This is the first part of my recent trip to the United Kingdom, specifically, what we did in Scotland. Let’s dive right in!

Day 1

I feel like it’s important to have an arch-enemy when traveling.

Mine are Italians.

I don’t actually have anything against them, and I’m sure they’re all very nice people, but they’re nice people who are, more often than not, very loud. And especially in an airport, where one might have a couple of hours to hang out and relax, it’s really not helpful when they’re shouting as if they’re not just a meter apart.

Not shown here: the whole debacle with the cat sitter I’d booked for this trip, who simply didn’t show up.

I had to scramble to arrange an alternative after arriving at Hanna’s. Fortunately, everything worked out and my preferred sitter’s plans changed, so she was available at short notice — but it still meant spending the evening anxiously checking my phone and the cameras in my apartment, hoping the original sitter would turn up.

She eventually did, sometime in the middle of the night. And she didn’t even make up a decent excuse. I fired her the next morning.

I couldn’t even blame the Italians for this one, but I’m sure they had something to do with it.

Day 2

Anna and I spent our first full day in Glasgow wandering around, trying to get a feel for the place. It was my first time in the UK, and just being there was already completely fascinating. So many things I’d only ever known from internet culture suddenly felt real. I watched The Yogscast for years and heard stuff like “cheeky Nando’s” so often that I knew exactly how to use the phrase without ever having seen a Nando’s in person.

Moments like that happened dozens of times on that first day, and I loved it. I never actually ate at Nando’s, though, because I don’t eat meat and I’m not about to support a chain profiting from large-scale murder. Hot take alert!

And just as much as I enjoyed those little moments of cultural recognition, I also had a great time eating haggis. Hanna took us to a place that, according to her, makes the best veggie haggis, and up until then it actually was the best one I’d ever had.

Also the only one.

My excitement for the Waterstones bookshop was genuine. Little did I know how many even more amazing bookshops would become part of our journey through the UK.

What a paradise for anyone who loves spending hours among shelves of books. I’m always checking in with Anna to see if she wants to leave, but she’s just as happy to browse books as I am.

Day 3

I’d never hiked a day in my life. I’d walked through nature, sure, but I’d never actually set out with the intention of going on a proper hike. That morning, Anna and I didn’t exactly go on a hike either. But she loves hiking, and I feel like it could be something I’d enjoy as well. It’s just walking through nature. Walking and nature are both things I like. How could that possibly not be enjoyable?

Anyway, this walk through nature along Loch Lomond had everything one could want: sunshine, drizzle, a rainstorm, more sunshine, a robin, and baby sheep!

The torrential rain also gave me the chance to properly test my new raincoat. I haven’t owned one in at least 15 years. This one did a great job and kept me dry. Except for my legs, obviously. I may need to invest in waterproof trousers if I want to become a real hiker.

Watching The Crown last year gave me an appreciation for the monarchy for the first time in my life. Seeing the Queen on pound notes was genuinely a moment for me.

Day 4

We also spend a day in Edinburgh. It’s about an hour by train from Glasgow, and my friend Raphael lives there part-time when he isn’t on his tiny island in the middle of nowhere. It was lovely seeing Raphael and his partner, but the highlight of the day for me was Topping & Company: a bookshop spread across several storeys, with shelves reaching all the way to the ceiling. Ladders were fixed to the shelves and could be rolled along to reach the upper rows. Everywhere I looked, there were copies signed by the authors themselves. I loved it.

Anna and I also did a quick tour of all the places the transphobe JK Rowling supposedly drew inspiration from while writing Harry Potter. It’s strange how much a children’s book can transform a city. Harry Potter is everywhere. Entire streets are packed with tourists just because one person wrote a made-up story featuring places that may or may not have been inspired by them. Absurd.

What really got me, though, was Bobby. We ended up at that graveyard because it’s another one of those JKR sites: some very old graves there feature names that seem to have inspired a few important ones in the Harry Potter books. Right at the entrance there’s a huge, beautiful grave for Bobby, with a plaque that, once I read it, made me burst into tears.

Apparently there may not be much truth to Bobby’s story, but I only found that out later, and it didn’t stop me from bawling in a graveyard over a dog that lived hundreds of years ago.

As one does…

Day 5

All the efforts of the previous few days caught up with us on day five. After a vegetarian English breakfast — again featuring veggie haggis, which, in my admittedly uninformed opinion, was even better than the one at the fancy restaurant Hanna had taken us to — we schlepped ourselves through the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which is absolutely worth a visit.

Back at Hanna’s place, we crash-landed into bed and slept for more than an hour. I felt so much better afterwards and was ready for what turned out to be the best meal of our trip at Sylvan. Everything was delicious, and we had a great time.

That’s it for the first part of our trip to the UK. In the next part, you’ll see us take the train to London and discover a city that turns out to be one of my favorite places ever. Exciting!

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Picture book time

Settle down, kids. Let me pull out the photo album and share a few snapshots from the first days of our trip.