Kirsten goes Scottish!

I'm not sure how to describe my trip to Scotland as anything short of amazing. So that's how I will start, My trip to Scotland was amazing! I met at least one million new people, I saw one of the most beautiful places that I've ever seen and I was filled with an awe which may have been just short of animism.
So my good fortune on this trip started off in Rotterdam in fact where I met the two men who you see in this first picture after noticing that they were both wearing poppies and asked if they were Canadian. They were in fact Canadian and the man on the left Mark was visiting the man on the right Milan, who has a family here and is working as a chiropractor. The talked to me non-stop the entire way to Schiphol (the airport in Amsterdam). Half way through the train trip they asked if I wanted Poppy, and I accepted. While a poppy might not seem like much to those of you who are reading this, to me it meant so much because I had really wanted a poppy and they don't sell them in Holland, and two be offered one by complete strangers was just so wonderful and heart warming and really showed the Canadian spirit.
I of course arrived at Schiphol rediculously early so I checked my one bag and wandered around. At the check in I was offered a window seat which made me happy, but then of course there was the wandering. After wandering for some time I went to my gate and got on my plane only to discover that I had the only window seat on the entire plane that did not have a window, which I actually found rather nauseating. In any case, the flight went very smoothly, though we did start our decent 45 minutes before we landed. Unfortunately the weather conditions in Prestwick, where the plane landed in Scotland, were less than favorable and our landing was vary rough, so rough in fact that after landing some of the passengers clapped because we hadn't died.
Anyway so I got off the plane and then had an interesting chat with the Scottish customs officials who were slightly perplexed by me having a Canadian passport with a dutch residence permit in it. In any case, at the customs waiting area I met an Argentinian man also living in Holland who had come to visit his girl friend in Stirling, which was incidentally also my final destination, so we took the train together and met some more people and such. For anyone ever planning on travelling to Scotland by the way Prestwick is FAR away from Glasgow, not as its name would indicate (glasgow Prestwick). So it took some time to get from Prestwick to Stirling. But eventually I made it and the first thing Laura (my friend who's on exchange in Scotland) and I did after meeting up, was buy fish n' Chips. It was so delightful. Afterward we bought some groceries (their grocery stores are a lot more like Canadian stores than grocery stores here. Did I even mention before that they don't store eggs in the refrigerated section here? Who knew...) Then we went home and talked and slept, and then the next day I got a grand tour of Stirling, including the major shopping areas. In the afternoon, we climbed the big hill which is part of Stirling to get to some tourist attractions.
The first place we went was the Old Jail house, which we didn't actually go into but I bought postcards and Laura bought a Moose, and the further up the hill we reached Stirling Castle. As Stirling is at the top of a hill (I'm told it's a hill and not a mountain but after living in flat as a pancake land for so long it seems like a mountain) there was an absolutely spectacular view, which you can kinda of see in one of the pictures, and which I will be more than happy to share more of with people when I go home. It was absolutely breath taking, actually most of Scotland is, as I said previously, my level of awe was approaching animism, From this hill you could see several cities and towns as well as other hills and you could see rain clouds moving past and fog, and areas of sun, and rivers and forests (I like Scotland can you tell yet?)
Anyway, while the outside of Stirling castle is fairly impressive, I felt somewhat dissapointed on the inside, as Historical Scotlanown. SIDETRACK: the first thing and last thing that I did in Scotland was drink special Starbucnd has redone a great deal of it to attempt to look something like what it would have looked like when each building was first built. I think the key word is attempt to look something like, because really it looks like the scenery for a play. But they're trying. Laura and I went on a tour of the castle and learned a lot. In the gift shop at the castle I found the tartan of some of my ancesters from the MacKenzie clan which was very exciting and I bought something for my grandfather with the tartan on it. I hope he likes it.
So then we started back down the hill and stopped at an old house related to the royalty, but it wasn't important enough to know what it was for, though we did go inside. (give me a break I was tired) Anyway, so once we were back in town again we stopped and had coffee at Cafe Nero, which I think is fairly well kks Christmas Coffee because there is only one Starbucks in all of Holland, and it Aint here. SIDE TRACK ENDED. Then Laura and I went home and had pizza with some of her friends. It was very nice to meet them.
Then sleep. In the morning we were meant to go to Glasgow to explore but a combination of sleeping in and Scotland having a crappy transit system lead us to only be able to spend about a half hour in Scotland, though the 1.5 hour bus ride from Stirling to Glasgow did show me a good deal of the Scottish Country side, and 2 Cenitaph processions and a little bit of glasgow, and sheep. So anyway, then I got back on the train for Prestwick. But the fun did not stop there, the train trip also showed me a part of Scotland I hadn't seen before because on the way there it was dark, and for the first time I saw the Atlantic Ocean, well at least from Europe and not in the sky or in Florida, but florida doesn't really count. Anyway I was excited.
The only downer of the trip was that I had some trouble in the line up at the airport, because I was in line behind a large group and another check in open, and the woman took every other person in line starting from the person behind me, even though I was next in line, so everyone else got served before me, and I was mad enough that I went and complained. But then I got on my plane and landed in Amsterdam and went home.
Scotland is a beautiful country, the people are friendly, the babies are cute, I would reccomend to everyone to go and visit there at some point in their life.
Cheers!