I'm not going to write tons because I think that for this bit, the pictures will speak much more than words. On Tuesday, I met my friends Nick and Harry at the Edinburgh train station, and we took the train to Kingussie, Scotland. We got in in the late afternoon and checked in to our bed and breakfast -- The Arden House, which was about a 3 minute walk from the train station. It was an absolutely delightful house and the couple that ran it couldn't have been nicer. They showed us to our rooms -- Nick and Harry in the one with the two twin beds, and I lucked out and got the bigger room with the queen room -- pretty awesome!
We ate at the Silverfjord Hotel -- which was the only restaurant recommended to us by the couple -- and it was equally as delightful. I had pork and apple sausages on mashed potatoes and some vegetables and then we split some dessert -- the sticky toffee pudding was incredible!!
Wednesday we ordered our breakfasts to be ready around 9am -- and they were delicious. I tried the scrambled eggs with smoked Scottish salmon -- yum. And there was toast, cereral, fruit, tea, and all that good stuff, too! So so good. The boys both had the Scottish breakfast -- which was kind of a mix of everything: sausage, ham, black pudding (blood pudding), fried egg, baked beans, tomato, and probably something else that I'm forgetting! But I trust them when they say it was also wonderful.
We spent the morning walking to the Ruthven Barracks -- I'm not going to try to recount the history, but apparently, it was bloody and unpleasant between the English and the Scottish...so we'll leave it at that.
Then, for the afternoon, we walked a few kilometers down a bike path to the next town -- Newtonmore, or really just before it, to go to the Highland Folk Museum. It was free! And quite interesting. They had a 1930s working farm with lots of chickens, other buildings replicated from the 1930s, and then a whole little village from the 1700s -- or made to look like a 1700s' village. There were even people in period costume that were giving little histories.
We walked back and hung out in the hotel a little bit -- it was more walking than we had thought! And we headed back to the Silverfjord for dinner (oh, and we got a 10% discount there because we were staying at the Arden House! -- how can you beat that). I got the mushroom soup and whole grain bread -- which were really good, and split a side of "chips" - yum.
Thursday (yesterday)! We ate a little earlier -- and I tried the pancakes, which came highly recommended (by the chef himself)! They were also delicious -- it was three half-pancakes already drenched in maple syrup (usually not the way I prefer it -- but I was able to scarf it down....:), and there was a side of plain Greek yogurt, which was great to cut the sweetness of the syrupy pancakes.
Nick had left early in the morning, so Harry and I decided to tackle hiking "Creag Bheag" which was just behind our B&B. It was absolutely stunning. Hard to describe in words. It was a bit wet, but we managed! Beautiful lake at the bottom, too.
After our hike, we found our way back to the center of town -- and because I'm like a dog and need to be fed at regular intervals, I said that we should go to the Tipsy Laird for some lunch and I got a fairly simple sandwich and had a nice chat with Harry! After that, we went back to the little book shop that we had been to the day before -- which was a used book store in which the proceeds go towards helping children with learning disabilities. It's a lovely place that has quite the varitable plethora of books! I started off by looking through some cookbooks, and then I browsed some more and found a silly novel to begin reading. So we sat there for the entire afternoon (well, Harry left around 3 to catch his train), and then the woman running the store let me stay past closing and even brought me tea! It was so sweet of her. And then when she had to leave, she took me to the community library where she was working so that I wouldn't have to wait in the cold! She was wonderful -- and really, everyone in the whole town couldn't have been nicer.
Around 6:30, I returned to the Silverfjord and sat at the bar to eat my same mushroom soup that I ate the night before -- still delicious. And after I ate, I walked across the street to wait for the train! The train ride was pretty uneventful -- it's literally impossible to see anything out the window, which gave me the perfect excuse to continue reading - and finish - the silly book I had started and bought at the book shop.
Today! Melanie and I walked to the Haymarket bus station to catch the bus to St. Andrews for the day. We ended up both falling asleep on the busride there...and arrived around 11:30. It was an incredibly beautiful day -- barely a cloud in the sky even though it was chilly. We walked around town and through the cemetery, and then down towards the beach and along the pier.
At 1, we met Mel's friend Clara at her apartment (in St. Andrews) who had invited us for lunch! She had made this delicious Thai chicken dish with rice, and we ate with her and two of her flatmates. They were all German, but spoke wonderful English, and we literally talked about anything and everything. They were so nice and welcoming, and it was so nice of her to make us all lunch!
After lunch, we walked next door to a bakery/cafe called Bibi's, which Clara had recommended, to get some dessert -- Mel and I split the Toffee King Cake -- which was kind of this chocolate and yellow cake with some caramel and toffee filling? I'm not exactly sure, but it was really good! And also, we got a lemon muffin/cupcake, which was equally as good! A fairly mild cake part, but very lemony and flavorful icing. We decided to go ahead and get to the bus station and caught the bus around 3:50 to get back to Edinburgh.
Tonight, we spent the night in for the most part -- we met her friend Chris on the way back to the apartment, and while Melanie went for a run, Chris and I went to the grocery store to get dinner supplies. When we got back, Mel and I made these Apple Cheesecake Caramel Bars -- which she had found online, and while we did that, Chris fixed dinner! He made this incredible sauce with prawns, tomatoes, leeks, onions, greens, and a bit of cream, and we put that over noodles. Absolutely delicious.
St. Andrews --
Well that's about it for the past week! Hard to believe that vacation is almost over, but it's been wonderful!
A tout a l'heure!
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