I forgot to write about Scotland

So my plan to document every city has gone completely awry, and now I'll never remember just how I felt about Scotland. Glasgow was surprisingly hip and vegetarian, and Edinburgh was fairytale pretty, so much so that our trip seemed all storybooky and cute, at least until we had to walk back up the Royal Mile again. Then it seemed grim and backpackery again. A recurrent theme. One highlight was the awesome lefty bookshop near the uni in in West Nicholson Street: http://www.word-power.co.uk/ Here I spent a happy half an hour looking through books that you just don't get to see everywhere; graphic novels documenting the history of the Industrial Workers of the World in the US, the publications of about 29 different Marxist groups in the region and a trans gender guide to Edinburgh. Great. I left having spent way more than my budget would really allow, which to be fair on me wasn't hard given that my left wing book budget was somewhere not far above zero.

Our return to London was made a lot less stressful by taking up Xanthe's kind offer to accommodate us, so we spent our last few dates living in a beautiful flat in Brixton, eating nachos, taking in the (comparative) calm of the high street and markets and watching kid flicks with Xanthe's son Jackson in the evenings. FUN! I think I enjoyed Jimmy Neutron even more than he did. Brixton is great.

Our last stop in Britain was Winchester, home of a very large statue of King Alfred and my uncle Alan. Here we spent a truly picturesque day strolling through the common with Stanley the Lakeshire Terrier and being fed well. By the end I felt happy and clean. A little too clean. Our last night in Hammersmith fixed that quick smart; I am still scrubbing the stench of a spirited rendition of Men at Works "Down Under" off me that I received courtesy of the (Brisbane) cover band during check in. Stay out of the Australian ghetto! I knew that. I know that. Why don't I ever take my own advice?

Anyway its all over now, and we are in Berlin. And that really, really deserves its own post.