Boyfriend & the Isle of Arran
Door: Samantha de Bruijn
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Samantha
21 November 2010 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Glasgow
As promised, this is part two of the week my boyfriend came over.
On Tuesday (19th) our proteins laboratory class was finished quite early that afternoon, so Guy and I had some time to act like a tourist (again). We decided to go to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum since it is very close to the university. It is really a good museum. There is something for everyone's interest: paintings, (history and) artefacts from all different periods, cultures and science throughout history, mounted animals and much more. When we arrived we had to wait a little before we could join a guided tour that would show us the highlights of the museum. Apparently, in 2003 the museum had been closed for three years, so people could clean it completely. This was absolutely necessary after 100 years of pollution. There is still one brick that shows the original colour of the bricks before cleaning. Compared to the others, it looked totally blackened. After the tour we had about 1.5 hours to spend in the museum before it would close. We had a look at the armoury section and at the Scottish history section. It was really interesting, but 1.5 hours is really a bit too short to see everything you want to. I might go and see it another time, while I'm here. It's only about a 5-10 minutes walk from university and it is free, so there's absolutely no excuse not to go there again.
My Wednesday was occupied by laboratory classes, which was OK since Guy also had to work on his Master thesis. That evening I took him to Spuntini, the restaurant I talked about in my weblog entry about the 'Orientation week for International Students'. You can order small dishes and 3-4 of these will make a complete meal, so you can have a bit of everything if you like. Guy and I ordered three dishes each and we ordered a chocolate fondue as desert (just like the last time I went there). Although it is meant to be for two persons, it is actually a bit too much. We were still quite full when arriving at the Spanish night at 'O Couture (bar/club), organized by the International Society. They served paella, but we thankfully skipped that one. The Spanish night slowly turned into an normal club night: dancing in the club. It was also the birthday of Verena, a German friend of us who also lives in Firhill Court, and since we were all together it was a good opportunity to give her her birthday present.
I really wanted to show Guy a ceilidh (typical Scottish dancing night) before he would go back to the Netherlands again, so we planned on going to the ceilidh of the mountaineering club on Thursday where Emily had invited us to. She thought it was in a particular room in the GUU building, so we went there. We were a bit early and there were not a lot of people yet. At about half past 9 I started wondering if Emily was still planning on coming or not. She texted me to say that she was already there, but I couldn't find her. Apparently, there was another ceilidh in the building! Exactly one floor below! Unbelievable! By the time we found out we thought it was too late to join it and we quite enjoyed ourself at the other ceilidh.
That Friday the parents of Leoni had rented a car and together with Mathilde they were going to make an 'abbey tour' after our lectures of that day. Guy's flight would depart at half past 4 that afternoon and I really wanted to drop him off at the airport, so I didn't join them. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to Guy. It was really good to be with him again and to show him around in Glasgow (although he was perfectly capable of doing that on his own, probably better than me). Even though he had been here for nearly a week, it felt much shorter (probably because I had quite a busy time-table that week).
Early in the morning of the following day (8 am, that is early on your day off) the parents of Leoni came to pick us up by car at Firhill Court. We were going to the isle of Arran! The day started off with really bad weather, but fortunately during the day the sky cleared and we even had a bit of sunshine. It took the boat about an hour to cross the 'Firth of Clyde' (the water), which we misused of course by our Scottish habit/tradition: hot chocolate/tea with a muffin. Once arrived at Arran, we headed straight towards Brodick Castle, which is not that far away from the harbour. I had forgotten my National Trust card of course, but after smiling friendly to the ladies behind the desk, I got in.
When walking towards the castle, we came across the nice gardens first and had some old fashioned 'look-at-the-view'-moments, even though the weather wasn't that good at that moment. It was a really nice castle and (fortunately for the romantic Samantha inside of me) it was nicely decorated as well. This time we were not looking for LEGO dolls (as in Culzean Castle) in each room, but other little figurines, made of stone. There was no guided tour, but every room had some laminated information sheets in different languages. This was really fun, because besides the long boring stories about the room written for adults, they also had a children’s information sheet which contained some nice and fun facts.
After visiting the castle we got back to the car again and headed north. The main road on the Isle of Arran is shaped like an '8'. A big circle parallel to the shores and a 'short cut' right through the middle of the island. It is true what they say: it's a beautiful island. We even saw snow on top of the mountains! Halfway on the road from the top of the island to the bottom, should be a stone circle. Unfortunately we only saw a pedestrian's path towards it and nowhere near where we could park the car. There wasn't too much time left anyway, because the boat would depart at 4:40 that afternoon. We took the 'short cut' back to the harbour where we arrived at 4 pm, but not before we had a nice late lunch on the way back.
Back in Glasgow we went to the hotel where the parents of Leoni stayed, so the car could be returned. Just across the street from the hotel was a Japanese/Chinese/Oriental restaurant where we had dinner. It was time to say goodbye to parents of Leoni as well now, because they would fly back the next day.
Love, Samantha
-------------------------------
Photos: LAYOUT HAS CHANGED!!! MENU IS ON THE RIGHT HANDSIDE NOW. http://s1046.photobucket.com/albums/b465/MathildeCastelijns/
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum: http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/our-museums/kelvingrove/Pages/home.aspx
Brodick Castle: http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/arran/brodickcastle/index.html
On Tuesday (19th) our proteins laboratory class was finished quite early that afternoon, so Guy and I had some time to act like a tourist (again). We decided to go to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum since it is very close to the university. It is really a good museum. There is something for everyone's interest: paintings, (history and) artefacts from all different periods, cultures and science throughout history, mounted animals and much more. When we arrived we had to wait a little before we could join a guided tour that would show us the highlights of the museum. Apparently, in 2003 the museum had been closed for three years, so people could clean it completely. This was absolutely necessary after 100 years of pollution. There is still one brick that shows the original colour of the bricks before cleaning. Compared to the others, it looked totally blackened. After the tour we had about 1.5 hours to spend in the museum before it would close. We had a look at the armoury section and at the Scottish history section. It was really interesting, but 1.5 hours is really a bit too short to see everything you want to. I might go and see it another time, while I'm here. It's only about a 5-10 minutes walk from university and it is free, so there's absolutely no excuse not to go there again.
My Wednesday was occupied by laboratory classes, which was OK since Guy also had to work on his Master thesis. That evening I took him to Spuntini, the restaurant I talked about in my weblog entry about the 'Orientation week for International Students'. You can order small dishes and 3-4 of these will make a complete meal, so you can have a bit of everything if you like. Guy and I ordered three dishes each and we ordered a chocolate fondue as desert (just like the last time I went there). Although it is meant to be for two persons, it is actually a bit too much. We were still quite full when arriving at the Spanish night at 'O Couture (bar/club), organized by the International Society. They served paella, but we thankfully skipped that one. The Spanish night slowly turned into an normal club night: dancing in the club. It was also the birthday of Verena, a German friend of us who also lives in Firhill Court, and since we were all together it was a good opportunity to give her her birthday present.
I really wanted to show Guy a ceilidh (typical Scottish dancing night) before he would go back to the Netherlands again, so we planned on going to the ceilidh of the mountaineering club on Thursday where Emily had invited us to. She thought it was in a particular room in the GUU building, so we went there. We were a bit early and there were not a lot of people yet. At about half past 9 I started wondering if Emily was still planning on coming or not. She texted me to say that she was already there, but I couldn't find her. Apparently, there was another ceilidh in the building! Exactly one floor below! Unbelievable! By the time we found out we thought it was too late to join it and we quite enjoyed ourself at the other ceilidh.
That Friday the parents of Leoni had rented a car and together with Mathilde they were going to make an 'abbey tour' after our lectures of that day. Guy's flight would depart at half past 4 that afternoon and I really wanted to drop him off at the airport, so I didn't join them. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to Guy. It was really good to be with him again and to show him around in Glasgow (although he was perfectly capable of doing that on his own, probably better than me). Even though he had been here for nearly a week, it felt much shorter (probably because I had quite a busy time-table that week).
Early in the morning of the following day (8 am, that is early on your day off) the parents of Leoni came to pick us up by car at Firhill Court. We were going to the isle of Arran! The day started off with really bad weather, but fortunately during the day the sky cleared and we even had a bit of sunshine. It took the boat about an hour to cross the 'Firth of Clyde' (the water), which we misused of course by our Scottish habit/tradition: hot chocolate/tea with a muffin. Once arrived at Arran, we headed straight towards Brodick Castle, which is not that far away from the harbour. I had forgotten my National Trust card of course, but after smiling friendly to the ladies behind the desk, I got in.
When walking towards the castle, we came across the nice gardens first and had some old fashioned 'look-at-the-view'-moments, even though the weather wasn't that good at that moment. It was a really nice castle and (fortunately for the romantic Samantha inside of me) it was nicely decorated as well. This time we were not looking for LEGO dolls (as in Culzean Castle) in each room, but other little figurines, made of stone. There was no guided tour, but every room had some laminated information sheets in different languages. This was really fun, because besides the long boring stories about the room written for adults, they also had a children’s information sheet which contained some nice and fun facts.
After visiting the castle we got back to the car again and headed north. The main road on the Isle of Arran is shaped like an '8'. A big circle parallel to the shores and a 'short cut' right through the middle of the island. It is true what they say: it's a beautiful island. We even saw snow on top of the mountains! Halfway on the road from the top of the island to the bottom, should be a stone circle. Unfortunately we only saw a pedestrian's path towards it and nowhere near where we could park the car. There wasn't too much time left anyway, because the boat would depart at 4:40 that afternoon. We took the 'short cut' back to the harbour where we arrived at 4 pm, but not before we had a nice late lunch on the way back.
Back in Glasgow we went to the hotel where the parents of Leoni stayed, so the car could be returned. Just across the street from the hotel was a Japanese/Chinese/Oriental restaurant where we had dinner. It was time to say goodbye to parents of Leoni as well now, because they would fly back the next day.
Love, Samantha
-------------------------------
Photos: LAYOUT HAS CHANGED!!! MENU IS ON THE RIGHT HANDSIDE NOW. http://s1046.photobucket.com/albums/b465/MathildeCastelijns/
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum: http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/our-museums/kelvingrove/Pages/home.aspx
Brodick Castle: http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/arran/brodickcastle/index.html
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
