Bye, bye London, Hellooooo Scotland!!!

Our last night in London included a visit from an old friend of Heather’s, Heather Macdonald. She is living in the southshore of England, about a 2 hr train ride to London. She met up with us and stayed at the hostel with us. We didn’t get into too much exciting that night but it was great for Heather and Heather to catch up and to get to meet her.
June 19th, last day in London
We had a late wake up this morning but were successfully packed up just in time for lunch. We had our very first meal of fish and chips in the UK. It was a place recommended by an Australian friend who has been living in London. It was really good haddock but also very filling. We said our goodbyes to our new friends at the hostel and the three of us headed to Victoria station where we then parted from Heather Macdonald. We were off to Manchester and really excited to be on the move again. We ended up driving through London and down Abbey road. I got to see Abbey Road studios which was disappointing but exciting none the less. The outside has a concrete wall around the base of it that is covered in spray paint and although you can see the front of it, had no write up or anything interesting to see. Anyhow back on the bus, we were exhausted and glad to have a 5 hour bus ride ahead of us. The bus ride has some beautiful scenery (thanks Jax!) and the countryside was a really nice route. When we arrived in Manchester, we were once again directionally challenged and unsure of where we were heading. We did soon figure it out and arrived at the “Hilton” hostel in no time. It was a really nice hostel and very clean but it was no Hilton. It was nice to know that we were in an 8 bed room tonight though and would definitely have some much needed beauty sleep. It was pretty late when we had gotten settled and everything closes early in England and dinner choices were quite limited. We did however, find a yummy kebab stand to have donner’s and salad at. Then we headed back to the hostel and met some of our roommates. We met a girl from Vancouver who worked for Simon Fraser University and her job is to set up international exchanges so she was there on business (sounds like a really cool job) and a 40 something Indian man from Glasgow who was a performer and quite popular from what we gathered in Asian and middle eastern television. He was getting ready for his big show tonight so us girls naturally had some input on his outfit and makeup. After we got everything organized for the following day we were tucked in and sleeping soundly.
June 20th, Fathers day (and also a very interesting holiday)
We woke up this morning with not much planned but eager to see Manchester. Our first stop was the Manchester Cathedral which was large and nice looking from the street but after seeing St. Paul’s in London we weren’t quite as intrigued. We did however stay for mass! Shopping time!! The biggest disappointment yet! The shopping was so great and cheap and we had nowhere to put anything...I think I was the most disappointed but Heather did find some gems too. Oh well, next time!!! Next we used our newly found public transit knowledge to take the tram down to Old Trafford stadium in the southwest part of town. It was quite industrial and not much to look at however, the cricket stadium and Manchester United stadium was cool to see. I (Meghan) took a picture of some random Thompson footy players name hoping that he was the Thompson in my history that did play for Manchester...we shall see...:)! On our way back into town, we noticed a sign for Manchester day, wouldn’t you know it, it was Manchester day today!! Heather and I thought that today would be pretty dull and not much to see/do in Manchester since it is a Sunday but instead we watched the Manchester Day parade. It was really neat and quite the production. There were some lavish floats and some interesting performances. It was definitely the highlight of Heather’s day, it probably didn’t hurt that they were playing the bagpipes too. After the parade and a quick bite to eat it was time to grab our packs and head to the coach station for our next journey to Glasgow. We got in touch with Heather’s aunt Margaret who so kindly agreed to meet us at the coach station. So we are spending tonight in Motherwell, just outside of Glasgow and will be spending a few days in and around Glasgow. We are on the coach currently and having a nice tour through the lake district for another nice scenic route through the countryside. It is absolutely beautiful...excited for Scotland and visiting family. We will try to post pictures soon seeing as we are pretty camera happy it may be awhile. Now wish us luck as we brave the Scots and seek out some Haggis and chips of course!!!