i think i might really like glasgow.
i just didn’t really get the chance to figure that out.
by some spectacular luck, i arrived in on the 18th just in time for one tropical storm to be downgraded into nothingness and another to spring up in its stead. storm ali brought buckets of rain and 80 miles-per-hour winds into much of northern england and wales, as well as all of ireland, northern ireland, and scotland.
i thought i had gathered an understanding of the ‘northern chill’ before.
unfortunately, the poor weather meant i didn’t get to see very much, in the end; i was too busy trying to stay out of the storm which was, in turn, busy snapping trees and power lines.
mind you, that didn’t entirely stop me from seeing the sights.
i stayed in a slight bummer of a hostel, which had been converted to its current purpose from an old church on the edge of town.
it wasn’t horrible, mind, but not super ideal either. pro-tip: if you’re interested in exploring a city by foot, stay somewhere where you can actually get to the city by foot.
regardless–in my limited time, i was able to:
walk the famous sauchiehall street (SUK-ee-yall), which was still partially closed after a nearby university burned down a month or so ago;
catch a photo with the buchanan street police box, and have a very well presented afternoon tea at the willow tea rooms nearby;
stop by the gallery of modern art, which was bold and strange and closing shortly after i arrived;
peruse the kelvingrove art gallery and museum, which contained standard but pleasant museumy things, including now the SECOND van gogh i’ve been to see which was cordoned off while they were doing work in the room where it was hung (the other being at the national gallery in london);
van gogh counter: 8 (out of possible 10)
dash briefly through the beautiful (but again very rainy and very windy) university of glasgow;
and visit the mackintosh house, the interior of which i could not photograph. trust me that it was stunning to see the work of two of the pioneers of art nouveau and the arts and crafts style.
between all those places (presented here in almost entirely the wrong order, for no good reason) was a lot of hopping buses and waiting for buses and wishing i were not on buses.
also, a couple of poor nights’ sleep.
by the time i had caught my car share down to birmingham for EGX, i was, simultaneously, fully ready to move on and not sure i had really seen any of glasgow at all.
i suppose that’s just the nature of hopping cities like i’ve been the past week. there’s so much to see that it can be hard to stop to look at much at all.
the weather certainly didn’t help.
more soon.
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