Scotland X: Ayr

On Friday I drove down to Prestwick airport, south of Glasgow to pick up my old friend Heidi, aka Vampus. To give you an idea of our relationship, at the arrival gate I met her with a handwritten sign saying "Alcoholics Anonymous"... We've traveled together before in the Balkans and the Baltics, and still haven't killed each other, which probably makes us look like better people than we really are. Heidi's going to join me for a week, and I suspect this trip will be blogged from increasingly different angles...

We checked in to the Arrandale Hotel in Ayr, just 15 minutes from the airport. It's a nice place, run by a truly sweet and funny lady. At £80 for a double ensuite it is highly recommended. Heidi and I walked around the town center for a little while before dining at the Tam O Shanter Inn, situated in a building from the mid 1700s. It's named after a poem by Robert Burns, who was born in this area. The food was mediocre but the bar was ok. Ayr's ok but the accent down here is so thick you can cut it with a knife.


This statue looks wonderfully absurd. A man holding a fish in his hands, pondering... what?



Ayr by night, the streets wet with rain:





It's a hard life for smokers, as Heidi was forced to breathe fresh air several times during the evening...



Heidi trying to convince me she's not drunk, despite walking almost twice the distance I did back to the hotel... ten seconds after this pic was taken, she almost fell on her face.