Scotzerland part 1
3:17 AM
During the past two weeks I've been on vacation. My friend and fellow assistant, Diana, traveled with me to Scotland. Despite all the naysayer's comments for weeks leading up to the journey, we enjoyed wonderful rain-less 45 degree weather throughout the entire ten day stint spent there. The trip began with a 5 hour road trip to Beauvais to catch our plane to Edinburgh with two nice French ladies.
After arriving in Edinburgh, we quickly got on a bus to Glasgow, but not before realizing that the locals were basically incomprehensible and the currency system was even more unclear. The best we could do was to shove a handful of coins in the bus drivers face and say "take how much it costs". After settling into our hotel, we did some serious research on the best place to get a drink in the city, and eventually found ourselves at a pub called "Nice and Sleazy", which thankfully was inaccurately named. There, we started off our Scottish adventure right listening to some acoustic open mike musicians (some good, some bad) and whiskey (no good, all bad).
The next morning we accidentally woke up super early ready to take Glasgow by storm! We decided to walk to the Glasgow botanic gardens and the kelvinsgrove museum and finally gave into one of the cheap Indian food places we had been seeing all over the city. The rest of the day we spent going to various museums that our brochure guide told us were 'only a fifteen minute walk away!' Until by the end of the day we were a solid hour and a half walk from our hotel.
Day two in Glasgow we celebrated Diana's birthday by getting brunch at a cute tea place in the financial district (which we later found out turned into the RedLight District at night). She had pancakes drowning in a pool of chocolate, I had French toast with a heap of bacon on top. Both healthy choices.
Afterwards we worked off our fatty brunch by walking around student filled West End and Byres street to shop and look around. After that, we made our way to our Couchsurfing hosts place in Clydesbank, otherwise basically known as the murder/heroin capital of Glasgow (again, unbeknownst to us at the time). We took it easy the first night while watching "Paris, je t'aime" and petting their cat, Jack. The next morning we set off on a day trip to nearby city, Ayr, and had beautiful weather and nice beach views.
We said goodbye to our hosts the next morning and headed off on a short 1.5 hour bus ride to Edinburgh. Being that it was my 23rd birthday, we celebrated accordingly with gas station-quality tuna pasta and the most offensive-tasting bottle of 5£ rosé I have ever had the displeasure of ingesting. The hosts we were staying with in Edinburgh were funny and friendly, and had the coolest apartment complete with a fort in the living room.
The next day we saw the local market, which had an incredible smelling ENTIRE pig being roasted, which, unfortunately I could not indulge in since we had plans to get authentic Mexican food for the first time in Europe for lunch that day with some of Diana's friends visiting Scotland as well. After that, we climbed Arthur's Seat, but not before Diana gypsy swindled me (or maybe I gypsy swindled her) into wearing the most touristy Loch Ness monster hat on the face of the earth if she paid for it. The views from the top of the mountain really were amazing and spectacular, especially as the clouds came in from the distance. The next day we saw yet another market en route to the botanic gardens with many baked goods and ethnic foods, before stopping at "Oink", the restaurant with the entire pig being roasted at the market the day before, for me to satisfy my cravings for an "Oink" sandwich. (I would have ordered the larger "Grunter" had I not had too much respect for myself to mutter the sandwich's name).
After arriving in Edinburgh, we quickly got on a bus to Glasgow, but not before realizing that the locals were basically incomprehensible and the currency system was even more unclear. The best we could do was to shove a handful of coins in the bus drivers face and say "take how much it costs". After settling into our hotel, we did some serious research on the best place to get a drink in the city, and eventually found ourselves at a pub called "Nice and Sleazy", which thankfully was inaccurately named. There, we started off our Scottish adventure right listening to some acoustic open mike musicians (some good, some bad) and whiskey (no good, all bad).
The next morning we accidentally woke up super early ready to take Glasgow by storm! We decided to walk to the Glasgow botanic gardens and the kelvinsgrove museum and finally gave into one of the cheap Indian food places we had been seeing all over the city. The rest of the day we spent going to various museums that our brochure guide told us were 'only a fifteen minute walk away!' Until by the end of the day we were a solid hour and a half walk from our hotel.
Day two in Glasgow we celebrated Diana's birthday by getting brunch at a cute tea place in the financial district (which we later found out turned into the RedLight District at night). She had pancakes drowning in a pool of chocolate, I had French toast with a heap of bacon on top. Both healthy choices.
Afterwards we worked off our fatty brunch by walking around student filled West End and Byres street to shop and look around. After that, we made our way to our Couchsurfing hosts place in Clydesbank, otherwise basically known as the murder/heroin capital of Glasgow (again, unbeknownst to us at the time). We took it easy the first night while watching "Paris, je t'aime" and petting their cat, Jack. The next morning we set off on a day trip to nearby city, Ayr, and had beautiful weather and nice beach views.
We said goodbye to our hosts the next morning and headed off on a short 1.5 hour bus ride to Edinburgh. Being that it was my 23rd birthday, we celebrated accordingly with gas station-quality tuna pasta and the most offensive-tasting bottle of 5£ rosé I have ever had the displeasure of ingesting. The hosts we were staying with in Edinburgh were funny and friendly, and had the coolest apartment complete with a fort in the living room.
The next day we saw the local market, which had an incredible smelling ENTIRE pig being roasted, which, unfortunately I could not indulge in since we had plans to get authentic Mexican food for the first time in Europe for lunch that day with some of Diana's friends visiting Scotland as well. After that, we climbed Arthur's Seat, but not before Diana gypsy swindled me (or maybe I gypsy swindled her) into wearing the most touristy Loch Ness monster hat on the face of the earth if she paid for it. The views from the top of the mountain really were amazing and spectacular, especially as the clouds came in from the distance. The next day we saw yet another market en route to the botanic gardens with many baked goods and ethnic foods, before stopping at "Oink", the restaurant with the entire pig being roasted at the market the day before, for me to satisfy my cravings for an "Oink" sandwich. (I would have ordered the larger "Grunter" had I not had too much respect for myself to mutter the sandwich's name).
After that, Diana and I took the Scotrail up to Fife, home of St. Andrew's university and our fantastic hosts. Since our host had class the first day we were there, he left us to discover Fife by ourselves, but not before letting Diana barrow his orangey/red St. Andrew's academic cloak thing, which he assured us was a normal thing to wear, and which, more importantly, would get us into the ancient cathedral for free. Although not completely true, I think Diana still enjoyed wearing it.
After our afternoon beach-side adventure, we went out with our hosts (sans cloak) to discover Fife nightlife, then left the next afternoon. Overall, it was a beautiful place filled with fun people. After that, Diana and I returned to Edinburgh only to spend six hours in a local Starbucks, then east some delicious (even if the entire staff was super awkward) vegetarian Indian food, grab a quick drink, then spend the night in the airport.
After that was a quick trip to Geneva to see my cousin, which will be continued in a later post!!
ming.
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