Blogs from Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 14

I thought that I'd be very organised and start this travel blog well ahead of the actual departure date, partly for my own sanity, because it's so much easier to work out what you need to do when it's in writing! Lists can abound, and I do love a good list! It's also very hard to get excited about something that is approaching at a dizzying pace whilst you've almost forgotten it's happening. Suddenly, it will be the 27th of June and I will be off, and I'd quite like to be as prepared for that as possible! So. I am very much still in the planning stage, and actually have much less time than I'd anticipated! Not that I'm complaining - this shortness of time is largely on account of overtime at work, which equals ... read more

I'm going to rush through the entry a bit as I'm in the middle of pumping out a bunch of entries at once. Got the grand tour of the city today thanks to Adam's flat mate Niall. Took a subway out to the West End, ate lunch at my new favorite place, Baguette Express and walked around some parks, museums and of course the old University of Glasgow. Just a beautiful campus. It looks like you are walking around Hogwarts, just all old Gothic buildings that make you feel like you have gone back in time. I love Penn State but I would not mind having to walk through this campus on my way to class. Also went and checked out the Ibrox, the home of Rangers FC, Scotland's finest club football team. (53 titles and ... read more

GLASGOW Day 92 Today I have attempted to sort out my Scottish and Irish roots, with little success. I headed to The Mitchell library, which has the genealogy centre for the Glasgow area. I know that many generations ago my Irish great great great… married my Scottish great great great… in Glasgow. I found the marriage listed in the Old Parish Registry but it didn’t provide any real information other than the following: Thomas McCabe, Luarrier in Glasgow & Margaret McLean residing here married on 12 February 1854. I don’ know what on earth a Luarrier would be but it would have been his profession. So next I tried searching the census records for 1851 and 1861. Unfortunately, there are many Thomas McCabes and even more Margaret McCabes and without ages or parents names it ... read more

LONDON/GLASGOW Day 91 I got off the ferry last night and in to London at about 10:30pm. I attempted to get on to the night train to Glasgow but it had been fully booked since first in the morning. So I had to hold up in London for the night and wait until the morning in order to make moves to the Scottish North. I was hoping to be able to spend maybe a day or two in London before heading up to Glasgow. But with losing so many days I would rather go straight up to Scotland where I haven't seen as much of the country than spend more time in London, and England, when I have visited these places twice already. So it was off to Scotland the very next morning. I made ... read more

*Massive deep breath* I've just made one of the most challenging decisions of my little life so far. Now I don't wish to sound like I'm complaining, because I'm really not and know that I was very very lucky to have to decide between two really interesting, challenging offers (kind of like, 'should I take the Bentley or the Rolls today?!') but it is still really difficult to know what to do when the decision affects others as well as yourself, and will affect the rest of your life in some shape or form. So, as you know I had been accepted in principle by VSO (www.vso.org) to go and volunteer in a developing country. I was absolutely thrilled and very much looking forward to going. However, before I was accepted by VSO they'd originally rejected ... read more