#CoffeewithTripoto
Coming back with a blog after an eternity seems like a task, rather it actually is one. I had to spend hours thinking about a perfect start for this beautiful piece. No, I am not being biased towards my writing that too prior to completing it rather I am referring to it as beautiful, for it involves a story of travelling through a beautiful place that also hosts a house I intend to have as my retirement home.
Nestled amidst the ‘Scottish Highlands’ lies a place I explored this turn, which goes by the name ‘Inverness’.
The first question that popped in my head as soon as I stepped in ‘Inverness’ was, what should I refer the place as? Hamlet? Well the place has a lot of churches, dictionary says I can’t use the word in that case.
City? Really? But, I missed the normal hustle and bustle here, may be Town? I guess yes, it fits.
So there I was visiting this town located north in Scotland almost opening out to the Atlantic Ocean. I was travelling as part of a group that had three people, other two being two of my favourite people on earth.
We took a train from Edinburgh to reach this town, hostel was pre booked and was centrally located.
Word of Advice : Pre - Booking is highly preferred because the place appeared to be quite popular amongst tourists as we later found almost all the places were taken.
Because of its great location, we could easily reach our hostel. We left our luggage there and soon started off for the castle.
Day 1: Inverness Castle - Located in the centre of the town the castle occupies a comfortable position on a hill top. I say comfortable, for the view it offered to its inhabitants was good enough to gauge the status of the entire town, and this I know because it didn’t disappoint us who were mere visitors to the place. The view this place offers can totally serve as the setting for a writers new story or a directors new project.
Mesmerised we stood there for a while watching the water flow and the seagulls play. I could only attempt at capturing what my eyes saw, in the form of pictures put below. Yes I am cheating, I am referring you to the pictures since I am no poet nor a writer and hence not adept at describing the beauty and tranquility of the place well enough that would make me feel I did justice to it. See yourself and decide.
Seen the pictures? Still hooked?
Seems like this caught your interest, then let me take you along on a stroll downhill from the castle. The very first sight was of a church, that stood eerily silent, for there were near to nil people to be seen near it, except for some cars that passed by, while we descended from the hill.
It stood on a crossroad alongside a river (one amongst the two that flows within the town) and it marked our starting point for the day. We kept walking alongside the river until we reached a bridge connecting the road to the other side of the town. The bridge ended at the door of another church, this one bigger than the previous one, and across was the shopping centre of the town which stood closed quite early for the day.
The only good that came out of visiting the centre was that, we could see the map of the town and decide which way we want to go. We were heading towards the Ness Island, located approximately 1 - 1.5km far from where we were.
Creatively describing the en - route scenes would require me coining some words for I have never known English to be that developed that it would paint scenes with only words, so I will again refer you to the pictures.
Ness Island - A landmass on the Ness river, approximately 1km by 1km in size is one of those places that take you back into the Potter world of magic. I am well aware that the scenes of Forbidden Forest were not shot here, but it looked no different and the place truly justifies why giraffes came to need a long neck to survive. Huge green trees marred with few free spaces is what would nearly define the landscape of the Island. There were trails for the hikers and tracks for the cyclers, curling through these trees guiding people in and out of the Island. Exploring and clicking we didn’t realise it was time for us to return, lest we would have to starve the night.
However our stroll was continued the day after.
If you are still reading, hold on while I describe Day 2!
Day 2: By the second day we were quite sure there was nothing more to the city except the wonderful views it offered and hence we were in no hurry to reach anywhere.
Since river ness was already explored we decided to discover the opposite side that day, chasing the mountains in an attempt to climb them we reached a harbour. ‘PRIVATE PROPERTY’ it shouted on us when we discovered a route edging the area, we decided its better to carry on then reverse altogether.
What we found, you can have a look below!
Hope you enjoyed the post, I understand there is not much to read but still feel free to let me know if I could inspire you to visit the place in the comments below.