Interlude: Scotland

I had an amazing time in Scotland and I want to share that with you and tell you a little bit about what I discovered . First , it takes forever to get to Scotland from Florida . It was a very long flight . I had to fly to Philly and then to Heathrow and then to Glasgow . Completely worth it .

One of the things I loved about Scotland is simply the fact that I live in Florida . Florida is flat , it is hot and it is not very old . The oldest structures that are still standing here in Fort Lauderdale probably from the 1920s , anything before then , and anything indigenous gone .

So I loved being in Scotland because it was hilly and mountainous , it was deliciously cool and it was old . There's such a sense of history moving through the country that I just appreciated being in that space . Glasgow is a really beautiful city , little hilly but pretty easy to get around in . Edinburgh is really stunning .

There's so much historic , beautiful architecture and Arthur's Seat and these stunning vistas and the castles really enjoyed it . I also made sure I took a trip out west because I wanted to see more than just Glasgow and Edinburgh . I wanted to get at least a taste of the Highlands and a taste of the West Coast .

So I took the train to Obann and the train was really beautiful scenery , mountains , locks , green everywhere . And then Obann itself is a beautiful sort of seaside town . It was grey and rainy and misty and cold , which just felt so perfectly Scotland And little shops , little cafes , little restaurants and huge islands offshore shrouded in the grey mist .

So the actual travels I did were fantastic . The food was delicious . I actually tried Haggis after all , and it tastes a little bit like meatloaf , like a grainy meatloaf . I had an appetizer sized portion of it , so I played it a little safe , but I enjoyed it . I also had for the first time in my life langoustine .

Now I grew up in New Orleans and huge on seafood , so the ability to try that was huge for me And they look a little bit like if a shrimp and a lobster had a baby . That's a langoustine Beautiful , delicious meat , very tasty , very fresh . All the seafood I had was super fresh , which was wonderful .

There's also a lot of , seems like there's a lot of meat in Scotland . I know there are Highland cows and there were cows in lots of places and sheep in lots of places , so they also have really good beef . In terms of desserts , there's something called Tablet .

Now whenever I told someone from Scotland that I'd had Tablet , the immediate reaction was something about diabetes or going to the dentist , because for Scottish people it is just , oh my God , so sweet . As an American , it's just a piece of fudge . It's sort of a very kind of sugary , crystallized , grainy fudge Utterly delicious .

I tried Empire Biscuits , which you didn't may not know is a thing , but is they were everywhere And I saw them in people's homes and that's how I knew they were real local thing . It was essentially two cookies with jam in the middle , icing on top and a little glassy kind of cherry , half cherry on top . Delicious .

I discovered , in part because I make a lot of local contacts , tunnecks , particularly the caramel wafers and the tea biscuits . Tunnecks is an old sort of family candy company based in the Glasgow area And caramel biscuits are a little bit like imagine a Kit Kat , chocolate coated wafers , but instead of chocolate being between the wafers there's caramel .

So , yummy , tea biscuits have nothing to do with tea and really not a lot to do with biscuits . It's essentially well . It's a small cookie with marshmallow fluff coated in chocolate Also delicious . The big thing in Scotland is iron brew , which is pop slash soda drink . It is bright orange and it is indescribable in flavor .

The closest I could come is saying that it tastes like bubblegum , but bubblegum itself is an amalgamation of fruit flavors . You know I had heard about iron brew and I'm like oh , that's some interesting beverage . Iron brew is huge in Scotland . Everyone was drinking it . It was all in the grocery stores , it was in every restaurant , it was in every bar .

Iron brew is a Scottish thing . There's no way of minimizing that . It is entirely a Scottish thing and it is utterly , utterly delicious . I enjoyed my iron brews . I also really enjoyed the people I met . You know this was my second sort of solo international trip .

Last year I did Dublin and , like last year , i really focused on making connections with people I knew from my social media . Ironically , not all of them were Scottish .

I had a really efficient , beautiful tour of Edinburgh from a lovely Irishman who was living in the city and a more extensive tour from a sort of Portuguese Frenchman who had lived in Scotland for a long time and he was a mason , so we got to see .

He took me outside of Edinburgh to Rosslyn Chapel , famous from the Dan Brown Da Vinci Co series , and I got to see a lot more history and I also got to ride the bus , which just felt sort of beautifully local . And then I met as well a couple of delicious , delightful boys that I knew from social media .

I met a beautiful leather family that I'd kind of known from social media and then got to know them , loved that , and then I met this wonderful married couple who I met on recon . Everyone was friendly , welcoming . The accents are so drool-worthy I can't even hear them in my head anymore and that makes me so angry because I loved them so much .

Everyone was just so generous with their time and generous with their homes and generous with their resources and extremely welcoming . So it's a very friendly , wonderful place to visit . I did make it to the Leather Social put on by Leatherman Scotland . It's a great event .

It was in a really good location that had some outdoor area And that's one thing you know . I looked at a lot of the gay pubs because like , oh , let me go to a gay bar while I'm in Scotland . None of them really had outdoor areas to enjoy a cigar or something . That's not a lot of fun . This place did .

So there was , it was a good location , it was a nice bar , it was a great turnout with a lot of men , some of them in gear , some of them in less gear , but it was friendly and welcoming and open .

And I think this is a really important takeaway , because last year , you know , i went to Dublin and I went to Oink , which is out in kink , and they do a Leather Social as well . Neither Ireland nor Scotland in the entire country has a leather bar . Neither country at all has a leather bar .

So these socials are so important for building community because they're an opportunity for people to get together in their gear And they are a visible , open , welcoming point of entry for people curious about leather and interested in entering into the community . That's critical , absolutely critical .

In fact , at the Leather Social in Glasgow , i was joined there by this boy who I had been talking to on recon , who had never been and who screwed up all his courage to walk in and then discovered he already knew several of the men there .

So these are important spaces , and so if you live in a country or if you live in a city where there is no leather bar , there are no leather events .

This is a great model to work with a local bar or a local space of any kind to host a gathering where everyone can come in gear or not in gear , but just be with each other , and that's a beautiful way to build community .

I was really so pleased to be able to attend that And , in fact , based on the experience I had in Ireland last year , which was so wonderful , i planned my trip to make sure I was there for that Did not regret it in the least . I love always connecting with local contacts because you also learn more about the country .

You know I learned , for example , last year when I was in Ireland . I learned there is one thing every Irish person can say in Gaelic . In Gaelic Irish right , they can all say can I go to the bathroom ? Because they had to ask to go to the bathroom in Irish while they were in school .

I also learned about red lemonade , which is something you wouldn't know if you weren't very local to Ireland or grew up there , and it's this sort of fizzy beverage that is red and does not taste like lemonade .

In my conversations with the Scots I met , i talked a lot about whether you were Unionists or Nationalists , how they felt about being in the UK , how they felt about Scottish independence , and I also learned a lot about kilts . First of all , kilts are crazy expensive .

A good kilt will cost a couple thousand pounds or more , because it's not just this piece of fabric wrapped around your waist , they're the special shoes , the brogues and the special socks and the flashing sack off the socks and the sport and which is the little sort of purse in front And this yin-do which is the black knife and the kilts and the jacket and the

shirt and the whole thing . It is a production , but it is also one that has a complicated class history , not only because of the price of the kilts , but kilts traditionally were worn in the clans and the clans were the ruling class . So I met most people I met I think at least half , maybe more .

Most of them had kilts that they owned And a lot of times it's like your father will buy you your kilts and that's your kilts for life . Another segment hired kilts or they rented them because you only need it for weddings and fancy parties .

And then some people just didn't have a kilt at all and didn't have a really interest in kilts , and it wasn't that they weren't Scottish or weren't interested in being Scottish , but that they had a better understanding of their own lineage in relation to the clans . I love that . I thought that was fascinating .

Oh , also deserving a special mention is this wonderful leather band I met in Burra . I spent an afternoon with him smoking cigars in his really gorgeous place with a view of the Firth of Forth , and it was again a great way to bond and connect with another leather person across an ocean . So I learned about the politics of kilts .

I learned about nationalism and unity and the UK and all of that . Those were great conversations to have . I adore Scotland . I wish I could say I'm going to be back . It takes a really long time to get to Scotland and my flight home was not great . It was a really long flight from Heathrow that was late And I missed my original connection .

And then I got home really late and it was a full 24 hours of traveling from the moment I woke up at my hotel in Glasgow to the moment I walked in my door here . Not fun . I Am so grateful that I had the resources and the inner resources to travel internationally solo to Scotland . It really did fulfill a dream for me .

And if they invent teleportation , or if there are at least Direct flight to Heathrow from Fort Lauderdale , if not direct flight to Glasgow and I would consider again Between you and me , i'm probably more likely to go back to Ireland . Not that I want to pit those against each other , but there you go .

It remains my goal to try and do one big international trip every summer , and Next summer I've already started thinking . Now I'm inclined to do Spain , madrid and Barcelona , but there's still parts of the UK I haven't seen . So maybe something like Manchester , london or maybe Wales , i don't know . This next summer is a long way away . I can say that .

I can also say that if you have the chance to go to Scotland , i absolutely recommended . I absolutely recommend also that you don't just do the tourist things . There was one day where essentially , i just stayed at my hotel and slept and relaxed and that was beautiful .

I Absolutely recommend that you make sure you're there during the leather social and I absolutely recommend you spend time With the really wonderful people who live there . I could almost always understand their accent . There were a couple times I had us like ask them to repeat it .

There were a couple of people who were just sort of Accent was so strong that I made a little bit of a struggle . The same was true in Ireland . I got to say Dublin , no problem if they were from the country . I often had no idea what they were saying . That was part of the delight of both those trips for me , part of the things I really value .

So I hope you Go to Scotland . I hope maybe you live in Scotland . I hope that you're able to achieve some of your travel dreams the way I have and I have waited Decades to be able to do some of this stuff , to be at a point in my life Or have the financial resources but also the personal freedom and the inner strength to travel solo internationally .

I have done it twice , i have been amazed twice and I hope to do it a third time . Maybe I'll be coming to visit you . Germany , by the way , is on my list , but probably not for two or three years , and I'm also thinking of doing one of those river cruises that goes through like Hungary , germany , denmark , all that I don't know .

I I don't know what lays , i don't know what's on store for the future . I know that I'm finally back , rested , recovered , back onto East Coast time here in Florida and Ready to resume my life with this new enrichment of experiences I've had . So I wish all of that for you .

I wish all of that for you , and I'm so grateful that all of you continue To listen to my podcast . That means more to me than you can possibly know . So with that , i hope your day is really , really blessed .