London Calling...

So it has been two very eventful weeks since I blogged last. Sorry to keep you all waiting for more information on my life, I know you have all been checking everyday to see if I have written anything new. I'll start waaaay back when, on November 5th.

When my mom and I were staying in the West End of Glasgow there was this very intriguing bar across the road from us which was a renovated church. We talked about going there for a drink many times over the course of the week she was here, but we never actually went. Before she left, she made me promise I would go with my friends to check it out, so I could tell her what it was like. On the 5th AJ, Julie and I headed to Oran Mor just for my mom.

AJ and I in Oran Mor. Notice the neat wall behind us.

AJ, Julie and I in the club part of Oran Mor

Oran Mor

The bar was really neat; it has a club in the basement and spaces that you can rent out for parties, weddings, etc. It also has this night called “A pie, a pint and a play” that I have heard good things about.

Saturday AJ and I went to Stirling, which is a town about 30 miles from Glasgow and is home to Stirling Castle (go figure!). We met Brittany Armstrong’s cousin, Blair, there as he lives in the area and offered to show us around. We walked up from the train station to the castle, and stopped for some lunch.

Stirling from the Castle

Stirling Castle

AJ

Blair and AJ

Castle employee in costume

Elaborate kitchen display

After we toured around the castle for a while we headed back into town and grabbed a drink and a snack before parting ways. It was a nice day and I had fun doing something touristy. We also saw a bus filled with Canadian curlers – they waved at us. AJ figures that they may have heard us speak, could see my lululemon logo on my sweater, or just were being friendly and Canadian.

After a busy weekend I had another week of work – nothing too exciting happening there. I got to have a go at another ward – General Psychiatry instead of just addictions. It was different but a nice change of pace. I really enjoyed working with the clients as they seem more motivated and take their treatment a little more seriously. That being said the addictions side of things is also a lot more fun, and you can have a laugh with the clients as they don’t take themselves too seriously.

Friday (the 12th) came fast and it was Julie’s birthday! For her birthday weekend we (AJ, Julie and I) decided

 we would venture down to London and spend the weekend there to celebrate. We left Friday afternoon and

 took the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh and then from Edinburgh we went to London. It took us about 6

 hours to get there and then we took the tube from King’s Cross to Camden town, the part of London we 

were staying in. We dropped off our bags and went out in search of food – we ended up eating at a Thai 

buffet which was….interesting.  Everyone got something that was ridiculously spicy, because nothing was

 labelled. It’s a good thing none of us has food allergies. After the super spicy food we headed back to the

 hostel for some birthday drinks and headed up to bed. Saturday AJ and I went sightseeing around London

 – we went to Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus.

 We got back to the hostel around 5pm and got ready to go out and had some late lunch. We had tickets to a 

show, called Blood Brothers. The play was really well done – I recommend it to anyone! I was really surprised

 at how much I enjoyed it – not that I didn’t think I would enjoy it, but it exceeded my expectations by far.   

After the show we ended up going to a bar in Camden called the Purple Turtle, which played some great 90s

 music and kept us entertained most of the night. We didn't get back to the hostel until very late and had a hard

 time being up and functioning for our 10am check out time on Sunday. We spent the rest of Sunday

 sightseeing again. We went on a riverboat cruise down the Thames. Our train was supposed to leave at 5:25

 from Euston station and we would have gotten to Glasgow around 10pm but there was a signal failure outside 

of London somewhere so all the trains from Euston station were either cancelled or delayed and we wound up

 having to run for the train from King’s Cross station to Edinburgh, which left at 6:30 and was scheduled to 

get into Edinburgh at 11:27 pm with a connection to Glasgow at 11:30. We were 30 minutes late for our 

connection because the train was delayed so much, but luckily the train company provided all the Glasgow 

passengers a taxi back to Glasgow. I can only imagine how much that must have cost the company. We didn’t

 end up getting back to Glasgow until 2am, which is a little later than the 10pm arrival time we had originally. 

Julie and AJ, eating our Thai takeaway

Wellington Arch

Canadian War Memorial

It smelled like pee in here.

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

Canada gate in front of Buckingham Palace. It was the nicest one.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Trafalgar Square

London Eye

Big Ben

Tower Bridge

There you are – all caught up on my life to date! I’ll try not to wait so long in between posts next time.