Loch Lomond!

It's been so lovely here lately I can't stand it. I'm sitting outside under a tree behind my flat and trying to soak up this wonderful weather. Recently Martin and I have been spending lots of time outside. Earlier this week (Monday, I think?) we spent a good chunk of the afternoon at Kelvingrove Park, which is just down the street from where I live. It was sunny, warm and lots of people were out, so that meant lots of good people-watching for me.

And the river was pretty, too. 

So green! It looked a little odd to me. I'm so used to Scotland being three colors; green, brown and gray. This blue business threw me off. 

The next day (Tuesday) we headed out to Loch Lomond, which is the next closest lake to Glasgow. It took us about an hour to get there, but we got a little lost on the way. I didn't mind, though, it was a really pretty drive out there. Once we got there, we walked down a little path around the side of the lake to find somewhere to sit and have a picnic. 

We found this little beach. And it was gorgeous, so we claimed it as ours. Because it was a Tuesday, there was hardly anyone else around, so we basically had the whole place to ourselves. 

The other side of "our" beach. 

But we made some friends! They were super curious and walked right up to us. 

They even ate right out of my hands! I fed them some bread, a little bit of cheese and tried to give them a few strawberries, but they didn't like those. It was actually hilarious. They would snatch the little piece of berry, then shake their heads and spit it out. 

Here I am trying to find something else to feed them.

After raiding our picnic, they got very sleepy, so they crashed right behind us and hung out there for the majority of the afternoon. I tried at one point to sneak up on them and touch one, but Papa Duck wasn't havin' any of that, and hissed at me. So I just went back to my wine-drinking and beach-laying.

On the road down to the lake was this little B&B called Passfoot Cottage. It was so adorable! I really would have liked to stay there sometime. I'm guessing it's pretty expensive, though, being right on the lake like it was. We walked up this road after being on the beach for a while to check the bus schedule, and we found out we had lots and lots of time, so we went back to the beach. 

And we made new friends! Significantly smaller this time, though. Dawwww.

We sat on the beach for a few more hours, sunning and chatting. Finally we headed back to the main road to catch the bus. We were originally planning to take a bus to Alexandria, then a bus from there to Glasgow, but when we got to the bus stop, we saw a bus headed for Glasgow! We ran up to the bus driver and there proceeded a conversation that I didn't understand a word of. The driver had, as they say here, a broad Scottish accent. And by that, I mean it sounded like he had peanut butter sticking his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Thank goodness Martin was there, or I would have never made it back to Glasgow. Afterwards, I gathered from Martin that the driver wasn't supposed to be at the stop we were at (it was a city bus that is sometimes used as a school bus), but because he was headed our way anyways, he took us. And gave us a discount! Neat guy, that driver. 

So we made it back to Glasgow, ate burgers at a pub, drank buckets of water and then stopped at a little shop and I bought face masks. Yep, really. Martin was a really good sport about letting me smear funny-smelling green goo on his face. 

It was actually ridiculously fun, and I laughed A LOT at his expense. I also think I got him addicted to pore strips. Haha! So that was earlier this week. Yesterday and today were full of packing. I had to sort out a lot of things that I can't bring home with me. For some reason, it seems like my clothes were doin' the dirty in my dresser and multiplied over the semester. I donated three bags of clothes to the Salvation Army this morning. Three! And I still have some extra clothes I have to sort through. I might send myself a package before I go, or maybe leave some here with Martin and he can send them to me later. Gah, I hate packing! As a reward to myself, I'm having a wine and movie night tonight. I think Lord of the Rings is in the lineup. And tomorrow I'm seeing Avengers again. Yes, it really was that good. It very rarely happens that I would willing pay to see a movie in the theater... twice. 

My plane leaves Glasgow at 8:30am on Sunday, and I get to Minneapolis at 3:30pm the same day. Boy, is my schedule going to be messed up. I probably won't post anything else while I'm still in Scotland, so farewell until America! Much much love from Glasgow.