By Alex Kostka.
Over the summer of 2015, Professor Donna Giuliani had the opportunity to adventure on a “walking holiday,” a two week hike across Scotland. A friend invited Giuliani to join her, and after feeling that “this was the only shot she would ever have to get out of the North American continent since she would be traveling with an experienced traveler,” she gladly accepted. The newest edition of Delta’s Brown Bag Series took place on Thursday, Jan. 28 hosted by the Humanities Learning Center.
The attending audience had the opportunity to listen in on Giuliani’s trip, and were able to learn the cultural experiences she had while on her walking holiday across Scotland. They began their research on airfare and discovered that flying out of Toronto, Canada to Europe would be a few hundred dollars cheaper than flying out of Detroit. Giuliani shared that the “Canadian customs were far nicer than the U.S. customs.” They flew out of Toronto and then into London. From London they took a train to Inverness, a northerly city in Scotland, where they would begin their hike which followed the cattle trails of the Highlands.
Their first day was a 20 mile hike from Inverness to Drumnadrochit plus a couple of additional miles to reach their lodging destination. “It was the first time that I’ve ever walked 20 miles in one day, and it was uncomfortable,” says Giuliani. She admits that she didn’t lose any toenails (which was a concern,) but she did lose a lot of skin and had some blisters from the journey.
Something Giuliani was not prepared for when arriving to Europe was the use of stone in the roads and surrounding buildings. “I was expecting the driving on the left hand side of the road, but I was not expecting how stony everything is. Villages in the middle of nowhere, with one road going through them, all stone.”
When encountering locals on their hike, Giuliani mentions, “The communication difficulties were funny on both sides.” The locals were friendly when Giuliani passed through. “It’s not a pushy kind of tourism. It’s just good humor.”
Hikers traveling through the villages may help to keep these places on the map, as they have higher rates on unemployment. Giuliani says, “local bed and breakfasts might be their way of making their yearly income.”
When it comes to miles hiked, Giuliani says they were supposed to walk 77 miles but, “we easily did 90 given our misadventures.”
The most dangerous wildlife encounter Giuliani needed to be on the lookout for was a run in with a bull. England does not have like you would find in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Although she did not have a dangerous encounter, it was necessary to be on the lookout.
Discussing how the opportunity came about, she mentioned that “I would not have, on my own, done anything like this,” Giuliani shares “But, now that I have done it, I will probably do it over and over and over again throughout my life.”