Scotland

I usually joke that the only thing about me that is Scottish is my dogs and my whiskey; after years of waiting to go overseas I was now looking down at green hills and white sheep of Scotland. It was just as breathtaking as I had thought.

We landed in Prestwick and our friends were there to greet us at the gate. I hadn’t seen Maddy and Andy in a few years. We met them in San Francisco prior to this and had kept up with emails.

Since we had been traveling for three weeks now and had picked up souvenirs along the way, along with shoes, and purses and other clothing our bags we bursting. Our friends, Maddy expecting mind you, showed up in a Mini, to collect us from the air port. I don’t think that boot could carry as much as it did. Not that we cared, after being in countries where we did not speak the language, it was nice to speak English with our friends.

They took us to Sterling Castle and Edinburgh, also a day trip on the Waverly, a seafaring paddle boat. The only Scottie dog we saw in Scotland was on one of the Islands we stopped at off the coast. There was a group of older men that were celebrating a birthday, when they left the boat in the evening they were dragging their friend, presumably the birthday man, to the car since he could no longer walk on his own.

Another night we met up with fellow Scooter people we had met before, when they were on holiday. We had fun catching up with them and sharing a drink and a laugh. Of course when they all get together it doesn’t sound like English anymore. On the way home we saw three NEDS, that stands for None Educated Delinquents’. One young man had his cheeks completely raw and bloody; he was drunk and had already been in a fight. Seeing him I wanted to ask if Andy needed to use his mobile and call for help. The young man saw I was staring and before I could offer help he started to curse at me and gave me a shove. My man and Andy got in-between myself and the other three; threw them dirty looks. Nothing happened and the three of them kept on their way. My friend Andy was mortified that we had to encounter that. I told him, “It’s not an adventure if nothing happens.” We were fine and got some pizza and went home.

It was great to be with friends and met new ones while we were in Scotland. We did some sightseeing, visited Andy’s parents, and did some shopping. After the record breaking heat of the rest of the trip I was so glad I still had a sweater to wear in Scotland and thankful for the clouds and mild temperature.

Yes we tried some Haggis and it was good. Of all the places we had been to, we were told we had only been in the lowlands. It was hard to say good bye at the airport and we promised to come back. Since we have great friends there, Scotland and Glasgow holds a special place in our hearts!