Xscape!

Went to Xscape the other night, it was the coolest place/entertainment centre I had ever seen! Imagine every single thing you do outside or any sort of entertainment activity and this place has an indoor version. I’m assuming the reasoning for bringing it indoors is because it rains a lot and you don’t have the seasons to worry about to ruin your plans.

For example, the main attraction is an indoor sky slope. It’s like a bunny hill size equivalent, but you can ski here anytime of the year! It’s not even that expensive either, I’m coming back as soon as I get some ski pants, or I should say, trousers. We went for bowling, but there’s also a movie theatre, mini golf, laser tag, bumper cars, a high ropes course and rock wall, an arcade, restaurants, shopping all in one gigantic centre. I even saw carnie rides out front. It has everything, downside being the ever presence of NEDs (Non-Educated Delinquents). They’re basically little punks who are annoying and usually up to no good. They also speak another language; I don’t even think it can be classified as English.

Still, I reckon Xscape is one of the most unique epicentres I’ve ever seen. You could spend a whole day there without stepping out. Maybe even a whole week! That was the one thing I didn’t notice, no hotels; they could really market the ideal of a family fun destination for out-of-towners. Oh wait, I just remembered the advert for the Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin (or is it Canada?). No indoor water park I’m afraid…But there is a Nando’s, which is amazing.

Erin Visits

Literally two hours after my Dad leaves, our friend Erin, whom we met in Chile, arrives. Erin is in the midst of further traveling, on a sort of around the world trip before heading back to South America. This time instead of Chile, she will be heading for Colombia! I am a little jealous she gets to go back to South America, and I think Marc is too. We always talk about how much we want to go back. Life is just simpler, and you rarely seem to stress out there, upside-down, on the other side of the world.

There’s a cheese shop in the west end (where I live and go to Uni in Glasgow) where Marc had forbidden me to let him go. The reason he is not allowed in this cheese shop is because once he ended up spending over 100 quid on cheese…in one visit…which only lasted him a week! Nobody should be consuming that much cheese…I don’t care how delicious. Anyway, because Erin was here I let him go and we had a lovely Scottish brie.

We also visited Edinburgh where we met Marc’s old flatmates for lunch. No trip to Edinburgh would be complete without a visit to the Edinburgh Castle, which was cool. I’m planning on visiting loads of castles this year so like the cool person I am, I got Marc and I signed up for the Historic Scotland membership. It gets us into every castle in Scotland for free, and we get discounts on English historical sites as well!

We had a wee walk around and found the café where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book! It had changed names since then (15 years!) so it wasn’t even really the “same” place, but still pretty cool. We didn’t go in, it was way too crowded and I guess the coffees there are like £5 ($7.50) so I wasn’t too keen. And it was getting late, so we needed to hope on the train back to Glasgow.

Erin was on her way to Norway so there ended our first round of visitors. It was nice though, having visitors. I was brand new to Scotland so I wasn’t the best guide, but at least Marc had lived in Glasgow for some time. Round one of visitors had finished, and I can’t wait for more! Come see meeee!