We went to Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and the movies...

...while we were in Scotland.

I'm ashamed.

Once we got past those uber American things we were good.

We arrived in Glasgow, Scotland on Saturday at around 10:30. It was pretty chilly but the sun was shining and I had made it through security without losing my Aveeno face lotion. Doesn't sound important - but let me tell you. It is.

We headed toward McLay Guesthouse where we would be staying for the next 3 nights. By the way, We is myself, Carolan, Paul and Patrick. When we walked in the room we saw a double bed and two twin beds, Paul immediately declared, "You two are sleeping there." Meaning that Carolan and I were going to be sharing the double bed. Apparently the boys didn't want to cuddle with each other, shocking really. Obviously Carolan and I had no problem with that. We put our stuff down and took a nap before heading out and exploring the city a little bit. We found the Buchanan Galleries which was a huge shopping center. I am proud to say that I did not buy one single article of clothing or pair of shoes or jewelry for myself. It took a lot of will power but the fact that I'm tres pauvre (very poor) made the decisions a lot easier. After a little exploring and attempting to find a good Scotland souvenir shop (which we couldn't find anywhere in Glasgow) we realized that we were starving. We walked around a bit until to our surprise there appeared in front of us, beside the KFC, a Pizza Hut. We walked in and the smell was so good that it didn't matter that our stomachs were growling, we were totally willing to wait the 20 minutes for a table. I got soup. It was delicious. Everyone else got pizza. Surprised? No I didn't think so.
Unfortunately, we were exhausted so going out that night did not occur. We ended up going to bed after going to the movies. We saw Cloverfield which I am not even going to describe because it is indescribable and was so, so good. It was actually pretty cool to go because there was a film festival going on so there was a lot actually happening around us. It's neat to see how different placs do movies too. Their system of rating is very different than ours and they show commercials instead of previews. (Although there are some previews thrown in). Even though it was Saturday, all the travelling and walking around had made us really tied and so we decided to go to bed so we could make a fairly early start the next morning.
The good part about staying in a Guesthouse is that breakfast is included and so we were able to enjoy a traditional Scottish breakfast. This means, 1 egg, baked beans, toast with butter and/or jam, some sort of pancake/crepe type thing. It wasn't gourment, but it was pretty good. I didn't complain. However, breakfast is served between 7am and 9am which wasn't totally ok with our sleep schedules. Once we finished we went back up to our room....and took naps.
Eventually we did venture into Glasgow that Sunday and lucky for us our travels led us through a beautiful park and towards the Kelvingrove Museum of Modern Art which was one of the most phenomenal museums that I have ever been lucky enough to experience. At one point I was in a room that included art by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt and so many more. It was so unbelievable and overwhelming. For a moment I had to just stop where I was and take in exactly what was going on. I was in the same room as all those pieces of art, in a museum, in Scotland. Amazing.
We spent almost 5 hours there. Clearly we are museum people. I could have spent more time there, but everything closes at 5 so we had to exit at that point when they politely kick you out by yelling throughout the museum that it was closing in 10 minutes. No intercom system, just people walking around yelling that. It was a unique experience. We ate at a little cafe in the museum. I got a fantastic soup and the best mashed potatos that I have ever had in a restaurant in my entire life. They were so good. At the end, we all had carrot cake which was also extremely delicious. By the way, you tip in Scotland. Yes you do. "Service is not included" will be right on your bill. Just letting you know - no tipping in Ireland, but definitely in Scotland.
We later faield at an attempt to go out that night. Perhaps threes a charm and Monday would be the day. Who knows, but we headed to Edinburgh on Monday. We couldn't have gotten luckier. We walked into the train station, bought our tickets with 10 minutes before the train departed for the 50 minute ride to Edinburgh from Glasgow.
Once we made it to Edinburgh we decided to be uber touristy and ride around on one of those double-decker red hop-on-hop-off tourist guide buses. It was a great decision. We saw everything that you could have seen in the city with the ability to hop off and check things out in one area and then hop back on and continue the tour from exactly where you left off. We stopped at Edinburgh Castle which was a gorgeous area. It was also wonderful that the area was surrounded by fantastic little Scottish shops. We met the most fantastic shop owner - his name was Steve. He taught us what the flags of SCotland stand for. The blue and white flag is the National flag and is for the people of Scotland while the yellow and red flag with the crest on it is the royal flag of Scotland and is for the royal family. He actually quizzed us on it and made us guess what the red and gold/yellow flag stood for. He was quite pleased when I said "royalty", I think he was a bit surprised that I was right! I know I was! We also checked out the Elephant House which is the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter book on napkins. It was pretty cool. We also found this great little restaurant inside a really old church. I ordered soup. (Are you sensing a trend?) Eventually we found our way back to the train station and headed to Glasgow. It was our last night. When we got back I went straight to bed because I was so tired. But in the end I woke up, readied myself and went out with Paul and Patrick - Carolan decided to stay in.
Luckily Paul fears no man or woman and was happy to say to random people "Where is a good bar around here." We ended up going to Driftwood, which has a special on Mondays - 99pence for all house liquor drinks. Southern Comfort and lime? Yes. The Bartenders there were so nice, but eventually it closed up and we started to walk toward some clubs that people recommended. Lucky for us again, Paul saw a Subway and felt it entirely necessary to enter and then struck up a conversation with some locals who pointed us to the Campus Club bar. We walked in and immediately noticed what was going on. Karaoke. Good karaoke. Not like those make her shutup karaoke, like those, damn that girl can sing karaoke. It was fantastic. Good music, karaoke, and dancing. Didn't hurt that there was a mini stage and you could dance there (once karaoke was over). At the club we all went our separate ways, it wasn't packed by any means so I could always see where they were and since I was on the stage - they could always see where I was which was convenient. It was nice to mingle and meet different people on our own. I met a very nice boy who had far better dance skills that I ever will have. I got a free scarf out of the deal. Mainly because he had forgotten that he had given it to me and I felt no need to remind him. It's quite soft. Yay for free stuff. He didn't quite understand why I intended on going back to my guesthouse, and not somewhere else with him at the end of the night. So I just gave him the peace sign and walked away leaving him in confusion. It was a pretty nice feeling.
The next morning we got all our stuff together and tidied the room up a bit and organized our packs to head back to Cork. I love all the cities that I'm visiting, but it is so good to go back to Cork at the end of the day. I absolutely love Cork.
We walked down to the train station and eventually, after some wonderful mishaps that ended up with us in a taxi with a wonderfully chatty driver who was great to talk to, we made it to the Glasgow Prestwick Airport (different than the Glasgow International Airport - in case you were wondering). At the security check point - they took my Aveeno face lotion. It was a tough loss for me and I had a strong urge to jump over the table and fish it out of the large red barrel that he so casually and meanly tossed it into with a care for anything that I had to say including the fact that they had let me into the country with it. I still want to punch his lights out.
Now we are back in Cork and luckily I had homework tonight. Why am I lucky? Well I'm not - you are. Because when I have homework I will do everything possible to avoid actually doing my homework, which is why you have now read a fairly detailed entry on my trip to Scotland. I hope you enjoyed it. I am now going to go to bed with only 100 words written for my 1500 word history paper. =]