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Martijn.be Posts

Where to best experience the Scottish Independence Referendum in Glasgow?

Published on 10 June 2014

Being an aspiring historian and very interested in all things Scottish, I don’t want to miss out on what is quite possibly  going to be an historic moment: the Scottish Independence Referendum. So with only 99 days to go before Thursday 18 September, I started making arrangements for a trip to Glasgow during that week.

Apparently polling stations will open until 10pm. Should I expect any to see results that same night already, or only the next day?

And when the results do come in, what would be a the perfect place to watch them in Glasgow? I usually avoid pubs with big screens, but I suppose almost anything will nicer than just watching the telly in my hostel room. 🙂 I’d prefer a place that isn’t specifically tied to any political party, although — being kilted and all — I will probably fit in better with crowd that mainly voted yes…

So, any suggestions, yesscotland , ayeforscotland, indyref, glasgowfoodie, l-aoreilly, fuckyeahglasgow, oh-glasgow or anyone else?

Caledonian Sleeper Train

Published on 1 June 2014

For my trip to Glasgow in September — yes, I want to be there for the referendum — I’m seriously considering travelling using the Caledonian Sleeper train from London. I’m quite happy with the MegaBus Gold sleeper service, but the train seems to be just a bit more comfortable and roomier. And when GlasgowFoodie wrote an article about the sleeper, I became even more interested to try this sleeper train at least once.

Unfortunately the full price tickets are quite expensive — easily over a £100 — and the cheaper Bargain Berths are only available on the ScotRail site, which doesn’t accept foreign credit cards for some reason…

Well, I still have some time to find a solution, since bookings for my preferred travel dates haven’t opened yet. Any suggestions?

Some more photos

Published on 21 May 2014

An advantage of going somewhere as a group, is that it is more likely I actually appear in some photos. So, to conclude this trip report, here are some photos taken by my travel companions in which I actually appear.

Homeward

Published on 18 May 2014

After a speedy night ride to London — we arrived half an hour early — I managed to grab the front row seats again in the bus to Brussels, and this time nobody insisted on joining me there.
Eurotunnel went as planned as well, France was a breeze, but Belgium slowed us down with a traffic jam before Ghent. Welcome to Belgium?
So, I guess that was the end of this trip again already…

Start the countdown to September! 🙂

Last Day

Published on 17 May 2014

Last day today. That means I had to say goodbye to my fellow travellers, after we visited the farmers’ market—a foodie paradise—and some shops for the very last time.

After an excellent burger at BBL I did some souvenir shopping myself, to end this day at—who could have guessed—BrewDog Edinburgh.