Holidays at Scotland - another trip on the wall

Another trip on my wall

As all exciting trip days, I woke up early without any alarm or black tea. Rushed to send work emails to settle few pending stuff to allow my mind to slip-in to the holiday mood. My wife and son got ready in no time as always and we took the trains to the Victoria Coach station.

Last time I was on this coach station, we missed the bus for no reason. And this time we were far too keen to rush and board the bus without any gate opening or calls unlike last time when they never opened gate or did a call but expected the world to get into the bus. Long journey to Glasgow, Scotland and time to take that long awaited, careless, free, my own time to get that long cherished sleep which I missed due to long work hours and other busy-ness.

Reached in the evening as planned. First interesting personal touch was shown by the taxi driver who blinked his eyes with wonder when I said the zip code which had been the norm in London. He said can you tell me the building name which made me puzzled thinking how can someone know all the buildings or apartment names but he got us on our stay without any confusion. Glasgow seems to be smaller than what I thought. We dropped our stuff, took some rest and decided to take a stroll for a dinner.

We found interesting Chinese noodle shop near Union Street witnessing some free show by the youth around. It made he pass my wicked smile to my wife when I saw the kids using the subway coke cup on the telephone booth for a piss. Young guys took turn to enjoy the transparent enclosure. Make be I was at the right place at a wrong time but kids around seems to be having a great time entertaining the tourist with their interesting eye catching dressing and actions.

Took a walk back home and got settled for a good sleep to shrug off the tiredness from long bus ride. First day of outing was nice and walked a long long way from our stay to Springfield Quay, transport museum, tall ship, then to Kelvingrove Museum and parks. We met my college friend and family. My son got a good new friend and same with my wife. We spoke long hours, walked the city together and saw places with their expert advice which made my eyes see it better and ears hear clearer. 

Walked around the George square, Buchanan Street, Argyle street and many other streets which I don't recollect the names or never noticed as the colours of the rich Glasgow filled me eyes and with birds flying around and kids holding the hands it really makes you miss those small metal boards. Early dinner filled our stomachs and walks emptied it clean. It was a sunny bright day and around 10pm the busy sun god went for his routine nap. Back to rest for the rest of the night. And waiting for a grand trip to the world which poets and writers created and world embraced taking them to the dreams - the meadows of yesteryear's.

The sun came up with a blink of an eye, partly because of the early sun rise and the other part caused by a quick sound sleep that Glasgow offered me. Next morning I missed my breakfast slot and had to rush to the railway station for a trip to the dreamland for many, the Lochs and Luss village. Took a train ride from Glasgow Central towards Balloch. It was around 45Mins journey and an interesting one as it zooms out of Glasgow City and into the woods. From Balloch, we took a bus to Luss. We had joined a big group of common friends on this journey. Made lot of acquaintances and met some friendly, welcoming people. The families in our group were so nice that I felt I was always part of this group. My son was as naughty as ever causing some laugh and tensions at times.

The Luss village contained the beauty of everything that you could ask for in a village.
It had the lochs, hills, valleys, mini beach, medieval churches, flowers and nice people. We spent a lot of time in the river, at times taking a dip on the freezing cold water which kids found as an everyday thing while I often saved my legs from getting a cramp due to the coldness. Had some fun and games with the group and then I turned to my studies(photography). 

Felt I really needed that 55-300mm lens without which these views would just remain in my memories and would never be passed to digital memory. People enjoyed the original rum, raisins and milk ice creams before taking a long walk through the village. I decided to skip this one due to my adamant food habits. Where Scotland stands apart is that, it is here where nature remains as it was given to us by Mother Earth. Maybe people didn't have much things to do with the raw materials here or they just decided to keep it safe for future generations to enjoy. Your asthmatic lungs would long to life and die here as there were no sign of damage for another few hundred years.

Time to return came too early for us even though we stayed there good 7 hours. We took the bus back to Balloch and then decided to get to the Balloch park and castle. It was another scenic walk along the green posters of nature which could sell into people's heart. Kids ran around and enjoyed their freedom and parents found it tough to keep abreast. Myself being lazy with a lousy excuse of being a cameraman helped to take some much needed rest at times as I fancied. As all nice things had to end, we reached the Balloch station and then back to Glasgow. Back in Glasgow we had a thank you dinner together with the great people we met and then with some sadness we moved on, back to our stay. Happy that I met one of my old batch mate at college and my family could connect with them. The kids were the most sad ones on both sides. Glad that we met in this short journey which makes life all the more thrilling.

After another good sleep, next day we would move to Edinburgh. The taxi came on time with a driver from Pakistan. He has settled in Glasgow since 1970 and was well versed with every inch of it. Talked a lot and charged normal rates only. The bus came on time and we had a good trip to Edinburgh with WIFI. It took around 1.5Hours to reach the bus station. There were numerous signals on the way once we hit Edinburgh. We had to face a last minute change on check-in time which was earlier scheduled to be inline with the bus timing of 12:30 pm, which now became 4:00 pm. We  were given ideas to leave our luggage on cloak rooms on art gallery and then visit art gallery for that few hours.

The Edinburgh bus station provided us with a wonderful opportunity to keep and lock luggage which is a pay and use facility. But we moved ahead without doing that. We walked around a bit and it was difficult with a large suitcase and a stuffed buggy. It was difficult because the Edinburgh city is like a place which is build on a mountain. Most of you might know that Edinburgh is one huge dormant volcano which can come alive some day. We often had to climb the hills with the luggage. We found one of the happening places in the new town where we had the art gallery, and beautiful scenic views of the city. 

I would rate them one of the best city I have been to because of the way they have kept the past and made the present. You would just love to be in those city area which is crowded for sure but has space for everyone. People are very helpful and even offer additional pair of hands to hold me son if need be. I got chance to witness the new tram system which has started late last month(May 2014). It was so beautifully made and could make you feel was here for ever. That is how good they are at mixing past to future. The lush green parks on one side and right above them the hard rock hills and right above them the castles and houses, few bridges connecting few of these packs and some others taking you to motorways around Scotland. 

Edinburgh is called the writers paradise, it is here JK Rowling started the Harry Potter, Dorothy  Wordsworth and R.L.Stevenson are famous superheroes of my childhood. They have literary walks and writers pub hopping trips etc which my family may not enjoy since they are not in to these but if time permits, I might take a stroll along those close. The stay here is 10-15mins from the city and has to take a bus. Once in city, we would be there whole day as usual and be back at night. This plays allows cooking too so my son might get cooked meals whereas my breakfast to remain still those packed bites in the form of break, corn flakes and boring breakfast biscuits.

Next day was spent on castle visit, royal mile strolls, wynds and close walks, parks and other tourist attractions. I found the cost of living in Edinburgh would be way too less compared to London. We even did some mini shopping for some apparels. We found some stuff with 25% of the cost at which I bought the same thing in London. We had walked a lot before the dinner on a local cafe where he made custom made pasta for me and was just awesome. Next day was a drenched one. We started with a visit to Henderson's a vegetarian restaurant and bistro since 1962. I noticed a wise crowd there who seems be keen on what they are eating discussing about food, taste, flavours, smells and much more about food. 

Most people knew the other patrons and never missed to share a smile accompanied with a hello. I can tell you I was daring when I selected a tofu, sprouts and beans salad but never in my culinary life I could have imagined it can be made so tasty. Another interesting thing about this cafe is that it has good selection of vegan food too. They have their own recipes selling the cookbook too. Now how did I find it? Online as most other good food that I have fished out. We walked a lot today in the rain and embraced a different taste that Edinburgh offered. This rain took me to some good bookstores and happily unearthed three books from Wordsworth Classic section on good deals.(Anton Chekov short stories, Rudyard Kipling short stories and Charles Dickens horror stories collection). Looking at the selection and price, it suggests to be another literary paradise as London. This city's true colour comes out when it rains, it has that tired, haunted and mischievous look which changes to warm, welcoming and energetic with the sun, no wonder so many wizard stories where penned here.

If you happen to visit places and knows you are going to be out whole day and just needs a bed and shower, then I suggest to take places where you can trust and get the basic necessities. The next day was spent mostly roaming around in Leith walks, docks and then we took a bus to Portobello beach which was  not very crowded and sea looked black and unhappy. We played around there until evening before some shopping. We then searched for a South Indian place as son got bored with all the European varieties, as we were heading to the restaurant, I got an unexpected call from my friend as we were reaching the restaurant. We headed straight for our friends house and had a wonderful South Indian dinner which my son craved for. I stuffed so much that night that I couldn't sleep well since my stomach was doing high end digestion routines whole night. I noticed one more guy with us getting  bloated who was all around with us. It was our suitcase, don't know from where he got stuffed every passing day and by now he was completely full. Following day we took a bus to Aberdeen and reached in about 3 hours time. Aberdeen is more vibrant and busy. I felt this city is younger and in her teens compared to Edinburgh in her mid 40's and Glasgow being in her late 60's.

While watching an horror movie on TV, we were suddenly shocked by a long hard knock on our windows on this fourth floor. It was intermittent and god damn scary. After few knocks, I gathered the courage to open the curtains to witness an unexpected guest in the form of a huge seagull. It's beaks were red as if just returned from a flesh eating rendezvous. Even though I was glad it was not a ghost, I decided to show a cold shoulder to it. I closed the curtain back and after repeated knocks thought the poor thing should be very hungry. I pushed out an orange through the window and he seems to be gulping it in no time. While I was watching, he stayed away from it and upon closing the curtains, he was back on it. 

Later at night he bid a final farewell knock and flew away. We could hear few other knocks very late at night and assuming it was our new friend around, didn't bother to wake up from bed. In case we missed some other visitor who may not be as welcome as a seagull, glad for that too. We took a stroll around the city as we were living right in the happening place & managed to sea around Aberdeen. It is a compact place with most things happening on Union street and other nearby streets. The day took us to many shopping places and highly rated food joints. We managed to get to the beach by afternoon and stayed there until 6pm. Aberdeen is blessed to have a nice beach right in the heart of the city. As soon as we reached there, we saw that a body was floating around the sea, with coast guard ambulance, police and others waiting on the shore. Even though it was a walk-able distance into the sea, no one seas to be making that move. 

Maybe the North Sea is notorious whatever it is which I didn't know. From some other side of the beach a boat came with two water rescue suited guys and they managed to pull the lady ashore. To my surprise, the lady was still alive and her limbs got frozen on sea that she couldn't move. Others may not have tried their luck due to the cold sea. The beach was nice and playful and at the same time the sea seems to be busy with lot of ships. Mostly oil carriers and such beings. We even spotted a whale which came near to the shore and then rushed of making friendly splashes. Even though all the places we traveled where notorious for bad weather most of the times, we were blessed with good whether 9/10 times except for one day in the whole trip being wet.

Now time has come to do the final packing on this trip and fly back to London Heathrow and accompanying us would be our new duffel bag who joined us from Aberdeen to ease some of the tough job my existing royal traveler was handling. And from tomorrow business would continue as usual from London. The seagull did come back to bid a farewell to me and asked for more food. Once I was away from window, I came to know moved around searching for me but couldn't find. Not sure how old it was and whether I would return in its lifetime of around 20 years but if I do come back, hope it meet my new friend too.


all pics are taken during the trip mostly using iPhone 5S, Nexus 5 and Nikon D3100...