back in scotland.

We flew back to scotland last night at like 11. The ryan air airport is about an hour out of scotland, so we hopped a bus back to the city center. From there we caught a cab to our hotel. 

The hotel we are staying at is in the small town of langbank. its pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but its beautiful here, and very comfortable for the last 2 days of the trip.

So spain was amazing. Even when it rained it was awesome. 

The last night we were there gabi took us out to party. We started with some delicious vegan food from some place called juicy jones. From there we met up with some of our new friends,  headed out to a couple of bars, and drank some garbage beers. we called them garbage beers because you buy them from the indian guys on the street and they hide them in the garbage when the cops come around. needless to say, you have to wipe them off before you drink them. After more garbage beers than is healthy, we ended up at some 80's dance club that gabi got us guest listed to. Thankfully we had plenty of garbage beers because when i went to go buy a drink at the club, they charged me 10 euros for a shot of jameson.... Around 2 or 3 gregor and gabi went home, and i stayed out for a few more hours with my new spanish friends.

 Its crazy how differently people treat you when you are with a local. when we were alone people stared at us and were quite unfriendly, but when hanging out with locals people were super nice and wanted to talk to us.

 The next day, we woke up late and had lunch with gabi before heading off to the airport. 

I've been trying to post pictures on here but for some reason it is giving me trouble. Ill try again later.

home on tuesday, now im off to the pool. 

see everyone soon.

Barcelona

Barcelona is amazing, I was a little sketched out when we flew in because everyone has told me horror stories of getting mugged, pick pocketed, and other horrific events taking place. So far its been amazing.

Day one.

we rolled in late, got on the train and decided to wait till we got to gabi´s house before getting food. Big mistake. Nothing was open, so we chatted with gabi for a bit and then passed out hungry.

Day two.

Gregor and I rolled out of bed pretty early and made it to the city center by about 10. We decided to be actual tourists and do one of those silly bus tours on the double decker bus, which was actually a pretty good decision. Im not sure how they work other places but here there are like a million of them and they leave from stops around the city every 5 minutes, so you can get off and do your thing, then just get back on. The first stop that we got off at was the sagrada familia, which is the huge church that gaudi designed and never lived to see finished (if you google barcelona it will probably be the first picture to show up), that building is amazing and I love the fact that it is funded purely by donations. I guess thats why after 130 years of construction its only %60 percent finished! Thats right, I learned something!

From the sagrada familia we walked over to a really sketchy public market in a pretty ghetto area. It smelled like shit, was crowded as hell, but I absolutley loved it. The craziest people ever, selling litterally garbage! It kinda made me feel like i was back home at a swapmeet, but far weirder.

After rummaging around in garbage for a bit it was lunch time, which of course ment that we needed to walk to the beach and get paella. Now that i think about it, i didnt wash my hands between the garbage meet and lunch....gross.

we later met up with gabi and went to a "very spanish" bar to watch the Barcelona FC/milan game. I was stoked when we rolled up to the bar and I saw that it was just some sketchy, small, neighborhood tapas bar. We drank lots of beer, ate some delicious "real tapas" and watched a pretty boring match (0-0). Eats: garlic potatos, sauteed mushrooms, almonds, deep fried sardine like fish, and then the same fish raw on crostoni with EVO.

The thing I was most impressed with was it was totally one of those bars that the customers have been comming to for years and years, everyone knew eachother, there was an old man behind the bar and an even older woman making the tapas. It had far more character than any other place i´ve been since leaving the states.

Day 3

Today was supposed to beach day but barcelona decided to shit all over that idea. when we left the house it was beautiful and probably 75 or 80. When we finally got to the beach it was cloudy and still kinda warm, so I decided to go for it and jump in the water. The water was warm, and the waves were big. There was one problem and that was the disgusting maxi pads and used condoms floating around everywhere. By the time I got out of the water (gregor was smart enough to wait a few minutes before getting in) the clouds had rolled in and it started raining.

Right now we are sitting at gabi´s house waiting for the rain to pass so we can go out tonight and see the city all lit up at night.

See everyone soon.

p.s. im writing this on a spanish keyboard so pardon any mistakes.

Goodbye scotland

Yesterday was pretty much a chore day, We drove back from ediburgh to return the rental car (which broke down as we pulled into the parking lot). From there we took a train to this small town called ayr and decided that we deserved an actual hotel room for a night. We pretty much had a mellow night, got some pizza(which sucks ass over here), and watched half a movie before passing out in our comfortable hotel beds.

Today is the last real day in scotland before we head to spain. I have to say, I dont usually fall in love with places but, this place has certainly taken a piece of my heart. The people here are all SUPER friendly, The country is beautiful, and you can get a breakfast that consists of beans, toast, eggs, a fried tomato, sausage, haggis, bacon, black pudding, and potato scone for 6 pounds! I also really enjoy that the old men here call us lads. 

I could certainly see myself moving to edinburgh for a few months at some point. 

I can definitely say thought, that i will not miss almost getting hit by cars every time i cross the street because i looked the wrong way. 

So off to spain, macgregor and i will be staying with my friend Gabi. We will be there for 4 nights before we return to glasgow to make the trip back over the pond. Hopefully this time tomorrow we will be gorging on pork, olives and seafood. 

I miss pizza, mexican food, pho and serafina muscles. Is it weird that I have actually been dreaming about serafina food? I will definitely be stuffing my face full of all of those things the minute I get home. 

see you all soon.

Kyle!

Last day in edinburgh

Hello all.

So today is our last day in Edinburgh, and im actually kinda sad that we are leaving. This city is super pretty, the people are amazing and it seems like there is always something too do. I kinda feel like im at home when im here, which is certainly a reason to be excited to leave. We are about to enter the part of the trip that im much more excited about. 

Last night we drove down to sheffield to see ON play. It was really nice to see some seattle faces, but the drive was brutal. We didnt end up getting back to the hostel till 6 am, and poor Macgregor drove the whole way home. Needless to say, he is quite tired and still sleeping.

I think we will head out of Edinburg here in a few hours, go return our rental car and find a way back to the hostel to relax today before we fly to spain tomorrow.

OH! My bank card broke the other day so today I get to run around and be a big ball of stress trying to figure out how I can get money before spain. if it comes down to it i might just have to wire money to myself? this has never happened to me so im not really sure what to do. Im sure ill figure it out.

Only one week left....

See you all soon. 

Kyle!

Sitting in the common room at the hostel, random eastern european dude took over the music.

Playlist so far:

Dead kennedys 

cocksbarrer

joy division

nirvana

the clash

bad brains

pretty sure im the only one in the room who is stoked.

Really wanted to be his friend, but he doesnt speak a word of english.

ok, he just followed it up with the cure and x-ray spex. I officially have a man crush on this dude.

jawbreaker in the park

Morning everyone. 

its 11:30 and i'm still kinda drunk from last night, but it was well worth it.

So yesterday Gregor and I drove (he drove) 8 hours up to the north western tip of scotland, only to find out that the ferry going to kirkwall was 150 pounds each way....needless to say we didnt end up going to highland park. The trip was beautiful and well worth it, but after nearly 16 hours in a car we were definitely happy to get back to the hostel and have a nap. 

After napping for a few hours we met up with one of the americans that we met here, and headed out to go chill. we ended up at what is called a maxwell sharp party, which is basically a bunch of kids hanging out in a part with a boombox and a bunch of alcohol, each person has an ipod and you take turns picking a single song to play on the boombox, one of the kids that was there was some pseudo core kid who had a ton of good shit on his ipod, by the end of the night it turned into us blasting jawbreaker and dancing around with about 10 other kids. Not quite sure what time i stumbled home but i think it was pretty late.

Today we are just relaxing and taking it easy for the most part, we head to spain in a few days, im pretty excited for that.

we have some pretty amazing photos from yesterday, that i will post later.

see you all in 10 days.

kyle

Hangovers dont exist in scotland

I've some how managed to get pretty close to black out drunk twice on this trip and wake up without a hangover.

last night was awesome.

After wandering around edinburgh for a while we went back to the hostel and met some american girl who was living there and knew about some hipster dance party show in the city. 

Gregor wasnt really feeling too well so he stayed in and i went out and got totally wasted with her and a few scots. By the way, scots are not the drinkers i thought they would be, after like 5 beers they were fall down drunk!  

The show was awesome, the bands were obviously ripping off minus the bear, but it made me feel at home for a little while. 

After some serious goofin, i went back to the hostel and passed out.

now we are on our way up to kirkwall (super far north), and are enjoying some delicious scottish breakfast.

haggis is delicious.

love, kyle