Japan to Australia via Eastern Europe - Part 32 - Day 28 - Last King (I mean Day) in Scotland
We had a great night sleep again (shock). I decide to get a bit of trashy GMTV action in – where the latest piece of sensationalist news in the UK was about the garbage collectors only collecting every fortnight to make everyone more friendly to the environment or something...
We didn’t leave the guesthouse till after 10:30ish (even though we were checking out that day). We head out to the Royal Museum / National Museum of Scotland which was in two adjoining buildings – but a “combined” museum. The Royal Museum was a little bit like the Questicon in Canberra – a lot of mad kids running around and bashing buttons which makes robots move. I was running around like an idiot too. There was a racing car, some light boat thingy computer, a reaction timing machine (which made me feel a bit f###tarded) and Dolly the Sheep – in all of her taxidermy cloned glory. There was also a cool exhibit on design and technology through the twentieth century. It was sort of interesting that there was this whole “nanna” era of style with bad cheap and tacky china ornaments (you know – the one that your grandma would have all around her house).
We switch across to the Scottish Museum – which was in a way newer and funkier building. This museum was the bloody Disney Land of all things Scottish history. It included prehistory, early man, Vikings and Romans in Scotland, Medieval and the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, Scottish arts, Scottish innovators and whiskey (apparently a Scottish invention – yuk!). It was massive and spanning over 6 floors – although it was probably designed by a psychophrenic bi-polar monkey because it was incredibly hard to follow (in terms of what to look at)... but it was worthwhile. Where else do you get the chance to delve into Scottish history in such a big way (I don’t think they have a Scotland-Land at the gold coast...!).
We jump back across to the Royal Museum where we check out a dodgy old school stuffed animal exhibit – although there were signs everywhere saying that they were trying to update the museum to make it a bit more modern. There was a “modern” funky exhibit on communications which you could play a “mobile phone text dance off game” (as you do).
After finishing up at the museums – Ant decided to make a quick pitstop at the “Museum on the Mound” – a shameless little museum promoting the Royal Bank of Scotland (or RBOS for short) – the very same bank that owns our mortgage provider back in Australia... Ant felt like he was trying to get value for money out of the mortgage or something... There were about 85 guards protecting the crappy museum – which was just shameless self promotion with pretty much nothing of interest to anyone. Nuff said.
We went back to M&S for some more pre-packaged sandwiches. I check out H&V (what is with all these stores in the UK – M&S, H&V, H&M?!) where I spend some of my “can’t use it out of Scotland” Scottish Pounds to buy a few CDs. Just my luck – the woman at the counter didn’t scan one of the CDs so I got a freebie 5 pound CD... Yeah!
We go to another mall – where I buy another freakin CD (to waste my pounds) and Ant buys another t-shirt (yes Imelda Boutros Galli of T-shirts!).
We head back to the guesthouse, grab our bags and make the mile trek back into town to catch the 3 pound airport bus to (you guessed it!) the airport!
It was one of those double decker deals – and Ant (like the school kid he is) wanted to sit up on the top level (just so we couldn’t keep an eye on our bags). The buses in Edinburgh were slightly weird – they all had these “catch phrases” like “Number 47 – Service with a Sparkle!” and “Number 58 – Ace of Spades!” and “Number 43 – Through the Heart of the City”... weirdness.
Strangely on the airport bus – there were heaps of locals getting off at stops on the way. More weirdness...
We checked in at the airport – but weren’t checked in together (eg: seating with one another). The security at the airport was fairly full on – I got petted, wanded and a pants/shoes check special. A truly magical way to end a trip to Scotland. The lounge was a little strange – it wasn’t enclosed off from the rest of the airport (sort of like Dubrovnik airport) – so it had a bit of a grungy vibe to it. Ant got the lounge lady to fix up our seats whilst I was doing some mad searching for Singapore accommodation (we hadn’t booked yet!). And it was proving a little bit harder than first thoughts (the cheap places I had found back in Australia – were “pay by the hour” sort of places).
The flight to Heathrow was delayed by quite a bit. We had to sit on the tarmac for more than 10 mins at Edinburgh then another 10 at Heathrow. Although Ant was impressed that we had a meal on the flight – complete with prawns.
Heathrow is the absolute pits – with low grungy ceilings and crazys everywhere. We catch a bus to Terminal 4 where it seemed a tad more professional than the recent Sydney job.
When we arrive at the lounge – I blog for a bit but our priority was to book a place in Singapore. All of the hotels were proving to be a bit expensivo. I bite the bullet and book One Florenence Close – some newish looking hostel in the burbs of Singapore but near a MRT stop.
Our flight to Singapore was delayed – and the in-board TV systems weren’t working. Ant was having a bit of a bitch about having middle seats (we always get aisle seats). We both try and get a bit of sleep – but Ant sleeps for way longer than I do. I bought a copy of NME – which was fairly pretentious and cruddy (it made TV Week look klassy).
We didn’t leave the guesthouse till after 10:30ish (even though we were checking out that day). We head out to the Royal Museum / National Museum of Scotland which was in two adjoining buildings – but a “combined” museum. The Royal Museum was a little bit like the Questicon in Canberra – a lot of mad kids running around and bashing buttons which makes robots move. I was running around like an idiot too. There was a racing car, some light boat thingy computer, a reaction timing machine (which made me feel a bit f###tarded) and Dolly the Sheep – in all of her taxidermy cloned glory. There was also a cool exhibit on design and technology through the twentieth century. It was sort of interesting that there was this whole “nanna” era of style with bad cheap and tacky china ornaments (you know – the one that your grandma would have all around her house).
We switch across to the Scottish Museum – which was in a way newer and funkier building. This museum was the bloody Disney Land of all things Scottish history. It included prehistory, early man, Vikings and Romans in Scotland, Medieval and the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, Scottish arts, Scottish innovators and whiskey (apparently a Scottish invention – yuk!). It was massive and spanning over 6 floors – although it was probably designed by a psychophrenic bi-polar monkey because it was incredibly hard to follow (in terms of what to look at)... but it was worthwhile. Where else do you get the chance to delve into Scottish history in such a big way (I don’t think they have a Scotland-Land at the gold coast...!).
We jump back across to the Royal Museum where we check out a dodgy old school stuffed animal exhibit – although there were signs everywhere saying that they were trying to update the museum to make it a bit more modern. There was a “modern” funky exhibit on communications which you could play a “mobile phone text dance off game” (as you do).
After finishing up at the museums – Ant decided to make a quick pitstop at the “Museum on the Mound” – a shameless little museum promoting the Royal Bank of Scotland (or RBOS for short) – the very same bank that owns our mortgage provider back in Australia... Ant felt like he was trying to get value for money out of the mortgage or something... There were about 85 guards protecting the crappy museum – which was just shameless self promotion with pretty much nothing of interest to anyone. Nuff said.
We went back to M&S for some more pre-packaged sandwiches. I check out H&V (what is with all these stores in the UK – M&S, H&V, H&M?!) where I spend some of my “can’t use it out of Scotland” Scottish Pounds to buy a few CDs. Just my luck – the woman at the counter didn’t scan one of the CDs so I got a freebie 5 pound CD... Yeah!
We go to another mall – where I buy another freakin CD (to waste my pounds) and Ant buys another t-shirt (yes Imelda Boutros Galli of T-shirts!).
We head back to the guesthouse, grab our bags and make the mile trek back into town to catch the 3 pound airport bus to (you guessed it!) the airport!
It was one of those double decker deals – and Ant (like the school kid he is) wanted to sit up on the top level (just so we couldn’t keep an eye on our bags). The buses in Edinburgh were slightly weird – they all had these “catch phrases” like “Number 47 – Service with a Sparkle!” and “Number 58 – Ace of Spades!” and “Number 43 – Through the Heart of the City”... weirdness.
Strangely on the airport bus – there were heaps of locals getting off at stops on the way. More weirdness...
We checked in at the airport – but weren’t checked in together (eg: seating with one another). The security at the airport was fairly full on – I got petted, wanded and a pants/shoes check special. A truly magical way to end a trip to Scotland. The lounge was a little strange – it wasn’t enclosed off from the rest of the airport (sort of like Dubrovnik airport) – so it had a bit of a grungy vibe to it. Ant got the lounge lady to fix up our seats whilst I was doing some mad searching for Singapore accommodation (we hadn’t booked yet!). And it was proving a little bit harder than first thoughts (the cheap places I had found back in Australia – were “pay by the hour” sort of places).
The flight to Heathrow was delayed by quite a bit. We had to sit on the tarmac for more than 10 mins at Edinburgh then another 10 at Heathrow. Although Ant was impressed that we had a meal on the flight – complete with prawns.
Heathrow is the absolute pits – with low grungy ceilings and crazys everywhere. We catch a bus to Terminal 4 where it seemed a tad more professional than the recent Sydney job.
When we arrive at the lounge – I blog for a bit but our priority was to book a place in Singapore. All of the hotels were proving to be a bit expensivo. I bite the bullet and book One Florenence Close – some newish looking hostel in the burbs of Singapore but near a MRT stop.
Our flight to Singapore was delayed – and the in-board TV systems weren’t working. Ant was having a bit of a bitch about having middle seats (we always get aisle seats). We both try and get a bit of sleep – but Ant sleeps for way longer than I do. I bought a copy of NME – which was fairly pretentious and cruddy (it made TV Week look klassy).
posted by NicknAnt @ 3:23 PM
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