Travel Diaries: Glasgow March 2017

Glasgow Botanical Gardens

It was my Birthday in March and before I went gallivanting off to Florida for Wrestlemania and other parts of the UK to see family I went to Glasgow for a weekend to celebrate turning 29. It was a chance to further explore Glasgow after a similar trip last year, this time focusing on finding as much food as possible and then working out whether I’m still hungry enough for ANOTHER doughnut. We got the train up from Euston after I finished work on the Friday night, getting some cans (of gin) in for the journey up, and some disappointing (as ever) food from Leon. This was the journey where I finally finished Pokemon Sun, steamrolling the elite 4 with my Salazzle taking center stage. This meant sitting through the ludicrously long post game cut scenes and credits which lasted approximately half of the 4-5 hour journey (this may be an exaggeration, but oh man were they long). Finally, upon arrival we had to drag our bags through the night streets of a Glasgow that was in full party mode, before checking in to our room at CitizenM. Having booked the trip relatively last minute, and only a few decent places still being left on AirBnB we opted for CitizenM as it’s ever reliable and those giant beds just make it ever so tempting.
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Travel Diaries: Isle of Mull Christmas 2016

Ardalanish

Oh man January started quietly but finished incredibly busy. It meant that a couple of posts I had planned in for the month didn’t happen when they were supposed to, so that means you’re going to hear all about my Christmas in February. To be fair it’s not really about Christmas, and more about the time I spent up on the Isle of Mull, which just happened to be over Christmas. If you’ve read my blog in the past you know that it’s where my parents live, and you’ll also know that over Christmas it has a habit of being pretty dreadful weather. From hurricane force winds through to torrential rain it generally means that I spend more time indoors there than I usually do, with less walks, more cooking and baking and generally hiding away from the elements. On this trip I didn’t even really get outside until Boxing Day, but it ended up being one of the more stunning, if short, walks I’ve done on the island. This was mainly down to the weather actually adding to the scenery. I’m ahead of myself though.
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Travel Diaries: Isle of Mull September 2016

Loch Beg in the rain

As alluded to in a couple of recipes recently, I went up to the Isle of Mull to see my parents in September. I have been many times, and every time try to do something different. This time included popping to the idyllic island of Iona (twice, due to poor weather stopping ferries the first time) as well as a walk from Loch Buie to Carsaig (which includes a using a rope to climb down some rocks) and a number of other shorter walks. The trip also featured a 3 day period where we had no running water, as my parent’s pump on their private supply broke. This meant we had to carry about 1000 litres of unfiltered water from the stream up to their house, and we could only really use that for flushing toilets and running a dishwasher. Fortunately we managed to get a pump sorted in a few days, but it was a harsh reminder of why living on an island isn’t necessarily for everyone. This was also the first time I got to meet my parent’s new dog; Meg. She will feature heavily here.

Pennyghael

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Travel Diaries: Isle of Mull April 2016 Pt.2

Pennyghaell - Loch Na Keal

So a while back I started my photo diary posts of the last trip I took up to see my parents on the Isle of Mull. You can see those here. As alluded to in a previous post, I took some time away from the blog in April/May for personal reasons, but I wanted to complete the photo diary. So here’s the last photos of our trip, taken at Easter 2016 on the Isle of Mull. This entails a drive to Ulva, a waterfall, the Ulva Boathouse (where we had a particularly special meal) and then the trip back to the mainland on the ferry. We had some wonderful wildlife spots on this trip, which sadly didn’t get photographed. A good few of them were in the dark like an Albino Deer and Barn Owl, and others, like the White Tailed Eagles, are just too far away to capture without a decent zoom lens.

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Travel Diaries: Isle of Mull April 2016 pt.1

Travel Diaries Isle of Mull 16
At Easter of 2016 I took my girlfriend to meet my parents on the Isle of Mull. We’d spent a number of days in Glasgow and traveled up (incredibly early) on the Friday morning by train. We got the ferry across late that morning and I had my first chance to show the area off to Maddie. The weather was completely mixed for the whole trip, with it fluctuating from heavy rain to bright sunshine (the ferries later on the same day actually got cancelled and my sister had to stay in Oban for the night). This post shows images from our crossing and first couple of days on the island, including the ever changing and beautiful view from my parents house across to Ben More and a walk we did to Knockvologan and its beaches. Another thing to note was we paid a visit to the Isle of Mull Weavers at Ardalanish/Uisken and were talked through the whole process of weaving and design. If anything it made me want one of their pieces even more, and I’d recommend popping in if you’re ever on the island.

Oban to Mull Ferry
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