Destination of my first student-organized trip:  Inverness, Scotland and nearby Loch Ness.  After a nine hour train ride 8 of us arrived in the thoroughly Scottish city on the mouth of the River Ness by the North Sea.  By the time we arrived it was time for dinner (haggis!) and a visit to a few local pubs before Saturday, our only full day in the area.

Early Saturday morning I set out with a friend and the goal of finding the nearby Culloden Battlefield.  I hadn’t really done any research on ‘how’ to get there; all I knew was that it was too far from the city to walk to.  I started by asking the student hostel staff how most tourists get to the battlefield.  They told me City Bus 5 was the one I wanted, and they said it departed from the Inverness city center. I borrowed a bus schedule from the hostel too, and sure enough Bus 5’s route had “Culloden” marked on it.  I boarded Bus 5 and watched the city roll away as we headed into the countryside. However, judging by the one road sign I saw for Culloden Battlefield, Bus 5 was not the correct route. So, after a conversation with a very friendly driver I was instructed to get off, board Bus 2, and then get on Bus 3 which would take me where I wanted to go. Sure enough, I was able to follow these directions with a little help from the driver of Bus 2. However, in the instructions nothing was included about which direction to take Bus 3 in. I took a guess and loaded the next Bus 3 that came through.