November 5 - Glasgow and Beyond
I had loads of fun with my bonny Norah

Ok, I've owed you all the rundown of the happenings on my trip to Glasgow for quite some time now, so here it is. I am a slacker, that much is clear - I hope you will forgive me.

Where to start? This was my longest and most eventful trip to date (with the possible exception of Oktoberfest). Not only did I have an excellent time, but the trip was also excessively educational! For example, I learned all about cockney rhyming slang. Ok, so I didn't hear much of it in Glasgow, but Norah and I played around with it for awhile. For example - 'just chillin' at my drum' means: I'm just hanging out at my place. Don't ask me to explain, as Norah pointed out, there don't seem to be any rules. She wishes it was more like pig latin. I also learned that Scottish beer is just plain not that great. See, I have this policy. When in (insert country here), drink local beer. I mean, you can get a Corona anywhere, so you should get out and try new things! Well, I tell ya, that works well in Germany. Not so well in Scotland. So most of the locals I met were just plain bewildered by my choices of beverages. I have since revised my philosophy. When in (insert country here), find out what type of alcohol they do best, and go with that. In the case of Scotland, that would be, ummm, Scotch! Didn't have any in a bar, but I did manage to visit a distillery and also bought a bottle. So, I guess you could say that, as a result of this alcoholic revelation, I am now a better and more well-rounded person (and will never be accused of drinking a NED beer again).

Alright, now to the touristy stuff. I have to be honest, Glasgow is not my favorite place. Norah insists that I should have seen the city in the sunshine, which I totally didn't seeing as it was dull and damp the whole time I was there (except the unplanned last day). It's not that I didn't like the city - I did. It just had a very different vibe from anywhere else I've been so far. It's definitely more working class (which means they know how to party!), and while it has old parts, it doens't feel that old for some reason. From a planning point of view it feels kind of thrown together - the streets end in right angles and t intersections like other European cities, but there are new buildings sort of thrown in with the old ones that don't really feel right for some reason. There's a sort of dissonance about the place. And, as I was walking around Frankfurt the other day, I realized that one of the things that I was really missing was the green. Glasgow is not a particularly green city. There are parks, but not that many. Granted, I wasn't there for that long, so I could be wrong.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about Glasgow was the art. At the Hunterian Gallery there was a great collection of old masters - with some of my favorite Whistlers. Also, there was a great exhibit of art nouveau pieces called Doves and Dreams with the art of Francis MacDonald and J Herbert McNair. It's really some beautiful stuff. Ok, well, apparently the 'Glasgow Style' developed by these artists, as well as Charles Rennie MacKintosh is significantly different from Art Nouveau, but it looked pretty similar to me! But wait, beyond the Glasgow style there are a whole bunch of very interesting Scottish painters. The Kelvingrove Museum (newly renovated, and very interesting) has a great collection of paintings by the "Glasgow Boys". One of my favorites is this one by Cadell, which you kind of have to see big - but you get the idea:

I guess that it is fair to say that I had a great time at these two museums (the modern art one was just ok, though you can see some pictures of that in the photo galleries section).

As for the rest of the city, Norah was an excellent tour guide of the bars and restaurants. We ate well at the Mother India Cafe (delicious Indian), drank at the Left Bank (I think that's what it was called) on Gibson Street, and partied to a very modest hour on Ashton Lane - which is the coolest lane of bars I have ever seen - where Norah was hit on by the youngest guy in the bar (22), while I cooled my heels learning about the history of Guiness (sipping my aweful Scottish beer!) with the oldest guy there (I think he was about 70!). The good news is that the strapping young lad thought we were both 22 (what a sweetheart!). The bad news was that, even though he was quite persistant in insisting he was "a mature 22", his friends looked like they were 17! Norah tossed him back into the sea, and we went home to crawl into bed together (haha, that is so not what you think! Get your minds out of the gutters you silly pervs!!!).

The reason we went home at a decent hour was because we were both completely knackered, and we had to get up early to climb Ben Lomond the next day. A Ben is a hilly sort of thing that people climb for the fun of it, and have a jolly good time looking out at the view from. I am certain that if the weather was better I would also have had the priviledge of seeing the view, but instead I had to settle for a tour of an island, a tour of a distillery (single malt people!), and a jaunt around Stirling. I say settle, but it was nothing of the sort. We took a great little wooden boat to the island of Inchcailloch, with a captain with zero people skills who grunted that he would be back to pick us up (yeah right!). Turns out this island is now a nature preserve, but it used to have a nunnery, and people used to go there to live a life of deprevation and contemplation. Woohoo. They also used to bury people there, if they remembered to. See, Scottish funerals, we were told, got so out of hand that they would occaisionally forget to bury, or even lose, the body! So the state stepped in and banned drinking at funerals, which, of course, didn't work! I think they solved the problem by stopping the practice of burying people on the island, thereby eliminating the need for a designated boater and staying closer to the supply of scotch. Plus, I'm sure that the people who were deprived and contemplating made for super duper party poopers anyway. Anyhow, the Loch looked splendid from the top of the island, and we were treated to an amazing rainbow that lasted the whole time we were up there.

Next we went to the Glengoyne distillery and went on a tour and had a tasting. This was especially nice after our sort of damp day. Norah and Jim (our friend and the guy with the car) were not scotch fans at the start, but may have been converted. Fingers crossed. I hope they weren't too converted cause I had to leave the bottle I bought earlier in Glasgow with Norah, otherwise it would have been confiscated by the evil security officers at the airport. If they think that they are going to make travelling safer by taking my scotch away they should think again! Anyhow, after the distillery we checked out Stirling castle, but the light was failing, the castle was closing, and us girls had a pressing social engagement (read: party) to get to, so the visit was short but sweet. A huge thanks to Jim for being a fellow tourist, gracious host in his country, and our driver. Without him I never would have been able to see the almost highlands! Also, he was full of great ideas of where I should go on my next trip and has inspired me to come back and see the rest of the beautiful country. I will have to seeing as I ate nothing deep fried, and didn't even get to peek up a kilt (so much to is left to do!!)!

So much else happened which I either can't remember, are inside jokes, or I prefer not to divulge! It was a great trip, so fun to hang out with Norah who is one of the funnest people on the face of the earth! I hope I can return the favour when she comes to visit me in a couple of weeks. Maybe I will get her to do a guest spot on the site. Hope everyone is well, and I will update you all soon on my trip to Barcelona (I'm leaving on Thursday!). Cheers!