The first train, back to Inverness, got off to a rocky start. Adjacent to me were two young boys and their father and about every 6 seconds the youngest would yell "daddy! blah blah blah!" These days that really doesn't bother me, but with head pounding, knee bleeding, and the beautiful mountains swirling all around me, that voice was like nails on a chalkboard. The only problem was I was also too hungover to get up, move all of my stuff, and find another seat. I also had no music as my headphones died somewhere around Edinburgh. The best I could muster was gritting my teeth and focusing on the unparalleled scenery whizzing by.
As bad as that ride was, I fared much worse on the train from Inverness to Glasgow. I only had a 7 minute connection in Inverness and our train was 4 mins late. So it was a mad dash but I made it and was thrilled to find a table to myself. Looking forward to a quiet ride I put on the sunglasses and started to relax. About 5 minutes in, however, 4 teenagers either going to or coming from a football match stormed in. Displeased that there was no open table for the 4 of them, they hovered around the table I was at and started chanting loud football chants and banging the back of the seats.
Clearly their play was to drive me from my seat by causing a racket. What they didn't count on was that the level of hangover plus irritation from the prior train was just as likely to cause me to snap and bash a fire extinguisher over one of their heads as get up and politely move. It was an old fashioned stand off. The louder they yelled the more I yawned and looked nonchalant. Eventually we reached the desired impasse. I wasn't going to move or respond to them so they were wasting their breath chanting so they finally moved on. Old Mike would have been furious and likely caused a scene. New Mike applied stoic anti-conflict resolve and won the day. I must admit though, at one point it would have been incredibly satisfying to rearrange the face of the one who looked like a poor man's McLovin. But I played it cool boy, real cool.
Since the UK was crushing my trip budget I decided to attempt another couch surf in Glasgow. A nice fellow named Alan agreed to host me and I coordinated where to meet after I arrived. Problematically though, he was going to be at a block party his sister was throwing when I arrived, and in my haste to leave Skye I forgot to google map my way to his apartment. So I ended up employing an age old go-to move out of the seasoned traveler's playbook, finding a McDonald's for free wifi.
I haven't talked much about McDonald's or other fast food joints frankly because I've hardly gone to them. In fact McD and Starbucks are the only two I've visited and each time that was (with the exception of wanting to try the "royale with cheese" in Paris) specifically for internet access. As always, the McD button hook right was executed to perfection and I found the right bus and made my way to Alan's. Just as I got off the bus he returned my call and told me to "walk up the street to the church, go in and have a beer and I'll meet you in 15-20 minutes." At this point I was still not that interested in a beer but I couldn't resist the curiosity sparked by his statement. A beer in a church you say?
Turns out it was an old church that had been converted into a very happening bar. I would even go as far as to say the scene was jumping. I'm beginning to notice a theme in Scotland with unused churches. A bit later Alan arrived and since it was the nicest day in Glasgow in about 2 weeks we decided to have another dink or two in the "beer garden" and chat. Basically Alan wanted to get a feel for me, what I was interested in, why I was traveling, if I was a conservative gun-toting Mitt Romney loving tea party supporting lunatic.
Obviously I told him that I'm a former consultant, current writer, interested in traveling, reading, writing, and drinking (not necessarily in that order), and hell yea- I was packing heat right then. To my delight sarcasm does play in Glasgow. Back at Alan's he cooked me an excellent pasta dinner and I came to find out he is a travel and food writer. So for the remainder of the night we chatted about food, travel, and the state of journalism until before I realized it, the time for raising hell in Glasgow had long passed. Finally!! A quiet Saturday night! Well, with the exception of him ripping me a little for some of my blitzkrieg style tourism. For example, he found the idea of spending any less than 2 weeks on Skye incomprehensible. Actually, I can see his point on that one.
Also I should note that Alan has an amazing flat the couch he put me up on was super comfy, the temperature was great, awesome facilities, just amazing. A 5 star couch experience. The next morning he purchased some fresh baked rolls for breakfast and then offered to show me around town. We started in the east end of Glasgow which is one of the oldest parts of the city. He took me into some really interesting malls that had been constructed out of historic buildings. One was a former. Ballroom of a museum and another was an open air atrium that was roofed with glass and the exterior of the buildings were opened up into a new interior. Really cool. Also I love the escalators.
Next we just happened to walk past the oldest (and I believe only) active 1800's music hall in Europe, the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall. And as fortune would have it, they were about to start a free concert in Venetian-styling. The venue itself is steeped in history. After shutting down as a theater in the early 1900's it was used as a carpet factory, munitions warehouse, and eventually storeroom and makeshift zoo before being discovered and returned to a music hall. It's also where Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy got his start.
If you want a sample of one of the performances, there is one on flickr here. Afterward we passed by the Tollbooth Steeple which is one of the last remnants of the ancient wall around Glasgow. Unlike Edinburgh who seemingly just build around old buildings, the Glaswegians have no qualms about demolishing and rebuilding at a whim.
Next we went through the Glasgow Green where one can locate the gate, the Tennants brewery, the People's Palace, and the terra cotta fountain to the four territories Australia, South Africa, India, and Canada. No US representation. Wasn't that the issue with how the whole independence thing started anyway? But the coolest part of the greens is located in the middle-north. There is an old carpet factory that looks like an Indian palace and right beside it is a microbrewery, West, run by a German using German purity standards but with Scottish ingredients. The result is some incredibly tasty beers.
Alan didn't actually plan to take me there, we just sort of naturally gravitated there. I swear I didn't even know it existed. Just seems to happen to me. From there we headed back into the city center where I purchased a replacement set of earphones. Just can't deal without music. Then Alan showed me a hospital that looks like a church, Glasgow's oldest restaurant (decorated with parts from the Queen Mary dining room), the Museum of Modern Art (where we watched a film montage set to a reading of the Marco Polo translated diaries- very unique), and finally to George Square.
Next Alan wanted to show me Glasgow University, his alma mater, which was moved from the East End to its current location in the West End. When I say moved, I mean that the University folk were sick of being in the increasingly slummy East End so they hired Sir George Gilbert Scott to design a new University and demolished everything else. Oddly, he designed the University in his youth, but is probably most famous for designing the iconic red telephone booths that you'll see all over London in his very advanced years. And, here at the University, you can see two of his greatest creations side by side, youth and elder.
Only a few elements of the original buildings survived demolition and were moved to the new University. One was the main gate house which sits at the bottom corner of the university entrance, and the other was the unicorn and lion staircase, which it's apparently good luck to have your picture taken on.
The architecture of the main University building is stunning, with the notable exception of the features resembling one Duke University. Barf. But the inner courtyards look like something out of Harry Potter, or what imagine Harry Potter looks like as I refuse to see the films until Brad Neely does audiobooks for all seven.
Finally we stopped in the Kelvingrove Museum which is the second most visited tourist attraction in Scotland after the Edinburgh Castle most likely because it's free. It's also a very unique museum because it shirks the old convention of separating art and artifacts by wings. Here the art is scattered casually in with the artifacts, creating, in my mind, a much richer experience. Instead of just painting after painting you can glance at some animals or old swords or an airplane then back to more art. It's like cleansing your palate with ginger between bites of sushi. If you don't switch it up, it all begins to taste the same. Personally I love it but according to Alan it was met with some fierce resistance early on.
After our museum going it was time to reward ourselves with a pint or two at the Brew Dog brewery across the street. I remember Jack telling me about this place in Newcastle as microbrew that was bringing "bitters" to popularity. In addition to that and brewing some other excellent beer, they are known for their super-high alcohol beers: the Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32%) and the Sink The Bismark (41%). At these percentages the TNP is more of a cordial and the STB is a straight up spirit.
I went with the Punky IPA as my main beer (a lightly hoppy and sooth IPA by American standards) and then opted to try the TNP for two reasons. One, TNP is a stout which I reckoned would be soother than the STB which is an IPA. Two, Tactical Nuclear Penguin just sounds cooler and I'm a huge sucker for anything penguin related. So I gave it a go. Pretty good- smells a bit like a port but definitely has a stout like finish- lacks the sugary sweetness. The taste is complex, like a very smoky tawny. The IPA was great as IPAs go, since they are not one of my favorite beers.
After our beers, Alan offered to take me to the best curry place in Glasgow (remember he is a food journalist) which was just up the street. I'm excited to announce he was right on the money with the quality. Excellent curries and not all that expensive considering the location. Here is the spread.
Afterward we had a quick "nightcap" in the restaurant his nephew works while waiting for the bus. Back at the apartment we attempted to watch a little bit of some movie but we were both ready for some sleep, especially me as I had to be up before 4am for my first experience with Ryanair- a 6:30am flight to Dublin. Ago after two relatively tame nights, I was fully ready to tear it up in Dublin- one of my motherlands!
As bad as that ride was, I fared much worse on the train from Inverness to Glasgow. I only had a 7 minute connection in Inverness and our train was 4 mins late. So it was a mad dash but I made it and was thrilled to find a table to myself. Looking forward to a quiet ride I put on the sunglasses and started to relax. About 5 minutes in, however, 4 teenagers either going to or coming from a football match stormed in. Displeased that there was no open table for the 4 of them, they hovered around the table I was at and started chanting loud football chants and banging the back of the seats.
Clearly their play was to drive me from my seat by causing a racket. What they didn't count on was that the level of hangover plus irritation from the prior train was just as likely to cause me to snap and bash a fire extinguisher over one of their heads as get up and politely move. It was an old fashioned stand off. The louder they yelled the more I yawned and looked nonchalant. Eventually we reached the desired impasse. I wasn't going to move or respond to them so they were wasting their breath chanting so they finally moved on. Old Mike would have been furious and likely caused a scene. New Mike applied stoic anti-conflict resolve and won the day. I must admit though, at one point it would have been incredibly satisfying to rearrange the face of the one who looked like a poor man's McLovin. But I played it cool boy, real cool.
Since the UK was crushing my trip budget I decided to attempt another couch surf in Glasgow. A nice fellow named Alan agreed to host me and I coordinated where to meet after I arrived. Problematically though, he was going to be at a block party his sister was throwing when I arrived, and in my haste to leave Skye I forgot to google map my way to his apartment. So I ended up employing an age old go-to move out of the seasoned traveler's playbook, finding a McDonald's for free wifi.
I haven't talked much about McDonald's or other fast food joints frankly because I've hardly gone to them. In fact McD and Starbucks are the only two I've visited and each time that was (with the exception of wanting to try the "royale with cheese" in Paris) specifically for internet access. As always, the McD button hook right was executed to perfection and I found the right bus and made my way to Alan's. Just as I got off the bus he returned my call and told me to "walk up the street to the church, go in and have a beer and I'll meet you in 15-20 minutes." At this point I was still not that interested in a beer but I couldn't resist the curiosity sparked by his statement. A beer in a church you say?
Turns out it was an old church that had been converted into a very happening bar. I would even go as far as to say the scene was jumping. I'm beginning to notice a theme in Scotland with unused churches. A bit later Alan arrived and since it was the nicest day in Glasgow in about 2 weeks we decided to have another dink or two in the "beer garden" and chat. Basically Alan wanted to get a feel for me, what I was interested in, why I was traveling, if I was a conservative gun-toting Mitt Romney loving tea party supporting lunatic.
Obviously I told him that I'm a former consultant, current writer, interested in traveling, reading, writing, and drinking (not necessarily in that order), and hell yea- I was packing heat right then. To my delight sarcasm does play in Glasgow. Back at Alan's he cooked me an excellent pasta dinner and I came to find out he is a travel and food writer. So for the remainder of the night we chatted about food, travel, and the state of journalism until before I realized it, the time for raising hell in Glasgow had long passed. Finally!! A quiet Saturday night! Well, with the exception of him ripping me a little for some of my blitzkrieg style tourism. For example, he found the idea of spending any less than 2 weeks on Skye incomprehensible. Actually, I can see his point on that one.
Also I should note that Alan has an amazing flat the couch he put me up on was super comfy, the temperature was great, awesome facilities, just amazing. A 5 star couch experience. The next morning he purchased some fresh baked rolls for breakfast and then offered to show me around town. We started in the east end of Glasgow which is one of the oldest parts of the city. He took me into some really interesting malls that had been constructed out of historic buildings. One was a former. Ballroom of a museum and another was an open air atrium that was roofed with glass and the exterior of the buildings were opened up into a new interior. Really cool. Also I love the escalators.
Next we just happened to walk past the oldest (and I believe only) active 1800's music hall in Europe, the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall. And as fortune would have it, they were about to start a free concert in Venetian-styling. The venue itself is steeped in history. After shutting down as a theater in the early 1900's it was used as a carpet factory, munitions warehouse, and eventually storeroom and makeshift zoo before being discovered and returned to a music hall. It's also where Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy got his start.
If you want a sample of one of the performances, there is one on flickr here. Afterward we passed by the Tollbooth Steeple which is one of the last remnants of the ancient wall around Glasgow. Unlike Edinburgh who seemingly just build around old buildings, the Glaswegians have no qualms about demolishing and rebuilding at a whim.
Next we went through the Glasgow Green where one can locate the gate, the Tennants brewery, the People's Palace, and the terra cotta fountain to the four territories Australia, South Africa, India, and Canada. No US representation. Wasn't that the issue with how the whole independence thing started anyway? But the coolest part of the greens is located in the middle-north. There is an old carpet factory that looks like an Indian palace and right beside it is a microbrewery, West, run by a German using German purity standards but with Scottish ingredients. The result is some incredibly tasty beers.
Alan didn't actually plan to take me there, we just sort of naturally gravitated there. I swear I didn't even know it existed. Just seems to happen to me. From there we headed back into the city center where I purchased a replacement set of earphones. Just can't deal without music. Then Alan showed me a hospital that looks like a church, Glasgow's oldest restaurant (decorated with parts from the Queen Mary dining room), the Museum of Modern Art (where we watched a film montage set to a reading of the Marco Polo translated diaries- very unique), and finally to George Square.
Next Alan wanted to show me Glasgow University, his alma mater, which was moved from the East End to its current location in the West End. When I say moved, I mean that the University folk were sick of being in the increasingly slummy East End so they hired Sir George Gilbert Scott to design a new University and demolished everything else. Oddly, he designed the University in his youth, but is probably most famous for designing the iconic red telephone booths that you'll see all over London in his very advanced years. And, here at the University, you can see two of his greatest creations side by side, youth and elder.
Only a few elements of the original buildings survived demolition and were moved to the new University. One was the main gate house which sits at the bottom corner of the university entrance, and the other was the unicorn and lion staircase, which it's apparently good luck to have your picture taken on.
The architecture of the main University building is stunning, with the notable exception of the features resembling one Duke University. Barf. But the inner courtyards look like something out of Harry Potter, or what imagine Harry Potter looks like as I refuse to see the films until Brad Neely does audiobooks for all seven.
Finally we stopped in the Kelvingrove Museum which is the second most visited tourist attraction in Scotland after the Edinburgh Castle most likely because it's free. It's also a very unique museum because it shirks the old convention of separating art and artifacts by wings. Here the art is scattered casually in with the artifacts, creating, in my mind, a much richer experience. Instead of just painting after painting you can glance at some animals or old swords or an airplane then back to more art. It's like cleansing your palate with ginger between bites of sushi. If you don't switch it up, it all begins to taste the same. Personally I love it but according to Alan it was met with some fierce resistance early on.
After our museum going it was time to reward ourselves with a pint or two at the Brew Dog brewery across the street. I remember Jack telling me about this place in Newcastle as microbrew that was bringing "bitters" to popularity. In addition to that and brewing some other excellent beer, they are known for their super-high alcohol beers: the Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32%) and the Sink The Bismark (41%). At these percentages the TNP is more of a cordial and the STB is a straight up spirit.
I went with the Punky IPA as my main beer (a lightly hoppy and sooth IPA by American standards) and then opted to try the TNP for two reasons. One, TNP is a stout which I reckoned would be soother than the STB which is an IPA. Two, Tactical Nuclear Penguin just sounds cooler and I'm a huge sucker for anything penguin related. So I gave it a go. Pretty good- smells a bit like a port but definitely has a stout like finish- lacks the sugary sweetness. The taste is complex, like a very smoky tawny. The IPA was great as IPAs go, since they are not one of my favorite beers.
After our beers, Alan offered to take me to the best curry place in Glasgow (remember he is a food journalist) which was just up the street. I'm excited to announce he was right on the money with the quality. Excellent curries and not all that expensive considering the location. Here is the spread.
Afterward we had a quick "nightcap" in the restaurant his nephew works while waiting for the bus. Back at the apartment we attempted to watch a little bit of some movie but we were both ready for some sleep, especially me as I had to be up before 4am for my first experience with Ryanair- a 6:30am flight to Dublin. Ago after two relatively tame nights, I was fully ready to tear it up in Dublin- one of my motherlands!
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