Cows and Cathedrals

It's hard to believe that only a few days has passed since my last blog, so much has happened! In fact, it's becoming increasingly difficult to narrow down and select the best stories from my recent days to post here. I'll admit the thought of my first weekend scared me. I just moved into a new flat, none of my roommates had moved in, I knew only one other person in the whole of Glasgow and while I had a schedule for the upcoming week, the weekend had nothing in store. I was convinced that I would spend the weekend holed up in my room trapped only with distance memories of coffee dates with friends back home and rememberances of a social life. Thankfully, as it turns out my imagined weekend was slightly off. 

Saturday was packed with errands and a little bit of sight-seeing. It is truly amazing how busy moving to a new city makes you. My "to do list" seems to grow by two or three listings for every one that is completed. Sunday I did something that I never thought I would do in the US let alone in Glasgow. I shopped for fireplaces. Now it wasn't for my own place, although I do certainly wish they would let us have a fireplace! Because of the weather, fireplaces are a large business in Scotland. And, I saw all sides of that business. First, there was a fireplace store, really there was a collection of stores. These fireplace stores were right in the middle of the city and sold only one thing, fireplaces. If you ever need a place to relax and possibly warm up you should look for a fireplace store! Then there was the country-dweller turned fireplace salesman extraordinare. Yes, right in the middle of a farm there was a trailor set up with fireplaces ("stoves" if we are being technical). You can't just stop by this fireplace trailor and have a look. First, you have to call and set up an appointment with the man himself, then you must call on the day that you are coming to tell him of your pending arrival and finally you must actually find this place that's marked with a sign practically hidden in the trees. Once you have completed all these steps and deemed worthy of Mr. country dweller/fireplace man's services you will be ushed inside his trailor. Inside there are about five stoves and one hundred and five catalogs featuring more options if you are not satisfied with said five. So what did I learn from this whole experience? Well this, cast iron stoves hold heat more effectively than steel stoves, you can select stoves in such colors as "almond" and "gun-powder metal" and finally, country stoves are outrageously more expensive than city stoves.

What could possibly be more exciting than stoves? Well, Scottish Highland Cows! (I'm fairly easy to please, it makes me a very easy date). The stove adventure was followed by Pollock Park, one of the many parks of Glasgow. Glasgow is recognized as an incredibly "green city" and has great expanses of green areas and parks. Pollock Park is Glasgow's largest park, the park has not only the Pollock house but an art museum as well. I was able to go to both and both were lovely. But, nothing can beat the highland cows in the middle of the park. I was not the only one overly excited about the cows, three children under the age of five were as well. I suppressed the urge to use my incredible height and strength to elbow the children aside and waited patiently in line to pet the cow. When it was finally my turn to pet the cute, fuzzy, ungroomed cow it sweetly nuzzled my arm before trying to eat my leather jacket. Despite this, I'm still a fan.

One of the listings on my "to do list" is to buy dishes and silverware. However, this has yet to happen. I continue to go out with the best intentions of purchasing these things and get distracted by something far more exciting than your average forks and knives. Monday was no different. Monday I decided to walk down to the city center (centre). I adore Glasgow's city center. Part of the center is completely blocked off to traffic. The streets are lined with stores and are jammed packed with pedestrians. While it's a bit of a walk from my flat, a couple of miles ot be exact, I always make the journey on foot. While I'm certainly a fan of public transportation, I believe the best way to come to understand a city is on foot. Walking has familiarized me with specific stores, street names, traffic flow, etc. In fact, this walking method has helped me be able to give directions to someone, a moment I was truly proud of! At the heart of the city center is George's Square. George's Square is the civic center of the entire city, housing Glasgow's City Chambers. It also illustrates the grid pattern of Glasgow's city streets. Glasgow is set up, much like many major American cities, in a grid pattern. This pattern makes navigating the city very managable.

                          Always remember.. Glasgow is not just Scotland, it's Scotland with style

After wandering around the city center I decided to head up to Glasgow's Cathedral. The cathedral was built in 1197 and still holds religious services weekly. The cathedral has one of the largest collections of post war stained glass in Great Britain.

Please take a look at the admission price.. yes, it's free! As is just about any attraction in Glasgow. Of course, I love when anything is free, but it's wonderful to have free attractions and museums. Going through the attractions you don't feel overwhelmed to get your money's worth. Instead, you enjoy the time you spend safe and secure in the knowledge you can always come back, for free.

Right across the street from Glasgow's Cathedral is The Provand's Lordship or The Oldest House in Glasgow. It's also free to visit but was unfortunately closed when I was in the area.

The best part of this week has been feeling like I'm becoming a part of the city. I've begun to meet so many people and nearly every part of my day is filled. I've been able to give people directions, have run into people I know out and about in town and can name almost all the major roads of Glasgow and know how to find them not only on a map but on foot. And above all, I found a coffeeshop and a bookstore and it is for these reasons I can officially stay in Glasgow.

Scotslish Lesson: Waterproof=Raincoat. And if you're living in Scotland everything should be waterproofed. And always remember to stick an umbrella in your purse. Or you'll end up soaked, cold and red skinned. I might have forgotten mine today.