Scotland

Pictures from Scotland: Part 1 and Part 2

We went to Scotland for a week before heading to Paris via London for YAPC::EU. I spent much of the week remembering how to drive in the UK after we decided to get a car in Edinburgh. Jarkko was going to drive but after he demonstrated that he had forgotten what a clutch was, I thought I had better drive instead. :) Neither of us had driven since we moved in January either.

The first few days were spent in Crail with a friend of Jarkko's who is an old Norse and Tolkien scholar, not to mention an utterly delightful host. Paul also took us all around Fife and St. Andrews. Every turn in the road gave way to postcard scenery as much of Fife is still very rural and bucolic. Paul's neighbour came over one morning, too, and took us all to the Crail Boot Sale [ as in car, not as in shoe ] which was an entertaining slice of local colour.

After leaving Crail we made our way to the West coast and stopped in Inveraray to shop at Loch Fyne Whiskies. If you live in a place with as pitiful a selection of single malts as Finland has, they do mail order :) Oban was a pleasant stop where I managed to get a really nice photo of the twilight over the water which I may just enter in the NGS Traveller photo contest for grins and humiliation.

It was a bit jarring when we left Scotland for London as it is everything that Crail is not. Next time I think we'll spend far more time in the quiet corners of Scotland drinking whisky and go there after we've been through London for books and visiting friends.