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Published: January 15th 2007
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Glasgow Cathedral
Juz, Knightsy and thy self! Top of the morning to ya' all!
Greetings from Scotland! The land of teacakes, Iron Brew, the Highlands and awesome accents! I travelled up to Glasgow, Scotland a day later than planned on the 3rd of January to see the delightful Juz and Knighsty and to get a sniff of what Scotland has to offer. On my first day I was greeted at the airport (thanks guys!) and taken to Juz and Knighsty lovely home. We ventured into the Glasgow towncentre, visiting the Glasgow Cathedral. The exact age of this cathedral is unknown, but it is I believe the only cathedral in the world to have another full church built underneath it. Seemingly the norm is to have a tomb or crypt or two, but to have a full adjoining church is rather unusual! The cathedral was very attractive and the rooms underneath really funky, would be spectacular for a small wedding with a gothic genre. To the right of the church lays a graveyard on a hill, this added to the experience of a grey skied, cold, gothic churches appeal, very eerie!! The bald trees swaying in the wind looked like they had long, skinny fingers writhing at you! Muhahah!!
Within the town centre
the grey, bold, classy architecture continued, and there was a great array of shops. We sampled a couple of Juzzies addictions: Hot chocolate and tuna sandwiches. I also witnessed the site of where the Hogamarnie festival was meant to be held, had there not been borderline cyclonic winds new years eve!
The following day we jumped into the little red bullet, for our road trip up to Inverness to try our luck spotting the infamous "Nessy," the lockness monster. Now anyone may think 3-4hours each way in a car without a stereo face (CD stacker insitu tho!) could be boring, but this was not the case at all. With the company and stunning views, it made it a breathe taking experience. Before long we were away from civilisation and cruising past, castles on islands, snow capped mountains and my favourite, furrie cows. Unfortunately, we did not get close enough to any of these furrie cows for me to make friends and take a happy snap. I was also excited to see a group of approximately 5 deers nestled into the side of a hill, the antlers were the big giveaway! It is such a thrill to see these animals
Glasgow Cathedral
Look out for those trees!! in the wild, even the pheasants in Exmoor were fascinating. Juz still claims to have seen a hippo and a lion, but we'll just keep that our little secret hey?
We made it into Inverness and off to Loch Ness, we did see Nessy, actually we saw her a few times. But to be honest, I have to admit that she was the plastic, inanimate type. Loch ness was cool though, you really could imagine a mythical story arising from there, as it indeed did. Our journey home we stopped at Fort William for a bite to eat.
My last day in Scotland we jumped in the red bullet again and off to Edinburgh. Now, I really enjoyed the highlands and would have loved to have had more time up there to stay overnight in a lighthouse, etc; but Edinburgh really grabbed me. For those unfamiliar with Scotlands terrain, as I was, it is quite hilly. I'll expand more on this later. We wandered up to Edinburgh castle which was impressive, also providing a grand view over the city. Walking away from the castle I was attacked by a gladiator like fellow yielding a sword. But before you all stress too much, we all ended up friends minutes later when I unvieled my massive biceps! He was shaking in his boots! Hmm, ha ha... yes that's the story! : )
Turns out our gladiator friend is a cousin of Princess Mary, and a stunt and swordsman for movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Gladiator. In his spare time raising, he claims he's raised 1M GBP for Leukemia research. A very funny, charming and amusing fellow. Wandering through Edinburgh to my delight there was a German Christmas Market still on, surrounding the market were multiple rides and the ice skating rink! Looking over this area, was so picturesque I can't describe how beautiful it was, best to just look at the pics! We had some fun ice-skating once we'd all found shoes which actually fit, and slid, skid and plopped all over the place, actually fitting in some actual iceskating movements amongst the slidding, giggles, etc. Knightsy and I took great pleasure in racing each other and trying to knock each other over on the rink and you can guess who ended up with the bruised knees! he Random Castle
Views from side of road! he. My fault though, I think I started that round.
After iceskarting we wandered back through the town of hills, and gorgeous buildings. Stopped for some hot chocolate 'soup,' and were back in the car on the way home for some much needed wine. After tipping Juzzies hair, we burned into town to meet Emma. Bob (in Melbourne) kindly recommended we catchup with Emma (his sister) in Glasgow since we both very much enjoyed a good drink, chat and boogie. After a quick bowl of noodles, we wandered into the 'Bier Halle,' a basement bar/pub to look for a girl with "very curly hair." Meanwhile, she was on the look out for 3 short people. We walked in and instantly found each other like long lost friends which was great. It became apparent that Emma had some reservations as to what was going to walk thru that door when I had said "3 short people." 3 dwarfs?...
After much drinking with Emma and her partner, both absolutely lovely people we selected a club card off our table which basically looked the most different and authentic and left. We had the backup plan that one of Emma's favourite clubs Highland views
@ Last some snow!!!! was actually next door. Upon arriving it was rather empty and actually felt like we'd crashed a 21st birthday or something to a similar nature. Then a electrical violinist, accordian player and DJ stepped up onto the stage, started pumping out Gaellic music. The occassional song was modernised with the DJ scatching and dropping in modern lyrics. We had an absolute blast, the 'band' explained the steps and we danced away to our hearts content really with no idea what we were doing. There was lots of trodden on feet, but it was great! I was swung around by men in kilts in my attempt to dance to Willow something or other with Knightsy. It was really fun and very authentic, surprising how much it wore you out too!
The following day after only about 2hours sleep, I dragged poor Knightsy and Juzz off to the airport to drop me off. Upon arriving I discovered that flights to Bristol were all CANCELLED for the entire weekend. I then was to be booked onto a flight to Luton, London, then shipped on a bus for 2.5hrs. After waiting rather patiently to board to plane, more great knews a 2hour delay due to staff illness, so 6hrs at Glasgow airport twiddling my thumbs. All in all, I eventually got back to Bristol, jumped in the car, drove an hour and got home 1830hrs instead of 1100hrs when I was due. Luckily Prague was not the same!
I want to say a very big thankyou to Juz and Andy for having me. I really enjoyed Scotland and of course their company! As I recently have learned it is actually a significant part of my heritage on my mum's side, doesn't explain why she hates the cold so much tho!? I thoroughly recommend Scotland, the people were fabulous and the sites beautiful.
Not sure if I mentioned it last time but Travelblog now have a photo rating system, so if you find a photo you like, click on it and rate it for me! (ie. 1-5 stars)
Just quickly, we actually head home in 1 week and 1 day today. I can't believe now that the time is here to pack up how quickly it has flown! Experiencing an array of emotions, but most of all excited to get home to see all of you. Special Congratulations to Anna and Loch Ness
Can you see her???..... Tony on their recent engagement!!!
Lots of love to you all!!
xoxoxox
PS. Ran out of time to publish this pre: London and Prague, so my apologies for delay. In the meantime, Juz and Knightsy have published theirs, you will note there is repeats of some photos (we all must have good taste!), as we exchanged some photos, check out:
http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=118290 - T’was the night before Christmas…
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Juzz
non-member comment
No probs darlin!
Hey! That was a great blog. We loved having you here, it was great to see some places we have been meaning to see. 1 week ahhh, how exciting! I will call u later tonight. Bye 4 now. Juzz xoxoxo