Scotland Part 2: Glasgow

Ok so that last post was full of long stories not about me so lets take a break and smell (or look) at some flowers.

Aaaaah, much better. Now lets talk about Glasgow. Incidentally, all of the above photos are from the Botanical gardens in Glasgow. Funny how that worked out. 

So getting to Glasgow was fairly easy, it is just a 2 hour bus ride away from Edinburgh (pretty cheap too!). I was greeted in Glasgow by fellow Canadian (and just a super cool guy) Jan. 

But before I met Jan, I had to take the Glasgow underground train. Now I will qualify this by say that I haven't been on too many subways in my day, but the Glasgow subway can only be described as adorable. Why, well I wish I had a photo to make a case for myself but at the time I was being lazy and couldn't be bothered taking it out of my bag. I will however paint you a word picture. First off there is only one line that goes in a circle around the city (two if you count that they have one train going each way on the line).  The platform is probably about 30 meters long and the the train maybe a little longer then yours average tram. But the height of the tram was maybe 5'8" (yeah I mix metric and imperial systems, what of it). So if like me you are taller then 5'8" then you need to find a seat, or do a half-squat to fit in. And at every the train driver pops out of a window in the front to make sure everyone is on. This last part isn't that weird, but most drivers will have a door and not need to "Dukes of Hazard" themselves to see out.  Anyway. 

We went to Jan's place and unknown to me I was walking into a pot luck which was super awesome. I got to eat a lot of food and meet some of Jan's super cool friends (I feel as though the words "super cool" may become overused very quickly). After a bit of food and cider everyone went home and had some needed sleep. 

Streets of Glasgow

The next morning bright and early (or like at 1pm, whatever, stop judging me).  Jan and I (soon to be meet up with one of Jan's friends Alex). We walked down to the Kelvingrove museum, also soon to be know to me as one of the worst museums ever. Don't get me wrong, it has some interesting things, but it has no focus. Every room you walk into seems to choose a theme at random, which may or may not have anything to do with the surrounding rooms. Plus most of the stuff was, ok at best, nothing super special. The three things I found note worthy are below.

So this is a sweet set up for hanging paintings. It's like the art worlds equivalent of the half pipe.

Next we have a plane. Does it have any significance? I don't really know, probably. I mean it's a spitfire but other then that I just like planes. What's the purpose of the seagulls? I am going to guess none.  They like random crap at this place. There was even a stuffed specimen of the wild haggis, rainbow hair and all.

The last installation here was actually interesting. Just a giant group of hanging faces with various expressions. it was pretty cool so it earned a spot on my SD card. 

But to be honest I was much more excited about something I saw on the way back to Jan's place. So those of you that don't know, I am a huge fan of Doctor Who. If you do not know what this is I suggest that you find out, because it is an awesome show. If you do know the show then hopefully you will appreciate this picture. 

oooooo weeeee oooooo

After getting back to Jan's we made some dinner and got ready to go out on the town. One of Jan's friends told us about this dance party thing that happens every few months at the Arches, it's called death disco and it was really fun. We got there pretty early and it was dead though. We were all a little disappointed but stayed for a bit to see if things picked up. And they did.  I have no idea how many strobe lights there were on the stage, but if I had ever previously doubted that a DJ could ever operate too many strobe lights, then that doubt was destroyed. Hours of dancing while wearing a fur coat (it just felt right) mixed with the occasional rest and then finally heading out. If you are ever in Glasgow see if a Death Disco is going on. It is a sweet time and you eventually get used to the lights, well maybe not but you tolerate them.  After leaving we did the obligatory post-club McDonlads run. I have a theory that there food  has an ingredient in it that makes it delicious, but only between the hours of 2am and 6am. Then cab home.

The next was pretty relaxed. I went out with some people to have a picnic in Bellahousten Park. This place is pretty sweet. I wish I had taken some pictures of the playground because it was ridiculous. Filled with giant jelly babies, tire zip lines and random concrete blocks. Before having out picnic we headed over to the "House For and Art Lover".  The original designs for the house were made by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife in 1901 for and architecture contest. It wasn't built until 1989 in the park and now it is used for meetings, weddings and other events.

The way it was designed was apparently keeping with Victorian tradition where on opposite sides of the house there was a Men's and Women's room (not bathrooms). It would seem these rooms were where the two genders would respectively get together after a meal and talk about whatever they felt like without worrying about the possibility of contracting cooties.  The men's room was just a square room, but the women's room was an oval and had cool hidden chairs.

Back of the house.

In behind the house was quite nice with a lot of sculptures and a french garden. Although just beyond the yard line there was an artificial snow hill where kids could slide down in tubes (no pictures, my bad). It was huge and ugly and the snow was a beautiful brown colour. Nice.

foot

garden

So we had our picnic and then I had to get to the bus station to catch a bus to Stirling. On the bus ride to the bus station There was this giant Rottweiler (I am guessing around 250 lbs). Though imposing it was really friendly. The best thing about it were peoples reactions when getting on the  bus. The owner would joke with them sometimes and say "go get 'em" the dog would slowly lumber over to them. It made for good entertainment. 

Well that's the gist of Glasgow. Hopefully Stirling will be up soon.