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My first impressions of Scotland...It was the first time I took a bus ride where we had our breaks at award winning truck stops! ( I know this because of the plaques proudly mounted on the inside of the washroom stalls.) It was also the first time i had ever arrived one hour earlier than scheduled which would have been great if it were'nt 5 am and if we had been dropped off inside a bus station where I could have picked up a map of Edinburgh and grabbed some breakfast. But we were dropped off on the street at St. Andrews Square and I couldn't find the bus station and the place was deserted. I wandered around with a backpacker from Spain who was as lost as i was, though he didn't speak english and I didn't speak Spanish... We walked through the winding medieval streets looking for a hostel and when we finally found the clerk said everyone was booked up because of the fringe fest, which explained why there were dozens of backpackers sleeping on the church steps we had passed along the way. The clerk gave us directions to the Scotsman's Lounge, said they opened at 6am. It was a tiny one room pub and when we were seated at our table (a barrel) I asked to see the menu. "We serve Ale and spirits, lass. No food." I asked if I could get a coffee. "Ale and spirits, that's all. Starbucks is up the road-opens at 6:30". SO we waited and the place quickly filled up. Everyone was drinking and smoking packed to the brim. Me and the guy from Spain walked up the way and took a window seat at starbucks. I tried speaking to him in French, but that didn't work so we just stared out the window in silence and people-watched. No men in Kilts, no bagpipers. After a couple of minutes passed two preppy blonde guys with jumpers around their shoulders stumbled across the street and stopped in front of the window. They carefully put down their glasses of ale, counted to 3, did one sumersault on the pavement, dusted themselves off, picked up their glasses of ale and continued on down the road. We stared laughing and the man at the table next to us was laughing too, and with the thickest scottish accent I've ever heard said, "It takes all kinds..."
2008-11-28
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This is a blurb of silliness in what was otherwise an unfortunate voyage.I am swimming down the Thames naked at two o'clock in the morning.A languid backstroke reeling from brownies and half a bottle of champers.Under one bridge,oh! there is the Savoy I still haven't made it to lunch there yet.Under another bridge ,here comes the Southbank Centre.I should tell Richard the general director(my boyfriend) that Angus (my flatmate) has informed me that his workers are about to strike.He ,Angus works at the Houses of Parliament and that they mentioned his canadian boyfriend,a man about town in jest.Me.Well!
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