Scottish wedding

And still I'm in Europe, this time further though. Very good friend of mine who comes from Scotland was getting married and I got an invitation. She's too good friend to miss that wedding and foreign wedding is too interresting to miss it. It does not happen often to be able to take part in such ceremony outside the country that you come from.
So on Thursday afternoon I took plane to Warsaw, only to unpack, pack, go to bed and get up at 5 to catch a plane to Edinburgh (via. Amsterdam). This is where adventure started. We had delay in Warsaw, so not too much time in Amsterdam for transfer. So I just took a glance on the display and headed towards gate H. By the time I got there exact information was displayed, that boarding gate is H4. I did not feel like waiting in a long line so wandered around a little bit, I've spoted EasyJet plane standing directly in front of gatre H4. But who knows, maybe KLM cooperates with them. When the line reduced I went to the counter, gave my boarding pass and choked after I've heard "It's not your boarding pass". "It is". "It's EasyJet and you are flying with KLM." "F.U.C.K.!"
What's more my plane was departuring at 10.30. EasyJet at 10.40.
I don't remember running that fast recently. Walkways were very helpful, oposite to the jacket in hand and bag on my back. Bad information was too, that my correct gate i.e. D10 was almost at the second end of the Schiphol. At least I did not have to go through security, which saved my ass and I've made it. I was the last person who boarded but calmed down by very nice employees who even did not seem annoyed with my being late.
Lesson learned: Always check destination and flight no when you board.

After that I've arrived with no problems in EDI. Even my luggage did not get lost. I took Airlink to the city centre where J. was waiting for me. Than we got a ride from J to Dumfries.
Most of the evening we spent hanging around, I did some running (even though my foot aches) and we went to the centre where just accidently we've found the best pub in the city (so they say at least) - The Cavens Arms, where we met german girl and I polish guy working in there (how did they get there?).

Jul. arrived at 3 o'clock and only managed to crawl to bed and fall asleep. No wonder, flight from Buenos Aires must have been exhausting. But it was good that she's got good sleep as on Saturday we were preparing for the wedding, painting nails, making make ups and enjoying our company. The three of us.
At 2 we were picked up by the bus to get a ride to the church. Views like from the Braveheart movie. Green hills, stone walls, church was also made from stone, with wooden roof painted from inside into rainbow colours.
Guests were also very stylish, some of the guys were wearinf kilts (together with groom and his best man), ladies wearing hats and dresses.
Service was completly different than what I know. Maybe it was because (if I'm not wrong) it was Anglican Church. There was not real service, whole thing was concentrated on bride and groom.
Next we were taken to the Dalton where party took place. White tent, nicely decoreatd, portable toilets, good food, champaign, funny speaches by father of R, groom, mest man and bridesmaid, ppt presentation with photos, crosswords about R and F, photo cameras on each table so that everyone can take photos if they feel like and of course ceilidh. I did not know that it is so easy. It is enought to count to eight, keep the rythm and wath someone who knows which way to go. I did not skip any dance and I guess that I've beed dancing at least with the half of the males that were attending the wedding ;-) Next day I was being recognised only due to my attitude. "Oh you are the girl that enjoyed dancing so much". But what a pity, that all of that finished at midnight. I wanted more.
On Sunday there was wedding continuation, a lunch at R's parents. Big open, house, huge garden, alaskan salmon hunted by her dad (dad with Hugh Grant's smile), elderflower siroup and butterscotch home made by her mum, merengues home made by granny. Chillout in the garden on blocks of straw, chatting with ppl from all over (there were guests from Argentina, Mexico, Finland, Spain, Germany, England, Scotland, Austria, Brazil), preparing old school MG for "just married" with the necessary equipment like baloons, cans at the rear bumper, teddy bears, condoms ect. I've also made a deal with dad to climb Ben Nevis one day.
Rest of the Sunday and Monday were deidcated to visit Edinburgh. In fact I've been there once, but 4 or 5 years ago for the Hogmany (which in the end was cancelled because of the strong wind) and I do not remember too much, so I wanted to do some little sightseeing with M and P. We've staid in High Street Hostel (which I think was a perfect choice of mine - right in the city centre, cheap and cool, actually the best word that comes to my mind how to describe it is german expression: "locker") and in fact we only saw Arthur's Seat with M. It was as windy there as hell, but it wos wortk climbing it. I was only regretting that my foot aches and that I cannot wear my jogging clothes and use it for my training. There were many joggers arround there. It't really cool to have such facilities in the inner city.
Most of the time just slipped through fingers, either we were eating something somewhere, or drinking and observing people through window and having loads of fun with that, or shopping (3 books and leather bag from TopShop) or sitting in the common room or partying during the night. So in fact we did discover at least 10 clubs down there (forget about finding good place on Sunday, we've spent about 3 hours just crawling fom one place to another to find some dance floor) met some funny looking people, but also some cool dudes even though they come up to be gays who stayed with us in a room in a hostel and somehow I could feel that from the same begining. Miss schwul detector ;-)

Zugspitze

It’s not SE Asia yet, but Germany. Zugspitze challenge. Second trial. Second failed. Scenario was completely the same as 4 weeks ago with K. Rain all the time. Ok maybe it was a little bit better on Friday. Last time it was already raining on our way from Hammersbach to Hoellentalangerhuette. This time it’s started to rain after we got there (2h door to door with 15 mins break before we entered Hoellentalklamm).


The hut this time was much more crowded than last time. Almost all sleeping places taken, that’s why with A. we got places in not very cosy, huge room with about 30 other people. But at least we were sharing table with two guys from Frankfurt who also wanted climb Zugspitze on Saturday. Like 90% of the people there. Of course everyone was very upset about the rain and snow on the top. Together with the information that on Thursday someone’s fallen down into the gap between the glacier and rocks it made me think that again we’ll not be able to reach the top.

And indeed even though we woke up at 5.30 (after maybe 2h of sleep as it was impossible to sleep in that huge room), we ate breakfast, we got ready on time, we did not decide to follow the right direction. We’ve decided that it makes no sense to hike when it’s raining cats and dogs and went to Osterfelderkopf through Rindweg. Our new friends from Frankfurt (A had an assumption that they are gays, but in my opinion there were talking something about their wives which he did not get, only some time after) joined us on that way. When we were leaving the cottage the owner, se recognised me from last time. No wonder, we’ve spend whole Saturday there last time.

Constant and steep hike. For A. and me manageable in 2h, for them about 25 mins longer. But still those 2h were enough so that my old waterproof pants soaked and water dropped to my shoes. Actually I was glad that we take a cable car and go to the car to drive to the swimming pool in Graniau ;-). After delicious lunch/dinner (even more delicious as we were not expecting that good quality of food) we drove back to Munich. 240/260 on tachometer allowed us to be back home in about 40 mins. In that car you even did not feel the speed. It looks like a crap, but it has power.

In the cable car with two Frankfurters ;-)

The same on Sunday, we got to Chiemsee in 40 mins after making a decision to go there at 15. Just spontaneous trip to a place where I’ve wanted to go before leaving Germany. It did not make big impression on me. From my personal point of view Koenigssee was much more fabulous. Maybe I have this impression cause this time I was only a Sunday tourist and at Koenigssee I was only dues to the fact that I went hiking.

Sunday tourist photo - fountain on the Herreninsel at the Chiemsee