'My Journey Through Scotland' - Part Seven: The Dinner

If I hadn’t started documenting my life through my YouTube channel and blog, I think I’d be lost by now. Seriously, how do people manage to keep track of their memories without writing them down? Maybe they just live healthy lives and drink Ginkgo biloba with a glass of water first thing in the morning? Hmm, let me think... What did I do on the seventh day of our journey? Ah, I remembered—dinner!

We had decided to go to Scotland about six months earlier, right after returning from the beautiful Canary Islands. After receiving the invitation from the beautiful redhead in our group, she mentioned that her partner’s family wanted to invite us for dinner when we arrived. I immediately got excited because when you travel to a new country, you want to immerse yourself in the culture as much as possible. What better way to do that than by sharing a meal with locals? I firmly believe that the key to understanding any culture boils down to three things. First, the language—this opens up so much, and luckily for us, we speak English, so communication was easy. The second key is entertainment (especially music). It turns out that throughout my short 31 years, I’ve had plenty of interactions with Scotland’s music culture, even without realizing that the musicians or authors were from there (like Garbage and Poor Things). And the third key to any culture is food!

That day, we took the opportunity to explore. We visited Neist Point and several other spots along the way. The weather was perfect, and our friend Eli had her car with us, so we were self-sufficient for most of the trip, except for one time when we needed help. Eli came to our rescue, like an angel from the skies, after we hit a road bump on our hike to Dun Caan.

We embarked on a road trip to the most famous spot on Skye, which I think is also the most famous in Scotland—the very place that sparked this whole trip. I still remember receiving a postcard from Elie back in 2019, with a picture of Neist Point and a promise that she would take me there someday. She truly kept that promise, and that day, she went above and beyond. It felt as though we were in control of our destiny. Sometimes we speak about our dreams, and they fall apart, but sometimes we make a wish to the universe, and it comes true.

We visited so many beautiful places that day, like Talisker Bay. We wandered along the beach, awestruck by the nature surrounding us. The huge waterfall cascading from the rocks into the ocean in the distance mesmerized us. We took a moment to appreciate the majestic view, even though it rained briefly—but soon enough, the sun came out again.

Finally, we reached Neist Point. The wind and rain there seemed unrelenting, but eventually, the storm passed, and the sunlight broke through. We stood there, breathless from the wind but also from the sheer beauty of the place. Neist Point looked exactly like the screensaver we have back home. It felt like I’d been teleported into a scene from Jurassic Park. Even now, when I close my eyes, I can still see the waves crashing in the distance, the sheep running around, and the seagulls flying overhead.

Iliya Badev