Deepest Darkest Glasgow

We've been booking our travel as we go. Normally this means we've got the next destination's accommodation booked, and one ticket via bus/train/plane to the new destination, or we book it a few days before we need to go. This means we have extra flexibility, but it also means that some modes of transport become vastly more expensive than they would otherwise have been.

When people heard we were going to visit Glasgow, the reactions ranged from confusion (Why are you going there? Do you have family there to visit?) to trying to warn us off going there (There's not much to do there, I wouldn't bother, personally...) but we decided to go anyway. We thought we had booked a sleeper bus to Glasgow. The thing about booking transport (and to a lesser extent, accommodation) is that for each new company you use, you've got to try to understand how to navigate their website, what the different type of tickets mean; not too difficult, but when you've done it ten different ways on ten different websites, you're bound to make a mistake. Can you feel that big heavy cloud descending right now? That's foreboding.

We arrived at the crowded Victoria bus station on time for our bus to Glasgow, which was scheduled to leave at 11.45pm, and boarded what we thought was the correct bus, and sat on our seats. No one checked our tickets, but the angry bus driver who complained about how heavy my bag was had a Scottish accent, and we did line up where we were told to, so we were presumably in the right place. I peered around looking for where the beds might be, but didn't see any. The angry bus driver who complained about how heavy my bag was began to talk over the loudspeaker, and we were on the move.

Sitting upright while trying to get some sleep isn't one of the skills that I've mastered (I'm looking at you, Nathan) and the lady opposite me kept stretching out her legs into my space. Also (things just keep getting worse, don't they?) I'd very foolishly washed our earplugs the day before. A warning to all - do not wash your ear plugs if you want to use them again, as they'll refuse to work, and pop out of your ear at the next inopportune moment.

One of the things I'd like to put on the blog once we're done is a list of things to bring/do if you ever follow in our footsteps. One of these things is (SPOILER ALERT) sleeping pills. Without sleeping pills, I don't think we would have survived the next day. As it was, we managed to have a 5-6 hour snooze on the 8 hour trip, which was good, since we had a long day ahead of us.

We arrived in Glasgow at 7:30am, or thereabouts. Thankfully the bus station had lockers, so we locked our bags away, and left to explore the city.

One useful thing to do in a new city is to visit the information centre and grab a map, and depending on the helpfulness of the people working there (thanks Montreal!) perhaps get some ideas about what you want to do. Arriving in a city that early means that nothing is open yet. So we wandered around, watching people go to work, visited the info centre once it opened, and then left to visit the cathedral.

Unbeknownst to us, Glasgow was about to host the Commonwealth Games. The tourist pavilion is in the main square, selling games memorabilia like shirts and umbrellas emblazoned with the games logo, and/or the mascot. This pavilion had just opened and we were their first customers, if you can call us that when we were just wandering around, looking at stuff, with no intention of buying anything.

We arrived at the cathedral to see elderly people milling about, carrying boxes of things, and official looking people standing around looking official. We did what any self respecting tourist does in such a situation - we decided to walk around the building to see what was going on. We followed another group of people who weren't carrying things through a side door and stepped inside. The whole inside of the building was filled with people arranging greenery, wheeling in potted plants, carrying cut flowers in little boxes shaped like coffins.

One helpful lady came up to us and explained that the Queen was going to be visiting the church the next day, and that we could still have a look inside the church. We promised not to get in anyone's way.

Getting ready for a visit from the Queen.

The building was a pretty big one, and all of the different nooks, crannies, and alcoves were being filled with flowers, including the crypt. It would have been nice to see it when it was done as well.

Just across a bridge from the church is the Necropolis. It means City of the Dead and it did look like a small town. Victorians apparently had different ideas to us as to what's appropriate for commemorating the deceased. It's an interesting place, with plenty of little statues, and buildings that are bigger than some of the rooms we've stayed in.

Not a little bit spooked out. Not me.

On the way back through George Square, there was a protest going on. I think it was to do with the Sri Lankan involvement in the games, but with Girls just wanna have fun as the song that they were prancing to as they blatantly disregarded the No climbing sign, it wasn't obvious.

I've spared you the close-up.

We visited another couple of museums (don't bother with the modern art one, but do visit Kelvingrove Art Gallery and see Salvidor Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross. It's definitely worth it) and then it was time to leave on our bus to Edinburgh. All in all, Glasgow wasn't quite the hive of scum and villainy that we'd been led to believe. It was rather pleasant, especially with things being all set up for the games. We're glad we went, even if it was just for the day.