Day Seven: Fort William/B&B

I feel the need first to add that I say "Fort William" in the title as that is the nearest BIG town to where I'm staying. The real closest town is a small place known as Spean Bridge. It's actually a lot nicer than Fort William in my opinion, but more people probably know of Fort William. So yeah, there.

Anywho. The usual, breakfast and such, I traded rooms last night with John, forgot to mention that. I'm sleeping with Andrew now. Woo-hoo, I guess. D:

We headed out to pick up a gift for Donald Andrew, the chief's son and next in line to the Lochiel name, and his Fiance` Sara's wedding. We found a nice hand painted vase and had flowers arranged in it, as tonight would be the big reception for all the clans. After this we dropped by the big Marquee tent at Achnacarry for the official release of my dad and Dennis Mier (The Clan Cameron Museum curator)'s Locharbor Compendium book, and for lunch. It went well, I had to watch my dad awkwardly sign his first one later, which made me laugh.

We headed back to the B&B after that to get dressed in--Oh joy-- kilts. It wasn't SO bad, I guess. The upper half of me looked all classy and awesome with this snazzy jacket you can only wear with a kilt, pictures to, sadly, follow.

We drove around for a while waiting for it to be time for the reception, which went well when it happened. I'm not sure if a ton of people outside of the UK know who Lady Cecil is, but she is the Lochiel's wife, and a fairly well-known person of influence in England. She is friends with the royal family, comes from a lordship, and I believe, though I may be wrong, that Prince Charles of England is the godfather of one of her and The Lochiel's children. Anywho, I got to meet her, which was very exciting, though I don't think I made the best impression-- I was sorta ushered over to her by the Lochiel without being fully ready and was a tad quiet.

Later on Donald Andrew and his Fiance` showed up. Poor girl didn't realize she had become celebrity overnight within the clan. Sorta funny watching everyone swarm her.

We left early for a fancy-ish dinner by ourselves, but the menu was sorta bad. The chicken I ended up having was delicious, but the restaurant was needlessly garish and pricy.

Bed time now, I get to watch people embaress themselves on stage tomorrow. Video to follow I hope.

Goodnight moon.

Day Six: Fort WIlliam/B&B

Woke up later than normal for once, which I was happy about. Breakfast as usual, hung out here at the B&B for a bit, then went out for the Estate Tours/meetups at the Museum.

We got to get a tad closer to Achnacarry, though we weren't SUPPOSED to. But apparently since my dad knows him well, we got to go sneak about the grounds and have fun. It was so cool, especially the Beach Avenue. There's tons of history behind that which you can find at my dad's website . Go check it out, it's really interesting!

We then hopped in the car and picked up John from a hike he was on and left early, as there wasn't anything else to do. We drove around and hit a lot of spots that I'd been at before in 2001 when I visited, including the Gemstone museum and Ben Nevis Gondola rides.

We also had lunch at a fish and chips place I'd been to before when I was here, which was quite good for being sort of a dive in the middle of Fort William. Oh, I also got the U.K. version of my favorite Harry Potter book, Chamber of Secrets! I was quite enthralled.

After this we headed back to the B&B so my parents could head to another ultra-secret dinner that I'm not allowed to tell you about, but believe me it's secret, special, really cool, and makes me jealous that I couldn't go. D:

Oh well. Until tomorrow!

Day Five: Fort William/B&B

Festivities started! We woke up at normal time, and headed out after breakfast to look at ruins and such, and finally head to Achnacarry Castle and the Clan Cameron Museum. For those of you who don't know, Achnacarry is the home of the clan's chief, and is really freaking awesome. We didn't get to go into the castle today, nor will we-- it's being renovated-- but we went to the Museum and all, and John and I hiked up a mountain in search for Bonnie Prince Charlie's cave. No luck though, just soar legs and regret. Remind me not to do that again.

We headed back to the B&B early-- about 4:00 or so, and got ready for the Reception that night. I dressed up all snazzy, moreso than I had to, but dressing fancy is really fun and all, so whatever. We met everyone and spent a while there, and learned that, apparently, people in Scotland have never heard of a cola and red bull mix. How odd. They were fine with my 7-Up and Orange Juice/ Virgin Momosa thing though.

We then headed out with two of the regional presidents from North America-- one from Canada and the other from the New York area-- they brought their family. No one else got to know we went, nor did they get to come. It was like a little hardcore secret party. We went to dinner at a fancy restaurant/bar, and had tons of fun. The best part was the desert though-- Cre`me Brul`e! Yum.

We got back to the B&B about 11:00, told the owner that we wanted breakfast later than normal, and slept innnnn.

Day Four: Fort William/B&B

Sorry for missing this update last night, I was too tired!

We woke up at normal time, had breakfast, etc, just like normal, then learned of the day's activities. A train ride. But not on just ANY train.

Are you ready for this?

The Hogwarts Express! Oh god it was cool. We didn't get one of the cabins sadly, but it was still amazing. It took us down to a small fishing town for lunch then back up to Fort William. It was freaking awesome, it went over the Viaduct that the Flying Car went through in the movie and all that. It was GREAT!

The rest of the day sorta paled in comparison to that. We had dinner at the Ben Nevis Inn, food was great but I didn't feel like fish in the end so I wasted a lot. Got home, updated my zune, watched a show about the painting of the Drowing Ophelia, and went to bed.

Day Three: Fort William/B&B

Well, this would be the climax of the creative name changes in the titles. Last night was.. well, for lack of a better word exhausting, so I slept well. Breakfast was at 8 AM, and it was wonderful. These B&B owners really know how to cook!

After breakfast we headed out for Loch Ness, Culloden, and Beauly, however we skipped Loch Ness until later. On our way up to Culloden, we stopped at a mall in a town around there. However I didn't know the names of many British stores so I wasn't able to get much of anything, which is sad.

A bit after that we got to Culloden and went through the museum and saw the battlefield, it was cold to say the least, but it was interesting. Afterwards we finally got to Beauly, and I got a snazzy hat and some door handles for my closet that were shaped like clocks.

We finally headed back to the B&B and to dinner, however when we reached where we were to have dinner it was full up. We then headed to Little Chef, which was too full to accomodate, apparently, so we settled on McDonalds-- Did you know that McDonalds in the UK is a lot smaller, portion wise, than it is in the US? Also no refils? How depressing.

We then headed back to the hotel and I immediatly fell asleep. I was tireeed. So there's that. :P

Day Two: Dublin to Glasgow

I didn't get much sleep last night, as Jetlag and all that hit me hard, but I got a fair amount. At about 12:35 our plane to Glasgow departed-- Shortest flight EVER. I swear we were in the air for 15 minutes. I didn't even bother taking out my laptop.

We hit ground and collected our bags only to learn that my mom's brand new luggage had been manhandled and one of the wheels destroyed. Needless to say she was upset. We sat around while my dad got our car ready, I bought an Irn Bru, we sat around and did really nothing.

After about 35 minutes of that, we got to our car and packed up and were on our way for our 3 hour car drive to Fort William and the B&B we're staying at, The Heathers. More on that later. Anywho, being cramped up in a car that long, inherently, makes you sick. So I didn't feel good for the longest time. We stopped at the "Green Welly," a small halfway point/store, and got drinks. I was silly enough to think Lucozade might taste good. I will never make that mistake again. Blech. Watered down sports drink. Also Croissant. :D

After another while we ended up in Fort William, about 20 minutes away from the actually B&B, and had dinner. It took me a while for my car sickness to wear off-- I might add that New Car Smell in Scotland is rather aweful. Sorta... bran-ish. Blech. But anywho, after dinner we hurried on up over to the B&B where the owners, a nice older couple, helped us with our bags and showed us around. This place is absolutely beautiful-- and I'm NOT just saying that because of the free Wi-Fi. Totally. :P

But in all seriousness, it's lovely. Tea, up-to-date materials, T.V., Breakfast prepared each morning, it's very nice. That's about all I have for today, I'm currently making myself some tea before Television and bed, so goodnight all, see you again tomorrow!

Day One: Chicago to Dublin

We boarded our flight out at about 6:45 PM and were off within the next 15 minutes-- I'm skipping prior to that as it wasn't really important. We were in the air for a little over 7 hours, and it was uncomfortableeee. Too many little kids and poor movie selections. "17 Again" and "Monster Versus Aliens" were the only two shown. I got to watch two episodes of Gurren Laggan before my computer decided to die on me, which was a tad depressing. Thankfully it was enough time that "17 Again" was over.

When we landed it was morning here, so basically I skipped having an official "night" time on the ground. I really didn't get any sleep on the plane, but I wasn't really tired. We got our bags rather quickly and took a shuttle to our hotel to check in and drop off our bags. The room, of course, wasn't ready yet, but we'd planned on this and took a bus out to downtown Dublin for lunch/shopping. There are so many unique street performers in Dublin! There were people doing sand castle carvings in sand they brought themselves! I'd never seen that before. We also dropped by a record store in hopes of finding some rare European releases of CD's-- No luck, of course-- but a CD I didn't have was on sale and it came in this awesome European case which is just so cool to me having never seen one before.

For lunch we went to "Captain America's," which I suppose was for irony, to see what they thought of American food. It was quite good, actually. Lots of U2 memorabilia in there too, I suppose the band likes the place. After this we went back to take the bus to our hotel to rest, and saw some more street performers. There was a guy doing puppet dancing, and a strange band consisting of a massive Cello and an acoustic guitarist/singer, which was a unique mix. They weren't that good. There was also a guy who was rather talented with the Violin, and a guy whose job it was to literally stand outside in a suit/top hat and hold a cane. That is quite possibly the most awesome job on earth.

After all this we got on the bus to head back to the hotel, however when we finally got here we learned that the room STILL wasn't ready. We had to sit around for yet another half an hour before the thing was finally ready. But we're in now, probably heading to bed soon. See you all tomorrow! :D

Ryan's Travel log

Hey there, world!

So I'm sure you're all wondering what all this is about. Well, I'm Ryan, to start. I'm a senior in High School, I love music and singing and all that buisness.

But that has nothing to do with any of this!

This is my log of my travels throughout Scotland and Ireland for 10 whole nights!

Now I've been to Scotland once before as a child, and as I remember it was tons of fun. But hey, I was young. If there was one thing I wish I'd done, though, it's to have kept a log of what I did over there! So this time I'm not going to make that same mistake.

The only problem being that I can't, probably, update this from over in Scotland, as I may not have internet. So what I will do is take down all sorts of fun little details in Microsoft Word, and post them for all of you to see once I get back, complete with fun pictures and possibly even video!

Now I WILL be able to update Twitter throughout this all, so you can always see a little bit of what I'm up to by following me at http://www.twitter.com/ryanacameron , or simply reading my posts there. Sadly, as texting costs a bundle over there, I will not be able to reply to tweets sent to me, only one tweet per night to Twitter itself, sadly. But still, you can see all of what I've been up to!

Well, I'll be leaving late-ish on Friday the 24th of July, and I'll be back on the 3 of August I believe. I hope you all enjoy, and until then, wish me luck on my travels!