Day 8: Glasgow, Scotland

Glasgow is only an hour train ride from Edinburgh. We didn't have high expectations, as we met people both in the US and in Edinburgh telling us Glasgow wasn't that great. It had a cheap flight to the main Paris airport, however, so we went anyway.

We started by heading to St. George's Square (recommended by our hotel and all the guide books), and were not that impressed. It has about 15 statues around it and a big statue of Walter Scott again (Scotland apparently loves their writers) on top of a 100 foot pedestal in the square center, and some big building at the end. It felt a little dirty and at that point, we were realizing Glascow is very city-like, it was missing the natural beauty of Edinburgh. We kept an open mind and were rewarded at the cathedral. It was giant, impressive, a little musty, and a little dirty, but it felt more authentically old than other churches we've been seeing. It seemed like it hadn't undergone tons of rehab, and we liked that.

We noticed that in all the UK cathedrals, there are lots of war memorials and military people buried. Kind of weird if you ask me, but maybe it has something to do with the state involvment in the church (I'm admittedly out my expertise here).

Behind the cathedral was a creepy cemetary, keeping in step with the feeling of the cathedral. But after a climb to the top (Glasgow hasn't provided the reprieve from Edinburgh's hills we had hoped for) it offered pretty cool views of the city. At the top, we realized we were in need of a break, whether beer, coffee, snack, whatever, but because we only had the 1 day in town, we decided to soldier on to Glasgow University.

Like in other cities, it's always an adventure figuring out the local public transportation. After getting 3 different suggestions on how to reach the university from 3 different people, we weren't exactly confident when stepping on the bus. This is making us a little nervous for the remainder of our trip in non-'English' speaking countries, but we figured them out before, and we will again (albeit probably not very smoothly). We managed to work the bus system and make it to the school, which was cool, but the real fun part was walking through the park nearby and running into a few hundred students letting off steam after final exams. We got some ice cream cones and just soaked it up. It was funny to watch Scottish people toss around an American football, I'll give them an A for effort, but their technique grade would be a bit lower.

I guess that's it for the UK, on to Paris!