Good morning! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for joining me on this Saturday morning in the beautiful historic city of Glasgow, Scotland.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you this is our final day in Scotland. Tomorrow, mom and I are traveling back to England to visit her friend. I have been reflecting and documenting my trip in the UK everyday. You can read all about it here.
I’m not sure if I’m enjoying the trip. Of course, there are aspects of the trip I’ve enjoyed like going to museums and learning about the long-history of the UK and cruising along the River Thames, but beside those things, I’m not really sure if the trip has been relaxing or even fun.
For one, mom is ashamed of my camera. “Put it away,” she constantly scolded me because my camera made us look like tourists but we are tourists, aren’t we? I can’t be like her. I can’t be satisfied of just taking pictures with my phone. I want to take close-ups. I don’t want just ordinary touristy kind of photos. I want unique, something people can’t tell where I’ve taken the photo until I tell them the story behind the photo.
Mom has also been obsessed with having her photo taken but when I take it, she’d hate it. “I’m not a portrait photographer,” I kept telling her. I photograph landscapes. Instead of acknowledging and accepting my flaw, she said, “That’s what stupid people do, they photograph things that don’t move.”
We are currently in Merchant City, Glasgow where shops and restaurants surround our hotel. Mom has been telling me we need to try a regional-food restaurant from the day we got off the plane at the London-Heathrow Airport. As of now, we only had KFC and Chinese food. I haven’t tried Fish and Chips or English breakfast. We had a Not-so-American Breakfast yesterday in Edinburgh – fried eggs, pancakes, hash browns, and bacon. The best I’ve come to an European breakfast was probably a croissant and a bowl of museli. Mom thought I was stupid for paying 9-Pounds to have a bowl of oat meal.
Honestly, finding our daily meals had been a nightmare because she doesn’t like anything and I mean anything.
She’s also been mostly on mute when it comes to asking for things, meaning I’ve been her mouth and ears, having to translate what the person said because apparently she couldn’t understand the accent despite her constant touting of having learned her English by watching the BBC.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you European coffee is different from American coffee, in my opinion. It’s more bitter just like the food has been slightly on the blander side. Of course, mom had been relying on me to order coffee as there’s rarely such thing as “black coffee” here, even at Starbucks. If one wants a plain coffee, one must get an Americano.
Me? I’m into anything but ordinary. I’ve tried a latte, iced coffee, a Flat white, and a cappuccino. I couldn’t believe my taste buds when I tasted an iced latte at a Starbucks. In the US, when I would order at the Starbucks around the corner from work, I had to reduce sugar. In the UK, the latte was as bland as drinking water. My Goodness!
If we were having coffee, I would tell you today is Day 7 of the trip. It was a week ago when we embarked on the trip, leaving home at 9 in the morning for the airport and arriving at noon the next day in the UK. Yesterday, we explored Edinburgh and will be exploring Glasgow today.
To be honest, as much as I’d like to explore Glasgow, I’m not sure I want to. I’ve been in pain for days in my shoulders, my knees, and feet. Pain is radiating throughout my entire body each time I’m standing up. I think it’s the walking that caused it and walking over 20,000 steps a day certainly doesn’t help with the healing. I went from hopping out of bed to dragging myself out of bed and dragging my feet through the streets counting down the seconds until I can sit. I don’t dare tell mom because she will just say, “You think you’re the only one with pain?”
#weekendcoffeeshare is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer. I appreciate you stopping by. Until next we chat. 🙂
This is Another Story 
You’ve got some serious patience, Yinglan. But I know what you mean about your feet hurting. I’ve had several surgeries on my right ankle so when I went on a cruise a few years ago, I would have to put my feet up when we got back to the stateroom.
The English and Scottish aren’t known for their food, I’m sorry to say. But I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip. 😀
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I’m starting to see that. The Scottish are known more for their whiskey and the English for probably Fish and Chip. The food has been mostly on the blander side of things.
I’m glad I have physical therapy next week. I’m going to need some after this trip.
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That’s not good, feeling the way you are. I do hope you enjoy the rest of the trip.
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I’m currently traveling back to London, hopefully I can spend a few hours decompressing on the train.
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🤗🤗🤗
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Glad you got to see Edinburgh. You want good food, come to South Africa. We have fabulous coffee, tea and fabulous food everywhere.
You will need to hire a car though. No walking about here. Everything is far away. We only walk about in malls. Not counting athletic types. They run everywhere. Cape Town is food heaven. And it’s lovely.
We have Uber, but it may be cheaper to have a hire car. You would to well with the exchange rate right now. It’s nearly R20 to one dollar.
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The food in the UK is especially bland, in my opinion. I think the only thing I want to try is fish and chips.
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In order to enjoy the rest of your trip you need a down day, something that we always plan into our trips especially if it’s out exploring and photographing. Just hang out a your hotel and mostly order from room service. That may seem a little costly, but compared to your pain it’s worth it. Surely you have some kind of OTC pain meds.
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I’m currently on my down time – sitting on a train for a few hours traveling back to London. I remember my trip a few years ago to the Canadian Rockies, my aunt made sure we took it easy as she wanted to take in as much as she could while not feel like we have to see everything at once. Unfortunately, my mom is different. She’s the kind of person who must spend every second of every day traveling otherwise the trip wouldn’t be worth the money. I think I’m similar because I’ve never learned to travel any other way, unfortunately, but I do take it easy when I must. I always carry a bottle of ibuprofen around, even when I’m just going to work because I need it for my knees. The calcification is quite bothersome sometimes.
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I’m so sorry it’s been a tough trip. Boy, that would be hard because you spend the time and money to travel to these amazing places only to be made to feel as though you can’t fully enjoy it. I, too would have my camera out and taking “non-touristy” photos..I take my camera around here and sometimes at markets people ask me where I’m from, assuming I’m a tourist. I laugh and say, just across the river, or not far, I just like to take photos.
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Mom’s friend said I can totally come to the UK on my own. I certainly can, unfortunately my mom won’t let me.
I think traveling with someone like my mom is quite difficult sometimes as she’s quite fussy and demanding at the same time.
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I’ve never been to the UK, but you should try coffee in Italy and not the Starbucks kind. You can go to any coffee counter and it’s tastes good. The regular coffee we are use to in the U.S. is an Americano, but the coffee they drink is an espresso and you don’t need much to wake up your senses. I understand that the name Americano started out as a joke because apparently Americans couldn’t stand espresso that’s why it is watered down.
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I think, even in the US, there are plenty of coffee shops that are much better than Starbucks. I just need to find it.
One thing I can tell you is the coffee in the UK is like drinking decaf. I always order latte, flat white, or cappuccino while I was in the UK and I can drink a few cups of coffee a day and still go to sleep. I actually slept better on the plane back to the US after drinking a cup of coffee on the plane.
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