Eurotrip '05: Glascow

Thurs, July 28, 2005 (Day 58)
G'day from Glascow, Scotland! Actually, Northcott and I just pulled out of Glascow's main bus station, and we're on the megabus to Edinburgh as we speak.
We arrived in the city of Glascow around 9:30am on Wednesday the 27th. Now, before I get into that, I think I should enlighten the reader on a couple of important facts I've learned during my travels.
Number 1: When you fly with Ryanair, it is incredibly cheap. For instance, I think our flight from London Stanstead to "Glascow" was something like 1 pound ($2.50CAD) or something ludicrously cheap like that. Now, you have to add on taxes and fees and crap... so it ends up being something like 20-30 pounds or so, but this is still a pretty friggin amazing deal, consdiering that back home I have a hard time getting to Halifax from St. John's for under $150. HOWEVER, there is a catch that most travellers may not be aware of. Ryanair is able to operate at such a low fee because they service mainly secondary airports. What that means is, if a city has 2 airports... one close by and one an hour away, Ryanair will use the far away one because it's cheaper for them. So, while it is cheaper to fly, you have the added expense and inconvenience of travelling to and from these out-of-the-way airports.
Number 2. If you're travelling north, pack a sweater, even in the summer. We left Barcelona, and it was 33 degrees celcius at 10pm. We arrived in "Glascow", and it was 8. This might not seem like a big deal.. but you will not believe how fast the body gets used to temperatures. We stepped off the plane, and I looked at Steve and said... "What in god's name have we done??". Now, this may not have been such a big deal, but unfortunately for us, we left all our warm gear with Krista in London at the start of the trip, because we figured we'd only be hitting places that were warm. D'oh!
Ok... so that rant is out of the way. You may be wondering why I have "Glascow" in quotation marks like that. Well, that's because once we arrived in "Glascow" on our ryanair flight, we realized that we weren't really in Glascow at all. We were in a place called Prestwick, over an hour away by bus to the city (hence rant #1). So, at 7am on very little sleep and freezing cold (rant #2), we had to try to figure out a way into town. With a bit of luck and some last minute paniced hiway crossing, we made our bus.
So, as I said, we arrive in town at 9:30 and head to the Eurohostel, where we are told that we could not check in until 3pm!! Now, on any other day, that would be fine... but given our situation, it seemed like a huge kick in the junk. Nonetheless, we figured we might as well make the most of our time, so we dropped our bags, picked up a map and began to get our bearings on the city. At lunch we hit up the 4pound buffet at Pizza Hut. Lets just say, we weren't quite as bad as we were in Barcelona... tho we did pig out all the same. All you can eat food and it was warm! Why leave?
We kept on exploring the city and whatnot... seems like a pretty cool spot. I picked up a small travel chess board, and Steve and I wandered on back to the hostel to wait in the bar and play chess until our room was ready. I went down for a much needed nap at 4pm - and I never woke up until 7 the next morning!! I absolutely crashed man. 15hours of sleep? That's ridiculous. I felt kinda bad, cause I left Steve to wander the streets of Glascow on his own that night... but ah well.. I guess I needed to re-set my sleep clock or something.
Up early on the Thursday the 28th (as I just said), and hit up the free breakfast at the hostel. Then we hit the town to figure out the best way to spend our time here in Scotland (which will be the next 6 days). As our Scottish friend Tony had advised way back in Athens (which already seems like a million years ago), some of the best parts of Scotland in his opinion, are the highlands. So, we started to weigh our options. We could attempt to travel through the highlands ourselves somehow... either by train, or bus, or by hiring a car. But the truth was, we knew nothing about the area, and would probably waste our precious few days here on the wrong things. Thus, it was decided that we should spring for a guided tour of the area. That way, we know we'll see all the cool things to see, and we won't have to worry about accomodations or how we'll tavel about. We settled on a 3-day, 85pound "Haggis" tour departing from and returning to Edinburgh (since we were heading there next). It looked to be the most economical option for all the things we wanted to see (Isle of Skye, Glen Coe, Loch Ness, etc), and also, it was a 18-35 year-olds tour... so there are no geezers allowed. Sounded right up our alley. That day in Glascow we also got all our busses and hostels straigtened out for the next little while. We're bussing now in the UK as apposed to trains, because the stupid UK rail system has not signed on to allow Eurail users, and as such, our railpasses are no good here... so bussing is cheaper. Megabus all the way.
Got some groceries (Yay! Turkey ham! Haven't had that since I worked here 3 years ago!), and then headed up to the aply named Cathedral Street to view the Glascow Cathedral and the St. Mondo Museum of Religious Life and Art, which included Scotland's only public Zen Garden! Nice! Too bad it was raining or I would have totally gotten the rake on the go and then had a meditation session or something. Luckily for us we had our umbrellas (which Kriata loaned us back in London but have not been used until now)... it was pretty wet most of the day. We've been cursing Spain because it spoiled us so much. We're always hungry and cold now.. and we really shouldn't be! We're Canadians for god's sake!
Up at 8am today (Friday, the 29th) to catch our megabus over to Edinburgh. Glascow was a very cool little spot! Great people... nice vibe. I think it's a Scottish thing, as I remember Edinburgh was much like this when I visited years ago.
QOTD:
At a construction site near the Glascow river...
Scottish Man: "You sound American."
Me: "You sound English."
Scottish Man: "Bloody Hell??"