Glasgow, Scotland
I took the most awesome ship over from Belfast to an outskirt city of Glasgow by a bus from Hanna coach liners and drove us on to a a ship from Stenna freight lines and stayed with us, driving us all the way to the center of Glasgow which was roughly 3 hours away from the pier where we docked, the whole way. The Stenna lines was such a nice ship with roughly 4 different levels with many different things to do. They had Playstation's, a cinema room, a coffee shop, a cafeteria, a bar, outside decks, a sauna/massage room, and a gift shop among a few other things. I felt like such a high roller going on that 2.5 hour ship ride.
I arrived to this new city in a new country of Scotland by myself, where I was mildly scared because everyone was telling me how dirty and "rough" Glasgow was going to be, but in the end, had no real reason to be scared, as it normally goes.
As I got to the bus station, I start to make the one mile trek down towards the city center to my hostel where I would only be staying for two nights. That first night I check in to my 8 bed dorm room and noticed that I only had one other person in there. Another guy, whose name was Shamus, arrived roughly 10 minutes after I did. Shamus was from Massachusetts and was the same age as me. He worked as a banker for 3 years before deciding that that was not what he wanted to do for the rest of his life so he quit to try to find out what he wanted to do with his life and travel a little. We ended up going out to McDonald's to grab some food and I was so impressed with the burger that I got! It was honestly the best McDonald's burger that I had ever had.
After that bomb ass burger, we headed out to a bier place called "Bier Hall" where It was sort of a hole in the wall that went downstairs to a nice little bar. I talked with the bartender a little bit for some other beer recommendations. I had a pint of good old Lagunitas first, and second I had a bottle of Chimay Red.
Shamus had a bottle of pear cider. After that we were going to the supermarket next to our hostel to pick up some beer because they stopped selling beer close to 10pm and it was already 9:15pm. I grab a 4 pack of some Joker IPA's and a big bottle of the Joker IPA along with one other Pale Ale big bottle.
We get in to our room where we met our other roommate who's name was Laura and was a 26 year old badass girl from Argentina. We also met our other roommate, James I believe his name was who was from Australia and it was his 30th birthday that night so I convinced them all to go downstairs to the bar to have a few drinks for his birthday. While we were all talking in our room I downed 2 beers. I end up having two more beers at the bar before deciding to go out to one more place for some more drinks. I was pretty tipsy at this point and we headed to this bar that was open until 3am called the blue cat or something like that! We stay there until roughly 3am getting drunk now.
I buy James a drink for his birthday and then he comes back, after we all finish our first beer, with four shots of some Jager-like drinks. We down those and then he decides he still wants to drink more so he orders some more beers for us all.
After that beer we finally head back to the hostel all drunk. Shamus tries to get with Laura but she wasn't having it and James and I just pass out to live another day (hopefully).
We all wake up around roughly 10:00am because Shamus and James had to check out of the hostel at 10:30am. Laura and I also wake up around that time because it was my last (and only) day to explore Glasgow.
Laura and I start walking and instantly she yacks on the side of the street... It happens. I was feeling pretty groggy too so I just pounded some water and had a little breakfast sandwich. We pass by some nice shops and a cool little round-a-bout with a lighthouse in the middle and head up a little hill to go to the cathedral of Glasgow which was free and one of the more pretty cathedral's I've seen on my travels. As we were exiting the cathedral guess who we run in to...Shamus.
Shamus took a couple pictures of the outside of the cathedral and we three then walk across the street to a giant cemetery called Necropolis I believe. It was seriously the most awesome cemetery I have ever seen. After walking around the cemetery for about a half hour we start to exit and I decide to walk between tombstones for the first time and on that short path I walk by a tombstone that had the same last name as me, Stevenson.
That to me is an omen and weirdly made me happy seeing that my heritage has some roots all the way out in Scotland. We walk about 1.5miles to the city center, through the college of Glasgow and in to the main city center.
Laura and I say goodbye to Shamus as we both wanted to go back and rest before I wanted to go out drinking at some breweries and pubs that were recommended to me. we went back to wake up at 3:30pm from a short 1.5 hour nap.
Laura had to get a new memory card for her phone so we stop in to a shop that had a lot of old video games and it definitely invoked some nostalgia in me as I used to play a lot of video games.
After that we stopped at a brewery called Schilling Brewing Company that was one of the best breweries I've seen so far. It looked as though they were working on a three barrel brew system and I talked to the head brewer for a little bit as well as the bartender/assistant brewer.
They only brew roughly 6-8 beers of their own but have over 20 taps with guest beers. I had a nice pale ale first and then moved on to drink a stout after. I could have stayed there all day drinking but had to move on to the next spot. I next went to this bar called "The Pot Still" where I had a pale ale that was ok and then a cask ale'd breakfast stout that was sort of sour...
It was a cool place for whisky but mediocre craft beer scene. We then had stopped back at the hostel to shower and change before going out to see some live music at a pub called "Blackfriars".
I met our other new roomate named Nina from Hamburg, Germany when we got upstairs. She was there only for one night visiting a college she was applying to. I tried to get her to go out with Laura and I to watch some live music but she wasn't having it as she had to be up early.
Laura and I walk to the pub and grab a seat and a beer while we start to listen to the band. The band was a typical UK cover band playing a lot of songs I didn't know. They did however play Hotel California which was pretty cool! I wasn't having it too much as they stopped after 11pm after only having played for a measly one hour...
We head on back to our room after munching on more McDonald's because I haven't ate for over 6 hours at that time and was hungry.
We pass out around midnight and wake up to live again.
That next morning Laura was already gone to Edinburgh on a day trip where she had booked some tours months in advance.
Nina was already up too laying on her stomach watching something on her computer at 8:30am. She was wearing a tank top and I could almost see her whole entire boob and could not stop staring haha. She showered that morning and then headed out to visit her college.
I was now by myself and left quickly after Nina did to walk 1 mile to the bus station to hop on a quick 1.5 hour bus to Edinburgh where I will spend the next 4 nights...
Thank you for reading everyone!
Make sure to check out the rest of Scotland in my next post about Edinburgh where I meet up with an Australian friend I had met in Sevilla, Spain.
Cheers everyone!
Ty Stevenson