And the next stop is … Loch Ness In English it’s two different words, where loch means “lake”, and it’s believed to have originated from Gaelic. Basically, Loch Ness is “the lake Ness”. Loch Ness has always been my dream destination. This dream derived from a cartoon I watched when I was a child — I don’t remember the title and I’ve genuinely tried to recall it, but even ChatGPT wasn’t of use here. It was one of those cartoons that you watch on a summer holiday at your grandparents’ village home, where every day is saturated with sun, gardening, and the river that lay beside the village - endless joy of life with STS and Jetix as a cherry on top. It was a cartoon about Ernest Hemingway fighting the Loch Ness monster. I was enraptured and breath-taken - I promised myself: I’ll go to that lake, I’ll see the monster, and I may find strength to fight it as this feisty hero did. And here I am. Loch Ness, rainy Scottish September, and you are closer to your 50s than to the age you first saw the bloody cartoon. But we digress. Loch Ness is a truly amazing place. In the first place, it’s enormous. It’s not Baikal for sure, but it’s prolonged with small width and 36 km of length - you can embrace it, and it’s inscrutable at the same time. Surrounded by mountains and dense forests, this place is beyond any expectations. We were there for 3 nights and managed to cover lots of things that this place can afford - fishing, hiking, mountains, wild boars and deer. Just look at the photos and videos! It’s not only Loch Ness as well - Scotland has 31,460 lochs, and some of the best ones are 20 minutes’ drive from Loch Ness - like Loch Affric, where we went for a baby walk and ended up climbing a mountain in the pouring rain and strong wind. It’s just you, mountains, and your own monsters. Those monsters that you try to fight as you get older. Those monsters that can devour you if you are not strong enough. Those monsters that you fight like the cartoon hero at Loch Ness.