A Pathway - Scotland – An experience for lifetime

                              Miracles do happen. One such miracle happened to me by the end of Dec-2014. I have heard people saying life is full of surprises, but none has said about these breath taking beautiful surprises.

When we see a place we have already dreamt of then the emotions we feel is completely different. As we have already dreamt, it won’t be much of a surprise rather it will just be a beautiful feeling inside for some time and will vanish off in no moment. But when we see a place we haven’t dreamt of, haven’t seen in internets or social networking sites before and you are made to stand in front of that amazing place - what will be your reaction? Time will pass but the place would get registered in your sub conscious mind and I bet it will never vanish. I want to share my beautiful experience when I saw one such place and I will try to replicate the experience about that place to my best.

World cup cricket 2011, one batsman scored runs in flash of seconds and on that day it was a tremendous win by that team. Next day morning all newspapers, TV channels are praising the team in high note about the previous night’s glorious win. That’s the first time I came to know about this one country named ‘Scotland’. I don’t know about the history or current happenings of Scotland. All I know is that the country is at the top of England and a part of United Kingdom.  Who would have expected that my first onsite experience would lead to a date in Scotland?

July2014 – My first onsite to UK. With full of dreams I stepped  into the dreamy place where I am bound to have a beautiful connection. That was the time Scotland was fighting with England for liberation.  Liberation polling was going on; whenever I went for lunch I will hear about this liberation movement at least once in BBC news. That’s when Scotland became much more familiar to me. Whenever long leave comes people used to go to Europe countries or lake districts in UK. Even I had plans to go for a Europe trip as my first option. Due to some unexpected incidents I was forced to drop the euro plan and as a backup plan or just for the sake of wanting to go to somewhere we ended up choosing Scotland. I don’t want to miss this opportunity at any cause and decided to go for it – The Scotland.

 We have booked the train tickets and waited for the day of travel to come. Haven’t searched any places or googled any place to visit we went with open mind with zero expectation.

Dec 24, 2014 – Morning 9:00 boarded train to Edinburgh capital of Scotland. Reached around 14:00 and my friend was waiting in Waverley station to pick us. When I came out of station, Prince Street impressed me when the never seen ‘tram’ crossed me. We dropped our luggage at home and started our four days tour in Scotland.

First two days we roamed in and around Edinburgh. Third day the day which I won’t forget for my lifetime came in - 400 miles, 12 hours, 1 awesome day – The awesome day.

Saturday 0°C early morning 6:00am we all woke up and boarded our one day tour cab. With 15 passengers our cab started with initial intro from Cab driver who happens to be our tour guide as well. He gave a heads up about the route we are going to travel today. Started with history of Scotland, then followed by castles and finally about the enemy country England. Cab driver impressed me before we reach our first destination. Scottish people were so kind, their greeting and hospitality was awesome. During our breakfast stay we saw a small hill covered with full of snow from a not so long distance gave me a hope that today is not going to be an ordinary day for me. Captured the place with my camera and resumed our journey. Within next one hour of travel my amazing experience started - hills on both sides, lake in the middle, a small road… My camera was near me but I took my mobile and started capturing the nature’s beauty. After sometime I couldn’t resist myself, I took my camera and started capturing those amazing moments. I wish our driver stop the cab allowing extra space for my camera but I dint ask him to stop the cab to take photographs. “I have one beautiful view for you” announced the driver as if he understood my intention. I was awestruck... What!! I thought whatever I am seeing now is the beautiful place but he just said there are even more beautiful places...  this is definitely beyond my imagination. At this moment I felt jealous, this cab driver is the luckiest and selfless guy who picks 14 to 15 people daily and amaze them with such a great experience.

Cab stopped first at a hill which is full of snow. As a person who haven’t experienced snow before this view brought out the child inside me and without any inhibition I started playing with snow. Took the snow in my hands and kept in my chin just to experience the white beast in me. Horn sound – A sign indicating that the play time is over and I have to go inside the cab. I’m the one who haven’t board the cab yet; driver was watching me as if I’m some errant child. He called out my name and asked to come inside. When I came inside he was grinning ear to ear - never mind. When you are child no one knows how you feel inside. 

Continued our journey, on other side of the road there was a path passing by, by the side of the hill. Bridge that has a train route was seen, full brownish color, lake in the middle, turned back to see the full view and there was no interruptions of any buildings. There are moments where our soul shouts “life is full of wonderful things”  This was one such moment in my life. I have no fascination about Harry potter but when guide said this is the place where harry potter was shot I was intrigued to watch the movie forgetting the fact that I used to pull my friends saying “Harry potter – It’s for kids”. For one minute my mind went to that place where I was sitting with my life partner all alone - making our lifetime plans. I started to construct a small hut there and was living a happily ever after life time, all within that 1 minute. Cab moved but my eyes got stuck to that place. I was looking at that place like a child leaving his mom on his first day of school yet happy like a dad would feel watching his baby’s first smile. It was a mixed feeling, I wanted to shout out loud “Add me to this fascinating world - I don’t want to come out”.

After few miles, cab stopped at another view point. Couldn’t believe my eyes again, three hills surrounded with one hill full of snow, another one - full of greenery and the third one snow at top and greenery at the bottom. A small path way in the middle.

‘Romance starts at the path way where our mind travels with beautiful emotions’

Started to feel romantic when I saw that place with different colors, Greenish brown with mild yellow orange color here and there with blue skies and white clouds with black eye balls emoting different colors with different emotions. If I would have walked in that path way with my girl friend I would have stopped and married her there and would have got a kiss;-) Kiss a beautiful word a boy could get from his girl during his tenure as a boy friend.

’Path way kiss, holding hands, a melody song – life is so beautiful’

Even now I’m the last person to board the cab, same smile from cab driver. Never mind it.

Step by step, inch by inch, miles crossed but my heart and mind was there in that one place. River cruise came in, castle came in, shopping came in but path way never faded out.

Last 3 hours of journey, winter season brings the dawn around 4:00pm. All started sleeping in cab; took my ear phones played a melody song, rain outside, feeling my love inside. A boy or a girl can give you thousand reasons to smile but the nature can give that everlasting one reason – Love.

Journey came to an end around 8:00pm, as usual last passenger to get down. Went near cab driver and gave a hug. You made my day.

Life is full of surprises but how we take it matters. If you can make you happy inside then you can bring the smile on others face. First love yourself, to love yourself these pleasant surprises helps. Give sometime for your personal life and for you especially.

Nature you beauty. Get time to read about Scotland, a beautiful place to spend some valuable time with you and for you.

Pathway – A travel never ends - Niru