Glasgow
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 (cont.)
Since we didn't have the luxury of getting dropped off in front of our hostel now, the first thing we wanted to do was find Blue Sky Hostel and get rid of our backpacks. We got a little lost starting off, but manage to find it soon enough. It's situated in an old house, and isn't nearly as nice as the other ones we stayed in. There was no reception desk, just a sign-in book on the kitchen table, and the guy yelled at us for not having our passports and gave us a huge guilt-trip. And of course we couldn't pay by credit/debit card here, so we had to run out to the ATM to get enough cash to pay for our three nights. (Why am I not surprised we never got a receipt for that?) We were a little freaked out by this guy, so we ran outside to explore the city. We wandered around, found out most of the stores close damn early, so we got dinner supplies and attempted the kitchen. Only one person is allowed to use the stove at a time, so we lucked out that no one else was using it. We joined some people in the lounge for the Simpsons (the first TV show I've seen since in the UK!) and then the mean hostel literally kicked us out. Sheesh. So we left, found a bookstore and hung out there for a bit, before going back to the hostel and crashing into bed.
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Of course, the first thing we did this morning was head straight for the TIC. We found out about several plays and shows happening this weekend, so we ask where we could buy tickets. The lady told us Central Station, which does not sell tickets. We find the theatre and manage to get tickets for Romeo and Juliet tomorrow night. With that all settled, we go to Glasgow Cathedral, the only mainland church to have survived the Reformation almost completely. It was very large and very pretty, and St. Mungo is buried there.
The Necropolis, a cemetery based on Pere LaChaise in Paris, was behind the cathedral so we wandered around there. The view from the top was really nice and there was a huge statue of John Knox up there as well. We were hungry after all this wandering around, so we stopped at the Co-op and ate lunch in George Square. Right around the corner was the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), which is part of the Glasgow Museums and is free! Along with their normal exhibits, they had a special one sponsored by Amnesty International, which was really moving and powerful. I wish they had more postcards of the pieces we saw, I really liked a lot of them. We were planning on going to another gallery, but it was closed due to remodeling. So we took a personal afternoon instead, did some shopping (including another TK Maxx!), got groceries, and headed back for dinner. On the way back, we passed King's Theatre, which was showing Hello, Dolly! Deanna mentioned how she wished we could see it, and since we didn't have any plans for that night, we inquired about tickets. They had some, so we bought them, and ran back to make dinner before the show. It was a really great show, very interesting hearing Scottish actors do a New York accent. Actually, they did much better than I could have done! We all agreed that we were happy to hear Deanna pout for once. It was a fun night.
Friday, April 11, 2003
We decided to take full advantage of the fact that all the museums in Glasgow are free. But they don't open until 10, so we first go to the bus station to find out when the buses leave for St Andrews. It turns out they leave hourly on Sundays, so we didn't have to worry too much about rushing around tomorrow. The first museum we wanted to go to was all the way on the other side of town, so we walk there, only to find out that it opens at 11 on Fridays. There's a really nice park and a river behind the museum, so we walked around until it finally opened. The Kelvingrove Art Gallery is the most visited museum in the UK outside of London and had really neat stuff, like suit of armour and weapon collections and lots of archaeological evidence from Egypt and Greece. Unfortunately, the museum is closing in June for renovations, so they're in the process of moving the stuff to another gallery. This meant we couldn't go up on the second floor at all to see the art collection. At this point, we had wanted to see two other museums but really only had time for one more. So we chose the People Palace (not a great link), which is on the complete opposite side of the city, of course. We hopped on the Underground and explored the museum for a long time. It tells the story of Glasgow from the average people's view and has a lot of cultural exhibits. This one was a lot of fun, very cute. By this time, we were ready for our late lunch/early dinner, so we got back on the Underground to find the Wee Curry Shop that was described in Deanna's travel book. When we found it, it was closed! We ended up wandering around the shopping district and finding a random Indian restaurant, which was still very good. We wander around the shops some more until we had to be at the Citizens' Theatre for Romeo and Juliet. The production was put on by the Scottish Children's Theatre and was really good. We were really tired by the time it got out so we headed straight back to the hostel for our beds.
Saturday, April 12, 2003
We got up early as always and packed up our bags. We got lunch and other things, and headed back to get our things. (We half expected our packs out on the street when we got back, since the hostel guy was such a jerk.) It was a fun walk to the bus station with all our crap but we made it with plenty of time to spare. We got our tickets and caught the 11:15 bus to St Andrews. The trip was uneventful, but it was so nice and so strange to be back in town. It was comforting to be back "home," but incredibly sad that our vacation was over and we had to go back to work the next day. And that was our Spring Break!!!
THE END
Go Back to: Pitlochry - Inverness and Loch Ness - The Isle of Skye - Oban and the Isle of Mull
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