Woke up to rain and loud seagulls on street, no run. We decided to take the early train to Inverness. Such beautiful scenery. We even saw snow in the Cairngorm mountains! We arrived in Inverness with about an hour to spare. We wandered about. The town seemed a bit dark. The weather was coming in. We found the river and it was a whole other place. It reminded me of a miniature Budapest. Castle in the distance, cobblestone roads, classical buildings and a footbridge across the river Ness. We dropped by a food coop to see what they had. It was a generic grocery, not like the coops we think of at home. Though they were committed to carrying products not tested on animals and fair trade coffee. That seems to be a general level of consciousness in the UK and Ireland, especially fair trade. In fact, Dublin has declared itself a fair trade city.
While waiting for our bus to Drumnadrochit we saw a kebab place with curry fries. James was craving them so we ordered one to share. That was yummy. Our bus arrived and we headed for Loch Ness. It was a short drive to our town, only about 14km. We could almost run it. We arrived in a small town and made it to our hostel.
We were greeted by a lovely woman at the hostel. She showed us where to go and was super helpful and warm. We took a hike to the Divach waterfalls past sheep, many sheep. At the top of the waterfall is a house where H.M. Barry (wrote Peter Pan) visited. We met a sweet family who just moved form Houston to Aberdeen. They had 4 smaller children. After the waterfall we went to the other side of the area to the Urquhart castle on the Loch Ness. The woman at the hostel encouraged us to go around 8pm when it is dark. We could go over the back gate and just sit at the castle. It is lit up at night and beautiful without tourists. I asked if that was legal and she said in Scotland it is legal. There are no trespassing laws and the people have this right.
After a long walk we arrive at the castle. What an incredible view of the castle on the loch. It was closing so too late to pay to go in. We ate some samosas and tried to decide if we were going to trek back at night. I was getting cold. While we were eating we met a lovely couple from England. We all had a wonderful political discussion for about an hour. He was an attorney with experience in civil liberties and she was a teacher. We talked about the ramifications of McCain wining the presidency vs. Obama or Hillary. It was interesting to hear his point of view from Britain. It was getting later and colder. Our new friends left.
We discussed back and forth whether we would “sneak” into the castle. There was a gate that said no unauthorized persons beyond this point but it wasn’t locked. We went past it. There was another locked gate. That’s the one the woman from the hostel said to climb. Okay, I have rarely climbed fences in my life and I never climbed them illegally! We hop it and see an orange boat in the water leaving the castle. It’s probably the coast guard. So we wait until they are further out. They meet up with a bigger white boat. Probably the coast guard too. What if it really is illegal? What will we say if we are caught? “Oh the lady from our hostel said it was okay?” Do we speak Hungarian and act like we can’t read the sign? Do we act as if we had been there the whole time and didn’t know it was closed now? I am watching the orange boat come and go. It is difficult to be inconspicuous when we are both wearing bright red rain jackets and popping the flash on the camera. Can they see us? We hurry through the castle and get out. It is starting to light up which is beautiful. We go back up the hill and there is a worker leaving the center. We hide on the steps until we hear his car leave. Back over the gate. We are giddy. On our walk back I see the boats. We joke that they are going to follow us back to the hostel, bust in with their black suits and guns and arrest us for trespassing. We watch the boats and realize that they are actually tour boats. We laugh the rest of the way back. James is looking forward to the curry noodle soup we bought at the coop in Inverness.
We arrive at the hostel and meet some of the other visitors. One is working there. He is young and from Missouri. He lived in Sacramento as a kid. He addressed me as ma’am which was really quite frightening. I am not old yet!!!! James reminded me that I did talk of my 16 year old son, so in essence I am old. I quickly introduce myself…on a first name basis. We relax and watch a movie. James meets a couple from Budapest. We also meet a man from Bucharest.
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