The Final city on my long tour (well penultimate city) was Edinburgh, by far my favourite of all

Not only did I get to stay with my cousin and his wife both of which are lovely people and very relaxed and welcoming, but I also got to see many lovely galleries and artworks in the three days I managed to be there.

The National Scottish Gallery was particularly interesting as was the National Portrait gallery, even the building it was housed in was a work of art.

I also got taken out to a pub, well three pubs it turned out to be by them and a few of their friends. Got to be honest pubs and bars are not my forte but it was an interesting experience and the folks were nice so I didn’t freak out too much at the noise and seeming chaos of pubs :S

The final bar was a sports bar since one of our group was an avid Rugby fan, personally I have zero interest in sports and the impact of a rather full sports bar during somesort of important game (scotland may have been playing) was beyond my ability to tolerate for too long. I had to VERY quickly learn lip reading for one thing lol but watching the Rugby fans appreciation of the events on the screen was fun and thankfully my Cousins wife was tired and left earlyish giving me an easy out

But over all Edinburgh was lovely, a nice feel, good people and generally fun experiances.

Only downside was getting on a bus on the wrong direction so it went to the terminus then they swapped drivers and I had to pay twice despite never getting off the bus -_-

Also I have discovered that for the iphone addicted traveller Starbucks is awesome!

Right now for some pics of Edinburgh:

Some sort of building, possibly a hotel lol not sure what it is but it looks pretty.

A rainbow over the hills beyond the city.

Photo from the Museum on the Mound, which is a Banking museum.

The National Scottish Gallery interior, lovely building with two large areas like this in it, if not more.

Some statue dude on the main street in Edinburgh (Princes Street)

The Scott Monument, looks kinda creepy since it is stained black.

Bit of lovely gothicness thanks to gargoyles and nice lighting

 

Will make a phone pics post later, with more from here and in the galleries.

With luck I might head back to Edinburgh during the Festival time since my cousin invited me down during then will have to see if the finances and free time will get me there. *fingers crossed*

 

Still no got enough time to really get back into Xanga

But I’d better write down my adventures before it all fades into memory, something I tend not to hold onto for that long :/

After londond it was off to Manchester and Lancashire where another Uncle lives. This time rather than work I was just going up to visit my cousin who i’ve always gotten on well with and since she is having a bit of a rough time at the moment I thought i’d show support.

So I hopped on a bus and made my way up north.

I also planned and bought my other tickets that would take me home, but then got an e-mail from my Aunt in Oldham saying it might be not so good for me to stay too long since they were rushed off their feet and although they’d love to have me it wasn’t really a great time.

I sort of expected this but it was still somewhat annoying that i’d not waited until i knew for sure before ordering the tickets lol

Anyway I arrived in Manchester, and only once i’d arrived discovered i’d gone to the wrong station and my Uncle was waiting for me half way across the city there was a brief tiring wander about the streets of Manchster and I even managed to ask for directions.

But we met up and then having missed our train back to his hung about in a bookshop/coffee shop where he rather nicely insisted I buy a book, so since i had no idea what to buy i got The Chrysalids a John Wyndham Book that i Really like

On a side note, the authors name in full is: John Wyndham Parks Lucas Benyon Harris…:O thats one heck of a name lol

So we eventually got our train and I was glad to sit down again since I still had a LOT of jars of chutney in my backpack >.> the next two days I think it was I spent at theirs, hanging out in the controlled chaos of a house filled with three somewhat stressed adults and two infants o.O it was lovely and the kids were great to see, but I was glad the time had been cut down since I did feel a bit like an imposition given the current situation.

My bus tickets of course were useless but ever the gentleman my Uncle bought me a train ticket to my next destination Edinburgh.

I also wandered round a reservoir with a baby in a pram and went with my cousin to get her other kid injected :S but he actually didn’t complain at all really which was cool.

I didn’t take that many pics in Oldham or Manchester this time, but I’ve got one or two on my phone i might post later on.

The beginning of my trip was to be going down to see my Uncle in Cambridge area, and staying with him for a couple weeks while we sort out an IT job in London over the weekend.

To get us down the 500 miles between home and there my Uncle came up and picked up me and my dad as mostly willing assistants.

The trip down was surprisingly easy and nice I barely even noticed it to be honest and we were there in the sort of ‘village’ he lives in near Cambridge. South of the border between Scotland and England always feels a little too flat for a Highlander such as myself and the Fens is even worse :O

But it was nice to see everyone and we settled in quite nicely. England currently is quite on the cold side, actually getting worse weather than up north which is very strange, so it was brisk but nice

The job was over the weekend and was a PA test, which basically means take all electrical items out of the wall, test em and plug them back in. Not so hard but time consuming when you consider office desks and the over 100+ items in the office -_-

But working together (not often an easy thing ) we managed to get it done in just one day

Annoyingly I had made plans to meet up with some people in London expecting to be there over at least two days, but our full one day blitz meant I had to return to the big city via train the following day on Sunday.

We actually had to ask the people at the train station how to use the ticket machine lol no such new fangled things where I come from

But if I thought the small village train station was bad I had no idea what I was in for with London. Originally I’d hoped to meet up with some website clients to discuss work but as it turned out they were busy so I ended up meeting with someone I’d met online, making it the very first online friend meet up

Sadly she was not a Xangan, but it was still cool and quite strange.

She directed me to go via tube to a certain station which opened onto Oxford Street, there I waited her arrival and was already feeling a bit over loaded by the throngs of people and the tube journey which was only my second ever :S

Thankfully she was a resident of London and definitely a city girl and with her help once she arrived, I mostly survived my trip to the capital

I got my mind blown by Selfridges, marvelled at the sheer quantity of different accents and peoples from all over the world that can be seen there, and we even got to go to the Saatchi Gallery

She was an art student and her appreciation of the works of art was very interesting to see. I then made the mistake of ordering food in the expensive part of town O.O holy cow I’d not be able to live for more than a week on those prices, if that.

Then it was home time, and I was surprised at just how exhausted a few hours in all that movement and noise had made me.

It is a beautiful city and quite fascinating but not for me I don’t think.

My return to London was the following Wednesday when I caught the bus to Manchester to go visit another Uncle, most of the shots below were taken during my wait for the bus but some are from the Sunday trip.

In The Saatchi. Thats a pool of oil

Outside the Train/Tube Station, one of its exits anyway.

Several Sides of Battersey Power Station, I had to walk all the way around it…well didn’t have to but I did

Random nice bits of my morning jaunt around Battersey waiting for the coach to Manchester.

 

 

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I’m back! after seeing London, Cambridge, Manchester, Edinburgh and finally Inverness I am back here in the good old middle of nowhere will update with more detail of my adventures once I get some time to sort the pics and tales into somekind of order, but for now enjoy the Incredible String Band, who quite perfectly encapsulate how the city leaves me feeling lol and also these few images from my trip.

London By the River – I had my VERY early breakfast over there, before walking over a bridge to take this shot

Sneaking through an abandoned office backyard :O

Dawn over London.

A Goat somewhere lol can’t even recall what city this was anymore :S

Cambridge The Fitzwallace Museum – Least I think thats its name, was very nice inside

The North – But not as north as some places this is Manchester, as I was leaving.

Scotland! Edinburgh in all its gothic glory.

And you wonder why I miss home so much :]

Many tales to come, such as why I carried over 20 jars of Chutney up the country, Meeting a stranger in the Capital and the horror of the sports bar :S