Sat. May 9 - Sat. May 16 *Glasgow/ Kelburn/ Lairg/ Stirling/ Malaig

Welcome to Scotland! I have decided to do each week separate for this stop. Hope you enjoy them, here is week 1.

Day 19 Sat. May 9
I arrived into Glasgow airport just after 7pm, the flight was very short, we flew up and then right back down again, I would say we were actually in the air for maybe 20min. Grabbed my pack and walked out and there was Tommy and his friend Allan, got in the car and drove to Tommy's flat I made up a little floor plan so you could see what the layout is like (I know, funny, I'm no architect....lol, just wanted to give you an idea of a flat in Scotland) it's a cute little flat, the bathroom and kitchen are like hallways, long and very narrow. The kitchen has the washing machine under the counter, and just a small fridge and freezer one on top of the other,and a small stove.(sorry Tommy had to add the pic of it, so they could see what I meant) The bedroom and living room are much bigger and roomier. Has great hardwood floors and lots of light with nice tall windows. We were on the top floor, so another long trek up stairs, 7 flights, so getting exercise again, all good. Each floor has 3 flats on it, so all together there is only 9 flats in this building. And you see in the one pic, there is a nice little roof top patio.

we chilled out and something to eat and then Tommy's other friend Alan, come over and we went out for a some drinks at a couple of clubs. Home after and crashed for the night.

Day 20 Sun. May 10

Woke up to a nice sunny day but a lazy day, just relaxed and organized my stuff, readjusted my backpack. Went online, organized my pics from Ireland, and checked out some flights to Amsterdam. Then we decided to go get some groceries, so we went to ASDA, it is the equivalent of Walmart, they carry some of the same product lines, so was interesting. Home after, ate and just chilled out. To bed early.

(sorry no pics for this day)

Day 21 Mon. May 11

Got up to another sunny day, very odd for Scotland but liking it. Chilled out for a bit..... it's a nice change from the hostels, easier to just go about my day at my own pace. I decided to catch up on a t.v show and watch an episode on Tommy's nice 24" computer monitor and then I got myself motivated and went for a walk to the city center. Shopped around a bit, and one thing about Glasgow is although it is known for shopping, I could not find one cheesy tourist shop.

Then I returned to the flat to meet Tommy so we could go to his teams football game, his colleague/friend Jagi came and drove us there in his beautiful black BMW 318 coupe. Got to the park and waited for the game to begin, Tommy is the treasurer of the team and he video tapes the games, I took a couple pics.

The most entertaining part of the whole game was listening to the crowd around me abusing the players and refs. I was one of the very few females there, I wanted to add an audio clip of all the shouting b/c let me tell you it was hilarious to listen to them all, they get so serious about the game.... LOL. So after the game, we went home and relaxed again, watched a little t.v and then off to bed.

Day 22 Tue. May 12

Great, another sunny and easy day, I didn't really do much, online for awhile and then went and caught the train into city center and walked around and took some pics of different buildings and such.

The suspension bridge I pass on the way to city center

Just some randoms of the streets in city center Glasgow

These 2 are in George Square Then I met Tommy for a great Indian buffet dinner, a quick drink at the Horseshoe Bar and then to the movies. Interesting theater, it goes upward, on each floor there is 2-4 theaters. Saw X-men Origins, good movie. Took the bus home after and crashed early.

Day 23 Wed. May 13

Tommy had the next few days off, so we planned a few outings,we decided on some that he hasn't seen in a long time and some that he has never seen, although he lives in Scotland. First we tried to get into the "House for an Art Lover" but it was closed, so we took some pics outside.

some cool artwork

of course I had to take a pic of this, it's a star,

this is just cool

Then we went down to Beith, his home county, (of course he does frequent there) I met his parents and saw his favorite places of all time,

Bellsdale football park...lol.

Tommy in the town of Beith

Anyways, we had a quick bite to eat at one of the small pubs in town and then started off to drive down to Kelburn and Largs, which are on the west coast of Ayrshire County, running along the Firth of Clyde (a large sea bay). We stopped along the way at a viewing point and took some pics of the great views down to Largs.

Then we went to Kelburn, "the home of Earls of Glasgow and the Graffiti Project" in the pictures you will see why it is called that. It dates back to the 13th century and the Earls and his family still live in the castle. There are trails to walk and go through different parts to see Glens (valleys), waterfalls and a secret forest. So we took the historical trail and here are some of the pics.

me posing with a squirrel....lol

this has to be the most colourful castle in the world, very neat.

After that nice walk, we jumped back in the car and travelled down to Largs, which is a very touristy area, the ferries run in/out and so we took a nice walk along the waterfront.

Then decided to take in a bowling game. (yes Tommy, I will say you won, I was not at my best that day for sure......lol) We left there and stopped back at his parents again, his mother was very kind and did a load of laundry for me, so nice! We headed back to the flat and chilled.

Day 24 Thur. May 14

More sun, so we decided to take a trip up to Stirling and see the castle, so off we went. Made it there and walked through the castle, took some pics.

We read up and looked at some of the the history of the regiment and watched a woman doing a tapestry that gets hung in the Palace, each tapestries measures 3.3m by up to 3.8m and takes anywhere from 2-4 yrs to complete, was really quite interesting to watch, takes alot of patience for sure. We left ther and returned home, got ready and off we went to Miss Scotland beauty pagaent. I know, what brought that on, well Tommy got tickets and so we went and it was really cool. There was a ton of entries of course and then they narrow it down to 50 and from there they get down to 10 and so there was 10 contestants for this night. There was 5 judges and there was 2 music guests, a bagpipe band (3 men in kilts, playing drums and pipes) and "The Saturdays" (an all girls group, like a younger version of the spice girls)

So in the end the result was one girl that neither Tom or I would have guessed would win but good for her. So, that was an interesting night, the crowd here was also very supportive of the girls they wanted to win and so was a loud night, Scotland is very passionate about thier sports or any competitions I guess.........lol. We left there and homeward bound.

Day 25 Fri. May 15

Ok, first day in a week to wake up to some overcast weather but that was fine as we were going on a long train ride up to Malaig, the ride is mostly about the scenery along the way and there was some gorgeous scenery, I got some pics and I apologize, they were taken from in the train, and the windows were not very clean.

The ride up to Malaig was about 5hrs, and once you get up there, Maliag is pretty much a fishing town, so not much there really, a few pubs, restuarants, a couple grocery strores and a few shops. So we went and got a bite to eat and had some wine, then grabbed a bottle each at the grocery store and back on the train we went. We poured ourselves a glass and got comfortable for the long ride back, I ended up crashing for most of the ride back.

When we arrived back in Glasgow just after 9pm, we took the bus up to Tommy's flat, stopped in one of the small pubs across the street and had another drink and met a young lady Clare,

then the 3 of us decided to go down to the Shed, a night club up the street, and well the rest in just a blur......lol

Day 26 Sat. May 16

Of course, slept in abit today, Tommy went to a football game and I chilled, then did some more reseach of some hostels in Amsterdam and my flight and had a relaxing day.

Tommy got back and we got ready to go for a nice steak dinner at 29-The Grill Room, it is a private members club, that consists of 2 restuarants, a night club and 2 bars, one is members only. The meal was delicious, and then we walked along to get to the subway. There is just 2 subways in Glasgow, short routes one is the inner circle and the outer circle, takes you east or west.

So we went to the west end to go to Ashton Lane, it is a small street with a bunch of pubs and bars. So, do as the Scots do and we sampled a few different ones, pretty neat little spot and lots of people.

Then we walked down to another bar, which was in a church, there is a bar on the main floor and a night club downstairs, in a church so needless to say it was pretty neat. We decided to turn in early after our late night yesterday and went home, I finally finished my blog entry and went off to sleep.

So as I said, this is only week one in Scotland, and mostly just touring a little, relaxing and taking the local life in. I will do another entry for the next week and then off to Amsterdam I go.

So, keep checking for the next Scotland entry.

Bye Bye for now

JJ