Is Nessie real??

To celebrate the end of my first month in Scotland, I went on two organized day trips to the Scottish Highlands. This allowed me to see many of the famous places here, but definitely not everything and not in enough detail. Nonetheless, it showed me how incredibly beautiful this country is and what I still have to do in the near future ;)

The first trip started on Saturday (1.10.) at 7 o'clock in the morning. That meant I had to get up shortly before 5 because I still had to take the bus to the city center. I was a bit excited because none of the people I have met so far were coming along. I had already booked the trip before leaving. But I quickly found a nice German seat neighbor on the bus, so we left Edinburgh and made a small stop at a few Highland cattle, through the Great Glen with beautiful lakes and impressive mountains further and further north to the famous Loch Ness. There we took a one-hour boat trip on the deepest lake in Scotland. If you ask me, there may not be a monster called Nessie living in these depths, but certainly something that is still unknown to us. However, I did not see a single animal, whether known or not, in bright sunshine. After a small lunch, we headed back towards Edinburgh, as the journey takes 4 hours. We made some photo stops in the Cairngorms National Park, where there were more unique mountains to see.

The second trip started early again and this time took us to Loch Lomond, the largest lake in Scotland in terms of area, which does not harbor a monster, however. We were there very early because the lake is only about a 2-hour drive away. So we could see the slowly rising fog over the lake. It had something very soothing and somehow mystical. After a short walk, we headed back towards Edinburgh, but not home, but to Stirling. There we visited the castle - and yes, pretty much every Scottish city has one. The weather was fantastic again! There is so much to discover in the castle and the old buildings are very impressive. On the way back to Edinburgh, we stopped at two gigantic metal horse heads. You are probably wondering, just like us, what the point of that is. Somewhere on the highway between Stirling and Edinburgh, these huge horse heads protrude from the ground. So here's the short story about it. In reality, they are not simply horses, but Kelpies, a mythical creature that lives in the water and, when it comes out, transforms into a beautiful white horse. Not because it simply wants to be beautiful, but to lure unsuspecting, lost hikers into a trap. The wandering hiker is very likely to be happy about a horse that can carry him for a while. So when he wants to mount, the Kelpie drags him into the water and devours him completely except for his liver. That's what they say here, at least.

As you can see, I had a wonderful first month here. I am very grateful and happy to be here and experience and learn so many great things and have already met so many nice people.