after arriving comically early at spain's alicante airport for our really cheap flight to glasgow (we thought we were clever by scoring a place in sleazyjet's 'boarding group B' until we found out that the boarding groups actually only extend to B) and having a slightly awkward smile-and-nod conversation with the friendly but completely incomprehensible glaswegian man in front of us, we touched down in glasgow. our arrival at 2am could be blamed on (arguably) the world's worst airline but alas the 13C weather was something that no amount of whingeing would correct (and believe me we tried).
a brief (and somewhat compulsory) taxi ride later, the public transport to and from the airport having long since closed, we were starting to worry that the language barrier was going to be even greater in scotland than it was in spain, as we had recently had several more complicated and confusing conversations with scottish people despite the fact that everybody was theoretically speaking english.
we became, that evening, the people in dorm hostel rooms that everybody hates as we turned up shortly before 3am and rustled around in the dark for the next half-hour before crashing into bed. although, we were slightly less hated than the girl who turned up after us, really drunk and apparently sleeping in a bed full of plastic bags.
basically, v and i were in scotland for my cousin's wedding further north the following weekend, and really just arrived in glasgow because we could get there cheaply. as one does. but, armed with thick jumpers and a scrawled list of 'things to do' from a cousin i hadn't met since i was 7, we decided we were pretty well-equipped to see glasgow.
our first morning in the grey, rainy but also quite likeable city was taken up with finding somewhere to get haircuts (we were both looking a bit like cousin it and were determined to not be the bogan australian cousins at the wedding) and discovering that vivienne needs to pay a visit to the brazilian consulate in edinburgh in order to legally travel into south america (i, however, am somehow exempt from getting a visa because i have a british passport. clearly).
we then went to the kelvingrove museum, where we ignored pretty much everything except the stuff that was actually about scotland, and were secretly quite pleased that it was completely free and really good. bargain.
that night we hit sauchiehall st with some of the girls from our dorm, sauchiehall being a nightspot my cousin had described as 'a sight to see', which i had foolishly assumed to mean 'good', when in fact we encountered more vomiting drunks than we'd seen in a while and were amazed at how little clothing glaswegian girls manage to wear considering the weather. despite all this we had a really good night, and the next morning wandered around the high st shops before trekking up the hill with all our stuff to the buchanan st bus station, where a bus would take us to a place called the corran ferry just south of fort william, in north-west scotland.
sans problemes we crossed the loch on the ferry to a town called ardgour, the closest civilisation to where the scottish branch of my family lives in one of the most beautiful parts of scotland.
vivienne and i basically spent the next few days sleeping, eating, watching movies, drinking tea and catching up with my lovely extended family (most of whom i basically hadn't seen since 1998).
it was a faint desire for exercise that led us to tackle a hike on one of the big hills surrounding ardgour, called kiel- a decision which we questioned somewhat as my uncle robin sent us off with two chocolate bars and the number of the helicopter rescue people. we actually made it most of the way up and back without too much drama, miraculously weren't really rained on and got some amazing views from the top.
then, it was with great excitement that my mum, dad and little sister turned up (my father apparently having driven like 'a madman' from glasgow airport) on wednesday, partly for my cousin ewen's wedding to a gorgeous girl called annie, and partly to bring vivienne and i all the things we'd forgotten and to take home the things we didn't need and more. such nice people, my family.
some scottish dancing practice last night in the kitchen (vivienne's excitement was second to none and she did better than the half-scottish members of the family) got us pretty geared up for the wedding tomorrow, but i'll let vivienne tell you about that. she is, after all, as excited as i am!
love to all xxx
