Scotland (1)

17th of April 2010

Today I arrived in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Scotland has its own flag, it is blue with a white cross, although of course it is a part of the United Kingdom. My flight only took about three hours. The fact that the trip was so short was great, because my plane arrived at 10 o’clock in the morning. That gave me the opportunity to enjoy the rest of the day, without being too exhausted. 

Afterwards, when I came to Rita’s house, which in fact is in a small village called Dunns, we decided to have lunch at a café, and then we went for a walk, so she could show me her nice home village and what it has to offer.

Even though I have only been here in Scotland for less than a day, I have seen a lot of different animals already. Both hares, cats, eagles and hedgehogs, and even a pheasant. The flora and fauna here is beautiful. After all, Scotland is a country with a rich nature and wildlife, and it has mountains too. It is also surrounded by many isles, among others the Shetland isles. Scotland is a cold and moist country, but since it is situated so far to the north, the days are still quite long and bright in summer. I would say that the climate here is a lot like in Norway.

When we got back to Rita’s house, she started preparing the Scottish national dish, Haggis. Haggis is made from the sheep’s pluck minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours. I won’t say that it tasted too good, although I’m glad that I now can tell my friends that I have tasted haggis.

But now I have to get some sleep, because tomorrow is going to be an exciting day.