The English countryside

Having seen the beauty of Scotland's highlands, it was now time to give the English countryside a visit. We hopped into our rental car, scooped up a friend, and journeyed south.

A great way to experience British hospitality is to stay at a bed and breakfast. They are everywhere here and seem to be the default choice for many travelers. Quaint, charming and so much more personal than most hotels. 

We pulled up into ours in the wee town of Shrewton just as the sun was setting.

An vintage stone manor nestled within the rolling hills of the English countryside. Could anything be more romantic? The boy tried his hardest to blend in with the setting.

The next morning, we tucked into hearty breakfasts. Unlike most places on Airbnb, bed and breakfasts here take the latter part of their name just as seriously as the former. Some common breakfast choices in the UK include porridge, smoked salmon with scrambled eggs, and my personal favorite, the full English breakfast, which is a glorious array of sausage, bacon, baked beans, fried egg, grilled mushrooms and tomato, and black pudding, which is made with pig's blood. All served with tea and toast, of course.



Our next stop: Stonehenge. I'll be honest - I wasn't exactly jumping up and down when I first heard we were going to visit a very old pile of rocks. But we arrived on a sunny day, and I was surrounded by friends and family, and everyone was in high spirits. So a lot of jumping up and down ensued!







After doing my cardio, I moved on to my strength workout.

Do you even move giant monolithic structures, bro?

We learned about the structure's past and the history of the people who built it over five thousand years ago. Most of the context as to why Stonehenge was built remains up for speculation (and probably always will, as there is no documentation of its use). The how of its construction was more interesting to me: I learned about several relatively simple techniques involving rope and wooden tracks that may have been used to transport the stones. A couple of researchers proved that a wooden sledges enabled a team of only sixteen men to pull a 2-tonne stone. Painstakingly difficult, but not at all impossible as we'd once thought, and definitely one of the more impressive feats of human engineering.

Stonehenge, you're alright.



Lunch was a quick stop over in the city of Bath, named so because the Romans had turned the place into a spa and erected their much-loved baths there two thousand years ago.







We saw a rather fantastic street performance by a violinist named Joel Grainger in the square where tourists lined up to see the original Roman baths. Here is his YouTube and Facebook. Really excellent stuff, and makes me feel a twinge of regret for not keeping up with the violin.

Our last stop was in the town of Castle Combe. It was so quaint and perfectly picturesque that I almost felt like I was wandering around an artificial theme park - just goes to show how green America is by comparison! But these stone houses were all very real and the town had just been very, very well preserved from when it flourished in the 1500's. No wonder it became a filming spot for movies like Dr. Doolittle and the boy's dad's favorite, War Horse (Joeeeyyyy!).

We stopped into The Old Rectory Tea Room and helped ourselves to scones and clotted cream in Anna's beautiful living room. A tasty, relaxing break from all the day's frolicking.







I'll conclude with what might be my favorite picture of the whole trip: my camera-shy, impressively-bearded siamese twin made a rare appearance. Say hello to my little friend!

Isle of Skye

Whenever I get the opportunity, I ask the locals here what they think are the best sights to see in Scotland.

"Skye is beautiful," they say. Then there's always a brief pause. "You just have to get lucky with the weather." 

Story of Scotland's life, everyone.

The Isle of Skye is located in the northwestern edge of Scotland. With a population of just a hair over 10,000 residents, it is the largest of the Inner Hebrides and is about a five and a half hour drive from Glasgow. 

On our way up, we made a stop in Glencoe Village, the site where Clan MacDonald was brutally massacred by Clan Campbell in 1692. Not exactly a beautiful moment in Scottish history, but we enjoyed a lovely (and extremely peaceful) lunch nonetheless.

Lamb sausage and mash

On our way up, we also made a stop at Eilean Donan castle. If the castle looks familiar, it's because Entrapment, shtarring Shcotland's own Sean Connery, was shot there.

We reached Skye at dusk and checked into The Broadford Hotel, the birthplace of Drambuie liqueur. We warmed our bellies with a wee dram of the good stuff (or in this case, the okay stuff) before trekking out in search of a meal.

It became obvious very quickly why so many of my colleagues recommended this island. These were some of the views we got to enjoy on the way to dinner, which was a five minute stroll from the hotel.

Dinner was at Creelers of Skye - a tiny, romantic nook where we dined on local seafood.

Anchovy and goat cheese nibbles on the house

My scallops were fresh and drenched in garlic butter sauce. Heaven on a plate, folks.

The next day, we awoke to ominous skies...

...and ducked into a few shops in the town of Portree.

Trying on hoodies at Skye Batiks 

Harris Tweeded (Twaded?) out

After a session of retail therapy, we pulled on our hiking boots, grabbed our 'waterproofs', and trekked out to pay a visit to the Old Man of Storr, a rocky hill made up of distinct stone pinnacles. Luckily, the rain remained mostly at bay. We were met with only the occasional drizzle.

Me and a sheep butt

The hike took about an hour and left us all ravenous. We made a quick stop to peek over Kilt Rock on the way to lunch.

Lunch was a light meal at an artistic cafe in the first floor of a house. Our waitress informed us that the soup of the day was 'tomato and basil' - only she pronounced it as the British do: 'tomahto and bahsil', and very rapidly at that. This resulted in a lot of mimicking in our best British accents (once she was out of earshot, of course).

The food was yummy and vegan but not as substantial as I'd hoped. Hiking in a drizzle makes the belly crave Guinness and steak pie, not wild onions and cous-cous!

The boy, his mama and I spent our last hours of daylight hiking along the Quiraing, one of the island's most-recommended circuits. We didn't have much time left in the day and the weather was beginning to act up (re: it hailed at one point) so we opted to hike for about an hour instead of doing the complete three-hour circuit.

As I hope the pictures show, we were treated to absolutely mind-blowing views. Dramatic slopes, jagged peaks and steel-grey waters, all shrouded in cloud and fog...I felt like I had been transported to a completely different planet (or at the very least, certain scenes in Game of Thrones and Skyfall).

Most of what I'd seen in this country had certainly been beautiful, but this was the raw, unbridled view of Scotland that really left me speechless.

And of course, it wouldn't be a proper post about the Highlands if I didn't mention the wooly companions we had. Here's some footage I took of some lambs and their momma racing down the hills of the Quiraing.

This trip was my first taste of the Highlands and it certainly set the bar... skye high (ba dam tish). I sometimes daydream of wandering away to write a book or make art for a living in a place that's far away and remote. I think I've found that place in the Isle of Skye.

Engaged!

He proposed on day three of our vacation in Rhodes, Greece. We were at Tsambika beach, one of the island's most famous beaches and had spent our morning splashing about in the crystal-clear ocean under a cloudless blue sky. Lunch had been a hearty affair of gyros and beer at the beachside cafe. The sun was high, my belly was full, and my mind was in its happy, drowsy post-beer state. Prime time for a snooze.

The boy kept trying to convince me otherwise. "You wanna go into the water?" he asked eagerly, a few moments after I'd lazily stretched out on my chaise.

"Hmm... no, not really right now," I yawned.

"Come on, it'll be fun. Let's go take a dip." 

I raised my sunglasses. "Just a quick dip?"

"Real quick."

We waded into the ocean and splashed around for a bit. The water felt wonderfully cool as the sun blazed overhead. There were hardly any others around us. It felt delightful to be wading through the water together with not a single care in the world. 

Then I realized that he had set me down and I was now sitting on his knee. 

His one knee. Where was the other knee?

"What...what's happening?" I uttered stupidly, my brain having turned into molasses.

At this point I believe I actually browned out. He was saying some words - he later told me they were about him being so excited to fulfil our dreams together - and I literally remember hearing none of them as my world was turning every which way. I could barely register that he was reaching for something in his pocket...

And then he asked me to marry him.

Some small "oh my gods" and tears had started leaking out by now, and it felt like a dam of other emotions was about to burst out of me. I barely was able to gasp out a "yes" before I buried myself in his arms.

The next few minutes were a blur. A hilarious blur, as the ring had gotten stuck in the lining of his swimsuit and in the end we had tear a hole in the mesh in order to extract it. He slid the ring - a band of two silver elephants facing each other - onto my finger. It was only meant to be a temporary ring until the real one was made, but I immediately fell in love with it anyway.

We made our way back to our chairs, still in pure shock of what had just happened. I had so many questions. How long had he planned it? Did our parents know? When did he know he was going to ask? And he had so many answers that he'd been keeping secret for months now. One by one, my questions were answered as he unraveled the story of how he'd been planning to propose since June, of how he managed to ask my parents when they were here, of how he'd been meeting with a designer back in Glasgow to customize the engagement ring. There was a lot of simultaneous laughter and crying. It felt strange that I had been in the dark for so long.

I had known for a while that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. But this proposal was 100% a huge, knock-me-off-my-feet, bona-fide surprise. That night, we celebrated with a bottle of nice wine over dinner. We were still feeling the residual shock and excitement but things had calmed down a little and we had managed to start using the word "wedding" without having panic attacks. 

It's been a week and a half since that magical day. Still, every time I look down at the ring, my heart skips a beat and I feel a burst of pure, unadulterated happiness. I'm going to be with this incredible human being for the rest of my life! Aaahhh! 

It is the best damn feeling in the world.