Everyday Stranger

The Highlanders

Just a brief one from me....

Scotland was incredible.

I loved it.

I must go back.

It all started off a bit weird-we had a mad dash to the airport in order to get there in time, and just barely made the flight after getting a really ass-y check in desk (note to self: BMI hates their passengers more than any other airline I have ever known!) We got onto the flight with no time to spare and not seated next to each other, so two rows ahead of my Y, I sat next to a man and his son, and settled in for a one hour flight. Shortly before our landing, I noticed that the young boy was humming a tune, and then he started singing softly. It was cute little kid music, a gentle song, and I started singing along with it in my head until I realized the words the kid was singing. I looked over in horror and saw him closing the plastic window cover as he sang:

"We're going down....we're going to die...." again and again.

Then he started rolling his eyes in his head and smacking his head on the plastic window cover, and I thought Oh my fucking God, is this kid channeling the Big Bopper? Oh my God, this is the creepiest thing ever...

But the young boy's channels must've been messed up, since we landed without incident.

Y and I got into our rental car and headed out north, to the Highlands, to Ben Nevis and Glencoe. And for once, I am out of metaphors. I am out of words to describe what can only be the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life, ever. It was brilliant, lonely, empty, haunting, and thrilling, all in one. Y and I took a ski lift on one of the mountains, which was empty this time of year since there was no snow. And on the way up, with gentle waterfalls and aching cold, I had my hand in Y's lap, helping him to...enjoy...the scenery.

When we got to the top, we decided to do as the Highlanders did, and initiate the mountain.

Wonderful.

We got to our bed and breakfast, a gorgeous and enormous ancestral home run by the most eccentric Scotsman I'd ever met, and settled in for a wonderful sleep. And sleep we did-we slept like rocks, with the window open, showering us with Highland chilled air and wrapped in each other, until a 7 am Y sat bolt upright. He looked at me. Looked at the end of the bed. I looked down then and saw that we had hada security breach during the night.

Curled up at the end of the bed was a fat and very satisfied looking tabby cat. And I, so deeply missing my cats myself, lay in a fetal position, the fat cat curled in the hollow of my knees, and allowing me to scratch the side of her ears for ages.

It was perfect.

We then puttered around Highlands in our rented Vauxhall Corsa, screaming down mountain tracks and laughingly leaning forward to strain back up them on the single track roads. It was great fun, and we pulled into Inverness later that evening, then off to what has to be the most upscale bed and breakfast I have ever stayed in. It was pure luxurious attention to all the details, and Y and I had a romantic morning in the darkness, when he reached out for me.

Then we headed off to Loch Ness (nope, didn't see it) and a drive through the central part of Scotland before settling in Edinburgh, where we spent the day today, walking, laughing, diving out of the rain and getting charmed by bagpipes (which, actually, turn me on like no ones business).

We are now back in Newbury, with a mass of laundry to do, love bits up and down our backs, and the hope that things will stay as good as they have been.

Pics and a few other things tomorrow. including a debacle....

-H.

PS-Dane sent me two boxes of Cap'n Crunch for my birthday, thereby making him my personal hero. Thank you, dearest :)

Posted by Everydaystranger at April 13, 2004 11:31 PM | TrackBack