Scotland Day 1

as copied from my Facebook note and updated with dinner news:

well it's 4:30 and I'm still going strong - haven't crashed yet - although I feel it coming on soon. 

My plane was delayed yesterday because there was something wrong with the AC which lead to frantic panic this morning when I landed. 

The flight wasn't bad - sat next to a pretty cool old british couple - they just got back from vegas and won. good for them. watched the bounty hunter, iron man 2, and the Joneses on the plane. Had trouble sleeping - it' sjust an awkward position to be sleeping in ha. 

I have always steered away from the bathrooms in airplanes, just because they are so small. crazily smal. but I had to go and now I kinda like airplane bathrooms. In fact I might use one each time I fly. 

I land at the airport and realize i need to go to terminal 3 where BA is since they were flying my connecting flight. I couldn't see anyone to ask questions to. seriously, no one in sight. so I just go down to the busses and wait and alas! a person sitting in a high desk. I walk up and say "excuse me ma'am I just got off a flight from Houston and I have a connecting flight to go to for Aberdeen and wanted to make sure they automatically loaded my luggage"

She looks at me and with the most disgusted, annoyed, how dare you interrupt my puzzle playing voice says "i'm not with the airlines, I'm with security"

wow. thanks.

then about 5 minutes later another lady speaking broken english says something about going to Germany and the security chick says "go look at the wall".

so not what she needed.

oh well.

so i get to terminal 3,  I go through security, get to the desk and am informed I am in the wrong terminal. FML. Apparently I should have just gone straight to terminal 5 for continental. Well people, if there were desk agents outside waiting to help us I wouldn't have had that problem. 

so I get my ticket, go through security AGAIN, and HAUL MY BUTT to gate A1 where I sit and we take off. yessssss. 

my hotel is a Marriott. it looks kinda retro from the outside, the inside is, umm...dark? the bed is hard... I wonder if this is a UK thing...but the room is nice and large which leaves me plenty of room for my clothes to be scattered about. I laughed that the hotel advertised offering AC because it's something I wouldn't think a hotel would think to advertise. Thank goodness they have it. It's kind of hot here in the day time. 

I arrived and unpacked...sort of...and went straight to ASDA to pick up a few things and mainly to just keep my body awake and alert. 

When I told the front desk where I wanted to go they insisted it was a simple 15 minute walk. I said I'm from Houston that's a far walk (plus I was thinking I'd have groceries and such). They called a taxi for me and I was on my way. 

I was greeted with this:

A peculiar contraption. All the carts were chained together and I couldn't figure out how to get mine. I fumbled around with it and then decided to just ask someone. "You need a pound coin" the kind lady said. "Oh, Ok, never mind" I said and walked away. Little did I know later, my mother informed you receive the coin back when you return the cart! If you think about it, this is quite ingenious and America should think about such a thing. Then they wouldn't have to hire people whose sole job was to collect carts. and it just might limit the amount of carts that run lose and hit cars. Although knowing the vast majority of americans they probably think it is worth a $1 to no have to walk all the way back to the front of the store to return the cart. ha. 

After collecting my goodies from the store I ate lunch which consisted of sausage roll and chips and gravy:

I was unaware of how glorious gravy and french fries tasted together. I was skeptical at first and asked the kind man to only put gravy on the sausage roll. However, if I have this again, gravy is going on both :) Once my Grandparents found out I liked this meal, my Nanny said she will cook this for me next week when I visit them. OOOO delish. 

After a full tummy and shopping bags with the essentials: drinks, digestives, chocolate, and crisps, I head back to my room and take a quick nap. 

For dinner I ask the front desk for the best place in town for scottish food. She recommends the Dunhaven Hotel and Restaurant which is only a 5 minute walk away. Excellent. I can do 5 minutes. It's getting late though and I didn't want to particularly walk back at night alone so she said if I called when I was done with dinner they would have the shuttle come pick me up. How kind. 

I review the menu and it doesn't look very scottish to me except for Chicken and Haggis which I call my father and ask what it is. After hearing the description I'm not sure I'm ready for that so I decide to try their special, Chicken Tika Masala:

It was average. The best part was the naan bread and the crispy thing and the rice. 

I stop at Tesco Express to pick up some tea and head back to my hotel where I settle in for the night. 

Definitely a fun adventure for day 1. Tomorrow will be filled with even more fun things. It's 4am here though, and I am going to try and get some more rest.