Since my dear Friend came to visit me all the way from Germany it was finally time to go to the highlands.
Carla had come to see me in the beautiful city of Edinburgh and even though there is tons to see in town we decided one morning that we should go to the highlands for a couple of days. We were dreaming of renting a car and a wee road trip, but rental companies didn’t trust our age to be able to drive well enough and so we rushed to get onto the bus leaving in a couple of hours to Inverness.
A few hours drive through the snowy highland roads brought us to Scotlands smallest city. We arrived around midnight and walked around the little town for a good while, because my phone had died, before finding Student Hostel Inverness up on the hill. We had January a time where most of Scottland and even more Inverness is low season for tourists and happenings. The quiet little city was beautiful in the night, and we found some friendly help to guide our way home. Energised from the beauty and adventure of the day we were able to find a small viewpoint close to the hostel where we settled for a little beer and smoke to fully appreciate the landscape. The scene in below us presented snow covered roofs and the river sparkling in the moon light and a dark clear sky above the tree line.
Being so close to the legendary monster we naturally had to go and take a boat across Loch Ness to test our luck of caching a glimpse of her. Tuesday noon we wanted to join the Jacobite tour but in the hectic nature of this trip and our lives we mistook the starting point for the Clansman Hotel by the river Ness near the city instead of the Loch Ness Clansman Hotel which lies 16 km away. Being able to rebook our boat we got on the small country bus out to the Lake and had a lovely walk through the snow to the hotel and Boat trip.
From the water we had a stunning view onto the snowy, white banks and the Urquhart Castel looked more than magical in this setting. The bus ride back nearly froze us and not carrying appropriate close we spend the rest of the day in the cosy Bars and Pubs in town. Black Ilse Bar served us a delicious piping hot pizza from the wood burning oven and we went to see the old workplace and colleges of my friend in Encore, a very lovely pub near the Ness River bridge.
We had such a fun night that I cannot reproduce here, and in the morning, we paid for it with a shame full mission of finding a jacket, house key and a scarf, the latter of which had to remain in the depth of the downtown pubs.
Before heading back home we took a tasty breakfast at so coco treating us with waffles and churros. Taking the daytime bus got us the nice view of the high land roads back to Edinburgh. Fulfilling all my expectations we passed countless herd of sheep and snow as far as we could look at.
I definitely want to come back to see more of the high lands and the breathtaking nature, maybe preferably in the summer though so I will be able to take hikes and enjoy longer daylight. Though I was baffled with the winter beauty of Inverness and the area and wouldn’t miss it for the uncomforting obstacles.
