Glasgow to Leeds, though not as planned...

Andrea and Adam's bus back to London left at eight in the morning so we were up quite early and at teh bus station we said our goodbye's. 'It's been fun, see you when i'm next in America'. I then went in search of the train station where i thought i could get a ticket to Leeds for a remarkable £12, but first i had to find the station. I knew roughly where it was as the hotel receptionist had given me a map and shown me, but i had all day and was in no rush. Along the way i reluctantly withdrew my map and quickly looked at it, as Glasgow is the kind of place where if someone sees that you are lost they will cross the road to ask if you need help. Sure enough, on the second time i withdrew my map a lady did ask me if i needed help, but i assured her that i was fine. So as i ambled to the train station i thought about my stay in Scotland...'Glasgow was a very fine place, very friendly; people had fantastic accents; i got to see Loch Ness; I tried Haggis; saw some men in kilts at the Hogmany celebrations; but i didn't get to go to Edinburgh or try a deep fried mars bar - there's always next time' i mused. But as it turned out i could at least cross one of those two missed opportunities from my list as the only train i could get to Leeds bypassed Edinburgh and cost £49. So having no other choice i took it, and with in an hour and a half i was in the country's capital. My ticket to Leeds was not time dependent so i wandered outside of the station and had a look around the chilly but beautiful city. First i walked through a large park that was the drained out remains of a Loch (lake) which sat below Edinburgh castle, then i wandered up to the castle and had a nice look around the outside. It cost £11 to get in, and i didn't feel like walking around too much in there as my backpack was starting to weigh heavy upon me. Whilst taking photos of it, a worker there asked how i was going, and we got chatting. He told me where he thought a good chip shop would be that sold deep fried mars bars, so i headed in that direction, back over past the railway station, not before visiting the (free) kilt making and Military Tattoo mueseums. When i made it onto the street that the chip shop was supposed to be on i spied another mueseum that was having an exhibition on portraits. Now i'm not all that big on paintings, but i'm rather partial to a good photographic portrait, so i thought i would have a quick gander through the exhibition to see if any painted portraits would excite me. Before i could enter the room though, a lady informed me that i could not wear my bag inside and i could either carry it by my side or leave it at the front desk. My bag must wiegh in excess of 15kg so chose to leave it at the front counter where i recieved a token to show when i returned to pick it up. I went back into the exhibition and was very impressed by some of them, who managed to emulate photography amazingly 'why do that when you could just take a photo some might say' but 'why not!', i'd reply it looked fantastic. As i left the exhibition i decided i might just leave my bag there a little while, to liten my load for my search for the deep fried mars bar.
After finding that the place suggested by the castle employee was closed i went into a 'Walkabout' pub which is an Australiasian themed bar, and while i was waiting to ask someone, i had a look at their food menu. To my surprise, i found that everything on their menu looked fantastic! I didn't think Australians really had a specific food culture, but i must be wrong. Ther were chunky lasagnes, burgers, roasted potatos, salads, wedges and much more, all very nice and whetting my apetite. The guy at the bar with a very Australian accent (must be from Perth) gave me some very very rough directions on how to get to Old town where there was sure to be a 'chippy'. So i followed them and after crossing an old bridge and a pub called 'the Scotsman' (i just mentioned that because lots of people were having their photo taken infront of it - perhaps it is famous?) i found just the shop i was after. I ordered a burger, can of IRN BRU and a 'Mars fry' as it was advertised. Handed to me in typical fish shop styrofoam was my holy grail, i had found it, THE DEEP FRIED MARS BAR!!!! Now it sounds a bit over the top deep frying a chocolate bar - but deary me, what a fantastic over the top idea it is. The crispy battered shell holds the warm melted chocolate in beautifully and the two combine to form a brilliant filling treat. You should definatly try this at least once in your life time (perhaps any more and your arteries might clog up!) Just like the two minute noodles and toast in Wales, adding these two good things together was never going to be a bad conbination. I ate my burger and downed my drink on the walk back to the mueseum to collect my bag, as i thought someone might get a bit suspicious if they actually thought about a bag that had been abandoned, with the security announcements that are currently running at all airports and train stations. Thankfully my bag was still there, so i gave a donation to the 'friends and good pals of Scottish art' foundation and went to catch my train back to Leeds. The trip took me along the east coast of Scotland so i got a nice view of the ocean and rugged shoreline and also of the very green country side before it got dark and i arrived back in Leeds.

Ahh, so it has been brought to my attention that the address to my blog could quite easily be read as justins oversea sexchange...... thats funny - it'll keep people guessing!

So overseas exchanges eh? Well the main reason that i came to England was to experience a different culture (sure visiting rels and mates rated pretty highly, but thats not my point at the moment), and i'm sure i'm not the only one. I've noticed at International House, my college in Newcastle that alot of International students seem to hang out with other international students - especially ones from their own country - and this bothers me a little. I think, 'why do you come all this way just to hang out with people from your own country?' and i was very sure that when it was my turn to go on exchange that i wouldn't do that. But looking at my friends now they are from Brazil, America, Czech Republic, Germany, Canada, France, and a couple from the UK. A large reason for this is because there is an international welcome week separate from the freshers intro week, so we bond together and get to know our way around before the poms arrive. Then to make things somehow easier for themselves, at our accommodation all of the international students are grouped onto the one floor - apparently because we all have half year leases - but meaning that it is even harder to meet British people. This did worry me initially, but it doesn't any more. Becasuse i am meeting lots of people that i wouldn't have met if i were in Australia - and I am interacting with lots of poms - Alex from London at Breakfast, Matt my nieghbour and soon to be guitar tutor (i got one - hoorah!), Harry and Rich my soccer playing mates, Helen the Med student who took the video of Hypnodog and everyone else from tutorials, lectures and who i randomly meet in everyday life.

Ben, Tereza and i went to a give it a go learn to knit class yesterday - Ben was super keen, i didn't know what to expect. We all picked it up pretty easily and i had a crack at it last night. I was worried that i might get addicted and might do more knitting then guitar playing wasting my £30 investment. But i don't think that'll be the case - it can get very frustrating, i keep making my stitches a bit tight, and making lots of little mistakes.
Today is a big day for stuff - not so much for work, although i do apparently have an ethics essay due in two weeks. I've got five a side at 1, learn to climb at 2:30, then salsa dancing at 5.
We had a great proctorial for philosophy yesterday - all about what is art. I had read the readings and was one of the most oppinionted people in the group and alot of what i was saying was really grounded stuff - it felt great to be confident in my opinions. Although i don't know if it was conclusive. My view is that Art has to be put in the framework of art to be art - so almost anything could be art.... I don't want it to be, but i can't see how it wouldn't be this way. hmmm.