Traveling to Inverness

We took off from Aberdeen bright and early and headed to Inverness, which located on the northern coast of Scotland. (Well sort of northern. There are kind of two northern coasts because the coastline goes in and then back up again if that makes sense. Anyway, if you look at a map it is the more southern part of the northern coast.) We drove along the eastern coast until we came to Balmedie and then hopped out to go play at the beach for a while. Balmedie Beach was one of my favorite places in Scotland. It was so different from anything else we'd seen so far and I just love beaches period.

 Pathway leading up to the beach

 I thought the rivets int he sand were so cool!

 Audrey, Kenzie, Jaci, Alexandra, Jenalyn, Toma, Me, and Emilia

 Rachel and I

So gorgeous. I didn't want to leave! 

Next stop, Slains Castle! This was the castle that supposedly inspired Dracula. After visiting the castle I can kind of see why. All the windows and doors are super tall and wide. I could totally picture a creepy vampire in one of those windows! The grounds around the castle are also pretty scary. There isn't much land between the castle walls and the edge of the cliff. Just a few years ago a little boy touring the castle fell and died. They still had pictures, toys, and pepsi bottles (apparently he liked pepsi) at the entrance as sort of a makeshift memorial. 

 Pretty field lining the path to the castle. 

 Steep drop!!!

 I love all the wildflowers. So pretty!

 This window was pretty much level with the step I was on. Not gonna lie, I got a little nervous.

 Top of the tower.

 Apparently it's a good place for parties these days. 

 Madi and Rachel

 Can't you imagine Dracula swooping through that archway?

I cannot even tell you how bad the kinks and knots in my neck and back were after coming home from this trip. I blame it all on the ketchup bottle. There was no comfortable position to rest your head to take a nap. Combined with the constant bumps in the road and the whiplash it was no bueno. Rachel and I discovered this technique to help us sleep. I'm not even kidding, it was the best thing ever and helped me sleep through my nausea from that stupid van. haha

Next, we stopped at the historic battleground of the Battle of Culloden. This was the last battle of the Jacobite Rebellion in the 1700s. In a nutshell, Charles Edward Stuart led the Jacobites to battle in order to overthrow the loyalists/House of Hanover. The Jacobites consisted of mostly Scottish highlanders and the Hanovers were mostly English. The Jacobites lost, and the period following this battle was marked by Gaelic oppression and the breakdown of the Scottish clan system. For a while they weren't even allowed to wear kilts! It was actually pretty sad. 

 These markers each had a name of a Scottish clan that fought in the battle. 

After this we finished our drive up to Inverness which turned out to be one of my favorite cities we visited. We weren't there for long, unfortunately- the sun was already setting by the time we got there. We checked into our hostel, which had co-ed bathrooms/showers by the way...that was uncomfortable...and then explored the city the rest of the evening. About half our group stopped for dinner at a cute little cafe that served awesome pasta. Then we did some tourist shopping and took a walk down to the river to watch the sun set. 

 Walking to dinner

 Downtown Inverness

 Sunset on the River Ness

Inverness Castle