A bit of a lie in today as I was going to catch the 11.12 train out of Lanark. Left the YH a few minutes after deadline but nice man, who obviously has had the training, smiled warmly and wished me a good day.
Nearly into Glasgow, I texted a friend to see if she wanted to meet for lunch but she replied that she was 'down south'. Whether that was the Borders or Brighton, I don't know :-)
Found my way to the bus station and as everyone started to shuffle anxiously towards the M8 to Dundee, I noticed they were all clutching tickets. Hmmmm. Strangely, in my 'I'm a Londoner' sort of way, I was third onto the bus (yes behind the customary senior citizen/cheap ticket couple) and the driver sighed and bid me sit down out of the way until everyone else has boarded. Great, I got my favourite seat at the front and I wasn't thrown off! Plenty of lovely scenery again and one touching incident:
A chap and I presume his son (late teens at a guess) went to get on the bus. Son seemed to have learning difficulties/special needs. He got on first, looked up the vehicle and said something to the effect that he'd catch the next one. Too many people perhaps. The father quietly said there isn't another it's Sunday and apologised to the driver, following son. He'd just got off a bus where the next one was in 2 hours. He showed no anger, frustration or anything. Just talked to son calmly. Some people have to deal with so much, the rest of us should remember how lucky we are.
At Stirling, I was able to check in to YH nice and early, one thing you seem completely unable to do before 5pm in England. So dumped my stuff and climbed the hill to Stirling Castle. Which was fabulous. Spent a great 2-3 hours there, yet again revealing to myself my complete ignorance of a lot of history. I love castles and this was excellent. The views were incredible too, but perhaps that's why it was put there, to spot invaders....
Back at the hostel there seemed to be an awful lot of young people about, say 10-12 yo. After they'd troughed I sneaked into the kitchen for some food and a couple of a certain age were setting up some music thing in the big part of the dining area. This is a large hostel ~130 guests. Then the youngsters trooped back in, all 40 ish of them. Early signs were 'teach folk dancing to yoof'. I left quickly.
Terrible toe hasn't been quite so bad today so, fingers crossed, I shall be plodding again in the morning.
And you'll be back at work :o)
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