He who loses his language loses his world
The Highlander who loses his language loses his world

Iain Crichton Smith "Shall Gaelic Die / Am Faigh a'Ghàidhlig Bàs"

When I think of Scotland, there's only one feeling - deep love! I've made lots of different experiences in Scotland so far. First I spent three summer holidays there,and then I lived in Penicuik, near Edinburgh for ten months and worked as a foreign language assistant.

I first went to Scotland in 1996. I drove all around Scotland with my parents, got a general overview and immediately fell in love with the country. The following year, I travelled all around the country with my friend Birgit and spent three weeks hitch-hiking, travelling by train and bus and hostelling. We met lots of nice people. We probably walked more than the rest of our class together.

The year after that, I decided to attend a Gaelic course in Skye, which was an incredible experience. First of all, I learnt a lot of Gaelic, alongside English, of course, and additionally, I got a good insight into Highland culture. I was sad to leave the island after two weeks, because I had started to appreciate it a lot. After those two weeks I met my friend Sven in Fort William and walked most of the West Highland Way with him. This was my first distance walking experience.

At the end of August 2001 I finally packed my bags to make my dream come true - 10 months in Scotland! I lived and worked in Penicuik, which is south of Edinburgh, and I was more than happy. I met many other Germans who also worked as foreign language assistants and thus, I always had great people around me. We went out to the pub together a lot and often went away for a weekend for hill walking or visiting different towns and cities. In the October holidays, I went to the Outer Hebrides along with Raphael, who was a German language assistant as well. I spent the Easter holidays with Birgit and Uli, who came over from Germany. First I travelled all over Skye, Harris and Lewis with Uli, where I gained my first hill walking experience, which inevitably triggered an addiction.

After Uli had left for home, I spent a few days with Markus, one of my best friends in Scotland, and 9 others in a cottage in Laide (Wester Ross), where we went on several trips, hill walking and other nice things. Birgit joined us and after 2 days, we left to go to Torridon. We slowly travelled southwards, stayed in Kintail and Loch Lochy and then went back to Edinburgh.

Throughout the year, I went away for weekends, went to Kingussie und Aviemore, to Rannoch and stayed in Loch Ossian Hostel with Julia and after the Easter holidays, I spent most weekends in the Arrochar Alps, west of Loch Lomond and seriously started my Munro-bagging career. At the beginning of May, I spent a few days in Glen Coe and climbed my first Munros on my own, which was an indescribable experience. We had fantastic weather and the hills were still covered with patches of snow. I climbed Buachaille Etive Beag with its two summits and Bidean nam Bian, which also comprises 2 Munros and after that I was sunburnt. But the photos turned out brilliantly!

I went on most of the last trips with Colin, an Englishman I met in Harris at Easter. I spent a week in Northwest Scotland with him in June. We climbed the 4 Munros of Sutherland and went to many beautiful places. On the way back we stopped in Torridon and climbed Liathach, where we then spent the night in bivy bags. I took the most stunning photos from the top; first of all we were higher than all other tops (that's the way it is on a Munro) and to top it all, we had a sunset behind Skye and Harris with a view all the way to Ben Nevis and Sutherland.

When we finished school in May, Julia, Sonja und I flew to the Orkney Islands. The weather wasn't on our side, but at least one day was sunny and then the Islands looked beautiful, whereas everything was rather grey when misty and rainy. As the landscape is quite flat, I found it a bit dull. Nevertheless, we had lots of fun and saw a lot.

We visited Scara Brae and other interesting historic sights, saw puffins and seals and stared at interestingly shaped rocks and cliffs ... and ate all day ;-)

Here is my photo collection (not in English, but hill names and pictures are international). I wrote a Scotland Diary (in German) during my time in Scotland, which I've taken off my website, but I would send it by e-mail on request.