Scotland

Hello from Belfast,

Sorry it's taken so long to update this blog. All last week I was in Scotland staying with relatives, during which time I was kept very busy and had almost no access to internet. So far, my idea of using wireless with my palm pilot hasn't worked out as it is harder to find wireless than I expected. But now that I am on my own, I should have more time to update.

So, how to describe everything I've in seen in a few words as I use internet that costs $4 for 40 minutes? I had a good plane ride out, it took about 8 hours to travel the 7039 km between here and Glasgow, and we arrived 45 minutes early! I was met at the airport by my grandmother's cousin Mary. She lives near the airport in a suburb called Renfrew. I got almost no sleep on the plane and was quite tired when I arrived at 8am (around midnight in Vancouver). I slept for a couple hours, then went into Glasgow with Mary. We stopped at the Botanical Gardens and at her son's optical shop, before calling it an early night. My first glimpse of Glasgow was that it is a bustling city with a lot of beautiful and very old stone architecture. The next day we went for lunch with Mary's sisters-in-laws to Loch Lomond (pronounced Lock Lowmund). The weather was wonderful and we had a great lunch. I tried a scottish soup called Cullen Skink (creamy smoked fish soup) that was wonderful. Then we went over to the village of Luss. It's a conservation village so it's been preserved in the style of the turn of the century. We had a lot of fun buying souvenirs in the gift shop and got a beautiful view of the loch and its famous mountain, Ben Lomond.

The next day, my last in Glasgow, we went into Glasgow again to the Science Centre. It's an unusual silver building that the locals refer to as the armadillo. We also watched a show at the planetarium that's part of it. Then we went to the bus station so I could book my tickets to Stornoway and Belfast, before going home.

The next morning I left early in the morning for the Glasgow bus station to catch a bus to Inverness, then to Ullapool where I would catch the ferry to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, then meet many other relatives. The trip took nearly 12 hours, and I was met at the Ferry Terminal in Stornoway by the my grandmother's cousins Maimie and Murdo Dan, and Maimie's daughter Kathleen at 8pm. They drove me to Maimie's where I would be staying for 3 days. I slept very well there, which was a relief because I had been having problems with jet lag ever since arriving at Scotland, despite the fact that I was staying the most comfortable beds imaginable. It is customary in Scotland to warm your bed at night with an electric blanket, which is a lovely lovely experience (of course, you have to turn it off before you fall asleep). The next day Maimie and I left early to go into downtown Stornoway so I could look around. I had seen some Harris Tweed bags on the ferry that I really liked and hoped I could find something similar on the island (that didn't cost $80 like the ones I saw). Harris Tweed is a cloth manufactured only in the Hebridies, in the Western Isles of Scotland. The industry maintains its integrity by requiring that all the cloth be handwoven from wool and it is a beautiful, durable cloth. Unfortunately, it was a holiday weekend on the island so the Loom Centre, where I hoped to find the purses, was closed. However, there was a craft fair on in town and Maimie bought me an adorable tweed change purse. Then we went back home, where Murdo Dan and his wife Muriel picked me up to drive me around Stornoway and some of the island (and gave me a tweed coaster and key chain). We had a wonderful lunch at their house, then drove to a local weaver that worked near them. He was working on a piece of cloth with his loom, which he worked by pedaling just like a bicycle. He had to hand tie over 1500 individual threads though. It was wonderful to see, and I will post the picture later. When starting a new piece of cloth you have to use an old piece as a guide, then cut that bit off later. He had some of these leftover pieces and gave them to me. I was ecstatic, now I just have to learn to sew so I can do something with it when I get home. Then we drove around the island and saw the Lady Matheson Memorial at Lews Castle, which overlooks the Stornoway Harbour and has recently been renovated. We also saw the War Memorial, which is a tall monument that you can see overlooking Stornoway. While there I got a good picture of some scottish sheep, which are plentiful on Lewis, and a little different than the ones in Canada, because the males have horns which make them look more like mountain goats. Then we drove around the island going to Lower Stanwick, where my great grandmother once lived, then driving through many other towns and ending in Tolstad before coming back. It was a fantastic day and I saw a lot of the beautiful coast.