Livin the life in Lee, Ilfracombe

Lee, Ilfracombe

As you might have noticed from the map that I have not been travelling much lately. It appeared that I have glued myself to this place I currently call home. Grampus Inn, a pub located in Lee, Ilfracombe on the north coast of Devon is another place that I am volunteering at until end of February. 

Bill, the owner, who is also an incredibly talented fiddler has made me feel comfortable to live in the pub for 2 months. Other guys who are part of the Grampus Inn 'gang' are Alice from Australia, Owen from New Zealand, Kara and Jacob from Canada, Giulia from Italy, Mishale from Germany, Phil and Sandy who are locals. 

Most thing I love about this place is the music culture and the musicians I meet here. Bill provides musical instruments scattered at the corner of the bar for people to play freely. Every Friday the pub hosts an accoustic open mic, it also hosts jam sessions every third Sunday of each month and hosts other occasions such as Burns night that we had last Saturday night.

This is a dance I did during the acoustic open Mic night
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hrat2dkq53zsyfm/VID-20140124-00033.3GP

O dear, I forgot to mention Lucy, the three legged dog, who loves to think she's vicious when the first few people walk in to the bar. She's best at hipnotising people to either give her a tummy rub, food or jump on your bed. It definitely worked on me (shamefully to say)..

From left to right: Burns night (Scottish tradition where they comemerate the birth of Burns, the famous Scottish poet; Me in a kilt; Giulia and Lucy enjoying the fire; Me and Sandy at the bar; Mishale and Phil; Owen and Alice; Me and Lucy; Me and the awesomely hillarious Mat; M'Larkey playing at the pub (Bill's playing on his fiddle); Jacob and Kara; Lucy keeping me company on my bed.

One blue sky day (which happens so rarely in Lee), I took the chance to have a walk along the north coast from Lee to Ballpoint. Along the way, I passed people and most of them were wearing rain coats. I was wondering to myself, it's such a clear day, why do you need your rain coat? As it turns out, just after passing Ball point and walking up the hill towards Morthoe, a dramatic thick grey cloud was rushing towards Lee. There you go, one lesson I learnt living in England, Don't trust what you see!

My walk along the coast 

Loony Mouse Hogmanaying Scotland

Edinburgh - Aberdeen - Glasgow - Highlands - Bristol - Ilfracombe

When the plane landed in Edinburgh, I was welcomed by a cold, windy and wet morning.  I settled in to my hostel and at night met Heather for the Torch Procession. Seven thousand people including us walked through town with our burning torches from the city centre up to Calton Hill where the procession ended with beautiful fireworks.  After the ceremony, we went to the pub to meet the rest of the gang, Vince (my cheeky monkey lovely Parisian mate), Vlasta (my beautiful beloved Czech mate) and Vlasta's friend, Honza.  It was a nice get together after not seeing each other for a while.

On New Years Eve, Heather, Vince and I dressed up in our onesies.  Vince was a monkey (of course, being the cheeky monkey that he is),  Heather was a parrot with a kilt (annoyingly to be occasionally mistaken as a cockatoo) and me as a super Scottish mouse with a kilt and a cape.  We filled our plastic bottles with as much alcohol as possible and went off going nuts and danced around in the city and at the street party.  We managed to get everyone all ages to either start dancing or take pictures of us (felt like celebrities that night).

After going crazy at the street party, we went in to the Ceilidh concert and learnt traditional Scottish dances.  It was so much fun, as well as frisky and full of spinning around.  Luckily none of us felt too sick to throw up, but a couple of hours was definitely enough.  We went back to the street party just before midnight and met up with Vlasta and Honza.  We all celebrated the welcoming of 2014 together.  As 2014 entered, the moment became absolutely magical and unforgettable, especially when the fireworks took off where I was feeling like I was in another world enjoying every second to the great beginning of 2014.  I knew at that time being with the people I really love and having the most magical experience that it will be a grand year.

From left to right:  Me and my sword; Me and Heather getting ready to light up our torches; The opening ceremony of the torch procession; Me and Heather with our lit torches; The nice view of people behind us with their torches; Fireworks at the end of the procession; More fireworks; Beautiful Edinburgh; Vince in his monkey onesie going bananas (Thanks for celebrating new years with me Vince.  You really made it unforgettable); Vince, me, Honza and Vlasta taking pictures of Edinburgh before new years eve; Me and Vlasta having lunch; New Years Eve in Edinburgh; Ceilidh Concert; Church in Edinburgh; Me and Heather in our onesies; Me, Heather and Vince in our onesies rockin the city; Edinburgh on new years eve; Vince, Emilie and me at the Ceilidh concert; Me, Heather and Vince resting on a bench at 7am after partying hard all night. (Most of the photos were taken by Heather.  Thanks lovely!)

We continued partying up through til morning and ended up sleeping for an hour, having to wake up for our (me and Heather) Loony Dook plunge in Queensferry.  I was late and not being very prepared, I wore my bikini, mouse onesie and reef shoes to loony dook and did not take spare clothes nor shoes.  It was a cold morning but Heather and I were so ready to do it!  There were about 1,000 of us.  Everyone was dressed up and we all paraded together towards the water followed by drums to make us dance all the way.  Heather and I then got in our bikinis, prepared my camera, ran to the river then dived in.  It was SUPER BLOODY FRESH!  The video camera only lasted for 10 seconds which was such a bummer.  We then headed back to Edinburgh and being not well prepared for after the event, it was definitely the coldest journey back to the hostel.

We changed to warmer clothes then headed in to town to meet Richard and Sandra (my beloved Aussie mates) who were staying in Glasgow at that time.  We walked around town and caught up for a couple of hours until they had to head back to Glasgow.  Meeting Richard and Sandra made my new years celebration even better, it was perfect!

After spending the last day with Vlasta, Vince, Honza, Aron and Emilie, we said our goodbyes hoping to meet again in the near future.  It was a sad farewell.
Heather and I chose to walk up to Arthur Seat for our last day in Edinburgh.  We chose the worst day to do it but it was crazily fun to walk up  the hill.  The ground was slippery at times, the wind tried to blow us away, and hail aiming to our faces, but it was an adventure and we really experienced the real Scotland walk (well, apparently that's what the locals said).  It was an absolutely wet and cold adventure, as our rain coats were soaked and water got in to our clothes.  We then headed back to the hostel where it was warm, we were given towels to dry up and changed to dry clothes and we were given cakes and tea in front of the heater.  They were really sweet and lovely.

From left to right: Preparing mentally for Loony Dook (worried!!! Do I look worried?); Heather looking worried and cold as well; The nice looking bridge in Queensferry where loony dook takes place; The Loony Dook parade; Time for everyone to dive in!!!!; I did it!!!! Yaaaaaaaaay!!!; We did it!!!; Heather did it!!!; Freezing cold at the bus stop on the way back to Edinburgh; View of Edinburgh from the castle; Live music after new years eve in Edinburgh with Richard, Sandra and Heather; Me and my beautiful Sandra; Me and gorgeous Heather and lovely Richard (thanks for making my new years experience even more magical guys, you're the best!); A cute purply building on our last night in Edinburgh; The Castle; Calton Hill; Me and Heather playing dress ups in the museum; Me and Vlasta on our last day (thanks for being there Vlasta, you really created a magical new years experience for me); Me and Heather fooling around at the museum again; Heather walking towards Arthur's seat; Me and Heather walking towards Arthur's Seat in the windy hail storm (Without you I won't have had a crazy awesome new years celebration Heather). Again, most of the pictures were taken by Heather.

Heather and I then parted. I wanted to experience more of Scotland then spontaneously headed up to Aberdeen hosted by my mate Andrew.  It's a very grey city because most of the buildings were built from granite plus Scotland sky at that time was really grey.  It was nice, but one night was definitely enough there.

The next day, I followed my heart to Glasgow.  It was raining alot and the hostel I was staying in was really quiet.  So I went for a walk in the centre and came across a Scottish band called Clanadonia playing so I stuck around.  At the end of their play, I hung out with the band and chat for a bit.  One of the drummers, Gavin, who I hung out most of the time kindly hosted me in Glasgow.  Maggie and Gavin made me feel so comfortable in their home and treated me like I was part of the family.  Gavin taught me how kilt works, which starts of a 4 metre fabric then folded nice and exact to act as a sleeping mat then becomes a blanket.  It then wraps around to become a kilt also trousers, coat and it works best when it's wet because it makes you warmer.  Wow!  I was impressed!  The Scots sure know what they're doing.

From left to right: The only picture I took in Aberdeen; Glasgow, the city of creativity; Glasgow city centre; George Square in Glasgow; Cathedral in Glasgow; Clanadonia in action; Clanadonia shirt; Me playing the didgeridoo taught by a Glasgowegien, hmmm; My lovely hosts, Gavin, Maggie and Buster; Gavin folding the kilt precisely by couting the squares; Me in the kilt.

Gavin also took me on a road trip to the highlands.  To make it more interesting, I wore my mouse onesie throughout the whole trip.  The landscape  was absolutely mind blowing.  Snow was covering the top of the mountains, Waterfall every where, hee-land coos (highland cows) and I managed to do a take two loony dook video where it was even colder as it is further north than Edinburgh.  It was, again, or more so, SUPER BLOODY FRESH!  I haven't managed to upload the video online, having some technical problem.  But just to give you a bit of a vision, I was screeching like a mouse.  It was soooooo much colder than Edinburgh!!

After a few days in Scotland, I headed back to England heading riding a very comfortable 10 hour night bus to Bristol where the seats were converted to beds, then continuing another bus ride in the afternoon to Ilfracombe.

From left to right: The road trip begins! YEAH!!; Loch Lommond; The highlandsl; Waterfall; On the road through the highlands; The beautiful highlands; Lunch time, peanut butter sandwich without cutleries; Waterfalls again; More of the highlands; On the road again through the highlands; Highland views; More highlands view; Oldest pub in Scotland; Have you ever  seen a mouse attack a bear before? Well, here you go!; More waterfall in the highlands; More highland views; And more views; More breathtaking views; A mouse in the highlands; And towards the end, more highland views.  It's definitely a must go place.  Absolutely breathtaking!