{"id":10221,"date":"1998-06-15T21:00:08","date_gmt":"1998-06-15T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/?p=10221"},"modified":"2016-09-07T17:08:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T14:08:26","slug":"pitlochry-to-aviemore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/pitlochry-to-aviemore\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitlochry to Aviemore"},"content":{"rendered":"

9:17 AM<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had a terrific<\/em> night. My internal alarm clock is working fine!<\/p>\n

Breakfast was definitely<\/em> worth \u00a32! I couldn\u2019t even finish! There was fresh fruit (I took an apple to eat later, as a snack!), yoghurt, excellent O.J., hard toast (there were 2, I could only eat 1), cereal (Alpen, again<\/em>. What can I say? It\u2019s great<\/u><\/em>!). I also drank some of the very good cool milk. I\u2019m all set to face the day. There\u2019s about 2 \u00bd hours to go until Haggis picks me up.<\/p>\n

This is my 1st<\/sup> rainy morning in Scotland. It\u2019s sort of a relief. I was getting used to the good weather! It\u2019s time to take out the parka. It\u2019s going to be a pain in the butt, though, this wet weather. I\u2019m going to be soaked all the time and laundry will take longer to dry. Ah! Welcome to Scotland!!! Anyhoo, I\u2019m going to look through my guidebook to see if there are \u2018Wallacey\u2019 places near Aviemore. (nope) The closest I\u2019ve come to dear old Bill was yesterday\u2019s hike through Bobby Bruce country!<\/p>\n

12:22 pm<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just crossed over into the Highlands. It\u2019s magical, misty, and (brown) heather covered. Just as I\u2019ve always dreamt.<\/p>\n

\"map5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4:25 pm.<\/p>\n

I want to catch up on a ton of stuff that\u2019s been lagging since Glasgow, so please excuse any rambling.<\/p>\n

So… this is the Highlands. While Aviemore is butt ugly, They are majestic!!! Tomorrow, I\u2019ve planned a hike around Loch an eilan, which I suppose means lake and island. There\u2019s a castle in the middle of the loch (on the eilan, of course). This is the ugliest hostel I\u2019ve ever<\/em> stayed in.\u00a0The building was obviously built with this purpose in mind. Walking down the halls, one\u2019s feet resonate as they do when one walks through a mobile home. This group of French students has just come in and they\u2019re loud<\/u><\/em><\/strong>! There is nothing<\/em> to the town and it is very<\/em> unfriendly. Still, it looks like good walking country. This is a \u2018resort\u2019 town and there\u2019s an Americanish feel to it. I glanced at a restaurant menu and guess what was the first item on the menu? I\u2019ll give you a hint. Their version comes with a choice of cheeses and sauces\/gravies. Give up? POUTINE<\/em>!!! And spelled just that way\u00a0!\u00a0! Unbelievable\u00a0<\/em>!<\/p>\n

As I walked down to the visitor\u2019s centre (a fair walk, but much<\/em> more useful, cheap, and friendly than the information centre), there were these weird little black things on the ground. Thinking they might be dog poop, I tried to shove one aside so that people wouldn\u2019t step on them. To my surprise, they were kind of… mushy. I poked on a little, trying to guess what on Earth<\/em> it could be. Eventually, I gave up and went on my way. A few metres down, I found another. This one had a face. It was a slug. I feel so<\/em> bad, I most likely killed the other one.\u00a0I also saw a hare\/rabbit in a meadow.<\/p>\n

Now, some notes of a much more general nature:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 SYH (that\u2019s Scottish Youth Hostels) sleep 5 nights, get 6th<\/sup> free. My 2nd<\/sup> night in Inverness will be free, I guess. Unfortunately, I didn\u2019t have my voucher in Glasgow. If I did, tomorrow night or my 1st<\/sup> night in Inverness would be free. Oh well, I have a whole other voucher, too.<\/p>\n

The hostels appear to have a \u2018formula\u2019. Big, comfy, comforters \u00a0with linen included in the price.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 taps: this is the 1st<\/sup> place I\u2019ve encountered where hot and cold water\u00a0come out of the same faucet (Yay! I won\u2019t have to wash my hair in cold water tomorrow!)<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Haggis: basically, I call Edinburgh at least 24 hrs. before I want to move, give them my # (9337) and tell them where I want to go. I\u2019m picked up at the time I was dropped. It\u2019s that easy! The drivers chatter non-stop about anything<\/em> remotely related to Scotland! Craig, whom I had today, seems more… approachable? than John whom I had Glasgow to Edinburgh to Pitlochry. Both, though, are excellent <\/em>guides and heaps of fun!<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 heather: the hills are fuzzy with the stuff! It\u2019s just<\/em> on the point of blooming, it has a purpley tinge to it already. I\u2019ve been told that a few more days of sun and the hills will come alive, a full month and a \u00bd early! (no such luck. I\u2019ll have to go in August next time!) Oh! I hope<\/u><\/em> so\u00a0!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve probably forgotten some stuff, but that\u2019s it for now.<\/p>\n

past 8<\/p>\n

The kitchen here is unbelievable<\/em>! A long row of (gas) stoves and several others of sinks. All very clean. I just had soup and milk for dinner, I wasn\u2019t feeling up to par today, maybe it\u2019s the water?.. (I finally clue in!)<\/p>\n

Can you believe I saw a car today that had honest to goodness, genuine HAWAII licence plates? I\u2019ve seen a plate like that on a car in Chambly, but in Aviemore, Scotland<\/em>?! Now, that car\u2019s a long<\/em> way from home\u00a0! Anyhoo, I\u2019m going to retire with a book someone left on the pamphlet rack. Whenever I\u2019m done with it I\u2019ll<\/em> leave it in some pamphlet rack\u00a0! I have yet to decide where I\u2019m going to stay in Inverness. There are tons<\/em> of hostels! I\u2019ll ask for advice, I guess, I\u2019d like to stay in a relatively small and quiet one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9:17 AM I\u2019ve had a terrific night. My internal alarm clock is working fine! Breakfast was definitely worth \u00a32! I couldn\u2019t even finish! There was fresh fruit (I took an apple to eat later, as a snack!), yoghurt, excellent O.J., hard toast (there were 2, I could only eat 1), cereal (Alpen, again. What can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[656,652,18,3,56],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-10221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviemore","category-pitlochry","category-scotland","category-travel","category-uk","tag-accommodation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}