Aaron Around The World    >>    Europe    >>    United Kingdom    >>    Edinburgh, Scotland

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Monday, 9 July 2007 - Pictures of the Week!
Introducing the new Pictures of the Week area! I'll stick a new one up every week, with most of them just being something I find incredibly amusing (which means some of them will probably offend a lot of people - like the first one I've put up for example ;) Enjoy!

Thursday, 12 July 2007 - Advice for all men!
Nine words that women use, and Women explained. You boys can thanks me later ;) Heaps more crap in the Miscellaneous section.

Sunday, 15 July 2007 - Union Canal!

  
After checking today's weather forecast yesterday I found I had been viciously lied to again. The shot on the left is looking east - that's the weather forecast; the shot on the right is looking west - that's the reality! Twenty minutes later the sun was gone and that was the end of that! Nevertheles,s I'd planned to hit the Union Canal again and ride the 50kms from Edinburgh to Falkirk.

 
 
Tartan limo! My air horn has been getting a work out lately and needed pumping up - especially since the Union Canal track is shared between cyclists and pedestrians the whole way and I knew it'd be getting another work out today. Long story short, it took me 30kms and an hour and a half just to find a friggin' air pump that a) worked, 2) was free, and d) had the balls to pump the horn up fully. Might be about time to buy my own pump. Anyway, that was eventually sorted and I headed for the canal. On the way I went down Princes Street and found some sort of Reggae thing going on the gardens - nice!

 
I've mentioned the Union Canal before, but in a nutshell it runs 50kms between Edinburgh and Falkirk (from where you can switch onto another canal and follow that for another 50kms to dirty old Glasgow).
 
 
Some parts of it remind me of Belgium during my ride to the Netherlands border - pretty!
 
There's also some pretty impressive scenery in parts too. I'd love to go down this thing on a tyre tube hehe!
 
 
Eventually the wind started to pick up (something else the forecasters didn't tell me about) so I called it quits in Linlithgow - about 15kms short of Falkirk. All up, another 60kms on the odometer - still nowhere near my Brisbane standards!

Tuesday, 17 July 2007 - Taggart, there's been a murrrder!

 
Apparently Scotland has the second highest murder rate in Western Europe; only Finland stands in our way to being the best at killing each other! Apparently we're getting better though. Five years ago the same survey by the World Health Organisation found that 2.23 people per 100,000 met an 'unnatural' end, and we're now down to just 1.75 so pat youself on the back Scotland! My guess is that with Glasgow being the stabbing capital of Europe, it accounts for about 1.7 of those people hehe.

Thursday, 19 July 2007 - Foxy Bingo!

  
While walking home from work tonight this fox trotted out from a side street right in front of me and started walking down the footpath, much to everybody's amazement! I'm not sure exactly where they hang out - I'm assuming the local parks and so forth, but I've been here 11 months and this is the first fox I've ever seen! After a while he stopped, had a think, decided he'd had enough of this weather and ran out on to the road in front of two cars both being driven by women, who both slammed on the anchors and almost lost it completely (it's a steep hill). The looks on their faces were priceless! I couldn't get a shot of them, but after snapping this one he ran through some bushes into a private park. He reminded me of a TV ad that used to play over here a while ago. It was for FoxyBingo.com, an online bingo and chatting site whose mascot is a cheesy fox, and the ad used to totally crack me up! Check it out here on YouTube and let me know what you think. Judging by the YouTube comments for it some people absolutely hate it hehe, but the music, the suit, the face, the dodgy persona - it's hard to explain but I just think it's hilarious! :)

Monday, 23 July 2007 - Croatia here I come!

Just across the road from Italy (so to speak), beautiful islands, stunning beaches, and a heap of tourists - that's Croatia in a nutshell! Plans are still being figured out between Mo and I, but at this stage the plan is to fly in to Split on September 20th, head north to Plitvice Lakes National Park and camp there for a couple of nights, then camp our way down the islands off the coast for the next several days, end up in Dubrovnik, and fly back out of Split on the 30th - nice! At some point we'll be meeting up with a group of mates along the way who are only able to come for about half that time. So, this time in two months I'll be camping on an island somewhere :)

Wednesday, 25 July 2007 - Still sunny (until tomorrow)

  
 
This is how they discipline 'em in Glasgow ;) The girl was having a hissy fit over something and refusing to walk any further, so over the shoulder she went.
  
Well it's been sunny days for around 72 hours now which must be some sort of a record over here. The fact that I feel the need to have a song and dance about any and all sunshine on this website really is testament to how miserable it typically is. But anyway, I had a good wander during lunch and after work today around Kelvingrove Park which is next door to the University of Glasgow (in the background in the shot on the right).
   
 
 
This was shot during lunch, but post-working hours this hill completely packs out.
 
And this is what happens at the sight of any sunshine - the locals lose the clothes and lose the plot.
  
The filth had to come and rain on the parade though and tip everybody's alcohol out (no drinkies in public). This chick and her boyfriend (out of shot) weren't impressed, but I was - it was funny ;)

Saturday & Sunday, 28 & 29 July 2007 - Camping on the Loch!

  

I've been in Scotland almost a year now and aside from a road trip last year and day-trips to a few places between Edinburgh and Glasgow, I really haven't seen a lot of it. Solution, a girlfriend (Lisa) who grew up here and knows a fair bit about the place and wants to show me around hehe. A good place to start is a bit of camping around the lakes (or Lochs as they're known here in Gaelic; pronounced similar to 'Locks' but as though you've got something stuck in your throat that you're trying to clear). The first night though (Friday) we stayed in Lisa's little home town of Helensburgh, about 50kms northwest of Glasgow.

 
 
And this is it in a nutshell. Population of around 15,000, right on the shore of the Firth of Clyde, a few main streets, suburbia up the hill (including one house in which some dude hacked his wife to pieces a year or so ago because she wanted a divorce)...

 
Nice beach (hahaha), and an excessive number of pubs for a town of this size (not by Scottish standards though). Helensburgh east shore beach has won an award for being the most polluted in the UK; the west shore came a close second - hahaha!
 
 
Helensburgh is used extensively for the local Naval base (Faslane) which is six miles out of town, and the Navy obviously don't care too much for anyone else's history. The stone tower on the left is all that remains of Ardencaple Castle. Once upon a time a real big impressive thing until the Navy rocked up, bought the estate, bowled it down in 1957, and built a few houses on it. Like I said, Helensburgh is only small, so why they couldn't just build around the corner I don't know but never mind - there are plenty more castles in this country.
  
Just off the coast is the 'Sugar Boat' Captayannis, a capsized Greek vessel that was carrying a shit load of sugar before it all hit the drink in 1974. Nobody's bothered to go fetch the boat due to confusion surrounding the actual owners and insurers, and nobody wants to admit responsibility for it so it's just been sitting there ever since hehe.

 
 
There's no such thing as trespassing laws in this country (as per the hand-written note on this sign hehe), so we 'trespassed' through a few properties and fields and paddocks and so forth while Lisa showed me where her and the mates used to cause trouble back in the day. Lisa and her older brothers put this swing up umpteen years ago and it's still there today, although it's looking a little worse for wear and I wasn't keen to test-drive it.

 
By this stage we were right up the hill on the northern edge of town. Aside from the great views there were several wild deer running around down the bottom of this paddock (that I couldn't get a decent shot of) - bloody cool!

 
On Saturday afternoon we headed 15kms north to Luss, a little village on the west bank of Loch Lomond.

Loch Lomond is Scotland's largest freshwater loch. At 40kms long and 8kms wide, she's one big mother, second only in size to Loch Ness (the one with the monster).

 
 
The sign doesn't say anything about not jumping off it ;)

 
 

"Are you taking a shot of my ass?!"
"No" ;)

 
 
July or not, I wasn't getting in there (it's not exactly the Gold Coast), but a few of the hardened locals were lapping it up, including this chick who floated past in her jeans and t-shirt hahaha.
 
 
After a few hours of soaking up the rays and searching hopelessly for a cell phone that was left in the disabled toilets (but that's another story), we caught the bus another 15kms up the road to Arrochar, another small village on the head of Loch Long just round from Lomond. This was to be our camp site for the night, but not in the local camping grounds - that'd be too easy. We found a sweet patch off the road out of town right down on the shore of the loch and set up there - nice!

 
 
After a big slab of animal for dinner we tried in vein to get a decent fire cranking to toast a few marshmallows but couldn't find any dead dry wood - bugger! We got a good view over the loch though :)

 
 
These were the views the following morning - nice! The white building across the loch on the right was apparently an old torpedo holding for the Navy once upon a time but is now abandoned. Thirty minutes after I took this shot...
 
...this happened hahaha - that building went up in smoke!

 
I've got no idea how this started, and before long there were a lot of boats on the water coming up for a nosey (I wanted to do the same!).
  
Arrochar is right in the middle of nowhere, and it took another thirty minutes just for the first fire engine to scream past on the road above our little camp site.

 
 
Fire or not, life went on over the loch. Fishing, water skiing, throwing boulders into the water, etc.
 
From a lost cell phone to broken sunglasses, the weekend wasn't all good ;)

 
We'd had pretty good weather all weekend, until Sunday afternoon when it all reverted back to its usual self.
 
 
The rain helped with the fire (which was still burning three hours later), but we headed for home.
 
These were the vistas from the train en route back to Glasgow - bloody stunning! I'll hopefully be back up this way before long :)

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Page Comments

Well these days you would be lucky to find anythng in that park.. whats happened to it?? But come on that swing was great in more ways then one hehehe..
- Lisa
very nice pics and comments good ? that bloody swing !!!!!!! has caused so many accidents ? ive even threatened to cut the bugger down lol oh for the delapitated swing park !!!!!!! many a happy evening spent there finding my boys with there girlfriends ha ha after the ardencaple youth club!!!!!!
- nancy mouat
I gave it the Glaswegian treatment ;)
- Aaron
My god what have you done to your head
- Davydd
Yeah i'm sure i will since you have been so nice in replacing my stuff.... :) But i think next time i'm leaving everything at home... hahaha
- lisa
HAHAHAHAHAHA
- Jen
Oh and Lisa, if you happen to lose my £250 phone or £150 Oakleys, I'm sure you'll be replacing them too, so think nothing of it :p
- Aaron
Hehehe yeah, great first trip.
The phone thing was bad enough - curiosity always gets me and the random cord I noticed while getting changed in the disabled dunnies was too much to resist; next thing alarms are blearing and we're bolting hahaha!! Then just hours later I write her sunnies off good and proper hahaha, shit!! They fell out of my jacket pocket when I lost my balance edging down from the roadside, next thing they had 70kgs on top of them and I could see it all about to happen too but when you've lost your balance the feet just tend to go wherever they can!! Man the look on my face must've been priceless...
- Aaron
Hahahahaha good u've got him well trained, well done girl ;)
- Jen
Well the phone was both our fault, Aaron was playing with the cord in the disabled toilet and the alarm went off and i ran leaving my phone behind :( :( so that was all good.. Then off we went to Arrochar finding a spot to set up camp, found one but a bit stoney so off i went handing my sunglasses to Aaron to hold for me so on my return that is how i was handed them back. Apparently he slipped going down the hill and stood on them.. But all is good he took me shopping and replaced both items.. :) :) :) aint he sweet:) :)
- Lisa
So what's the story bout the phone and glasses? Not cool to break ur girlfriends stuff the first trip away together ;)
- Jen
yea.. u always break ppls shit!! :) u shitwrecker! bah hahahah :)
- charlot
Amen to that - roll on Spain for the real summer sun :D
- Jen
An hour of sun is rare in this bloody place, let alone 72...
- Aaron
What do you expect for the park.. The 72 hours of sunshine we got is very rare so when it is here need to enjoy anyway possible... ;)
- lisa
I think a change of subject is in order........... puppies
- Grossed out
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ur tha Sicko, u rapist!!!!
- charlot
Can't put those photos up :p

Nah you people are sicko's!! SICKO'S!!
- Aaron
Nah he's the paedophile at the kindy :P
- just jokes
arent you the rapist in the park?
- charlot
Sounds like Glasgow is finally growing on u Aaron ;)
Davydd if u wanna see a badger u need to be walking in the woods @ night too see them ;)
- Jen
There are lots of foxes in Greenwich the one that lives near me and Gavin has been named 'Old Bailey', I see them all the time they are wily little creatures to say the least haha. I want to see a badger still!
- Davydd
Croatia looks nice - at least u cant mess up accommodation if your camping ;)
Yay for Spain in a month - off for lunch in the rareness of Scottish Sun :D
- Jen
lol it's not just Dublin St, its every street in Edinburgh from what I can gather ;)
- Jen
Yeah Dublin Street, it's a bloody disgrace. Dickheads insist on putting their rubbish bags out days in advance of collection and the pigeons and gulls (and apparently foxes) etc have a field day with it, and next thing half the street is covered in shit!!
- Aaron
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hahaha my grandparents get foxes in their garden down in Newcastle - they come from the woods across the road, seem to like their pet cemetary up the garden and the compost bin; given the rubbish on that road sometimes must be what that fox was looking for - its dinner ;)
- Jen
yeah realised that as I was pressing Add Comment - told u Monday was a bad bad day for me :P
- Jen
It's spelt 'there'. Dickhead :p
- Aaron
hahahaha I thought I saw one off their before - after all the stick u give me about knowing where things are still amazed u asked ;)
- Jen
You told me there was one off Easter Road. How'd you know that if you don't need one??
- Aaron
wooh there boy - I told you there wasn't one on Leith Road so dont get all snarky with me :P
- Jen
I didn’t ask you for directions, I asked you whether you knew if there was one down Leith Walk, and that was about 10 minutes before I eventually found one with a half-decent air pump. And the reason I asked you is because you've walked that road every day for the last however many months and so it stands to reason you could've at least once possibly seen a gas station in passing - regardless of whether you need one. Dickhead.
- Aaron
@ what point in your hour and a half search did you ask me for directions to a garage - note for future ref: dont ask someone who doesnt need the usage of a garage ;)
Glad you got some extra kms onthe bike tho ;)
- Jen
Dude,

That game SUCKED>>>> where was the tries we love to see nz score.. sooooo hungover today... hope your having fun... went into brisbane city was madddddd and so evil... had soooo much fun... have fun over there.. in 2 years I could be over there after I finish uni

- Kirsty
It was glorious sunshine Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening - thought you would have been out on that expensive bike of yours ;)
Today looks a little promising out there
- Jen
Sunny week?? Hasn't been sunny in Glasgow - it's been shitty everyday.
- Aaron
OMG has your sunny week been so quiet you've resorted to email forwards ;)
- Jen