Scotland!

First things first, Scotland is my favorite country I've visited so far. Honestly I would move there tomorrow. Well not tomorrow because I don't even have enough money to get there let alone live and Barack Obama WON so I don't feel the urge to flee at the moment. I did get to flee this summer though and that's what this is about.

Going anywhere with my family is like a ticking time bomb of extremely bad doom and nothing good can come from it. I learned this at the age of oh I'll go with seven. I went into this trip with hope, hope I would make it though with my sanity in tact. That might be questionable.

Our trip started off OK. Cleveland to Newark and everything was running pretty on time. You can't really beat that. The flight to Edinburgh was long as to be expected but I managed to sleep some which was nice. We arrived to a city under construction. I hadn't anticipated that because I was at camp and couldn't do my usual crazy intense pre-travel research. Though I did manage to book all the hotels and such we stayed in but one. Anyways, Edinburgh is making it's transit system all fancy which is really cool. I hope to go back and try it out when it's all done. The other big thing going on was the Fringe (and about 3 other festivals I think.). We planned this being the theater nuts we are. While there we went to see two shows. I would have loved to see more but time and such wouldn't allow for it. We saw a great show called 'Crossing the Rubicon' that was about young people and the dangers of drinking. It sounds stupid but it was actually really good and was presented well. Just my sister and I went to see it so it was nice to be without the Parents for a bit. They went down to see the palace. We met up then to see 'The Last 5 Years' which is a musical I've been a fan of for awhile. It was really great and I sat in the front row making it even more awesome. You just can't ever sit that close here. While in Edinburgh we also went to see the Castle which is a must and completely awesome. Generally if there's a plaque around I'll be reading it. This kills my family and everyone around me because they just skip these things. The whole experience is a lot more historic and educational if you read them (yes, I'm a nerd like that). The other big highlight of Edinburgh was hurting my back. Don't ask me how I did it because I have no idea. I just know it made the rest of the trip seriously painful. So off to a great start right?

That's my sister with something in her teeth. I tried to tell her where it was but she didn't get it. SO I took a picture so she could see...and said I deleted it. I didn't. Yes, I'm evil.

Up next was Glasgow. It doesn't make sense to really be next but like I said I didn't get the choice of order. This was also where I didn't book the hotel. From what I understand Glasgow gets a bad wrap with the whole being 'glassed' thing. It reminds me of Pittsburgh and Youngstown near where I live. They have grossly high murder rates so I guess I felt at home even though everyone told me to be afraid of people with knives. I think I liked it so much because I have a friend there! She's also the first 'Internet friend' I've ever met. Let me tell you it was freaking awesome to actually walk around with someone I've been e-mailing and writing with for over a year. In Glasgow we did the city and went to church. It sounds like a weird thing to do on vacation but it's pretty freaking sweet going to church in a giant cathedral. My home church is 100 years old but Glasgow Cathedral is pretty sweet. I also got to go t a sci-fi convention and pick up a bunch of Doctor Who stuff. I can't get it in America and that makes me sad inside. We also partied it up with a Sontaran. No that isn't an insult to short people. So coming back from the bar which was just a block from our hotel my sister stops walking half way there (on a big hill) and in her drunken stupidity demanded I call a cab to take her the rest of the way. You could see the hotel from where we were so I had to push her up the hill. Fun times. When we get there things are just magical as the ceiling of our room starts leaking and we have to change rooms. All a great adventure in repacking your stuff while a bit tipsy still and helping my sister who was drunk up the stairs.

Next we headed up North to Inverness! It's a lot colder up there, or at least it was when we were there. Really, really beautiful place and it reminded me a lot of good ol' East Liverpool, Ohio. Only it was bigger, has boats to Loch Ness a cool museum and you could see dolphins from our B&B. That's right dolphins. So we went to the museum and we went to see the soccer stadium. So I have a soccer scarf which is petty awesome in my world. I think the reality is much different but hey I'm cool like that. We also went to their awesome museum and out to loch ness. No monster but it was really beautiful. This was when I got sick of my Mom talking about 'Nessie' and herself being 'kindred spirits'. I'm a little disappointed in all my pictures from Scotland but mostly from Loch Ness. I also went shopping at Lush for the second time in Inverness. It was nice to just walk past one instead of having to drive two hours to get awesome soap. I was also forced to eat pizza and I was annoyed, why have pizza when we could have something new.

Our final stop was Newtonmore. Oh, you don't know where that is? Neither did I till my Dad said we were going to the Clan MacPherson museum. If you asked me to point to Newtonmore on a map I would have to seriously look for it. I know it's on the way from Inverness to Edinburgh. The museum was pretty nice and I learned some random stuff about my family clan. I also got to see the actual fiddle from the 'McPherson's Rant/Lament' song which was pretty cool. There was also a book of 'famous MacPherson's' that included some dude who committed identity theft of the name McPherson. The caption that I'll never forget "Stealing the name McPherson is a serious offense in America". My sister and I also had a great time posing like the angry wild cat that is on the clan crest. Newtonmore itself is tiny and one street. There's all kinds of stuff about Monarch of the Glen around since it was filmed in the area. My Mom loved that because she was the show on BBCAmerica. We were greeted and waved off by the cows in the field across from the train station. I can't really be to snarky about that though because East Liverpool doesn't have a train or bus station to call it's own.

Yes, I look gross and I posted it. I was being a Scottish 'wild cat' it was funny at the time.

The flight home from Edinburgh sucked. It was really late getting in and you have to go through customs even though we hadn't arrived at out destination. Then our flight from Newark to Cleveland was delayed followed by sitting on the plane three hours before we took off. So that put us in Cleveland really late for the two hour drive home. That was a hellish trip in the car with a dead i-pod and crabby people.

Then I slept for two weeks. I never really got to recover from camp so vacation on top of camp was like death and I seriously slept for days. I didn't talk to friends, I didn't do anything. Then I had t go get my car from Buffalo (see previous Camp blog) only to find it was still broken. You could drive it but there was no way of telling how much gas was in it or how fast you were going. So it took another two weeks to get fixed.

To finish up much like I started Scotland is the country I would most love to move to. Even with the rain (though it only rained once when we were there and that was at night.) and generally being much colder I loved it completely.

Random 5: Beverages

-Diet Coke

-Beer

-Cranberry Juice & Diet Sprite mixed together

-Apple Juice

-Chocolate Milk