Culture Shock
You will have to excuse me if I am a little incoherant as I write this post, I have just returned from Bairds Pub where I caught the Old Firm game - I am still buzzing. The experience that I had at the pub really summed up the tour so far for me, total culture shock.
I hadn’t really expected to be overwhelmed in the way that I have since I arrived here in Britain. Having never been here before it was, in my head, like New Zealand but bigger, colder, rainier, and older. I clearly wasn’t prepared for what I was getting into.
I wasn’t wrong though, indeed the first thing that has completely overwhelmed me is just how old things are. In New Zealand things more than 100 years old are few and far between. Here just about everything is. The sense of history that you have as you wander around is almost overwhelming. I have been strolling about, looking up, mouth open, in awe. Literally everywhere you go there is old stuff. Old on a scale that doesn’t exist back home.
I have also been blown away by the sheer beauty of both the cities and the countryside. I was expecting Loch Lomond to be incredible, which it was, but even the cities have been amazing. It is hard to explain exactly why this is. There is an amazing muted colour scheme everywhere, as if you are looking through a filter. As we drove from Loch Lomond through to Edinburgh I was listening to Burial - Untrue, and suddenly his music made so much more sense. Not that I didn’t love it before, but as I peered out at the gloomy, gritty scene outside the van it made me understand so much more where it had come from.
The Endinburgh Castle deserves its own mention for being especially incredible. Although we didn’t make time for the (probably) naff tour, and the closest we got to it was Dave and I trying to blag our way in to a party that seemed to be going on in the castle late last night, the image will stick with me for a long time. It is a proper castle. Seriously. There are massive walls all around, it is on top of a cliff, and there is only one massive door in and out. It was beyond what I could have imagined.
Finally today Duncan G and I experienced the ultimate in culture shock. After being massively dissapointed by a ticket blow out that no one could have helped we didn’t get to go to the ground for the Old Firm game. Instead we headed to Bairds Pub, a Celtic supporters pub, to catch the game there. It was unlike anything I have experienced ever before. Duncan is going to write more about thte whole experience, so I wont go into it too much. But there is literally nothing that comes remotely close to it in New Zealand. I feel like I have been part of passionate crowds before, supporting the All Blacks, or the Warriors, but this was a completely different level. The songs alone would melt your face. It was impossible not to be swept up in the fervour of the local fans.
All of this has left me with much more of a sense of culture shock than I ever felt in Thailand (probably the most exotic location I have visited thus far), which was totally unexpected. At the same time everyone that we have met and hung out with has been incredibly open, warm and friendly. Together these two things have made this trip amazing thus far.
Bonus thing has totally flipped me out: Girls with incredible amounts of makeup and fake tan, watching football, drinking cider (or Smirnoff) and singing songs. Wow.
Amazing UK
Amazing data visualisations of air traffic, and shipping in the UK from the BBC.
Underground party
I’ve heard so much about these Tube parties going on in London, can’t wait to get over there and try one out for real. Video after the jump.
Welcome to Alternative Albion
Welcome aboard the Alt Albion UK tour. You’ll be travelling to the heart of creative Britain, with unfiltered access to the underground, the world-famous and the undiscovered.
