Our Spontaneous Day in Glasgow

Hello Everyone,

Our day in Glasgow started very comfortably, after a long night of sleep, in comfortable beds. Daniel decided to sleep in longer, and I went to buy us some breakfast. I got the bear necessities, eggs, milk, bread, and butter all for £4. After making some hard boiled eggs and buttered toast, with a glass of milk, I tired to wake Daniel up again. This time he got up and we started to get going. We went to the commons of the hostel, and made a list of places we wanted to go, marked them on a map, and left.

Buchanan Street, Glasgow

We decided to go down the pedestrian seats in Glasgow, one of them being Buchanan Street. At noon, this street was very crowded and absolutely bustling. This was where we had found the TARDIS the previous night, but then it was completely empty. This afternoon we saw a man who was playing the Djembe. After Daniel made a small contribution, he made a contribution to Daniel's name and made a song of it.

Rampant Bagpipers

As we continued down the street we also saw a piper who was playing Scotland the Brave. In a kilt. He played for a while, but being a piper, he just drew the women in and we were not able to listen to him for long before we had to continue on our walk. We made our way to George Square, which everyone says is the most important place to visit while in Glasgow.

Glasgow City Chambers

War Memorial

Behind George Square, but in front of the City Chambers, there stood and impressive war memorial. Like I had said about our first view of Glasgow, we were quite excited about the architecture around the square, though I was dismayed with I learned from Daniel that many of the buildings had been destroyed in bombings. After seeing the Square, we decided to head over to another popular sight, the Necropolis and Cathedral.

Glasgow Necropolis

Glasgow's Necropolis was absolutely enormous. It was build on a giant hill, and we wound around and around the path, making our way to the top. We passed by many graves, but its also quite serene and quite, so not too unsettling. We walked up, and up and made it to the top, from there we got an amazing view of the city and got to see very far out.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, the heavens opened up in all of their fury, turning the picturesque Scottish city into a vague mass hidden under dark, brooding clouds and behind a curtain of driving rain. At this point I rounded the corner of the dirt path, which had in the past few moments become a veritable torrent of dirt-stained water, to find the only way forward a steep, crumbling victorian flagstone stairway, half overgrown with vines and shrubbery, and slick with mud and water, closely resembling a raging brown waterfall. In hindsight, I should have taken my and Daniel's security into consideration and turned back to find a more secure passage down, but it would seem that the thrill of adventure, combined with my all too prevalent hubris tempted me into justifying the endeavor. Before Daniel could even take in the awesome sight before him, I had begun my descent. Through the lashing rain and raging waters around me, I couldn't decipher his words, but by his tone I knew he was calling out a warning, which in my ignorance I did not heed. The fates, it would seem, are indeed cruel, for not moments after my companion called out in warning, I stepped onto the ndge of an ancient stone, which gave way, sending me careening down the insurmountable stairway. In my fall I experienced what seemed like an eternity of clarity, and yet it was instantaneous at the same time. In this time, I could hear every spirit in the Necropolis speaking to me, screaming at me, pleading with me, 'Think before you act!', 'Be not so careless with your safety and that of your friends!' The sincerity of their concern moved me greatly, so in that moment I decided that this could not be my end. Daniel depended on my survival. With that thought, I twisted myself into such a position that protected me on my perilous descent through the torrent of the graveyard. Miraculously, I managed to survive with naught but a few fleshwounds to my hands. Nothing a few good stitches couldn't fix in a few days. That, of course, was the least of my worries, for looking up, I saw that Daniel had begun his own unsteady descent in order to follow me and ensure my safety and survival. I acted quickly. Calling for him not to move, I fashioned various lengths of vine into a harness for myself, and, slowly but surely, I began to climb my assaulter-tying myself to the surrounding trees as I went. After reaching Daniel, I did my best to lead him down in a similar manner, despite his state- for he was understandably frozen by fear at this point and completely unable to function independently. After we had safely reached the bottom, he hugged me tight and told me he owed me his life. Though this was true, I assured him that no such debt existed, and the only lesson we must take from this incident was to always hold safety in the paramount respect for the duration of our trip, and in truth, our lives.*

Glasgow Cathedral

After that we went to the big church. It was big and shiny. I like churches that are big.*

Anyway, Glasgow Cathedral we learned of its history and construction. It was originally St. Mungo's tomb, and then later the church was built over top of it. This cathedral was being restored on the front side, but this picture was taken from the Necropolis which was just behind it. We were able to see other tombs of others who had also been buried inside the church.

Cathedral Gardens

Giant Bible

Even in Glasgow, there are Apple Stores

After visiting the church we headed out to back to the main part of town to go catch the subway. As we were walking, we saw a sight that was quite familiar in the midst of all the foreign stores. The Apple store was there, and I can unashamedly admit that I used the wifi from outside the building to find a place to check my email. (so did Daniel). After dropping by the apple store we made our way to the subway station on Buchanan street. We stopped on our way to the subway and made an hour detour as when we say teh Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). Inside there was a lot of art that was... confusing. First we were captivated by a Rube Goldberg machine that ran for 30 minutes. We only got to it after it was about 10 minutes in, but we stood for 20 minutes and watched it finish, as each reaction was perfectly timed to set off the next one. Then we saw a piece that had a video of common New York jobs playing right beside a video of common Palestinian jobs. The similarities were amazing. Finally we left the GoMA, finally ending our detour, and went to the subway.

Afternoon Tea

We were surprised to find out that the main subway loop in Glasgow was only 24 minutes long. In comparison the Bloor line takes 50 minutes to get across. We took the subway to the northwest end of town where we decided to visit the Botanic Gardens of Glasgow. We walked about and went into a fern greenhouse. We got a great combination of natural scenery and statues that were put up for the patrons. After the great fern collection we went over to the Tea House, and got ourselves a cup of afternoon tea. (and it wasn't too expensive).

Dinner!

We walked back to our hostel and on the way back decided that we wanted to have spaghetti and meatballs to eat. After dropping our things off at the hostel we walked over to the local Tesco and bought our entire dinner for 4.28. We decided that we wanted to add to our future foods with a small package of mixed herbs, so we decided to get that for a pound as well. We cooked our dinner, ate it, and were soon ready to sleep with our exhaustingly full stomachs. But we still wanted to get our laundry done while we had the chance. We actually ended up spending about 4 hours doing our laundry and stayed up until 1 am to finish.


Well, we definitely did sleep well, after all that grueling laundry work. Anyway, catching up :)


- Kamaljot

*Ghost written by Daniel