Visiting Glasgow, Scotland

Hard not to be enamored by Glasgow (photo by TravellingFool.com)

Today we did a bus tour of Glasgow. Bus tours are probably my favorite thing about traveling cause you get to see a bunch of stuff in one go and you learn the story behind all the beautiful buildings and areas. I think I've done one in almost every city I've been to - including a few in the states and one back home in NYC.

Glasgow has some amazing graffiti and buildings around. Since most of the cities history was dedicated to trade and ships there are a lot of sea faring themes and some of the biggest buildings used to be traders homes. There are also three universities in the area, which for a city that's not very big is a lot.

We decided to get off the bus at the Riverside Museum which won European Museum of the Year 2013. It was a super cool place that showed the history of transportation. There were tons of cars and motorcycles, interactive parts, and even a recreation of a Victorian era street corner.

Just off the elevator on the second floor was a display about Glasgow's involvement in the American Civil War. At first we thought oh that's so cool and I remembered how our cab driver spoke about the tabacco and cotton trade with America is what made Glasgow a prosperous city and when the civil war began they suffered too. I didn't think much of it but when I saw the display and the blockade runner ships and Confederate dollars on display I realized that because of trade Glasgow was helping the Confederacy during the civil war. Apparently, the display had in the fine print, that although the people were against supporting slavery the economy needed the raw materials from the south.

After the museum we got back on the bus and took it to the last stop. On our way back we passed the most populated street which is also where the hostel is. There were so many bars and restaurants, even one called "College Party Bar" which advertised being open 7 days a week until 3am. If we didn't have such an early flight in the morning I definitely would have walked over there since it is not too far from our hotel.

With the bus ride over we decided to walk back a different way and check out some of the shops. There was one selling kilts and all the kilt supplies in every color shape and size imaginable. I couldn't convince EJ to get one to wear. We got back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before catching the Chelsea game in the lobby slash cafe of the hotel. Once the match was done we went back to the room to pack and watch a movie.

At about 11:30p we were finally hungry again after our breakfast. EJ went downstairs to the lobby to order us a pizza, thankfully food is available 24hrs from the hotel. While he was waiting the guy at the desk offered him a free beer and they chatted about football while the food was getting ready. He then put it on a tray with a bunch of sauces and salt pepper. The people of Scotland are definitely the nicest people I've met in all my travels so far. It will be a nice early morning for us tomorrow and then off to Dublin. Hopefully we keep the good times going.