Scotland

So, sure its out of order, but I figure the extra day added onto the Belgium / Amsterdam memory won't hurt much, and getting the Scotland details down was more important. Well, details may be a stretch. It was just that sort of an excellent trip. And luckily I took great photographic evidence of the best night of the trip.

So first, no offense here ladies, but sometimes it is really nice to be able to take a trip with just the fellahs. We book the train to Edinburgh, and the train back from Glasgow, and nothing else. Heck, one of the guys didn't even do that much, he just showed up later that day. Kinda just called hostels on our way there and got rooms. Cheap rooms. But the real point is that road trips (or train trips, or any largely un-planned travel trip) with a small group of guys almost always have an epic day or two, and ALWAYS end up with about 4 or 5 key phrases that define the trip, so much so that by the end of the trip, we're reduced to communicating solely in those four or five phrases. The phrases for us:
* "Ayo, tired of usin technology" (from the song by 50 cent)
* "Downstairs was aweSOME" (with aweSOME said in that high pitched type voice where the guy inevitably makes a weird face usually shrugging his shoulders and looking up while squinting his eyes, the type of voice typically reserved for situations where you're trying to convey a blase demeanor about what you're describing, and then giving in at the end to reveal the true awesomeness of the situation.) Also, sub in any other word for downstairs as the weekend went on.
* "Shhhh, this time, don't tell him he looks like a Viking." This one was told to us by our boy's friend in St. Andrew's who was showing us around. Previously when we approached the bar, the bartender told us the place was closed, and one of our guys mentioned that the bartender looked like a Viking because of his totally sweet beard. I'm not really sure of the temporal order of the events, or the causal chain, but our hostess was convinced that the bar had closed for us because of our compliment to the man's facial hair. Needless to say, on the second try, the bar had not magically re-opened. Vikings have good memories. And they also know that time usually doesn't go backwards.
* "No, no guys, settle down. Its cool, Harry Potter just punches like a pussy." This was the brilliant line uttered by our boy after Steve got *punched* in the face in St. Andrew's by some prick from the northeast. Predictably he was a spoiled brat who hadn't gotten into the Ivies, and his parents had purchased his way into this school across the pond. Anyway, he had left the room after a funny comment was made about his friend's salmon (or as he claimed, Nantucket Red -- a great crayola informed debate had ensued about 15 minutes prior) pants. He then returned about 5 minutes later with a weird grin on his face, went over to Steve, and sucker-punched him in the face knocking his glasses off. Except it was the weakest punch ever, because Steve didn't even know if the guy was serious or not until he ran away. Yes, he ran away. So as shit was about to go down in this girl's apartment, this phrase was uttered to calm things down (the guy looked a bit like Harry Potter).
* "Never gonna give you up; never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you" There's more to this one, but those are the only lyrics I know really. Apparently girls in Scotland love this song, because every time we started singing this, like 4 girls appeared to form an international charity choir with us. The beneficiary of this charity being us of course. But that means the drinks we bought are tax deductable right?

Anyway, this weekend was much more about the stories of the weekend than any of the sights, which were awesome. But just to keep up with the plot of my life I guess, here's the run-down:
Edinburgh -- we checked out this cool castle, and walked up a big hill with an awesome view. We also had some great Scotch and a beer called Belhaven Best. Delicious. We also discovered the greatest drink in the world is called IRN-BRU (pronounced Iron-Brew). Its a cure-all soda-type drink that works especially well on hangovers. I wish it were sold everywhere.
Roslyn -- Obviously, we checked out Roslyn Chapel. The place is pretty interesting. Right now they have a canopy over it to dry out the stone and help preserve it. Anyway, I'm a minor Knight's Templar and Masonic enthusiast, so that part of it appealed to me. Then we watched the Manchester United v. Arsenal game in this pub with two guys that were supposedly speaking English, but I don't believe really were. Scots are aweSOME.
St. Andrew's -- Two of the guys golfed at the oldest golf course in the world. The rest of us just took our picture there. We watched college football on a laptop in a bar (slingbox is... aweSOME), and generally made friends (or enemies as the case may be) with the entire town. St. Andrew's also had IRN-BRU.
Stirling -- We saw a cool castle, learned some about William Wallace and Robert the Bruce (RtB definitely has the cooler name), and watched the Pats - Colts game in an awesome sports bar / dance club with some cute bar maids and a DJ named Stevie who was playing his last night ever. Oh, and we were the only five guys in the bar, watching the game. But it was his last night, so he kept busting out the techno jams for us as we sat literally at the bar to watch the game. Then we applauded for him, and he bought us all drinks at the club we went to after the game ended. Oh, and IRN-BRU is aweSOME.
Glasgow -- We sang the following song, and went to see some building by a famous Architect named Macintosh that we walked right by because it was so ordinarily ugly. We also ate at Burger King. Somehow we didn't end up in a knife fight.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=utsHE5xWges

Sadly I can't embed the youtube link due to embedding being disabled by request, but I highly recommend you check out the Glasgow Diamonds American Football Team music video. It won the best football music video award presented by CBS during the 1987 Super Bowl. Glasgow Diamonds are aweSOME.

Anyway, we ended the trip with five hours of Euchre on the train ride home. Despite everyone making fun of the midwest during the game, they all seemed to like it. Lastly, the book I'm presently reading, Merde Actually, is fairly to mostly awesome. Highly recommended.

I'll post a few pictures when I get the chance.