Euro Trip with my dear (Day 3)

DAY 3

As mentioned in my previous post, we reached Glasgow in the evening of day 2.
We rose pretty early in the morning, having in mind that we only have one day to spend in Glasgow. Brought her to breakfast in Lauder's as we walked in the drizzling rain. Scottish breakfast, yes, Sin May always like Western breakfast, plus it was dirt cheap! Definitely a good place to dine in...


After breakfast, we walked along Sauchiehall street, bought a lip balm, some chocolate truffles from Thorntons while waited for the rain to slow a little before heading to the West End area with the subway service.. Rain was still pouring... A bad day for traveling, but good for sleeping...

West End has a few common attractions, namely the University of Glasgow's castle like building, and the Kelvingrove Museum... Here she is taking another photo beside a brick wall (she juz loves walls), or more precisely a gate...

We saw this store with the name Bo Ho, which means 'Not Good' in Hokkien, Bo Ho Bo Ho, how can the shop be Ho?

We spent around an hour in the museum, but honestly, this museum is nothing compared to the British Museum and the Louvre Museum... But i like the architecture of the building though...

We headed to the University of Glasgow after that... Uni of Glasgow is the 4th oldest Uni in UK, n rumour says that the setting of Hogwarts was based on this building of Uni of Glasgow..

We just walked around the compound, took some photos and left... We then went to the Kelvingrove Park, which is just across the street, down the hill. Well nothing much to see, other than dogs, and magpies...

We were kinda lost as i was not familiar with this park and i did not know where the park's exit would bring us to.. But luckily road signs were clear (unlike in Malaysia zzz) n we were brought to the Kelvinbridge subway station, a station away from the 1 we took to westend earlier... After going back to Buchanan street, we went to search for lunch, i decided to bring her to Yate's. On the way we saw another Bo store -- Bo Concept, No concept store haha...

Yate's is a nice n affordable pub restaurant to dine in.... 2 meals for GBP 5.95, and 2 for 1 desserts... What more could u ask for?


After this late lunch, it was time to go back n pack, ready for a bus to Edinburgh around 7pm. Sin May was very interested with the fat, lazy pigeons in Glasgow who are not afraid of people...

We arrived in Edinburgh late enough to see the beautiful dusk in Edinburgh... We were going to stay there half a night before taking an early 6am flight to Paris. So we only had a few hours to walk around Edinburgh before it gets dark n we needed to get enough sleep for a long day tomorrow. The hostel was located just off Princes Street, very near to the bus stop for busses to the airport... But it's the hostel itself and it's location looks a bit dodgy... Rather dark n isolated alley, with a few pubs nearby; located in the 4th floor i think, no lift, only stairs... N the interial of the hostel, filled with odd looking murals (mayb some ppl call it artistic i don't know), n the best part is, the individual dorm rooms does not have a lock... Although the main entrance to the hostel is electronically controlled by the hostel keeper, still who can guarantee that there are no thieves staying in the hostel? I chose this place only because its location is convenient... But this is way to crazy....

After checking in, we went out for a short visit to this historical city... Luckily it was summer that time, the sun wouldn't set till 9 or 10pm... But it was freaking cold at nite, even during summer... Sin May wanted a picture with the stone road..


We then walked around up the hill, towards the old town... I never went to Edinburgh in the evening, so I was fascinated by the amazing evening view of Edinburgh... Sin May felt the same way.

Here she is, taking photos with the stone road, and a random stone wall... Juz ignore the road sign...

OK, Royal Mile is the famous one, stretching one mile, from Edinburgh Castle, to the Palace of the Holyroodhouse

I was kinda excited to see a Malaysian flag outside of Edinburgh Castle where the Military Tattoo is going to be held... It's juz a homey feeling when u c Malaysian shops or food or things in the overseas....

While we were walking back along Royal Mile, we stopped by St Giles Church to take a few shots. Sin May then discovered some numbers engraved on the ground in the Parliament Square, right in front of St Giles.. Tried to find the meaning of these numbers online, which look like some years, but couldn't find anything meaningful.... Can someone please enlighten me?

Another shot of her with a piece of wall, at St Giles.. (See? i told u she likes walls)

Bought a subway sandwich each on the way back, n i bought a can of Irn Bru for her to try as well... We had our dinner in the dining area in the hostel. Sin May was kinda pissed with the noisy bunch of bimbos in the hostel... Then we quickly wash up n take a short nap before waking up around 3 something to catch the 4 something bus to airport in the morning..


(to be continued..)

Euro Trip with my dear (Day 1 & 2)

It had been a headache to plan this one week trip,
but I was so looking forward for this trip,
as it would be the first time i see my dear face to face after more than a year... N it would b the first long vacation we have together...

Everything had been planned 2 months prior to the date of the trip,
n the volcanic ashes incident that time got me worried for a bit during that time..
plus some unknown random factors of the universe blah blah...
but everything turned out to be going as planned n she boarded onto the plane...

Phew...

DAY 1

I started the day early, taking a 7.00am flight to London. I had plenty of time before Sin May reached around 4 - 5.00pm. I left my baggage in Astor Victoria Hostel, then went to Leicester Square to get musical tickets for that night. Had no idea what to watch, i know most productions would be good, as long as the ticket prices are within budget... I chose Sister Act in the end after running between a few ticket booths.. Then i paid a visit to the British Museum... Although not as huge as the Louvre, but the collection of artifacts is quite impressive, especially like the Egyptian and Mesopotamian items.. I'm not sure if i have looked through every corner but it was kinda rush as i had to go to Heathrow Airport to meet my dear... Luckily i was not late.. It took some time before she emerged from the arrival gate... Relieved that she had touched down safely...
She had fallen in love with London straight away when we travelled on the metro to city centre... The weather, the flora, the architecture... After checking in, we took sometime to walk around, taking photos, before rushing to the London Palladium Theatre..


We both agreed that this musical was good and hillarious, definitely worth a watch. After that we wandered around that area in search for food... We saw some crazy celebration around that area, think we somehow wandered into the 'xxx area'.. Other than ppl in pubs with exposing clothes, probably having parties after a 'homosexual, transexual etc' themed parade today, we saw quite some XXX dvd shops around as well...

We finally settled in a Mediterranean restaurant... Food was not bad, but not exactly brilliant as well.

Time was approaching 11.00pm after we finished our dinner, we made a quick move to get a glimpse of some of London's nightview... We went to the Westminster area, near River Thames, where the Big Ben, House of Parliament and London Eye are located.

I don't know why, but my dear seemed to have something towards plain stone/brick walls and stone streets.. You'll notice it in the trip to other places later... We took some photos while waiting for the double-decker bus coz we were too late for tubes...


DAY 2

We got up early to go to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of guards. That was the 3rd time I've watched the unnecessarily long ceremony. OK, it provides some entertainment and it is one of the 'Must see' attractions of London, but exchanging a few guards do not need to be dragged till 30 - 45 mins, n my my, standing under the hot sun crowded with hundreds of tourists did not make things better. We left after around 20 mins...


We then walk along St James Park, towards Westminster area...


Took some dayview photos of the Westminster area


Of course how can we miss the famous red phone booth?

N the horse guard? Even the horse knows he should look at the camera...

Then we had a short visit to the National Gallery near Trafalgar Square... She was abit disappointed that there were only a few Van Gogh's paintings there....

Here a picture of her taken with a random piece of wall... See, i said she had something towards stone walls...A complex looking mapping of london tubes

I brought her to one of the most busy shopping street in London - Oxford street. Luckily i had a gf who doesn't like shopping, so i'm spared from going in shop by shop! Anyway, we didn't have much time to spend there also...

We grabbed some burger from McD in a rush, n had to eat in the airport... Yeah burger with bacon! Something not found in Malaysia!


We took the evening flight at 7.10pm to Glasgow... She was freezing when we walked out from the bus station... Yeah, Glasgow is almost always cold, even in summer. But she prefers cooler weather than hot weather, so she adapted to the weather fairly quickly. We went back to my hostel, and had dinner with Devi, Lingwei, XY n their family... We slept early that night, exhausted, after a long day...

(to be continued...)