Jon Tan's Adventure Blog

(morning transfer at the Glasgow train station)

In case you ever visit the Western Highlands of Scotland, know a few things:

1) From Glasgow to the Highlands (a five hour train ride, Ft. Williams is certainly the biggest town you will encounter.

2) If you ride the train, sit on the left side. All the best views were hogged by the left-side-sitting passengers. Well, all except the ones you see on this blogpost. (I sat on the right-hand side)

3) Most shops close around 5:30pm. Pubs + select food joints close around 1am.

(first view into town)

4) The main supermarket (Morrison's) is located a stone's throw away from the rail station. Great prices & lots of choice things to look at, and in the event your long day of travel has worn you down, pickup hot food at the supermarket (pork belly, ribs, chicken, salads, indian chicken tikka wraps, veggies, etc) and give yourself a break.

5) The B&B I stayed at was beyond excellent. "Torlinnhe Guest House" is run by a sweet couple names Andy + Sue. Great, homey environment, clean rooms, private bathroom with the single room, buffet-style breakfast (fruits, breads, pastries), plus a custom order of assorted hot foods, made-to-order (place the order the night beforehand with Sue). Foods include anything from beef & pork sausage to black pudding (aka blood sausage) to vegetable haggis. The only setback? The town center is 1.7miles away, and thus, it is walkable. Taxi ride was about $7.50 (5 pounds) one way. If you're interested in the nightlife/pub scene, then you've have those two options. Or, you could hitchhike…

(church in Ft. Williams)

6) Due to time constraints, I missed the only two things I was hoping to do in Ft. Williams: hike to the Steall Falls (apparently a beautiful 4 mile hike w/ a nice waterfall) and the legendary Ben Neviss hike. I heard it was the highest peak in Scotland, and many travelers use Ft. Wiliam as their base town.

7) Because of all the traveling, I wasn't in the mood to visit the restaurants. My B&B had a booklet containing a listing of all restaurants/pubs, general opinions of each, average price range per meal, and personal reviews by the B&B owners of most places. Very, very, very helpful. However, I decided to eat supermarket food: fresh fruit, chicken tikka rolls, and Memphis Style Ribs (on sale, 1 full rack, 1.99L or about $3.00USD.. awesome price, clearly sitting in the hot food section for over a day., hence the clearance price. More like memphis jerky.. but for an entire rack of well seasoned meat, I couldn't complain). Plus, the taxi driver said the food in town were generally overpriced for Scotland (typical sit down dinners ranged from $18-$35) and I figured it was tourist-targeted. Certainly eating Scottish food the rest of my days here, so I figured I'd be a little friendly on the wallet for an evening.

(view of the loch outside my B&B)

8) Oh, and downside number two regarding the B&B. My macbook pro can't find their wifi, but my iPod touch could. Perhaps their WiFi device isn't set properly.

If you have plenty of time to spend in the Highlands, and you're traveling past Ft. William to Mallaig, get off at the Locheilside train station. There doesn't look to be anything there (civilization wise) but the scenery, the reflective left, and the picturesque sheep pastures + centuries-old knee-high handbuilt stone walls that guard the livestock look straight out of a movie.

If you miss that stop, then get off at the Glenfinnan Rail station. Closest station to the arched bridge where a scene from a Harry Potter movie.

(our train conductor halted the train so we could all view the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct)

But remember, trains pass through this entire line twice a day.

Visiting Maybole

After a few hours of Dublin on Monday, I moved on to Glasgow Scotland. After some minor setbacks (not finding a SIM card vendor at the airport, learning that most places are closed for Easter Monday, the American Express money exchangers not accepting my AMEX card, and then the ATM not taking my credit card because I had no PIN # to my credit card b/c in America there are no PIN #s for credit cards), I finally found my way to the local bus link. I took the bus for 1.92L (pounds), or almost $3.00.

(bus all for me)

In the empty mall (La Piazza), the only store open sold me a SIM card for $1.50, followed by $15 of phone credits. The clerks were happy enough to help me setup my phone, and after much fiddling, I figured how to set my phone properly to make calls.

I grabbed a train and made my way to Ayr (pronounced "air"), a town one hour southwest of Glasgow. From there, my friend Jenny picked me up + took me to her parents place in the coastal town of Maybole. (I befriended Jenny & her partner Emma in Nicaragua while staying at an awesome guesthouse villa in the colonial town of León.) A really quaint little coastal town it was. Her parents were incredibly gracious in welcoming me for the evening. The only regret I had was not staying longer-- to eat delicious lamb + to give them a photograph of their family.

The countryside provided spectacular views, all the while the farm animals were hobbling about on the green pastures. Looking out the car window felt like I was looking at beautifully painted landscape paintings, scene by scene.

(ruins in nearby Dunure)

I spent the evening catching up with Jenny on her adventures, as well as learning a tremendous amount about what local life is like in Scotland. From the castles to the farm animals, everything she shared with me was super intriguing. For example, the main castle in town is very unique to Scotland. For one thing, it is located by a town main street; something other castles cannot take credit for. Secondly, it is the only actively used castle in all of Scotland. While most castles are protected/setup for tourism, this castle is actively being used by businesses of some sort.

(Maybole Castle)

One thing I really appreciated was Jenny's ability to code switch with me. (If you're reading this Jenny, cheers!!!) In the study of linguistics, to 'code switch' is to modify one's speaking vocabulary to fit the understanding of the listener. Although born and raised a Scot, very often Jenny would speak in "my language"-- using words like "miles", and "feet", and "dollars". It's little things like that were really helpful in our many conversations.

Fun fact while Jenny drove me along the coast: there's this little hump of a granite rock sticking out of the water off the coast. All stones used in the sport of "Curling" are harvested here.

Ailsa_craig_from_hms_campbeltown_-_geograph

Photo not by me.

Looking out Jenny's parents' living room window, you can see the town of Maybole. Beyond there, the "Gallowy Hills"

In my brief encounter with Scottish english so far, here are some observations (more linguistics rambling:)

-they use a lot of glottal stops

-rolling of "r"'s is common

-"ui" letter combination is pronounced as the sound /E/ (as in / f E d/ , as in the word "fade")

Leaving Maybole was a bit sad. With my tight schedule (and the infrequent trains that go daily to the western highlands), I had no choice but to depart in the morning. I barely made my morning train because of all the fumbling I was doing at the ticket counter, trying to find 50 pence (our equivalent is cents), but caught it in the nick of time.

Next adventure: 7hr journey from Ayr-> Ft Williams.

a few words i've learned so far:

a call= a stop (busstop, train stop, etc. as in, "this train will call at Main Street, Brick Street, and 5th Avenue")

queue= a line (you don't wait in line, you wait in the queue)

haggis is a seasonal dish (just kidding.. it's a scottish traditional dish of animal innards + blended with oats and seasoning, then cooked thoroughly to something that sounds really delicious. apparently, a highland style of eating Haggis is with a little pouring of whisky on top)

whisky= scottish spelling. whiskey= irish spelling. must remember this.

shoppe = a store (we say going to the store, they say 'going to the shop')

shut = to close (the shop shuts at 10pm)

aye= "yes", an affirmative response.

cheers= haven't quite figured this one out, but I think people in the UK use this as a "thank you". when you open the door for someone, they will say "cheers" as a proper/informal response.

proper= "correct" or "right". (i.e. the proper way to drink tea is with milk and sugar)

to alight = to get off (i.e. this is your train stop. you may now alight from this train)

custom= business/patronage (noun. when leaving a restaurant, you may see a sign saying "thank you for your custom" instead of "thank you for your business". because one who 'customs' is a 'customer', right?)

my friend Sunny, whom i also met in Maybole

Posted by Jonathan R. Tan

Jonathan R. Tan

Contributors

Tags

Links I Like

Archive

Journey to Fort Williams

Visiting Maybole