Highlands in the sun (hip hip) - Part I

When you're ooon a hooooolidayyyyyyy.....

Hi guys! Wow, I haven't posted in more than 6 months... a bad girl I am indeed :( The reason, you might have guessed, is that I have been sooo busy with the second semester of my master's course (but I won't bore you with studies in this blog update) and I only finished my exams a couple of weeks ago =)

So, in order to celebrate a well-deserved 2-week break before the start of my summer project (which I should actually be working on now, instead of posting here), I ventured away from the safe streets of the Glasgow West End and went to the Highlands (or kinda). Twice.

The first time was with 3 friends from uni (from left to right, Clare, Amanda and Daryl), who introduced me with Loch Lomond and typically Scottish picnics (sun -> wind -> food -> rain -> hail ("grêle") -> dessert-in-the-car -> sun). I think Scottish weather deserves a post of its own, so I will spare you more remarks on that topic for now ;)

The second time was with friends from London town (I still don't get where this expression comes from or what nuances it brings, but I like it ;-)). Well, actually they're friends from Paris, but they moved to London when I was in Slough (London suburbs) and 2 out of 3 are still there.

Let us introduce them :

- Sabrina (aka Sab), one of my best friends and whom I've known since high school, currently finishing her master's in European law at prestigious College d'Europe in Bruges (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). She wasn't meant to join us at first, as she had an oral presentation on the Monday, but it was cancelled at the very last minute (on the Friday), so she went on a Eurostar to London and went with the guys. And also doomed us for the whole week-end as we had to squeeze in a tiny car ^_^

- Alexis (aka Al), Sab's boyfriend, who has a secret passion for plages arrières (rear board thingy that you put on top of your junk in a car boot), also a computer programmer for Customs and Revenues during the day.

- David (aka Moumou), Al's other secret lover and our lovely driver (the only one with a driving licence), who does not wish me to reveal his employer's name, for fear readers might want to kill him, but the gist of it is that he does super-smart things related to software and finance.

- and, last but not least, Nils (aka many things), my lovely boyfriend, and who helped a lot with the choice of locations (since he'd already been in the Highlands) and, more importantly, replaced Al as the front seat owner for our own safety and to accommodate Al's love affair with his beloved plage arrière. Oh, and he's an associate researcher in the computing science department at Glasgow Uni and the reason why I moved to Glasgow in the first place :).

David rented a (tiny ;)) car and left London with Al and Sab on the Friday night, they stayed in a hotel in Manchester, woke up far too late on the Saturday and finally arrived at our place in Glasgow around 5pm. There, it was discussed to go camping that very night, but every single site in the area was fully booked, so Nils and I cooked them the traditional Scottish dish 'haggis, neeps and tatties' (aka haggis, nipples and titties) and showed them around Glasgow West End and my university instead. I think they loved it ;)

Ashton Lane, the streets with all the pubs next to the uni (and a cool Guiness façade)

The tower of the University of Glasgow, which looks more like a cathedral than a university (but I have my lectures in the ugly modern buildins anyway :D)

The view of the city and the Kelvingrove Museum from the top of the hill (where the university is)

That's it for now... I will tell you more about it later, or this post will be far too big ^_^ (that, and I don't remember all the names of the places we went to)