{"id":1071,"date":"2010-04-23T09:05:55","date_gmt":"2010-04-23T16:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=1071"},"modified":"2025-11-04T10:55:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T17:55:33","slug":"me-and-scotland-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=1071","title":{"rendered":"Me and Scotland, Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most relaxing vacation I had (before\u00a0 my recent jaunt to Coachella) was my trip to Scotland with my mother. A co-worker at the time, Patricia, also went with us.\u00a0 Since my mother was paying for my ticket with frequent flier miles (business class – SWEET!) Patricia and I did all the planning.\u00a0 After a consultation\u00a0 of the major sites to see, Patricia researched and planned the Bed and Breakfasts\u00a0 and I researched and came up with smaller tourist stuff in each city.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We purchased a Eur-rail pass for transportation and off we went.\u00a0 My mother and I had learned our lesson from that first Europe lecture tour and took one small roll-away bag each.\u00a0 Patricia, who’d traveled to France before, apparently hadn’t learned this lesson.\u00a0 Watching her wrestle a huge roll-away, a hand suitcase and a big duffel over her shoulder onto a train was embarrassing.\u00a0 Especially during rush hour!\u00a0 She bonked several people down the aisle and I realized she had no real concept of her space.\u00a0 She was a tall and large woman who had (for some unknown reason) illusions she was petite.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, we took the train out to Bath and spent a day there taking a tour of the Roman Baths and saw Stonehenge along the way.\u00a0 When we got to the train station for Stonehenge we just hired a taxi and had him wait while we did the tour.\u00a0\u00a0 Not only did we trust him with our luggage we paid him for the 2 hours he sat there and waited for us.\u00a0 Stonehenge was roped off and you didn’t get to wander\u00a0 inside the pillars.\u00a0 As disappointing as seeing the Mona Lisa. (Small and roped off so you could barely experienced it.)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But we didn’t care too much.\u00a0 We got to see it.\u00a0 After Bath we took the train back to London and headed up north.\u00a0 We stopped in York (there is a really cool underground dig of an old Viking settlement.)\u00a0 Patricia was all about visiting Cathedrals and Mom and I just wandered about the city and saw what we could see.\u00a0 Then we hit Edinburgh at the tail end of their month-long music festival. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We spent 4 days there and after 4 days of traveling we were ready to stop jumping from city to city and settle.\u00a0 We did a concert of Pipes and Drums (OMG.. me and drums.. I was in heaven!) Patricia and I tried the Haggas and my mother had the Whitefish at this fancy restaurant with a Scottish show.\u00a0\u00a0 Guess who got sick!\u00a0 My mother!\u00a0 She had food poisoning for that entire night and when we woke up that morning she told us she’s spent the night in the bathroom, but said, “I’m fine now.. lets just not stray too far from a toilet!”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Toured the Edinburgh castle, bought a felt cape and tried a pub here and there.\u00a0 I love a man with an accent.\u00a0 But on that trip I was afflicted with a case of Tourist Shyness. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Oh pick up your jaw off the floor!\u00a0 Yes, I got shy. <\/em> TRY to wrap your head around that!\u00a0 But I was a different person 15 years ago.\u00a0 Looking back I realized I was in a mental space of husband shopping.\u00a0\u00a0 And I’d already started conversations with the man I eventually married. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But the romantic\u00a0 in me loved the idea of meeting a Scottish man with that sexy accent and falling madly in love. \u00a0 And for some reason I couldn’t go into the pubs with my vamp sexuality AND want the romantic connection at the same time.\u00a0 So since I was accompanied by my Mother and large Patricia, we didn’t “party” in any of the pubs. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ah, but today is a different day!\u00a0 Sometime in the next few years my girlfriend Eithne and I will take a trip to Ireland. <\/strong><\/span>See, she’s from Ireland and wants to visit family<\/strong><\/span> and I want to pub crawl through that county to my hearts content.\u00a0 Irish accent, Scottish accent makes no difference to me!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lets see if I can invent some American stereotypes to live up to!
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most relaxing vacation I had (before\u00a0 my recent jaunt to Coachella) was my trip to Scotland with my mother. A co-worker at the time, Patricia, also went with us.\u00a0 Since my mother was paying for my ticket with frequent … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-joy-of-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1071"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3319,"href":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071\/revisions\/3319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}