Nathalie's Adventures to France (Part 2): Gregarious Glasgow

In case the world didn't know, I went to GLASGOW this weekend. It was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to speak English (even though I couldn't understand half of what was being said), and experiencing a completely different culture a mere 600 miles away from France was impressive. I am so accustomed to everyone speaking the same language, wearing almost the same clothes, and using the same currency in America that it is almost as if I stepped into a different world from France to Scotland. You figure, I travel more than 600 miles throughout America to visit my grandparents in Florida!

But anyway, first thing's first...I DID NOT BRING NATHALIE TO GLASGOW. I was afraid of being made fun of, so I neglected to bring her. But I ended up being made fun of for NOT bringing her! There was much disappointment that Nathalie was left out of this adventure considering this entire blog is devoted to her! I will make sure to bring her next time!

We arrived extremely late on Friday night after walking from the residence to the bus station, taking a bus from Amiens to Beauvais, taking a plane from Beauvais to Prestwick, taking a bus from Prestwick to Glasgow, and then taking a taxi to the Youth Hostel. The plane was extremely late to pick us up from Beauvais, and by then I was already very tired, so you can imagine how tired I must have been by the time we actually got to Glasgow. When we got to the hostel, the boys were hungry, so we of course had to go out at 3 in the morning to find something to eat. We found this little café that was still open for the clubbers (as the receptionist told us). After eating, we of course crashed in bed for a couple hours before waking up the next morning at 8am to get going on the short weekend! It was very awkward for me to have to walk into a pitch-black room with three other random girls and have to crawl into the top bunk after trying to find my bed in the first place! It was an interesting experience to have to do all of this in the dark. The hostel was extremely nice. It was in a very old building that seemed as if it could have been a very old house. It reminded me a lot of the house in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. When I woke up the next morning, I rolled over to find a Chinese girl getting ready for the day. She looked at me and said, “Good morning!” just as I say it. I think that it made my day a million times better to have someone say good morning to me, not only because it was in my native language, but also because it’s also nice to be told good morning. The Chinese girl had been studying in Costa Rica, and she came to Scotland just to visit. The other girl that was in the room (the fourth one must have left very early) was from England I think. They were both very sweet, and it confirmed my belief that people who stay in hostels are quite nice.

On Saturday we decided to do all the things in the city that were free. The receptionist gave us a few good suggestions, and we set out to accomplish all of them in the day and a half that we had in Glasgow. The city was fairly small, so we walked everywhere. It was tiring, and by the end of the first day, I was extremely worn out. Needless to say, my shoes are now going to be thrown in the trash. The first thing we visited on Saturday was the Lighthouse. It gave us a nice panoramic view of the city. Inside the lighthouse was a sort of mini art gallery dedicated to Mackintosh (some sort of furniture designer). I also found some free postcards that I will keep for myself. I sent the purchased post cards back home and to Ireland :)

We went to the Gallery of Modern Art (also free), which was interesting, but nothing exciting. I found it more interesting that they had Burger King, T.K. Maxx (not TJ Maxx) and KFC in Scotland! We don’t have those kinds of stores in France, so it was nice to see something from home. It makes me wonder at why they have those restaurants in Glasgow, but not in Amiens. There was a very large event held in the city centre called the Great Scottish Run. I would say that maybe two thousand people were taking part in this run throughout the city. There were many activities in the main area of the city centre (George Square). We also ran into these street performers called Clanadonia. They were playing traditional Scottish music, and we ended up staying to watch them for 30 minutes maybe!

We also visited the Glasgow Cathedral and the adjacent Necropolis (a graveyard for famous people). By this time, I was extremely hungry (“estou con fome” in Portuguese), and I did not take many mental notes of what I saw. We went to a little store called Merchant Chippie. We ate good fish and chips! We also got another Irn Bru (pronounced Iron Brew but with rolled “r’s”). José Lucas is literally in love with this drink. I think throughout the course of the weekend, he bought five of them. It’s like a crème soda, but with a bit less of a taste. My favorite part of the drink was the name. I loved hearing the Scottish people say it…it was so…Scottish haha. The Necropolis was my favorite part of the city. As I sat on one of the tombstones, I wondered out loud why the grass was so green. José suggested that maybe because it was well fertilized haha. The view from the Necropolis was amazing. You could see the cathedral right below it, and the whole city had a very moviesque feel to it.

Some other funny things… Rafael was scared to death by a bus in the street. We were on the right side of the road, and he was walking with his head down. When he looked up, there was a bus coming straight towards him (the cars are on the opposite side of the road in Scotland)! We all got a good laugh out of it as he jumped out of the way…even though he was already on the sidewalk. José also had issues with the cars being on the wrong side of the road. He would walk right out in the middle of the lane where cars were stopped at a stoplight thinking he was standing in front of parked cars. He had to be pulled out of the way a few times haha. So many people had colored hair in Scotland. I have no idea why they decided to color their hair blue, red, purple, orange, but it was incredibly odd to me.

That night we also explored the pubs a bit. We went to four pubs, but the last one was the best. The music was very good (almost all 90s music), and the people were extremely friendly! They all wanted to dance and sing with us all night! I chose just to sit in my bench and people watch because by then it was around 2 or 3 in the morning and I was exhausted! After the pubs, we crawled our way back to the youth hostel to crash in bed for a few hours before getting up again for the next morning!

Sunday was not so eventful because we had done almost all the free things on Saturday, so we just visited the University of Glasgow where I found a unicorn, José broke his watch, Rafael was bolado, and Marcelo took plenty of pictures. I was extremely happy to finally hear "quatrième étage" when arriving back to my room in Castillon. It was only 10pm when we got back, but it felt like it was 3 in the morning because I was so exhausted from walking everywhere! Needless to say, my shoes from that weekend have been thrown away (you're welcome, mom), and my feet still hurt two days later!

And of course, music for the week. This is by far my favorite song. I always sing and dance when it comes on. I know it's not in a foreign language, but I've been missing Home lately, and I thought it would be nice to post something in English (especially considering I just got back from Scotland - and English-speaking country).

Suggestions for visiting Glasgow: The Box pub, Merchants Chippies fish and chips, Irn Bru, traditional Scottish music, Sauchiehall Street shopping area, don't take subway, stay up as late as possible, rise as early as possible, take a taxi/ ride in a car on the opposite side of the road