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gingerlexi2897 · 5 years

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If you know me, you know I love Scotland. The green hills, the food, the weather, (yes, the weather), but most importantly the people. No matter how much you love a place, it’s the people that keep you coming back. They’re the ones you connect with and build a relationship with.

Since we spent close to two weeks there this time, I’ve decided that the best way to go about this is to split the trip into two parts: Part I being our time in Glasgow and Edinburgh and Part II during our week in Perth. Otherwise, you’d never get through it.

As our plane descended into Edinburgh Airport, you could feel the excitement of Erin and Itty sitting next to me as they caught their first glimpse of the countryside sprawling out in every direction. None of us could stop smiling, Erin partially because she had just been reading Outlander and was dreaming of Jamie, while I couldn’t help but feel like I was home. We walked down the steps onto the tarmac, doing our best princess wave on the way, and were greeted by the cool breeze that let us know we most definitely not in central Europe anymore.

Because our flight out of Paris had been delayed and we landed later than we had anticipated, we spent our first evening in Edinburgh doing what we do best; sitting in a pub, people watching and eating good food. We checked into our Airbnb, which much to Erin’s disgust was on the top floor of a building with no lift, and set out to find a pub and see a wee bit of the city before the sun went down, which thankfully isn’t until nearly 11 in the summer.

Our first full day in Scotland was just that, full. We set out from our flat decently early and headed for the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle. Since Mum, Dad, and I had already seen the castle and are pretty familiar with the Mile, we set Erin and Itty loose to see the crown jewels and learn about the history of Scotland. While they were in the castle with the rest of the tourists, the rest of us meandered down the Mile and took in the sights of the Fringe Festival which kicked off that day. We also made a pit stop at the famous Elephant House coffee shop, the “birthplace of Harry Potter.”

Erin and Itty caught up with us after a while and we turned our sights on Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat at the top. In some ways, this was one of the most exciting parts of the trip for me because I managed to hike all the way up and down the hill without turning an ankle, which is not something I would’ve been able to say before ankle surgery in March. Oh, and the views from the top are SO worth it. From Arthur’s Seat, you get the best view of Edinburgh and Leith spreading out beneath you and the Firth of Forth. I think it would have been all too easy for us to just sit up there the whole day listening to Josh Garrels and enjoying the view, but we had things to do.

Once we knew the exact dates of our Scotland portion of the trip and where we would be for most of those days, we set about trying to meet up with some of the team that had been in Hungary with us, specifically, the guys in Glasgow. After some slight teeth pulling and back and forth, we managed to arrange to meet them in town that evening for dinner. So after a late lunch with Mum and Dad, the three of us girls grabbed a train from Edinburgh Waverly bound for Queen Street and Glasgow. With the expectation bar set low and no clue what our evening would hold, we sat in the beautiful sunny in George Square and waited to see how exactly this evening was going to go. The general consensus between the three of us was that if they bailed straight after dinner, we were just going to go out and enjoy Glasgow for ourselves because we paid for those train tickets, darn it.

You’ll be happy to know that our back-up plans and slightly salty attitudes were not needed. We had our last few moments of doubts as we watched the boys walk up to us looking like we’d shaved their highland cow, but those feelings quickly evaporated. Even though they had only just landed back in Glasgow from Hungary the afternoon before, Kieren and Gregor were willing to give up their Friday night to show three crazy Americans around Glasgow.

I fell in love with Glasgow that night like I never had before. The boys took us on a grand, albeit slightly unexpected, walking tour from George Square through Kelvingrove Park to the West End, all the while telling all sorts of ridiculous stories and catching us up on all that had happened in the week since camp. I could so easily go on an on about the different conversations about football and growing up in Glasgow and all that we managed to do in the 6 hours we spent in Glasgow, but that would have to be a post all on its own or we’d be here all day. All I’ll say is that I’m hugely thankful for friends who give up their evening to make us laugh and take us for pizza and gelato. (Stick a churro in it.)

When we left on the last train back to Edinburgh that night, we had no expectation of being back anytime soon. Yet a week later we found ourselves surrounded by the sights and sounds of Glasgow once more. Kieren graciously sacrificed his peace and quiet on a Saturday morning to pick Erin, Itty, and I up from the train station and take us to a football (soccer) match with him and his Grandad. I’ve probably said it dozens of times at this point, but I’m genuinely so shocked by the boys’ willingness to spend extended periods of time with us.

Kieren has supported Alloa Athletic his entire life and spends his Saturdays from August to May traveling up and down the country supporting them, so when he asked if we wanted to make the trek to Greenock with him, we jumped on the opportunity. He even managed to pull a few strings and get us free tickets (Thanks, Gordon!). As someone who absolutely loves football and tries to watch it as often as I can, I’d been looking forward to Saturday since we made the plans earlier in the week. While Erin had seen a US Women’s National Team match before, this was Itty’s first experience with the world of football. She spent the whole 90 minutes fully engaged in the match and asking every question she could. Although Alloa unfortunately didn’t pull out the win, we had a great time cheering on the wasps and I think we made Itty a football fan along the way.

We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening just hanging out with Kieren’s grandparents and then the four of us grabbed dinner together before Kieren dropped us off at the station and we rode the 45 minutes back to Perth. Since Erin and Itty had decided to spend the last few days of their trip before they flew out on Thursday Glasgow, I planned on going back down with them for the day that Monday so we all knew we would be back in less than 48 hours when we said goodbye Saturday night.

Monday morning just after peak hours we drug Erin and Itty’s cases to the station in Perth and were once again headed for the now-familiar Queen Street station in Glasgow. Because they couldn’t check into their Airbnb until later that afternoon, we checked their bags at the station and set off in search of something to do for the day until we were to meet up with Stevie. We originally set off for the Botanical Gardens since it was the one thing we hadn’t seen the Friday evening we spent with Gregor and Kieren, but instead found ourselves in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum out of the rain. If you’re looking for something to do in Glasgow on a rainy day, the art museum is free and in my opinion way better than our adventure at the Louvre had been.

Stevie met us at Kelvingrove and after a bit of a laugh trying to get a taxi in the rain, we headed once again to the West End and a cozy coffee shop. I think one of the reasons I love Glasgow and Scottish culture so much is because when we met up with our friends, there was never a feeling of being on a schedule and that they only had 30 minutes to see us before heading off to something else. We probably spent close to 3 hours that afternoon just sitting in Kothel chatting with Stevie about anything and everything like we had known him forever.

A little after 4 that afternoon we collected Erin and Itty’s bags from the train station and walked to 10 mins to their Airbnb in the Merchant City district. Once we managed to fix the bed after I broke it, (oops…) we went out in search of dinner before meeting up with Kieren at quite possibly the coolest bar I’ve ever been too. Two words: Gin. Bar. Oh, it was absolutely incredible. The menu was about 50 pages long and filled with dozens of different regional gins, tonics, and mixers. All-in-all, I think Glasgow has very easily become one of my favourite places in the world. The best part of the whole thing? Kieren doesn’t even really care for gin.

As I said goodbye to Itty and Erin and climbed on the train back to Perth that night, I couldn’t help but debate the idea of not boarding the plane the following morning and just figuring out how to stay in Scotland forever. I did board the flight the next day but was already making plans to be back in December.

Songs for Scotland:

Heaven’s Knife – Josh Garrels

Belter – Gerry Cinnamon

Real Love Baby – Father John Misty

Lexi

10 points to whoever guesses where the title is from.

The Roof is on Fire and It’s Raining Outside If you know me, you know I love Scotland. The green hills, the food, the weather, (yes, the weather), but most importantly the people.

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