07/10-11: Glasgow - Day 1

07/10:

Once you start laying out a vacation, it is a scientific fact that time slows down to make your final days at work seem like an eternity. As I still am governed by the laws of science, my last work week was no different. The Friday in particular crawled along until finally, the day wound down and the result was a lot of the coworkers sitting around drinking a beer.

I didn't rest for too long as I still had to finish packing to catch my evening flight. On the way out we had to go through passport control, which almost never happens in Europe but the UK and Ireland opted out of a lot of the customs laziness that is customary in the rest of Europe. So when we got up to the passport control they gave us the 10th degree and really poured over our passports. Now let me say that Courtney ... may just be staying illegally. I say may, because we really don't know. Her visa has expired, but Americans are allowed to stay up to 3 months without a visa. It depends on how you interpret it, and we elected to interpret it in a way that saves her 1000 kronor (roughly $150). Ultimately, after a few tense moments he let us through. Although it did add a considerable amount of stress to each subsequent flight.

In the end, it all worked out and we caught an uneventful, albeit cramped, flight from "Stockholm" to Glasgow. The bus service was really crappy, so we instead caught a cab with a bunch of Swedes into town. On the way we noticed a couple things:
1) Downtown Glasgow was really lively at night.
2) Glaswegian (thats the term ... seriously) women are fond of wearing revealing clothes ... and eating copious amounts of McDonald's apparently. Seriously, the UK better be careful or they will steal America's fat jokes. I've never seen so many heavy-set young girls in my life.

After a brief walk, we got into our surprisingly decent hostel late that evening, got some sleep and prepared for a busy day.

07/11:

We had planned on trying to stay with friends as much as possible; and my pal Tom, whom I met in Lund, was living in town. He however was up north seeing the Scottish highlands with a friend of his, leaving us to fend for ourselves for the first day.

We decided to get a healthy mix of city life and getting out. So we woke up early and hit a train out to the town of Sterling, which has an old medieval castle.

A fortification was first built on the extinct volcano that Sterling sits on back in 1110 or so. The castle was naturally retrofitted over the following centuries, and was the site of key battles from such famous figures as William Wallace (Battle of Stirling Bridge, September 11th, 1297) and Robert the Bruce. Also, several Scottish royalty were crowned here, including Mary Queen of Scots in 1543.

The oldest existing parts date from the late 1300, which is pretty damn old compared with most castles around Europe that have been renovated time and time with the latest trends and styles (although I guess most of the castle dates from between 1490 and 1600). The castle wielded significant influence until James VI of Scotland united the crowns of England and Scotland, thus becoming James I of England (you got all that?). The royal family then moved to London, resulting in a power shift south.

With that nonsense in the past, we arrived in Sterling and made a walk from the train station through the small cute town up to the castle. Below you can see a "Give Way" sign, which shows we may all speak English, but we don't exactly speak the same language.
Me in front of a "Blakes Holidays" bus ... which now that I think about it would have been a more appropriate title for this post.
Looking over a beautiful cemetery near the castle.
The castle tour was really interesting, and it was a good refresh of history. After the combined histories of our trips in Scotland, Ireland and England I started to finally remember some details from my Euro-History class in high school.

Courtney and I received a royal welcome in the Great Hall.
Looking out over the town from the grounds.


Honoring the late William Wallace:

Courtney and I Jumping for joy.

After we had exhausted the excellent audioguide we went to the gift shop where we did some whisky tasting with this adorable old lady. We picked up a few samples (I believe they were Ancnoc and Lagavulin, both delicious), and then we were on our way back to Glasgow.

We had several hours before we could meet up with Tom, so we went out and saw some of the sights the town had to offer. I wasn't sure what I would think about the town because it has a bit of a negative reputation amongst folks from Britain. It is historically the old industrial working class town, and was known as being a bit rough around the edges. But Court and I both really liked it. It wasn't all drop dead gorgeous, but it had a healthy mix of old beautiful architecture with more modern achitecture. It also wasn't overly touristy, and it really had a "lived in" feel to it.

But I digress, our first stop was to Glasgow cathedral. The pictures don't do it justice; it was an amazingly beautiful building. Rivaling, I think, Notre Dame.
Beneath the cathedral was St. Mungo's tomb, who is the patron saint of Glasgow.
After we headed to a cemetery on a hill, known as The Necropolis. It afforded excellent views of the cathedral, and was beautiful to stroll around.
We then also headed to cool museum that had relics and artwork from all the worlds major religions. After we had exhausted the touristy sights, we had a glass of wine in town and hung out.

I can think of no better monument to who-ever-this-guy-is than being a perching and pooping spot for seagulls.
To kill a little more time we had a few drinks at our hostel's raging club, before finally meeting up with Tom and a buddy of his. We hung out, had a few drinks and tried some of the whisky we had picked up. All in all ... good times.


Next Post: Glasgow - Day 2