Scottish Highlands and Glasgow

So, because this may be the last chance to write for a while (as our next big stop is Turkey), I decided that it would be prime to say hello and tell you what has been going on.

So, I had mentioned already about Osama hanging out with us. The next day, we hardly saw him at all. What we did end up doing was just running about Edinburgh, seeing the last few things that we could see before it was time to leave. We went up the hill called Authur's seat. Which was an enormous national park (Gorgeous!). It's basically empty, with hardly any trees, but two big foothills to climb, and a lake. But the space and the area is just peaceful, and because it's right in the city, and so very quiet, it seems to be a really great escape, where you can be healthy, do some climbing, and get away. It's quite windy at the top, meaning you couldn't stay for too too long, but lovely while you are there. Osama brought us up, and at the top we took some 'picky's', and then headed back home. Funnily enough, right when we got back to his flat he said "I've got to go be creative now" and showed himself out. That was the last time we saw him I think. For the rest of the day, we walked up Connoly's hill (that might be the wrong name) and we saw a fascinating graveyard, as well as a beautiful Parthenon (which the city had never finished. in fact, it's got 12 pillars, and nothing else. quite funny). It might just be a trend for the Scottish people to start building Roman things and then stop them half way through when they've run out of money, because we found the same thing later in a town called Oban. Funny.

Anyway, we took a nap, (yes, on vacation you can take naps whenever you deem appropriate!), and ate dinner before packing our stuff up and having an early night. And, our last night on those awful tiny love seats with no blankets!

The next morning, Wednesday, after leaving Osama (who had already left...no kidding), a note and some maple syrup as a thank-you gift, we carried our packs through the city and met up with our tour bus. All of these towns offer a bunchy of one or two day excursion trips through the highlands. We had opted to take a one day trip that passed through Glasgow on the way back, as we had to get there anyway, and if we could convince the driver to stop there, it saved us about 20 bucks on train fair! So, we loaded onto our bus, and the driver said he was more than willing to take us through Glasgow, in fact, there was another couple with the same need, so it all worked out really well.

Anyway, this driver was hilarious! His name, fittingly enough, was Hammish. Hammish was a man, in about his mid 60's with a Scottish golf hat, and matching kilt on, complete with high socks, white shirt, and black shoes...and, a walking stick (which he took out when we stopped). He was extremely entertaining. Bad jokes first of all, every few seconds. And he would miss turns all the time and say things like "Ahhhhh!....Sorry about that little scream folks. It seems we've missed out turn". OR, " Oopsie daisy, we've missed it again." Ha ha, so funny. Also, there was one point where he'd purposefully taken us through a back-road so we could have a better look, and he said "Well, I don't know where the hell we are, but its' pretty isn't it!". I almost burst out laughing out loud just then. It was so funny. The funniest part though, by far, were his songs though. Not him singing (thought that would have added a new dimension to everything), but his tapes. Everything that we passed, this guy knew the name of. He knew the hills, the rivers, the rocks, and the castles, the stories, and the houses, and the mystery. He would proceed to tell us every little detail about everything on our right or left, whether visible from the road or not, and then...he would take out a cassette tape, serve on the road a little to put it in, and say the name of the some which he had chosen...which was always the exact name of the story...and play the song. Every story he had, there was a song to. Whether is was about the highland cows, the battle on William Wallace's bridge, the legend of some guy who didn't avenge his brother's death and died while in North America, the hills of Lorn, or anything else. It was the funniest thing ever. There was one song called the Stone of destiny which sounded much like the intro music to a 1980's cartoon, and another called Argyll which mentioned the sadness of a lady who was forced to move to Australia, but would always think of Argyll as home. So funny. There was a song about Inverary castle, and about two brothers who hated each other in a valley, and as the stories and songs came, everything was reinforced. I, of course, was awed by how much time it must have taken this guy to track down all of this music. Even is someone had stayed in a small house and written lyrics to say "Ave Maria (Schubert)", then he'd play that one. Funniest tour ever!

The highlands themselves are beautiful! Stunning in fact. They remind me of the foothills, but with greener grass, and really cool cows and sheep. Remote, because the roads are small, and full of castles and forts hidden on hills, and cute stone houses along the edge of rivers. Gorgeous. I decided I could live there. No problem. Screw Ireland! Scotland is so much nicer! Although, it didn't rain on us yet...which might make all the difference. While in Scotland so far, we've had fantastic weather. I reinforce my sunburn daily!

So, the last stop on the tour before we went back was called Oban. It is a sea side town, much like what you'd find on either of our coast lines I think. The beach was rocky, the water cold, but the smell was salty, and the seagulls were everywhere. We bought some bread and cream cheese for lunch, and did treat ourselves to Ice cream (because what walk along the pier is right without ice cream?) There is this drink here called Irn Brw (Iron Brew) which is bright orange and many here use it as a cure for hangovers...it's super sweet though. Anyway, they have it in ice cream flavour too...and they taste the same. just a random note.

Back on the bus, we drove to a sweet castle which was actually surrounded by marshland and a river, making it very much like an island. It was in a valley between two hills and had a little forest on the side, and a dock coming out the other side onto the river. This is where I'd like to rebuild the castle (which is in ruins) and decorate it to make it warm, and live comfortably there. However, I'd live most places there, as long as I was warm. Because they are all beautiful...and I wouldn't even want a castle really. A little too big. Maybe a cottage?

So, we drove on to Glasgow, where the kind Bus driver Hammish dropped us off right at the center. Of course, we found the train station and didn't' know which train to take to get to the stop so Beth ran up to a window and said " We need to get to Anniesland and we don't know how". And magically we were handed tickets and led to the correct platform. We made our way to the stop, and found the house of Craig Mark. Our second Couch surfing host. Awesome! It took us a few tried to actually find his house. We knocked on two wrong doors, and we asked two randoms in the street, one being an old lady who had been peeping at us through her blinds. Finally, we found him. And, this guy was normal!! His house was fully stalked with stuff. He had a bed for us, blankets, pillows, towels! And no random instructions. He did not just give out his keys, and he did want to hang out! This was much more what we were picturing when we though about couch surfing.

So, we got settled, and all 4 of us went to a pub to have some drinks. He even bought! I enjoyed a hot Chocolate, and the rest tried new brew. All was fine. Craig is an I.T. guy. SO he's quiet, and you have to push for conversation, but he did seem willing to chat, and he was really quite nice. So, all is well.

Next day, we explored Glasgow using a Lonely planet suggested walk guide. The day was bi-polar as far as temperature goes, and i had my coat on and off every few minutes. We saw an art museum, a fantastic and strange graveyard, build on a terraced hill (where we found the grave of the author or Wee Willy Winkie - and respectfully took photo's with him!) and we saw the Glasgow cathedral, and a second museum, one of Religious history...which was very interesting. Some of the major religions and cults were mentioned and some of the practices were both unethical and fascinating! Overall, we're not really impressed with Glasgow and I think all three of us are glad we're only here for a few days. We did treat ourselves to a hamburger for dinner. British beef tastes different than home, but it's OK. The price was OK, and a drink was included, but normally, things here cost way way too much. One thing we've missed and need to eat again is Banoffee. The one we tried in Ireland wasn't right, so we have to find a place soon, before we leave Scotland.

Back at Craig's flat, he asked if we wanted to have a "night out". I honestly almost never want to have a "night out". But, it's his thing to do, and we're learning about culture, and we ARE staying with him for free, so we said OK. We went to one pub, seemed OK, fairly quiet. Played some pool with his IT buddies, and had an overall good time, I guess. But then, he wanted to meet with some other friends, so we went to a different bar, which was really LA in my opinion, with weird lighting, and loud beautiful music. Interesting anyway. WE stayed there for a bit, and then went to a third place..this one charged cover which made me sad. Although after a little while, we did go and dance. Dancing is usually fun. And I didn't drink anything the whole night, so I was feeling. Finally around 2 am he asked if we wanted to go. I said yes.

On the way back, he let us know that tradition in ending a night out is to eat something horrible for you. We chose Chinese, and brought it home for a bite before crashing.

In the morning, we didn't wake up until 11:30. So late! We had also promised to make pancakes for breaky, and so we whipped them up, along with eggs and bacon. We apparently didn't find streaky bacon (the bacon thing is all very confusing) so ended up eating back bacon...which I'm thinking is similar to our turkey bacon. Anyway, we made one type with banana's in it, and a second with apples and cinnamon inside. Both, deli sh. We did a great job, and used the maple syrup that we'd brought along. It was fantastic.

For the day, we'd planned to go to the botanic garden's and University area, but the weather is so crappy today, we might just stay home. All day! Watch some TV, catch up on email, and read. I guess you need a day like this every once in a while. Besides, tomorrow we'll have a late night. We fly in to one airport in London, and then we have to get to the other side of the world for a 5 am flight in a different London airport. And, tomorrow during the day, rain or shine, we're going to see the big bag pipe band competition. Battle of the bands piper style. which should be fun. So, relaxing today is alright.

So our overall ideal of Glasgow is that it's like Edmonton. Tons of ugliness, but a few nice places you can find, and cool things to see, but they're all so spread out, that it seems like work to see them. Interesting. And, nothing at all like Edinburgh.

So, next update, we'll be in Turkey - where we'll be for a week before heading to Greece. Stay tuned!