As part of my birthday festivities, Cristina arranged a surprise trip to Glasgow. We were able to do this as England, considerately, places a bank holiday following my birthday. This is the third place in Scotland that we have visited, and like the previous two, it did not disappoint.
We stayed right in the city centre, which allowed us to walk everywhere we wanted to go and not have to worry about arranging transportation. Glasgow, at least the centre and a bit of the west end, is a really pretty and dynamic city. Our location couldn’t have been better because we were right next to several nice whisky bars and all the shopping and high street activities.
One thing that I still haven’t figured out is the abundance of hair stylists. I don’t know if it is just that area or if Glaswegians take their hair really seriously. We spent more time than expected shopping because the prices are so much cheaper than London’s. We visited a few metal bars and listened to actual Rock and Roll - a seeming rarity in London - and traditional Scottish folk music at a whisky bar.
We were a bit nerdy and didn’t do any hard partying or the like. We ate out only twice - where we sampled some haggis, naturally, and the rest of the time was spent walking about and touring museums. We did do our whisky shopping and attempted to track down some specific bottles. The iPhone’s GPS came in quite handy after we we were given directions by a liquor store clerk who was three sheets to the wind. I’m not certain if that is common practice or not, but he managed to confuse left and right as well as which landmarks to make these turns at. While he wasn’t particularly helpful, he was quite friendly.
We spent a bit of time watching TV in the hotel room. that was mainly just while we ate dinner picked up from M&S, but we kept getting sucked into programs because of the Scottish announcers. My favourite was a documentary on the importance of the oceans. The host’s accent frequently made ‘currents’ sound like, well, another ‘C’ word. I hurt my stomach laughing when he spent a good five minutes describing ‘these powerful, warm currents of the Mediterranean’.
We’ve come back with some good photos and great memories. We got a few bottles of whisky, and Cris got an Iron Maiden CD so she can reminisce about her metal days. We had a great time, and I’m certain we’ll be back for another long weekend there.
