the great uk adventure: part one.
Okay! So. I have finally finished editing the trip pictures. It's taken me sometime because there are just so many. I took literally six times as many this trip as I did in 2008. I guess I was more determined to live behind the lens this time than before. I think it would probably be easier to do it by day and move on from there. There are so many little things going on. With that said, OFF WE GO THEN! On the Great European Adventure!
So I left my home in Delaware on the 4th of January meeting up with J, L & B in Chicago for an overnighter before our trip out to the UK on the 5th. Since these days were just meetup/travel days, I don't really have any pics (I mean, I do, but who wants to see pictures of the Philadelphia, PA airport? No one, okay). So! We're starting this little journey on the 6th and going from there. :D
I had no idea this post would be so long, so obviously I had to break it up into parts ...
06 January 2011.
This journey starts in London, where we stopped over to have a rest before our long train ride up to Glasgow. The hotel room was nice, but tiny, had no view (lmfao, which is obviously very important in any trip to the UK, okay?). I was able to at least charge my camera batteries, but not the laptop and there was no internet. Me & J shared a room and spent a lot of the night gabbing about not much of anything (as we were want to do) so we were fairly tired by the next morning. SO! The morning of the 6th found us on the tube (pic 01) to Waterloo Station (pic 02).
Since we had some time to kill, we got some food and made a couple of bathroom breaks. It was slightly amusing that it cost 30p to use the toilet, but it was clean, so I guess the point was made. However, I saw some graffiti that I just couldn't resist taking a picture of it (pic 03). It was seriously classic, at least to me. I was the only one that found any real humor in it. I'm just weird like that.
The train ride to Glasgow felt like a long time, but it really wasn't. However, your ass does get really tired after sitting in the same place for so long. I did try to take pics on the train, but after editing, they look like purple mountains on green hills -- it's like something out of a Tim Burton movie, so I'll spare you the pain and your eyeballs by not showing that. SO! We get to Glasgow Central and after lugging heavy luggage through the tubes, across the walkway to the SECC and over to the hotel (where there was some confusion about the Ground Floor vs the First Floor. I'll spare you, it was embarrassing. lol) -- which was across the street from the SECC, natch -- we were worn out and just wanted some food.
So we go next door to some Chinese/Thai/Japanese place and that's where I took the pics of the Armadillo (pic 04) and BBC Scotland (pic 05). I also took one of the Clyde Arch, which was really pretty all lit up purple.
07 January 2011.
So, we didn't get much sleep this night either as we were too busy gabbing away, but it would be a hard lesson to learn eventually. This day was BARROWMAN DAY (aka the panto) so we were pretty excited about that and had the day mapped out for the most part so that we could get back to the hotel in time to meet with Emma2 just before the show.
For those of you who know me, you know that I am one morbid sod, so I really like to take pictures of trees, flowers, other plants and cemeteries. I like still life more than taking pictures of people because ... well, people are just so unpredictable and can't stand still for long enough to get a good shot. It's true, most of the time. So this day found us planning to go to the Glasgow Necropolis; I am not sure how excited everyone else was, but I was really chuffed at the idea. We set out from the hotel room and again, we all felt it was necessary to take more pics of the Armadillo in the day time (pic 01) and BBC Scotland (pic 02) as it hung out across the river. It was just chillin' there, minding it's own and we were there taking pics. Tourists. Psh.
Ha. Anyway.
On the walk over the walkway, I had to stop and get a pic of the Aladdin poster (pic 03) because I just can't resist taking pictures of Barrowman. Even if he's on a poster. Sue me. He's pretty.
So! We're at the tube stop, we're waiting for the train and I took a couple of pics. I only posted one (pic 04) because really, tube stops aren't at all interesting and look pretty much the same no matter where you are. Except in New York. lmfao. I had to. As we walked from our tube stop (which the name slips by me at the moment ... ) toward Cathedral Square, we find a random TARDIS (pic 05). A very ... beaten up and painted over TARDIS. It was funny all the same really. So once we took a bunch of pics in Cathedral Square, we come upon the Glasgow Necropolis.
It was amazing. So amazing that I took over 100 pics there and it was hard to pick a few to post in here. I didn't pick my favorites, but I picked a few (pics 06, 07, 08) that showed you the grandeur and scale. It was massive and we didn't even cover half in our walk through. It was amazing. At least to me and my morbid nerdiness.
After the Necropolis, we stopped at a little gypsy sort of shop as we walked back toward the tube stop. I bought a magnetic bracelet (that supposedly improves circulation ...) and a keychain. We decided to stop and get some authentic grub (pic 09) and boy, the onion rings. I will never be able to eat onion rings again without thinking of how much they suck compared to this place. They really, really, really were unlike anything I've had before or since. Amazing.
So! We stop at a pharmacy on the way back for me to pick up some color teated shampoo and a hairbrush (I lost mine. Wait. There is more to this stupid story ... later), we headed back to the room to relax for awhile and get ready for the panto. L went to pick up Emma2 in the meantime and just before my shower, I start going through my suitcase. I find my original hairbrush. That's always the way shit happens. I hate that junk. ANYWAY. The panto was hilarious, I mean, really hilarious in the way that everyone kept corpsing.
The best bits of the night were A] John comes on, goes, "What's my name?" and someone goes, "John Barrowman!" So he walked to the left (my left) of the stage and says, "No I am not John Barrowman!" and then continues with the scene. B] Aladdin goes on about how he wants to marry the princess. This same person from before laughs or something and John goes, "Suspend your disbelief and be quiet!" C] "This is what we call stalling because I have no idea where I'm supposed to be in the script." D] "Thats lovely, but you're now in the wrong position to finish this scene." E] Did I mention he flew out over the crowd and nearly kicked the woman in front of me in the head? LOL. No? Well. He nearly did. It would have been majorly epic if he had. There were many more moments, but those were the ones I remember the best and thought were the funniest, at least. After the show, we went to the stage door, where he had parked the Range Rover (not the Torchwood one, people, REALLY) and came out to say he was still a little ill and wouldn't be signing (pic 10). It was really the best shot of him I could get because ... honestly. HE WOULD NOT STAND STILL. BARROWMAN. *shakes fist*
After this, we went to a bar to have a few drinks before calling it a night. And it was snowing. We leave the US to get away from snow, but the snow fairies graced us with even more snow. Thanks Snow Fairies. Thanks alot. I'm looking at you, Jeebs.
08 January 2011.
So the 8th found us dragging luggage through the snow, past the Armadillo (goodbye Armadillo, I knew thee well ...), across the walkway, through the tubes to Glasgow Central (pic 01) so that we could hitch a train to Edinburgh for the next stop in our journey around the UK (pic 02). It wasn't a long trip in retrospect, which is probably half the problem. lol. Really nothing to do -- no point dragging out the laptop for an hour train ride, you know? So it was sit around, read magazines, eat food ... or something. You know. We'll skip this part, because it makes me look really bad that I talk to myself. Or something. ;x
Once we got to Edinburgh, we once again met up with Emma2 so that we could go to the flat on Easter Road and drop off our bags. We had a lot of bags between the four of us, so it was that or lug them up and down the Royal Mile which no one wanted to do in any capacity. Thank you so very much. After the bags were deposited, we hit the ground running with the sight seeing straight away. We didn't get into anything too heavy, but we did walk the Royal Mile and were graced with seeing Arthur's Seat (pic 03) -- not to be confused with Arthur Darvill and his arse, thank you so very much. Continuing walking down this little street which was made precarious by the snow and ice (there's a story about this coming later, I promise), we stopped at the gates of Hollyrood Castle (pic 04) which is the Queen's abode when she's in town. We did take a tour but weren't allowed to take pics inside, which is just as well anyway. I did take a few outside the castle (pic 05) and many more as it was a beautiful structure.
From here, we all went out to dinner and after that it was decided that we would go on the haunted ghost tour walk through Greyfriar's Kirkwood Cemetery. Granted, I wanted to go to the cemetery, but in the daytime. Rawr, I'm a big wuss, I swear to God. I heard the stories about the Kirkwood and I was realyl damn nervous. But I sucked it up like a trouper and we all went. On the bus to the tour meet up spot, it was decided that we were the Scooby gang. Emma2 was labeled Shaggy, I was Scooby, L was Velma and J was Daphne. What made this even funnier was our tour guide for the haunted walk was named Fred. We never did explain what it was so funny. The walk was uneventful, but the cemetery was lovely, even at night.
Although, there was this story about how we were standing on thousands of dead bodies and "if you just so happen to trip over a stray femur bone, don't pick it up" that I won't really get to any further. After the tour, we called it a night, ready for another day of exploring and troublemaking.
09 January 2011.
This post is getting rather long, isn't it? And I'm only a few days in. This is going to be interesting. ANYWAY! This is day two in Edinburgh and we decided to tackle the biggest tourist attraction that we know of and that would be Edinburgh Castle. We took a bus and got off at St. Giles Church (pic 01) and continued to walk toward the castle. On the way, we ran into a guy who was dressed up as William Wallace as he was raising money for charity. J got her picture taken with him (pic 02) and was able to hold his sword. There's innuendo there and you all know it, so why bother saying it? Ha! So we finally make it to the castle and walk through (we do get out pics taken by a professional and I don't look too much like a cow ;D). I posted several pics of the castle and the interior (pic 03, 04, 05, 06) and one of the view on the way back down the hill (pic 07) of Edinburgh.
After we stopped for a bite to eat at the Witchery (which I got pea soup and ... well. It looks disgusting and doesn't taste all that bad, really. And some pasta. Which didn't agree with me very well, I must say), we walked back down to the Greyfriars Cemetery again for some pics during the day time. I took a few shots of the shoppe as you walk in (pic 08), the sign of the notables buried there (pic 09) and the headstone for the Greyfriars Bobby (pic 10).
The noteable thing about Greyfriars is that apparently JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter in the Greyfriars bar that sits right in front of the cemetery. There is a grave inside of a man named Thomas Riddell that she apparently got the name for Voldemort from. I took pictures of the school that she also was rumoured to have based Hogwarts off of as well as the view that inspired the cinematic view for the movie (pics 11, 12, 13, 14) and I threw in one of the church for the hell of it (pic 15).
After this, Emma2, L, B & J went to Mary King's Close and I tried, but my dinner hates me so I sat it out. And again, maybe I was just being a wuss. :] Once this was accomplished, it was home again, jiggity jig and to watch some more ultra funny Brit TV and chillaxing.
on to part two ...