Day 138-140: Scotland

Since I am feeling particularly reminiscent of the Netherlands today (and eating Smarties...and procrastinating), I am going to write one of the few remaining posts I have on this blog. Although my time in Scotland was nearly five months ago, I still remember it like it was yesterday, and thinking about our time there brings a smile to my face. Enjoy the following excerpt about my time in Scotland!


Wednesday, June 2, 2010: Glasgow Scotland

Mateja and I woke up super early in our individual bed's tucked away in the loft rooms of Katie's cozy home. We got ready and headed downstairs for a departure breakfast and saying goodbye to Katie's amazing parents who had been so kind to us! They even packed us a breakfast sack for our trip with snacks and things.

We took a cab to the nearby Belfast airport in time to catch our Ryanair flight to Glasgow, Scotland, the next stop on our U.K. trip. Our flight was super short (and totally worth the 6 GBP we paid for it!). We arrived quickly in Glasgow and managed to find our way through the airport to the train station. Daniel had given us directions to board the train and get off at Glasgow Central, where he would meet us and take us to his place.

We got off the train, tired and hungry! We didn't have any trouble finding Daniel at the station and were glad to be reunited with our mutual friend from Tilburg. Daniel told us the plan for the afternoon and we headed out to hit the streets of Glasgow. We took turns carrying each other's backpacks so that none of us would get too worn out from all the luggage. We walked up Sauchihall street, glancing at all the shops and Scottish sites to see. Daniel guided us to this fabulous little Italian restaurant, Sarti's (that shared a bathroom with another restaurant and was a maze to get to!), where we had a late lunch. We ordered an appetizer before proceeding to order our main course. I had risotto, thanks to our common love for cooking risotto in Tilburg. We sipped wine, and leisurely enjoyed our fabulous Italian meal before heading back outside. It was a gorgeous day! Cool, sunny and beautiful!

Mateja's Sadness due to the mirror :(

We walked through the busy streets back down Sauchihall Street and through the Buchanan Galleries. We decided to revisit a shoppe we had passed on our way to lunch, a Cupcake Shoppe! Mateja and I each ordered a cupcake decorated like a bee...so cute! Unfortunately, while we were in the shoppe, Mateja dropped her mirror that she had purchased the day before in Belfast. Daniel and I tried to comfort her outside the shoppe as we ate our cupcakes, but Mateja was pretty sad (see picture).

 Next, we boarded the train again to go to Daniel's University, Glasgow University. We hopped off the train, prepared for a short (according to Daniel) 5-10 minute walk to the Uni, however, it ended up taking quite a bit longer, which quite irritated Mateja :). We finally made it and relaxed outside a few minutes before exploring the University. It was giant and set high up, with a great view! We wandered down to the University bar for a quick drink (and some Nuts on the quiz machine). After relaxing for a bit, we hopped on the metro to get back to the train station and took the train back to Helensburg, where Daniel's family stays.

Glasgow University

Glasgow University

Posing in the archway

Pretty Arches

Exploring the Uni

Helensburg, Scotland

We arrived at Helensburg Central, an unassuming, quaint little train station of only two platforms. Daniel's younger sister, Anna, picked us up from the train station and took us to their home in her car. First impressions of Helensburg: adorable! Such a cute little place on the water. It seemed like a good, quiet place to retire.

We arrived at Daniel's house (not far at all from the station) and rested for a while before Daniel's mom called us to dinner. It was good to see Daniel's parents again, as I had met them previously in Netherlands, when they came to help Daniel pack his things to take back to Scotland. We had burgers for dinner, prepared by Daniel's mom.

Headed to Pub Quiz

After supper, we chilled out for a bit and settled into our room before heading out for the night. Daniel was anxious to take us to Pub Quiz, as it was a notorious story of his that we had heard all about in Tilburg. We decided to walk, as the sun was setting and the weather was gorgeous. We headed down the giant hill that Daniel lived off of and walked all the way down to the river. We were way early for the quiz, so we stopped first at the Logie Baird where we sipped drinks and Mateja and I split a yummy cookie dessert. We played another quiz machine (epic fail!) before heading to Riverbank, where we met up with Daniel's friends for quiz. Liam, Gio and Robbie were on our team too. Unfortunately, we didn't do so hot, placing fifth. But we had a great time getting to know each other :)

Mateja left quiz a bit early, as she was really tired from a long day of traveling and sightseeing. After Pub quiz, Daniel and I went out for late night pizza at the take out place next door, Lido, before trekking back up the hill to his house and hitting the sack.

Thursday, June 3, 2010: Balloch, Scotland

Loch Lomond, Scotland

The next morning we woke and had a nice breakfast at Daniel's house (thanks to his mom :) before heading out for our next Scottish adventure--Loch Lomond. We were driven to the train station by Daniel's mom and took the train north to the Scottish Loch. It was a substantial train ride, but consisted of some beautiful Scottish scenery. It was pleasant.

Paddle Boats!

We arrived at the Loch, where Daniel had been many times before with his family, yet it was all new to Mateja and I.  We wandered down from the train station toward the lake and came to the paddle boat rental area. I have not done paddle boats in years, and it was only 12 GBP for one boat for half an hour, so we decided to have a go and rented a three-seater. With Daniel in the middle, Mateja and I paddled the boat (go girl power!) and Daniel steered...bad decision! Soon we were attempting to run into the ducks in the pond. Although they were too fast and we were too slow. We enjoyed the workout and some good laughter in the paddle boats before hopping out and heading up to the small shopping and restaurant area. We stopped for lunch at Thornton's. I had a yummy sandwich and Magners (of course...gotta do as the Scottish do!).

Magners :)

After our relaxing lunch, we walked to the castle that Daniel had told us all about. It was a nice walk, but the castle was relatively disappointing. The more exciting part of it all was the dog that was walking freely near the castle. I chose to take the opportunity to talk to the dog, in French of course! Well, this particular dog did not take too well to 'Bonjour' and started growling at Mateja and I. I began to walk away, but the dog continued to bark and come closer to Mateja (who was not to happy with me for the whole incident!).

Loch Lomond Castle

Since it was a rather long walk to the castle, we decided to take a short break and chill for a few minutes on the lawn. Mateja thought this would be a good photo op (as it had been in Slo), and we used her camera to take a timed picture. Well, it ended up taking a picture about every second, so we turned out to have an entire flip book of the whole thing! We laughed about the whole thing as we laid out on the grass and chatted for a bit. Favorite quote of the afternoon: "It would be nice to die because of eating chocolate." --Mateja (who else!?!)

Failed attempt at a picture

On the way back to the train station, we walked along the water, which was really scenic and nice. There were people getting ready too swim in the lake, others walking their dogs, and some just sitting watching it all. What a nice, relaxing place. I tried to soak it all in as I laughed and chatted with my friends on the way back to the train station.

Off to another Scottish trek!

Typical teasing :)

We had to wait a few minutes at the station before the train came (in which time we managed to find bathrooms that we could use), but we got back to Helensburgh in time to squeeze in one more activity before heading back to Daniel's for supper. Daniel walked us down by the water in Helensburgh to Ardencable, an old-time house that is now a restaurant/bar. We took advantage of the gorgeous weather that we had already been enjoying all day and shared a drink together outside on their front lawn. Daniel ordered me a Bulmers, which is another cider very similar to Magners. We sipped our drinks before heading to another outdoors trek in the woodlands of Helensburgh. We walked the trail through H. Hill and admired the great views we had of Helensburgh from the various points of the trail. It was a nice hike, but very tiring since we had been walking all day already! The trail ended near Daniel's house and we headed back for some supper.

Daniel's mom had made us all a nice dinner consisting of beef, veggies, an potatoes. We enjoyed the meal with his mom and sister before relaxing from our long day out. We chilled that evening, and watched the movie 21. I also took the opportunity to blog a bit...trying to play catch up! After the movie finished up, we all hit the sack, exhausted from our long day.

Friday, June 4, 2010: Glasgow, Scotland

Argyle Street, Glasgow

We slept in a bit the next morning and woke to another nice breakfast courtesy of Daniel's mom. After breakfast we walked to the train station and caught the train to Glasgow Central. We decided to take the day to explore Glasgow some more, instead of trying to squeeze in Edinburgh. We decided to take our usual shopping detour and hit up  Argyle street for some deals. I was not feeling too well and had an incident with a monk (long story ;).  Thankfully, I began to begin feeling better after I finally got some Tylenol-ish substance in my system.

Hemlay's

We were excited to visit the Scottish Primarck, as we had already visited on in Ireland and one in London. Daniel was sweet to take us there so that we could look around a bit, although we didn't buy anything this time (guess we were Primarcked out!). Next we went to Hemlay's (an awesome toy palace) in this awesome indoor shopping area and enjoyed a nice lunch in the  food court.

Daniel...

In the afternoon, Daniel coaxed us into boarding the tour bus for a bus tour of Glasgow. Although a bit reluctant to do so (due to our disdain of said tacky tour buses in nearly every major European city), but in retrospect, I am glad we did. We got a great riding tour of the city, which was a nice break after a long morning of shopping. The guide was a bit lousy (hard to hear and quite monotone), but the tour was enjoyable and we learned some cool facts about the city. My favorite part was the statue with the orange cone on his head...Daniel may or may not have had something to do with this at one point in his life!

Scottish Bagpiper sighting!

We hopped off the bus when Daniel said and stopped for a drink at Witherspoon's where we "enjoyed a pint and a chat". Actually, I'm  pretty sure that whatever I had to drink was not too good, but we split some chips and played some electronic card game (well, I watched Daniel and Mateja play). It was a nice break from all the turismo!

Afterward, we headed back to the train station to catch the train to Helensburgh. Daniel's dad was arriving home in the evening from his weekly business trip to Machester, England, and we were excited to see him again (Mateja and I had previously met him in NL). We were greeted back at Daniel's by his father and sister who were home. We asked Anna, Daniel's sister, if she would like to play football (American soccer) with us and she agreed. I was more or less the cheerleader (I don't do soccer!), but enjoyed playing and watching a bit.

Awesome bridge

For our final dinner in Scotland, we ordered take out from one of Daniel's family's favorite take out restaurants (that serves fish and chips!). We all drove down to pick up the food together and enjoyed a relaxing dinner back at the house. After supper, we hung out with Daniel's family for a bit, watching rugby and Britain's Got Talent. To wind down on our final evening in Scotland, Mateja, Daniel and I all crawled onto Daniel's bed again and watched the movie 21. We went to bed pretty early since we had to catch an early flight the next morning.

On Saturday, Daniel's dad was nice enough to drive us to Glasgow Prestwick airport where he and Daniel dropped us off to head back to Tilburg for a few final days. It was a difficult good-bye to our friend who had shared so much with us both in the Netherlands and in his own home country. We did our best to hold back the tears as we parted ways and headed to security. We arrived safely back in Schipol later on that evening (via our EasyJet flight) and took the train down to Tilburg where we reunited with Bali and Arlette who hosted us the remainder of our time in the Netherlands since we had to move out of our rooms to avoid paying rent!