy and I finally set out to see The Surgeon's Hall. It had been on our list of things to do for a while because we had heard good things about it. It's a museum dedicated to a Scottish history of medicine and surgery - super cool. They had tons of displays to look at with jars of organs and limbs and fetuses... not everyone's cup of tea. But I think we both found it really interesting. There were brains from the early 1900's, skeletons with birth defects and bullet wounds... and a whole section on tumors that really freaked me out. Sorry. I won't continue. I can hear you all groaning. To sum it up, I would say it was informative.

We also decided to give Arthur's seat another go. I'm leaving so soon and I wanted to see it one more time -plus, that kind of view would never get old. We ended up taking a different route up the other side to see another view from the top. It turned out to be a beautiful day so the hike was lovely and we were able to sit and watch the city for a while.

We woke up today still in hike-mode so we took another walk out in the nice weather. This time to Blackford Hill. It's much smaller than Arthur's seat, but it sits on the other side of the city centre so the view is a whole different kind of amazing.

Oh and we've now seen Harry Potter twice in the theaters... not exactly my idea but Amy was quite happy about it.

Hoping you are all doing well and enjoying the heat wave (!!) in Ottawa. :)

Love Kayla (and Amy)

Highland Insanity (the good kind)

Hi Everyone! So, once again, A LOT has happened since our last post.
I'm all moved in to my new flat now (yay!), I've started applying for jobs around the city, and we just got back from a road-trip to Glencoe.
My new flat mates (Liam and Scott) are really nice and we've been having fun getting to know them and some of their friends. The lease I signed on July 1st is for 12 months - so I guess that makes this whole thing official. I won't be coming back for awhile. Which is a good thing!
The job search is still ongoing, but I have faith something will come up. Handing out more CVs tomorrow.
I suppose our most interesting news to share was our trip to Glencoe. We decided it would be nice to get out of the city for a bit and get to really see Scotland - namely, the Highlands.  We decided on Glencoe.  Site of the famous Macdonald clan massacre (not our direct ancestors per se, but we were sentimental nonetheless).
It was about 4 hours by bus, but it felt much much longer...
Immediately after boarding, our bus driver informed everyone that what he'd really like to be is a tour guide bus driver (we were NOT on a tour bus fyi) and that he would be trying out some of his tour guide 'knowledge' during the trip.  Now to be fair, some of his route info was actually interesting: pointing out famous castles, the train bridge used in Harry Potter films, Hamish the cow, etc.
However.
When he was not pointing these things out, either loud bagpiper tunes were being played through the bus speakers, the driver was telling really horrible jokes, or he would (often) forget to turn his mic off so everyone could hear him loudly breathing/humming through the speakers. Hahaha right?  Not for 4 hours. At least the scenery was beautiful. Actually, the scenery was breathtaking - especially as we got closer to Glencoe.  I can honestly say it is a landscape I have never seen the likes of before.  Kayla and I were both amazed, to say the least.

View of the Glen and Loch Leven

The Massacre Monument

Trying to find our hostel...

When we arrived in the village of Glencoe, we then faced the challenge of finding our hostel. Tougher than we thought, as it turns out.  The directions they gave on the website were very vague, as in "Walk into the village. Cross the hump-backed bridge. Walk 1 mile. We are on the right."
After walking for about 30mins in the wrong direction completely, we returned to our starting point and tried to call a local taxi. They take Sundays off apparently. Guh. So we tried another direction and walked for nearly an hour before finally arriving at the hostel. And the hostel was perfect. Located in the woods at the base of several mountains.

Our lovely little hostel

SIGHS. OF. RELIEF.
We rested for a bit before deciding we wanted to do something crazy. Specifically, we wanted to go swimming in a creek we had passed earlier. Now, this is crazy because July in Scotland is probably more like March or April in Ottawa. As in, not hot at all and nearly always raining.
It was so much fun. A moment to remember for sure.

SO COLD.

So anyways, we loved Glencoe. The most beautiful place I've ever been - hands down.

Sidenote: when we were climbing on the bus to come home today, who should greet us but our old bus driver from the day before! No joke. The same guy drove us all the way back to Edinburgh and he retold all the same stupid stories and bad jokes as before. This time however, he spent part of the journey singing Celtic songs to us over the intercom. And not even to get a laugh. Just because he wanted to. So unbelievably awkward.

That's it for now! Hope you're all doing well.

Love,
Amy (+ Kayla)