Loch Ness, Scotland

We were looking forward to meeting with the famous water monster living in Loch Ness. The first person who allegedly saw Nessie was St. Columbus, who Christianized Scotland in the sixth century. Since then, much time has passed, but the legend is still alive and frightening. It's hard not to succumb to the atmosphere of this place, where everyone and looks forward to monster. However, this is a very "commercial " area. Along the shores of the lake was built a lot of shops where you can buy, among other things, plastic monstrosities - toys.

Clave Cairns, Ben Nevis, River Ness

Near Culloden is equally important, because prehistoric site - the Temple 5,000 years before: Clave Cairns. Chris asked us to take off their shoes when entering the site, otherwise deptalibyśmy good fairies and spirits of Scotland. According to legend, the great, a Celtic god - Ben Nevis, long ago, threw them on the ground from the highest mountain in Scotland, and then turned into stones. Smaller stones are fairies, and more are good spirits. Later that same evening we arrived in the capital Highlands, Inverness. It is a small town, picturesquely situated on the River Ness. Bay in Inverness can be found even dolphins. The memory stuck in our particular unique atmosphere of local pubs. Scots are very entertaining people. They can spend long hours drinking beer or whiskey, talking, singing and dancing. Everywhere you can find traces of their great patriotism. People with our colleague has been compared to William Wallace, who this time would be designed to win independence for the Scots.

On the way to Glasgow we decided to stay on the shore of the largest in Scotland, Loch Lomond, as the text says one of the more popular songs among the Scots: "(...) but me and my true love will never meet again to thr bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. " From there we drove straight to Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, which in 1990 was selected for the European Capital of Culture. Its name comes allegedly from the Celtic word Glas-cu, which means "beloved green place." Unfortunately we spent only a few hours there. The city is famous not only soccer, but mainly from the industrial revolution, which has just begun there. It also made one of the most famous Scottish artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1862-1928). Imitation characteristic decorative motifs of the artist can be seen in almost every shop or bar in Scotland. One gets the impression that there is a kind of fashion for "Mackintosh". Village itself seems to be disorderly and depressing. Victorian architecture and Gothic churches co-operating factories with no unique atmosphere. It is cheaper here than in the rest of Scotland, perhaps because the area is considered extremely dangerous.

Scotland probably every tourist leaves the boundaries of its kind left wanting. For it is so interesting that it is not enough to go there only once. Unfortunately, our funds are not allowed to stay for longer. It is cheaper than England, but it is one of the most expensive European country. So if you imagine Scotland as a beautiful, mountainous country with numerous lakes and moors, and the Scots as przeuroczych, cheerful guest and certainly not stingy people (here, we want to disprove a stereotype). Just have a lot of desire, and a lot of money to find that out.

Edinburgh Festival

It all started in Edinburgh, which is the capital of Scotland. Luckily it happened that at the same time take place in the Edinburgh International Festival. Then comes to town a lot of theater and music groups to present themselves at local theaters and streets. The city is visited by then many thousands of tourists from all over the world. The international nature of this festival is an opportunity to showcase their native culture. In addition to the kilcie Scot, playing in the kobzie can see people in the ethnic African clothes. All provide an atmosphere of fun, music can be heard everywhere. In addition to attending the event may be amused to see the tired tourists in the gardens of dozing off Princes Street. In the early afternoon on the Royal Mile, which leads to the castle, they begin to arrive in numerous bands and theater. It happened to us to chase one of these teams up the Royal Mile in the rain, because the members of the corpses looked like a group of Scottish soldiers of the sixteenth century. The fact that the twentieth century we have witnessed only the sun glasses on the nose of one of the players on the drum. Everything that happens on the streets of Edinburgh at this time, the Scots refer to as "fringe". In addition to the theater festival is also the Military Tattoo Festival, which ends with a spectacular military parade. Yet returned to Edinburgh for the final of the festival, which usually takes place in early September. Organized the spectacular fireworks display at the castle, which is painted in the night a thousand colors.

The other legend of Giant's Causeway

The second legend is more romantic, though it's only a banal love story of a giant and the giant. This time, Fionn had to fall in love with a woman living on the Island of Staffa, near the Scottish coast (here, "the road" again emerges.) So he built the dam, and on her way to be able to move to his beloved home.

Before the place became a famous tourist attraction of the local villagers used the exposed gaps between the columns as reservoirs of salt. Filling them with sea water and, after evaporation of the sun scraping salt. Since the eighteenth century, began to appear there first tourists.
We stood on the black basalt columns, covered with yellowish brown and lichen. Patrzyłyśmy as foaming waves crashing on the shore. We felt a slight breeze on his face unique and admired the beauty arising from the forces of nature. When I left this piece of land there was no bitterness in me as in the eighteenth century writer William Makepeace Thackeray, who said: "My God! And I traveled 100 miles to see it. "I walked with a friend is not 150 and 1500 km and do not regret. Once again, the nature of mankind has proved that her works are not only subtle, multicolored, arousing awe and humility, but also finely made that no man is as creative as nature itself.

Giant's Causeway

Giant's Causeway greeted us with a breathtaking picture - a small piece of land as if made ​​by human hands, and whose creation had nothing to do with human activity! We saw a regular, hexagonal columns of descending stairs into the depths of the ocean. They were about 60 million years ago during a volcanic eruption that formed the Antrim plateau. The middle part of the effluent stream from the crust of lava stygła slower than the outer layers. Solidify lava shrank, resulting in tension and tension arose, which led to the formation of cracks in hexagonal and 37,000 regular basalt columns. Only some of them are five and a seven, and two, the key and the chair of the octagonal wishlist.

Otherwise explain the rise of the Irish legend of the island. According to the most popular version of the island once lived a giant called the Ulster warrior Fionn Mac Cumhaill. He had scores to settle with his friend from Scotland. To meet with a rival and fight a duel with him on the fists began to build the road to Scotland throwing in the sea pulled from the earth, stone pillars. When he saw the enemy, but he threw himself to escape. Scot followed him. Fionn he came to his house, he put the child's cradle. When Scot came home and saw Fionna "child" of his enemy as a giant, said that the father should be even greater. So scared of that vision, that he fled to Scotland and did not appear again. Built if the road still exists and is called the Giant's Causeway.

Irish impressions

Ireland has charmed us with its wealth of landscapes. Lush green grass, steep rugged cliffs, dive into the waves of the sea, the old mountain ranges covered with heath and the blue glacial lakes in the ruins of old castles and the remains of the Celtic culture still draw in my imagination the image of the island. Wandering through the rarely visited, Irish routes, away from human settlements established close contact with nature, I had time for reflection and inner calm.
Thoughts often go back to the moments in this wonderful country. Before my eyes there is a breathtaking sight of a small portion of the coast, which takes only 2 ha in size and is called the Giant's Causeway - Giant Road. It is located in the northern part of Ulster, belonging to Great Britain. For Northern Ireland, we got a hitch from Donegal situated in the Republic of Ireland. Hitch-hiking provides not only economic benefits. It's a great way to closer to understanding the country's population, their mentality and everyday life, not written anywhere customs and traditions, as well as an excellent opportunity to learn the language.