Scotland 2023

31/07/2023

Nice little getaway to Scotland. I had never been before, so we decided to spend a few days in Glasgow, then a few in Edinburgh. Overall I really enjoyed it. I think central Edinburgh isn't for me in the same way that central London isn't, but I liked Glasgow and Leith a lot.

I keep a little bullet-point list going in iA Writer, so I've cleaned it up and just posted it as it's easier to read than some prosaic nonsense.

Monday

Took the train from Brighton to Victoria at around 7am, Victoria to Euston, Euston to Glasgow
I always have good ideas for things at impractical times
There's always someone on the train making some noise that irritates me, and it's usually the genre of person who is into speedcubes and thinks everyone in the carriage will be super interested in their very loud conversation. These ones were arguing about who was the most "OG" in their town by who remembered play equipment in their local park. I don't think they know what the G stands for.
Walk to the hotel was uphill and seemed to go on forever. Very heavy suitcase
Hotel room was delightful. Hard mattress. Good size. Has a safe.
Immediately went out to get some food. Bread Meats Bread had been on our itinerary for a while. Wants to be 7bone. Nowhere near as good as 7bone. Bit disappointed
Cheered ourselves up with a sundae from Hotel Chocolat
Walked by the river. Rivers smell
Someone needs to look into Glasgow's traffic light timings. It takes so long to cross the road here and you're always crossing the road

Tuesday

Gym is decent. Get sweaty for an hour
Shower head is attached to the wall. I don't like that
I find a useful barometer for a place is the selection of trainers available in places like size?. The more pairs I'd wear, the more I'll like a place. Theory holds for Glasgow
Enjoyed the Banksy exhibition. The stars are the exhibit labels; I like how Banksy writes and pretty much every single one of them made me laugh. Especially the one for his Simpsons couch gag
Paint markers by the exit so you can write on the walls. Whole wall covered, except the fire alarm. Safety first
University buildings are beautiful
Loop and Scoop. Churros and gelato. Loved this place, and thought the churros were better than we had in Valencia
Botanic Gardens were incredible. Beauty everywhere. Strongly recommend going to them
Shouldn't have gone to the gym - absolutely exhausted
Kelvingrove museum was good but I was not in the mood. Got to see a Dali though, which was worth going for
Rishi's Indian Aroma was delicious but I didn't like their onion bhajis. They do them weird, like a deep-fried lateral slice of an entire onion (think onion ring, but not a ring).
Billy Bob Thornton was standing outside the window. His band was playing in Glasgow that evening. "That guy looks like Billy Bob Thornton" is almost never him
Secret Genius of Modern Life is good. We don't watch a lot of TV as it airs so miss out on things like this
Fell asleep immediately. Probably don't need to go to the gym if we're going to be doing all this walking

Wednesday

Gym again. Intervals on spin bike. Hope we're not doing lots of walking today
Swirly breads from Sainsbury's for breakfast
More people making noise on the train. Why must people play noise through their phone speakers in public spaces? It's so annoying.
Train cancelled whilst we're on it. I should not have to deal with delay repay on holiday
Buses are slow and expensive
Dumbarton's local famous person was a novelist, playwright, critic, and surgeon. And he died at 50.
Not really anywhere lunchy to eat in Balloch so we had McDonald's. Their milkshake machine was working 🎉
Loch Lomond cruise was lovely. 2 hours of breathing the freshest air I've breathed in ages. And owing to my general unimpressedness with the general public, Tabitha and I bogarted the front of the boat for the entire two hours. Did I mention I did intervals on a spin bike today? I shouldn't have done that.
I quite like Irn Bru
Got a suction cup mount for my GoPro
Had dry roasted peanuts and Irn Bru for dinner. Everyone went to sleep. I watched YouTube

Thursday

No gym
Our hotel room curtains are fully blackout. I'm not used to that
Delay Repay websites are an amazing example of trying to discourage people's access to something by using abhorrent UI
I counted out my tablets for the week before we left, and still didn't bring enough. I cannot count to seven
Caught up on work emails in bed. Wrote a stupidly long email on my phone because I couldn't be bothered to move and get my laptop
Bus to the Necropolis. Best necropolis I've ever visited. Weather is a bit trash though
Necropolis is better than the cathedral, but I have been to a lot of cathedrals so my standards are high
Proper Egyptian falafel for lunch. Carbs ❤️
Riverside museum and general mooching around by the river. Think we found an area where I, in retrospect, should not have been walking around with my camera out taking pictures
Graeme Obree's bikes
Chaiiwalla cheese toastie for dinner
Oppenheimer at IMAX (Tabitha didn't go - she and Charlotte went to some Queen thing at the planetarium, which I'm still not fully sure I get)
Lonnnnnggg walk from Science Centre to the hotel
People don't whistle any more, and it makes whistling seem even more suspicious
I didn't eat my movie snack at the cinema so I ate it in bed instead. I like Minstrels

Friday

Slow start. Checking out of DoubleTree today. Bit sad - I like this room and would rather stay. We saw an Ibis Budget on our walk yesterday and I'm not looking forward to staying in one for the next couple of nights
BRGR if you try to say it sounds like a Glaswegian saying "burger", but they pronounce it "bee-arr-gee-arr" which seems like a missed opportunity to me
Really enjoyed my burger
Lots of trains, lots of walking. Starting to wish I'd brought the car
I liked Edinburgh Zoo a lot
First time ever seeing a panda in real life. Both of them had positioned themselves with their backs to glass, making it impossible to photograph them. Classic panda behaviour
Saw a sloth awake and moving for the first time. Helpful zookeeper told me the sloth's route so I could position myself to take a half-decent picture
Ben and Jerry's Cookie Vermonster
Our hotel is so expensive for what it is
I get why people hate buses (I don't specifically remember why I wrote this)
Started to stream the F1 qualifying but fell asleep

Saturday

Tram to Edinburgh
Edinburgh central is pretty much identical to most other British city centres, and I'm over it. Beautiful architecture, and weirdly vertical which I'm sure is lovely when it's not raining
Tram to Leith. Leith is more my speed for now. It's right on the cusp of being cool enough to make it a candidate for gentrification
Pizza Geeks for lunch. We chose this place because they had an item on the menu called Philip J Fries, but they were out of fries. I know it's going to seem paranoid, but this literally always happens to me
Nice walk by the river in Leith
Long walk back to Edinburgh to spy on the shops
Saw Greyfriar's Bobby
Rained so we ducked into the museum to look at Dolly the sheep. Looks just like other sheep 😏
This new walking silent disco thing. Whoever invented that; I want to stamp on their foot
Tram very busy because an international rugby match just finished. Of course it did
Some nerd watching wrestling on his phone with (you guessed it!) the volume up
Rugby fans smirking at the wrestling nerd
Tabitha is obsessed with highway cop shows. I have no idea why but it's so funny how much she loves them
Max Verstappen is so fast, it's ridiculous
New episode of Futurama

Sunday

Slept terribly. Super grumpy
Got an early train. We might be home 3 hours earlier than we thought which would be very nice
Lucky we got the earlier train because everything delayed by one hour (yay more delay repay!)
Berwick-upon-Tweed looks beautiful
Dunbar looks beautiful
East coast tour next time?
Cherry Colin the Caterpillars
Wheels on the suitcase are too smooth and it tries to run away whenever the train ac/decelerates so I have to hug it from Blackfriars to Brighton
Glad to be home

If you'd rather look at all the photos I took than just the few I curated, be my guest. It's your life.