Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

Scotland — 17, day six, evening

It's never hot outside in Scotland, but inside Subway I almost boiled alive. Asked the cashier about refills (whether you can fill up your soda cup again). Turns out, you only get one. In the US, they are usually unlimited. In Latvia, this is almost never a thing, people are too poor and are suckers for freebies. Rumor has it that when they were first allowed in McDonald's in Russia (back in the nineties), people would show up with ten-liter jerrycans and stand in a kilometer-long line.

Outside, however, there was a major highway, so I had to turn the corner. From a noisy and dirty thoroughfare, I found myself in a wealthy little neighborhood with mansions. Right in the middle of the lawn, a menacing "private property" sign was proudly on display. I had to perch on the curb. While I was chewing, another bus left. Eventually, I did make it to the place where I could hoof it the rest of the way. I walked along the Water of Leith Walkway, a path we are already familiar with.

Sculpture in the water! They sure know how to make things interesting in the West.

There are six sculptures in total, the author is Antony Gormley, the project is called 6 Times. In 2010, they didn't manage to install them permanently right away. They removed them and recently put them back up, taking all the issues into account. The idea is that art goes to the masses. The latter, for some reason, are in no hurry to go to galleries, so the former have to get creative.

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Scotland — 16, Day Six, Zoo

Ekaterina flew out early in the morning. I got up unhurriedly and set off in search of new adventures. For a start, I decided to figure out what that green blob was that we saw when we wrongfully occupied Arthur's Seat. On the map, it was marked as The Meadows. It turned out to be the central park. "A modest attempt" — that's what one article called it. Yeah, there's really nothing super special about the park. I just sat on a bench, wrote some posts, did some push-ups. Looked around, stared at the humans. Lots of kids, dogs, and one athlete was running with a giant, super heavy bag on his shoulders. I'd never seen that kind of sport live before. Andrey told me later that he used to do that too, but I can't remember what he had on his shoulders.

A sunny day in a spacious park: a wide green meadow with several people sitting on the grass, surrounded by trees, and a paved path with a fence running along the right side.

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Digest-1

A new section in the blog! Digest. I'll be briefly venting about everyday stuff that has piled up, mostly for myself, to have something to remember in my old age.

Dima's enduro (off-road) motorcycle

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Scotland — 15, Day Five, Evening

After the botanical garden, we went back to the camera obscura. Right then, the pics from Katya's Pocophone (Xiaomi Pocophone F1) arrived, so we'll have something to show. Including some previously unreleased stuff.

Botanical garden thickets

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