Edinburgh pub experience

Saturday March 29
We wake up to rain and decide to take an earlier bus back to Inverness. By the time we get ready the rain has stopped and there is some sun. The clouds are moving north, a good sign for us going south. How bad do we really want to go back to Edinburgh? We planned to return to see the world cross country championships tomorrow. I really do want to see it. But we could go elsewhere. We have a free day here. We could go down to London, Oxford, Cambridge or even north. We could go to Glasgow. Never been there. We get on the train to Edinburgh and ask if there is a train form Perth to Glasgow shortly after we arrive. There is one about 4 mins after our arrival. We could go to Glasgow. Glasgow is only about a 50 min train ride to Edinburgh. There is also South Indian curry there. We can eat masala dosa. Tempting. We decide to do it.

We arrive in Perth and realize that the south Indian restaurant is closed from 2-5. We will arrive in Glasgow at 2:15. There are other options. We arrive in Glasgow. It is not nearly as pretty as Edinburgh but has a hip personality to it. More industrial. More like a generic city. It is also cold and rainy. The shopping area is cute and classical. Much like other places we have been. We decide to walk about the city. That seems to work for us to see the most. We walked to the south Indian restaurant just to view the menu. We checked out the vegan restaurant at the edge of town. We see another Indian restaurant that also serves masala dosa and is open. It is very expensive though. About $24 for one dosa. Let’s move on and see what else Glasgow has. We find the planned south Indian restaurant and they do not even serve dosa. How awful it would have been if they were in fact open and we counted on dosa. So we move onto the vegan spot. It’s more of a health food store. The woman tells us of the café around the corner. We buy some vegan fudge and check out the café. It looks great but is also closing and no longer serving food. James saw a cheaper Indian restaurant and we decided to go there and then go to Edinburgh. The food was cheap, the ambiance was nice and the taste was excellent. We were happy and ready to go.

The train to Edinburgh is crowded. We can’t get a seat together. There is a table with 2 seats available. Two nice men offer. We sit with them. James is scattered from looking for a spot. One man looked a bit older, with a white beard and very distinguished with celtic tattoos. The other man was younger, more conservative in appearance. They immediately asked where we were from and the conversation took off from there. They were brothers. The younger man lives in Edinburgh as got married last week. The older brother was there for the wedding. He lived in Tazmania on land and hated the city. He was very earthy and passionate. His brother was intuitive, positive, social and warm. He reminded me of an adult Liam. He was a mountain climber and ran in several half marathons. He planned to run the London marathon in a few weeks. We had a long political discussion, mostly hearing how he and his brother differ in tactics but not philosophy. By the end of the ride we felt connected. We disembarked the train and James asked if they wanted to get a drink. Without any hesitation was a yes.

Cal was the younger brother’s name. We talked on the way to a pub named Hebrides. He had always wanted to go this bar. He told me about his daughter and what he did. He is an actor as well as his wife. I thought he was a therapist, philosopher or something like that from his personality. Of course I asked him about his work and in which films he was. He is in a local TV series called Holby Blue. We entered the bar and it was as if Cal knew everyone. He didn’t but he had such an outgoing magnetic personality. We had a round of Scottish Whisky and Guinness. The bar was small, cozy and vibrant. When we walked into the bar, Cal had interacted with this older woman as if she were his mother or aunt. He knew a few words of Gaelic and spoke them to her. She tried to talk with him in Gaelic and he had to let her know that he knew only a few phrases. So then he told her we were his friends from N. America and we wanted to learn some Scottish-gaelic. From there the woman talks with me. She told me of the many different kinds of whisky. (Cal had told me before this that the only one to drink is single malt scotch. Don’t try the others. He also insisted that Highland Park was THE whiskey but admitted that Jamieson was a good whiskey). The woman told me that some tasted like wildflower, others sweet, others dry. I asked what mine was, Highland Park single malt scotch. She said mine was a good one and on the sweeter side. She offered me a taste of hers which was made in the same area, the Orkney islands. It was far more dry and less sweet. I asked if she lived here in Edinburgh. She said “no, no, no, Edinburgh is too Anglo-Saxon. I live about 7 miles out on a hill where it is not so Anglo-Saxon.” There is discussion about James’s sweatshirt from the Buddhist school. It says “education is the nation’s best defense.” People are thrilled about that. The woman passionately speaks about how education is Scotland was once good until the Anglo-Saxons screwed it up. She loved the rest of the world but not the Anglo-Saxons. It used to be in order to teach in Scottish schools one had to have Scottish training but the English changed that.

Cal had made his brother take off a green Celtic Rangers scarf before we had entered the pub. He said football colors could lead to trouble and it was rather like tribal warfare. (Celtic is a Glasgow football club and Cal and his brother were both from Glasgow originally) Despite Cal’s advice to his brother, Cal still had a jersey on with a green Celtic collar that a boisterous drunk man in the pub recognized. It turned out that the man had also been born in Glasgow and was a Celtic fan with his own Celtic shirt under his jacket. Through the aid of beer goggles he thought that Cal looked like the Celtic team captain.

There was a group of Irish people near us, part of our group. They were here for a wedding. The boisterous, animated man was his brother’s best man. He told us stories. Sometimes I understood him, other times I could not understand a thing anyone was saying. Truly the scotch. Some people were singing. I asked the bartender if she knew what a carbomb was. A co-worker insisted I try it while traveling. It was a mix of alcohol with a caffeinated drink. She did not know what it was. I wasn’t going for the chocolate cake drink my coworker also mentioned. I’ll try again in London. We had a lot of conversations with people. One of the Irish men talked of his travels to the states. We talked about politics. He was passionate as how sad it is that the US spends all of this money shipping bombs through his country to Iraq. “How can Bush send over children to get slaughtered in Iraq? They use our carriers in Ireland to get there!” he asks.
He mentioned how major US pharmaceutical companies produce their drugs in County Cork where they lived. He said all the Viagra and Prozac used in America was made right there in County Cork so Ireland was both America’s aircraft carrier and drug supplier.

What is interesting is everyone we encountered on this trip asked us if we were for Obama or Hillary. Every person told us that a win for McCain was frightening to them. Unanimously they said, “it would be very very bad if he wins.”

The second round of drinks was definitely beginning to kick in. James was quite cute and cuddly. Our friends we met on the train left. Cal asked if he’d see us at the cross country races tomorrow. Of course. Damn, we didn’t get a picture or email address. Oh well.

James and I left after an hour or so. We enjoyed the company of the Irish men. What a fun group. As we are leaving the pub, some other people tells us what pub they will be at. They tell us to go home, shower up and meet them at this other pub around the corner. Sounds fun. Everyone is so nice, drunk, but nice. Everyone at this cozy bar was friendly. We felt a comraderie there. I felt like we had many many friends. James and I happily made it to our hostel. We stayed at the same one we did two nights ago. Only this time our room was upgraded. The worker said this is the room she puts her parents in. It’s beautiful. No one is staying in the room down the hall so we basically have a flat to ourselves! We take a walk to walk off the whisky. The city is beautiful as ever. I love this place. We go back and get some sleep. And we sleep very well.

(The pics are mostly from Glasgow except the pub)