To the Scot Lands!

Aye! It’s 7:30 AM local time and I’m sitting with a Scottish tea in my lap feeling excited. I’ve just landed yesterday - and I’m about to detail some possibly boring travel stuff so keep scrolling if you don’t wanna see it!

So yesterday I got to London Heathrow at about 10AM after a decent flight on a double decker plane! I was in the top deck too, felt quite stylish. Even though the food was like gruel, there’s something about getting served two meals on an airplane that feels fancy. They also kept giving us drinks and were handing out free wine and beer in the twos! I had a Xanax so I unfortunately didn't want to get in on the wine, lest I become a caracature of a “crazy American tourist” yelling about a penguin hanging out on the wing of the plane like in the movie Bridesmaids. I had no one to the right of me and an aisle seat, plus no children in my little section, so I got about 5 hours of intermittent sleep. By the time I woke up my 9.40 hour timer had gone down to just 4.30 so I watched the Mean Girls Musical. It was super good actually! Excellent plane movie material - over-the-top cheese, funny moments, and Renée Rapp. What more could you want?

Heathrow customs was a breeze and then it was Duty Free land - man I’ve never seen so many Duty Free luxury shops. It was quite overwhelming! Managed to find an Aēsop and grabbed a little hand cream from the tester shhhh.

My second flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh wasn’t as luxurious as the first - on a row with a baby, next to another baby, two kids, and a THIRD baby just behind. I think all the babies were crying at one point together. At least it was a quick flight.

Landed and then took the Tram to the city centre - got off at Princes Street and caught a nice look at the Castle and monuments surrounding! The weather was of course spitting rain but I had to take my bag and walk it through the cobblestones a half mile to the train station! Found it in no time, bought my ticket, found my platform, hopped on to Tweedbank, and stopped off in the old mining town of Newtongrange where my stay will be for the next couple days. Jabbar - from Avatarland - has just gotten a house here and his father-in-law, Neil, is setting it up. They’ve kindly let me stay in the guest room! I think I’m the first person to ever stay here, which is an absolute honor!

Neil kindly picked me up from the train station and, after a quick shower, he showed me around the town! It’s very cute here - lots of brick buildings, with a big park in the middle. There’s just one “Main Street” with the only pub in the town. Every door on that street must be painted a reddish-pumpkin color by law apparently! After he showed me his townhouse - cat and all - We got a Guinness each and chatted about the West Highland Way. Neil did it about 40 years ago with his best friend and had lots of stories. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever had a Guinness - thought I was being cool but then realized it’s an Irish brand so it doesn’t matter anyway. It’s also so dark in color!

After that I was about ready to pass out so I slept from about 9PM to 6AM and now, we are caught up in the present day, dear reader. Follow along for more ramblings!