"I'm on Vacation!" -- My UK Adventure with Cyrus

     Yikes, I just realized I haven't written a blog post in almost a month. Cyrus just left to go home to Vancouver this morning and I'm feelin' kind of lonely, so I thought it would be therapeutic to write about how I spent my spring break. The week or so leading up to the vacation were a little rough with essays being due and me catching a nasty cold, but I stayed in good spirits because I had lots to look forward to in the next few weeks.

     Once my essays were finished and handed in, I just had to try to make the day or two before Cyrus arrived in Glasgow pass quickly. I basically just slept in until noon then spent the rest of the day hanging around town, shopping or running errands. Finally March 30th arrived! I woke up early that morning to finish cleaning my flat (I wanted it spotless haha I was obsessed...) then caught the shuttle to meet Cyrus at the airport. My heart would start beating so fast every time someone on his flight walked out of the arrivals gate, then after what seemed like ages, he came out and I ran over for a hug. After a happy reunion we took the bus back into town and just relaxed at my flat before exploring the city together. I took him to the Cathedral and Necropolis, Buchanan and Argyle Street, then we went out for dinner at the Counting House. All in all it was a really nice evening and I was so happy to be together again after 2.5 months.

     The next day was the beginning of our Scotland road trip. We didn't bother waking up too early -- we just had a lazy morning and a nice breakfast. We took the shuttle to the airport in the early afternoon to pick up our rental car, then we were off to Glencoe. Thankfully Cyrus was driver (I would have been so nervous) and things went relatively smoothly that day, except for a few sketchy moments near the beginning when we were still figuring out the controls of the car. We made a few stops along the way to take pictures. It was a beautiful drive; everywhere we looked there were hills, snow-capped mountains and lochs. We arrived at the Glencoe Hotel at about 4:30, checked in, then took a walk for some sight-seeing. We walked past Loch Leven, then did a woodland walk on one of the Glencoe Lochan trails. The trail went around a small loch and I noticed that the woodlands and scenery looked much like those in Canada, specifically around the Rockies and Lake Louise. We discovered that the woodlands around the loch were planted by Lord Strathcona to make his Canadian wife feel more at home in the Highlands and the resemblance then made sense. We walked back to our hotel after to have some dinner and watch Game of Thrones in the room before calling it a night. The next day we hiked the Pap of Glencoe which was challenging but so worth it. We were actually off-trail for most of the hike, which was a little sketchy in some areas but it was nice to be on our own and enjoy the amazing scenery. We were pretty exhausted after the hike, so we picked up some beers on the way back for an evening of relaxing in our hotel room. We had another nice dinner at the hotel then spent most of the evening just hanging out and watching TV.
                                 

      We got an early start the next morning because we had a long journey ahead of us. It took us about 2.5 hours to drive to Tain, where we did a tour of Glenmorangie Whisky Distillery. Whisky wasn't actually being made while we were there; apparently it was "dry season", a two week break in whisky production and most of the workers weren't around the distillery. It wasn't a bust though because the lady working in the shop offered to give us a free tour and a couple of free drams afterwards. After having lunch at a café on the way out of Tain, we hit the road and began the 3.5 hour drive to the Isle of Skye. We got off-course a couple of times, but thanks to my trusty phone's GPS we were able to find our way to Skye. Even once we got onto the island it was about an hour and a half drive to our B&B. I hadn't realized how big the island was so I was a little surprised, but it was a really enjoyable and beautiful drive. We made it to Seabound B&B in the village of Flodigarry a little after 7, and we just spent the evening relaxing and recovering from the long drive that day. The next day the B&B owner, Clare, cooked us a nice Scottish breakfast and we set out to hike the Quiraing. The hike was beautiful and seemed really easy in comparison to the Pap of Glencoe. That night we had dinner at the Flodigarry Country House Hotel and met a woman from the States who was also staying at our B&B. She was quite the character and was pretty tipsy from from all the wine she drank by the time Clare drove the three of us home. The next day we did another hike -- this time the Old Man of Storr. The views were incredible and it felt very remote; we hardly saw any other people by the time we got near the top of the Storr. The entire hike was over 7km and we felt quite accomplished. After the hike we drove to Portree to get cash and some lunch before driving to the B&B where we would spend our final night on Skye. When we arrived at Carter's Rest Guesthouse we were greeted by the owners who were incredibly friendly and welcoming. They served us a delicious supper then we went out to watch the sunset. It was a perfect last night of the road trip and I'm already feeling nostalgic for it.

     We started the journey back to Glasgow at about 10:30 the next morning. The drive was insanely long -- just over five hours I think. We stopped at some nice places along the way, including Eilean Donan Castle which I was surprised to discover looks much bigger and grander in photographs. Still beautiful though. We were going a little crazy from all the driving and were making ridiculous jokes that probably wouldn't be funny to anyone else. As I'm writing this I'm listening to some of the songs we played in the car on the road trip, and it's crazy how much they take me back to the moment. For example, Justin Timberlake's new album reminds me of the drive to Glencoe, and Passenger's All the Little Lights album and a bunch of Stars songs (especially Your Ex-Lover is Dead) bring me back to driving around the Isle of Skye. 

     The next half of the vacation was spent mostly in Glasgow, with a few mini-trips added in. The day after coming back from our road trip we went to Edinburgh to meet up with Nikisa, Cyrus' friend who was doing some traveling and happened to be in Scotland at the same time we were. We did a short hike up to Arthur's Seat, then later on had tons of fun just hanging out in the city and sharing stories over beers and a pub meal.

     On the 8th Cyrus and I took the bus to Manchester for the Man U vs. Man City football match. We checked in to our hotel, a little pub/inn called the Ox Noble in the afternoon and got ready to go to the Hilton Deansgate for our VIP package. There was a champagne reception and an open bar which was awesome, and we were served a three course meal before being transported to Old Trafford by a coach bus. The result was 2-1 for Man City, which was too bad but they were clearly the team that played better. After the match we were transported back to the Hilton for a post-match analysis and some more drinks from the bar before going back to the Ox Noble and calling it a night. Our bus back to Glasgow the next day wasn't until 5pm so we spent the day exploring Manchester a bit. The bus journey was brutal -- it took five hours and the guys sitting behind us smelled SO BAD. There was also this crazy Glaswegian lady who was loudly talking some poor random guy's ear off. He handled it really well though (I would have gone crazy).

     The last four days were just spent hanging out in Glasgow. On Wednesday we did a walking tour with Gary then went to a club called Octo that night. We went to McDonald's afterwards and Cyrus agreed with my conclusion that Canadian McDonald's is much better. Sadly the next morning Cyrus woke up with a sore throat and was sick for the rest of the trip. We spent most of the last few days just taking it easy and hanging around the flat. On Friday night I went to One Direction which was a blast, and Liam totally waved/made eye contact with me. Same with Zayn. Needless to say, I was swooning and on a high for the rest of the night. Yesterday Cyrus and I spent our last day together in the West End. We went to Kelvingrove Museum then had dinner at an Italian place on the way back to my flat. It was so hard to say goodbye last night/this morning but it's comforting to know that it will only be just over a month until I get home.

     The past two weeks have been one of the highlights of my exchange and Cyrus and I made so many awesome memories. On another note, this blog post is probably the longest I've written by far. It's monstrous. Congratulations if you actually read to the end (probably only my family and close friends haha). The next month is going to be a grind; I have two essays and two exams to write then I'm finally done school on May 15th. I haven't decided what I'm going to do when I'm done -- whether I'm going to travel or push my flight forward and go home early. I'm feeling a bit homesick right now but I won't make a decision for a couple weeks or so. I doubt there will be too many exciting things to blog about in the weeks leading up to my exams, but I have a trip to Belfast planned for next weekend with Michelle so I'll write another post after that. :)