Arthur's Seat Running Track(2)

The other slope of Arthur Seat is steeper, and more suitable for walking instead of running. There are more large stones in this part of the hill and the path is shorter as well.

Arthur's Seat Running Track (1)

Sometimes, when the weather is good (blue sky, warm sun), it feels good to go out. I would usually go for running around Arthur's Seat, a stretch of hills, east of Edinburgh.

There are several tracks around these hills. OThe first one is quite proper and not so steep with pedestrian walks and good scenery.

Trip To Highlands (4): Inverness

Throughout our trip, we did not stop for long in any place. It was also the case with Inverness. It probably the only major city in Highland area.

The city is beautiful, with a river just in between and castle on top. Usually, pigeons are common in European city squares. In this case, however, there are more seagulls, probably because of the river.

Trip To Highlands(3): Loch Ness

One of the most prominent characteristics of the highlands is the abundance of lochs. During the bus trip, we came across dozens of small lochs on the way.

The biggest and the most famous among the loch is Loch Ness. There were sightings on unknown creature there which spawned stories on Loch Ness Monster.

The loch itself is really big, stretching long across Scottish highland. We managed to stop by Urquhart Castle, a small ruin just by the loch to get a good view of the area.

Trip to Highlands (2):Skye

It was a beautiful day when we went to Skye. Skye has always been known as the 'misty island' due to the lack of good weather, but what we saw was a clear blue sky there.

From Portree, a small main town of skye, we took a taxi for 15 minutes to a hiking trail, 'The Old Man of Storr'. 'The Old Man' is actually a vertical stone on top of one of the hills formed by glaciers many years ago.

The climb up wasn't too bad especially since it is a proper path trail. It got a lot steeper near the stone though. However, it was a rewarding journey. The view from the top was simply breathtaking.

Trip to Highland (1): Highlander Castle

As exams are finished and the weather being friendly and warm, we decided to go for a trip north, to the Scottish highland.

One of our interesting stops was Eilean Donan Castle, a castle in a small island just in the middle of a loch (lake, Gaelic). The castle is still well preserved, although not so big. I feel that it just fits nicely with the surrounding.

The sky weather was extremely pleasant and thus we could get a good view of the castle. From the back of the castle, we could see the loch and the surrounding land.

Spring Sunshine

It has been warm these few days. People go out and bask in the sun. More smiling faces as opposed to the gloomy winter mood. Spring has come. It is interesting as people appreciate sun more here given the average cloudy day and the winter long nights. I would not say people appreciate sun back there. Perhaps because sun is always there and always hot as ever. Perhaps it is in our human nature to lose sight of what we always have and longing for what we don't.

Even now as Edinburgh is located way up north, the daytime gets longer and longer. There's still some traces of light after 9 pm at night. And this is not even the peak yet. I wonder how it will be like in mid June when we have the most sunshine of the year. The first picture here was taken in the afternoon. The second one after 9 pm. No Flash.