Send my love to the Winter gales in Australia. I'm staying in sunny Scotland!
So I finally made it to Scotland late Saturday night and was picked up at Glasgow Pickwick airport by a good friend I hadn’t seen in a few years (a warming reunion). We drove the scenic route back to Kincardine, the sweetest little country town in county Fife (almost halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh at the foothills of the Ochill Hills) and stayed awake catching up until sunrise (okay, that was about 3am this far North in June, but it was still a good effort after the previous couple of days!). Sunday afternoon I woke up with a terrible flu, a nasty chest infection, a middle ear infection and a very sore back (I really need to cut down on my backpack weight!) which shattered me for the entire week, but I was determined to see as much of Scotland as I could anyway. So Monday I went for a walk up the hill and spotted a classic Scottish, run down old Church and graveyard (see photos). I went further up the alley and suddenly emerged in green rolling hills nestling a large Medieval manor (or small castle) sitting pretty and steady. This turned out to be the Police College, where my reunion friend works. By the way, did I mention how close everything is in Europe? From one town to the next wouldn’t be more than a few hours walk anywhere I’ve seen in Europe. In Scotland, make it one hour!
Tuesday I went to Paisley (birthplace of half the Scottish stewards and home to Glasgow airport) and sat in the town park just to get my “the artist formerly known as Prince” fix (ie. Paisley Park record label). Paisley is friendly, quaint and a very pretty little town. Most of the people I have so far met that have ever lived there will vouch happily for Paisley. It has a nice selection of shops and restaurants, some lovely gardens and a river running through it. I also found out that Paisley is where the paisley clothing design originated. In Paisley I bought a neat little car named Erin (a Nissan Almera 1996) and she sang all the way back to Kincardine, even through my very first proper fog! (very eerie – smells almost sweet and reminds me of the Macbeth movies’ classical depictions of Scotland)
Wednesday my friend took me to Glasgow to see Zero Seven, an instrumental group, performing with Sia and Jose Gonzales. This was a class performance with over eight musicians from at least three different bands weaving their magic over an audience packed with discerning musicians. I met some local girls in the audience who perform in their own band called ‘Juniper Spark’ (who I can’t wait to hear perform - we went for drinks and had our own little sing-a-long after the concert, and they both play multiple instruments and have smokey, sweet voices that complement each other very well). I also discovered that contrary to popular rumour, Glasgow is a superb city: it is not only well planned out and full of interesting and old architecture, but it seems to be a very youthful, multicultural nexus for Scotland. There are international gigs playing almost every night, more underground pubs and clubs than flowers in the field, a thriving market place (which I am yet to visit) and, at least in the areas I visited, women were commonly walking alone at night with their bags over one shoulder. To me, this is always a good sign; it usually means that attacks or bag theft are not commonplace. Glasgow seems a really lovely place with cheerful sorts and I’m looking forward to going there for another visit very soon.
We got back to Kincardine fairly late on Wednesday night and by the time I woke up on Thursday, I was sick as a dog! Fortunately, the public health care system over here is fantastic! Firstly, to quote my doctor, “We canna bothre wit ta paperwork, so we med it free.” All I had to do was book a same day appointment, walk in, get checked out by a cheerful and friendly, English speaking doctor (who had trouble understanding my Aussie accent) and sent on my merry way to the pharmacy. Antibiotics seem to cost a standard £6.65 (I’ve needed two separate prescriptions so far) and a lot of rest (grrr!). But I view all this as very lucky: heaven help me if I had got that sick in Spain, where, or so I’m told, very few doctors speak fluent English, even in Barcelona’s hospitals. Also, the weather has been really warm for Scotland and consequently everybody has been in good sorts. Finally, and the best news of all, I found TimTams in the Alloa (small town between Kincardine and Stirling) Tesco supermarket – in plain and caramel!!!! So, time, place, weather and chocolate wise, Scotland’s lowlands has been a good place to rest, recuperate and recover from hectic Barca, Barca, Barca!
Overall, Scotland is an under promoted Emerald in Europe; this country is deep green and so fertile you can smell it thick in the air (even past the random wafts of factory smoke). It is not hard to find anything at a reasonable price here (except petrol) and the public transport system is easy to figure out and built upon efficient transport routes that are at least a thousand years old (and which many historical accounts cite as one of the oldest Scottish features which helped to keep the English South of the border). The areas between Glasgow and Edinburgh were once so surrounded by swamps and foggy marshlands that only light infantry could cross them, but they have now been partially drained to promote valleys dense with trees, flowers, rivers and fertile farmland, colloquially called the ‘Green Belt.’ The national flower is the Thistle; a purple flower atop a conglomerate of spikes, leaves and thorns. In Australia, this flower (known there as the ‘Scotch Thistle’) is considered such a weed I can barely contain myself while uprooting them from the national parkland areas. Over here, people will clear their gardens of all the ‘foreign’ weeds to show off their thistles more splendidly. Goes to show: ‘One man’s weed is another man’s pride!’ or rather 'One man's thorn is another man's thistle!' The people here are also extraordinarily friendly, hospitable and patriotic, but it is often difficult to understand their quick language style and various, thick accents.
So much more I could write. Scotland has been nothing like I expected or heard; literally a suprise around every corner.
So I finally made it to Scotland late Saturday night of the 3rd and was picked up at Glasgow Pickwick airport by an old friend I hadn’t seen in a few years (lovely reunion). We drove the scenic route back to Kincardine, the sweetest little country town in county Fife (almost halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh at the foothills of the Ochill Hills) and stayed awake catching up until sunrise (okay, that was about 3am this far North, but it was still a good effort after the previous couple of weeks!). Sunday afternoon I woke up with a terrible flu, a nasty chest infection, a middle ear infection and a very sore back (I really need to cut down on my backpack weight!) which shattered me for the entire week, but I was determined to see as much of Scotland as I could anyway. So Monday I went for a walk up the hill and spotted a classic Scottish, run down old Church and graveyard (see photos). I went further up the alley and suddenly emerged in green rolling hills nestling a large Medieval manor (or small castle) sitting pretty and steady. This turned out to be the Police College, where my reunion friend works. By the way, did I mention how close everything is in Europe? From one town to the next wouldn’t be more than a few hours walk anywhere I’ve seen in Europe. In Scotland, make it one hour!
Tuesday I went to Paisley (birthplace of half the Scottish stewards and home to Glasgow airport) and sat in the town park just to get my “the artist formerly known as Prince” fix (ie. Paisley Park record label). Paisley is friendly, quaint and a very pretty little town. Most of the people I have so far met that have ever lived there will vouch happily for Paisley. It has a nice selection of shops and restaurants, some lovely gardens and a river running through it. I also found out that Paisley is where the paisley clothing design originated. In Paisley I bought a neat little car named Erin (a Nissan Almera 1996) and she sang all the way back to Kincardine, even through my very first proper fog! (very eerie – smells almost sweet and reminds me of the Macbeth movies’ classical depictions of Scotland)
Wednesday my friend took me to Glasgow to see Zero Seven, an instrumental group, performing with Sia and Jose Gonzales. This was a class performance with over eight musicians from at least three different bands weaving their magic over an audience packed with discerning musicians. I met some local girls in the audience who perform in their own band called ‘Juniper Spark’ (who I can’t wait to hear perform - we went for drinks and had our own little sing-a-long after the concert, and they both play multiple instruments and have smokey, sweet voices that complement each other very well). I also discovered that contrary to popular rumour, Glasgow is a superb city: it is not only well planned out and full of interesting and old architecture, but it seems to be a very youthful, multicultural nexus for Scotland. There are international gigs playing almost every night, more underground pubs and clubs than flowers in the field, a thriving market place (which I am yet to visit) and, at least in the areas I visited, women were commonly walking alone at night with their bags over one shoulder. To me, this is always a good sign; it usually means that attacks or bag theft are not commonplace. Glasgow seems a really lovely place with cheerful sorts and I’m looking forward to going there for another visit very soon.
We got back to Kincardine fairly late on Wednesday night and by the time I woke up on Thursday, I was sick as a dog! Fortunately, the public health care system over here is fantastic! Firstly, to quote my doctor, “We canna bothre wit ta paperwork, so we med it free.” All I had to do was book a same day appointment, walk in, get checked out by a cheerful and friendly, English speaking doctor (who had trouble understanding my Aussie accent) and sent on my merry way to the pharmacy. Antibiotics seem to cost a standard £6.65 (I’ve needed two separate prescriptions so far) and a lot of rest (grrr!). But I view all this as very lucky: heaven help me if I had got that sick in Spain, where, or so I’m told, very few doctors speak fluent English, even in Barcelona’s hospitals. Also, the weather has been really warm for Scotland and consequently everybody has been in good sorts. Finally, and the best news of all, I found TimTams in the Alloa (small town between Kincardine and Stirling) Tesco supermarket – in plain and caramel!!!! So, time, place, weather and chocolate wise, Scotland’s lowlands has been a good place to rest, recuperate and recover from hectic Barca, Barca, Barca!
Overall, Scotland is an under promoted Emerald in Europe; this country is deep green and so fertile you can smell it thick in the air (even past the random wafts of factory smoke). It is not hard to find anything at a reasonable price here (except petrol) and the public transport system is easy to figure out and built upon efficient transport routes that are at least a thousand years old (and which many historical accounts cite as one of the oldest Scottish features which helped to keep the English South of the border). The areas between Glasgow and Edinburgh were once so surrounded by swamps and foggy marshlands that only light infantry could cross them, but they have now been partially drained to promote valleys dense with trees, flowers, rivers and fertile farmland, colloquially called the ‘Green Belt.’ The national flower is the Thistle; a purple flower atop a conglomerate of spikes, leaves and thorns. In Australia, this flower (known there as the ‘Scotch Thistle’) is considered such a weed I can barely contain myself while uprooting them from the national parkland areas. Over here, people will clear their gardens of all the ‘foreign’ weeds to show off their thistles more splendidly. Goes to show: ‘One man’s weed is another man’s pride!’ The people here are also extraordinarily friendly, hospitable and patriotic, but it is often difficult to understand their quick language style and various, thick accents.
