Arbroath and the silly Scotsmen

So now that I've posted the pictures I figured Arbroath needed it's own post... or something like it.

First off the weather was amazing. Doctor Milne kept reiterating "Wear your boots," "Bring a waterproof," "An extra jacket wouldnae be amiss" (yes that's a quote!...sheesh, doubt me) and BBC reported rain but it was fantastic ( I took *off* my "waterproof" thank you very much, I can already handle the climate ;).

Whoah that sentence is a mess, moving on...

The weather was spectacular so were the lecturers ( the classroom setting didn't hurt) but while we were in the tidal area studying the world famous geological unconformity in the cliffs I couldn't help but focus on the marine life. I have a newfound fascination with geology but I couldn't resist a type of habitat I haven't explored. So in the Arbroath album there is a picture of the unconformity but all around it are microscope pics of the balloon weeds, snails and crabs. I would have liked an hour or two just there to explore. It was an incredibly rich environment for being anchored on solid rock in the North Sea. And as I've said I've never been to a bedrock beach like that so I was fascinated to the exclusion of geology until we walked up into the cliffs away from the shore.

The cliffs themselves were spectacular the photos don't do them justice. From a scientific standpoint I can tell why they took us there just about every type of text book hydraulic weathering is displayed at least once in about a three quarter mile stretch (some twice) plus the unconformity which is rare to find displayed plainly. From a tourist's standpoint they were just stunning plain-and-simple. The path that we took along the top of the cliffs was usually only a few feet from the edge with the ocean one your right then directly to your left was a waist high mound, covered in wild flowers and other flora of northern Scotland, and topped with a fence surrounding fields all the way along. The compete landscape change just turning your head right to left, wave battered red cliffs to tranquil fields surrounded by wildflowers, was... an adjective I can't think of/articulate at the moment, but it was neat.

And I made friends two funny/dorky guys at the back of the bus (my Scotland substitutes for Brad and James, anyone?) they started showing me caterpillars and slugs to take specimen pictures of when they learned that I'm really a biology student that's why I'm taking pictures of seaweed, thank you very much.

Ohh ohh ohh I almost forgot I SAW DOLPHINS IN THE NORTH SEA!!! It was so cool my James sub (Bren) had never seen them before so we stuck around and watched them till they left.

But yeah I had a great time with Bren and Craig (I think was his name, I feel terrible now). They were astounded that we have guns and that I've fired them. We had a great Scotland vs. the US talk and Scottish humor is hysterical (silly but subtle just the way I like it).

Well more adventures later.