Inverness & Loch Ness

A week's gone by and I've neglected to post anything about my trip to Loch Ness and Inverness, so I figured that I should probably get around to it now. Might as well, right? I'm procrastinating reading a paper so at least I seem somewhat productive. 

Inverness is the "capital of the Highlands" and about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Edinburgh. It was a rather spur the moment trip that was organized by my friend Jordan. He not only booked my friends Kevin, Britney and I tickets on the bus (that were only 21 pounds round trip!) and the hostel we'd be staying at. We arrived in Inverness around noon on Saturday, explored the city for about two hours, ate lunch and then hopped on a bus tour to go visit Nessie on Loch Ness. The tour consisted of a bus ride to the loch, a ferry ride on the loch and concluded with our visit to Urquhart Castle. It was definitely worth every penny. The Highlands are incredibly beautiful and while I didn't spot Nessie, I can't say I was in any way disappointed. 

The gang.

That night we experienced Inverness nightlife. We went to this awesome pub, Hootanany's, that was 3 stories of pure awesomeness. Unfortunately, half of Inverness agreed with us so the place was packed. We wound up hanging out on the third floor where there was room. The first floor had the most incredible live music. They were playing what I would assume was traditional Scottish music and with the little room available, there were drunk women dancing. As entertaining as that sounds, we went looking for more standing room upstairs on the second floor, to which we found a live local rock band. They were surprisingly good, but not to the taste of some of my friends so after about 20 minutes of that, we found ourselves upstairs on the third floor. We left to go check out a "recommended" nightclub by one of the cashiers we talked to. The club was called "Miami"- go figure. We went to the Scottish Highlands to go to a Miami nightclub. Unfortuntaly, the cover was 6 pound and I wasn't having that so we left. 

Sunday, as it turned out, was indeed a day of rest for those in Inverness. Basically everything was shut down. So the four of us went exploring. We walked until we found (what we think was) the ocean and, as our tour guide from the previous day suggested, went dolphin/seal/sea otter watching. That consisted of us eating bagels at a picnic table at the peak of where the ocean met the river Ness. Unbelievably we did see a seal, but our attention was actually drawn to the entertaining duck we found in the harbor. Later that day, we also decided to explore "the Ness islands" which are just small islands connected by walking bridges. There was a marathon going on that day so we wound up walking around the course cheering people on. Once we realized we had around 5 hours until our bus departed but nowhere else to go, we found ourselves in the Inverness mall and casually perusing stores but mainly just sitting in the food court. 

The ocean! (in the distance)

The river Ness

Walking along the Ness islands 

Overall I'd say it was an incredibly amazing trip. Spontaneity really pays off.

Oh and while I'm blogging. I made THE MOST DELICIOUS MEAL EVER. Pesto chicken pasta with broccoli, peppers and topped with mozzarella cheese. I am awesome.