161206: Glasgow, Edinburgh

Couldn’t sleep to prepare for the trip. In the end only got 2h of sleep. Had v early breakfast, at around 2am. Depressing weather on Saturday morning. Raining 3am in the morning. Left Bankside at 3.40am. Suppose can be in time. Walk in the drizzle to Liverpool Street station. A lot of people waiting for Terravision coach. Missed the early bus, because it was full. The right bus left 20 minutes later than it should.

Barely make it in time to check in at 6am. Went to departure gate straight, but the queue was fucking long. Can’t believe it. Most of the people at Stansted airport seem to be Arabs. Not many Caucasians, not many Asians either. The queue takes fucking long. 30 minutes pass by and I still haven’t gone through the security screening. Finally my turn to get screened, easy come easy go. But got a second screening to go through. Need to take off footwear to screen! Fucking hell, I was wearing boots today. Difficult to take out, even more difficult to wear. Never tie my bootlace, ran to the boarding gate. Got a nice air stewardess guide me to the plane. Not swee zha bo, but kind enough to help. Gotta walk down to the airport ground, then walk all the way to the plane. Plane is Boeing 737-800, more like a flying bus. Across the width only 6 seats, with a corridor in middle. I sit around 10 rows from the front, can’t remember. Can even see cockpit and pilot. Super cui. Bought a juice and still water from the air stewardess, can’t bring water in my hand luggage. Then got a lucky draw coupon. The lucky winner gets a free return trip from Glasgow to London. Guess who won? No prize for guessing it right, I won. Dunno whether really lucky or not. Lucky number is 356488. The flight to Glasgow quite alright, nothing much. Pretty fast also. But then, the pilot like no skill, fly plane till very jerky. And Glasgow airport is damn cui. Even more cui than Stansted. Can’t believe it. So bloody small. Didn’t even ask where the coach stand is, just walk straight to the railway station. Got 50% discount if got air ticket. Not really that expensive, only £2.80 to city centre. My Terravision coach cost £8 to Stansted, and not even half as comfortable as train. Damnit.

Reach city centre. Went to Costa to get a hot chocolate to warm myself up. For 1 thing, Scotland is fucking cold! And it not even full blast winter yet. Weather has been sub 10, maybe even sub 5. My hands are freezing. Walk around Glasgow. Then saw a outdoor ice skating set-up with many people skating. Beside got a nice old building, thought is Glasgow cathedral. Start to take a lot of pictures. Damnit, start to drizzle again liao. Run to the cathedral, realize it’s not opened. Suddenly saw a sign that says ‘City Council Chambers’. Damn malu! The drizzle last only a few minutes. Then start walking to the actual cathedral after looking at illustrated guide. Just now gek kiang, don’t want look at map. Now must hold map in my hands. Thought walk to the junction then turn right can liao. Turn right only hit cathedral street, gotta chiong all the way to the end then is the cathedral. But seriously, it’s worth it.

The cathedral quite swee, copper roof top then corrode to give cyan green colour. Quite nice. But still it is close today. Dunno why. Take a few photo of cathedral only, because I came for the thing behind the cathedral, the necropolis! Seriously, chua chu kang cemetery can’t fight the necropolis. CCK cemetery may be big, but it’s too uniformed. Here, the grave is humongous. People actually rich enough to built concrete houses for the dead. Some of the houses cui already, got ‘danger! Keep out’ sign. Somemore got nice gate. Look better than my house on the outside, inside don’t need to say. I don’t wanna live in crypt for sure, so cannot compare. The necropolis is a graveyard built on a hill. And the unique thing about thing graveyard is that all the people buried here are rich. They can build crypts, mausoleums, obelisks for their dead. We only have a 2m by 1m grave with half of it used for plastic grass and the other half show the name, face and year of death. That is if you are buried. If not, you will live the rest of your eternal life in a ceramic urn that contains your ashes. Stacked up like HDB flats in ancestry houses or Mount Vernon, but I think now Mount Vernon change to Mandai Crematorium already. Anyway, I am damn fucking impressed with the necropolis. It deserved its name. I mean, if necropolis not good then the whole fucking trip to Glasgow is wasted. Fucking wasted. The funny thing is I only spent half an hour in necropolis. Then got dai ba amount of time left. How leh? I started walking to Buchanan bus station, there supposed to have my bus to Edinburgh. Then it started drizzling again, but this time heavier. Dunno I suay or heng, it never rain any bit while I was at necropolis, at least can enjoy. Seriously dunno what to eat, went to prêt to buy a hoisin duck wrap, takeaway. Bring to the bus station to eat. Eat finish liao thought can take my bus to Edinburgh. Wah piang, the stupid driver die die don’t want let me take, ‘cause I book from megabus but they rather take Citylink customers. Fuck, should have booked earlier. Maybe don’t even book at all, can just pay money and take the bus lidat. So got to fucking wait 1 h lor. Lucky I got bring novel, can read a bit. But the rain make the weather damn chilly, cold sia. Read till bus come le take bus to Edinburgh.

Wah, I think I quite smart also. I saw Shandwick Place which is the street of my hostel, quickly alight. Then don’t need to walk extra, walk whole day with my backpack quite shiong on my shoulders. The place is quite cui, somemore no lockers. But then pay peanuts get monkeys, can’t help it. At least got free tea and coffee, but need to boil water ourselves. Put down my backpack, strip off the small bag, then carry the small bag go walk walk le. Day still a bit bright, thought maybe can rush to Calton Hill to watch sunset, should be quite romantic. Can take scenic shots also. Fucking hell start to rain again. Then gotta call off the Calton Hill visit, go tomorrow. Decided to explore around Edinburgh 1^st, see where got nice stuff to eat and shop. Then suddenly I saw fairyland. Seriously, you wouldn’t expect to see it, because got a bit dark. It’s Edinburgh castle. Machiam like built out of fairy tale. Damn chio, nothing like I’ve seen before. Actually that time go oxford got see oxford castle, look really puny and fake. But this time round, its fucking big! Nabeh, built on top of a hill somemore. No wonder it’s a fortress, anyone without the right equipment try to climb up the hill from the sides seriously is considering meeting hades early. So hard to climb, somemore if got people at the top defend, u confirm plus guarantee chop cannot make it. Fucking chio is one thing, I dunno how to go up. Walk further along princes street. Then saw the fun fair. Christmas fun fair wor. Wah seh, damn cool lor. Tan dio liao, who would expect to see a fun fair here? Went to the handcrafts fair 1^st, seriously all damn chio and damn expensive. Want to buy, but don’t dare buy. Even if buy also hard to bring back to London, since I’m going Liverpool and Manchester 1^st. There got merry go round, bungee jumpers, outdoor ice skating! All like damn fun, but never play. No money is one thing, fucking hungry is 2^nd. Bought a jumbo hot dog and eat. Then walk up towards to Royal Mile (I gek kiang assume one). Suddenly feel like walking to the castle entrance. The castle looks very different from below and from the entrance. In front of the main entrance got 1 fucking big open space. Went to check out the entrance fee. £10.30 for students! Want to vomit blood liao. Well, I’ll still go lah, it’s one of the most beautiful places to go to, and if I come Edinburgh don’t go castle, then come for what? In front of the castle got a shop a bit like a gift shop. But there got specialty: tarton. Tarton is the stripped cloth that Scottish use to make their clothes, damn famous and got a lot of meaning also. Different clans got different pattern, different colour. Their clans is not like the Singapore type, not Ang Soon or 369. Within a castle itself, the different squadrons protecting it usually are the clans. So a clan may be defending the north, another the south tower, another firing the cannons etc. Then different era also got different clan. The shop displayed many kinds, see liao eyes also blur. They also got display the old way of making the wool, then knitting and weaving the wool into tartons. But those that they sell are fucking expensive. Down the round, a shop is clearing factory products that look and feel exactly the same, but the price is 1/3 or less. But treat it like a museum, it’s pretty entertaining also. Now my itchy backside come already. I walk all the way to the other end of Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is a mile of road linking the Edinburgh castle and the Holyrood Palace. Suppose to be super happening, but I guess it’s late and dark le, so maybe not as rowdy. Anyway, tomorrow I gonna wake up early then rush to Calton Hill to watch sunrise, if possible. Then I go visit Edinburgh castle. After that, along the way got some museums can see see look look. I give up on Arthur’s Seat already, looks too damn high.