You take the high road...

So this weekend was a weekend of travels. After an interesting start, Kate, Tyson, Brett, Sebastian, Dave (other study abroad students), and myself went to Stirling for the day. It seems to me that each day-trip seems to top the last.

Stirling is a quaint Scottish town about an hour outside of Glasgow. Our first tourist attraction of the day was The Old Town Jail. Apparently the jail in Stirling was one of the leaders in Scottish Prison reform in the nineteenth century; leaders felt like prisoners should be reformed into useful members of society as opposed to rotting away in a small cell. After a quick tour we went to the roof of the Jail, which also served as the exercise yard for prisoners, and found amazing views of the city.

When we were finished with the tour, we realized that a decision had to be made. There were two other places we wanted to see in Stirling: the Castle and the William Wallace Monument. The castle was about a 5 minute walk from the jail and closed at 6, while the monument was about 45 minutes away and closed at 5 (it was 3 at the time of this predicament). We decided to make the hike to the William Wallace Monument. (Side Note: my flatmate Tessie used to live in Stirling, and when I told her that we walked from the Jail to the Monument, she said that nobody WALKS from the jail to the monument!)

At least the walk was pretty. We crossed the Old Stirling Bridge and passed by many cute Bed and Breakfasts (it was quite tempting to not just rent out a room and stay the night). One was for sale and Tyson and I invented a business plan to buy the B&B and run it :) We finally reached the base of the monument, only to realize that we were going to have to trek up another hill and climb about 250 steps to reach the top of the monument, all in about 45 minutes time. We made it though. When I reached the top of the Monument, I felt like I found the top of the world. You could see for miles around, including the town of Stirling and the Castle. It was truly amazing, and completely worth the 45 min walk, hike, and stair climb.

After a quiet evening back in Glasgow, on Sunday afternoon our friend Andy took Me, Kate, Ginny, and Tyson out to Loch Lomond for the afternoon. While the weather was not quite as pretty, the Loch itself is beautiful and surrounded by lovely Scottish countryside. We did this goofy 50 minute tour of the Loch, which showed us a few of the estates (which have now been turned into luxury apartments) that are located on Loch Lomond.

it has been a great weekend, full of Fresher's events, adventures, and quality time with friends. Classes started today (I only have one class on Mondays: at 4pm!).

Until my next adventure,
Love
Rach :)
xox

You take the high road and Ill take the low road and Ill be in Scotland before you. And me and my true love wil never meet again on the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. (Loch lomond)