There are certain things you just have to do while you are traveling in Scotland. These are the things I accomplished from that bucket list:
1. Eat haggis
Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish made from sheep lung, kidney, and liver, cooked in sheep stomach and served in sheep intestines. When I heard about this, all I could picture was the anatomy dissection lab from school. I pictured being served the intact lobes of a lung with whole kidneys on a plate. I shuddered and gagged at the thought– could I get over my medical anatomical mind and eat such a thing?
We ended up unintentionally taking the easy way out on the haggis. We were not served the traditional way served in intestines. Rather, we shared an appetizer version which had the shape of breadcrumb-covered meatballs. It turns out you don’t eat the stomach– it’s just cooked in the stomach. It also turns out that you don’t eat entire organs. The meat is finely minced, so it basically was like eating very tender mincemeat with a flavour reminiscent of liver pâté. It tasted pretty good! Thank goodness I wasn’t eating anatomy.
2. Eat pub food
We did this almost every day. Even if I had missed my chance in Edinburgh, pub food is available in an abundance in Dublin. Yum!
3. Eat a deep fried Mars Bar
“Eat it once to try it, but never again,” was the advice of our tour guide. We went on an intense hunt up and down the Royal Mile to find me this 400 calorie “dessert.” I put quotations around it because sugar and oil served with ice cream and chocolate sauce can hardly be classified as a real dessert. I was surprised, however, that it didn’t taste as extreme as I had anticipated. The chocolate was melted and gooey, and there was a confusing crispiness on the outside. The crispy batter made the sweetness inside sort of unexpected. Altogether, I would probably rather eat a plain Mars Bar, but it was certainly a sweet experience!
4. Drink whisky
Most of the time I embraced being a dorky tourist; I had my camera hanging around my neck, I wore hiking shoes and carried a backpack. One of my most humiliating tourist moments, though, was at the beginning of the Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile. We waited in line for a large plastic compartment which looked like a cross-section of a whisky barrel. We climbed into the barrel and were secured inside like we were on a roller coaster. Then we were slowly pushed along on the mechanical tracks of this theme park-like “ride” while videos were projected on the wall showing us how whisky is made. I managed to learn something about barley and malts and distillation. However, I couldn’t get over the tackiness of the moustached man with a top hat and a magical Scottish accent.
If you want to chuckle at the tourist-ness of the barrel ride, watch the promo video on their website: http://www.scotchwhiskyexperience.co.uk/index.php
Once we got out of our barrel ride, though, the Scotch Whisky Experience improved immensely. We were met by a real live tour guide (without a top hat) who explained to us the main regions Scotland’s distilleries, and how the whisky from each region can be distinguished by certain flavours. They gave us a little scratch card with representative scents from each region. The smells were exaggerated, but helpful. After that, every day we sampled a different whisky from the Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside, and Islay regions.
I took a great fancy to the Highland whiskies, and Speyside whisky is pretty good too. If the whisky is described as smokey or peaty, I do not want to drink it. I still can’t distinguish the “fruity” from the “nutty” from the “floral” tones, but I can actually tell there is some difference between different whiskies now! I am well on my way to becoming a whisky expert like the magical moustached top hat man.
5. Dance to traditional Scottish music at a cèilidh
I said in an earlier post that the highlands were the highlight of Scotland for me, but that is not completely true. The cèilidh at Summerhall was one of the most fun nights of my life! The “keeley” or “kylie” as (I think) it is pronounced is basically a big traditional Scottish dance party. There was live music with guitar, fiddle, drums, and a caller. The caller would go through the basic steps of the dance slowly first, then as the music played he called out instructions– and thank goodness for that help!
When we arrived, the dancing was already in full swing. There was an impressive mix of people, mostly locals, from awkward gangly teenagers with sweaty palms, to men in kilts who clearly knew what they were doing, and a handful of foreigners. It didn’t matter who you were or where you were from, though, because the atmosphere was jovial, enthusiastic, and very inclusive. Nobody was judging or scrutinizing, everyone was relaxed and laughing and having fun.
The music was loud and the rapid dancing was a little overwhelming at first. My boyfriend and I decided to watch for a while before jumping in, so we stood in a safe corner of the room sipping our beers. “By the end of the night, we will have danced at least one dance,” I vowed, and my boyfriend agreed.
The song ended and they were calling out for the next dance, which needed groups of six. “Hey, do you want to join us? We need another couple!” beckoned a group. They looked so eager and welcoming as they waved us over… How could we say no?
Do-si-do, swing to the right, swing to the left, turn around, and now you’re facing your new partner! And here we go, the music started and next thing you know I was galloping in circles across the room with a tall man in a kilt– he even picked me up and lifted me through the air in our final twirl. I lost sight of my boyfriend as I stomped, clapped, and heel-toe-heel-toe-d, spinning and bumping into people but having a raucous good time! When we finally found each other again after the dance, we were out of breath, sweating, and grinning like fools.
I have never seen so much energy and fun at a dance as at this cèilidh. I thought it was really cool that traditional dancing is still such a strong part of modern Scottish culture– the Summerhall cèilidh sells out 120 tickets every Tuesday! And this is just one of dozens around town. I would travel back to Scotland in a heartbeat just to dance at a cèilidh again!
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The world’s largest collection of Scotch Whisky– these hundreds of bottles are all unopened
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Both the figurines above and bottles below are fancy collectors editions of whisky. There were also bottles shaped like trucks, golf balls, and west highland terrier dogs
The Life of All Sorts 