The flight back to Europe gone by quicker than I thought. Arriving at Glasgow felt almost like home as I didn’t need my passport and I couldn’t even get it stamped. The bus took me into town where I checked into a small crowded and moist dorm room in the cellar with a large patch of mould in a corner. Taking a shower I was again reminded about that weird thing that somehow the British have been left in a time-space-warp that causes them to use completely illogical faucet/tap systems with separate hot and cold water supplies, but no way to mix them. Except in your hand maybe. With boiling water. Brilliant. I wonder when they travel to foreign countries and return and why they don’t tell people — “Listen, I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe… they’ve got some sort of mixing apparatus for cold and warm water! It’s simple and ingenious!” Come on, it’s not rocket science, really.
There was enough time to take a stroll through the city with all its cute little buildings and victorian style houses. I could obtain a new SIM card, which turned out to defective (after I spent several hours fixing my phone, reflashing every firmware available). I got a new one at a different shop and that one worked right away. My new UK number: 07507219949.
In the afternoon, the jetlag finally knocked me out and I slept for a few hours before heading out to a pub in West End, which was quite relaxing. The next day I visited the School of Arts and learned a lot about Macintosh how seemed to be a big player at that time. Interesting, but not too impressive. Found it a bit annoying that you weren’t allowed to take any photos.
Passing by an old arthouse cinema I thought I’d give it a chance and watched the movie Samsara. It was a bit like Koyaanisqatsi, presenting different scenes from all over the world. It was completely filmed on wide-angle 70mm and each scene (time lapse or normal speed) has an amazingly high resolution. For the visuals, I would give the movie 10/10, but the audio track, compared to Koyaanisqatsi was just average. Still it was funny to see several beautiful places such as Mesa Verde or the Antilope Canyon I’ve been before in a movie.
Not much else happened. I went to a pub and got talking to a good-looking girl at the bar who invited me to their table. She was accompanied by a few work collegues including a hot russian model who introduced me into her version of what to think of the current situation in Russia and Pussy Riot. She doesn’t support the theory that BadThings(TM) are happening back there and everything is fine. I tend to disagree.
It was finally time to obtain my rental car and explore the Highlands. The last time I had been using stick shift was Australia in December. Since I left New Zealand all driving was on the right side of the road. I had no navigation nor human support. The first day driving was a bit adventurous and twice I had picked the wrong side after a turn. But no accidents yet, yay!
The road took me to Loch Lomond where I had planned to climb Ben Lomond. Although I had been on Ben Lomond twice before, that was in New Zealand rather than in Scotland. The hike took me through some low woods and shrubberies before it continued onto open grassy plains with the Loch in view behind me. About half way, the low hanging clouds started covering any view and the rest of the hike was grey, wet and chilly. On the summit there was nothing to see except for the various sheep that seemed to prefer the lush grass. I went back down with the sky occasionally clearing for a few moments and continued on my way to Inveraray.
On the way the weather stayed grey and wet, passing the fine Loch Fyne. In the evening, as it was Friday, I visited the almost only pub in Inveraray — at least the George Hotel was the only one where people would go to. It was packed and later on, there was a guy doing some live music to my appeal. I bought his CD (only to find it cracked and broke in my pocket a couple of days later).
The next day would slowly take me further through the Highlands to Fort William…
