Anyway, this weekend I hoped on a cheapo EasyJet flight up to sunny Scotland to hang out with Susie. Both Glasgow and Edinburg are cities I've really wanted to see for a while: JPMorgan has a big technology center in Glasgow, and Edinburgh is just really cool. Plus Edinburgh has a great big festival that I'm definitely gonna go to next year.
The impressions I had built up from what I'd heard and read were pretty much on the money. Glasgow was a sorta industrial city with a few bright spots. But the day trip we took to Edinburg was really the highlight.
It's really a delight to ride the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh through the rolling hills covered in fog and sheep and end up in the heart of the capital of Scotland. As you enter the city you are in a tight valley and you look up to see the castle looming over you. It was raining (of course), but we didn't mind that much. We found a few cosy little cafes and a fantastic bar where we spent most of the night knocking elbows with the local chaps. Funny thing is with the heavy accent, I felt like I could understand way more people in Prague than I did in Edinburgh.
In the afternoon, we took a guided tour of the castle from a VERY entertaining Scottish guy who really filled the whole thing with a great sense of pride and humor. Did you know that the hole in the front of the toilet seat was invented by a Scot? They also invented a bunch of other important stuff that I can't remember. Here's a pic of the fountain on Princes Street with the castle in the background (pulled off the castle web site because I forgot my camera that day):
So that was Saturday. On Sunday we were back in Glasgow and went to an Irish bar to catch the All-Ireland finals of Gaelic Hurling. Just what you were expecting I'd do in Scotland, right? Hurling is actually a really neat sport played only in Ireland (I think) that's a lot like lacrosse actually. The stick they use is all wood, though, with no pouch. So they kinda throw the ball to themselves WHILE RUNNING and hit it like a baseball. Cool! But it goes really far and they can score by either getting it into the goal (3 points) or through the uprights (1 point). These guys are tough as hell though and really whack each other. Many don't even wear helmets. So the game moves really fast and doesn't take long to pick up what's going on. After a tight match with the Galway fans in the bar screaming a lot....Cork won! We were pretty excited and cheered with a whole bar filled with Irish people. Well, except the Galway fans who weren't happy. Too bad for them! Here's an article on the match and a pic I took of the fans storming the field:
http://www.westernpeople.com/news/story.asp?j=27083
Glasgow was actually a pretty nice city in some parts. Here's a story to give you an idea of why it still has a bad reputation: We were staying in a nice Hilton hotel, but when you walk out of the hotel, you would either have to basically walk along a 4 lane highway, or down a dark street for about 100 yards. And since we couldn't understand the locals at all, you'd never know if someone was coming to mug you or ask for the time.
But there were nice parts too. Here's a pic of Buchanan Street, a lovely pedestrian street near George Square and Merchant City in the center of Glasgow:
So it's been a busy month and a half -- Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Austria, Scotland. Phew. Not sure what's next, but I know it'll be fun!
Cheers,
Dan
PS. Here's another pic of Liz's dog. Great!
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