Scotland The First

Cutting together the video for Scotland reinforced how much was packed into the short, short, short slightly-more-than-a-week that I was there. It was well enough time to fall deeply in love. In some ways Scotland (and Glasgow in particular) combined everything I miss from Chicago with everything I love about New England. More on that, along with video and a few introductory photos, after the jump! With more posts probably to come! I Don't Really Know What I'm Doing!™

Yr humble narrator, alighting from his TARDIS to explore the mean streets of Glasgow

 Totally missing from this video: Anne Trodden, my Edinburgh host and delightful friend, from whom I was almost entirely distracted by her baby and/or delicious food the entire time we spent together. SORRY ANNNNNNE

OK, so this split I'm talking about is this: I loved being in a place full of unpretentious, self-depricating, generous, collaborative and fun people whose first instinct is to laugh and be friendly, in comparatively affordable cities, with just an hour or two's driving to get to Honest To God Wilderness. I only sampled a fragment of the latter - the gentle countryside, not the highlands or the islands, but what I got was enough to convince me that my next trip will be sooner than later. In general, the city/nature balance here was as close to perfect as I've gotten on this trip! Wowzers, innit?

I feel, as a total neophyte, like the Wellington Cone is the best kind of nickel-summary of what I love about Glasgow. Nineteenth-century art that people keep sticking a traffic cone on because they think it's funny and they like irritating the local authorities. (The city considered elevating the monument to make it even harder to pull this stunt off and there was public outcry against the proposal. That is a magnificent city right there.)

And of course the other piece to the puzzle was being around friends. FRIENDS! The heroes of all my narratives! Sarah and Anne are dear dear pals going back (WAY back in Sarah's case - we realized we've been friends for 15 years, rapidly approaching half of my actual life) and as was the case in Bristol, getting time with people who know me well and their friends, who despite just meeting me seemed to think I was An Okay Dude, was balm for my weary a-travelin' soul. More about that and the specific charm and magic of Glasgow and Edinburgh in upcoming posts! For now I gotta get back out into sunny, gorgeous, near-perfect-if-slightly-expensive Copenhagen! Copenhagen: The Scotland of Denmark? (I have not slept recently, no.)

Edinburgh at night, after a day spent with some of the best people, old and new. I'm a lucky cat, I am.