Ach Lad We're in Scotland

Hey - Jam here - we're in scotland!

So thought I better update you on our travels thus far.

On Friday morning we got up early to make the journey across London on the tube(underground) to Kings Cross station to catch the Flying Scotsman to Edinburgh(overland). However, this proved to be far more stressful than we had intended as we got away later than we had hoped(I know some things never change!), but to make matters worse, we had our route all planned out and were very excited that the first tube we caught went 75% of the way to Kings Cross - however about two stations before our stop we were all kicked off the tube as another train in front of ours had broken down, therefore clogging the line! Argh! Conveniently however, this happened at a station that had access to an alternative link.

We did pretty well with making up for lost time, but never the less missed our Edinburgh train - and we got a little overwhelmed by which platform we had to catch the train on etc. We soon found out that our tickets could be used on any subsequent trip however(whew), and we found the correct platform and got on the next train half an hour later - the only drawback was that we didn't have any allocated seats - so had to "gypsy it" moving everytime someone hopped on the train with the seat number for the seats we were sitting in! Whew - crisis averted.

Anyway, so we made it to Scotland - what a beautiful place, the coast and farmland leading to Edinburgh reminds me very much of home (where I grew up - Matira). Actual Edinburgh reminds me of Dunedin - so I can see why the Scots settled there in NZ! Edinburgh Castle is so cool! - It sits on a hill overlooking the middle of town - just think Napier hill but with a Castle on it.

So we got to Edinburgh, located our hotel, dumped down our bags then walked back into town to have a look around. As we were walking we were commenting on the number of Kiwis in town(recognisable by the black adidas tops featuring silver ferns), when who do we bump into..........the very people we were in town to see - my "peeing on the field" mate Jerry Collins and Sione Lauaki - we got a photo just to prove it(not of him peeing thank goodness)! Nobody else walking around had noticed them, but took a second look after we asked them to pose for a photo!

This put us on quite a high for the rest of the afternoon - however the second funny incident for the day was when I was buying an umbrella (as it had started to rain), and I went to the counter at Marks and Spencer to pay. The retail assistant was chatting to me about the umbrella and how to open it (had some difficult button that required a degree in Umbrella operation) when I spoke - I have never caused such a scene in a department store before! There was an elderly lady being served beside me by another shop assistant and they both stopped what they were doing and whipped their heads around in my direction for a huge gawk - obviously hadn't come in contact with too many Kiwi accents in their time, I have never felt so self-conscious as they were waiting for me to talk some more! I guess I had expected it but not at the time!

The Scots are also really hard to understand, it honestly feels like some of them are talking a different language and you feel really silly trying to work out what they've said!

Anyway to finish our expedition we thought it appropriate to dine at a familiar scottish restaurant - McDonalds :o)