A few notes from my journal:
The scenery was spectacular. Outside of the cities, it was rather empty ("no duh," you might be saying) much like the South Island of New Zealand.
In fact, it reminded me a lot of just that, including the sheep that were everywhere, more in your face than NZ in fact.
Also noteworthy was how cool and non-summery it was (remember, this is late June to late July), meaning cool and cloudy/rainy.
How cool? I think in the month I was there, I wore shorts and a T-shirt no more than 7 days.
Partly this is due to the cool Atlantic air, partly due to the lattitude (57° North at Inverness, about the same as Oslo).
Highlights of my time in Scotland include visiting my friend Jo in Inverness, seeing 5000 year old neolithic ruins on the Orkney islands,
staying in the "haunted" Carbisdale Castle youth hostel, spending a week on a few islands with my friend Julie,
taking the "Harry Potter" steam train, hiking in view of (but not on) Ben Nevis, lounging in Oban, pretending I was going to play golf on Arran,
and a few nights in the big cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh (including a night of local stand up comedy where I missed 1/2 the jokes due to the accent).
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