Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Scotland - Part 2

You won't believe it...I can hardly believe it myself...I saw the Loch Ness monster. And no...I hadn't been drinking. I took the morning cruise along Loch Ness just to make sure I didn't let alcohol cloud my judgement.



Unfortunately...damn camera screwed up again and I all I have to show for my once-in-a-lifetime experience is a picture of a blue cartoon Nessie. How sad is that?


But I was lucky enough to befriend a couple good Aussie lads and they helped me drown my sorrows in a pub after our walk around Inverness.



The young, hot Scottish girl who was out for her 21st birthday and was buying US drinks helped some too. She topped it off by doing backflips for us in the bar. We have it on video in case you think I'm lying again.




The region around Inverness was a fairly boring, beautiful place... but you have to give their folklore an A+ for getting people to come to Loch Ness. The waters were so dark and cold it was omnious. We were told that after about 10 metres down...it's completely black with no visibility and all year the water is a frosty 3 degrees. It's also about 700 metres deep...hence my pal Nessie hasn't been caught. I just wish she would have smiled a bit longer while I fumbled with my camera. Next time!



Then it was on to Glasgow. Only the last two pictures are from Glasgow. I must admit, I wasn't too impressed with the city. After loving Edinburgh so much, I was expecting something similar, but I found Glasgow to be a more modern looking city with hardly any cool looking old buildings around. And as you can see from my pictures...I love the old buildings.



However, with it being a university town, I'm told from the many students I met in my hostel, it has a great vibe and the bar scene is quite impressive. With that being said, I still wasn't going to line up outside a bar on a Thursday night to find out if that was true. Man...I am old!





Now don't cast-off Glasgow because of what I've written here...please experience it for yourself...since I might be a little jaded.


Upon arriving in Glasgow, I was offered up some friendly Scottish advice from the info booth at the bus station that I could walk to my hostel in 6-8 minutes. Yeah...right.


To make matters worse, my on-line hostel reservation sent me the wrong directions. After about 20-25 minutes of walking...I found myself at the sister hostel of mine.


Of course, my hostel was another 20 minutes away. And why are all my hostels at the top of a hill? I think Canada softened me up as I was definitely beat by the time I checked into my hostel.





I know I'm starting to sound like a little cry baby, but as I told McAuley...travelling is hard work.


Luckily the weather as you can see continued to be on my side so I'll shut up now.


See you in Ireland...

5 comments:

Kym Hanenburg said...

I so understand the Glasgow vs Edinburg thing....I felt the same way...and the hostel story...yep...happened to me to!! We are so spoiled here in Canada...continue to have fun!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Joe,
Just finished up the dishes from our first Thanksgiving Feast!! Eva was asking about you. :) Hope you sampled some good single malt in the Highlands. Gobble Gobble.
Love Bo & Jace

Anonymous said...

Keep up the hard work pal. I can't wait to hear this Nessie story in detail. I think maybe you had some bad haggis.

Anonymous said...

wow - i can't believe you saw the lochness monster! that's so cool joe.


your pics are great again....come home with a british or scottish accent will ya? (it's sexy)

:)

have fun!
*sash

Anonymous said...

Big Joe Fish

Hope your enjoying the Beer's over in Scotland.

Copperhead