Scotland, Redux

A couple of weeks ago, I got my second chance to go to Scotland. This time we (my boss and I) opted to leave in the middle of the week and return in the middle of the next week. Among other things, that optimized the amount of time we had to sight-see during the weekend.

The first night there was a little rough. I had gotten a little cold the day before I left, so I slept about 17-20 hours right before I got on the plane. Therefore, I couldn't get any sleep on the flight over to help offset the jet lag caused by a 6-hour time difference. So, by 8 PM the first night, I had already crashed with all of the hotel room lights on, the TV blaring and the curtains open. When my phone rang at 3:30 AM by someone back in the states that didn't know I was overseas, I looked outside and got even more confused. Scotland is far enough north that during certain times of the year, the sun doesn't completely set. The picture you see is how light it still is in the middle of the night this time of the year. It's kinda cool, but it really screws you up.

Our trip coincided with the start of the World Cup. To those of you that don't know or don't care, soccer (or "football" if you are outside of the US) is the only sport anyone cares about. And, man, do they love this shit. Everything stops for the World Cup. Stores shut down. People don't show up for work. (they don't even bother feigning sick--everyone knows better) News coverage turns to 100% soccer. It's a hell of a sight.

The Friday night we were there, some of the guys from the office came by and took us on a classic pub crawl. It was fuckin awesome.

We began by getting a couple of pints at the hotel bar--waiting for everyone to show up. At the end of just those two pints, I was more than a little buzzed. Then we walked to the city center and hit no less than 3 pubs and 1 nightclub. By the end, I think I had as much alcohol that night as I've had in the last couple of years. I was absolutely smashed. I think I crawled into my hotel room sometime after 3 AM. (I don't think they stop serving until 4 AM) The bad thing was that my boss and I were going to leave for sight-seeing at 7 AM that morning. When I got up 3 hours later, I was still really drunk. We had to sleep it off for a while before leaving the hotel. The amazing thing is that I didn't have a hangover! After getting a little food in my stomach, I felt perfectly fine. To this day, I still don't know how that happened. Under any other circumstances, I would have been sick for 2 solid days with as much as I had to drink. Viva la Scotland!

P.S. You can see some of the pictures from this trip at Flickr.