DIARY OF AN ADVENTURER: THE BIGGEST CITY IN SCOTLAND

The hotel closing for two weeks provided me with the perfect opportunity to tick a few more UK destinations off my list - mainly because I didn't have enough money to travel into Europe, I decided on a return visit to Glasgow. It turns out more people live in Glasgow than Edinburgh, who would have known!

Much to my delight I discovered that there was a convenient Spoon's across the road from my hostel. Convenient because I went there for dinner every night, and I am not at all ashamed of it (ok maybe a little). I must point out here, Spoons is one of the only pubs in the UK you can go into on your own without people looking at you and feeling sorry for you, and you know the food is always good/cheap!

Because so far I have refused to take the Hop-on Hop-off buses, Glasgow did not become the exception. Following the bus route turned out to be the most efficient way to see all the sites, and because of this I spent two days walking over 50000 steps, the equivalent of 50km - not feeling quite so guilty about all the Spoons dinners now!

Glasgow was a pretty standard city, plenty of nice old buildings, mixed in with the new. Only upon arrival home did I realise however, that I did not take even one cheeky selfie the whole time I was there! I like to have at least one picture of me with something from that place (usually a selfie #solotravellife), so much better than just having pictures of buildings. From this I concluded that there cannot be anything overly spectacular, or worth seeing, in Glasgow.

That may have been a bit harsh. I wouldn't ever not recommend someone going there, it's just my constant need for taking selfies proves that this is maybe not the best place to go if you are wanting to take a lot of pictures. I dunno. I wish I could say on a much happier note the weather was nice, beautiful blue sky, sun shining, but unfortunatley I can't. The UK proved predictable with grey skies and only tiny glimpses of the sun. It didn't help that the daylight hours were at their minimum: but that did help the sleep ins on a clear conscience!

So what did I actually do in Glasgow. Honestly, I don't know. My biggest memory of the place is the amount of walking that I did. I walked for two days, and ate Spoons. Glasgow is a really artsy city, so plenty of Art Galleries and Theatres. I did visit a couple of museums but I am only really interested in the ones which tell you about the history of the city, not ones displaying art (although I managed to find some NZ Maori weapons on display!). It's great how museums are mostly free in this country. There was still remnants of the Commonwelth Games that took place there in 2014, but it was nice to see the city without all the tourists.

The reason why stayed so long in Glasgow was so I could take a day trip to Stirling Castle, 45 minutes north on the train. Here I did manage to take some selfies, but it was more to show how wet and cold I was than what I was actually looking at. Again it was nothing spectacular, probably not worth the 15 pounds. The fact that I have seen a fair few castles now could have some thing to do with it.

I did learn a lot about the history of Scotland and the local area though and it was here I was first introduced to William Wallace and the clan uprisings. I think back to NZ and how little I was interested in history and I have the UK/Europe to thank for culturalising me and opening my eyes up to the world around me. I find it interesting to learn about how we came to live how we are and what has shaped our current views on the word around us.

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde

I hope this has inspired you,

LARISSAJODEE x

#solo #travel