Trip Dates: 4-7 May 2012
I've put off writing this blog post for far too long! But I've honestly felt a little fatigued at writing every little detail that happens or every piece of information I pick up when I go somewhere. Luckily, this excursion out from Glasgow was not prompted by any want to see a historical landmark or any type of natural landscape or wildlife. The date was May 4, and that evening my friends and I found ourselves freezing outside of Inverness, Scotland, huddled around a small disposable BBQ grill in a wee snow storm while camping in a cow pasture.
A few weeks ago, my friend, Penne, turned 30 and wanted to do nothing more than celebrate it with friends from our office at a music festival in northern Scotland. There were eight of us who went to the inaugural Brew at the Bog music festival, sponsored by the Glasgow-based Brew Dog Brewery at Bogbain Farm outside of Inverness. The festival was only a one-day event, but anyone attending could go up the night before and camp out as well as the night after the festival.
Other than the Muskegon Summer Celebration, which I don't really think counts as a music festival, I'd never been to a festival before and was well excited! So after some cake and early-morning catch-up work in the office, we loaded our camping equipment, sleeping bags, backpacks, and my little suitcase (I was flying back to the US for my sister's wedding immediately afterward) into a taxi cab that took us down to the bus station where we quickly loaded our things on and sat down. Two buses were going the same direction, but they overpacked one of the buses leaving a very old man and his wife seatless, but the driver took off regardless. Penne's boyfriend Adam shouted down the driver while Penne and someone else gave up their seats so the old couple (who were protesting that they'd be fine standing for the hour-and-a-half-long bus ride!) could have a seat. Eventually the two buses pulled over and Adam switched to the other bus which was half-empty. CityLink Buses, you lose this round.
A few hours later, after driving through a beautiful glacially sculpted landscape of the Cairngorms National Park, we arrived in Inverness and headed to the grocery store to buy our supplies: hamburgers, sausages, buns, crisps, BBQs, peppers, and alcohol - lots and lots of cider and beer! Oh, and we bought a handful of child-sized camping chairs designed to look like animals, because...well, why not? Beats sitting on the ground! We hailed a cab out to the farm where maybe 10 other tents were set up. Our tents went up in a jiffy and soon were sharing food, keeping warm, and watching the beautiful sunset over the mountains to the north of Inverness.
But then the weather kicked in, and being on an unprotected hilltop right next to the ocean in early-May was apparently not the best place to be. The wind was frigid and the owner of the farm came out to let us know that she opened on of the rooms in the farmhouse so that we could stay warm for a while longer. Some campers went in immediately while many of us stayed out thinking we might eventually warm up. Eventually never came around and we soon found ourselves warming up with some beers inside with everyone else while some of the artists who were performing the next day put on a little preview for us. Everyone was in good spirits, but we were soon asked to leave so they could prepare the room for the next day and all of the campers were sent back to their tents. Determined to stay warm, a large bonfire was built and everyone all gathered around it to keep warm and talk to each other. The crowd dwindled as the night went on as people went back to their tents and fell asleep.
Early the next morning (Saturday) everyone was feeling well good and preparing for the festival which started at noon. The farm had a grassy yard out back where the Main Stage was set up and then inside a stone barn a smaller stage was set up under strings of colored lights, and a third performance space for the acoustic artists was in an adjacent room. Three stages, one small area, 12 hours of music, delicious craft beer. It really couldn't get any better. Two more friends of ours, Fiona and Carl, showed up and we all spent the rest of the day wandering between the different stages, talking to friendly people, dancing (well, I danced), eating, and imbibing Brew Dog. Of course, in true Scotland form, the weather also changed as quickly as the acts did. Bright and sunny one minute, snowing the next, sunny again, rainy, sunny. But the music was fantastic! Other than Brew Dog there were no other sponsors and since most of the acts were local (sans a fantastic Bluegrass band called, Woody Pines, out of North Carolina) the festival really had a Scottish feel to it. There was an eclectic mix of acoustic, rock, Scottish rap, and folk music, amongst others. I really wish I could recommend some artists for you, but to be honest...I was terrible at putting together the name of the band with what I heard in my memory. That will have to wait until later!
The night ended with a band called, Washington Irving, and the festival couldn't have ended on a higher note. No one was out of control, but everyone by that time was dancing and singing and just enjoying life! But the night wasn't over when the music stopped. Those of us camping that night, and there were many more who joined us, went back to the cow pasture, and someone lit a bonfire in a big metal rubbish bin and the night continued like the previous night with laughter, singing, more drinking, and general merriment until people slipped away to their tents.
Sunday morning was rough for everyone what with all the mixtures of beer, cider, and liquor people had the day before, but through the cold, people perked up once they got up and one of the vendors from the festival was nice enough to stick around one more day to make bacon, egg, and cheese rolls, coffee, oatmeal, and juice to anyone who wanted it. They were a God-send! So throughout the morning, we all sat around in what seats were left (turns out, we are all a little too big to be sitting in children's camping chairs) chatted some more, sang Penne "Happy Birthday" and enjoyed the morning.
Our friends Fiona and Carl drove in from Aberdeen, and since I was flying out from Aberdeen to London Heathrow that night, I packed all my things into their car and headed back to the city with them. We had the option of going the longer more scenic way or the faster more boring way. I didn't really feel I had a choice: the longer, more scenic way we went! The road took us through the small touristy town of Aviemore which is sort of like base camp for the few ski resorts out that way. But then our road left civilization all together as we drove past the town of Nethy Bridge where a local Highlands Games were going on and into Caringorms National Park.
The park is desolate with incredibly few roads going through it, and we took the one that goes right through the center winding our way around gently sloping granite domes, hairpinning down into creek valleys and back up out of them, in a land of no trees and patches of burned heather that create interesting geometric patterns, scrapes, and blotches on the hillsides. A photograph in the Aberdeen Airport says that farmers will burn the heather for agriculture and sport. What sport that is, I'm not sure!
As we came back into civilization, we stopped in the little town of Ballater for some ice cream and to stretch our legs. Cute little town, one that people from Aberdeen might retire to. It's also the next town down the road from Balmoral Castle, where the Royal Family retreats for a few weeks in the summer, so some of the shops and stores in Ballater are the official bakers or craftsmen for the Royal Family and honored so by a plaque/crest that hangs outside their shops saying how awesome they are!
Farther along the road, toward Aberdeen, we made one more stop at Crathes Castle, just outside of Banchory which isn't so much a castle as it is a beautiful estate house with an amazing garden. The property is owned by the National Trust for Scotland so parts of it you had to pay to get in to, such as the house. We weren't interested in paying to get in, and I wanted to do some laundry and eat before my plane departed, so we drove on to Aberdeen.
Aberdeen is a great little city, from what I could tell. It's built up nowadays around the oil and gas industry of the North Sea, but earlier had been an important part of the Slave Trade triangle and the tobacco industry of the US, so there are a lot of massive, impressive houses there. The city looks gray and angularly utilitarian, but it's only because the buildings are mostly made out of granite which is more difficult to shape than softer rocks like sandstone or limestone; therefore, it's more geometric. But the streets are lined with trees and it just feels more open. I'm looking forward to a time when I can go back and experience more of it, but this wasn't it. We got to Fiona and Carl's, I took a shower while they threw my dirty clothes into the laundry, and we had a pizza for dinner. But that was it as I immediately packed up again and Fiona took me to the Aberdeen (Dyce) Airport - which pretty much uses oil company billboard ads as wallpaper! - and I was soon on my way back to Michigan for my sister's wedding! But first, I had to get through Heathrow...
