Day 1: Arrived in Glasgow! So it begins

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(Note: I will try and put photos up this time, just not today since I haven't slept in almost two days and I'm a wee bit tired!)

Alrighty, we made it safe and sound! Almost didn’t make it through customs because I apparently have the travelling habits of a drug lord or something, but more on that later 😉

We got to the Toronto airport no problem – plenty of time to laze around and take our time which is always a good mood to be in at an airport. We said goodbye to our lemon (the lemon shenanigans will be explained tomorrow, too tired to get into it now.) I got my last Timmy’s run for 5 weeks and off we went! Em managed to sleep on the plane (lucky bum), but I was happy enough to watch Lord of the Rings. Wahoo.

Connecting to our flight was a little tricky because we left 30-40min late from Toronto. We boarded super early and were ready to go on time but then we taxied FOREVER. We literally did 3 u-turns on the tarmac and at least 2 S-curves... only to finally take off and do another u-turn as soon as we got off the ground. Good job guys, good job 😉

All that to say, we got to Reykjavik at 7h – our connecting flight was at 7h35 and we had to go through security again. We made it though, without having to run. Look at us go!

Now, the fun part... customs in Glasgow. Holy freakin’ cow the lady was ridiculous. She couldn’t believe that I would A) travel as much as I do as a student and B) that I would come to the UK in May, go home, and come back in June. It turned into a 10minute debate essentially with her telling me that it was super fishy that I would come back. We obviously explained that this trip was already booked and that I had decided to come in May – she just gave me bitch face saying “that sounds weird, sorry” Yes, sorry I want to visit your freakin’ country – way to promote the UK.

She also argued that I shouldn’t be able to afford all this – she wanted to know how I financed my travels and if I had proof. I told her I had cash for the time in the UK since we pay most things ahead of time which just prompted more questions... *eye roll*. She wanted to know how much I “wasted” on airfare for both trips and then she started arguing that most visitors work their way through Europe, but that I’m not allowed to do that... I told her I’m not, I work back home. Like holy God, this isn’t rocket science – I have 10000 stamps in my passport, I like to travel, it doesn’t make me criminal.

She FINALLY let us go but ended by saying that the entire thing (me, not Em – poor Em was stuck standing there with me the entire time haha) still sounded fishy to her. And she added that she hoped I wasn’t taking finance or business at school because I’m obviously horrible with my money.

Yeah. Yeah. I clearly SUCK at saving money considering how much I travel on my own dime. Cool.

ANYWAY! Rest of the day was thankfully uneventful in the best way possible! We wandered around the hostel neighbourhood and then walked out to Glasgow Cathedral – it’s a stunning gothic church that looks to be incredibly well-maintained for its age. We walked around the entire ground floor, and went down into the chapels and such in the basement – it was quite lovely.

As we were leaving, one of the tour guides (this old man) comes up to us asking us if we enjoyed our visit and how long we were in Glasgow/Scotland and such. When we noted that we’re from Canada he laughed and was like: “so, I guess you’re not talking with any Americans, eh?” ahahaha, oh dear.

From the Cathedral we wandered down towards the Clyde River and Glasgow Green – a giant park. Everything is so green here, but I guess that’s because of the amount of rain they get! It kept spitting rain today, but it was nothing to bug us. At Glasgow Green, we also visited the People’s Palace which had some nice flowers/plants and a small museum about life in Glasgow over the years.

After that we were dead on our feet – we just did groceries for the next few days and came back to the hostel to plan a few little things for tomorrow and just unwind 😊

PS. I love Scottish accents. I have no idea what some people are saying, and I love it.

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