All Sorts of Random

Last weekend was one of the more bizarre, funny weekends I have had in a long time.  My friend Ellie came to London to visit and we took a trip to Edinburgh.  Hilarity ensued.  I'm not sure it will seem as funny to everyone else, but we had a blast.

It was a weekend that almost didn't happen.  Ellie's flight was delayed by 5 hours due to mechanical problems (just what you want to hear before getting on an international flight --- especially when the pilot refuses to fly because he doesn’t believe that the mechanic fixed it!).  She was slated to get in around 8:30am, but didn’t get in until after 1pm and our flight was at 3pm.  By a happy twist of fate, I booked our trip out of Heathrow, so we made our flight, but Ellie had to haul all of her luggage to Scotland and back.

Ellie hadn’t slept much and I had a long week, so Friday was a pretty tame night.  Dinner and drinks in Edinburgh and then in bed early.  Thank God that we did because we were woken up at 5am by seagulls.  Yes, seagulls.  Someone had knocked over the dumpster in the alley and all the seagulls were having an all-you-can-eat fest out of it.  It went on for what felt like hours.  Just as the rest of them died down, there was one that sounded like a dying cat that would start back up and rile everyone back up.  I was ready to kill said seagulls, but I saw the movie “The Birds” and I was definitely outnumbered.

Saturday, we got up and went to Edinburgh Castle. 

We got lucky and had remarkable weather.  I feel bad that my Mom didn’t get to see Edinburgh when it was nice.  As I wrote in my post, it poured most of the weekend we were there and was really foggy, so Mom didn’t get to see the great views of Edinburgh. 

Ellie relaxing at the Castle

 My attempt at panoramic.  It's a little small.

After the Castle, we grabbed lunch at a little cafe and people watched for a little while (one of my favorite pastimes).  

I promise.  We did eat.

There happened to be a stag (aka bachelor) party at one of the tables next to us.  They were all dressed up in weird costumes.

I didn't get a picture of the groom.  His costume was not PG-rated.

The leopard print one was probably the most interesting because it had a deep-V back, but it also covered his entire hand.  It was so warm out that he must have been sweating his butt off.  He tried to quench it with beer, but they all got cut off by the waitress, so they left for greener pastures.  We later saw the leopard dude walking down the street.  Ellie asked where the rest of his friends were.  We couldn’t *really* tell what he said (damn Scottish accents are so thick!), but it was pretty obvious he had no idea where the rest of the crew was.

After shopping around (Mom, we went back to that little shop where the shopkeeper hugged you --- no hug this time), we decided to go back to our hotel and relax a bit before going to dinner.  After dinner, we decided to go back to our hotel and have a drink at the hotel bar.  The bartenders were supposed to be these phenomenal mixologists, so we decided to give it a whirl.  Our intent was to have one last drink and then go to bed.  Yeah, well…that was the intent.

As we were waiting for our drinks, two guys came up and started talking to us.  We subsequently found out their names were Gordon and Peter.  They were humorous and they found us very entertaining (but, of course!). 

Bit of a side note here (I promise, it is relevant to the overall story).  Ellie had been really busy with work and such and hadn’t done any planning before she came over the pond.  The one thing she did do was check to see if she could get to pro shop at Muirfield to buy a golf shirt for her dad.  For those who don’t know what Muirfield is, it is a super exclusive golf course in Scotland.  It is home to the British Open this year.  So, Ellie found out that they don’t have a pro shop, so gave up the idea of going out there.

So, back to the story.  As we were talking to Gordon and Peter, we find out that Gordon is a part-time pro caddy at Muirfield.  No kidding!  We thought Gordon was feeding us a line, but he convinced that he truly was a caddy there.  How random is that?!?

Anyway, they asked us to go with them to some pub to listen to some traditional Scottish music.  Sandy Bell’s is a small Scottish pub with live music most days.  Unlike in other bars where they might be on a stage or something, they were just in the corner booth by the bathroom playing.  I missed the sign that said “don’t take pictures of the musicians without their approval” (it was this big), so I got the death stare from one of the fiddle players.  

The girl in the striped shirt hates me.

Oops…my bad.

Throughout the night, Gordon became fascinated with Ellie’s green jacket.  He thought it was the closest thing that he would get to wear the real green jacket, so he put it on.  

Ellie and Gordon at Sandy Bell's.

I’m not sure where he got the sunglasses, but I think they were from some random girl at the bar.

After Sandy Bell’s, we went back towards our hotel and ended up at a bar called Fingers.  Horrible name for a bar, but it is a piano bar that reminded me of Howl at the Moon.  It was crowded when we got there and just got packed.  We hung out to the wee hours there until we determined we needed to go to bed.  Gordon and Peter went on their way and Ellie and I crashed.

For those that were keeping track, we had wine, cider, more wine, hard alcohol, then beer, beer, beer.  Not a genius move on our side.  Thankfully, there were no seagulls on Sunday morning because neither of us was up for it.  I felt better than I had any right to, but I definitely had better days.

Anyway, the night before, Gordon had volunteered to take us to Muirfield.  We didn’t really think he was serious, but then I started getting texts at 9am asking when he should pick us up.  Ellie and I regrouped with the help of coffee and Diet Coke and met up with Gordon. 

Gordon wasn’t feeling so hot either, but he ended up being a stellar host.  He proceeded to take us to the countryside of Scotland.  He took us to the one pro shop that sells Muirfield items.  Then, he took us to Muirfield.

Their subtle "Keep Out" sign

Part of the clubhouse

I don’t think we were supposed to be on the grounds (especially since we are women) and I hope Gordon didn’t get in trouble, but it was cool to see the course and the set up for the British Open.

After Muirfield, we went to the North Berwick golf course, to which Gordon belongs.  

 

 We were a little windblown, but it was nice out.

He was so nice that he even bought “the lunatic girls from the States” baseball caps from his club so we could remember the trip and then he brought us to lunch at his posh club where I proceeded to eat a couple bites of prime rib (the first beef I think I’ve had in 20 years) because I didn’t want to be rude.  Probably not the best idea, but I managed to keep it down (barely).  I was pretty quiet the rest of the trip because I was taking deep breaths in the back of the car, but I think Gordon chalked it up to being hung-over.

For a day that started out somewhat grim (through our fault/stupidity, I grant you), it turned out to be pretty nice.  I’m so glad we resisted the urge to cancel.  We had so much fun and we got to see parts of Scotland that we wouldn’t have seen if we stayed in downtown Edinburgh.  

 Rapeseed fields - you can make oil out of it.

 Elementary school event.  Not sure what it was, though.

When Gordon dropped us off at the airport (seriously!  He spent the whole day with us and then drove us to the airport!), he encouraged us to spread the word about Edinburgh.  I definitely will.  Kelly & Stein, you have a tour guide when you go!