More Edinburgh

On our second day in Edinburgh, we decided to take a sight-seeing tour. It was cold and windy up top, but we braved it for the views.





Our first stop off the bus was to the Edinburgh Castle. 

 
The wind was out in full force, so we walked around until we nearly got knocked over. Then, it was back on the tour bus and on to find a vegan restaurant (David Bann) that had been recommended to us.

We decided to be adventurous and get off the tour bus around where we thought the restaurant was. I love doing this sort of thing because you never know what sort of finds you'll stumble upon. We happen to stumble upon a place that had Scotland shirts for five pounds. So, we, naturally, stocked up. I'll probably be wearing Scotland attire into my fifties.

Eventually, we found the restaurant and warmed up with some risotto and curry chocolate pancakes. The food was good, but to be honest, I miss my new BFF, vegan haggis.



After dinner, we went back to our room and watched...you guessed it, more British reality television. This time, we were entertained by a show about grooms planning weddings and surprising their brides with all of the details. As you could probably expect, there was no shortage of crying nor dramatics. Just the way I like it.

Edinburgh

On Friday, we set off to Edinburgh! Before leaving though, we decided to have a "pub lunch" since we had been hearing so much about them. I was expecting something exciting. Free beer with lunch, perhaps? A special sort of meal I had never heard of?

Sadly, I found out they are just lunches eaten at pubs. But, happily, they are super cheap (well, as cheap as one can get when the pound is worth a lot more than the dollar) and delicious!

On Thursday, we stayed at the Ibis City Centre Hotel (a super cute, and cheap...well, relatively, as indicated above), which is located in the western part of Glasgow (so much for city centre, eh?) and right by Bath Street, a road that home to a lot  of bars and restaurants. After walking by several spots, we settled on a place called LIFE.


LIFE had a traditional Scottish broth soup, which they veganized. That and a beer did not disappoint.

Yay first pub lunch!

We then headed to the bus station to catch a MegaBus to Edinburgh. On our way, we met the cutest cab driver who presented us with gifts upon leaving his taxi. He gave us light-up key chains and pens, declared his love for the United States, and shouted "God Bless America!" as we started to walk away.

I'm pretty sure we were the first people to ever take tourist photos at the Glasgow Bus Station. We'll follow it up by taking pictures at a garage sometime soon.

The bus ride to Edinburgh was quick and comfy, and not nearly as packed as some of the MegaBuses I've taken in the U.S.

After checking into our hotel, we made our way to Edinburgh's Christmas display. And I thought Glasgow "did it up" for the holidays! It was nothing compared to Edinburgh. The entire city seemed to be covered in lights, there were countless carnival-style rides, and we even got to see a light show set to choir music. Plus, there were tourists everywhere, so I got to hear so many different languages and accents. It was truly unique.





 

The woman behind me = clearly unimpressed.

The weather was nicer than we expected, but still cold. So, we decided to head to Henderson's, a local veggie place, for some dinner. I fell in love immediately upon entering. Man, the Scottish really know how to do cozy! The place was adorable, complete with lots of candles, arm chairs you'd expect to find in your living room, and live music.



I, of course, had to have the vegan haggis. Henderson's was so much different than the one at the 13th Note. The haggis at the 13th Note had a lot of "zip" to it, and almost seemed to be flavored with curry. Whereas this one had a whiskey "cream" sauce and was covered in a puff pastry that was to die for.

Reunited with my soul mate.

After dinner, we were pretty tired, so we retired to our hotel and watched British reality television (some dating show where people select a mate based on the food their date has cooked). 

On the way home, I made a new friend.

Second Day in Scotland

On Day 2 of our journey, we woke up bright and early (and by that, I mean at 10 am) and met Anne at the City Chambers. Our other cousins, Catherine and Jim, joined us there for a private tour from Anne.

I couldn't get over how gorgeous the building was! Even though it houses city government, it feels like what we would find at the national Senate or House building...or, maybe even the White House. And the Glasgow City Council has 79 members! We even got to meet one of the former Lord Provosts (the head of City government), Liz Cameron, and we later saw her portrait in the portrait gallery.

Pictures don't even do the City Chambers justice, but here are some anyway:

The finish on his nose is rubbed off because people touch him for good luck upon passing by.

This is where all of the council meetings take place. The head chair (for the Lord Provost) was gifted in the 1800s by Queen Victoria.

After the tour, we headed over to the People's Palace, a museum which contains the history of Glasgow. We got to see a bomb shelter and ration cards (both of which my grandmother experienced during World War II). And we also stopped for a tea in the winter garden.

Since Glasgow was famous for ship-building, the top of the winter garden is designed to look like the hull of a ship.

Then, we visited the street and neighborhood where my grandmother grew up. Her house has long been torn down, but we did get a picture of us with the street name in the background.


We also visited the church where my grandmother was baptized. It's also the same one where my great-grandparents were married. Unfortunately, it was dark when we visited (it gets dark in Glasgow around 3:30 p.m.), so this picture doesn't capture the altar's true beauty, but it's a start.




By then, we had worked up quite an appetite, so we met the rest of my mom's cousins at a restaurant called Metropolitan. It was housed in a venue called Merchant Square, which, from the looks of it, used to be an outdoor market. However, now it's a hip, cozy, enclosed spot that houses several restaurants. Our restaurant in particular was beautiful. There were candles and white lights everywhere, and we got to sit on the balcony overlooking the main part of Merchant Square. The chefs even prepared a special vegan dinner for us.

Totally oblivious to the photo-bombers in back.

But, the greatest part of the evening was just getting to be around my family. I could have listened to stories all day, and it was fascinating to talk about how much we had in common, despite growing up on different continents. My cousins were so incredibly nice, generous and hospitable (not to mention wickedly funny). We swapped stories for hours, and it was truly a wonderful time!

I've only been in Scotland for two days, and already, this trip has been everything I had hoped it would be! It's been incredible so far, and I can only wait for what's to come.

Scotland!

My mother's mom, my grandmother, is from Glasgow, Scotland. She fell in love with my grandfather, an American, when he was stationed overseas during World War II. She moved with him to the United States when he returned from fighting, they got married, had children, and the rest is history, I suppose.

For a long time, I've wanted to surprise my mom with a trip to Scotland to visit family/see the places where her mother grew up and frequented. This past May, after returning from Peru, I was reminded how life is so very short. While stand-up comedian + full-time law student does not spell instant riches, I thought, "why not?" and quickly clicked "purchase" on the British Airways website before allowing a second thought to enter into my brain.

Since I bought our tickets eight months prior our departure, it didn't exactly seem real.

But, after completing my hardest law school semester to date and finishing my last final of the semester, it hit me.

And then the reality of not having done laundry in four weeks, having to cram a lot into a tiny carry-on, and leaving on the same day as my last final (final final, if you will) hit me.

I got it done though (along with all my Christmas shopping and wrapping...and I even managed to clean out my refrigerator so my apartment wouldn't smell to high Heaven when I returned).

My mom and I left from Toronto, so the first part of our journey was to drive there. Then, it was a flight to London (in which I attempted to watch Bridge of Spies at least three times only to fall asleep ten minutes into the movie. No offense, Mr. Hanks), a tiny lay-over at Heathrow and then a quick flight to Glasgow.


Can you tell which one of us is exhausted? I slept my way over the Atlantic, and I'd just like to take a moment to give a big shout-out to neck pillows and the guy with the window seat not getting up once during the flight.

Once we arrived in Glasgow, we checked into our hotel and met up with our cousin, Anne. She works at the Glasgow City Chambers (a truly gorgeous building that will get more attention in later blogs), so we met her there. The City Chambers is located on Georges Square, which was set up for Christmas (more on this later, too), complete with an ice-skating rink and Ferris wheel.






Anne took us to an excellent little place (or, as they say in Scotland, a "wee place") called the 13th Note. It felt more like a pub, but it had a full menu. It was here that I fell in love with vegan haggis. I always thought my soul mate would come in human form, but now I'm not so sure.

 



We shared wine and laughs with Anne before cabbing it back to our hotel fairly early.



Our room was pretty basic (but for $40 in the biggest city in Scotland, I really couldn't complain), but the location was great, and the beds were comfy.


A successful first day!