Glasgow/Edinburgh

Alot of things have come up that I'd like to talk about. Hope I can keep them concise.

I arrived in Glasgow by bus on Tuesday, 17-5 as they say. 8 hour ride - not bad for £10. Again, I had some lady talk to me that went on and on about her personal life - didn't care to comment on anything about me. I just knodded and at one point finally put on my headphones - too much and I couldn't be bothered. Anyway, Glasgow is quite a city. Not as busy as London by far and very friendly people. Easier to cross the streets. Beautiful buildings, architecture is exquisite. Everything is kind of dark - loads of moss growing on them and the stone has turned almost black. It feels midevil. Certainly not as loud of London. Again, lots of shopping to be had and cute little shops.

The shops are interesting here in Britian in that you look inside and you think, hmmmm, not much of a shop - they hardly have anything displayed. But then you go inside and find out that everything is either upstairs OR you go downstairs, through a hall, down more stairs, another hall, doorway, turn right, turn left, another door, 2 more steps, creeky floor, watch your step, another hall and then many more rooms of stuff for sale. All the shops are small and narrow but deep, if that makes sense. Tis the way of Europe. It gives these shops so much character and definitely enhances the experience, I find. Wears on the feet too.

The Glasgow is powerful and difficult to understand. I swear it sounds like another language. Hearing two gents speak back and forth is no match for me. It's interesting to listen to and the comraderie that the people have is admiring. I feel sorry for people that are trying to learn English and come here to visit. I'm sure they've been warned though.

I don't feel I got much accomplished in Glasgow. My big interest was some scenery, Edinburgh, the people, and the music scene.

I didn't get to see much scenery except for my bus ride to Edinburgh - aw, what a most beautiful place. I've seen nothing like it - (I'm sure I'll be saying that alot this year). I mean, I knew Edinburgh Castle was in the middle of the city and expected it to be cool but WOW, this was amazing. When I rode in on the bus and had my first glimpse of it, my jaw dropped to the ground. Rubbed my eyes a few times and looked again. Could not believe my eyes at this astounding place that was built so long ago on the top of a Volcano crage. Woah! Pictures will not even come close to explaining what it is like to view. It is so Shakespearian. The only thing to complete the look would be to change what everyone is wearing and you would literally be back in time - well, except for the smell; I hear it smelled pretty bad back then. Anyway, let me give you a minds eye if I can. In the middle of this city is the ruins of an old volcano which sits up above the city. On top, they built this castle that was never penetrated by enemies! Never! The castle is pretty large and has several buildings on it as well as canons, the Queen's chamber, military buildings and even a dungeon for prisoners, which I'll come back to. As you look out some of the windows in the castle, it is a shear drop-off - I would say roughly 1.5 pitches or more. The road leading up to the castle is called the Royal mile and at the end of it is the Parliament house which was closed by the time I got to it. What is amazing are the buildings along the royal mile - they are very tall and narrowly built. They tell us that back then because of the way they built the walls and the castle/town, to expand for the population, the only way to increase in size was up. So the poor, weak and famined lived either on the streets, in the lower floor or up in the attics and the more wealthy lived in the middle - just high enough to not smell the stench of the street but not too high to walk up the stairs. The buildings are just amazingly beautiful to me and the cobble stone streets and little sidewalks. Now, lots of tacky souvenier shops and pubs, etc occupy the lower premises and I guess people still inhabit the upper portions. Really makes it easy to imagine back the far in time since it IS so old. The rest of the city is also amazingly beautiful - all the buildings are very imperial looking with what I would assume is architecture influenced by the Romans because of the columns and corynthian shapes, etc. Edinburgh was amazing for a day. I wanted to venture outside the city and high up to get a nice pic of the castle but my feet said, no more silly girl!

I was able to get to the Burrell Collection in Glasgow - I feel this is a must see even though it's a bit of a bus ride (not bad though). The 10 minute walk through a lovely and large park was refreshing to the city life I have had thus far. William Burrell was some art collector who collected over 8,000 pieces of art - that in itself is amazing to me. I don't have my info with me but this man was a very frugal art collector and difficult to deal with, as the tour guide told us. He would taunt and play with dealers until he got the price he wanted. And at auctions he never personally bid on an item. He would hire 2-4 people to instead bid and give them signals as to what to do therefore, never revealing that he was personally doing the bidding and thus, maintaining and honest bargain. I would like to know more about this guy since I found him very intriguing. Even more interesting is his collection. He has a very wide variety of culture and antiques. For example in the courtyard is the famous Warwich Vase, dating from the 2nd century AD and found in the ruins of the Emperor Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. He has a section devoted to Ancient Egypt which date from the Archaic Period (about 3,000 BC) to the Ptolemaic Period (332 - 30 BC). Ancient Greece and Rome including vases, sculptures and jewellery to Paintings including works by the French 19th century artists Degas, Cezanne and Boudin. Also Chinese Art including amazing ceramics - Neolithic burial urns, T'ang Dynasty eartheware figures as well as the Ming dynasty. Gothic art, Islamic art, 16 & 17th century rooms, arms and armour, on and on! Absolutely amazing and the building all of this is in is actually very lovely with glass floor to ceiling windows all around and carpet to quiet the experience.

The underground scene is definitely prevalent in Glasgow but I only experienced it one night. After wandering through town a bit we finally found it and it was definitely cool - no tourists that I could see. The DJ was good and it was a nice place - not poush but relaxing with good indirect lighting. (sorry my choice of adjectives are plain but I'm rushing this a bit). Anyway, it was nice to get out in a place that felt more like my style.The place and the crowd were cool though and I enjoyed it - felt right at home. I even brought along 2 girls I met in the hostel on the fly. They had just got in from Germany and were easy to persuade to join me. It was Friday night after all. Anyway, they were very lovely to hang out with but I can say, this type of place was new to them. I hope they had a good time.

The hostel I finally ended up staying in was an about-face to what I started with in Glasgow. The first place was tiny and smoky - definitely not my cup of tea so I moved over to Euro Hostel and found it to be great. Large rooms and our own private "ensuite" bathrooms - excellent. Just the finer things we take for grants like being able to sit up in your own bed w/o hitting your head - or having just some floor space of your own for your shoes or whatever - these are the luxuries I must weigh now - and only a few of many more that are hard to find.

I have now moved over to Dublin (Saturday flight). Again, found myself moving hostels which I expected since there wasn't much to choose from on a Sat night. The city is bussling and people have been friendly. I got lost once upon arrival with my aching backpack (something to perhaps improve when back in London) but all in all, I think now I know where I'm at most of the time. At first thought, I felt it deserved some time since I'm certain it is not without beauty and friendliness. But after viewing a "mediteranean-leashed" magazine onboard the plane, I've decided to keep my visit brief and get to the real meat and potatoes of my journey. I really want to see the acquaintance I met in NZ, Tiernan - a local here. Although we missed each other for the weekend, we are planning our get-together some time today - once I'm done here I suppose. A very charming and delightful person to say the least. He has the most generous, positive personality of anyone. Can't ever have enough of that. Looking forward to our reunion and a pint of Guiness. To everyone working, I'll have one for you :)

lora