EPIC Walking Home Self Guided Tour

This was one of the BEST days of the tour despite having incredibly sore feet and completely exhausted by the end of the day. For more on this particular day, see the Scotland: Glasgow and Edinburgh Tattoo blog post. Yep, guy goes to a bar and tries to pick up girls, stays out and spends all his money so has to walk home…. I couldn’t ditch Kevin. He insisted on doing the walk with me. To be honest, he was actually good company for most of it. He had a small tantrum at one point because we took a wrong turn. The streets we had to walk were ALL OVER GLASGOW… no kidding. I’m sure Brian picked the street names to fit the song.. because no matter how drunk he was, there is ZERO way he walked 8km worth of streets that were on opposite sides and outside of the city center by MILES! The streets we needed to get a picture of (the street sign) were: Bath Street, Argyll Street, Duke Street, Hope Street, Dumbarton Road. Queen Street, Renfield Street, John Street, Sauchiehall Street, Great Western Road. Brian would give anyone walking all the streets a special gift… which I didn’t know until I had already done half of them (I wanted to do the walk… because it was in the song. Not for any reward). The chorus is as follows:

This shot was an accident and VERY fortuitous. I needed him leaning on the bar for the song!
Find a Kabab Shop

The song goes like this:

Bath Street, Argyll Street, Duke Street, Hope Street, way down Dumbarton Road.

Queen Street, Renfield Street, John Street Sauchiehall Street, and down Great Western Road.

I spent the whole night trying to talk to the girls, I wasn’t gettin’ very far

I had a few drinks, I had a few laughs, now I’m left leanin’ on the bar….

Chorus

I missed the last train just like last week, the last bus already gone

I find a Kabab shop, I talk with the boys, no money for a taxi home….

Chorus

I wandered around all over the place it’s my favorite time of day

It’s 3 in the mornin’ and everything still, and now I’ll be on my way…

Chorus

Well now it’s getting on, the sun’s comin’ up. My heads just startin’ to clear

I’ll say the same thing again, just like last week… I’ll never touch another beer…..

Chorus

I wandered around all over the place, it’s my favorite time of day

It’s 3 in the mornin’, everythings LOUD and now I’ll be on my way…..

Chorus many times….

I sent Brian all the pictures and headed to Edinburgh for the remainder of the day. When I got home… well, a friend sent me an Ipod movie trailer with a lot of my photos… it was SUPERB. It also got me thinking…

Dina made this for me after I got back from Scotland. It got me thinking and then I made my own which took me DAYS…

So I made my own video. I tried to find a similar app as I have an Android phone and Dina has an Ipod. Evidently, all the tools are in the Ipod but it isn’t compatible with an Android (go figure). I ended up, after several days of frustrations, using Adobe. I had it on my computer and evidently I have access to a lot of apps for just this purpose… but one needs a PhD in order to use them. Once I figured out how to get the music into it, I then started putting in pictures. Then I had to set timing for pic in pic out stuff. By the time I got done, the file was beyond GIANT. So I called my vocal coach and asked if I could borrow her husband. With his help (he is a graphics designer/video guru guy), he did a layering thing and it was GREAT! It took us 8 hours together, then Andy did a few more hours perfecting the timing (he’s adult diagnosed Autism). It was ready to gift to Brian for Sunday’s pub night.

I was soooo nervous to present this to him. We got a lot of the folks who had been on the tour to show up at the pub plus a few from the first year. Waited until the boys had finished for the night and then set up the computer and sat Brian down (a feat in and of itself since he doesn’t sit still or in one place very long). Once it started.. he was absolutely delighted! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Scotland: Glasgow and Edinburgh Tattoo

This was one of the highlights of my trip. The group had all day to explore. It was assumed they would explore Edinburgh because we had train tickets to get there and the Tattoo in the evening. I wanted to walk all the streets in a song Brian wrote about his youth called Walking Home (an entire blog will be dedicated to this as soon as I find the copy of the final project!). We did the west end of Glasgow first. As we got back to the Hotel, I really needed to change my shoes. We caught Brian and Kim on their way out. The had stayed behind to “deal” with Debbie who couldn’t walk the Royal Mile and was being a bit of a pain. They were on their way to Edinburgh as we started the second part of the walking home tour (this wasn’t a planned tour… Kevin and I made our own route and went down some side streets just to see stuff)

Once we got on the train (we had 2 options and we couldn’t figure out the 20 minute train… we ended up on the hour train and it was probably a good thing because I was EXHAUSTED and needed to rest my tootsies) we realized just how tired we were. I think I napped a little on the trip. We got off at Waverly station and proceeded to be tourists along with 5 MILLION others. I was in trouble… I HATE crowds. My first thought on exiting the train station was that Ediburgh had some superb architects to use all that stone several stories in height and have it last centuries. The second thought was actually more of a feeling. I felt oppressed and weighted down. Like the buildings were leaning in on me and would crush me. I dislike Edinburgh which is VERY odd. For decades folks have been telling me how much I will LOVE Edinburgh for its arts, food, and culture. They also said I would HATE Glasgow because it was a working mans town and dirty. I found it the opposite. Edinburgh was dirty and overcrowded and Glasgow was a seriously art centered and beautifully open city! So, off we went to see the sights. Kevin REFUSED to spend ANY extra to see some of the more touristy sites like the castle and whisky exhibit. So we ended up just walking around and I had to BEG him to stop for food and tea (a couple of times I just needed to sit with a cup of tea). It was becoming an issue since I was so tired. It was also a spectacular day and Taps Aff as Brian would say (tops off because it is so warm).

We all met back up to go into the Tattoo together as we had a block of seats and almost 30 folks to organize. We tried to find a place to have a toast earlier, but everything was packed to the gills with Fringe goers so Brian took out a bottle of whisky (we had been told to bring our Highland Way shot glass with us) and filled everyone’s glass and we toasted the tour!

I can’t say enough about the tattoo itself. it is exceedingly well run. You can rent a seat cushion for a nominal fee and all the seats are really good. It was really special and I am glad I have now seen it twice (saw it the next summer too). Not only is there a tremendous spectacle on the floor, but they also project images and color onto the walls of the castle. Then there is the Lone Piper… chilling. When it was all said and done, we had been up since 0700 and got back to the hotel at about 0030ish with over 36k steps on my fitbit!