Scotish Christmas- it's BALTIC here

I arrived on the 22nd of December to Edinburgh, Scotland where I was picked up by my friend's brother and uncle and taken to Glasgow. The normally 45 minute drive took 4 hours because of a blizzard that had traffic at a stand-still. I was greeted after the long day of flying and driving by my friend Tina's parents with a warm meal of vegetable soup, steak pie and wine. It was amazing to eat food that was really close to the food that I'm used to- meat and potatoes and vegetables> after months of ham and bread and olive oil, it was a welcome change. I spent the night talking to the family and just enjoying myself. The next morning I got up to have a huge breakfast of 4 different types of sausages, eggs, toast and tea. Wow- I go on about the food, but it was so great to have incredible home-cooked food. I just spent that day with Tina's mother in the mall: I had to buy gloves. That night I went out with my friends Tina and Kieran to eat and have a few drinks before catching the bus to Edinburgh with Kieran to spend the night. The meal that I had was Haggis, turnips and potatoes- AWESOME! After some ginger beer and cider, Kieran and I caught the bus to Edinburgh.

I woke up this morning to a blizzard! The snow is everywhere, and I'm excited about being out in it at least for a little bit. The plans for today are to go to the castle and just do a little site-seeing. Tonight, I catch the bus back to Glasgow in order to be there for Christmas day with Tina's family.
Edinburgh seems to be just an incredibly beautiful old city with great architecture. Glasgow is more of the big city with tall building and the bustling crowd.

The plans for my stay are to see the dungeons in Edinburgh and maybe do a ghost tour of some of the local places. New years eve I will be on the streets of Edinburgh. I have to catch the train at 9.20 am to catch my 2 o'clock pm flight from Glasgow to Barcelona. Now I am seriously considering changing my flight to the 2nd in order to just sleep in on the first. We will see how much that change costs and if it's a prudent decision.


Oh yeah! I feel like a moron because I constantly have to ask people to repeat what they say: the accent is still really REALLY difficult for me to understand. If they aren't talking directly to me, I am usually REALLY lost, but usually it's OK if they're speaking to me. Usually I just miss a sentence or two- USALLY. I expect it will just take a few days to get used to the accent- the word differences are a different story.

28 December 2009

Still haven't done a lot of site seeing just walking around and doing a small bit of Christmas shopping. Tomorrow morning we're getting up to visit the castle before I have to go back to Glasgow. Tonight I tried to talk Kieran and Tina into going for the Terror Tour of Edinburgh at 22.00, but only Daryl, Kieran's brother and I wanted to go. Tuesday or Wednesday I WILL DO THAT TOUR!
Today was just spent relaxing around Edinburgh, with the evening spent in Kieran's flat just talking. It's so different for me because most of my previous travelling had been done solely focused on doing the touristy stuff, but a lot of my travels abroad are just doing normal stuff. It's great to spend regular days in Edinburgh.

ACCENT UPDATE: I think I've got the accent under control, but then again I haven't been around anyone except people my age lately, and it's the older generation that gives me problems it seems.
Cheers!