SCOTLAND

Yae have tae love this cun-trrae. It's just grraet! Ay........Therre's nothing wee about-it!

I only had quick visits to Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh (pronounced Edinburra) but I didn't stop moving and really got a feel for the areas.

First of all, the Scots are so friendly, especially when compared with the individualistic and self-centered view of the Londonites (which stems from the dog eat dog mentality of a huge metropolitan). One thing that was very intriguing for the eyes was the fields of yellow crop that is randomly dispersed all over the country side. They really light up the ground (pic on left)


So, I took the 9 hour overnight bus from London on Sunday May 14th, and arrived in Glasgow Monday morning at 7:30 (pic on top left is the clock outside Buchanan Bus Station.......which Catou had given me a heads up for). Very bad ride......tight space, and not comfortable at all, but it cost 1 pound. Glasgow is a nice looking town. It is a sort of business, and nightlife capitol. There are many bars and clubs and so many areas to visit, yet I only had one day to do that so I did the major parts. (Glasgow University on right)




The west end is the "new" part of town, as in new buildings, artichecture, and trendy bars and restaurants, and where the University of Glasgow is so where the students and thus younger crowd is. The west end is very nice and the University is just gorgeous (McGill Campus is nice but has nothing on this....pics on both sides).





The hostel was pretty cool and downtown. It was on the 7th floor and had a nice view of the city, cost 16 pounds, shared with only 3 other people in the room, and we had our own bathroom. From the hostel, I had the chance to check out a very cool "winter garden" which also had some Glasgow history (like the alcohol problem within Glasgow and Scotland altogether.......pic on right). Picture on the left is the City Council building.



There was also a nice pedestrian bridge near the hostel across the River Clyde which was all lit up in red (pic on left), and from that bridge I took a picture of the train bridge which was lit up with Blue (pic on right).





Then came Aberdeen on the east coast (pics on right of North Sea). Aberdeen itself is rather nice since it is near a granite quarry thus all of the buildings are built of granite (even the hostel on the left). Aberdeen had a lot of bars (including churches that were converted to bars) but the highlights are the surrounding areas since it is Whiskey and castle country. I didn't check out any distilleries but had the opportunity to see castle ruins just south of Aberdeen beside a town called Stonehaven.



Stonehaven has a nice beach, but from here you can embark on the 2.5 mile trek along the coastline to Dunnattar Castle. The path is rather primitive and sometimes dangerous but it adds to the rustic and scenic aspect of the area (pic on left). There were wild hare everywhere along the coast with their trademark rabbit-holes. The castle was breath-taking and I have atleast 50 photos of it (pic on right).



There were so many gorgeous areas in and around the castle but I can't put them all here. The picture on the left was just looking out one side of a hallway while the pic on the right is through a crumbled opening.






Here are some more pics of the castle. On the right is a global view and on the left, a view of the other shore down from one of the castle's windows. I could go on and on with the castle but I must stop somewhere.





Finally came Edinburgh. The most gorgeous city of Scotland (of what I know). The equilibrium between the old and new architecture is sublime and the hostel and people there were equally awesome (Walter Scott monument on the left). I finally met someone that was also travelling at the hostel........Some Aussie dude named Matt that I went hiking with up Arthur's seat, a little hill (pic on right with view of Edinburgh). I also had the chance to be chaperoned around town for some pints by Pawel, a buddy of Abe's (new friend from London).



And of course, there's Edinburgh Castle. Another gorgeous mix of old with new as the castle sits atop the city, overlooking the many shops, pubs and restaurants.




There was so much more but this is getting ridiculously long so we'll stop it at that. I saw everything I wanted to in Scotland: castles, the coastline, and the gorgeous architecture so it was very satisfying.

Talk to you soon...........

1st days in London

So, the plane ride from Montreal P.E.T. to London Gatwick was super cumfy.......leather seats, 2 movies, supper, and then breakfast 3 hours later. There was actually a girl on the plane from university that I hadn't seen in 2-3 years, so it was cool to know someone from the get-go.

My sweetheart friend Kim (pic on left) greeted me at the airport, no less, at 8 am (meaning she woke up 5:30 and took the train. Kimmy shares a "flat" in the Islington London district with another good buddy and fellow montrealer Gabe (middle in pic on right), and with another awesome dude originally from Ontario, Abe (middle in pic on left). It's been a sweet transition into the trip since I know some people here who have welcomed me with such open arms.

The first few days in London have been exciting as I've seen pretty much all the tourist sites: Piccadilly Circus (pic on left), Covent Garden, Hyde Park, Trafalgar + Leicester Squares, Parliament with Big Ben, London Eye, Tower Bridge, Camden Town district and Greenwich for the prime meridian (pic on the right).

But other things have obviously been more exciting: interesting architecture like the "Gerkin" (pic on right) by Ken Shuttleworth and the "Loyds Building" by Richard Rogers which is all polished steel and looks straight out of an idustrial factory(pic on left). It helps that Abe is a very saavy Architecture major that has had work terms all over the world like Edinburgh, here, and Rome next fall.

Of course, the pints are relatively cheap here so we've been hittin' a few pubs and having some brews at the flat, as illustrated in the pics above. And as you can see, some pubs (in this case a Tavern) have some exciting names, to say the least.



The highlight for me so far has been the Hampsted district where I went walking in the woods and fell upon a funded park with full of animals and vast trees, water, flowers (just amazing) and then on my way back through the woods I fell upon some old mansion and estate (pic) that is also funded to upkeep the "backyard" which is ginormous and exotic, and open to the public. It has gotten rather annoying that I am going all over the place by myself and I consequently won't be included in many of the pictures, but I'm getting better at using the timer on my camera; as long as there's not too many people around.

I also went to check out "The Streets" Thursday May 11th at Carling Academy in Brixton.........It was insane; the people were mostly young and kinda assholes, the opening bands were just rap and raher shitty but the Streets were really good. Major downfall was the fact that I couldn't use my camera at the show cause it has a retractable lens, I guess meaning I can take better quality pics, but about 40 people just around me were going crazy with their cameras (we were straight away center about 4-5 standing rows back from the stage). I am also going to the EndClub Saturday night to see a huge DJ, Adam Beyer. I need to hit atleast one club while I'm here.

I have so many pictures of everything but I can't upload everything on this blog......maybe on snapfish or something later anyways.

Tune in soon.........

Taataa for now