Last weekend was probably one of the best weekends I've had a in a long time, which is saying a lot, because I usually like my weekends quite a bit. I went on an excursion with Arcadia (the program I went through to get to Scotland) to an outdoors camp called Firbush. Firbush is located in the town called Killin in Perthshire. It's about an hour from Stirling, and located in the southern Highlands.
We got there on Friday night and had enough time to eat a wee bit and socialize for a while, but mostly I was just excited to go to bed. Saturday, however, was packed full of fun.
We woke up pretty early on Saturday and headed out to hike Glen Kirkton. It's a very beautiful 8 mile hike with lots of pretty colored trees (some purple, some orange-ish, and some the classic green). Unfortunately my group didn't make the whole 8 miles because we ran in to some technical spots and the leader didn't want to keep going if we didn't have ice-picks. However, it was a great hike anyways. After we got back to the Firbush grounds we got ready to participate in a traditional Robert Burns dinner. This included eating haggis (which was wrapped in a ribbon and piped in, it gets very high honors). I must say, the haggis was a bit interesting. I didn't think it was too bad, but I wouldn't eat it on a regular basis. It tasted a little too much like meat for me, but I did really enjoy the vegetarian haggis. After the dinner we held a Scottish ceilidh, which is the Scottish version of country line-dancing, except you dance to bagpipes instead of fiddles. I had a great time participating in the ceilidh and I hope I have the opportunity to go to another one while I'm here.
Although I had to leave on Sunday, there was still time to fit in some awesome outdoor activities. In the morning I went mountain biking, for the first time in my life. I really enjoy biking, but I've only ever done road biking, so this whole biking on unpaved paths was new to me. I had a great time and did get appropriately muddy. In the afternoon I got to go kayaking on Loch Tay (the loch that Firbush is set on, it's about 13 miles long). I did not kayak the length of the loch, but I did get to go kayak around a couple islands, which was quite exhilarating. Kayaking was also a new experience for me, and something I am also hoping to continue in the future, both here and back home. I was so inspired I decided to join the kayak club on campus. I haven't been yet, so we'll see how that goes.
All in all it was a fabulous weekend and I have a new found appreciations for the great Scottish outdoors.
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