Great Scot!

[Mini Update: Proof that once you're under the influence, you'd think anything is a good idea.]

One side effect of flying all over the place is that you have a crapload of things to write about that just seem to keep piling up higher and higher.


Scotland was one of the things I meant to write about and publish using Blogger's nifty delayed-publishing thingamajiggie, which I would theoretically set up to publish when I was in Greece. Which would leave you guys thinking I'm being extra keen and updating from Greece and you'd be none the wiser, while I'd be left feeling slightly clever.

In theory. Obviously in all the crazy last-minute hullabaloo approaching flight to Greece I had absolutely no time to do anything of the sort, save for a one sentence thing literally typed with one hand while I shoved clothes into bags with my passport between my............teeth.

So yeah. On Scotland - the great part about Scotland, or specifically Edinburgh, is that it's really like London for the variety of pubs, eateries, facilities, culture etc. Except it doesn't have the random dodgy/nasty/weird people you seem to bump into in the Tube.


Digressing, today I saw a Oriental-looking tourist in Athens out with his family in what could only be described as a flamboyant clown suit (missing the makeup), and coming out of the Tube in London I saw a family with luggage and children sleeping in sleeping-bags just outside the Tube station (wtf?) and to round off the day's madness, a random dude passed me with what I thought was a ferret in his arms. Hilarity never ends. One day I should post about the randomness I've encountered in the Tube.

Anyways.... so Edinburgh is really good as it has all the good bits of London without the nasty dodgy aspects of it. In fact, Edinburgh is pretty devoid of people altogether compared to sardine-can London. Which is nice for me who likes a quiet weekend enjoying the good weather.

And the weather was very good indeed.


The awesome weather made all the difference in a walk to Hollyrood (I know) Park. Clean and carefully tended flora everywhere, gulls and pigeons in flocks, and most importantly, there's no one to jostle for space and pollute the air with cigarettes, stereos, bawling kids, farts, burps, etc. Just a huge green space to chill out.


Edinburgh Castle was also clearly visible from the park.

There was also this rather curious-looking thing smack in the middle of the park which I'm still not sure is for.


It strongly reminds me of a popular toy featured in Toy Story.


Mr Potato Head!

Walking around the streets of Edinburgh, I also stumbled upon a charming little street market, selling the kind of oddities you can only find in British street stalls.


Chocolate fountain al fresco, with sweets to dip into the chocolate. With this kind of saccharine luk-luk, no wonder most British women are flabbulous.


The market consisted mostly of cottage-industry arts and craft wares. This lady was very flattered by me snapping a picture of her and her prickly-spiky ornament type things.

There was also a very funky store selling hand-made fashion items. Really pricey though, going for like £40-60 apiece.




I then wandered into a shopping mall and got distracted by this t-shirt shop selling hilaroius T-shirts (e.g. 'W.I.F.E. - Washing Ironing Fucking Etc', 'H.U.B.B.Y - Helpless Useless Balding Babbling Yob'). I decided to buy two (two for £20!)


Captions I chose:

Wine is made to be drunk
I am drunk
Am I wine?

Stick and stones may break my bones
But whips and chains excite me!

Yes they do. Oo yeah.

One thing about pub names. British pub names are as easily predictable as Chinese restaurant names. With the Chinese restaurants, you have names like Golden China, Imperial Dragon, Heavenly Palace, Forbidden Gate of the Four Winged Albatross, etc etc. With British pubs, mostly you can just combine any one or two nouns to form a name, or an adverb with a verb. It doesn't have to make sense - in fact, extra points if it doesn't make sense at all. Hence you get The Cowering Toad, The Fiddle and the Chicken, The Scholar and the Drake, The Bold and Beautiful, etc etc.

However, you do get the occasional deviant or two, or in this case, three of them in the same street. I stumbled across a street with pubs with the coolest names ever.

Is that like a naughty Chicken McNugget?

Lol. Just pure lol.

Presumably the pub owners being particularly proud of the filth cultivation of their lower appendages. Seriously, who the hell names their pub Dirty Dicks????

Scotland is awesome.