Sedition
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Hey guys,
This time next week I'll be making the long journey back home to Australia after spending 2 months in Amsterdam where my girlfriend lives. This is my second visit here, but on the first two years ago, we never made it out of The Netherlands. We decided to take better advantage of the walking distance between countries this time however, and hit Paris via Brussels a few weeks ago and just returned from a week in Newcastle, Edinburgh and Inverness.
Firstly, Paris is overrated and gun to my head, I still wouldn't go back. Nothing disastrous happened, but it just didn't feel like a welcoming city and as an English speaking blond caucasian, I felt very out of place.
Newcastle, home of the Geordies, and Scotland on the other hand were officialing brilliant. The cities and countryside were beautiful and the people were very friendly and helpful. I was making typical smartass Aussie comments while at the 4th test in Chester-le-street, but couldn't evoke a reaction from the mild-mannered Geordies surrounding us. It was probably the Geordie lasses that I was needing to watch out for I later found out. Luckily we left the test an hour early to avoid the crowds, and during the walk back to the station, Australia collapsed and England drove another nail into our coffin.
The 2 hour train journey to Edinburgh was filled with amazing landscapes and would only get better the following day when we traveled 4 hours on to Inverness. We weren't long off the train in Edinburgh before we were stunned by the views across the city. I wanted to message Colin and tell him how much of a bastard he is for living in such an amazing city. It was kinda like Australia meets the Netherlands with the old buildings and rolling landscapes combined.
Luckily I've gotten used to busy tourist areas after the time spent in Amsterdam, and it was made easier by cars being on the right side (that is, the left) and not worrying about 50 pushbikes or trams running you over.
We didn't have time to catch much of the Fringe festival going on, just wandered around the Royal Mile watching the street performers and spent most of the day at Edinburgh castle, which again is amazing. The military tattoo performances were great, with the Kiwis and Koreans putting on the best shows.
As we headed further north, it started to feel more and more like home and I realised why we have a number of Scottish named towns in the area I live in Australia. They had reminded the settling Scots of home too.
We quickly found our hotel in Inverness, overlooking the river Ness with another stunning view of a castle, which houses a statue of one of my ancestor's namesakes, Flora MacDonald. For the following day we had booked a 7 hour bus and boat tour of Loch Ness, castle Urquhart, Corrimony Cairn (older than the pyramids and great wall of china, maybe even the universe if you're religious) and surrounding areas. Another amazing time and the tour guide was great.
Longish trip back to Newcastle the following day. We were joined by some polite drunken Scots in the middle of a stag party which made things interesting.
We caught a comedy show in the evening at The Stand comedy club, hosted by Tony Jameson with some guests who were pretty good. We tried our hardest not to be seated at the front, but the locals were all smart and had reserved seats out of the spotlight. The comedians were kind to the Aussie and Dutch couple though, but can't say the same about the Americans or a couple of locals who had the piss taken out of them all night.
The whole trip was absolutely brilliant and we can't wait to go back. My girlfriend has even be looking at properties for sale in the highlands. I'm not sure about the cost of living in the UK, but I found food, whether takeaway or restaurants, train tickets, and obviously souvenirs and hotels to be very expensive compared to Australia, and a little more expensive than Amsterdam. I guess it could be balanced by cheaper groceries and electrical or water bills for the locals though?
Anyway, thanks to anyone who made it this far. Time for some pictures. Unfortunately I don't have the ones from Newcastle on the laptop yet.
Aussies taking the field
England all out in the blink of an eye. Warner and Rogers at the crease
Clarkey giving Swanny some stick
Edinburgh castle
Views from the castle
Looking over the river Ness from Inverness castle
Inverness castle by night
Loch Ness
Castle Urquhart ruins
I approve of this city
tl;dr - England and Scotland are awesome.
This time next week I'll be making the long journey back home to Australia after spending 2 months in Amsterdam where my girlfriend lives. This is my second visit here, but on the first two years ago, we never made it out of The Netherlands. We decided to take better advantage of the walking distance between countries this time however, and hit Paris via Brussels a few weeks ago and just returned from a week in Newcastle, Edinburgh and Inverness.
Firstly, Paris is overrated and gun to my head, I still wouldn't go back. Nothing disastrous happened, but it just didn't feel like a welcoming city and as an English speaking blond caucasian, I felt very out of place.
Newcastle, home of the Geordies, and Scotland on the other hand were officialing brilliant. The cities and countryside were beautiful and the people were very friendly and helpful. I was making typical smartass Aussie comments while at the 4th test in Chester-le-street, but couldn't evoke a reaction from the mild-mannered Geordies surrounding us. It was probably the Geordie lasses that I was needing to watch out for I later found out. Luckily we left the test an hour early to avoid the crowds, and during the walk back to the station, Australia collapsed and England drove another nail into our coffin.
The 2 hour train journey to Edinburgh was filled with amazing landscapes and would only get better the following day when we traveled 4 hours on to Inverness. We weren't long off the train in Edinburgh before we were stunned by the views across the city. I wanted to message Colin and tell him how much of a bastard he is for living in such an amazing city. It was kinda like Australia meets the Netherlands with the old buildings and rolling landscapes combined.
Luckily I've gotten used to busy tourist areas after the time spent in Amsterdam, and it was made easier by cars being on the right side (that is, the left) and not worrying about 50 pushbikes or trams running you over.
We didn't have time to catch much of the Fringe festival going on, just wandered around the Royal Mile watching the street performers and spent most of the day at Edinburgh castle, which again is amazing. The military tattoo performances were great, with the Kiwis and Koreans putting on the best shows.
As we headed further north, it started to feel more and more like home and I realised why we have a number of Scottish named towns in the area I live in Australia. They had reminded the settling Scots of home too.
We quickly found our hotel in Inverness, overlooking the river Ness with another stunning view of a castle, which houses a statue of one of my ancestor's namesakes, Flora MacDonald. For the following day we had booked a 7 hour bus and boat tour of Loch Ness, castle Urquhart, Corrimony Cairn (older than the pyramids and great wall of china, maybe even the universe if you're religious) and surrounding areas. Another amazing time and the tour guide was great.
Longish trip back to Newcastle the following day. We were joined by some polite drunken Scots in the middle of a stag party which made things interesting.
We caught a comedy show in the evening at The Stand comedy club, hosted by Tony Jameson with some guests who were pretty good. We tried our hardest not to be seated at the front, but the locals were all smart and had reserved seats out of the spotlight. The comedians were kind to the Aussie and Dutch couple though, but can't say the same about the Americans or a couple of locals who had the piss taken out of them all night.
The whole trip was absolutely brilliant and we can't wait to go back. My girlfriend has even be looking at properties for sale in the highlands. I'm not sure about the cost of living in the UK, but I found food, whether takeaway or restaurants, train tickets, and obviously souvenirs and hotels to be very expensive compared to Australia, and a little more expensive than Amsterdam. I guess it could be balanced by cheaper groceries and electrical or water bills for the locals though?
Anyway, thanks to anyone who made it this far. Time for some pictures. Unfortunately I don't have the ones from Newcastle on the laptop yet.
Aussies taking the field
England all out in the blink of an eye. Warner and Rogers at the crease
Clarkey giving Swanny some stick
Edinburgh castle
Views from the castle
Looking over the river Ness from Inverness castle
Inverness castle by night
Loch Ness
Castle Urquhart ruins
I approve of this city
tl;dr - England and Scotland are awesome.
I keep reliving the trip over and over, so I feel the need to tell anyone who will listen and there aren't enough superlatives to describe it.
