Well I am exhausted. I have just spent three days with Peter and his brother, Evan, in Scotland for Peter's bucks weekend (or a stag weekend as they call it over here).
It started friday night when we all arrived in Edinburgh (Peter from Birmingham, Ev from Belfast and myself from Southampton). Ev's plane was late and we had a bit of trouble finding a park in the city, but it all worked out and we were able to hit the city soon enough.
We started with food at a Mexican restaurant and then on for drinks. Scotland has already banned smoking in pubs, so it was really nice. We got back to the apartment about 2am but Ev and Peter wanted more booze, so they headed out on a quest. They could not find a bottlo (or a 7-Eleven), but found a take away shop that would sell dodgy wine if you bought some food. They apparently pretended to be with some other people and managed to score some wine. They also met up with a couple of drunk blokes sitting out the front of the apartment who insisted they took their spare alcohol as well (and who were they to argue!).
The next morning we headed out for a cooked breakfast and to look around Edinburgh. It was the first time Ev or myself had been there, so it was nice to see the city. We didn't hang around too long though as we had to head up to Fort William which was where the real reason for the weekend away was. Peter had decided he wanted to climb Ben Nevis.
We arrived to the news that England had been booted out of the World Cup by Portugal (which most of the Scots were happy about!). After dumping our bags we headed into the town proper to look around. We had some dinner and watched as the lone Portuguese person walked up and town the mall celebrating the World Cup win - he was pretty excited.
We started early the next morning and headed out to the car park at the bottom of the hill. The first part of the climb was awful. It was almost vertical and pretty tough on the legs. After a while though it leveled out and it was quite a nice walk. There were heaps of people climbing as well, it was very popular.
We were lucky to have fantastic weather as well. It did get colder as we climbed, but it was not raining and there were not many clouds, which, from what I understand, is a real bonus for Ben Nevis.
It was great when we made it to the top. We sat around and had some lunch and Ev handed out hip flasks to each of us (he bought them specially for the weekend). Unfortunately the shirts I had gotten made did not arrive in time so we could not wear them.
We met up with some other Aussies who we shared the trip down with. Going down was actually tougher then walking up (especially on the knees), but we eventually made it . It was done and it felt pretty good actually.
We headed back to the hotel for a swim and a rest before heading into town for dinner. We decided to head back to the hotel so we could all drink and celebrate the days achievements. Despite Ev's and my whinging about Peter's choice, I think we all enjoyed it!
We left Fort William this morning for the leisurely drive down to Edinburgh for our flight home. The scenery on the drive back was fantastic. We were stopping almost every five minutes to take photos.
We stopped at a place called Monachyle Mhor in Balquhidder for lunch. It was absolutely amazing. The food was out of this world and the setting spectacular. There was also a two year old kid (a son of the owners) who was wandering around doing whatever he liked!
We then headed straight to the airport in Edinburgh where we had a couple of drinks while waiting for our flights back.
What a great weekend!
Okay, sorted out the photo issue (kind of). They are now all on Flickr. So click the photo below to view the whole set.
