M... is for Mogwai (Music)!

Little known and little heard, Mogwai is the only band I knew about that was from Scotland. That was before I came here, but Mogwai has stuck with me for a long time now.
This is a tiny post because I'm on a trip using someone else's computer to type it. And also, friends and conversations are waiting. So, I'll leave you to listen to my favourite Mogwai track!



Enjoy!
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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye, John o' Groats, Kirk, Loch Lomond and Luss.

L... is for Loch Lomond and Luss

Loch Lomond is very very popular. Almost everyone who I know that has been to Scotland has been to Lomond. And it doesn't disappoint! The largest freshwater lake in the UK (nope, it isn't Loch Ness, with its monsters, that's the deepest), its waters are an absolute delight to look at. Silvery and ripling, the waters have a beautiful, serene quality with hardly any waves. The sides are dotted with low hills, and in autumn, the contrast of the yellows of the tops of pines with the surrounding dark greens is magnificient to look at!
Little known, and very close to the main tourist area of the Loch, is the village Luss. I only got to go there because I was with Scottish friends, who have lived in Glasgow all their lives! Luss is tiny, maybe a hundred or so houses. It is pretty and has this absolutely wonderful coffee shop where I had the most heavenly scones! Most of you will go to Lomond, if you can spare an extra hour, go to Luss, feed the duckies by the Loch, have a scone, you will have made a lovely headful of memories!

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye, John o' Groats, Kirk.

K... is for Kirk!

Kirk is the Scottish word for Church, and oh my, do they build them well here! As part of tourism, various volunteering activities, and just being poor because I'm a student, I've been to a lot of kirks here. Usually, they would have been built by one king or another queen, either for their own private prayers or as part of a celebration/coronation.
For example, St. Margaret's Chapel, which was probably a personal prayer house, is the oldest surviving structure in Edinburgh, having been built in the 12th century. On the other hand, built during the same period is the massive 'High Kirk of Edinburgh' or St. Giles' Cathedral. It was primarily built for public use and is also called the 'Mother Church of Presbyterianism'.
I've been to both... and while I've been to some other too, these two, visited within two weeks of one another brought out some stark similarities; the damp cold stones, the beautifully carved/painted ceiling, the quiet that is mildly perturbed by the whispers of centuries, the altar... very very imposing facades that house God in all his marvellous glory. I'm not religious at all, but because I went to a convent Catholic followed by a missionary Methodist school, I had my fair share of Jesus storied drilled into me.
Visiting kirks is, thus, a beautiful way to spend an afternoon here.

Stained Glass - St. Giles'

Ceiling - St. Giles'

Chapel at my school - it was a beautiful building wasted on a terrible school.

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye, John o' Groats.

J... is for John o' Groats!

Again, this post comes at a strange time, for it will have to be updated next week!
John o' Groats is famous famous, as being the northernmost point on the UK mainland. It is not. That glory belongs to Dunnet Head, a peninsula that is close by and that actually is the northernmost point! This weekend, I'm going on a trip to hopefully both these places.
John o' Groats is only 2,200 miles (3,500 km) from The North Pole, a thought that is celebratory and humbling at the same time. It is named after Jan de Groote, a Dutchman who obtained a grant for the ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney, recently acquired from Norway, from James IV, King of Scots, in 1496.
There is nothing much to do there, what does one want to do at such a place, I wonder. The sheer feeling of being there, of being so far far away from everything else, everyone else must be so overwhelming. Anyway, as I said, wait for the update :)

Courtesy: Reasons to be Cheerful

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye.

I... is for Isle of Skye

Last weekend, I went on a three day trip to the Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Skye. The entirety of Sunday was spent in exploring the Isle. I loved it. It was an organised trip, so we had a lovely guide explaining to us what on earth it was that we were looking at, where it all began, and how everything was beyond pretty!
According to Wikipedia, Skye  is the largest and most northerly large island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillins, the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country. It isn't very tiny really, it's just that there's not much to do. The island is 67 miles long, there are 3 -4 small towns, and the total population is about 10,000. It is connected to the mainland by way of the Skye Road Bridge.
The scenery is stunning. It is dotted with bens (mountains) and glens (valleys). The hills are not very high (certainly for me, I have been to the Himalayas too many times), but they are older and more rounded, no spikes. And they get snow because of the latitude rather than their altitudes. It is also home of Drambuie, a fine Scottish whiskey liqueur. It is said that Bonnie Prince Charlie's supporters gave the recipe away to the islanders as a way of saying thanks for sheltering him and helping him escape after the Battle of Culloden (which, by the way, is the last battle to have taken place in the UK).
Most of the rivers are enchanted, they are dotted with the wee folk (faeries), and they glitter and gurgle. Skye is very very beautiful; all of you that have been expressing their wishes to visit Scotland should know that your visit would be incomplete without your footprints in Skye.

The River Sligachan

On top of the Old Man of Storr

Trotternish Peninsula 

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish.

H... is for Hamish, the Hairy Highlander

I'm just back from the Highlands of Scotland and my head needs time to recover from and process all the beauty that I was bombarded with in the past three days. I'm scarred from the assault of sheer beauty and magnificence on my senses. Anyway, so for a funny one.
Hamish is a hairy coo. He is big, he is hairy, and he's pretty much the first thing you'll see in the highlands. He's also adorable and loves veggies!
He's really famous too; do a Google search and you'll find posts, pictures, forum - all for Hamish appreciation!

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow.

G... is for Glasgow!

Glasgow is to Edinburgh what groom is to a bride. He is west to her east, handsome to her pretty, strong to her fragile, imposing to her shy. Glasgow is the most handsome city I know. The gravity of George Square, the somber plaques that say Merchant City, the burnished dark gold of its buildings... they make you take it seriously. They speak to you in a gruff edgy voice.
It is big, busy, important, and fun. It looks like a proper city and it has the steepest streets; they seem vertical to me! I love Glasgow too, in a way different from how I love Edinburgh. I like the bustling-ness, I like how I usually can't understand a word Glaswegians say, I get excited at flyovers! (yep, no flyovers in lil' Edin).
I do not understand the sense of fashion though... if I had the money to spend and the option of shopping at Glasgow stores, I'd look fabulous! I'd look effortlessly chic, is what I think to myself every time I look at the windows of shops there... Scotland's pretty incomplete without good ol' west coast!

Winter evening, George Square

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge.