When we hopped off in Pitlochry, Stephan said that anyone who didn't try the whisky-flavored ice cream wouldn't get a ride any further. I'm pretty sure he's in cahoots with the vendors, because where I bought mine, the whisky-flavored ice cream was a pound more expensive than the rest. All in all, I paid over 3 euros for a scoop!
I had some later in Romania too. There was this shop in Brașov called Emma La Dolce, always with a huge line. Nevertheless, it was just a euro a scoop there, and they also had the whisky flavor.
The harsh Romanian bus, which I had to take out of cruel necessity, does not make toilet stops. If it weren't for a sweet girl who talked the driver into it, I would have suffered all the way to Bucharest. Luckily, now I'll only suffer from the heat and exhaust fumes. Just an hour ago it was downright chilly in some parts of the bus, because we were driving at an altitude of 600-800 meters. Now, alas, we're already approaching Bucharest, and it feels like devils roasting sinners on frying pans are about to appear outside the window. Especially since, after chatting with Denis, those are the only metaphors left in my head — he's read way too many books from past centuries.
Devils or no devils, the posts must go out on schedule. Whenever I travel, I always study the Pepsi and Coca-Cola products available in the current country. It's one of the very few aspects of pop culture that piques my interest. In general, of course, checking out a supermarket in a new country is interesting. But over the years, the excitement fades, especially since the sheer variety in supermarkets makes my head spin, and I can never figure anything out in there anyway. My brain somehow has a hard time filtering out excess information. They say it's a symptom of a creative personality, especially if you can later fuse all this surrounding diversity together in an unexpected way.
As for Coca-Cola, its assortment in Scotland is clearly richer than ours: there's sugar-free cherry, vanilla, and ginger. Personally, I never drink sugary sodas, but I still can't quite kick the sugar-free ones out of my diet (even though there was a time I didn't drink them either). Because of this, my primary interest is whether all these new-to-me flavors are available in that format, with artificial sweeteners. Yes, the latter are likely bad for the gut microbiota, but nobody's perfect. I'm striving to lose weight, and it's better to stick to this at least than to guzzle sugary cola on top of everything else.
A curious quirk of Scottish Pepsi is that the bottles are 20% larger than usual. How marketers decide that this specific country needs such a move and that it will work — now that's what's fascinating.
I don't remember if I've written this already, but I am, of course, against buying bottled water. However, if the tap water tastes bad, I'm all for not torturing yourself and just buying some tasty water. It took me a very long time to learn not to deprive myself of simple joys in life out of an excessive desire to follow some radically understood ethical imperatives. I'm still learning, and I advise you to do the same. The water in Edinburgh is so-so, which is why I bought the stuff in a round, chubby bottle with a crown. I'm a patriot, how could I not be! I verified that it was local and pumped out of the ground. Beyond that, it's unknown what the level of purification is, and how much of the original deep-earth stuff remains in the water. In some countries, there's special labeling for natural water without purification, but you have to figure it out anew every single time.
After Pitlochry, Stephan pranked us a little and brought us to a beach. As you might expect from a beach at a mountain lake in a country where summer temperatures hover around 16-18 degrees, the water was freezing. What's harder to expect, but is a fact — the lake was full of surfers and kayaks. Most of them, of course, were in wetsuits. The sand on the beach was indeed nice, but not nearly as fine as in Jūrmala. It's interesting how the plants in Scotland, although similar to ours, aren't exactly the same. There's a lot of ivy in the woods. In the gardens — a massive number of gorgeous bushes of all colors and sizes. I guess the love for them dates back to the times when gardeners crafted elaborate plant mazes for aristocrats, and a luxurious garden was a status symbol for a mansion's owner.
After the beach — a visit to a small village, to a curious 18th-century bridge. This was the last stop before Inverness, where we arrived around 7 PM. There was time to take a walk there, but I felt so sick that I only had the energy to get from the guesthouse to the store. I stood on the bridge to the center for a bit, but soon headed back to the hotel. On this trip, I frequently ate Jimmy Joy (formerly Joylent) and protein bars. Sometimes vegetarian salads. This time I spiced up the diet with some cheese, as I mentioned in a previous post.
Speaking of legs: I slept a bit better that day, but my leg still wouldn't bend at all and hurt a lot. I felt like I had a fever, too. I decided that upon returning to Edinburgh, I definitely needed to see a doctor, otherwise the risk was too high. I decided not to make a fuss in Inverness, being a small town. It wasn't entirely clear how a foreigner should go about seeing a doctor in Scotland, especially on a weekend. I didn't have insurance, so I was banking on treaties between EU countries and the EHIC card.
The next day, a visit to Loch Ness was on the agenda. By the way, in the word "loch", the last letter is pronounced by the Scots as a guttural, raspy "Kh", and Stephan trained us so we wouldn't mess it up. The despicable Mordorians read this letter closer to a "K" or "CH" pronunciation.
And so ended my second day in Scotland. I missed out on Inverness, but at least I got some sleep. Not very fun, I admit, but at least I didn't spend my vacation in a hospital.
On the first day, I walked 14 km, and on the second — 15. Later on, these numbers kept growing in distance, but also in elevation. I only recorded GPS tracks, though, where we planned to actually go hiking right away, rather than just taking a walk.
In the next post, I'll talk a little about the Scots, Loch Ness, and the claymore sword.