An Unexpected Day in Glasgow

Phew, got to say thanks to Daniel for finishing that entire post, its a long one.

So as Daniel had told you, we had found a hostel in Glasgow, after figuring out that the bus was reserved for the wrong day... And that't where I will pick up,

We woke up the next morning around 9am, with checkout at 10. Since we didn't have a single idea as to what we wanted to do in the day, we sat in our hostel until time for checkout came, simply catching up on emails and reading. At about 10 we handed in our linens to the front desk and made our way out of the hostel. We ended up at a church just past the hostel after a 10 minute walk out from the city. On the way we had picked up some very cheap subway, and eaten it as well.

We reached the church and were greeted by an usher, and our conversation went a bit like this:

Usher: "Do you know we are affiliated with the Church of Scotland?"
Us: "Umm, no, but ok..."
Usher: "Well the Church of Scotland is protestant, and sometimes when people see our church they believe its a catholic service" (obviously he noted our confusion)
Us: "Oh! No protestant is great, no problem."
Usher: "Well its only 10:30, but come back soon, and then our service will start. Maybe grab a coffee."

So we went out and were immediately greeted by an old man, who asked, "Hey, why are you leaving, you should come in, come in." We assured him we would be right back. Then just as we turned the street another lady asked us if we would be returning, and we had to assure her as well, but the people of the Church were very nice, and we were quite happy to come back to the service, after our quick coffee run.

The service was great, and we had our first experience with Hymn books. Well I'm not sure for Daniel, but it was for me. We also got to hear an organ playing, as well as a great sermon. Afterwards we went for communion with the other people of the service. They we met some great people, and also learned that the service had been much smaller today because of some church vacation day. But, we did meet an old man named Dr. Stuart Hoggar...

When we sat down with our cups of tea, everyone was interested about our journey, so we told them about where we had been, and were we plan to go. They were curious about what we would be doing after our trip, so we told them about our university plans, and such. It was really great talking, and then another man approached us with a very hoarse voice. He introduced himself as Stuart Hoggar. He was a man who looked to be about in his 60's, and we learned he had completed his PhD in mathematics many years ago over a few research papers in the University of Glasgow. He told us about his books regarding mathematics and computers. He was also a playwright for the church. He had already written four plays, and was in the process of writing his fifth one. We spent about another hour here in the church and then left to wander the city.

Considering it was a Sunday morning we had anticipated that there would not be much street traffic, or many shops open, so we walked around trying to decided what we would do that day. Clearly we underestimated the amount of nothing there would be, as we walked for about an hour and only saw a couple of people. We decided to head over to Buchanan street, to see if we could find anything open, though there were only food places, and some pound stores open. Finally we decided we would sit in Glasgow Central, where we could get internet, and food without much hassle. We sat there from about 1pm all the way until 10pm, taking turns leaving the station, to eat, explore a bit, and maybe buy else here and there. Daniel ended up with an inflatable pillow, which was quite comfortable after trying to sleep without it for him. I stuck without it, and took naps in my chair if necessary.

We went over to Buchanan Bus Station, which was a short 10 minute walk from the Central Station, and we went to where the M11 bus would pick us up. There was already a large crowd where the bus would be coming and we were still about 40 minutes early to catch it. At about 10:45 two buses came in, both heading off to London, and some staff were directing people to the bus their ticket was reserved on. We were told one of the buses was a London express while the other would be stopping in Birmingham.

We sat down in our seats, and then watched some horrible customer service... One of the bus drivers was trying to cram as many people as possible into our bus, and there was a seat that someone had put a bag down on to save for his friend, who was outside making a phone call. The bus driver took his bag out and seated someone else because he was in a hurry to get out of the station, while knowing that he was separating two people who had booked together. But after that it was OK, and we were off to Birmingham.

On the way we read, and wrote for a bit, but then Daniel and I began to nod off. We were abruptly awoken at a truck stop, where the bus drivers said we would be waiting here for 15 minutes, and then headed off to our next stop. Some people, including myself, got off. I went off to the store with 3 pounds in my pocket, and decided to buy two bars of chocolate. Me and Daniel split the first bar and then put the second away to eat later.

Three truck stops later, it was about 4:30 am, and I went to ask the bus driver when we would be arriving at Birmingham, as it was getting to about the time when we were supposed to arrive. The bus driver replied with a quick "This Bus doesn't go to Birmingham, its a London Express". I told the bus driver that we were directed onto this bus, and he said, "Nothing I can do, Sorry". I went back to the bus, awoke Daniel, and told him about the situation. So we got off, and Daniel showed our ticket reference number to the driver, and he also got a confused look, and we told him that we needed to be in Birmingham, but he had nothing for us. Me and Daniel then decided that we would not be riding with any company that called itself "Megabus" ever again. We got our bags off the bus, and were stranded ... somewhere.

We went inside the truck stop, and asked around as to where we were. Turns out we were about 20 miles north of Birmingham, and had we stayed on that bus any longer, we would have ended up south of Birmingham. We asked someone else for some taxi numbers, but they were kind enough to go the extra mile, and help us plan a route, that would take a taxi and train and get us to Birmingham. We got into the taxi at about 5:30am, and were off too Cannok Station. Then we waited at Cannok station until the first train came at 6:11, and soon enough were back on track to Birmingham. Me and Daniel both fell asleep on the train there, and were lucky to wake up with the call of end of the line in Birmingham. We looked around and the train was already empty as all the commuters had already gotten out, and were off to their jobs, on a Monday morning.

At the station we waited for the first train out to Kidderminster. I sat over a hot chocolate, while Daniel scrambled around to mail a letter off, finding stamps and envelopes and post boxes. We got on our train and then were in Kidderminster at about 9:30 am, tired, but alive.