Bonnie Scotland - Tour Planning

[mothwing]

Beautiful city of Glasgow, with your streets so neat and clean,
Your stately mansions, and beautiful Green!
Likewise your beautiful bridges across the river Clyde,
And on your bonnie banks I would like to reside.

Isn't he great? I love William McGonagall. The rest of this gem can be found here and is a prime example of William Topaz McGonagall's fine art. We're currently once more planning our journey. I have talked to the scary people at the hostel (Skyewalker, hehe), and we have managed to book rooms. Whee! Now all that we need is to sort out the question whether to take the coach ticket or the train ticket. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and it's not really possible to decide.

We're currently in the Music Department, which we have all for ourselves. Students who wish to practice in here after hours (or surf on the net) can go and fetch a key from the Main Gate and stay as long as they like ("Mind, the key's gotta be back by tomorrow, gels!"). This is cool as well as slightly scary. There is no one in the place apart from us, although there were ghostly piano tunes coming from downstairs a while ago, so maybe there is someone after all.

Our route for the next days:

• Saturday: From Glasgow to Loch Ness
• Sunday: From Loch Ness to Rogart
• Monday: Hiking in Rogart
• Tuesday: From Rogart to Skye
• Wednesday: Hiking on Skye
• Thursday: From Skye to Glenfinnan
• Friday: Back home from Glenfinnan.

We have the timetables for all the routes, we have booked the hostels, so everything ought to work out alright. I hope it does! The route looks great and although we do not manage to see Inverness or Aberdeen we do see a good deal of Scottish countryside and I am looking forward immensely to that.
Especially to Skye. Ever since I first heard the Skye Boat Song when I saw the end credits of a programme on Skye on telly I have been in love with this island, I have no idea why. I was delighted when I found R. L. Stevenson’s version of the Skye Boat Song later on. 

Sing Me a Song of a Lad That is Gone…

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.

Mull was astern, Rum on the port,
Eigg on the starboard bow;
Glory of youth glowed in his soul;
Where is that glory now?

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.

Give me again all that was there
Give me the sun that shone!
Give me the eyes, give me the soul,
Give me the lad that's gone

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.

Billow and breeze, islands and seas,
Mountains of rain and sun,
All that was good, all that was fair,
All that was me is gone.

I love Stevenson’s poetry, and although I was never quite able to like his novels, his poetry has been a much-cherished part of my teenagerhood. He is such a great poet, although what I miss in his poetry is, well, Scots. But then, not everybody can be like Hugh McDiarmaid. 
His poetry is absolutely amazing, albeit absolutely unintelligible in parts, because he writes in his Lallans.

The Watergaw

by Hugh MacDiarmid

Ae weet forenicht i' the yow-trummle
I saw yon antrin thing,
A watergaw wi' its chitterin' licht
Ayont the on-ding;
An' I thocht o' the last wild look ye gied
Afore ye deed!

There was nae reek i' the laverock's hoose
That nicht—an' nane i' mine;
But I hae thocht o' that foolish licht
Ever sin' syne;
An' I think that mebbe at last I ken
What your look meant then.

I do hope the weather will be on our side next week... 

Ooh, something I am looking forward to immensely is travelling by Mail Coach. Some of the remote areas on the islands and in the Highlands are only accessible by Mail Coach, which are rather cheap and very slow. Whee, what an adventure!

It is ridiculous how much I am looking forward to that.

Comments

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

It's painful, I tell you. Which is why no one is supposed to see it. ^^ It's for your protection, believe me.

Uh, I'm getting hungry, haven't had anything all day apart from cookies (blegh...), so I guess we had better head home and get that Chicken Tikka Masala going.

... Now all I have left to do is unglue Crocky from the screen. Whee.