I know it has been quite a while since I have written anything, but school was getting more strenuous and I had taken a little break from traveling for a while. It's exhausting!! But the one thing that had been planned for some time was that Gage was coming to visit me from Thursday to Sunday during CNU's Spring Break. He found a really cheap flight, and he stayed on an air mattress (that I blew up myself with my own hot air) for three nights. It was really great to see someone from home, especially since it has been two months since I had any real contact.
He arrived at Glasgow Airport at 8 am, and as soon as he got through baggage claim he ran out to the main lobby of the airport and kind of like threw himself at me. I was caught off guard and almost fell over, but I was happy that he was actually there!! He flew into Dublin and then took a prop plane to Glasgow, which was really bumpy. He was happy to be on the ground and was ready to explore Scotland for a few days.
We took a cab to my flat and we got him settled in. I immediately took him to Hogwarts... I mean... Glasgow University, and took him around to where all my classes are. It was a perfectly clear day with only a slight chill, so a lot of people were out and it was great to see the campus actually alive. I then took him out to get food at Montgomery's, where he literally ate half of a chocolate croissant and I scoffed down "bacon" (Canadian bacon, but it's literally just sliced ham) and pancakes. We then walked around Glasgow a little bit before my Anatomy class at 2. Gage didn't sleep on the plane, and jet lag was getting to him, so this was a good opportunity for him to sleep while I was in class. I returned from class and woke him up rather abruptly, and got him up so he could get ready to go out. Two of my friends, Elyse and Emily were celebrating their 21st birthdays, and Gage's was a couple of days before, so we were having a pregame and then going out to a karaoke bar to have a little fun. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone let loose and have not a care in the world if they sounded bad singing and just having fun! I was really trying to get Gage to sing a song, but he wasn't having it. I actually put a song request in for me, but we left before we got around to it. There was apparently a long wait for it, but I wasn't necessarily upset about it.
We got up the next morning and decided to go to the Isle of Bute, which wasn't too far from Glasgow. There was, surprisingly, a castle on the island, but of course, we couldn't get into it. So we decided to just go hiking around with two goals in mind: find sheep and find a highland cow. We found both fairly fast! We then trudged around the island for a while just getting into nonsense, and decided to go back because we were still trying to recover from the day before, and Gage still didn't get to catch up on sleep.
The next day we went back to Portencross on the western coast of the mainland. We found a little beach that was really cool. We found more sea glass, I found a sea sponge, and Gage got his foot wet because a wave hit a nearby rock. Another reason that I proposed going to Portencross again was because I had seen on Google Maps somewhere nearby that there was a cave not far from the castle, and me being me, I decided to go trudging through the woods to find it. On the way to the cave, we were jumping in between mud puddles to try to salvage our shoes, which we did not plan adequately for. We then got to this random place where a couple of buildings were fenced in, but the map said we had to go behind them in order to get to the cave. And so we did.
We wandered around at the base of these old cliffs in order to find the cave, and when we finally came upon it, it was probably one of the biggest disappointments that I had ever seen. It was indeed a cave, but it was very small and only went back a small ways. Two people could not have comfortably fit in there. Feeling a bit like my hopes and dreams had been crushed, Gage and I decided to try to head back. A little ways in front of us we noticed that there was a car driving, which obviously meant that there was a road. So instead of walking through the muddy grass again, we thought it would be smart of us to walk on the road for as long as we could in order to save our shoes. However, we soon encountered a dilemma that we could not get ourselves out of.
There was this low-lying area with tall grass in it that we began walking through, but Scotland being Scotland, it was filled with water. Many of the big patches of grass could be stepped on and provide a cushion between us and the water, so for about a good two-thirds of the area we got through relatively unscathed and with minimal mud. The rest of the way to the road, however, was straight mud.
Either we retrace our steps and waste more time and risk not getting our train, or we just suck it up and run as fast as we can through the mud and try not to die. So, naturally, we took the latter. We sank about shin-deep into cold, wet mud and clambered our way to the road. When we got there, we took our shoes off and dumped out an excessive amount of muddy water out of our shoes, but even when we put them back on, water squished out of them when we walked. There was no way avoiding looking like complete maniacs on the train. We even passed this woman walking her dog who gave us a weird look. We walked back toward the gated in buildings, and saw a sign that pointed behind us indicating that there were two nuclear reactors nearby.
So we walked through radioactive mud in order to save time.
We were sure that in a couple of days we would have some anatomical mutation.
And to make the story THAT much better, when we finally got to the train station, we had about 20 minutes until it arrived, so we sat down on one of the beaches and relaxed for a bit when a train not meant to go to Glasgow stopped at the station. A woman ran up to it just as it started to move again, and when she realized she had missed her chance, she walked up to us, got really close to Gage's face, and half-talked half-mumbled asking him when the next train to some random town was coming through. He said he didn't know and she went to go sit down on the floor, even though there was plenty of empty benches open. We were confused, so instead of talking to each other about it and risk having her hear, we were texting each other trying to figure out what it was she was on. As if to confirm our suspicions, we heard a loud snorting noise from her.
So definitely on drugs.
She had also been muttering to herself for quite sometime, and though we aren't experts on drugs, we knew that cocaine didn't make you babble incoherently. So we settled on bath salts of some sort. Scotland definitely has its fair share of winners.
We finally got back to my flat and we both crashed from the exhausting day of hiking and confusion we had just had. We also started getting his stuff together since he had to leave about midday the next day.
The next day I dropped him off at the airport. It was so great to have someone from back home come to visit me, but it also creates a bittersweet moment when they have to go. The ride back to my flat alone sucked, because I had just gotten used to having someone with me that was familiar and like family. But nonetheless, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend with Gage. He got to see me, most importantly, he got to explore a little bit of Scotland, and we had so much fun.
Definitely one of the best weekends of my whole trip.
