Scotland visit

I am back "home" in my London Flat. Seems like I was out of the country in Scotland but actually not. More on that news and perspective...

I took a train from London "kings Cross" to Edinburg Thursday AM. (I am getting the hang of the tube system here int eh city-it is really monstrous) You can see the special train platform a nice guy passing by told me I should take:

In case you can't see the picture well, this is a well known-platform and my stuff and bird cage (that is a clue!) is on the cart....

The main points of the visit were to visit as my budddies said I should. Secondly, I went to see the Hibernians or "Hibs" play. I originally planned to see the other team in town play vs. Celt but the scheduled was best for this one.

So the City has two clubs the Hibernians and the Midlothians or "Hearts". What I know about the other team (Hearts)  is that they were owed by a rich Lithuanian that "just cared about money and did not care about the game. The team went into bankruptcy and the fans and a Board member (who put in 26 Million Pounds!) are taking it over. The fans will own a  big part of it.


The Premier league is broken out somewhat by a couple of "big" clubs called  Rangers and Celts. Thye are  referred in  the northern with more farming type areas as "Sheep shaggers" and the Urban teams like those where I was are called "soap dodgers". Kind of funny because as "big city" as Edinburgh was, it was not that big and sophisticated.

The Hibs have not been doing that well nor their opponent Ross County. The Hibs best player a midfielder and leading scorer in the Scottish Premier league was out on suspension (not sure what for-afraid to bring it up...). The other team is struggling and just sacked the manager.

I picked a random pub near the stadium on one end of the city (Hearts are on the other side) and had two long pints and met fans going to the match. One guy in particular offered to walk with me to the stadium. We talked about how his wife gets annoyed that these 90 minute games are essentially 7 hour ordeals. This guy was a father, has season tickets and spends the time with his sons who go each match. A truly social event yet pretty meaningful.

We show up at the stadium, he shows me the ticket outlet where I need to get my ticket. Not the one that I see at first that will surely have the best seats because I am a "visitor". No. He says that is the wrong one and I need to sit with the Hibs side. OK.

I get a good seat on the end-line about 20 rows up. Not bad attendance in a old buy confy stadium. No frills: no scoreboard, no clock, no crap at halftime on the field......

The grass was not great but.... (Steve you would be Ok with it!)


The game was quick and Hibs attacked intensely immediately. Hibs scored first and crowd went nuts. The crowd by the way was very, very family oriented-more woman than I saw in previous matches. A nice thing was that a recently promoted 19 year old scored the first goal as looked quite at home on the pitch-I did not know he was that young.

There is the opposite side where I had planned to sit.

This next photo I took to show how close the stadium is to day-to day living. The arena/stadium is surrounded by apartments and business. 10 thousand people I estimate walked about 1.5 miles from all directions to get there. Imagine being able to walk so quickly to a match?

Hobs win 2-1 and everyone goes home happy!