Euston station at 5.40 a.m. We took the earliest train to Glasgow since we wanted to have more time for our day trip, and also because the earliest train is the cheapest! Woke up at 3 plus in the morning to get ready, hired a cab and reached there like an hour early. Anyway better early than late, as we're not familiar with things here.
Train was pretty much empty, but got filled up along the way. Booked our tickets from ScotRail at 26 pounds each for London Euston to Glasgow Central journey.
Reached approximately 10.40 a.m. Cool ride with scenic views quite different from York's train journey. Guessed they used different route lines. Saw a lot of grass/plains in white and we kind of panicked because we weren't prepared for snow! Turned out that's just their natural colour wtf.
Sunshine! Who says Scotland is a whole lot colder than London? The weather here was AWESOME! Oh what is this building, Glasgow City Chambers if not mistaken.
Pigeon on the head heh.
Actually I was here for the free city walking tour at 11 a.m. (meeting point was the tourist office just across this square), but after waiting 10 minutes I gave up. I read that it wasn't reliable anyway so I didn't want to waste any more time. Luckily I did more research for Glasgow, so I took the challenge of becoming a tour guide myself!
Relying on printed maps from Google and itineraries from local walking tours, I made my way to Old Glasgow first. If you're lost with the map, make sure you at least know the road names, so you can still follow the signboards along the way. I especially love how the buildings have the road names on them too, that makes it so much easier to navigate around.
Part of University of Strathclyde, hugeee uni campus here.
St Mungo Museum of Religious Arts & Life.
Oh yeah if you do wanna visit Glasgow, never come on Mondays! Most of their museums and whatnot tourist attractions are closed on Mondays! I don't know why. It's sad because most of them if not all are FREE OF CHARGE. But they're closed! So I can't go in! Argh.
The Provand's Lordship.
Can you read the sign? It's the oldest house in Glasgow, built in 1471.
Queen Victoria statue in the middle of the building.
Glasgow Cathedral.
The Necropolis, a cool-looking cemetery with a famous John Knox statue.
Even a cemetery is a tourist attraction. AND a place for people to walk their dogs. Saw a few of them on their morning walks. lol
Inside the cathedral. Finally a cathedral that I can go inside without paying!
It's so quiet around here, we were so hesitant to go inside at first, thought it was closed.
Blue box. :D
Glasgow sky! The best ever throughout my UK trip. If only London had clear, blue skies like this everyday, my pictures would be so cheerful!
But Glasgow Y U SO QUIET & DESERTED! Even the main roads were almost completely empty, the city's so dead on a Monday. It's not even a holiday. Where's everyone?
Glasgow Cross & Tolbooth Steeple. Honestly no idea of its significance.
People's Palace.
And Winter Gardens.
Also closed, so we're too lazy to walk all the way there. We were getting tired after the trip to Old Glasgow, which was not that far from our starting point but we had to walk uphill at one point with our hand-carry bags! Yes we were basically backpacking on our day trip here.
What is this don't remember. Think it's a theatre or something.
Had lunch in a random fast food place. Omg it's so difficult to find decent eating places here, since the town's so dead and boring. We were walking on a whole street with NO PEOPLE. wtf
Nelson Mandela place.
Random building.
Gallery of Modern Art.
Finally we're nearby our starting point, where there's CIVILIZATION! Hurray! Went inside to take a quick peek, but nope I can't appreciate arts.
Someone's prank.
This part of the city is definitely 100x livelier.
George Square was it? The main city centre.
Spotted!
It's a shopping street full of people.
So this was where all the local citizens were hiding.
Matching blues. :p
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
The clock outside the Buchanan bus station (behind the concert hall). Obviously incorrect, we were there at least after 3pm. lol
Bought our bus fares from Megabus.com at 14 pounds for 4 persons, departing 4.50 p.m. Totally worried as we couldn't find its platform on the information board even when it's near time! Throughout our wait I think we only saw Megabus once! Ugh.
Anyway the information guy asked us to use our tickets on the other bus, I forgot which, I think it was the National Express bus. Yup since Megabus didn't come, we were allowed to board the bigger, better bus as substitute (which costs more, reason why I chose the budget bus in the first place. lucky~).
Arrived at Edinburgh, St Andrews Square bus station about 6.30 p.m. Got a lil lost on our way to the hotel, but all was okay in the end.
Richmond Hotel, a budget hotel near city centre. Booked our room from Hostelbookers which only needed 10% deposit for confirmation.
Got a quad room with en-suite bathroom at 190 pounds for 2 nights. Cheap and decent place! Totally enjoyed my short stay here. Friendly staff too. Thanks to Jackyln for the recommendation. :)
Overall, I find Glasgow quite a boring place with nothing much to see. Well, nothing that was interesting to me anyway. Just a city like most cities. A bit too quiet. I didn't manage to go to the other side of Glasgow, where there are more museums and architecture stuff to see, so I guess I don't have a full picture of Glasgow. But even so, I don't think the city is my cup of taste. The best part was definitely the sunshine and blue skies~ The worst? Walking around for like 4 hours carrying backpacks omg.
Well, Edin post next!
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