Europe Trip - Isle of Arran

Come to almost the end of my Europe trip, we went to an island in Scotland - Isle of Arran. We took the early train to the jetty (forgot the name of the station d). Then, we were told, we need to take a ferry to the island. This is not my first time going to an island nor my first time taking ferry, but the island that we went has no bikini, hot sun, beautiful beaches and the ferry that we took was so big that I think it's more like a smaller version of cruise. hehe

on board, very windy & cold

policeman... so tall and muscular

The jetty

Lunch @ a small restaurant

The mother didn't want her daughter get into the water, she was bringing the daughter back to their picnic mat
the daughter was holding the seaweed

Some youngsters were camping by the sea

What a beautiful scenery
the river is crystal clear that we can see short plants at the bottom of the river

Swan

some people canoeing on the river
and we were resting by this unique tree

Traditional Dairy Ice Cream

A country house turned into restaurant

Dalmatian pig?

Can't believe that the pig can jump!

Happy time flies... we need to go back to do some packing...

We still has a day in Glasgow to do our final shopping. The whether in Glasgow was getting colder due to the rain.

Dr. Pepper... yuck...

Goodbye Glasgow... I'm not sure if I will ever visit this city again... but, this trip is really an eye-opened for me. I hope, if I still have a change to visit Europe again, my next target will be Spain, Italy and Greece...

~ End of my 1st Europe trip's report ~

Europe Trip - Edinburgh

After Wailoong's convocation, we all went to Edinburgh... how can we not visiting to the capital while we were in Scotland right?

We were taking train from Glasgow... if not mistaken, the train took about 1 hour to reach Edinburgh.

While walking to the train station, saw this tank stopped in the middle of the road, there was photographer doing some shooting

Walter Scott Memorial
one of the famous landmark

Walking to the castle

Citroen car
can I named it a vintage car?

no title
just love the street...

Brave Heart - William Wallace?
have to pay to take picture with him, and the money is for some sort of donation... as per written on the board at the back

Edinburgh Castle

There were these 2 mascots, fire dragon and unicorn
we were like small kids, waiting to take picture with them

View from the castle
blue sky and sea

We didn't went in to the castle to see the 1 o'clock gun although we were on time because Qiaoyi wasn't feeling very good, and we didn't want to leave her alone waiting outside

Bought myself a con of ice-cream.... to cheer myself up!
Posing @ Royal Mile
they said, the road is a mile long, follow the road, at the end of it there is a palace for the queen... I'm not too sure about it because I didn't finished the road.

@ an entrance of a church... I like the colour, old brown walk with fire red wooden door

A small alley between souvenir shops
the stone wall are cold

Piggy statue @ a restaurant

White taxi @ Royal Mile

Street artist drawing picture with air brush
he is so cool

It's weekend, seeing this father bring his family out to the part and reading his girl a story... so warm

And a family bring their shih tzu
it's time to bring their dog to salon... the hair so messy and dirty

We were learning from the local, enjoy sun bathing in the park...
it's very relaxing... the sun is very gentle, will definitely not getting sun burn for sitting there whole afternoon

My friend said that the wall is formed by volcanic rock
means there used to have a volcano there?

McDonald for lunch
this time I'm trying the Deli burger
Deli Chicken + Bacon... yummilicious...

Then we visited Walts Disney's shop
Pinnocchio... my first cartoon character that I know when I was very very young
my dad bought the cartoon tape as present to me

The statue sitting in the middle of Walter Scott Memorial

We did a little bit of shopping in town... then caught the late afternoon train back to Glasgow for dinner.
We wanted try the Thai restaurant that was nice to our hotel and we always passed by the restaurant... frankly speaking, I think we all started to miss Malaysia...

This is the bill... the most expensive dinner that we had throughout the trip!
remember, it's in pound, not ringgit

Europe Trip - Back to Glasgow

I have forgotten if I did mention one of the purpose of this trip for QiaoYi & family was to attend her brother's convocation. So, after a short pit stop @ London, it's time for us to head back to Glasgow. Will be spending the rest of our Europe trip, about 7 days in Glasgow.

We didn't do much thing in Glasgow except shop till we all dropped. Oh, talking about shopping, I was so silly, I thought I have spent all pounds that I brought in London, it's scary, because I actually have equal value of pounds and euro with me, and I only spent pounds in London, and euro in Paris and Amsterdam. I bought quite a lot in Paris and Amsterdam but yet I still have balance. But in my wallet, pounds were limited before I went back to Glasgow... I was scratching my head and scaring myself... and later I realised... yeah, I didn't brought all pounds with me, half of them were left in my big luggage which was locked in the hotel before we departed to Paris. phew~~

When we took Megabus back to Glasgow, time spent in the bus was longer than the trip it took from Glasgow to London... most probably due to bad weather. But taking this bus wasn't funny... nothing much we can do in bus but yet... it's very tiring.

1st day in Glasgow - doing nothing. When we reached Glasgow, it's already dinner time... Chihmun met us for dinner and brough us to Weaterspoon for beer and wine.

2nd day - shop! shop! shop! Night - Chihmun brought us to Princes Square for cocktail

A statue in front of a modern art museum...
yea... the con is placed in purpose. Modern art ma... you can never guess the purpose right.

Weather @ Glasgow is much colder than other cities.
And we have a "liqor supplier" - Chih Mun (also 1 of our high school friend) there, so, we have no reason to not drinking every night... hehe

@ one of a bar in a building, I have forgotten the name, that night we wanted to try cocktail and the guys asked me to choose.
I choose Pimps because I wanted to try something refreshing. When the waiter came to take order, we mention we wanted a jug of cocktail, then he suggested Sangria. Then we corrected him saying we wanted Pimps.
But when the drink arrived @ our table, it was Sangria, Chihmun insisted we shouldn't compromise and ask the waiter to change. When the waiter came, before we voiced out, he already knew he has made and mistake, but he didn't took the Sangria away from our table. We were guessing, will he give us this Sangria as compliment? But of course we didn't touch the jug before he brought us the right order.
I think he can read our mind, he asked us if we want to clear the Sangria from our table, because he can left it there for us FOC... aiyo... you should be able to guess what's the answer lo. hehe

cool!
The drummer wearing traditional kilt and doing street performance
I like guy with this kind of hairstyle
short and tidy

3rd day - Wailoong's convocation... Qiaoyi, Ken Leong and Qiaoyi's mother were invited to the ceremony... So, I'm bring Kenleong's parents to explore the city in the morning. A night before, Chihmun recommend us to go to the lighthouse, from there we can see the city from the top. A lighthouse in the middle of a city... amazing huh? usually lighthouse is built by sea shore, from least from my understanding la.

That day I had problem with my eyes... too dry or something... felt very uncomfortable and I can't put on my contact lenses too.

The Lighthouse is easily located... just that we felt a bit disappointed with it's height. It has only 6 floors. And there are art galleries, museum @ 2nd & 5th floor, if I'm not mistaken.

City view from the Lighthouse

I like this wall color

It has nothing much to see in the Lighthouse. So, we went back to the street, at least can see some street performance.
This is one of them. It is not a statue, ya, the pegeons are statues, but the man is a real man... he scared us when we passed by...

The ceremony ended in the afternoon, then we met for lunch together

My eyes problem was getting worse and caused terrible headache... so, I didn't follow the rest of them to take photograph @ Glasgow U... I went back to hotel to take a nap. Luckily my headache went off when I woke up.

Chihmun also got his new car that day. So, he has planned to take us to his apartment with his new car after dinner.
Dinner @ a spanish restaurant... I like the food there, very authentic

A group photo @ the restaurant

Chihmun's car is a two door BMW, so, we spilt into 2 groups, the parents follow his car and we took cab. Because Wailoong said he wanted to take photograph @ George Square in his new suit... hehe

@ Chihmun's apartment, he served us champagne...
we had beer and wine the 1st day, then we had cocktails the 2nd day and champagne the 3rd day... what a "drinking" trip!

Europe Trip - Back to London Again

My memory is fading... so, I got to push myself to write down as much as I remember now.

After the short Amsterdam trip, we were back to London (Stansted Airport) by flight - EasyJet. The young boys sitting next to me were about in their teenage, I think. They are very excited and hyper-active in the flight but of course they are very polite as well, they said they were going to London for holiday and that is their first time taking flight. Wow, when I was about their age, I think my parents will never, never allow me to do such thing.

When we reached the airport, the immigration officer had asked us some questions, eg. where r we from? what's the itinerary? what's the relationship between all of us... feeling to be the odd one is erm... undescribable... but it's ok, they were making me feel like their family member too.

Then we took a bus to London, we wanted to go Victoria but due to some misunderstanding somewhere, the bus ended at Liverpool, luckily the station was just next to a tube station, so, at least we know how to get to Victoria. Most importantly, the bus fare was only 2 pounds per person.

When we reached Victoria Station, it was already in the afternoon, we quickly picked a restaurant and "re-fuel" our poor empty stomach. Since we didn't try any bar lunch in London the other day, we decided to try out the food at Wetherspoon. We actually didn't know that Wetherspoon has so many branches all around UK, what we know that, the food is so cheap... I ordered a lime soda, and it's only 0.25 pound. What a surprise.

All the packet sauces in Wetherspoon

I ordered a spicy tomato pasta and ordered a chicken tikka masala to Qiaoyi's mother in law and fish n chips for her father in law, we enjoyed the food so much... reason 1: cheap and nice, reason 2: hungry d.

Wetherspoon Menu

We then checked in to our pre-booked hotel - Airway Hotel, not the same one as the other day before we departed to Paris, but it is also very near and easy to access from Victoria Station. The hotel gave us rooms which are located at lower level, at least this time we do not have to carry our luggage to climb the stairs. Rooms are comfortable and clean enough for us to rest tired bodies. hehe

Without any delay, right after we left our luggage in the room, we had decided to pay a visit to Harrods... on the way walking to Harrod from tube station, there are a lot of designer's boutique, accessories shops... but, we were late... although most of them were having fantastic sales, we were unable to access because it's already after their business hour when we were there.

Luckily, we still can be able to enter to Harrods... we had dinner date with a high school friend, so, we had only limited time there. As soon as we enter the department store, we started to regret, we wished we had more time to shop because most of the brands were doing at least 30% - 70% sales... gosh... next time we should book a flight to London in summer and shop till we drop.

Me @ Harrods

Dinner appointment with the friend - YunJie @ China Town, yes, China Town again, but the restaurant that she recommend serve very authentic Chinese food, the tastiest of all we visited so far...

Group photo with YunJie, a very cool and nice young lady

Then Diong, our high school friend as well, came to meet us for a cup of coffee as well as a bid farewell to all of us.

Coffee @ Nero Cafe

:( next day will be another tiring day in bus... we were taking megabus again back to Glasgow....