Reflection #3: bedtime experience: the British are still in the Stone Age. Now in the "diss the country that has received you so well" section I'll talk about two details that make sleeping in the UK and Ireland quite a hard experience. The first one is that in those countries that wonderful invention that we Latin Americans call "persiana" (a roll made of wooden bars which slides to cover the windows and completely blocks the entrance of light to the bedroom) hasn't been discovered yet. As a result, they are left to make themselves happy with curtains, just simple common curtains that let in full rays of light which made that I could barely sleep past 6:30 a.m., no matter if I had gone to bed at 2:00 a.m. The other discovery that hasn't been made in those lands are the sheets. Instead, they use a hideous thick rough thing full of some weird stuffing which's name I don't remember and that makes you sweat like you were rowing in a trirreme in the Mediterranean (and that produces that sort of nightmares). The only way to try to find some balance is leaving half your body exposed to the cold temperatures of the British nights and the other half boiling under that abomination of a blanket.
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- 14/4: Windermere:A van picked me up at the guest house for a day tour through the very scenic Lake District National Park. It's surprising how such small mountains can still stop the clouds and generate different microclimates in the valleys in between them. We even saw a few snow-capped mountains. We visited 9 of the 10 big lakes of the National Park (the road to the 10th one was closed) and took a ride on a boat through one of them.
Casterligg Stone Circle, a very ancient circle of stones on top of a hill, like a mini Stonehenge
Beautiful landscape
On the boatMore beautiful landscapeIt called my attention that the person in charge of embarking passengers, checking the tickets and mooring the boat whenever it reached a dock was a really old lady, thin, a bit hunched and of fragile appearance. However, she managed to perform her tasks with remarkable efficiency. When we got on the boat many of us wanted to go out to the uncovered part of the vessel but couldn't open the door in spite of taking turns to try. Upon seeing this, the old lady asked the small crowd that had gathered infront of the door to make way for her so the crowd split. I thought "
well, she has the keys". No. She reached the door and "BOOOOOM!!!", applied a surprisingly violent kick with her feet to it and opened it wide. Then she turned around with bored expression and started walking back to the front of the boat. There was a second of silence -probably caused by awe- and then a general laughter was heard all through the ship.
I was disappointed to find out daffodils are not dinosaurs but these yellow flowers. I think this is Derwent Water but I couldn't swear for my life
A pass in the mountainsWe had lunch in Keswick. I made friends with two Americans and I was delighted to find out I could chat with them during hours understanding every single word they said -and being understood as well!-. Maybe the English they teach us here is the American version. They were coming from Edinburgh and warned me I'd struggle with the Scottish accent. I also made friends with a guy from Sheffield but I cannot say the same about understanding his accent that well though.
On the way back we stopped at Ambleside and saw the poet William Wordsworth's tombOnce the tour was over I still had time for a walk to Bowness and the pier down Lake Windermere. At night I went for some beers and something remarkable happened: the bar had a good amount of Liverpool fans watching the game against Borussia Dortmund. I was happy that the German side was winning easily 3-1 since I kind of support them because my ancestor Karl-August who gives me my surname came from that area. Suddenly "
yessss!"... 3-2, then 3-3 but still BVB advanced... and in stoppage time "
YEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!" the bar exploded and went nuts with Lovren's winning goal completing the heroic comeback: 4-3. In the middle of the celebrations a musician picked up an electric guitar and played "You'll never walk alone" (Liverpool FC's anthem) and all the bar was singing along with him, it was just epic (in spite of BVB's frustrating meltdown). I regretted so much having left my cell phone charging because I couldn't film that amazing scene.
skyclad1904 I bet you were happy about this.
- 15/4: Windermere - Edinburgh: I came out unscathed of the risky experience of a full English breakfast before my awesome hosts at the guest house took me in their car to the train station and said goodbye to me there. Because no common tickets were left when I tried to book I was forced to travel in 1st class from Oxenholme to Edinburgh.
Me: "so you usually have breakfast with all these things?"
Host at the guest house: "Not even crazy, you die at 60 if you do""
How did I get here, again?"
I arrived in Scotland's capital before check-in time so I stopped at a Subway. As you might know, this chain makes personalized sandwiches, putting into them whatever you request. Trouble is I couldn't understand a single word of what my vendor was offering me no matter how many times I said "
sorry?"... "
excuse me?"... so I got fed up and said "yes" to everything, even when the questions weren't suitable to be answered by a "yes". The resulting sandwich was a massive mix of many random ingredients that was so overloaded with them that I could barely open my mouth enough to eat it, but it did the trick (even if my undefined "yeses" ended up costing a small extra fee).
Edinburgh is a beautiful city from an architectural point of view. It's all made of stone, yet it's buildings are quite high, so it's visually attractive and quite imposing.
I checked in at the hotel, took a short but great nap and spent an afternoon-evening-night full of activity:
1) To the castle. It didn't blow my mind, in spite of it's history what you find now didn't look too authentic to me. Too much makeup for tourism.
2) Bus sightseeing tour. Full loop.
3) Walk through the city center. Among several other things, St. Giles Cathedral.
My older sister is a mad dog lover (no, "Mad Dog" is not a guy) and a certified dog trainer. She's been in love with Greyfriars Bobby's story since we were kids and she used to watch the movie thousands of times. I wasn't even aware it had happened in Edinburgh, but when I came across the statue of the dog during the bus tour I thought "
I really should come back here". I did, took a photo of the statue and the bar and sent it to my family's WhatsApp group. I could have sent a photo of me on the moon and the reaction of my sisters and mother wouldn't have been of such excitement, desbelief, happiness and envy. I also bought a magnet of Bobby for my older sister. Again, best present she could ever have had.
The photo that unchained madness in my family4) Ghost bus tour: this was a laugh. Very well done. The guide was a top-notch actor. On the walk through the cemetery I could swear 90% of the people were crapped to their legs. The group was big but walked so tight it would have been ridiculous by daylight.
5) Dinner at a restaurant: as soon as I realized the waiter was a native Italian I switched to that language, taking advantage of the rare opportunity to practice it. We chatted during all of my dinner. He was from Napoli so some subjects were inevitable: football, Napoli FC, Higuain and, of course, Maradona, who is almost a god in that city. I was flattered about him praising my Italian (which is probably better than my English
).
6) Went to a few night clubs in Grassmarket. I was a bit disappointed with the nightlife here, I was expecting a bigger thing with more movement and options, particularly being a Friday, but then again Edinburgh is not such a big city so as to expect that.
In the center of the Castle. It didn't do much to me...
...but Edinburgh has great buildings