Scotland on Screen {part III, Highlands}

First of all, YAY WORLD CUP! Totally gutted that I can't be in Germany where everyone's is partying like crazy.
So anyhow, last year I started a little series of posts about Scotland in movies. We have part #1 with Edinburgh, then part #2 with Glasgow, and now this is going to be the final post featuring films that were filmed in the Highlands (& islands).

1. Local Hero
This is a quite old film and I remember watching it for a class here at uni. It's about an American business man coming to a tiny tiny village in Scotland in order to secure a deal with the locals. Obviously everything goes wrong from here.


2. Harry Potter
This is clearly not a surprise and I think it was only through Harry Potter, that the world became fully aware of Scotland and its beauty. This is just a small clip where they talk about how it was filming in the Highlands.


3. Skyfall
I am not really a James Bond film and I haven't seen this one either, despite the hype when it came in to the cinema. Anyways, part of it takes place in Scotland and it just looks gorgeous. When I went to the Highlands last year, we drove to the area where this was filmed. Just as beautiful in real life, is that's even possible.


4. The Decoy Bride
This is definitely not the most successful thing David Tennant has done, and it is not a really mind blowing piece of film.It is also shot on the Isle of Man, which is not Scotland, I admit. However, it looks very similar and in the movie they pretend that it is Scotland.So it counts for me! Again, the highlands look absolutely stunning and it just makes me want to live on on of these deserted islands where everything is just a little bit different.

ROAD TRIP// FLORIDA

This probably sounds really snobby, but Florida has never really tickled my fancy. I love the beach, but it always seemed to me like Florida was just this lame state full of retired people and Disney World. Yes this is very prejudiced, forgive me Florida! We had a great time there and as I was doing my research, I discovered so many other things I really wanted to do or see in the area but we didn't have enough time.


Just so guys can imagine where in Florida we went, here is a little map of our route.  The pink state line you see is the border between Alabama and Florida and #7,8,9,10 are all in Florida. So we were veeeery north and pretty close to Alabama. #7 is Navarre Beach, which is where we stayed for around 4 days. #8 is Milton, FL where we went to go ziplining (so much fun!) #9 is a beautiful swimming hole called Ponce de Leon, which unfortunately was super crowded with teenagers (it was Saturday, what can you expect). #10 is Marianna, a random small town we stayed for one night.

Screenshot from our route created with Roadtrippers

These pictures were taken at the less populated side of Navarre Beach- The beach was pretty much empty and the sunset was incredible.

Stay tuned, there will be a couple more posts about Florida ;)

ROAD TRIP// Covington, Louisiana

When I'm traveling, I love to explore places that are somehow movie/TV related. For me this mostly means finding the places that have appeared on screen. The south of the US has been features loads, and I think we all can think of one movie/series or another. I think of The Notebook, The Lucky One, Sweet Home Alabama, The Last Song, Endless Love, Hart of Dixie etc... After my research I found that a lot of those movies were filmed in Covington. There was even a movie map for the town, showing all the different spots and the matching movie. Anyways, one day we just decided to go there and I didn't have that map with me unfortunately and we had to make the most of it by just googling etc.

Now here is the thing, and I just discovered that days after we went there. The Covington I was looking up was in Georgia, whereas we were in Covington, Louisiana. Oh damn you USA and all those same named towns! We still had a great time of just driving around and finding these absolutely gorgeous looking alleys and little dead end streets. I LOVED IT.
Then we also went to this one lake that was supposedly in The Lucky One but um...I don't think it was it. Pretty though!

Again, loads of pictures of trees covered in Spanish Moss. It's an addiction, don't judge me!

What your life in Edinburgh will be like.

Coming back to my life here in Edinburgh makes me realize all these silly things that happen here. So this is a list of some typical sort of Edinburgh/Scotland situations that probably won't happen anywhere else.

- After nights out, you will crave the chippy place so so much. And you will be devastated because they probably already closed for the night by the time you get there.

- You will give up on umbrellas. cause the windy city will not allow you to have shelter when it's raining from all sides, oooh no.

- Seeing all the Scottish girls walk around with no coats or warm clothes, even in winter and on a night out. And wondering if they have been genetically manipulated.

- You will freeze SO much in winter. Even inside your flat- Because heating is expensive and it leaves you no choice but to walk around with your onesie, a hat and gloves.

- Fortunately you will find coin-operated straighteners in certain pub/restaurant bathrooms. Thank goodness for that!

- Seagulls will turn in to your biggest enemy- they are huge flying monsters that will rip apart any bin bag they can find and make you think twice about leaving your house because they are hanging out in front of your door.

-You will appreciate Scottish summers and be over the moon whenever it is over 15 degrees for more than one day in a row.

-You might start to accumulate a whole mini bar at your house, just because you can not get alcohol in the shops after 10pm.

 

Despite all of these things, I am sure you will fall in love with Edinburgh as fast and hard as everyone else has. It's hard not to fall in love with a city brimful of beautiful cobbled streets, magical sunsets, proud Scots and a lively fascinating culture.