Marching Season/Beautiful scotland...


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Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Midlothian » Edinburgh
July 6th 2010
Published: July 7th 2010
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Hey folks,

Today, we will try something different; I will write a blog with Chloe. So don’t be afraid if you see some French here and there. You will see, it doesn’t hurt much.

So we are leaving Scotland tomorrow. We will be flying to Oslo via London in the middle of the afternoon. I would have stay here for months, but there is so much to see in the world and so little time. Is a funny feeling, starting tomorrow night, no more English, no more expensive pound, no more annoying kingdom, no more whiskey and no more sheep’s. I can assure you all that Chloe will survive this huge hard lost.
I hear you all! Are they going to talk about what they visited and did during the last week? Yes! It was another amazing week, where we experience a lot of different things and learn a lot.

In my last blog, we were in Galway and were heading to Northern Ireland by train early the next morning. The train ride to Belfast is a fun one. The only problem with the Irish rail network is that wherever you go, you almost always have to get back to Dublin before crossing the country again to your next destination. The only person happy about it was for sure Chloe. According to her, we only got to see more sheep’s. We arrived in Belfast early in the afternoon and start exploring the city past and present controversial aspects. Afin de mieux connaitre le passé (pas si lointain) politique de la ville, nous avons fait un tour avec un chauffeur de taxi qui nous a accompagne dans différents quartiers de la ville (Black cab tour Co.). Bien que ses explications aient été complètes, il fallait au préalable en connaitre un peu sur le différent entre les Loyalistes et les Républicains. Our time in Belfast brought confusing thought. As a kid, I remember the adult of my immediate entourage talking about what was going on in Berlin and watching them debate for hours. It is a shame, but I didn’t know much about Belfast before going there. There is a wall, like the one there used to be in Berlin, that spit the city in two in all the major cities in Northern Ireland. As a tourist you can’t tell who are who when you see them in the street. However, every night at nine, the gate that let the two sides mix together during the day, close. According to the locals, the two sides don’t want to mix together anyway and you will never see a kid from one side play with a kid on the other side or a person from the loyalist side in a pub on the other side drinking with people from that side. Je ne peux savoir si c’est possible de me mettre dans la peau de cette population. En temps que Canadienne française, je suis par default catholique. Je crois en aucun temps avoir eu de la difficulté à cohabiter avec mes voisin Anglophones même si je ressens la nécessité d’affirmer une certaine forme d’identité. Ce que j’ai vu à Belfast me dépasse un peu, les attentats sont si récents et ont fait suffisamment mal de part et d’autre. De chaque cote de la ville, on exprime ses orientations politiques et religieuses de façon très marquée. Du cote Irlandais, on fait la gloire de et du cote loyaliste, plusieurs fresques sont peintes a même les maisons faisant l’éloge de personnages ou déventements marquants. Le guide nous a dit que les propriétaires des maisons peintes étaient contraints à voir leurs murs peints. July 1st is for most of the Canadian, a really happy day. In Belfast, it is marking the beginning of the Marching season. I will not go into the details, but I really recommend everyone to learn a bit more about this marking 12 days and all that comes with it. By the way, we saw an Irish flag burn on the public place.

After two nights in Belfast, we took the first boat to Scotland, in which I slept the entire way watching for the fifth time Sherlock Holmes. We then took two trains to Glasgow in which we met a lovely old couple from Victoria. Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland. I like the city and its wonderful pedestrian city centre. There is a million cheap sport bar and restaurant. We watched Germany destroy Argentina in one of the greatest pub I ever went in. You really feel like you are going into some strange fairy world. The pub has 5 floors. The main entrance is on the fifth floor and the sport lounge is in the basement. You can’t ear the two people pack rooms watching the game from the other 7 rooms of the pub. We decide to save money in the very expensive Britain by using our train pass to get to the beautiful Loch Lamond and the Stirling Castle. I really recommend both of them to everyone. If you don’t mind the train, you can visit them for a low cost.Ce qui ma plu le plus a Glasgow, c’est les gens sympathique s’acclimatant bien de leur temps pluvieux (on a été pas mal détrempé lors de notre sortie au Loch Lamond juste en se rendant a la gare de Glasgow).

We spent our last three days in Scotland in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. God only knows how much I like this city. Edinburgh is a perfect mix of culture, history, tradition, medieval building, an amazing landscape and a great Georgian new town. I can’t imagine how this city was one of the worst one to live in 50 years ago. When they rebuilt the old town, they built it over the exiting building, which create an underground city that you can visit if you like. The royal mile is really worth walking the easy hill to the castle. The castle itself is not really worth a visit if you already visited the Stirling castle. Edinburgh est une ville charmante. J’ai apprécié en faire une visite guidée au cours de laquelle j’ai appris beaucoup de choses. Les guides de New Europe font toujours un travail remarquable pour leurs tours gratuits. Jai pu manger une spécialité locale du Haggis. Tres bon en passant. Vu la quantité industrielle de moutons, je me suis résigné à en manger. La viande de mouton est l’ingrédient principal du Haggis…. We spent two days walking around the city centre and the last day in a bus going through the beautiful highlands’ to the overrated Loch Ness. Like I said in the past, I am not a fan of bus tours. I like exploring at my own pace. This tour was the worst I have ever done. First-of-all, there is way too much to see in one day. The bus driver doesn’t have the time to stop to a ten of the great point of view or monument. What is worst though, is the fact, he doesn’t even bother talking about half the monuments and he just put music and let us falls asleep. It’s really not worth 70$. Second, the Loch Ness is really overrated. You only have one point of view from the town we were in. I hope is better in the other cities along the lake.Nous avons parcouru les Highlands en autobus jusqu'au lac mythique du Loch Ness. Aucune nouvelle du monstre… seulement des vaches écossaises et …. Des moutons et encore des moutons. Sincèrement, cette traversée ma ému au plus haut point. Les paysages sont tellement magnifiques et dire qu’on aurait pu le faire a pied a partir de Glasgow.

Tomorrow, we say goodbye to English and say hi to Scandinavia. I am sure it will be great.

Till next time

Nick and Chloe

Hostel:

Belfast: Vagabonds

Not a hostel, it is a great mate appartment. The place as a lot of caracter and the staff is great and from all over the world. Curt the owner really is a great backpacker and know what you need. Cheap, clean, almost perfect.

Glasgow: McCay Guesthouse

Not a Guesthouse at all, its just a cheap hotel who is way too expensive for what is worth. The breakfast is great, location is not too bad if you like walking. Not the place to have fun, but nice place to rest.

Edinburgh: High Street Hostel

Nice location, good staff, lots of things to do. The place is cheap and provide a lot of information. You will have a free upgrade if you book early. Provide breakfast and always have special event. Might be hard to sleep when they have a special night.






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