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Published: June 29th 2015
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One of the amazing thing about Scotland is that most every attraction and event is run by the people! This being said, I arrived Wednesday afternoon and was able to do a ton in my half a week there. I stayed at a hostel nearby the city center where I quickly made friends with people from Germany and Bulgaria. We rode the bus over to the Botanic Gardens. The garden is an arboretum and public park located in the West End of the city. It features several glasshouses, with large sculptures of horses and other animals in front. We ventured off trail to a hiking trail that lead us to a hill that overlooks the entire city. Absolutely fabulous! In the evening we went to dinner at The Esquire House, which reminded me a lot of a restaurant in Wales. Let me take a moment to commend the Germans on the amount of beer they can drink and still function... Wow. The Americans are weak compared to these Germans!
It was pretty drizzly for the first half of my stay, but that didn't stop me from exploring! Here are some of the places I went to:
• The Lighthouse
- At first I was a bit skeptical because I had to walk down a dark, wet, and gross, alley to get to the entrance, but it ended up being very nice. This museum is the Centre for Design and Architecture.
• Gallery of Modern Art - In front of the gallery is a statue of the Duke of Wellington. At first I thought someone climbed the statue and placed a traffic cone on his head, but I soon learned that the traffic cone was part of the statue. At one point the city council wanted to remove it, but it was the people who organized a campaign and won in protest to keep it.
• Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum - This museum was giant. After two hours I thought I covered everything only to discover an entire other wing of the building. The museum hosts an organ concert every day and I was lucky to be there for one of the performances. The organist played so elegantly!
• Necropolis and Glasgow Cathedral - The Necropolis is a Victorian garden cemetery that overlooks the Glasgow Cathedral. The cemetery is whopping 37 acres and no, I did not tour the entire piece of
land.
• Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery - This museum is located on the Glasgow University campus and is the oldest public museum in Scotland. It featured many of Dr. William Hunter's original collections. I am an anatomy and physiology enthusiast and this was Dr. Hunter's focus so I was
veryinterested in all his work! He had preserved brain dissections, drawings and models of a full grown fetus inside the womb, and many of cool items.
• Glasgow University - Every university in Europe is the equivalent to a castle in my eyes. The buildings, the landscape, the libraries; all were outstandingly gorgeous. I got to see two wedding parties who were dressed as if a new King or Queen was being announced. I don't think people in America get married on college campuses.
• Riverside Museum - This was the first and most impressive museum I went to. Some of the world’s finest cars, bicycles, ship models, trams and locomotives are displayed here. The museum also had interactive displays and historic Glasgow street scene brought the objects and stories to life.
• The Barras Market - Located on the east end of the city, I found an enormous flea/farmer's style indoor and outdoor
market. This market has been around since right after the First World War.
• Victoria Park - Thankfully, it happened to be sunny the day I decided to go to the park! I went to Fossil Grove, located within the park. Fossil Grove is home to preserved remains of some 330 million-year-old forests. It was an accidental discovery by the Glasgonians, but I'm sure glad they found it! The park also had an arboretum, a 19th century working clock tower, and a war memorial. After walking around and looking at all these sights, I threw up my hammock and relaxed for a bit.
When I planned to come to Glasgow, everyone told me I picked the wrong city and that there is not much to do there. Boy, they were wrong! I did so many things, and yet I still missed out on a lot! I will definitely be making my way back to Scotland someday.
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