So the past three days have been heavy travel and adventure days for me. To say I am exhausted is an understatement, but I cannot stress enough just how amazing these travels have been.
I had not yet gone to the Glasgow Necropolis, which is the oldest Victorian graveyard in all of the UK (possibly Europe), and also has the oldest cathedral in Glasgow. So Victoria Cagle and I ventured out "early" on Thursday morning (10 am) before my anatomy class to explore the grave sites, the church, and the view of the city. I have seen and visited quite a few graveyards, but this one seemed to be different. Even though it was old, it felt as though it were telling you a story. So, the best way for me to describe it further is to quote my favorite musical genius Sara Bareilles in her song "Chasing The Sun" - "As the echo of heartbeats, from the ground beneath my feet, filled a cemetery, in the center of (Queens) Glasgow."
It did rain, but that didn't seem to dampen (PUN!) any spirits (PUN AGAIN). It was a great view of most of the city, and also a must-see in Glasgow excursions.
I had also been invited by my friend Michael in my anatomy class to go hiking with him and Austen on Friday at a place called Ben Arthur. "Ben" in Gaelic means "Mountain" or "Hill", so don't think that we climbed up a person named Ben Arthur. I invited Victoria, so I got to be with her 2 days in a row. And then the next day we would have CNU trip #2. So actually 3 days. Great.
(I know sarcasm is hard to pick up on over a computer screen, so I just have to throw out there that I am 10000% kidding.)
We met at the Glasgow Queen Street Station to take the train to Arrochar at 8 am. Austen missed the train, got the later one, tried to find us on our hike, but couldn't. We all felt really bad that he couldn't hike with us, but we should all plan a little better next time.
We arrived at the train station and had a nice little walk to the little town of Arrochar, and we meandered our way to the bottom of the trail that lead to the tip top of Ben Arthur, which was a staggering 3,000 feet in the air. I, at first, did not have a real concept of what that meant, especially since the low clouds were covering about 4/5 of the whole mountain.
Every now and again we would stop and look out over Loch Long and the town, and we would talk about "how high we were". How little we knew.
We eventually entered an area of just cedar trees, which was really pretty, and then after a little while, all of a sudden, the trees cleared and we were in a "valley" in between Ben Arthur and another mountain whose name escapes me. It seemed like we had entered another planet. The open fields with yellow and orange-red grass, the scattered rocks, and the nice stream running right down the middle was stunning. We had long since walked into the low clouds, so the mist made everything look eerie but beautiful at the same time. We could see a faint outline of the top of the mountain if you looked straight up, but little did we know that even what we could see was not all of it.
(pictures aren't uploading so just look at the pictures I have posted on Facebook for reference)
We eventually stopped for a snack on a big rock, and when we checked the time, we had only been hiking for two hours. We seemed to be making good time, but we still had a good 2/3 of the hike left until we reached the top. We trekked on and on until we got to a point where the path split into two. Going left meant trekking up to Ben Arthur, going right meant hiking to the top of that other mountain that I still cannot think of. We set out going up the left trail, which was more steep than anything we had previously done. The only way to travel up the mountain was to follow the path in its zigzag pattern, so every so often we would stop and look out after climbing 5 or 6 zigs (or zags?) and we were actually really shocked just how much distance was really covered. I know for a fact that the slope of the mountain at that point was over 45 degrees. Good thing we were walking on a well-trodden path.
The higher we got, the more snow there was. Thankfully, it wasn't snowing, but the excessive amount of snow (like almost a foot in places) made the trek more slippery and difficult. We saw a dog go up the mountain, and if a dog can make it, damn it so can we! So we persevered and pushed onward until we got to what seemed like the top. However, we did not know that there were two peaks to Ben Arthur. One peak was "small", and the other was much higher and had what was called "The Cobbler", which is a collection of stacked rocks that looks kind of like a boot. But not really.
Michael and I traveled up the shorter one while Victoria rested, and when we met up with her at the bottom, we all traveled up to the top of the larger one.
Once we reached the top, the wind got pretty bad and literally nothing could be seen. You could look down and see the scraggly rocks below you, but there was absolutely no way to see just how far down it actually went. And maybe that was better. But it was such a feeling of satisfactory feeling knowing that you just climbed 3,000 feet in the air. I am not an experienced hiker, and the fact that I did that made me feel very proud of myself and my fellow travelers.
I did want to climb up on the Cobbler as I had seen many people do in pictures, but it was too wet, cold, and windy to risk it. But that didn't hinder me from feeling satisfaction for making it there.
We began our descent down a different path from whence we had come, and this was incredibly steep and rock. It was really slow going down, but we honestly couldn't go much faster because one wrong step would be a not-so-fun descent that could prove to be painful. Or deadly.
After what felt like forever, we finally made it to the bottom of the steep mountain, then the valley, then the treeline, and finally the base of the mountain. Our aching feet, knees, eyes, and just about everything else were telling us to quit, but we still needed food and to get back to the train, so we trudged onward until we found both of those things.
Needless to say, I passed out within minutes of laying down in bed that night.
But there was an 8:30 am wake up call for the CNU trip to Stirling and Loch Lomond. So Day 3 began a lot earlier than I would have wanted, but I have to say, if I didn't go on this trip, I would have been really sad. I haven't had a lot of opportunities to hang out with the CNU group as a whole, so this was a really good bonding experience for all of us. We got a really great tour of Stirling Castle by an extremely energetic and spry old man, and I actually learned a lot about how Scotland struggled to keep control over its country for centuries. It was also really nice to actually be able to go into a castle without it either being closed to the public or too much money.
After Stirling Castle, we traveled to a small town to grab lunch, and then we were off to Loch Lomond for a little sightseeing and a distillery tour. There was a little bit of a hike to get to a lookout point, but it pailed in comparison to the hike I had done the day before. We even went down to a beach, where the sun peeked out for a bit, which was great to see since the forecast was rain all day.
The distillery tour was actually very interesting. I know nothing about brewing, so I expected to be told about things that was out of my realm of understanding, but honestly, all of the chemistry I have been taking really is paying off. They talked about fermentation and the production of alcohol and how distilling works, and I understood it all! It actually made the process of producing whisky engaging and awesome. I also found out that whisky has the second highest revenue out of anything in Scotland, behind oil and in front of Scottish salmon. We got a little dram of Glengoyne Scotch Whisky, which was REALLY FREAKING SMOOTH, and afterward we got to explore their shop. Some things were pretty cheap, but they had a bottle of whisky that aged 35 years that cost a meager 2,850 pounds. They were also in the process of making a whisky that would be aged 50 years and would cost roughly 10,000 pounds for a bottle. Ridiculous. But probably really good.
I know this was a heavy and long blog post, but it was a really rewarding and exhilarating three days. I also know that I have been promising myself a weekend where I didn't travel, and I haven't held myself to that very well, but I swear next weekend I will relax a little!
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