Last Days in Glasgow

Because the season was over and the caravans could no longer keep the cold out, especially during the night, the time to depart had arrived. David and Valery had very well estimated that this this would take place at the end of October.

I chose to go and stay in Glasgow for a number of reasons: I was very curious for starters about the best-known city in Scotland, the flight back home was way cheaper than from Edinburgh and Torsten was going there anyway and had very kindly asked me to join him in such a way that I found myself unable to deny his request.

Our trip from Aviemore sadly was less than perfect. Having been dropped off by David the first problem presented itself: our train was delayed by forty minutes, having nothing better to do we simply waited at the station.
Once we'd boarded the train it was smooth sailing all the way to Perth, by then we'd understood that we had simply no chance of making our transfer, forcing us to wait for an additional hour and a half.

In the end we did make it to Glasgow, a fair bit later than we'd planned, as you might imagine. After dropping my suitcase off at the hostel and settling in for a moment I headed back into town. Tonight was Halloween and from what I'd seen, people take this very serious here in Glasgow.

Later on Torsten and I did a very brief tour of town center, but tired and hungry we headed into one of the closest pubs. Early as it still might be, nearly everyone was in costume, even the bartenders. The rest of the night mostly consisted of visiting a variety of pubs until midnight, at which I was too tired to continue and headed back to my hostel.

The next day I woke early, mostly because of my very uncomfortable bed. It had been designed for people under 6'', so I didn't fit so well.
We already had some plans in mind for today, but since this was Torsten's last day I still needed to find something for the day after.

On my way to the town center I had a quick breakfast, I arrived well on time at the place where we'd decided to meet: The Willow Tea Room. Known as one of the must-see places of Glasgow this seemed like a perfect place to start our day. Sadly, as we all know, nothing ever goes according to plan. After about fifteen minutes I started looking for him in the direct area. I'd phoned him a few times but no answer, so I decided to do some sightseeing for myself until I heard back from Torsten.

About an hour later than we'd agreed to meet I finally got a call from Torsten, he'd become lost in the streets. Completely stupified about this since the route that he needed to take was the exact same one that I took the night before. Since he no longer knew where to go I decided to go and find him. I headed for the town center, hoping to find him soon, so we wouldn't lose to much time. While heading down the main street I finally bumped into him, looking lost in the throngs of people.

From this moment on we moved to the Merchants quarter, one of the areas in the center of town. Here we strolled about casually and eventually moved in the direction of the central station, where the majority of smaller shops were located.

After having lunch we took the bus to Celtic Park, the football statium of Celtic. Having heard and seen about the fans and the ambiance in the statium we felt that visiting here was the one thing that we couln't pass on.

Actually getting the tickets proved to be the most difficult part, since they weren't selling them at Celtic Park itself. When asked, employees told us about a ticket shop near some place they couln't tell us more about and was described very vaguely.
Even other people were unable to help us, which surprised us since most people here in Scotland had been so pleasant and helpful.
After walking for nearly an hour in random directions hoping to stumble upon this magical and mythical ticket shop, we ultimately decided to simply follow some people sporting the Celtic attire to the match and see where they'd go.

Our plan worked like a charm, these poor sheep led us in the one direction we hadn't explored: just behind the stadium. Here we were just in time to get tickets and walk the short distance back.

Once inside the interior suprised us, everything was very childfriendly. When I asked an employee about this, he answered that this was because many of the fans would bring their children to the games early on and management had decided to add this as an extra service to their fans.

The match was an easy win over Inverness, which was an especially good feeling for us, signalling the end of our stay in the Highlands.

After the match, we went back to town to try and find a place where we could have a nice meal without spending all our money. After passing a few restaurants that simply didn't suit us, we stumbled upon a hidden gem in the center of town. A seemingly small Italian restaurant that wasn't too expensive but still had a lot of tasty options.

It was only after we were seated that I realised that it was one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants. Grinning and anticipating a fantastic meal, I was confident enough to order the dishes that I'm normally more reluctant to order. I had an amazing nacho-style fried ravioli as a starter and a delicious lamb rack as my main meal and both were fantastic.

After the meal we were a tad unsure of what to do now, we didn't feel like going out, but since it was Torsten's last night and I wouldn't see him again in the morning we didn't feel like splitting up already.
We decided to check the internet to see what was to do in the vicinity.
We both agreed that seeing a film was the best solution, it wouldn't cost us a lot of money and we didn't have to walk more than we had to.

We chose to see the new Brad Pitt film: Fury, it hadn't been out long yet and we were both very keen on seeing it. Simply put: it is a great film, everyone should definately see it!

After the film we finally split up, with a last manly hug and a promise to keep in touch we said our goodbyes before going our seperate ways.

The next morning I finally realised that this way going to be my last day in Scotland. Torsten had already left and I would fly home the next morning. Looking out the window and seeing how it was going to be a grey and wet day, I felt a tad reluctant to go out on my own.

I had a few things planned but didn't couldn't motivate myself to do a lot or go far out of my way to see things. I decided to have a relaxing morning first and just play on my laptop for a bit first.

Around lunchtime I finally left, had a bite to eat on the way and moved towards city center. The weather had cleared up a bit, but it didn't lift my spirits much. I walked the parts of the center that I hadn't seen before, but had no real goal or plan to see anything special.

I walked about for nearly an hour before heading to my only real destination of today: The Museum of contemporary art. It was a small exposition but I managed to stay in for almost three hours. The only shame was that there were a lot of security guards and it wasn't allowed to take pictures.

Afterwards I decided to go back to my hostel and get some food from a cheap place nearby. I was getting nervous for my flight the next morning, I always do! I spent the rest of the evening watching a movie on my laptop and chatting with my fellow hostelers.


The next morning my alarm went at half six in the morning, because I didn't want to risk missing my flight even if it meant that I would be half an hour early at the airport.

I walked to the bus stop with my luggage and took the long trip on the bus. It turned out to be a good thing that I'd gotten up so early because the bus took twenty minutes longer than it said it would online.
Thankfully I got to the airport with a little time to spare so I had a quick, late breakfast and an extra large cup of coffee.

Afterwards I learned that my flight was delayed by fifteen minutes, so I would have to linger for a bit more. After checking in I went through customs which was once again no problem, heavily bearded though I was I wasn't 'randomly selected'. Glad that I was able to walk through I made my way to the gate quickly where I waited, heard Dutch again for nearly the first time in a month and finally boarded and flew back home!