Way up north where the air gets cold

A nice change of pace for me this week: I was out of the parliament and in my MSP's constituency of the Scottish Highlands. In Inverness, to be exact. Inverness is the "capital of the Higlands," but for a capital city it's small with only 100,000 people. 

I took the train up Wednesday morning and arrived in Inverness around noon. First thought: it was cold. Way colder than Edinburgh, which has actually been pretty sunny lately. I shivered as I made my way to the constituency office  -- warm and toasty inside, yesss -- and spent the afternoon getting out a survey for my MSP. 

That night I spent a little time looking around Inverness before heading to my B&B. Inverness is a quaint, charming town straddling the Ness River with lots of ancient-looking buildings. Picturesque is a good word to describe it, so here are some pictures:

[caption id="attachment_294" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The pink Inverness castle overlooking the city."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_295" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The River Ness and the city beyond."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_296" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The footbridge connecting both sides of Inverness."][/caption]

Gray skies, cold air, and a constant drizzle limited my exploring; I went to the B&B early that night to warm up and enjoy some British television (I don't have a TV in my flat in Edinburgh, so I really haven't watched any at all). Wrapped up in a blanket, I watched the British "Apprentice" -- it was basically the only thing on. 

After a breakfast prepared for me by the very friendly owner of the B&B Thursday morning, I went back to the office to finish my work and then was given the afternoon off. I explored the town some more, stopping at a really neat secondhand bookstore that's in an old church (I picked up Anna Karenina and have vowed to read it before I make it back home -- perhaps a little too ambitious). I also managed to find St. Mary's, the church Lilly's parents married in and took pictures there for her.  And after a lonesome dinner at a pub, it was another quiet night for me.

[caption id="attachment_297" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="St. Mary's -- hi, Mrs. Insalata!!"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_298" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Bookstore in an old church -- the biggest in Scotland, I think."][/caption]

Friday was my favorite day of the constituency trip. My MSP took me to visit two schools near Loch Ness, and we drove along the shores of the lake. It was just how I pictured: moody, misty, mysterious. No sightings of Nessie this time, but I'll be back next week and will look with more purpose.

The first school was a high school; we talked to the principal and received a tour. The next school was a super small primary school with only 36 pupils for 7 grades -- and only two classrooms. The students were very excited to meet someone from the U.S. and asked me about Hollywood, celebrity sightings (have you seen Zac Effron?!) and randomly about how I raised my pet frog. 

[caption id="attachment_301" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Can you spot Nessie?"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_302" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The primary school students -- can you tell which one is me?"][/caption]

Then it was pretty quickly back to Edinburgh for one of the last weekends I'll spend here. I have seven more weeks to go in Europe, but I'll be traveling for alot of that time. So this weekend I decided to stay in town and see some of the sights I've been meaning to see.

On Saturday I met up with some of the other interns to walk to Leith, Edinburgh's sister port city. We took a nice hour-long stroll from Princes Street to get to Leith and just basically walked around and saw the sea. We had lunch at a great seafood restaurant -- megrim for me and I liked it very much. 

[caption id="attachment_303" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Leith"][/caption]

 Today I took a solo adventure to Rosslyn Chapel in the teeninsy village of Roslin (yes, they are spelled differently even though the chapel's in the town). It's famous for its intricate stone carvings and is rumored to be one of the resting places of the Holy Grail. It appears in The DaVinci Code and they filmed scenes for the movie there; ever since there's been an upsurge in tourists.

Conspiracy theories aside, the chapel is stunningly beautiful with amazing carvings throughout. No pictures allowed inside, so all I have are ones of the exterior, which is undergoing restoration. 

[caption id="attachment_305" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="The entrance to the chapel."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_306" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="View of the grounds from an upstairs walkway."][/caption]

This week should be great, I've been looking forward to it for a while. USC is taking the UK study abroad students to the Scottish Highlands to see tons of castles, Loch Ness, and the Isle of Skye. Tomorrow night we're kicking it off with a dinner at a Chinese buffet, woo hoo! 

The Scottish sign texts and emails with an x to mean "hugs." So cheers from me, xxx!