The highland games at Braemar

What an amazing day. We were picked up at 9:00am sharp by Bridget. She exchange to Vancover nine years ago. They have an exchange club here in Edinburgh that is for all current Australian, Canadien and American exchange teachers. It is run by former Scottish exchange teachers and they have a great list of events for us throughout the year. All the books that I read said that I had to go to the Braemar games. It is very hard to describe. It is like a typical track meet, except that they have events that few Americans take part in. My personal favorite and the crowd favorite was the throwing of the Caber. This is a nineteen foot tree trunk that weighs 135 pounds. The contestants must flip it onto its opposite side and then it must land at 12 o'clock. They get graded on style. See the picture at the side. They also have a 57 pound hammer throw which they throw over their heads over a 18 foot bar. But the most amazing event other then the caber is the hill run. This started on this exact spot in 1314 and the winner each year would become the king's messenger for that year. They run up the hill in the picture and back down. The winner finished in 25 minuts. It would have taken me a day just to get to the top. It was an unbelieveable feat. This picture is them halfway up the hill, at about ten minutes. Beside athletic events they also have Scottish dancers and bagpipers which compete for prizes and best of the event. All of these events are going on all at the same time so you are kind of overwhelmed by all of the sounds and colors and action. Finally, if your not sure that it is the kind of place that you might want to go look at the kind of people that hang out there. For all of you americans, that is the QUEEN, and yes I was that close. Kind of cool. Hope every weekend is this fun. Cheers.