Glasgow: Day 3

Woke up and made ourselves a lovely breakfast before beginning our long journey home.
Stopped at the Celtics store on the way to the bus station (official fans).

George Square, City Chambers

Luckily decided to go to the bus early since we ended up at the wrong airport.. oops. Onto another bus then a train and finally arrive at the proper airport.  Wait around in the lounge of the tiniest airport ever (ok, bigger than CR, but still tiny).  Get on our flight back to London wondering how the tube strike is going to affect our voyage home.

City Hall

We arrive in London and head for the train - this is how we got to the airport - only to discover it costs 20 pounds! It would seem that we took it for free without realizing on Sat morning... so we head to the coach which will only cost us 10.  We soon discover that this price gap is due to the fact that the train takes about 35 minutes to get into the city, whereas the bus takes over 2 hours, fun times.  But we do get to a station that miraculously is open, and squeeze our way onto the tube.  Then switch to the line that will bring us all the way home and cram ourselves and our big backpacks into that one too... finally, about 3.5 hours later we are home! and it was ALL worth it!! We are already planning our next visit back to Scotland, Love It!!

PS: I learned this weekend that Scottish people are very friendly.  Unlike Londoners, they will strike up a conversation.  Like the lady on the train to the airport, for example.  Friendly old lady talking about how lovely the weather is... then the conversation went something like this:
"Aye, once I was on the train and saw a wee lad get killed.  Aye, cut his head right off. It flew right over to the other side of the tracks.  He was playing on the tracks, the wee lad.  Aye, shame, he had a lovely head of hair too.. Aye.."

Don't know why it's sideways :(

So they are friendly... and maybe a little crazy.

Glasgow: Day 2

Auchentoshan distillery

Sunday morning we were perhaps a little slow to rise.  We made ourselves some breakfast and watched a movie at Kev's place.  Then we headed into town determined to do a distillery tour (we were in Scotland after all!).






So we jumped on a bus and went out into the country to Auchentoshan whiskey distillery.
The tour was about an hour long and very interesting.  Then came the whiskey tasting... Neither of us are huge fans of whiskey, to say the least, but we gave it a try... Some funny pics and video footage of the tasting (not sure if I can post video on here but I will try my best).

After the tour we waited for the bus driver to wake up from his nap then made our way back into the city.
For dinner we met up with 2 of our new friends from the night before on a mission to have a Scottish haggis dinner.  They treated us to some drinks and we found a good pub with haggis. Delicious!
Went home for a good night's sleep :) and saw a fox on the way home!





Glosgow accent confusion of the day:
talking about travelling to Paris for my birthday
Scot: So yous going to the Eiffel Tower
Michelle: no.. my birthday is the 25th of October
Scot: What? I said are you going to the Eiffel Tower
Michelle: oh, I thought you said is your birthday the 8th of October ...  ?  (oops)

Scotland, Glasgow: Day 1

7:30am shot of airport whiskey.. when in Rome!

Saturday morning Sam and I gather our things and leave the house at 5:30 am to Scotland!!

Flight over is super fast and we are landed and on the bus before 9:30 am heading into Glasgow. Sam's friend Kev has (very kindly) let us stay at his place, even though he is in Romania! So we wander through town, over the bridge and finally arrive at his flat.  Nice digs! Two bedroom apartment and looks like an Ikea representative helped decorate!  We make ourselves at home, have a little nap, unpack, then - following house rules - open up some wine before heading back into Glasgow to explore.  We wandered around the city, did some shopping and admired all of the old architecture.  Our plan was to go to the theater that night so we headed over to buy tickets only to discover it was sold out :(  Instead we picked up some groceries, a little more wine and went back to Kev's place.

Museum of Modern Art

City Chambers

After dinner and wine we were not going to let a sold out show, or some rain, get us down.  We walked over the bridge, taking a short cut through Green Park, in search of a good pub.  My logic was we would walk straight and go into the first good place.  Because of the rain, and fear of forgetting the way home, Sam agreed with my logic.  We walked straight and could hear music - good sign.  Then we saw big flashing lights and figured we were heading in the right direction.  But as we got closer, we realized that the loud music was coming from some tiny hole in the wall pub.


Michelle: the music is coming from THAT place?
Sam: I guess so.. want to go in?
Michelle: it looks like there are only guys in there... yes!  (haha)

So in we went, all eyes turned as we walked in to a Celtics hooligan bar filled with rowdy football fans celebrating the win that day. (In Scotland you are a Celtics or a Rangers fan - there is no grey area, and you are proud and wear the colours and sport a tattooo of your team somewhere on your body).

Before Sam could even get back with our drinks our new friend Kev had come over and asked if "us ladies" wanted to go to a party (yes it was that obvious we were outsiders!) But that is not exactly how the convo went, he had to repeat about 5 times before we could understand what the heck he was saying!

our new friends

Long story short, we met all of Kev's friends, then convinced them to take us to another pub, since this one closed at 9?? and we were not going to their house party. We ended up at another hole in the wall local place, very entertaining!









Glasgow accent confusion of the day:

Scot: Wow, Canada. I'd really like to go to Canada one day. Do you shoot bears over there?
Michelle: Well not everyday..
Scot: haha, not every day. In Scotland we shoot junkies

Michelle: You shoot donkeys??? Are they a problem over here?
Scot: Donkeys?? I said we shoot JUNKIES!
(and this was the source of many jokes for the rest of the night)