Scotland: the far north
Saturday, June 13th, 2009With my packed lunch from Tesco’s I jumped on a bus to take me to Glasgow, the furtherest north of London I’d been. My previous trips to the UK had been somewhat limited to a bit of the south then getting stuck in London which takes forever to explore, however this trip I was determined to see some more of the country I am actually a citizen of, and a good chance to cash in on the fact I know a lot of people all over the place. So first stop Glasgow to stay with my friend Jess who I had worked at the London pub with a few years earlier. Originally from London she studied and now lives in Glasgow.
The 8 hour bus ride was suitably horrific with very little interesting scenery and the occasional downpour as we ventured further north. Luckily though the sun was shining at 5pm when we finally rolled into Glasgow. In fact the sun just continues to shine right through to 10pm with the summer daylight making it hard for me to adjust to the time difference. Jess was ready waiting for me at the station and we wandered back to the house, a short 20min walk from town. She lives with 2 other girls in a beautiful and massive flat, I now see why people don’t want to like in London where for half the price you can live in a room that’s larger than a cupboard!
I had the whole weekend in Glasgow which was great to see the city, catch up with Jess and even make it over to Edinburgh for the day. We spent the evening cooking dinner then wandered over to a street with fairy lights for dessert and somewhere for a drink. Glasgow is a nice city, not bursting with tourist sites and amazing architecture but seems like a nice place to live. We walked around most of the city the next day, hiding from the sudden and torrential rain in a cafe, then sweating in the sun over lunch before walking up to the necropolis, a big hill with a cemetery around it and the big cathedral down the bottom. After walking for most of the afternoon we headed back to the flat to relax and Jess headed out to work. Jess works as a part time photographer/part time bar staff at local stand-up comedy venue. Saturday night was comedy night. So about 9pm I wandered down with her flatmate Sarah where we were hooked up with free tickets and a few free drinks in the underground, cozy and very full comedy venue called “the Stand.” We saw about 4 comedians and the lineup was mostly good but with a lot of the jokes about Scotland going over my head, ironically there was a couple from Christchurch NZ who came up in the ‘anyone from out of town here’ bit, they coped a bit of flack while I stayed quiet…can just never get away from home!!
After the place was cleared out and cleaned up we headed out with 5 or so of Jess’ workmates to a club with a sticky floor and people actually hooking up on the dance floor- I didn’t know people actually still did that!? But mostly good music and a bit of fun dancing heading back home about 3am so we would be up and going for our following day trip to Edinburgh.
Edinburgh is only an hour away by train but a very different city, not that I want to be negative about Glasgow but Edinburgh is just amazing! The buildings are incredible and the whole place is just gorgeous! We had fish and chips in a pub for lunch before wandering up to see the castle then down the Royal Mile before heading all the way up ‘Arthurs Seat’ a big rocky hill that overlooks the city with beautiful views. Wandering back into town through vintage shops and food markets I could definitely see myself living here for a bit. We finished the day off with smoothies from a cute wee cafe where we picked up goats cheese for dinner that night. Back home on the train by 7pm! Lovely day and awesome city!
It was my last night with Jess and we made an amazing pizza for dinner and polished off a couple of bottles of Rose wine before watching a DVD which I feel asleep several times before calling it a night after too much wine and walking! My train the next day was nice and early at 9am so loading up my bag I headed down the road to the train to my next destination: York! Only a short trip to Scotland but enough to make me want to come back and get further into the countryside…another time though!
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