Great weekend of hiking and relaxation!

So, on Saturday, I embarked on a journey to the Argyll Forest to the west of Glasgow. I woke up around 6.40am (no fun!) and packed my hiking gear and made some sandwiches for lunch. I took the bus to Waverly train station here in Edinburgh and caught the 7.48am train to Gourock with one change in Glasgow. It took the train about an hour to get to Glasgow Central Station, from where I had to make a connecting train that continued onward to Gourock. I managed to make perfect timing and got on the connecting train within 5 minutes of arriving in Glasgow. Another hour and I was finally in Gourock. Once I alighted from the train, I made my way towards McIntray's Point (where the ferry to Hunter's Quay was). It took me about 25-30 minutes to get to the ferry. Again, perfect timing and I was on the ferry within 2 minutes of getting to the dock. I boarded the ferry along with numerous cars that also got onto the ferry. I paid for my ticket and stood on the top deck as the ferry made it's way towards Hunter's Quay across the Firth of Clyde. Apparently there are dolphins in the Firth of Clyde (according to the ticketing man), so I kept my eyes open for any signs of dolphin fins, but unfortunately I saw no such fins...

After finally arriving to Hunter's Quay, I knew I had a very long walk ahead of me to reach my destination, which was a hiking path called Puck's Glen. The distance to get there was about 5 miles and I figured it would take me a few hours to walk there. Before I started walking on the main road that I would need to take to reach Puck's Glen, I stopped into a post office/grocer. I picked up some food to go with lunch and I asked the man at the register how long it would take to walk to Puck's Glen. He said it takes about 30 min to drive there, so it would probably take 2 hours to walk there. Then, an older gentleman walked into the store and the man at the register said I was in luck, as the man that just walked into the store has walked all over this area of Scotland and knows it like the back of his hand. So the older man outlined a new path that he suggested, since it would take less time than the way I was proposing.

While he was telling me these new directions, another older gentleman walked in and overheard our conversation. He said that I was in luck as he and his wife were heading past Puck's Glen, and if I wanted a ride, I could ride with them to get there! I almost said no, but then he kept on insisting that I come along for the ride. So, I got into the car with Beth and Andy, an older couple that must have been in their late 60's early 70's. Beth was very nice and told me about Holy Loch, that we drove past. Apparently it used to be where the US Navy stayed. There was a very long wooden dock and apparently it was the dock the Americans used. Beth and Andy were heading up to Inverary to see their daughter and husband. We made it to Benmore Gardens and they dropped me off at the bus stop.

I went into the Benmore Gardens cafe to have lunch. Mom and I went into this cafe a few years ago on our Scottish trip and also went to Puck's Glen. I ate lunch and made my way to the trailhead. The first trailhead was "Black Gates" and was a trail that featured gigantic trees all along the path. The hike was absolutely amazing as the trees and ground were covered with bright green moss and vegetation. The trees towered over me and the sound of rushing water made the walk so peaceful. After the Black Gates trail, I made my way to the Puck's Glen trailhead. After a 20 min walk to get there, it began to rain. No, let me rephrase that, it began to POUR! I ran under the trees in the nearby forest and it was absolutely amazing! The rain, as it poured down to the ground, didn't touch me while I was in the forest. It was so weird to be standing under a tree and literally 2 feet in front of me it was pouring rain (and hail too)! It finally let up after about 5 minutes. I continued to make my way to the trailhead of Puck's Glen. I walked past a car with two Jack Russel Terriers that were barking their heads off at me. I finally found the trailhead to Puck's Glen and began my walk. Puck's Glen is a walk that follows a stream, and along this path are numerous waterfalls. It was so green throughout the walk! It also began to rain again, but I got my umbrella out and continued to take photos in the rain.

For lunch, I stopped by one of the larger waterfalls and ate my packed meal. After taking loads of photos, I made my way out of the glen at around 3pm. I had to walk about 1.5 miles to reach the bus stop. I caught the 4.06pm bus back to Hunter's Quay and back onto the ferry towards Gourock. After another 2 hour train journey, I made it back to Edinburgh and back into my comfortable bed. I have loads of photos to upload, and I will have them up either tonight or tomorrow. I hope everyone had a great weekend! Oh, I also have a new website I joined. I am selling my photos through Redbubble.com and you can click on the "Buy at redbubble" link below the pictures at the top of the blog. I'm only selecting photos that I think are worthy or being framed and sold, so these are my best pictures.

Another week over...a weekend of hiking now begins!

After a week of Endocrinology and Ophthalmology lectures, I'm ready to take a break. Yesterday and today were 9-5 lectures, which gets difficult to maintain enough energy to focus on the lectures as the day progresses. This is especially true when the lecturers dim the light! Dark lecture theaters make it so much more difficult to stay awake! I'm really enjoying the Ophtlamology and Endocrinology lectures from these past two weeks and have been learning lots. I've got this whole weekend to review everything that we went over this past week. I'm taking tomorrow off, as I will be catching a train to Gourock, then taking a ferry across the Firth of Clyde to Hunter's Quay and then a couple mile walk to a glen walk in the Argyll Forest. The entire walk follows a stream and there are a lot of spots with waterfalls, so I plan on taking a lot of great waterfall photos. I'm leaving on the 7.50am train and it takes two hours to get to Gourock with another transit time on the ferry, which I'm not exactly sure how long that will take. The weather hasn't been the greatest this week, which was worrying me that I wouldn't be able to go this weekend. However, I looked at the forecast today and it's supposed to me sunny and partly cloudy tomorrow. Actually, just checked again and it's supposed to rain tomorrow! No!!!!!! Well, supposed to be drizzling, so I'm still going to go. I need to get out of town and enjoy the rest of Scotland! So, if I'm going to attempt to catch this very EARLY train, I should probably get enough sleep eh? Hope you all have a fantabulously fantazing weekend and get out and do something fun (unless you are working)! Talk to you all soon and I'll post photos of my waterfall glen walk tomorrow.

Trip to Dunfermline

So yesterday, I planned a hiking trip to Dunfermline in Fife. We took the train, which was only £3.85 for a roundtrip ticket. The three of us brought study material so we could do a wee bit of studying while we were there. The train ride took only 30 min or so and when we got there, it was raining lightly and was freezing cold outside. We ventured over to the park and followed a footpath that lead to a bridge. This bridge overlooked a stream and a small waterfall and was absolutely beautiful. The rocks and trees were covered with bright green moss and it felt as if you had stepped into a fairy tale. The footpath went down towards this stream and there was even a wooden lookout tower that was covered in moss and looked out over the little glen. We continued on the path towards the abbey and there was a beautiful stone bridge that was also covered in moss. We walked over the bridge and up to the abbey and took some pictures of the abbey. After we saw the abbey, we walked over to a little cafe that the man in the museum told us to go to. Yeah, I forgot to mention that we went to a little museum before the cafe. It was just a small house with some pictures and guides. We ate lunch at this cafe and afterwards headed to a different cafe to get some studying in. We left about 2 hours later. All in all, it was a beautiful hike and I took many pictures! I'll be uploading them after I post this, so remember to check them out via the photo link on the right-hand side of the blog.

Ahh statistics, what fun you are...

So we have started our lectures for statistics and disease occurrences. I can tell you right now, I've only ever taken one stats course and I studied for exams, passed the course, and then flushed everything from my memory. Really, statistics? Statistics is my least favorite course and I find it difficult to focus during the lectures... Not fun! Then again, how do you make statistics a fun subject? We had a lecture on the clinical exam of the cat and the professor that lectured us was a cat nut! She was giving us all of these tips on how to communicate with cats and how to never scruff them. She was also saying something about when you are looking at a cat, you smile at it by blinking your eyes slowly. At the end of her lecture, she went on to tell us this story of when she went to cut a canary's toe nails.

The story goes as follows: She was talking to the owner about how a Canary's heart can dramatically increase and that there is a risk that her Canary would stress from the nail trim and die. The owner was well aware of this but still opted to have the nails trimmed since she couldn't cut them at home. So she took the canary back for the nail trim. Unable to find any proper nail trimmers for small birds, she resorted to using large toe nail trimmers that are used on dogs. She positioned the clippers on the first nail and squeezed the handles together. However, the handles stuck and the clippers slipped down the nail further. She cut the nail and quickly looked away and held the canary up. When she looked down, she had clipped the nail and missed the blood supply, but unfortunately when she raised the bird as she was clipping the nail, she popped the canary's head off! Apparently they glued the head back on and told the owner that it was the heart that failed. Oh jeez!!!

Also, she told us a story of an ostrich she knew. Apparently the ostrich caught it's lower jaw with it's claw as it was running and ripped it's own head off! Now that is shocking! We were not expecting her to tell us these stories!