The Real World

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I haven't missed a single transport connection on this whole trip. For me, who's missed his fair share of planes, ferries, and even wedding busses - sometimes by days, this is an amazing achievement. That's why I wasn't too worried about catching an early Sunday morning flight out of Poland, the day before I start work in Glasgow, and the morning AFTER a three person birthday. I shouldn’t be so cocky.

The plane was leaving at 10am.. I'm not entirely sure what happened after the party, except that everything obviously didn't go to plan. I woke up at 9am. "that's not good!" I looked around me while pulling on last nights clothes and briefly wondered whether i should just give up then and there.. I'd started packing the night before -very conscientious- but I hadn't finished -very me-. A (thankfully prompt) taxi pulled up outside and I scooped up all I could see in one big armful and shovelled it into my pack as we ran out the door. In a month of living together I'd made myself "at home" at Asia's place, I should've known leaving was never going to be easy..

There's nothing like non-existent Sunday morning traffic, and a law-abiding taxi driver waiting for red lights at empty intersections to get the blood flowing while late for a flight! Luckily the airport was close, and as we rushed up to the counter and dropped my bags on the scales (lighter than ever, not surprising..) the huge queue was only for the security check (everyone already been checked onto the plane)

The real surprises came when I got to the scanner at the security check. It took some time as the bemused soldier pulled out my knife, left over cans of beer, broken cellphones, and half-drunk mixers from the previous night.. with a look as if to say "you know you're getting in a plane?" he finally conceded to let me pass them back to Asia who was sadly still standing behind the rope in the terminal.. some way to say goodbye.

The rest of the day was a little crazy, as hungover and suddenly UK poor, I located a toothbrush, some dinner, somewhere to stay, and everything required to start work the next morning :/

I'm writing this almost a month later.. not entirely through laziness.. among the things I left behind in Poland was my precious camera. I much prefer my photos to my writing, and I’m sure no-one will mind waiting too long to see what's been going on in end-of-travel life 😊

It's been pretty miserable to be honest. After a month I still have no bank account, no flat (or should that be the other way round), no money, no friends, very little to do at work, nothing to do outside of work, and no-where in Glasgow to stay in the weekends... but still, everyone assures me it's "the best place to live!" and people in Glasgow are "really friendly!". The worst thing has been not having a residential address, without one here you don’t exist. A couple of times a week I’ll run into a brick wall when trying to see a doctor, go to the bank, get paid, buy travel passes, sign up for courses… whatever, there’s no way round the beaurocracy.

Asia's coming over on Friday for a week. She’s bringing all of my forgotten possessions.. I'll probably post this then. Right now I'm sitting by the fire in a cosy lounge in a backackers at the foot of Ben Nevis. Out the giant bay window there's snow on the mountains . The loch in the foreground looks cold and medieval. It's not a bad place to be. Fort William is just a few hours north of Glasgow, I think we'll try and come up here and see some more of Highland Scotland next week, if I'm allowed to rent a car without an address 😉 Till then i guess... miss you all - and summer!! Take care.

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Photos

A good monument
War memorial in Glasgow