Whoever lives true life will love true love

The end.

Today, May 28th, I'm sitting on my couch in my living room in sunny Los Angeles thinking about how it feels like I never left but at the same time, I know that these legs have been all over Scotland! I miss it but I also feel that 1 month was the perfect amount of time for me to get settled there and understand the culture, see a lot, and be ready to come home.

I will detail my last couple of days in Scotland for you since I haven't written about it yet:

On May 23rd, I decided to walk the end of the Moray Coast Trail after taking a rest day, even though it was supposed to start storming. Two weeks of beautiful weather on the Moray Coast became one bad storm that shrouded the entire coast in a fog so thick, that you couldn't see four feet off the side of a cliff. Whatever, it's fine!

After waking up in Buckie, I had a nice breakfast alongside a Canadian family at the B&B and then set off on my walk at around 9:30 am to avoid the impending rain. It was already quite gross compared to the day before but I was committed. This walk was 7.63 miles in total, took me 2 hours and 52 minutes, and was only 659 feet of elevation gain. My Achilles didn't hurt too badly, but by the end, I was ready to stop. The most glorious rock formation along this trail is called Bow Fiddle Rock (look it up) but I couldn't see it because I literally couldn't see anything off the side of the coast due to the low-hanging clouds. I also got rained on a lot, but many locals passed me and offered words of encouragement, and I listened to podcasts and music to pass the time. Also, the fog added a kind of mystery to the atmosphere, and I still saw some cool stuff, so it wasn't entirely a miss.

I got a nice lunch at a local hotel while I waited to check in, then I chilled in the hotel room for a while and bought a jar of soup from the local grocery store to save money on dinner. I got a couple of gin and tonics at the hotel bar and chatted with some locals for a bit, they called me brave again, and one of them was a Trump supporter, so I left.

The next morning, I woke up early and was ready to catch the 9 am bus when I found myself locked in my room! There was nowhere to unlock it from the inside, instead, I had to un-latch a security deadbolt that was working last night but this morning was jammed. After trying for a while and calling the hotel to no avail I called my parents and they called a local restaurant. I also called the police, fearing that I would be stuck forever, as well as calling out to someone who I heard outside my door in the next room over. That someone was a girl named Erin who helped immensely by running over to the grocery store and asking them to help, so I had a whole army waiting on the other side of the door helping me get out for almost 30 minutes. Then someone had the grand idea that I should slip off the key and slide it under the door so they could unlock it from their side. I wasn't sure the key would fit through such a small crack but I shoved it through and they were able to grab it and unlock me! I was so happy to be free! I missed my first bus but there was another one at 10 am and it turned out that Erin was going on that bus too, and also she was doing the same trip as me to Edinburgh, so I said we would be travel buddies for the day and she agreed.

Erin and I took the bus from Cullen to the nearby city of Keith, then a train from Keith to Aberdeen, then another train from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. It was fun having a travel friend after so many days doing it alone and talking to myself. She also did the West Highland Way and the Moray Coast Trail but we just never overlapped days/ areas so we had no idea we were on the same trails the whole time. It was really interesting asking her what she thought of each trail and comparing hotels and experiences. We parted ways in Edinburgh and then I took a bus to the hotel. By that time it was just after 4 pm and I was super ready to stop traveling. I hung out in the hotel for a bit and went through my suitcase, getting ready for my flight the next morning, then had dinner at the hotel downstairs, and went to bed early.

The morning of my flight home I woke up at 5:15 am and took a shower before heading out to the Airport bus with all my belongings. It was raining again and I was glad - when the weather is bad it makes it way easier to go home! I got to the airport at around 6:15 for a 8:30 flight to Dublin and stood in the bag drop line for British Airways for about an hour until I got to the front and they promptly told me that I was in the wrong line all along, my flight was actually on Aer Lingus, but was booked through British Airways (they own Aer Lingus). Note to anyone reading this, do not make the same mistake!! I almost missed my flight but thankfully I was able to cut the long bag drop line after pleading my case to some people at the front and I ran through security. Then I bopped over to Dublin, went through customs in a breeze, and had a mediocre Irish Breakfast at the airport restaurant. Then I took the flight from Dublin to SF and spent a couple days at home re-acclimating to this time zone. And now I'm back in LA, dear reader, typing this.

Overall, I think that all went swimmingly, don't you?

I will finish it off with this poem I found in a book at the Bed and Breakfast I stayed at in Findhorn, written by E. B. Browning.

Whoever lives true life will love true love.

I learnt to love that England. Very oft,

Before the day was born, or otherwise

Through secret windings of the afternoons,

I threw my hunters off and plunged myself

Among the deephills, as a hunted stag

Will take the waters, shivering with the fear

And passion of the course. And when at last escaped

So many a green slope built on slope

Betwixt me and the enemy's house behind,

I dared to rest, or wander, in a rest

Made sweeter by the step upon the grass,

And view the ground's most gentle dimplement

(As if God's finger touched, but did not press

In making England) Such an up and down

Of verdure, nothing too much up or down,

A ripple of land, such little hills, the sky

Can stoop to tenderly, and the wheat fields climb;

Such nooks of valleys lined with orchises,

Fed full of noises by invisible streams;

And open pastures where you scarcely tell

White daisies from white dew; - at intervals

The mythic oaks and elm trees standing out

Self-poised upon their prodigy of shade, -

I thought my father's land was worthy too

of being my Shakespeare's.

Aurora Leigh, E.B. Browning