It never gets dark here!

Countries that are near the Arctic Circle (the top of Iceland touches the 66th parallel which is the Arctic Circle) stay light all summer and dark all winter. Since we are here in the summertime, it never gets dark. One night, Shawn and I were hiking on a glacier at midnight! In Antarctica right now it is dark all day long. I am glad I am not there. Having 24 hours of daylight makes it easy to do lots of things...but it also means that it is hard to sleep!

Iceland

Iceland is unlike anywhere else I have ever been. I wanted to come here ever since I saw the movie The Mighty Ducks and learned that Greenland is icy and Iceland is green. And, yes, it is very green. There are over 600 species of moss here and they cover the ground (and they are so soft that you can lie down and take a nap if you get tired of hiking!) But green doesn't mean warm. Iceland boasts that it has mild temperatures all year round and that it is warmer than New York in the winter. What they don't say is that it is that temperature all year round. Since Shawn and I are chasing the summer and have no coats or mittens, we are FREEZING! The parts of Iceland that are not green look something like I imagine the moon to look like! It is crazy. Then throw in the purpleist fields you have ever seen and that is Iceland. There are not really any towns here so the thing to do is hike and explore...and we have stumbled upon some pretty amazing things this way!

Flags

Ok, so before I post this, let me stick up for myself a bit. I have never given England's flag much thought until this point and maybe I did know this before and forgot, but now I know it forever, And I am just posting this in case any of you had also made a false conclusion like I did.

This flag (the Union Jack) is not England's flag. It is the flag of the United Kingdom (which includes England) but not of just England.

This is England's flag:

I have Scotland and the World Cup to thank for this information!

Highland Games

One thing that Shawn has been talking about wanting to see for a while now is the Highland Games in Scotland. We did not think that there was going to be one one while we were there until we went to visit Euan's aunt, uncle, and grandfather in Northern Scotland. It turns out that their nephew (Euan's cousin) was going to be participating in the Highland Games in a town that was on our way! When we got there, it was amazing...their were bagpipe and dancing competitions going on non-stop. Our main goal though was to see the "heavy" stuff. That included: hammer tossing, stone throwing, and tree throwing. We met the president of the Highland Games who let us into the inner circle to watch so we got to see the giant men throw very large things. It was crazy. For the tree throwing, the had to hold the trunk of a tree, run with it, then throw it and make it flip. I have never seen such a thing! Apparently their is a Highland Games that comes to Colorado so I will check that out for sure...then I will get to wear my kilt again too!

Nessie

Ever since I saw the movie The Waterhorse, I have been convinced that Nessie (The Loch Ness Monster) lives. Loch Ness (or Lake Ness) is outside of Inverness, Scotland which is, of course, right where I went to Nessie hunt. I thought I had found her at one point only to later realize it was only a stick. Loch Ness is the deepest lake in Scotland so there are plenty of places for her to hide. The first spotting of her though was in the 1920's whci would make her in her 80's. Unless she has kids, we better find her soon. Their is actually a guy who moved to Inverness to devote himself full time to finding Nessie. I unfortunatley cannot devote myself to this task at the moment so I will have to rely on him to find her and hopefully he will tell me when he does!

The invention of golf...

So I know nothing about golf. Or should I say knew. Then I went to the oldest golf course in the world...where golf was invented. It is quite an impressive sport. To play on the old course though costs about $250 for one round. Plus you have to wear all of that golf stuff. And have clubs. And a bag. And probably a glove. And follow the rules created by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club right here in Scotland. I think I will stick to miniture golf!

Scotland

Leaving Sweden was very hard for Shawn and I. We did not want to do it. But then we arrived in Scotland. I did not know all that much about Scotland before arriving and boy was I surprised. It was so green...and beautiful...and mountainous...and the people are so friendly! We got to stay with a friend of Shawn's and his family. We also got to take a driving tour around the whole country. We will hear about that later though, first, let's learn a little bit about Scotland. Scotland is part of the United Kingdom along with England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. These countries are usually all lumped together as England (because the UK government is in London, the capital of England) but this couldn't be farther from the truth! Scotland began as many different clans (or family groups) and with heroes such as William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, they fought hard against the English to maintain their independence (for those of you who will be in kindergarten next year...we will learn about another country who fought against the English for their independence!) They speak English in Scotland but their accent is different (carry over from when a lot of Irish people came over to Scotland) and they use some different words than we do. Some people also still speak Gaelic in Scotland which is what the people in the clansmen days spoke. Road signs are often printed in English and Gaelic. Scottish men also still wear kilts on special occasions (watch the video to hear Euan tell us about them) so Shawn and I bought our own kilts to wear around! Lots of people mistook us for locals! We got them in Edinburgh which is the capital of Scotland. We got to tour the underground vaults in Edinburgh which is where vendors used to sell goods and where bodysnatchers (men who used to dig up graves, steal the bodies, and sell them to the medical schools) used to use to sneak the bodies to the schools. We also got to see the castle in Edinburgh where the crown jewels of Kings and Queens past are stored. Scotland has a royal family, the Stewart family, but they have no political powers. They are now ruled by ministers and a cabinet (as well as the UK government).