Scotland Part II

The next step has been completed! My plane ticket to Edinburgh has been purchased! (Thanks to my Dad for searching around for a good one because I didn't know what I was doing). One step closer to the big adventure. With this new development, I thought it would be nice to share some more interesting facts about Scotland.

Scotland has about 790 islands, only 130 of which are inhabited. (Haunted, mythical lands everywhere!) The shortest schedule flight occurs in Scotland, lasting only 1 minute and 14 seconds. Why this is necessary, I have no idea. Scotland boasts the birthplace of golf, at St. Andrews, which I will get to visit this summer. This would be more exciting if I was really into golf, but whatever. It still looks like a gorgeous place to visit. Scotland also boasts the oldest tree in Europe, which has been standing for 3,000 years. It's even rumored that Pontius Pilate was born under this tree and would play around it when he was younger.

Moving on from geography-related topics, the raincoat was invented in Scotland by a Mr. Charles Macintosh, who was actually a chemist. Apparently in Great Britain they still refer to raincoats as "Macs." Other inventions of Scottish men include the television - John Baird - the telephone - Alexander Graham Bell - and even penicillin - Alexander Fleming. The author of one of my favorite book series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was a Scotsman as well (he wrote the Sherlock Holmes series, for those of you who may not know). Lots of good things apparently come from Scotland!

3 languages are recognized, English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic. The same number of Scottish people live in Scotland as they do North America, which is really surprising. There are 19 colleges and universities - including the University of Stirling, which is where I will get to study! Scotch, which is thought to be from Scotland, was actually invented in China, and did not reach Scotland until 100 years later. And last but not least, Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads in the world, around 14 percent. This one really isn't surprising, especially thinking of Disney/Pixar's movie Brave.

Well, I hope you feel more educated now. I love learning new things about new places, especially when I get to go there. Just a note, I got most of those facts from www.telegraph.co.uk. Learning things about new places is so exciting! Until next time...