Brilliant things about Scotland

[JennyPiccolo]

Just cos I love Scotland.

The banter
Irn bru
Men who look like they grew out of the ground
How everyone sees going out and having a good time as some kind of fundamental human right
Edinburgh fringe festival
The barrowlands ballroom
Whisky

My Scottish work colleague in his kilt.
Brown sauce stuff you get on chips in Scotland, not regular brown sauce, never had it anywhere else.
Films
Local Hero
Whisky Galore
Restless Natives
Trainspotting

puss is fab and ken too :) my mum berates me for ending everything in ken but she says it too she just doesnt realise! i usually get ''do you ken ken? who's ken does everybody ken ken?'' from her when she's taking the piss im aorry apparently because i say abdy, whit, sair, flair, windy and ben the house but i dont say loaby so i feel admonished

Oxters.

The view from the train at Montrose station; the way it just opens out.
Coming out of Waverley Station and seeing the Castle.
The William Wallace statue in Aberdeen.
Empty beaches.
Haggis pizza; haggis and mozzarella panini; fusion cooking at its finest.
Stone circles in the country side; no big fuss, just a stone circle in the middle of a field somewhere.
Celtic knotwork.
Fine pieces.
Place names like Auchterarder and Foggieloan.
Dolphins.

LOLOL 'fusion cooking at its finest'

"adequately staffed hospitals and short waiting times" - not in this part of Scotland*
This might be a regional thing but I had a bad mountain bike accident on a Bank Holiday a couple of months ago.
I was straight in and seen to, stiched and out within an hour.
Anohter bank holiday in England DS broke both his arms. 5 hour wait and total time in hospital from going through the front door to leaving was 7 1/2 hours. That is a working day sat in a waiting room for the majority of the time, couple mins for the x ray and then more sitting and waiting.
No wonder Scotland has a good reputation!!

peacemoon another vote here for Dumfries and Galloway.

the train ride to Kyle Of Lochalsh beside Loch Ness.

Pipes and drums.

Goosepimples every time crossing north over the border.

Gorgeous lilting accents.

'fusion music'

there is a Celtic croft/thrash/rock band called Def Shepherd.

One of the fiddle players in Def Sheppard used to be my teacher!

gentleotter, I remember tablet! Pure sugar and Fussell's milk, eh? Is it still sold? My grannie's pal used to make it. Bloody hell it lashed the teeth.

Liking this thread!

Lack of right-wing nutters.
Haggis
The isles in general
The space
Never being far from a tree
Whisky
More whisky
Cairn O Mohr wine
White beaches, beautiful blue water (yes, really - didn't say they were warm though :) )
Tattie scones (Tattie scone and fried egg roll - perfect hangover food!)

Pubs! Scottish pubs rock:)

And Boris the view of Arran from Ayrshire is gorgeous, isn't it? Every coast I'm ever at, I look for Arran, it's etched in my soul.

The best folk in the world. My second favourite people are Kiwis. They are like a healthy version of Scottish people

Does anyone remember a band called the Spanners who played in a pub in Leith? Around late 1980s, 1990? Fantastic.

peacemoon I mentioned in my earlier thead Marthown of Mabie.
That's in Dumfries and Galloway.
In a latter thread I mention a mountain accident. That happened in D and G!!

Cairn o Mohr wine is fab. The winery is not far from us and well worth a visit.
The raspberry one is yummy as an aperitif - blackberry gives you the hangover from hell

More appreciation from the states:

Edinburgh - what a beauty!
Arthur's Seat & Holyrood Park - grass so springy and thicker than hair. You can fling yourself down on it.
Beltaine at Calton hill - still blows my tiny mind. I can only imagine how incredible hogmanay must be. When I learned you burn a replica viking ship as part of the festivities, it made me feel I have never really been to a real party.
Scottish pubs
stopping at a chippy on a wild night on the way back from the pub and the way the super hot chips keep your hands warm
the haar
bagpipes, nuff said
men in kilts aw yeah
whisky though I can't drink it (night of indulgence when parents were out of town - so extreme has put me off for life)
I really love the weather - less extreme temps than the states, but more fun.

I want to come back. I was there as a poor student pinching pennies and didn't get to see much outside Edinburgh.

Does Def Sheppard have bagpipes? Does it have freestyle thrash bagpipes? Because I saw bagpipers doing that at the Beltaine and I have pined to hear more of it ever since. They were topping each other like free jazz trumpet divas and people were stage diving. Peak experience. Any other music recs welcome.

Isn't the viking ship burning Up Helly-A in Shetland (or possibly London in July. )? Not hogmanay I don't think.

Have not read all 4 pages, but I adore Scotland and everything about it.

My favourite catch phrase must be "Say Aye tae a pie!"

Besides it is always home, even though I havent lived there in nearly 20 years. Driving up the motorway I feel so happy the closer I get to the border.

Mother's Pride plain bread
Morton's well-fired rolls with tattie scone
Highland games and Pipe Band championships
Free university
Free prescriptions
Free eye tests
To quote Billy Connolly - when you go places and "there's nobody there"
Miles and miles of nothing but dramatic landscape
Mountains
Lochs
Glens
Porridge
Buchanan St on a warm sunny day
The lovely tap water
The banter

and a million other things.

The weather

Oh, and when you take the East Coast line to Edinburgh and it twists between dramatic sea views, with the occasional castle - my favourite bit of the trip.

Brilliant thread.

I like the accents, all variations of them.
The lochs and rivers, for swimming in when I was young and didn't feel the cold, the hills for picking blaeberries, chantrelle mushrooms, hazelnuts, brambles etc.
The light, the huge skies, beautiful sunsets and I even like the wild weather.
I love how friendly Glasgow is but I also find other towns friendly too, Dundee, Aberdeen and quite a few of the N.E towns.
The glens and the mountains too.

Hogmany, ceilidhs and Burn's Night too.

ah well, it wouldn't surprise me if I've gotten the ship burning wrong since I've never seen it. But I would like to!

And me BrawToken, the view of the Arran hills is always in my mind's eye. Etched on my soul now, what a great description of it.

dementedma houghmagandy is a fine word, especially wae royalty .

Forgot about:

The phrases, foosty face and soor pus
The expression, black affronted
The ferry from Largs to Millport, and how you feel you've steeped back in time
The use of coupon to refer to your face eg. take that glaikit look aff yer coupon or ah'll skelp yer arse.
Loch Earn and surrounding area -beautiful.
Going for your messages.
Useful insults like: awa' and bile yer heid! - baheid - up yer kilt! - heidtheba
The Singing Kettle - Oh Little Bunny Fou Fou hopping through the forest ...