First Vacation: Scottish Highlands, London, Berlin

I met my mum (who had come for a couple days to visit her mum) at my granny’s house. The next morning we travelled to The Highlands in Scotland and met my dad and his mum. Thus beginning three very boring days. We did lots of driving around the country to the coast and to the local “ski hill” (really a small mound with million km winds). I took my gran’s dog for walks and found huge Clydesdale horses around the loch behind her house. Also meeting old family friends I didn’t know, always a highlight.
Then down to London. Went and saw my friend Sergei from Vancouver who is now living where the original Globe Theatre was and working in the heart of London’s financial district. I then went and had the night of my life with an old friend. My sister and I met Connor on a Contiki tour in 2003. He was living in Edmonton at the time, but then upped and left (similarly to myself) and now lives in Bristol. I got in touch with him recently since I was about to struggle as he did, and he mentioned he’d be in London when I was. I met up with him and his friends and had the funniest night in Soho I could imagine. We went to a few gay bars, many of which were predominately covered in sparkles and discoballs. Transvestites ready to show the world their brand new boobies (check). Awkward lesbian couple making out in public for what would seem, the first time ever (double check).
Shirtless men and sweaty bodies gyrating to techno funk music (many checks).
So great.
I also got to have lunch with Jess, a girl I worked with at the JCC who’s going to law school in London. I hung out with my cousin Rosie (who lived with us in Vancouver for about a year) and met her new bf and a friend. Big family lunch with uncles and all the plus ones. Picked up that suitcase and at 3:30am, left my aunts house to go to my third destination.
A good friend of mine, Nelson, from the Canadian lifesaving team was back packing around Europe since the comp in Bath. Since I love all things German, I decided to meet him in Berlin. Highlights being, seeing Nelson, seeing the Holocaust memorial that wasn’t finished the last time I was there, having museum day where hungover I walked through four museums (all within 5 minutes of each other and on “museum island”) in 6 hours. We went on a pub crawl with some moody Mexican dude who fed me vodka and orange between bars. Along with random shots at every bar (including an abysnth one on special at the 3rd establishment!) and a final beer, I was throwing up enroute to the last night club. Oops. Also, if you ever hear anything like “gail hit a small child inside the holocaust memorial” it’s a lie devised by Nelson because he was jealous that I was winning in the running race through said memorial.
All in all Berlin was so awesome, I used a bit of my German, though it is significantly worse than it was last April. Seeing the fam was good, and partying in Soho made Davie and Commerical streets in Vancouver look like shy communities. Back home to the job hunt…