Days 164 to 166 - Ringing in the New Year Northern Hemisphere-style

Day 164 (Wed) On the road again...
From here Mum and Dad were heading to Morocco and I was off to Scotland and would meet up with them on New Year's Day. They left for the airport at the crack of dawn and I hopped on a train to Glasgow. London really does have a well thought out public transport system that’s generally easy to use, and the delays of like … a minute(!) only piss off Londoners cause they’re used to such services. I actually thought when I arrived at Pete and Di's that I was lucky to be arriving so late in Lodnon, not Adelaide, where there would have been no public transport! Anywho, it was a Virgin Train (yes, like the planes) to Glasgow and so was a ‘budget’ service which or course meant they’d overbooked the carriages and there was some freeloader sitting in the seat I’d reserved!!! I stood up for myself and the 20-something looked at me blankly. I was about to have to get all “oi, get outta ma seayt!!” on him when a surprisingly courteous kid in his late teens vacated the seat on the opposite side of the aisle for me – he hadn’t reserved a seat either (see how great this system works, they let people reserve seats and then don’t mark which ones are reserved!). After this little hiccup tho the rest of the ride was really pleasant. I was seated next to a cute old guy wearing a tweed cap who’d packed his own sandwich, kit kat and Ribena fruit box and read the paper (my kinda grandpa!) while I munched on numerous snacks I’d shoved into my backpack at the last minute, read my new ENGLISH NON-TEXT-book, listened to my new ipod (thanks bwetty) and even dozed off for a bit. What I found I enjoyed most though was the view out the window. You could literally see the landscape and the weather change over the 4.5 hours as we headed north. It had been quite mild in London (the weather lady was getting inordinately excited about 8C temperatures :P) so it was a bit sunny as we left and its outer burbs, then onto green rolling hills, then cloudier until a thick fog set in about 2 hours out of Glasgow which made everything look like out of a movie, until it finaly switched to almost all white with ice on the hills and floating in the streams etc which there were more of than I’d expected. Also, its more sheep than I’ve seen in one place since leaving home! Even black sheep which I don’t think I’ve actually seen before :S

We finally pulled into Glasgow central and, looking like the pregnant black turtle from my very first blog entry, I emerged from the train with all my lugga to see two smiling Scottish faces waiting for me on the platform – Katie and Kathleen :) despite the baggage, we wandered for a bit before they took me to, wait for it … drumroll pleeeeaaase… the infamous WALKABOUT bar!! The girl’s have told me many times, with more than a little mirth, about this chain of bars based on the land down under and staffed by bartenders more ocker than me and Sydneysider Nakita put together. Personally I was unimpressed, lol. It felt like an aussie version of a hardrock café! Although it gets points for the crows 1997 premiership poster sporting Darren jarman’s cartoon face on it. And the drinks menu was inventive to say the least – cocktails named “auntie edna’s blue rinse”, “kanga-lusion”, “sex on bondi beach”, “French kiss down under”… you get the gist! And ofcourse the sign to the toilet said “dunnies”. I refused to order a fosters on tap (can you blame me?!) so we had cider and caught up on the whole week and a half since we’d seen each other :P

Katie's dad came to pick us up later and it was a nice drive back to their place which seems to be in the golden grove of Glasgow, all the houses are manicured and similar looking, but obviously older with more character than golden grove!! But a bit far out like GG with the obligatory speed bumps and roundabouts. They’d set up a lovely spare room for me and even had a real chrissie tree. Again, it was so nice to be in a real house again for a bit :)


Day 165 (Thurs) Getting my "fill" of Scotland
Up bright and early for a proper scottish breakfast! Katie’s been talking them up in Maastricht and then there it was in front of me – bacon, lorne(??) sausage, black pudding, white fruit pudding, eggs, toast, juice, tea THE WORKS – and the verdict: lorne sausage – NOT a sausage bc it doesn’t have a skin (don’t listen to crazy Katie try to convince you otherwise!) but still a tasty kind of meat pattie thing with heinz sauce, black pudding not exactly my cup of tea (basically oats and animal blood and very black looking) bit dry but I tried it anyway! And the white pudding was just like a hot cross bun without the bun really, a sort of sultana and oat pattie thing you put in the oven – really tasty.

Fuelled for the day (and more) we hopped on the one-hour train from Glasgow to Edinburgh to join a 3.5-hour walking tour. This took in (in no particular order) the café where the first two harry potter books were written, the school building which inspired hogwarts’ description, the outside view of the imposing Edinburgh castle up on its craggy perch, a couple of tales of gore and murder in the olden days, a cemetery visit (where apparently ole JK nicked a couple ‘o names from toombstones for HP) etc etc. At each corner I found myself turning and exclaiming “oh wow, wats that?”, which must have got a bit tedious for poor Katie but I really found the architecture and layout of the city just beautiful, lots of old, dark gothic towers, rolling hills and green, even some sea water if you looked out far enough.

School that inspired harry potter's hogwarts

But after all that walking it was time for a refuel scot-style (again!). This time – a scotch pie, baked beans, HAGGIS and the infamous IRN BRU to wash it all down. For those not familiar, scotch pie is like sausage roll meat, in the shape of a pie, surrounded with short crust pastry – no gravy. As for the haggis, well I must admit, it was actually much tastier than I expected, given its basically mushed up animal offal! But there were plenty of oats or barley or something similar and herbs/salt/seasoning etc to actually make it quite tasty. Unfortunately this didn’t stop me from gagging a little mentally every time I took a bite. Just couldn’t quite put its contents out of mind completely. (Although I’m now more Scottish than Kathleen, my other host who wasn’t with us today, who has never tried it!!). And finally, IRN BRU – the national drink of Scotland – radioactive orange in colour, FULL of sugar, caffeine and malaria-fighting quinine (also found in tonic water) it’s a strange sounding concoction that EVERYONE there drinks … but honestly just tastes like hyped-up creaming soda!

With our stomachs full, we headed off down the main street again to the tune of bagpipes (naturally) to join a torch light (as in flaming sticks) procession for NYE eve, winding its way through the city to a hill where fireworks signalled the finale. It was quite magical actually, in the firelight – as long as you kept one eye on your torch and the other on any torches threatening to singe your head! Unfortunatley though, the magic of this experience was slightly dimmed when we then had to about face and leg it back to the centre of town to start our third walking tour of the day!! This time a ghost tour: the lady was a bit overly theatrical at first but toned it down a bit when she took us underground to a system of vaults where there’s supposed to be ghosts. I didn’t “feel” anything, but the stories were entertaining nonetheless. By then, after about 10 hours on our feet it was time to head back to Glasgow.

Day 166 Fri) Hogmanaaaaaayyy

After packing all my gear (for flying out on New Year's Day) we headed back into Edinburgh for the infamous Hogmanay celebreations (happen every year, always included in those round the world on NYE wraps). We were fortunate enought to be able to stay at Katie's cousin's place right in the centre of the Hogmanay street party area. So we dropped our gear there and set off for another day of sightseeing before the night's festivities. First on the list was the "one o’clok gun" which is supposed to be this big loud cannon that goes off from the castle every day at 1pm … after all the hype it just sounded like someone dropping a heavy suit case on the ground! Apparently lots of people pay to go in to see the little guy dress up and light the blank charge :P

From there we rushed to the Oz Bar for Adelaide NYE. It was much better than Walkabout, not as cliché, had real aussies behind the bar, coopers and little creatures in the fridge and PIZZA SHAPES!!! which Katie bought me as an early birthday present. The pub held countdowns for all the aussie capitals, plus NZ, ringing a big bell each time. I even put a pin on one of those maps they always have in international pubs to show where you live - representin' for Henley Beach!

Later, we went to meat Kathleen (grabbing a steak pie on the way, which is apparently a new year's tradition in scotland ... but which really was just to further satisfy my pie craving). Once together, the three of us set about climbing Arthur's Seat - this big volcanic rock formation on the edge of the city, right near the parliament building. You come round the corner and BANG there it is, going straight up and man is it steep! Needless to say we were puffing like crazy in about 2 seconds flat! Was worth the struggle to (half way to) the top though, great view out over all of edinburgh, could see cliffs to one end, sea water even to the other and all the main monuments in between including the palace where the queen stays when she visits. Was a great time to do it too, at twilight when there was still light but the street lights were turning on. Following that little exertion we went back to base camp (katie's cousin's place) for a rest, as we had a long night ahead. To get us through the night we had some drinks, pizza and a DEEP FRIED MARS BAR! Apparently the scots will deep fry anything! Even whole cheeseburgers and stuff. But unfortunately the batter they use goes all crispy, not like the ones in Adelaide which are like pancake batter and actually taste way better, like chocolate cake melted. Instead, this batter just went all chewy in ur mouth once all the chocolate had dissolved. Anywho, was worth a try.

Finally got out of the flat (was cold outside L  and I realised I have never worn that many clothes on NYE before!) We wandered around listening to open air bands and taking in the chrissie lights etc. When the clock struck 11pm we pulled out a few Grolsch beers for Maastricht NYE and there were even fireworks bc that’s when most of Europe has NYE. Then the real deal an hour later, with major fireworks off the side of the castle. I was able to sing auld lang syne properly for the first time thanks to words on the big screen. Katie tried to make me memorise the words beforehand so I wouldn;t embarass the scots but that wasn’t happening! Later we visited the dj stage where they played the proclaimers '500 miles', classic Scottish band, and there was someone with a blow up kangaroo in the crowd! Luckily after all that we didn't have far to walk back to base camp and crash. Hello 2011...

Days 155 to 163 - An almost white Christmas as close to home as possible

Day 155 (Mon) One last hurdle...
So close to having 3 weeks of for Christmas and NYE ... all I had to do was a measely exam at 8.30am on a Monday!!! Twas a course on interpreting modern art and yes, my tutor did wear a black turtle neck, just to live up to the stereotype! That morning the snow was so thick (and still smarting from falling off my bike a little while back) I didn't want to ride, but given the early start I also didn't trust the buses to be on time in the snow so I decided to walk to uni for the first time since getting here. It was an eerie journey - its still bloody dark at 8am here!! and the snow seems to dampen all the sounds, except the crunch of it under your feet of course, but the main noises were people scraping snow off their windscreens or trying to start up their cars. It was cold, but not awful and the walking kept me warm. The snow seemed to have fallen on everything, just like on a postcard, tops of posts, bushes, letter boxes... even plants with no leaves, the snow kind of just collected on the twigs making an almost hat for the plant! Cars were completely covered from front windscreen to back but there was no snow on the sides where it couldn't settle. Later, on the train to the airport I saw snow settled on blocks of recycled cardboard at a recycling factory and it made me realise - snow doesn't discriminate, it falls everywhere it can and kind of makes everything a bit prettier :) In fact, when the snow falls and covers everything it looks like almost a different country, nothing like when it was all green, and its hard to recognise places sometimes!

Where there used to be a car!


Anywho, because of said snow, flights were getting delayed left, right and centre across Europe and London was the epicentre of the chaos - precisely where I was headed. For once though, flying on a Budgo airline paid off because the airport that the cheap airlines were flying into was ironicly the best prepared for the snow. So it took me about 8 hours but I got London in time ... to wake mum up to let me into Pete and Di's just before midnight!


Day 156 (Tues) Lap of luxury
Was sooooooooo good to sleep in a big bed with nice sheets and pillows and a FIRM mattress!! And the shower - oh don't get me started on the bliss of proper water pressure AND temperature together!!
In my first full day in London, mum took me out for a walk to town and I found surprisingly that I was quite overwhelmed by the ‘big city’, particularly the traffic noise was just so loud, it was an effort to talk over it and I found myself puffed out trying to speak! Was also hard walking down the shopping streets so close to Christmas in such a big city. I’d just got used to walking on the right side of the footpath and stairs in Europe and now I’m supposed to walk on the left in the UK but really people just walk any which way here!! In fact, they seem to just walk right at you! That night I had my first family dinner in months, on the couch, watching crime shows ... just like at home :) :)

Day 157 (Wed) Touristn' with the rents
Today we took a ferry ride to the Tate Modern art museum, during which Mum yelled the whole time at Dad and I "oh, get over here, this would be a good picture" ... "oh come over this side so I can get that thing in the back of a picture"! We had lunch at the Tate, where I had my first taste of houmus in FAR too long!!! and then we wandered the exhibitions. I was pleased to see that my art class had paid off and I was able to act as mum and dad's personal guide :P I had seen these exhibitions when I was in London in July and realised I understood them a lot more now. That night we went to see a movie ironically titled "The Tourist".

Day 158 (Thurs) – Mum, Museums and Manger
Just Mum and I today (Dad headed off to an aeroplane museum, I think...). First up was an exhibition called Shadowcatchers which used light sensitive materials to make images, much like photography but without the camera. They really did look like shadows. Once of the coolest examples was a light sensitive piece of paper left out in a thunderstorm and the lightning had imprinted on the paper. Next was a Fashion and Identity exhibition. It was all about how clothing can be protective or cultural, tell a story etc. Some of the highlights were a ball gown made entirely of pins, dresses made out of chinese flags in comment on the testile trade in China and a video of male fashion which bares the stomach juxtaposed with video footage of men having to lift their shirts at Israeli check points - cleverly titled "chic point fashion". Finally, I went to the National Portrait Gallery where they have a cast of a human head filled with actual blood! Its in a refrigerated cubicle and everything - weird.

The greatest pleasure of the day though was visiting an English bookstore. Oh how I've missed them. In Holland you see a cover of a book that looks interesting but then you get closer and you realise its all in Dutch and its such a disappointment :( Needless to say I spent way longer than intended and bought 2 more books than I'd planned on!

That night Mum, Dad and I had Indian food for dinner (again, just like home) and went to see STOMP in the West End. For those who haven't heard of it, it was a wild 'musical' kind of show, with no plotline but about 8 "characters", people who use all mannaer of things as musical instruments - broomsticks, kitchen sinks, rubber tubes, tyres etc. which ended up sounding bizzarely melodic.


Day 159 (Fri) Christmas eve!!
Had THE laziest day. It was so wonderful to have a real house to be in that I made the most of it. Slept iiiiiin mmmmm, watched like 5 episodes of some trashy show on a massive TV, lounged on the couch (I miss having a couch!). I even tried to have a bath but it was actually a disappointment. I'd been fantasising about being able to come home after a cold day and have a hot bath, but the water got cold really quickly and it just didn't really work! In the evening, Mum, Dad and I went to a typical London pub around the corner for "one drink" which turned into three! Was lovely to sit in the mahogany decor and just catch up with my parents, hear how they lived in London in the "old days" and talk over my future travel plans with them.

Day 160 (Sat) Christmas :) :)
Because of the time difference the first thing I did was wake up to skype brett’s entire family!! They were all at their family shindig in front of the laptop when I called through to him. Luckily I’d put some proper clothes on the top half (totally left my pyjama bottoms on!) at least and fixed the hair/face, ha! Mum and Dad wandered in and out of my background (sporting some awesome morning hair) but I really had nothing on the Mrowka etc clan!

After that hour-and-a-half chat I began making our nuclear family’s traditional pancake Christmas breakfast but was interrupted by a skype call from Aj, her parents and Michaela, during which I "frisbeed" pancake to Michaela through skype … yep I have that skill, and she LOVES it! FINALLY we're about to sit down to breakfast (at like 12.30!!) when my Cousin Sam (who lives in London) and his mate (visiting) popped in for 10 mins to pick something up. EVENTUALLY at about 1pm we had “breakfast” and exchanged presents. My present was this whole trip (of course) plus some home treats - fruchocs and vegemite! In return, I got mum and dad a bottle of wine made in Maastricht, a teatowel with a very dutch cow on it, and dutch-printed toilet paper! among other things.

To try and make the most of our surroundings, mum and I strolled to hyde park, finding some left over ice/snow to take out “white Christmas” picture with … and saw SQUIRRELS!!! Back home, we cooked a roast for chrissie dinner (the only time its really seemed appropriate to have hot food at chrissie) with lamb, veg, gravy, pudding and custard – textbook! What an odd group we made tho, 5 aussies – mum, dad, me, a cousin and his mate – all sitting round a table in London in the cold while I hear it was decidedly toasty at home. Nevertheless we took the customary Shore family photo – even if there were only 2 ½ of us there really! And had the customary non-blood random (this year not a boyfriend or girlfriend of one of the cousins as is usually the case but just a mate passing through!). For all these reasons, a truly unforgettable Christmas!

Day 161 (Sun) Boxing day

A complete veg out - as it should be. Got up and made lucy’s lollies (our passed down the generations family recipe for the tastiest chrismas lollies) and then had pudding/custard and said lollies for breakfast at 2pm!!! Spent the rest of the day on the couch reading English books and napping from memory!

Day 162 (Mon) Trip down mum and dad's memory lane

Today my parents took me out to their old neighbourhood when they were living in London in the 70s. I've heard so much about it during my lifetime, and a lot of their travel tales inspired me to take this trip in a way, so I was really keen to see it for myself. We caught the tube out of the city to the burbs and first stop was the old soccer pitch they used to play at, now covered in snow. Was classic to see Dad playing with snowballs having a go on the flying fox! We wandered up streets I didn’t recognise but mum and dad still knew like the backs of their hands. Stopped at a place dad lived at for a little while in the early days, then mum’s pad with the before-dad bf, then the infamous 4 Lincoln Rd where dad paid 1 pound a night, crammed 25 people in at the highest point, climbed his way up the hierarchy to eventually get a bed (which he kept, even after he shacked up with mum – London real estate is premium!) and which even had a secret door knock!! :P

After all this walking it was off to their old watering hole for lunch. Apparently it had changed quite a bit, much more upmarket, but the food was great. I'd been hanging out for a pie for ages and I finally got one there. The building itself still clearly brought back memories for them, as did the whole day which was really cool to see. And interesting to think that I might feel like that about Maastricht at some point :)

Day 163 (Tues) Another familiar face
Last full day in London, just enough tim to squeeze in a catch up with Matty (of cruise ship fame). We met at Camden Markets for lunch and caught up on everything that had changed since his visit to Maastricht in October, was it?! Gosh time flies! Glad to hear he’s settling in well, and earning pounds lucky bigger! For his "local" tour guide duties he took me to a shop full on clothing and accessories designed for the love child of a neon light and a space-alien-rave-dancer! Apparently there’s usually go-go dancers in-store modelling its wares but, alas, I missed this spectacle. The clothes and … paraphernalia were illuminating enough though! There were little space-style dresses for kids, alien faces on t-shirts, pleather, silver stretchy stuff, “underwear” and other outfits with plasticky, shiny surfaces and conveniently missing bits – even an 18+ only section. That night we headed to Chinatown for dinner for our last family dinner (for a few days anyway). We ate at “legend’s dumplings” – which had a big reputation to live up to – it was recommended by some aussie/chinese guy called leon who mum and dad got talking to in a snow-wear store! Anywho, turns out the dumpling’s are, in fact, legendary. The dumpling “artistes” as I have decided to call them (thanks to the tiny little markings and shapings of the petit morsels) stand behind glass at a counter, rolling and moulding the dumplings fresh (well, until later in the evening when we busted one of them pulling out the frozen ‘night shift’ dumplings after they’d presumably run out of fresh bc of demand – but we’ll forget we saw that. altho that's a little hard to do given you could see the counter from pretty much everywhere in the restaurant thanks to strategically-placed mirrored panels!). The meal was topped off with a trip to hagen daaz, a family holiday favourite of the novak-shores for dessert and then a return double-decker bus trip home for our last night in London together.

matty n i enjoying a london bevvy

 
Observations: People drive slowly in the snow, even though they're used to is. The sun sets at 4pm now!!! Europeans actually have trees in their front yards that look like christmas trees, complete with snow! At times the real snow actually looks how fake snow looks at home, which gives me a new appreciation for fake snow-makers :P Snow also creates fog - as the little particles rise up off the ground in the wind etc.
Sometimes it gets so cold it feels like you're getting botox while riding your bike. The cold freezes your face and you can't move the muscles in your forehead, nose and cheeks!

And btw, WHAT was up with it snowing in victoria for Christmas?!?!?