This post will be massive (not too much reading though, I'm not fond of writing much) so brace yourselves and get some popcorn ready before we kick off.
At the end of my first year at the University I had to sit five exams over the course of six weeks. Mathematically obviously, there were a couple of bigger, like one-week-long gaps between them. Normally people (or rather normal people) use them to revise for the upcoming extremely important assessment; but I'm not one of those normal guys now am I?
I used one of those weeks to go back home to Lithuania for the National Traditional Karate Championship and just to say hi to everyone, and the other one to visit my friends in the Kingdom Far Far Away, a.k.a. Scotland.
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| Happiness in the sunny Vilnius. Photo by L.O. |
Schedule was simple - we all meet up in Glasgow, check it out, climb Ben Nevis, visit Edinburgh, and part our ways there. As usual, I bought the cheapest tickets I could find leaving the factor of comfort for when I'll be crazy rich lady engineer. Thus my way to Glasgow was almost 8 hours on the coach overnight; only £10 though. My way back from Edinburgh, however, was fancy only-four-hour-long train journey. You would never guess how much I paid to get across almost the whole country in the comfort of the train - £5! That was my first and one of the very few encounters with megatrain.
Glasgow
I arrived to Glasgow as early as 6:15am. And it was freezing cold. Partly because I barely slept the night on the bus. I normally do sleep well no matter what the conditions are but these managed to exceed any worst case scenario - imagine a night on a full bus when you can't sit down. Or rather can only on one buttock. Why? Because I am gracious enough to spill almost boiling tea (at least I'm sure my thermos is working great; whoop whoop!) on myself and my seat in a way that the worst scold was left on my bum. The visualisation of positions I slept in on my seat that night can be found in the book. Don't pretend, we know you know which one.
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| Panoramic view from the top of cemetery. Photo by L.P.S. |
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| Strong and sturdy but rather cosy church. Photo by L.P.S. |
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| Photo by A.S. |
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| Roofs of Glasgow. Photo by A.S. |
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| Beautiful idea! Photo by A.S. |
As soon as we all have gathered, we started wondering around, saw quite a few panoramas of the city, visited cemetery, a lovely Gothic church, went to a couple of museums (some pictures above) but nothing was as exciting as the crazy stairs (pictures below). Mind blowing! Glasgow has incredibly steep streets you know.
Okay, I have to confess. When I said there's nothing as exciting as the stairs I lied. Glasgow has beautiful and amazingly rich botanical garden and there I found a plant by which I could stay day and night until I would forget my name but never forget its - Mimosa Pudica, also called as the shy plant. The sign by it said "Please touch", so I did, and was entirely mesmerised!
Ben Nevis
We left Glasgow for our one day trip to the top of the UK. Ben Nevis is the tallest mountain
in the British Isles, so I was expecting a trip like the one shown in Seven Years in Tibet. To my disappointment there was a path all the way to the top and there was close to none challenge. Except the fact that I become a bitch witch when I'm hungry, so that was an inconvenience. And the mischievousness of the mountain - we thought we saw the top at least 5 times when it kept suddenly appearing further and further. The view was worth it though!
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| Casual stroll in the morning |
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| The sudden realisation of underestimation |
Pentlands
As if one mountain is enough for us! As soon as we reached Edinburgh and dropped our luggage we made our way to Pentlands. The place of spiky bushes and emo cows.
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| The spiky bushes. Fun. |
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| Emo cows. Friendly. |
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| One of my very favourite pictures ever. ♥ |
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| 'cause only a ninja can sneak upon another ninja |
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| Because it's not the cows that might ambush you. |
Edinburgh
So I've seen the most amazing places of Scotland. How can Edinburgh impress me? And it could. Especially Arthur's seat - a hill in the middle of the city, to which everyone from the youngest to oldest climb just for fun. I can't help it - Scotland is amazing!
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| The view from Arthur's Seat |
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| Me and bridges. Always. |
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| Scott and Scottish Monument in Edinburgh, Scotland. |
When I left my friends found this sculpture. Soon, very soon, because I'll be back. As decided - having visited mountains and valleys the next time is for bridges and lakes of Scotland.
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