Interludes are short segments between regular episodes with no editing but WITH leather creaking. It's a chance to hear a little more about what's going on in my life.
I had the adventure of a lifetime exploring the breathtaking landscapes and rich culture of Scotland! From the captivating architecture of Glasgow and Edinburgh to the misty, picturesque west coast, I truly immersed myself in the delightful Scottish atmosphere. Listen in as I recount my unforgettable experiences trying scrumptious local cuisine like haggis, langoustine, and the ever-popular Irn Bru soda, and meeting amazing people who generously welcomed me into their lives and homes.
In the second part of this episode, I reflect on my solo journey through Scotland and share the valuable resources that helped make it possible. I also discuss the significance of Leather Social events in Glasgow for fostering a sense of community in places without dedicated leather bars. Join me as I delve into the personal growth and magic of discovering new cultures, and get inspired to embark on your own travel dreams!
Interludes are short segments between regular episodes with no editing but WITH leather creaking. It's a chance to hear a little more about what's going on in my life.
I had the adventure of a lifetime exploring the breathtaking landscapes and rich culture of Scotland! From the captivating architecture of Glasgow and Edinburgh to the misty, picturesque west coast, I truly immersed myself in the delightful Scottish atmosphere. Listen in as I recount my unforgettable experiences trying scrumptious local cuisine like haggis, langoustine, and the ever-popular Irn Bru soda, and meeting amazing people who generously welcomed me into their lives and homes.
In the second part of this episode, I reflect on my solo journey through Scotland and share the valuable resources that helped make it possible. I also discuss the significance of Leather Social events in Glasgow for fostering a sense of community in places without dedicated leather bars. Join me as I delve into the personal growth and magic of discovering new cultures, and get inspired to embark on your own travel dreams!
Welcome to Full Cow, a podcast about leather kink and BDSM. My name is Edge, my pronouns are he, him, and I am your host. And this is another interlude the episode between episodes offered raw and unedited, but with leather creaking. 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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.
Speaker 1:
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.