Glasgow & the End of a Journey

Our last day in Glasgow started with the museum and then we went off to St. Mungo's religious museum. Housed in the oldest standing building in Glasgow, it was a fairly bland exhibition and the building wasn't that interesting. So we walked up the street and over to the Glasgow Cathedral, but it was late in the day and it turned out it closed at 4:00. The guy was really just locking up so he said you have five minutes.

I zoomed around taking pictures, without actually really looking at the place. The Cathedral is supposed to be one of the few gothic cathedrals in Scotland, especially one that is whole and still used. It was built in 1471 and really is a fine example of gothic architecture. I wished I'd had more time to actually look.

Ireland 2007--Glasgow

After that we tried to find our way back to Will and Erin's. Unfortunately I'd forgotten their phone number. We also got lost because a helpful lady had told us what bus to catch back but it turned out there were two buses with the same name and a different ending, thus splitting and going varying routes. Which meant backtracking.

My sister was done. We had to walk about three blocks to catch another bus, after doing a partial return route. She thought we'd been walking for hours when it was less than ten minutes. :) A very drunk Scotsmen chatted with us (we had to catch a bus outside a pub, of course) and it turned out it was the other bus stop across the street from the pub. So he was a very drunk, yet helpful Scotsman.

So we finally made it back, with Will and Erin wondering what had happened to us. The next morning we flew out on Air Transat but not without issues. My sister had called them several times before she'd left and confirmed how many bags she could take on the plane, and on carry-on. She confirmed with the person on the phone and asked about leaving from Scotland. He confirmed with his supervisor that yes, she could take a bag and her camera bag as well.

Well, it turns out they have their own rules. My sister ended up paying overweight baggage because of it and was rightfully furious because she had to pack one back into everything else. My recommendations: don't fly Air Transat if you're flying more than two hours. The seats are small even for someone 5'4". If you need a special diet, they'll lose it or muck it up badly. And someone travelling with you will probably get a special diet they didn't order, as I did. They'll tell you one thing and do another and not be the least helpful or apologetic for it. The seats cost extra so that super cheap flight turns out not that cheap in the end.

Europe and Great Britain especially have tighter baggage allowances and the airline won't always know what it is or get the info confused. The attendants on Air Transat were very nice and helpful but everything else convinced me I won't be flying with them again.

At least the return trip was more pleasant. The plane wasn't completely full so I went and chatted with this Scottsman, Ian MacIntosh who lived in Calgray. That way, my sister and I both had extra room.

Over all, Ireland was a great trip. The trip was from Sept. 26-Oct. 16 and it's taken me this long to post my pictures. I want to go back and explore more of western Ireland and some of the south. I think I'd fly into Wales and then from Wales to the west of Ireland. Of course I'll have to buy a camera again, but that's a tale for tomorrow...

Glasgow & the Kelvingrove Museum

Ireland 2007--Glasgow Museum

Our lovely trip to Ireland ended and on Monday morning we flew back to Glasgow to Will and Erin's place, wonderful people to put us up in their wee flat. I think my sister and I were a bit dragged out and didn't really do more that snooze until they got home. If I recall Erin was still in Iceland(?) that night.

The next day we trundled off with directions and map, taking the bus to the Glasgow museum (which I now remember is called the Kelvingrove Museum). It was a cold day and just as well as a transition out of Ireland. Ireland seemed cozier and smaller (and warmer!). Glasgow's a pretty large modern city. Even Dublin held more of a sense of age. So in a way it was good to transition back to Vancouver.

The museum was interesting. Some things the same as all. A section on indigenous wildlife, including all the extinct indigenous wildlife. Humans have wiped out so many species and it continues. It's sad to see that. If we could learn to populate less, farm/hunt more efficiently and in a renewable way, we might exist another thousand years but I'm having my doubts right now.

There were some interesting paintings and sculptures in the museum too. The small section on women's early subjugation and suffragette movements was eye opening. I knew there were a lot of "Victorian" inventions with things like the chastity belt and that any earlier versions have never been found. If I was exploring this farther I'd want to know more of the history and dating of the objects.

The Art Nouveau/Deco section and the stuff on Renne MacIntosh, Scotland's darling were wonderful. I'm very partial to Art Nouveau so spent a lot of time there drooling on things. And of course seeing the jacket from hmm, what era, the Reformation, the 17th century was cool as the only piece of clothing I saw there. I think there might have been a bit I missed.

After we wandered around Glasgow and had the most awful Scottish-Mexican food. A breaded cheeseball with salsa. Potatoes with salsa. My sister got glutened so it added trips to the loo. The rest of the pictures and the trip will be in the last batch and then I'm done.

Things to Know About Travelling

Well we made it. Just slept like the dead in Dublin and we're off to a slow start.

Backing up, it was a bit of a whirlwind beginning. My friend Lorna picked me up around 7 and my flight was leaving at 10:10 pm. Plenty of time, right? Well originally this flight had been leaving at that time and going straight to Glasgow, but along the way Air Transat changed it to Vancouver, via Calgary onto Glasgow. I looked at all the changes when my sister first sent them and thought the only change was Calgary, after initialing thinking they had shortened our flight by a day.

So here we are at the airport and there is hardly anyone there. I naively said, geez they say get here three hours early and there's no lineup. We walk up to the counter and I tell them the flight. They say no it's gone already. But then these guys (more airport security than the ticket people) say they don't work that counter; go over to the Air Transat counter. We do and the woman says it's too late, it's gone, it leaves at 8:00!

At this point my stupidity is dawning on me. I misread numerous times 20:10 at 10:10. I know the 24 hour clock but my brain had been stuck on the previous time. This woman calls upstairs as I'm breaking into a sweat (literally) and finds that they can get me on the plane but not my suitcase because the plane is packed. I'm going, what can I do and she says nothing because it's a charter flight and only goes out once a week with not agreement with the other airlines.

But somehow, bless their hearts, a guy comes down, checks my baggage, almost forgetst to give me the boarding pass and then I have to take my luggage to the xray machine. The guy there jokes that I have to wait a half hour. Then I speed through security, luckily without any additional searches and jump on the golf cart they have waiting, lacing up my boots as we go, thanking them profusely. I got on the plane but if we had been 5 minutes later I would have been hooped and my sister would have thought I was dead when she got on in Calgary. I was lucky and the plane was not late in taking off.

So then my sister gets on in Calgary and she's put on 50 pounds in 6 months from thyroid issues. Let's just say the small Air Transat seats are more crowded now. We got into Glasgow and went through the cattle gates for the passports with the customs guy joking that he wasn't happy because we were going on to Dublin.

A note to people travelling to Ireland: you can't very easily get a direct flight from the West Coast so it's Gatwick or Glasgow for joining up a new flight. Glasgow really has two airports, which we didn't know at first. Glasgow International only has Aer Lingus that flies to Dublin (about $150 CDN) and Glasgow Prestwick (about an hour away by bus and train) has Ryanair (only) and is cheaper. But if people tell you (even those that supposedly live there or are Irish and go all the time) that you can just book when you arrive from all of these different airlines, they're mistaken. There are only those two and though we could have made it to Prestwick in time for the late night flight, there were no seats left.

So we had to take Aer Lingus, but first we met up my friend Erin who is doing her PhD in Viking archaeology in Glasgow. She fed us and let us freshen up (and we saw these lovely foxes, the local vermin, in their back yard). Then we caught a taxi back to the airport and caught our flight, an hour late because the plane malfunctioned and they had to get a different one. So we left at 11:20 pm instead of 10:15. We finally got to our lodge and into bed at 2 am.

Scary things: a phone call requires constant money put into the machine. A call of a few minutes cost about 2.5£. Yikes. About 5 bucks. Glasgow is pounds. Ireland is Euros until you get to the Northern parts. And now, it's off to see what we can of Dublin after our late start.