Give The People What They Want

I like the little map counter on my website. Mostly I like the idea that someone from Wien, Austria once stumbled upon this page and never, ever came back. Seriously, though, who are you people who read this? Despite the dots on the pretty map, I still think my readership can be counted on one hand: Oz, Kimm, Deb, Justin (are you still out there?), and occasionally Alej. Every now and then I get comments from some person who I think made it here via Google, or who I linked to about something or other, but I forget or tend not to think about the other people that might find this. Anyway, welcome strangers!

Blogger lets you see how many views individual pages within a blog have. As my new counter approaches 1000, I found myself wondering what was getting all these hits. I checked my post list and tried to find the popular culprits (pulprits?). Looks like the post I wrote about the second time I saw Avengers is very popular (894 views). I credit my shirtless Chris Hemsworth pictures. My review of the first time I saw Avengers, which has no shirtless Hemsworth pics, only has 12 views.  I can also see what keyword searches led people to my site. Among them are "thor shirtless," "shirtless thor" and "thor no shirt."  This leads me to believe that shirtless pictures of Thor are the key to internet success. A few more of those babies and I can retire on Ellie Fish income. Right?  

Not Enough Time In London

We added some time in London onto the end of our Scotland trip. We had to go through Heathrow anyway, and it was pretty easy to get a 24h layover.  We arrived at the airport around 10. We had to collect our bags, then catch the train to the city. There were two trains going into the city, and the difference was about 15 minutes at twice the price. Needless to say, we took the cheaper train (Heathrow Connect, for those of you who might need it one day).

Scotland Day 10: Last Day

I didn't actually take any pictures on our last day in Scotland. It was a glorious day - hot and sunny (hot by Glasgow standards, which is warm by most standards). In the late morning we had coffee with a friend of C's who was a natural born Glaswegian. His accent was a little hard to understand at times, but he was so nice and funny. He also had one of those scary-breed dogs, a boxer I think. I don't care how many people tell me that they're gentle and sweet, I can't help buy picture those scary-breeds snapping and attacking. Give me a good, calm Golden or Lab any day.

Scotland Day 9: Hill Walking

On Saturday, our second last day in Scotland, we went for a hill walk. Scotland is known for it's walks, and hill walking is a really popular pastime. It encompasses anything from low-level walks and mountain climbing. And, despite what Oz told me about Scotland being full of frustrated mountain climbers, there are mountains, called Munros.

Scotland Day 8: Yes, there's still more to write about

Friday was another day spent in Glasgow. I woke up feeling 100% better, then I made the mistake of eating and by the afternoon I was feeling crappy again.

We went shopping a this huge pedestrian street called Sauchiehall (pronounced "sucky hall," as far as I could tell). I bought five books. Books there are so cheap, even after the conversion. And there was deals: buy one-get one, and 3 for 2! How could I not buy books? (I already read one of them, The Book Thief by Markus Zukas - it was fantastic, and sad but not in a soul-crushing way).

We had afternoon tea (aka, lunch) at The Willow Tea Room. I didn't take many pictures that day, but lucky for me Alej got a picture of lunch:

Scotland Day 7: Fever and Nausea in Edinburgh

At some point, between Wednesday night and Thursday our whirlwind pace caught up to us. Alej got a fever and some sinus issues, I got nausea and sinus issues. We weren't going to let that stop us from going to Edinburgh. We took the subway to the train station. Glasgow has a subway system that is ultimately idiot proof. It's two big loops, going in opposite directions - so technically any train you catch will go to the station you want, but if you pick the wrong direction it will take longer.

The train ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh took about half an hour. I spent the journey alternating between sleep and panic that I would throw up.

Scotland Day 6: Na[i]sm[y]th Day!

I've long considered my surname to be Scottish. This is mostly because someone told me it was, and the person in my lineage who first came to Canada came here from Scotland. And, in my defense, I did see it in book of Scottish surnames once, translated as "knife smith" - that's so not what they told me at the family reunion. Sadly, however, it's not a common enough name to be sold on key chains and shot glasses in the tourist shops. Too bad.

We walked past the public library on our way to our first stop. The library is in a beautiful building, complete with sculptures and pillars (Alej's picture turned out better, so I'm posting that one).

Scotland Day 5: Road Trip Day 3: The Rain Gods Hate Us

Tuesday was the only day where I can honestly say the rain got in the way of our plans. However, it really only ruined one thing for us, so it's not that bad.

We had breakfast at the B&B. I tried blood pudding. It was salty. After breakfast we put on our rain gear (because, being past/present field biologists, we had all brought rain gear) and walked down into Oban for a coffee and to take some pictures. Alej did most of the picture taking since her camera is waterproof, whereas mine is merely pretty. I asked her to take a picture of this for me:

Scotland: The Motion Pictures

I swear, since I got back from my trip, Blogger has not been giving me the upload video option. Suddenly today the option has reappeared (along with the spellcheck option which I was sorely missing).

So, here are some videos I took in Scotland.

The first is a waterfall near Loch Lomond.

The second is  panoramic view of the mountains:

And some scenery near Loch Cluanie

Scotland Day 4: Road Trip Day 2: Lochcarron to Oban

I forgot to mention that we had dinner in Plockton on Day 4, and Alej had the haggis. I should also mention that there were appetizer portions she was eating. It wasn't like every meal she had in Scotland was haggis. I had a taste of them all. The one in Plockton was better than the one at the Stag's Head.

The B&B we stayed at in Lochcarron was run by a really nice lady named Kirstie. She put hot water bottles in our beds. What a sweetheart. There's nothing nicer on a chilly night than a hot water bottle. I'm a total hot water bottle convert now. I'm going to buy one for myself.

Monday morning C had to do some sampling for her work. That worked out well because it was raining and we wouldn't have wanted to be outside anyway. We had lunch at an awesome little Bistro in Lochcarron. I had the best squash soup I have ever had (and they say nobody goes to Scotland for the food. "They" obviously never had squash soup at that little bistro in Lochcarron whose name I can't recall).

Scotland Day 3: Road Trip Day 1: Glasgow to Lochcarron

Our road trip began Sunday morning. We started in Glasgow (A on the map below) and our final destination was Lochcarron (G). Along the way we stopped in Fort William (B; such a disappointing Scottish town name), Loch Ness (C), Kyle of Lochalsh (D; now that's a Scottish town name!), Isle of Skye (E; we were there for only a few minutes, but it counts), and Plockton (F).

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This trip took us past Loch Lomond again, and much further north into the proper highlands. I admit, I had the highlands pictured all wrong. I was really expecting it to be more on the hilly side, not so mountainous. I was pleasantly surprised by the landscape that greated us  - snow capped mountians!

Like any self-respecting mountain highway (and I use that term in the 2-lane, no shoulder, warning signs that say “On Coming Traffic In Middle of Road” sense), it had lots of look outs and random monuments, more often than not populated by tourist buses. Aspects of it definitely reminded me of driving through the Rockies. The highlands, of course, can’t be compared to the Rockies. The highlands are breathtaking in their own right, though.

Scotland Day 2: Loch Lomond

On our second day in Scotland we drove up to Loch Lomond, which is just north of Glasgow. All the guidebooks said this loch would kick Ness's ass in a Loch-Off, so that's saying something.

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The drive up the Loch was pretty quick, the roads (as I've mentioned before) were tiny, and in some places, tight bends in the road were light-controlled because there wasn't enough space on the road for more than one car at a time.

Scotland Day 1: The Arrival

My first day in the UK began at about 3am Halifax Time, when Alej woke me up to tell me they were serving breakfast on the plane. We took an overnight from Halifax to London. That's good, because you can sleep away the long plane ride, but bad because they serve you breakfast about 2 hours before you land, so you really only get - at most - 3 hours sleep before you start in on UK Time. But whatever - it was my first flight across the Atlantic and it's not like I couldn't buy coffee in the UK, right?

Hello Jet Lag!

My recent lack of posts has not been due to laziness, as it usually is. As some of you know, I've been on vacation. A proper vacation, full of flight transfers and foreign locals and people who hate tourists. I didn't write while I was away because I'm not one of those people who likes to advertise on the internet when they'll be out of their home for extended periods of time. Call me crazy.

Anyway, I'm fresh off 11 days in Scotland and 1 day in England. It's 5:15am local time and I'm wide awake. I'm only four hours ahead, but apparantly that matters to my body. I suppose it could be worse.

Eventually I'll write all about my trip, but for the moment just let me share something with you. In Scotland and England they drive on the left-hand side of the road. This is common knowledge, and I've seen it on TV and movies, but a small part of me always suspected it was one of those things made up by Hollywood. Like, one day, someone decided that the UK wasn't different enough from North America, so they were like, "let's say they drive on the wrong side of the road! It's like instant-Bizarro world!" But they really do drive on the wrong side of the road! It's not a myth like the Lemmings!

And, in Scotland at least, the roads are tiny. You could easily reach out the windows and touch passing cars, or the hedges along the side of the road. There's no shoulder really to speak of, and some roads are one track, so you have to pull over for oncoming traffic. And these aren't backwater gravel roads, but paved and maintained coastal arteries. With bridges! One track bridges!  I tried to get pictures that would show the smallness of the roads, but I don't think they really capture the claustropobic atmosphere.