Scotland: Part II

The weather for our third day in Scotland was even worse than the day before. The weather report warned us of gale winds which blew the rain sideways into our faces and under our tightly bundled scarves. I felt bad for the tortured trees which were practically horizontal to the ground. Fergus didn't think this would affect our plans at all, but saw the horror on our faces when he told us we were going to be walking around anyway. Because he's amazing at his job, he took on the responsibility of waking us up by blasting an annoyingly cheery song as soon as we stepped on the bus, at what I think is a disturbingly early time. He even flickered the lights and used the brakes to bounce the bus around so it was like our own mini club. It was pretty effective though because we did file off the bus when he told us he was going to tell us a story... outside on a bridge, over a raging river.
And we listened to his story! He's an amazing storyteller and we stood outside with our hands in our pockets while he told us about two warring clans who tried to make peace by arranging a marriage between them. But on the day of the wedding the beautiful bride falls off her horse, smashing her face on a rock (at this point Fergus acted out the scene busting out a plastic eyeball for added effect). She continues on with the wedding though, but when she reaches her husband to be he takes on look at her mutilated face and thinks the other clan is trying to trick him. So in a fit of rage he flings the woman into the river, supposedly never to be seen again. However, she emerges from the water, her face perfect again (and eyeball back in place). As Fergus concludes his tale this is when he tells us that the river has magical healing powers and if we put our faces in it we wont age for 10 years. We laugh, knowing he's kidding as the rain falls even harder. But no, he says, "I'm not opening the bus until every one of you sticks your face in the river for at least 10 seconds." And to our horror, he pulls of his cap, walks down to the muddy and treacherous bank of the river and proceeds to get on all fours, putting his face right into the rushing water! All the while, we're gasping in amazement while simultaneously trying to figure out a way of of doing it ourselves.In the end he didn't force us but I felt like doing something stupid that I would never normally do, so I did in fact put my face in the freezing water for 10 whole (long, everlasting, never-ending) seconds while trying not to slip on the rocks.
While a funny story and a good memory, my scarf got soaking wet and we all smelled like wet dogs for the rest of the afternoon. And Fergus continued to spice up our trip, taking us to a little town with a charity shop so we could buy costumes for a spontaneous Halloween party. The shop was in a very small, wee, Scottish town where the villages spoke both English and Galick, which was so much fun to listen to. The shop was wee too and we had a few choices ranging from long old lady skirts to ugly old lady hats. But the costumes that people came up with were incredible. I went with a too long soccer shirt which was pretty uncreative, but at the party that night a friend of mine used an ugly old lady hat to the be the Queen. Another bought some black shirts which she cut up to be a black cat. There was also a girl dressed as a lamp, an apple tree (or Eden, depending how you looked at it), a tacky tourist, a child, and lots of guys who bought skirts and came up with some pretty cool variations on the traditional Scottish costume. Typical Fergus though was the most creative of all, wearing an ugly old lady dress and wig along with some sort of knight's mask and called himself the Iron Maiden (get it? hahaha, funny)!
The hostel that we stayed in that night was on the banks of Loch Ness. Before we settled in Fergus turns the bus toward the lake saying, "There's a dance that my father taught me that was taught to him by my grandfather, and so on. I'm going to teach you this ancient traditional dance that's been passed on for generations. It will drive Nessie right out of the water." So we pulled up to the lake thinking we were going to learn something really old school, when Fergus emerges from the bus with a goofy green felt Loch Ness Monster hat. He proceeds to make us stand in line and make lassoing motions while saying "Monster. Monster. Monster. Come to me, come to me, come to me." We couldn't stop laughing and later that night at our Halloween party we taught all the other kids who weren't blessed with Fergus as their tour guide our "ancient dance" - but they didn't seem to get it and weren't too keen to learn anyways and basically walked away shaking their heads. But that's okay, they'll be jealous when Nessie comes out of the water just for us...

Nessie did not emerge for us. We stared at the water until all we could see were tiny ripples and white spots. However, Fergus told us some really interesting stories about what people have claimed to see in the mysterious waters of Loch Ness. Turns out there probably are sea creatures in the lake. It's incredibly deep and over 20 miles long. The legends most likely started over sighs of large animals seen nowhere else coming up from the depths. At risk of sounding all academic for a second, I think it's fascinating that our society knows more about outer space than what's underwater on our own planet.
The lake was beautiful on top of having so much history and speculation behind it, and looking back on my photos the scenery doesn't even look real. I was so impressed with my photos, thinking I was such a great photographer because they came out so good... but everyone's look that beautiful because Scotland was that amazing and no one could really ever go wrong.