SOLO EUROPE IV: DAYS 19 & 20 [GLASGOW & THE IRISH SEA]

the next morning i left edinburgh to glasgow via train. it was a pretty short ride & they run very often (at least 1 an hour). i would have enjoyed exploring more of scotland, but 1) i did not have a lot of time 2) places are spaced off pretty far from each other; 3) trains are not super well connected. i could have skipped glasgow, but i wanted to instead take a ferry to northern ireland instead of flying. i love trying different modes of public transport & avoid flying if i can. not out of fear, but for the eperience. more on the ferry later (it was an experience).

after dropping my stuff off at my hotel, i started the 1 mile walk to my first museum of the day. i was not expecting it, but glasgow is quite hilly so it took longer than planned. i stopped at black sheep coffee, a chain i had seen throughout my trip. this was the first time of my trip i had an iced lattee (my vice of choice back home) & a salted beef & pickle bagel sandwich. i was pleased.

the one place i really wanted to visit in glasgow was the tenement house. tenements have a different definition than they do in the us. in the us they are seens an slums & where poor people lived with high density, but in scotland many were desirable & for the middle class. the building was built in the 1800s. a working woman lived in the building from 1911 to 1965 & her belongings are a part of the museum. while she lived there, she did not update the furniture or fixtures - even the gaslight lamps are still functioning! it really was like going back in time as the building felt lived in.

tenement house

every fireplace in the building had different tiles

the bedroom. she made her own clothing.

her bathroom vanity on the windowsill 

luckily there was no rain though it was pretty cloudy. it was not a part of my original plan, but i decided to visit the kelvingrove art gallery & museum (it was free). i also wanted to visit as when i was in edinburgh, i learned about the art of the glasgow girls & boys, & particularly the former (more on that later).

kelvingrove art gallery & museum (1901 - spanish baroque style)

centre hall

the glasgow girls were an art movement from the late 1800s & early 1900s that is the female scottish take of the art nouveau movement. though i studied art, i do know much about movements & during my travels i tend to be attracted to regional art nouveau art & architecture. my eyeballs notice it. this also happened when i visited berlin (jugendstill) & vienna (secession style). from my observation, how the glasgow girls style stood out compared to the general art noveau movement is they tend to look more surreal & use more black & autumnal colors. it feels a bit more moodier. it matches the weather.

margaret macdonald

though i was more interested in the art, half of the museum is history & science.

next was a visit to the riverside museum, a transportation museum, along the harbor. the museum displays different modes of transportations used in glasgow through history including trains, automobiles, street cars, subways, motorcycles, & bikes (everything you can think of). i also took a break (today was lots of walking & standing, but not sitting) and had a coffee & slice of walnut coffee cake in their cafeteria. while here, i got to talking to a fellow american from the midwest.

the riverside museum also has a reconstructed main street.

a reconstructed victorian subway station

glasgow has lots of wall murals & street art.

i then took the subway to the older section of glasgow. i visited the st. mungo museum of religious life & death, a secular museum of all different religion. for such a small museum, it was really busy. one of my best conversations from my trip was from a group of middle aged scottish men who were friends since high school & visiting the city for the day. they talked about how they grew up & commented how americans are so friendly.

the view from the st. mungo museum of religious life & death - so many pretty autumnal trees

coffee shop in a police booth

glasgow cathedral - a gothic pre-reformation medieval cathedral

the crypt

i next visited the necropolis, a victorian cemetery. there are 50,000 people buried here with most not having a gravestones (there are only about 3,500 & not all are labeled). compared to most other victorian cemeteries, the monuments are simpler.

 

i entered via the bridge of sighs, called as it was used for funeral processions.

the cathedral from the necropolis (they were doing refurbishment)

one of the mausoleums. many had colorul iron gates.

st. mungo - the patron saint of glasgow - with a robin 

around george square. i was hoping to walk around inside, but they were doing construction (the square was used for filming the claire & frank engagement scene in outlander)

i went to wagamamas for the first time & had a coconut curry dish - a place i learned about during the brit crew days of youtube in the early 2010s

i stayed at z-hotel since they offered single occupancy rooms & was near the bus station (i had to take a bus the next morning). for being a single person room, it was pretty expensive. i would not want to know how much a normal room would cost. my room was pretty much a closet. it was windowless, which was clearly stated on the website so i was not surprised. it reminded me of the yotel rooms you can get in airports since literally the bathroom & bedroom are one room. it is only separated by a glass partition. not the most comfortable, but it was worth saving the money. 

the hotel was in an old building on the same street as city hall

my windowless, single occupancy room (i could not get a picture of the entire room since it was so small). i was literally standing in the doorway.

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the bus drove through the galloway & southern aryshire unesco biosphere

my ferry experience did not go as smoothly as i wanted. traveling via ferry between glasgow & edinburgh you have 2 different options - you can go completely public transport, which is taking a bus to the coast, onboarding the ferry, & then jumping on another bus. i decided instead to pay a little more to go through a private company that has better busses that actually drives onto the ferry & then at the end of the ferry ride, you go back on the coach bus that drives off the ferry. this allowed me to leave my pack on the bus & meant i only had a single ticket (on google maps it looks like you take bus across the irish sea). it just seemed like the smoother route & i knew the bus ride to the coast was going to be over an hour so i wanted to be sure there were toilets onboard. 

unfortunately there were several inconveniences. first, our bus was late (which got me a little worried). our bus driver was nice (wearing shorts & loafers in the rain), but he kept taking personal calls the entire way which was awkward. i knew too much about his family problems. second, the toilet on board was out of service (which was my main reason for booking this more expensive service). i had to ask the driver if we were going to stop at a toilet (2 hours is a long time), he said yes but we just kept driving. about 1.5 hours in, we stopped at a road service toilet. third when checking in at the tolls, a van hit the bus & broke our side mirror. our bus driver was very very mad. the other driver was denying it was his fault (we were parked when he hit us), & the police got involved. because our driver was hot tempered the police were getting mad at him. we just sat on the bus & i was thinking i need to get on this ferry. i will walk on if i have to. luckily we eventually drove on. 

the ferry itself was very nice, though it left a good 30 minutes late (i think it took longer to board as it is also used for cargo & they had a slow start). i got a nice window seat that i stayed at the whole time. i listened to podcasts & cross stitched. i was tickled i listened to a podcast episode about irish fairies on the irish ferry. the ferry also had deal where if you bought a cup you had unlimited refills of espresso drinks, so i was a very happy camper. at a certain point i felt a little queezy onboard, but it never got too bad. 

after the ferry ride, i had trouble remembering which level the bus was parked on. i found our driver & just kept following him a distance since he would know where to go. we drove off the ferry, but then had to switch to a taxi since the bus was considered underivable. 4 of us got onto the taxi (there were only 6 people total on the bus). at the end the taxi driver tried to swindle us for money (the taxi was ordered by the company & also paid by the company). i dashed real quick. funny story, but 2 days later at belfast train station i saw the girl who also took the taxi. she came up to me and said hi.