Advertisement
Published: March 16th 2008
Edit Blog Post
So, even though I'd really like to be at the Houston Rodeo for about the next week (since I allowed myself to look at the performance line up), I did have a great time in Glasgow today 😊
A lot of parts reminded me of being in New York City- busy streets, small cafes, street fairs (one of my favorite things), and at least one representative of every culture, cult, psychological disorder, religion, and occupation that you could possibly think of. Oh- and a lot of Starbucks of course 😊 I even started counting limos (1) and looking for places to get my nails done.
This time, when we arrived, we just walked out of the train station and decided to just go. We didn't know much about Glasgow; between the three of us, we weren't even sure if it had a castle. There were definitely pros and cons to this, but we did a good job of working through it (including asking for directions).
When we emerged from the train station, we saw the tail end of parade passing by. So we ran to catch up with it. Strangely enough, another New York -esque item was there.
Amanda had thought that the parade was a gay pride parade, but when I saw the rainbow colored "Pace" flag, I totally remembered the same flag being given to me by my aunt. As far as I remember, "pace" means "peace" in italian- it's their anti-war flag (correct me if I'm wrong). And I remembered a girl from Stirling mentioning to me that she had plans to go into Glasgow this weekend for a peace rally against the war in Iraq.
We looked around at some great architecture. It was neat because all the buildings seemed to carry through a very similar style, like they were all built within a very short amount of time (or maybe that was the intent of the architects). It just looked pleasingly cohesive no matter what part of the city we were in.
We definitely walked a lot. I'm very interested in going back, but I'd like to find out more about the area and see if there are any places I should make sure to go. We walked by this great looking art store that I am definitely going back to. And there's an art festival the last week of March
that I think I'd really enjoy, but it's the week of spring break, and if all goes as planned, I'll be outside the UK for the majority of that time. It sounds like Glasgow is more of a cultural center than people give it credit for. It gets a bad rap because there are definitely some shady parts, and some of the people around there appear rather hostile but with the same warm Scottish helpfulness (all wrapped into one lol). I've heard that there are a lot of art museums, and with the street festival that we saw today, I'm assuming that the city is more interested in encouraging enthusiasm concerning the arts than people realize.
I have to say though- the highlight of the trip was Starbucks. I've had it in the back of my mind since Edinburgh a couple weeks ago, and I knew that if I saw one, I would have to stop. It was definitely the busiest Starbucks I have ever seen. All the seats were packed, a line at least 7 deep with a bunch of other people waiting at the other end for their coffee. Luckily my travelling companions understood my obsession and
were willing to wait with me. I got a venti nonfat vanilla chai latte, and it was amazing. I'm talking- best chai I have ever had- exactly the right temperature, perfect amount of vanilla, and the exact quantity to satisfy my craving 😊 I also got a chocolate caramel shortbread cookie- because if you're going to go, you might as well go all out when you've been craving something for this long. It tasted alright, but I'm pretty sure those won't be coming to any US Starbucks too soon.
While we sat outside (in the beautiful weather!), enjoying our drinks, we noticed a performer attracting quite of bit of attention. He was dressed in all white and held a skull- Shakespeare anyone? We didn't really get to listen to him to much; we moved along pretty soon after we finished our drinks, and he was all the way over on the other side of the festival street.
Next we saw a bagpipe trio- two guys playing the bagpipes and a drummer. We had heard them when we started at the beginning of the festival, and they were at the completely opposite end- they played the whole time it
goofing around at dinner
(i actually think she's a nice person- sometimes) :) took us to get up there (a pretty long time). They were probably all in their 20s and were fully decked out in Scottish attire. I called my mom so that she could listen to some of the music, and much to the dismay of Eleanor, my mom started to dance 😊 Wish I could have been there 😊
I'd say overall it was a pretty successful trip. We spent a lot more time in pubs that I had wanted to, but I think better investigation into the place we're going prior to our trip would be helpful and maybe going to bed at a decent hour the night before could be beneficial to all of us as well. I didn't buy a single thing while I was there either- so except for the £6.30 roundtrip (!!) train ticket, lunch, and dinner, I had a pretty great time for a very small amount. Well, and Starbucks of course made it all the better- maybe the reason the chai tasted so good was because it was about $8 with the current exchange rate lol
I'm really enjoying these little trips. It's so easy to travel here. I was telling
glasgow train station
(right before our train arrived to get back to stirling) Amanda earlier that I wish our public transportation in the states was this easy- and that Worcester had maybe one or two nice bus drivers (instead of all mean ones). I'm definitely getting through my list of places that I wanted to go a lot quicker than I had anticipated, but I guess that just gives me more room to plan more trips. Next weekend is Easter weekend, and we don't have classes on Friday or Monday, so I think I'm going to try London. One of my friends from Clark is studying there- Alisha Targonski- and although she's going to be gone until Sunday night, I thought I might arrive Saturday afternoon, find a hostel or hotel for the night, and then meet up with her Sunday, stay at her flat over night, and then come back Monday night.
I think with a lot of planning and foresight, spring break is going to be the pinnacle of my time over here. I've wanted to go to Italy for so long, and to finally be able to get there- talk about a dream come true. I'm not sure if I should try and spend the entire week in Italy,
and really take my time to soak it up and see all the pieces of artwork and architecture that I've only read about in my art history books, or if I should go with plan B which is to go to Italy for a couple days but take more of a "survey" approach while including Germany and Belgium in the mix. Suggestions? 😊
Anyways, today was a good day, and I'm glad that I'm sticking with my plans of doing something new or seeing something new each weekend. I feel like I'm really taking advantage of my time here and enjoying it as much as possible. I'm not sure if it's totally set in yet that I'm living in Scotland, but I'm working on it. I realized today, looking back at my blog, that I've been here for a little less than 35 days.
My mom was right- it'll fly by. I just had to get here first.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0595s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb