april '14, possibly my last trip (to a new country anyway) before.. oh well, i won't talk about it yet, but soon it will be all over the place! anyway, just in time to reach number 40 country on my list, and the choice was scotland.
"why?", you ask? simple: the awesome band walk of the earth was playing an european tour, and they weren't coming to spain, so i was checking where i could see them.. there were great places like berlin, amsterdam, dublin, etc, but i thought it was a good excuse to visit glasgow and get to know another place instead of visiting my favorites again..
so i flew into prestwick airport and was picked up by a scottish i had met just a week before in barcelona, when he was kind enough to offer me a place to crash (no official couchsurfing needed this time).. it was a friday night and the weather was as expected: cold and rainy.
saturday morning wasn't looking great, but it wasn't terrible either, so i took a bus to town and started exploring merchant city, where the city's original medieval core is. there i started with the beautiful city chambers in saint george square, then took a quick walk to the cathedral of saint mungo (known simply as glasgow cathedral).
the gothic cathedral was beautiful, but then i almost accidentally found the necropolis, easily the place i liked the most. it's a victorian cemetery established in 1832, on top of a hill with good views of the city, with around 3500 monuments and where 50 thousand people are buried, including virtually all the important glaswegian of that wealthy period.
if the morning was gray, by the time i was done with the necropolis, the sun was shining bright, so i went for a little more sightseeing.. checked out the GoMA (gallery of modern art) and then the pedestrianized buchanan and sauchiehall streets, the commercial center crowded with tourists and prestigious stores, but also with many amazing street musicians playing all sorts of music, from rock and folk to alternative and celtic.
after resting a bit, it was time for the concert.. i had very high expectations and i know this can be a bad thing, but they kicked serious ass and really delivered, even though it was a small venue (packed full, sold out in days)!
the venue was in west end, the bohemian district (it's where the glasgow university is), so after the show i went to meet my friend and his girlfriend at the gumbo bar, where they had the best bar live music i've ever seen in my life.. i didn't get the name of the band, but they were some older dudes playing some mean blues and rock & roll like there's no tomorrow.. couples of beers, then home.
i still had some time on sunday, but the weather was kinda back to the normal, gray and cold, so i walked a bit around the center, then saw this that i call an "old-ugly-ladies-parade-thingy", which i have no idea what it was, but it entertained me for some 10 minutes.. then train to the airport and back to my beautiful barcelona..
glasgow was easy.. beautiful, surprisingly good weather, fun people and great music.. i was there for 36 hours and i couldn't have asked for more.. and the next one... well, wait and see!
--
the city chambers
--
necropolis
--
a 400 year old tomb
--
beautiful street art
--
walk off the earth doing their famous thingy
--
the "old-ugly-ladies-parade thingy"
"why?", you ask? simple: the awesome band walk of the earth was playing an european tour, and they weren't coming to spain, so i was checking where i could see them.. there were great places like berlin, amsterdam, dublin, etc, but i thought it was a good excuse to visit glasgow and get to know another place instead of visiting my favorites again..
so i flew into prestwick airport and was picked up by a scottish i had met just a week before in barcelona, when he was kind enough to offer me a place to crash (no official couchsurfing needed this time).. it was a friday night and the weather was as expected: cold and rainy.
saturday morning wasn't looking great, but it wasn't terrible either, so i took a bus to town and started exploring merchant city, where the city's original medieval core is. there i started with the beautiful city chambers in saint george square, then took a quick walk to the cathedral of saint mungo (known simply as glasgow cathedral).
the gothic cathedral was beautiful, but then i almost accidentally found the necropolis, easily the place i liked the most. it's a victorian cemetery established in 1832, on top of a hill with good views of the city, with around 3500 monuments and where 50 thousand people are buried, including virtually all the important glaswegian of that wealthy period.
if the morning was gray, by the time i was done with the necropolis, the sun was shining bright, so i went for a little more sightseeing.. checked out the GoMA (gallery of modern art) and then the pedestrianized buchanan and sauchiehall streets, the commercial center crowded with tourists and prestigious stores, but also with many amazing street musicians playing all sorts of music, from rock and folk to alternative and celtic.
after resting a bit, it was time for the concert.. i had very high expectations and i know this can be a bad thing, but they kicked serious ass and really delivered, even though it was a small venue (packed full, sold out in days)!
the venue was in west end, the bohemian district (it's where the glasgow university is), so after the show i went to meet my friend and his girlfriend at the gumbo bar, where they had the best bar live music i've ever seen in my life.. i didn't get the name of the band, but they were some older dudes playing some mean blues and rock & roll like there's no tomorrow.. couples of beers, then home.
i still had some time on sunday, but the weather was kinda back to the normal, gray and cold, so i walked a bit around the center, then saw this that i call an "old-ugly-ladies-parade-thingy", which i have no idea what it was, but it entertained me for some 10 minutes.. then train to the airport and back to my beautiful barcelona..
glasgow was easy.. beautiful, surprisingly good weather, fun people and great music.. i was there for 36 hours and i couldn't have asked for more.. and the next one... well, wait and see!
--
--
--
a 400 year old tomb
--
beautiful street art
--
walk off the earth doing their famous thingy
--
the "old-ugly-ladies-parade thingy"
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