(Also I apologize for the length of this post!!)
Day 4:
We sadly packed our things and departed london for Glasgow, Scotland that day. We woke up at 7 in the morning to take the tube out to heathrow to pick up our rental car, and we were on the road by 930. It was a little weird getting used to driving on he wrong side of the road, and our car would just randomly stop sometimes when we were waiting at a stop sign or something. Scary!!
So we are on the road for an hour or 2 and then we hit a ton of traffic. We stopped dead and say there, going maybe 20 mph in a "fast" section. And then we would get to the end of that traffic, 15-20 minutes later, go normal speed for 5 minutes, and hit more traffic! It went on like this for a really long time. Our gps originally said we were getting there at 5pm, then 6, 7, 8, 9... We FINALLY arrived at our flat at 11 at night. 13 hours of driving. Since the signs on the road warned us of "queues ahead", our motto for the night was "Screw the Queue!!"
One really great thing we discovered on our terrible car trip was that the rest stops here are a million times better than the ones in the US. They are way off the highway so it seems really rural, and the one we ate dinner at was just amazing. It had a gorgeous view and a duck pond and a hotel! The food was fantastic, all freshly made, and everything was very clean. They even had a shower you could use if you wanted!
Allison, my moms penpal, met us at our flat and it was a joyful reunion, though the 4 of us were in a state of sleep-loss induced hysteria by that point. It was so great to finally meet her after hearing about her for my whole life. She was amazing, even better in real life than the stories I've been told. She stayed a bit and we all went to bed sometime around 12 that night, but little did we know it would be the earliest we would sleep for the next few days!
Day 5:
On Saturday we got up and had breakfast at Allison's and then she took us around the city of Glasgow after. The Commonwealth Games, the third largest games in the world after the Olympics and the Asian Games, are being held in Glasgow all this week and next. {Fun fact- the world wide premier of Eric Whitacre's virtual children's choir was held at the opening ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games last week sometime. We didn't see it live, but you can watch the video on YouTube and possibly see some of my friends from school chorus!}
While in Glasgow we saw tons of street performers, such as a band of drummers with a bagpiper, and these people who did ballet and acrobatics and acted out a story, the best part was when one of the girls stood on one of the guys heads! I have tons of pictures on my real camera, they were great subjects of photos! There was also a street festival going on with crafts and things you could buy, the whole city was buzzing with activity.
We got to go inside a house that was built in 1471, the oldest house in Glasgow! It was pretty cool, they had furniture and plates and things from the 16 and 1700s. We went to the catherdral across the street from the house, which was about the same age, and absolutely gorgeous. It was like a smaller version of Westminister Abbey. And people still use it as their church every weekend!
In the evening, and "half six" as Allison called it, we went to a concert of the BBC orchestra and another orchestra combined, classical music, with Allison and her kids Seona and Struen. We met up with them at the little cafe thing outside the concert hall, and they were both just lovely. Struen was hilarious and Seona was so nice.
For dinner we went to a fast food type place and brought back to Allison's place real Scottish fish and chips, deep fried and everything. Sooo bad for you but soooo good! We had a great time talking with the three of them, and stayed up until midnight again!
This is us laughing over something Struen had said:
(Dad, Nick, me, mom in the back and then Struen, Mitch, Seona's boyfriend, and Seona in the front)
Day 6:
Yesterday was our last day in Scotland. We went to Allison's for breakfast again and then walked around Glasgow again and visited the botanical gardens, they had tons of plants from all over the world in greenhouses and even an entire room of carnivorous plant, my personal favorite. We also went to Glasgow University which Allison and both her kids had gone to, and the best part was that it looked almost exactly like Hogwarts, from Harry Potter! We took a bunch of photos of that, this is the only one on my ipod:
And we went to an art museum, but we were pretty exhausted by that point and all went back to Allison's for dinner again.
After dinner we stayed until about 10, Seona brought home 2 baby rats as an early birthday gift for Allison and we watched them a while but we wanted to get back to our place so we could get up early the next morning and drive to Wales. We said goodbye, mom and Allison cried and hugged everyone, and we walked to our car. The drivers side window had been smashed in with a rock and someone had stolen our gps and chargers. Glass was everywhere, the front, the back seat, on the sidewalk, just everywhere. We all walked back to Allison's and waited for the police to come do a report.
I got to hold the rats, named Tiffin (which is some kind of Scottish cake) and Lulu. They were so cute, and would climb all over my shoulders and arms, it was fun!
Me and Tiffin:
Mitch, Seona's boyfriend, was kind enough to drive Nick, mom and I back to our flat while dad stayed and waited for the police to come. We waited up for dad though, he finally got in around 1 30 in the morning!
Day 7:
This morning dad got us a new car with a not broken window and we drove to Wales! We stopped at Hadrians wall, the old northern border of the roman empire, and walked around exploring there for a while. There were sheep that lived right near the wall and walked all over it like it was no big deal, not a wall the was built by the Romans 2000 years ago!
We got in to the town we are staying in around 7pm, but were lost for almost an hour and had to ask 2 women we saw in a park we turned around at. They flagged down people biking by that they knew and asked them. Turns out we had turned around in the driveway of the place we are staying, we just didn't know it at the time!
We settled in a little and then dad and I drove up to Wrexham to visit my penpal Casey and her family! They were so nice and just lovely people to get on with. We ended up staying until past 10! Whoops :)
Tomorrow we are going to go somewhere with them, not sure where exactly yet, but it is sure to be a fun time!
~T
