Looking For Nessy

Hello!

I spent the last week...ish in Inverness. Well, Dingwall to be exact, but it was only a half hour trip from Inverness and a hell of a lot cheaper just FYI!

It was cold and rainy and very much like a Perth winter there. But I had fun.

My B&B gave me a dram of whisky in my room

I visited Loch Ness and kept a good eye out for Nessy. Sadly I didn't spot her.

Also visited Urquhart Castle. There is no shortage of castles in Scotland!

Loch Ness

I was also lucky enough to be in Inverness during the Highland Games. Now that was fun!

Can't think of anything better than watching a bunch of kilt wearing strong men and women demonstrating just how strong they are! One of the women was actually a 15 year old girl and she came 2nd in hammer throwing!

The winner of the men's hammer throw was a Dutchman and I can't remember his name but I'm pretty sure it was Daddy!

It was here I also got to meet the Stoltman brothers AKA the strongest brothers in the world!

Very sweet. Very big. It's not often I get to feel like a delicate wee lass!

Absolute units!

Oh, and I finally went on a whisky tour! Been meaning to get on that for a while. And it was good! Had some very nice whiskys and if I had room in my bag I would be bringing some home.

Found my birthday barrel!

Where the magic happens

Unfortunately my awesome whisky day was upset by the worst Indian food I have ever eaten. I just wanted something not deep fried dammit! How can you fuck up food that badly?? I didn't get sick, although maybe ejecting that from my body would've been better. It just tasted bad! I don't know what the fuck that was but it wasn't Indian.

Anyways, I'm in Ireland now, I got in late last night and let me tell you it wasn't the best first impression I ever had.

I must've caught the customs officer on a bad night, or maybe they save the shit ones for the night shift... who knows.

But this condescending, mansplaining, rude (very possibly racist) prick almost didn't let me in. And he didn't give me a standard 90 day tourist visa either. Nope, I've got to be out by the 18th August! I mean I was going to be leaving about then anyway because I have my level 2 reiki course on the 20/21 August in England, but still! This means I finish up my volunteering on the farm on the 18th and need to leave the country same day.

And I said old mate may be racist because he was only asking the brown people to step out of the line to sort us out after everyone else (cough white people cough) went through... maybe he was racist, maybe all us brown people did have issues that needed to be sorted. In his defence he was rude to everyone...

I needed to show where I'd be staying the whole time I'm here, and needed to show my insurance (which he spent a good while going through) and my insurance needed to cover work because even though I'm volunteering over here (swapping my labour for food and board) in Ireland that's still seen as working... fair enough, I did not know that... thank fuck I have pretty comprehensive travel insurance. Either that or he couldn't be fucked reading through the entire thing and just gave up after 5 minutes.

Point is, I have never had to show the exact address of every place I'd been staying while in country or show my travel insurance.

But one cockhead doesn't represent a whole country and I have been charmed by the Irish people.

Went in for a drink at what turned out to be the last pub left in Cork that opens at 7am (they open early for the dockers) and I ended up spending hours in there talking to a couple of very friendly Irishmen. Was good craic!