Callanish Standing Stones, Dunvegan Castle, cool people, Gaelic choire, Aberdeen, oh so much fun
The internet is not so prevalent in this country. I’m sitting in a pasta restaurant using theirs, but the food is making me soo hungry. Anyway, here’s the update of the last week.
Last we left our fateful hero, me, I was in Broadford waiting on a bus to Portree on the island of Skye. I made it to Portree, but missed the bus to Uig peir to catch the ferry. None of their buses are labeled, so you pretty much have to go to every bus and ask, are you going where I’m going? Plus it came 10 minutes earlier then the shelter said. Ah well, I caught a cab, which cost more but got me to the peir anyway.
Took the ferry over to Talbert which turned out to be a nice little town. Found a hostel up the road that was only £10 so I decided to stay there. Met some Scottish guys who said they were going over to the pub later and I said I’d join them. I sat down to watch the Paraguay football game and started talking to some girls from Quebec. They were quite nice even though they were french. 
We talked about how Quebec is trying to suceed from Canada and I ask them why. And basically the only reason they could really give me is they want to keep their french culture and language intact, but they would still be largely dependent on Canada. That to me doesn’t sound like a very good reason to suceed, but the Quebecan youth are quite fired up about it.
Later, one of the Scots I’d met earlier came in with some Hebrides beer, which is Scottish, and shared it with us. We hung out till the end of the football game and then went to bed.
The girls had told me to wake them up in the morning cause they wanted to go to the Callanish stones as well. However, when the moment came, they lacked the strength to wake up at 6:30a, so I stormed forward alone. The stones were quite cool. They aren’t as thick as StoneHenge, but their thinness makes an interesting affect I think. There are three stone circles within 2 miles of each other in Callanish, one of which is huge and looks like a stick figure from above. The other two are quite simple, however they all have some significance with the alignment of the moon. From the primary standing stones, the moon moves over the tops of the stones at an 18.5 year cycle and rolls over the old woman of the moor which is a mountain range in the horizon which resembles a woman laying down, that is if you squint your eye, tilt your head, and furrow your brow it kind sorta might be a woman laying down. 
There is one group of stones that’s supposed to symbolize the three parts of the goddess: daughter, mother, and old sage, as represented by the celtic triscalia.
There is a small rock, then a larger red rock (menstrual cycle), and a smaller gray rock. In front of them stands a large phalic like stone (got a head and everything). If you watch the moon at a certain time, it will come up out of the hard rock (giggle) and down into the womb of the lady of the moor. Those crazy celts, too much time on their hands.
After the standing stones I went back to the hostel at Talbert to grab my pack which thankfully I didn’t have to carry with me all that way. Took the ferry back to Uig, which is still my most favorite name to say: eeewww-Ig. Getting off the peir, I met this Scottsman named Marshall who was on holiday from studying politics at Glasgow. Did you know someone from Glasgow is called a Glaswegian and someone from Liverpool is called a Liverpuddlian; I thought that was quite humerous. He was also camping around and was headed back to Portree. We got to talking on the bus back about politics, the current state of things, good and bad, the G8, possibility of change and the reality of the impossibility to be uncorrupt when entering gov’t. By the time we got back to Portree, we searched for a hostel and he said he’d come with even though he intended to head up to the camp site a mile away. The hostel was only £10 and there was free breakfast, so I decided just to stay there, but I’d walk him up to the campsite.
On the way up, he changed his mind and said he’d stay at the hostel. Neither of us looked forward to the midgies. So we put our stuff away and headed to the pub across the street. We had met a Canadian girl named Andree earlier who joined us halfway through the night. Marshall and I were already in heated political discussion, mostly about the state of Scotland and it’s continued fight for independence from Britain and the US and it’s foreign policies and actions. Did you know that Scotland, as of 96 I beleive he said, has its own Parlaiment now. They also have their own money, although all the parlaiment does really is control that money even though they still pay taxes to Britain. They have no control over policies really. So it’s sort of England’s way of throwing them a bone as though they were headed for independence.
But England builds most of it’s warships in Glasgow and stores all of its nuclear submarines in Scotland. Scotland is very rich in oil, so it’s far too valuable to let have its independence in England’s eyes. It’s odd to me how passionate Quebec is about their independence even though they have very little reason to get it, while Scotts seem to be complacent about the matter in general. Perhaps because it’s been such a long waged battle, switching sides so often, they’re just tired of it.
We continued on to discussing Socialism and Capitalism and they thought Socialism was a better idea and I argued theoretically it’s great, but it would never work cause it just takes the greed of one person to destroy the entire system. They argued it would still be better then capitalism, since capitalism hinders a person’s freedom. I said that any gov’t will hinder freedom for the stability of the union and furthermore I think socialism stifles invention, for there is no reason to further ones self if all is provided to everyone. I think there were good points on both ends, in any case, a mighty good argument it was. Nothing like discussing deep politics with three nations over 4 pints of guinness in a pub.
After we got thoroughly pissed, we left and I got a burger at the burger stand outside which was actually run by a guy from Illinois. Mmmm, that burger was my salvation from praying at the porcelain throne.
Got up early the next morning since there was much ground to cover and had breakfast with Marshall and went shopping before saying bye to Marshall and takin the bus to see Dunvegan castle. It was a nice castle and had been lived in for the last 700 years. It’s now inhabited by the McLeod clan, the orginal founders of the castle. There was a lot of interesting information there, but I think I like ruined castles more then living ones, more fun to climb on.
Took the bus back to Portree, ate some leftovers from the night before and grabbed my pack. I sat watching football with a girl and talking about the Pictin tattoo she had gotten on her arm. We compared tattoo designs we’d like to get and I got a few more ideas for mine which is coming closer to fruition.
On the bus to Kyle, went over the Skye bridge and back onto the mainland, I met some teachers from Stornoway, which is in the Isle of Lewis where the Callanish stones are. I had to go through Stornoway to get to Callanish. They were headed off to Broadford for the music festival that was going on. They were quite talkative as I’ve found female teachers are and happily entertained me along the trip. The buses on Skye have some kind of shock problem or maybe it’s jsut the roads, but it feels like you’re on a boat constantly rocking back and forth and bumping you all over the place. Makes it very difficult to use the onboard toilet, especially when the toilet seat keeps closing on you.
In Kyle, I hopped a train bound for Aberdeen so I could meet Mel. I slept the first leg of it, until I had to get off and switch in Inverness. I had a 2 hour layover there so walked around looking for things to do. I walked into a few pubs, but didn’t find anything interesting until I noticed the USA/Italy game was on in 12 degrees North, a bar. I went in and used their internet quickly then ordered a drink and watched the game.
There was a finnish couple nearby and they seemed to be enjoying my antics at how well the US was doing against Italy. I was quite proud. So many people got thrown out of that game and despite the fact that for the entire second half, Italy had 10 players and we had 9 on the field, we still held our own for the tie of 1-1.
I left to catch the train and once again, I expected to sleep on the train, but no, as luck would have it, something far more interesting occurred. Oh, let me first say a little something about my hat. I’ve been wearing my straw hat I bought at Coachella this last year and it seems to have a real impact on people here, especially the ladies. I’ve often noticed girls giggling and looking at me and pointing me out to their friends. At first I thought it was just the massive pack on my back, but apparently, as I’ve noticed, no one wears cowboy hats around here and I must say I’m quite enjoying the attention. 
So of course, standing in que to board the train, there were a group of women looking over at me, laughing and looking away, so I moved in and asked what it was. That’s when I figured out it was the hat. We got to talking and they were a gaelic choir who were performing in Inverness and were now headed back home to Aberdeen.
BTW, there are two different gaelic languages, in Scotland, it’s pronounced Gaalick, in Ireland it’s pronounced, Gaylick, and they are apparently different from each other.
The whole rest of the trip, they sang to me and gave me wine and Chardonay and made me sing to them and it was a good time. That was a once in a lifetime sort of thing. How often do you get a personal concert from an authentic gaelic choir on a train in Scotland? And they actually spoke gaelic, they weren’t just singing the words, gaelic was their first language.
We had some great fun and there was much hugging at the station in Aberdeen. I walked out of the station and there was Mel just walking up, great timing. We walked back to her flat which she OWNS might I add and is quite nice. Her friend Shelly was staying over that weekend and even though it was past midnight, we all went out for drinking and dancing at Espionage, which is a club. It was quite fun. I got to pimp it, dancing with two girls. WHoo hoo!
The next morning, we walked down to the beach and I stuck my feet in the North sea, which was quite cold and full of jellyfish! We ate some whipped icecream and returned to the flat to get Shelly’s car and go see some castles. We went to like 3 castles, some of which the girls hadn’t even been to.
Unfortunately, it started to rain on our way to another stone circle which I thought was your more typical representation of a stone circle. It had an altar and everything. Shelly and Mel had packed a picnic and we ate outside after the rain had subsided. The last few days have been more like typical SCottish weather with overcast skies, little sun, and constant showers going on and off.
Heading back, we went over to the Basement which is the pub Mel and Shellie typically hang out at. I met some other of their friends like Debs, Fliss, and Chris. I had some good bar food and then Mel, Shellie, Fliss, and I went off to go see a movie. I know, I’m in a foreign country, I shouldn’t be seeing a movie! But I was with friends and we were all pretty tired anyway. So we thought we’d see the worst movie out there which was Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. It was pretty bad, but a good laugh. Afterwards, Shelly had to drive home and we walked back to Basement, hung out and played pool.
Oye, my fingers are tired. I must stop even though that only updates you to Sunday. I’ll update the rest later. That’s what happens when you put it off having too much fun huh?
Slange! (Scottish for cheers)