Linlithgow and Exploring More Glasgow

Since Isle of Arran, I’ve spent almost all of my time in Glasgow, doing a lot of things that I’ve been meaning to do all semester and just enjoying the beautiful weather.  It’s been in the 70s all week.  I used to think it was funny that Brits considered this to be hot, but after spending all semester in Scotland, I understand.  I’ve become more acclimated to the cold(ish), windy, rainy weather than I ever though possible, and walking around when it’s 75 degrees and sunny, I find myself thinking why is it so hot? 

Yes, I know I’m going to be miserably hot when I get home.  Hopefully it won’t take too long to adjust again.

On Tuesday, we went for a picnic in Glasgow Green, a park on the other end of the city that I hadn’t even heard of until someone suggested going there.  It was such a perfect day.  We had more food than we could possibly eat, a Frisbee, and a soccer ball.  The ball was one of those really light, toy balls but it worked well enough.  We soon had a soccer game going and it was so great to play again.  We played two games, the second of which turned out to be a bit more competitive and rough, and as we were playing barefoot we all ended up with slightly injured toes.  Maybe not the best idea, but it was a lot of fun.  I’m hoping to play again soon (once everyone’s toes feel completely better), but maybe with shoes this time.

I got to check a lot of things off my Glasgow bucket list over the next few days, including Tchai Ovna, a grungy little tea shop that I’d heard so much about that I wanted to go despite not liking tea.  We went to a pub called Lebowski’s, which has about 20 different variations of White Russians, and did a pub quiz there.  Unfortunately, we didn’t do very well on the quiz, but I think none of us were too upset about that.  We scored well on general knowledge and mythology, but failed miserably on the TV section.  Honestly, I’m a little proud that we didn’t know a lot of that.  The final section was all songs that made the charts in 1984.  Unsurprisingly, the teams with members who had actually been alive in 1984 did much better than us.

We went to see The Lighthouse one day, which is not an actual lighthouse, but a building designed by the famous architect Charlies Rennie Mackintosh that overlooks Glasgow.  There’s a spiral staircase up to the top, which really isn’t all that high, but still provides a nice view.

Glasgow might not be the most obviously beautiful city, but there’s something about it that’s truly amazing.  Afterwrads, we went to another building designed by Mackintosh, called the Willow Tea Rooms.

For Carl’s last day, we had a pub lunch at Curler’s Rest, which is purported to be the oldest pub in Glasgow.  We also got milkshakes at a place that has 91 different flavors.

Today, Hannah and I took a tour of the Glasgow City Chambers, which was beautiful.  It’s really incredible how ornate the building it.  Apparently  Glasgow beats the Vatican for the longest marble staircase by a half story.

Most of our time other than that has been spent in the Botanic Gardens and Kelvingrove Park.

On Saturday, Hannah and I went to Linlithgow to visit my flatmate Alan.  It’s only a 30 minute train ride out of the city.  It’s such a pretty town, and it’s the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots.  We saw the palace, St. Michael’s Parish Church, and walked around Loch Linlithgow.

Over the past week, I’ve had to say goodbye to some really great friends, and more are leaving soon.  I only have eight more days here, and am trying to make the most of it.

Isle of Arran!

Yesterday morning, Raisah, Hannah, and I dragged ourselves out of bed early for a day trip to Isle of Arran.  Luckily, we were able to nap on the train on the way there.  After an hour on the train, we took an hour long ferry ride to the island.

Much to our dismay, the tourist information centre was closed and we didn’t have a map.  We should have foreseen this, as Scotland as a whole barely seems to function on Sundays.  The subway, which normally opens very early, doesn’t open until 10 (and closes back down at 6), so we had to take a cab to Central Station.

As we didn’t really know where we were going, we just hopped on a bus to the castle because it sounded exciting and figured there were probably pretty places to walk around there.

The castle wasn’t all that exciting – it was more like a mansion, but we sat outside of it to eat lunch.  After eating, we were tempted by a nice looking patch of grass and decided to lay around in the sun for a bit.  It was so nice, and I took a lovely nap there, although I did get sunburned because of it.  So many days are cloudy that I’m not used to real sun anymore, and neither in my skin.  Only in Scotland can you get sunburned in 54 degree weather.

After about an hour of this, we decided we should probably actually see some of the island.  The nature there is so different from the rest of Scotland I’ve seen.  It’s further south, and apparently that and its isolation have made it much different.

We came across a Bavarian summer home, which was adorable.  The interior is decorated with pine cones and is surprisingly sophisticated:

A bit more wandering led us to a lily pond, lots of flowers, and a tree with the biggest leaves I’ve seen in my entire life.  The leaves were actually sturdy enough to hold up a camera, and we ended up using a leaf as a tripod.

The giant leaves are in the back left.  You can’t really tell how big they are here, so here’s a reference:

We wandered towards the hills afterwards, where we saw more familiar scenery.

We found a herd of highland cows and spent quite a bit of time watching them.  Highland cows never cease to amuse me.

After this, we had to head back to catch the ferry.  We decided to walk the two and a half miles back along the beach rather than pay for the bus.  I’m so glad we did, because it was absolutely beautiful.

The beautiful weather is supposed to continue all week here in Glasgow.  Today it was 58 and sunny, and it’s supposed to get up to 75 later this week.  I spent the day today with Alexii and Jannie, who came up from Edinburgh.  We went to the Necropolis, the Cathedral, and Kelvingrove Park, where we laid out in the sun.  Tomorrow the plan is a picnic in the Botanic Gardens to take advantage of the beautiful weather!  And then laser tag, which is indoors, but will still be lots of fun.

Oxford & Cambridge

After Bath, the six of us got on a train to Oxford.  It was pretty full and we had to sit in the same section as a guy who was by himself, and I felt kind of bad for him as we all surrounded him.  He looked amused though, laughing at our conversation about awful reality TV (Date My Mom, anyone?) and our experiences with getting our wisdom teeth removed.

Our first stop was Oxford Castle, which, disappointingly, is now a hotel, restaurant, and City Hall.  We walked by a few colleges, and then went to explore the covered market.  While the others looked at postcards and went to get bagels, Raisah and I were fully absorbed in the menu of a stand called “Moo Moo’s” which sold more milkshake flavors than anywhere I’ve seen in my life (yes, even Cook Out).  After some serious deliberation, I ended up with a maple syrup milkshake, which was amazing.

We walked around afterwards and saw a lot of the colleges, the main attraction of Oxford.  We decided to go into New College, which was a fantastic choice; as if my trip had not contained enough Harry Potter, a scene from the fourth movie was shot in New College.  We went to the chapel and then to the cloisters, where the scene was shot.  Look familiar?

Next was the dining hall, and then out to the gardens.  This pretty well exemplifies my impression of both Oxford and Cambridge: there was a beautiful lawn with a bench and stairs up to a path, but a sign that says to not walk on the grass.  Everything is pretty and orderly, but you’re not allowed to touch it.  The bench and stairs were apparently just for show, as you couldn’t access either without crossing the lawn.  The colleges have signs barring visitors, and those you can enter cost money.  There are always people standing guard at the entrances so that no one but students and professors can enter.

Part of the City Wall, which dates back to the 12th century, runs along one side of the gardens.

We went back to the market for lunch, and then exploring, looking at the colleges.  Our last stop was University of Oxford Press.  We didn’t go inside, but considering many of our textbooks are printed there we figured it would be a neat thing to see.

We took a bus to Cambridge that evening and went straight to our hostel.  The next morning, we walked over to the colleges and explored a little.  Cambridge is much greener than Oxford, and the colleges are mostly on the River Cam.  It was absolutely beautiful.

We decided to go punting, and a tour guide propelled us up and down the river.  He stopped us under one of the bridges and we just sat there, looking around, confused as to what we were doing under the bridge.  About thirty seconds later, it started hailing!  We stayed under the bridge for the duration (less than ten minutes) and then set off again.

At one point, the tour guide casually pointed at a building and announced that parts of Shrek were filmed there.  One of the girls in our group said “Really?” before stopping to think about it.  We couldn’t stop laughing for the next few minutes. The tour guide had a bit of an ego boost, as he hadn’t heard the “really?” and thought we were laughing hysterically at his joke.

After the tour, we got lunch and then headed to Cambridge’s market.  Unfortunately, it rained and hailed fairly regularly for the rest of the day.  Eventually, we gave up and decided to go to Primark.  This is the answer to all of life’s questions here in Scotland: cheap clothes.

That evening, we went to a choral service at King’s College Chapel.  The music was absolutely beautiful.  It was an all boys choir, but it sounded like an adult mixed choir.  The building was beautiful too, of course.

We got on a bus back to London, where a few of us took a trip to KFC upon realizing how much we missed fried chicken, and then got on the night bus back to Glasgow.  There was a man sitting right behind me who talked incessantly for the entire eight-ish hours.  He didn’t even know the people he was talking  to!  At the end of the trip, one of the men he was talking to turned to him and said: “I have had friends for 10 years who haven’t said as much to me in that time as you did this past night.”  Luckily, I was tired enough that I slept through a lot of the ride despite his chatter.

Bath

After Harry Potter Studios, I made my way back towards Jenny’s apartment.  We met up, grabbed food to bring back, and had a lovely night in.  The next morning, we were up early, me to go meet friends at Victoria Station and Jenny to go to work.

Hannah, Raisah, Srishti, Adelita, and Josie had come in on the night bus.  They had already been in London for a couple hours when I met them around 9 for our 9:30 bus to Bath.  As you could probably guess, they were less than thrilled to be embarking on a 3 hour bus ride after just finishing their 8 hour journey to London.

We got to Bath too early to check in to our hostel, but we dropped our stuff there and set off to explore.  Our first stop was Bath Abbey, which was really nice.

Next were the famous Roman Baths:

I had always assumed that these baths would be warm swimming pools/hot tubs.  I knew that there were multiple pools with different temperatures.  Turned out my expectations for how bathing worked for the Romans were entirely wrong.  They didn’t lounge in the pools and just relax.  First, they would strip naked, then they would go into a sauna type thing, next into the hottest pool, then the second hottest, all the way down to the cold pool.  Some kind of oil was massaged into their skin, and then had to be scraped off.  It sounds like a stressful process to me, but evidently they found it relaxing.  Personally, the idea of jumping into a pool of freezing water makes me cringe.  As does the idea of running around naked with all the other bathers (and the sexes were not separated), but I’ll put that one down as a cultural difference.

At the end, they let you drink a little bit of the water.  A little bit scary, as the water in the pool is very green and the faces of the people trying it were not encouraging, but we did it.  Thankfully, the water coming out of the tap was clear.  It was warm though, and tasted a bit strange.

Our next stop was the Jane Austen Centre.  Jane spent five years in Bath and set two of her novels (Persuasion and Northanger Abbey) there.  The centre focused on her time there and culture at the time.  It was really interesting, and we had fun at the end of the exhibit where they had hats, fans, and parasols for us to play with.

Once we were done with the exhibition, we headed upstairs to the Jane Austen Regency Tea Room.  It’s moments like that when I really wish I liked tea.  I settled for coffee though and we had some really delicious pastries.  Being able to do things like the Jane Austen Tea Room is one of the perks of taking an all girls trip.

We went to check out the Circus and the Royal Crescent next, and then wandered into Royal Victoria Park, where we relaxed in the sunshine for a while.  I think I manage to do this almost everywhere I go.  I’ve lazed around in an impressive number of parks this semester.

We went out for Thai food for dinner, and then set about exploring Bath at night.  Crazily enough, Hannah actually ran into someone she knew from UNC.  She came along with us the rest of the night as we aimlessly wandered Bath.  There was a fair amount of singing and silliness involved.

Prince Charles and Harry Potter

I finished exams on the morning of the ninth and headed straight to Edinburgh to see Alexii.  Seeing as it was my fourth trip to Edinburgh and the city’s not that big, I’d already seen pretty much everything there is to see.  Instead of running around sightseeing, Alexii and I met up with Lexie (who I’d met on the trip to Dublin in March) at University of Edinburgh’s student union for lunch.  It was interesting to see the differences between the universities (or, as they say here, unis).  I have to admit that their union is much nicer than either of Glasgow’s.

I haven’t spent much time in the Glasgow University Union (GUU), but the Queen Margaret Union (QMU) is much bigger than I would’ve expected.  It’s got four (I think?) floors.  One of the levels is a bar which I assume would have food like we got at Edinburgh’s union, but I usually end up at the top floor, where it’s a la carte typical cafeteria and snack food.  Uni of Edinburgh’s union didn’t have that option (as far as I could see), giving it more of a restaurant feel, and simply looks fancier.

After lunch, we headed up to the Rooftop Terrace in the National Museum.  It’s a really nice view of the city, and you can see everything from there.  Before heading in, Jannie (another of Alexii’s friends I knew from the Dublin trip) told us that she and her dad were going to eat at the restaurant at the museum, and they had been told that Prince Charles would be there that night.  When they made the reservation on the phone, they were warned that they wouldn’t be allowed to leave between 7:15 and 8:30 because of security for Prince Charles.

Naturally, Alexii and I decided that it would be a good idea to go there that night.  Since we were in the museum anyway, we walked over to the restaurant.  Upon looking at the prices, we asked the waitress if we could make a reservation just for dessert.

Next was the Greyfriar’s Graveyard, which is by The Elephant House (where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter).  J.K. Rowling used to take walks through the graveyard and found inspiration for Tom Riddle and McGonagall’s names there.  We couldn’t find McGonagall’s name, but Alexii did show me the grave marked “Thomas Riddel.”

We headed back to Alexii’s dorm for dinner, got ready for our dinner with the prince, and went back to the museum.  When we got there, giggling and hoping it wasn’t too obvious why we had chosen that night to get dessert there, we walked up to the door.  There were police outside and a security guard at the door, who ushered us inside when we told him we had reservations.  Another man waited inside with a list.  “Alexii?” we said, half expecting to be turned away.  He led us to the elevator, where we were surprised to find a large group of Americans waiting to go upstairs.

Sadly, we didn’t get to see Prince Charles, but we were in the same building and we did get stuck in the restaurant because of him.  Waiters warned us several times that we wouldn’t be able to leave between the designated time, although most were very secretive about why.  Apparently the person who had told Jannie had been breaking the rules.  Near the end of our dessert, we heard one of the waiters tell some other diners that the security was because Prince Charles was there, confirming it for us.  Even if we didn’t see him, the dessert was phenomenal and it was a crazy experience being ushered in through so much security and only getting to enter because our names were on the list.

I spent the night and left the next afternoon.  I had the rest of the day in Glasgow, and then headed back to the bus station to catch an 11 pm bus to London.  If you’ve never had the pleasure to take an overnight bus, trust me, you’re not missing out.  They are cheap though.

I arrived in London around 7 am.  I had a ticket for the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour at 11:30.  It’s in Leavesden, which is outside of London.  I had breakfast at Victoria Station and took off for Leavesden.  I had to take a subway, train, and bus to get to the Studios.  I was there really early, and took my time to go through the gift shop and look at the photos on the walls.  After what felt like forever, it was finally time for me to go in.

The tour starts out with the cupboard under the stairs and some quotes by J.K. Rowling.  Then, we were ushered into a cinema, where they played a short movie about the studios and how Harry Potter became what it is today.  I actually found myself tearing up.

The Great Hall was next, and after that, the tour is self-guided.  I was compulsively reading everything and watching every single video.  Soon, everyone in my group was out of sight and the next group was surrounding me.  Oops.

It was so amazing seeing everything.  So many of the effects in the movies that I had assumed to be CGI or otherwise edited in were actually mechanized props.  In the Weasley’s kitchen, there was a knife cutting of its own accord and a pot stirring itself.  The circular door to the Chamber of Secrets, which a snake slithers around to open, really worked.

Many of the sets were there: the Gryffindor common room and boys’ dormitory, the potions classroom, Hagrid’s hut, and Dumbledore’s office, to name a few.  There were tons of props from the movies: all the horcruxes, the Triwizard Cup, the Goblet of Fire, broomsticks, wands, Quaffles, decorations from the Yule Ball, etc.

The outdoor sets were next, where I saw the Knight Bus, 4 Privet Drive, the Potters’ Cottage, and the Hogwarts Bridge.  I also tried butterbeer there, which I overheard some Scottish visitors compare to Irn Bru.  It’s a strangely accurate comparison, if Irn Bru was frothy and thick.  (For those of you who don’t know, Irn Bru is a really popular soda in Scotland that’s bright orange with a ton of sugar and tastes like bubble gum.)

The next section was quite creepy…it was the make-up department and animatronics.  A lot of this included lifelike masks and full scale models of the actors that made me feel like I was looking at their corpses.

Bathilda Bagshot

Animatronics was really neat.  Apparently many shots of mythical animals in the movies are actually models.  In the third movie, one of the scenes in which Buckbeak the hippogriff moves is a mechanized model, not CGI.

One of my favorite parts was the model of Hogwarts that they used for many shots in the movie.  It was absolutely beautiful:

 

One of the funnier facts that I learned on the tour was about shooting in Scotland.  They were in the highlands, and evidently it was sunny and right after the director called “Action!” it proceeded to rain for five straight weeks.  Sounds about right.

Loch Lomond Take II: Balmaha

Hannah, Carl, and I took a day trip to Loch Lomond on Sunday.  I had already been once when my family visited, but the three of us decided to go to a town on the other side of the loch, called Balmaha.  To get there, we took the train to Balloch (where I went with my mom and sister) and then a bus to Balmaha.  None of us were really sure on the pronunciation of the town, which made buying bus tickets awkward.  I got on and asked for a ticket to “Bal-mah-ha?” quietly, hoping I wasn’t butchering the name.  The bus driver responded, “Balloch?  You’re already in Balloch!”  We cleared it up after a few seconds though.  (In case you’re wondering, it’s pronounced like Omaha but with a “bahl” at the front.)

Once there, we started walking around the loch, stopping to eat lunch on a little beach.  Not quite the same as hanging out at the beach in North Carolina, but it was beautiful in an entirely different way.  No people were swimming, but plenty of dogs were chasing sticks their owners threw into the water.

We hiked around to the Cashel Farm, and then up into the mountains for a little bit.  We ended up walking about 8.5 miles.  It was so pretty, especially the view from the mountain.

Back to Glasgow

I’ve been back in Glasgow for almost two weeks now, and it’s so nice being back!  A lot of people came over to hang out last night and it was so nice seeing everyone again.  It had been over three weeks since I’d seen a lot of people (by that I mean everyone but Hannah).

I did a lot of studying last week (weird, right?) for my exam on Tuesday, but managed to go out some, too!  Some of our Dutch friends threw a Queensday Party, celebrating the birthday of the previous Queen of the Netherlands.  Because she’s of the House of Orange, everyone wears orange.  At the party, all the food was orange: they had carrots, orange cupcakes, orange chips, etc. and some of the outfits were crazy!

My exam was okay, but the exam hall was beautiful.  Every time I needed a second to think, I would look around and get completely distracted by the room.  This is a place where people have weddings, and I was there taking an English exam. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get any pictures, but I borrowed this from Google:

If you Google image search “Glasgow Bute Hall,” you can find more pictures.

We’ve had a couple days of beautiful weather, and I’ve spent a good amount of time lazing around in the Botanic Gardens and in the grass outside the library.  The fact that the weather here is usually not great really does make you appreciate it when there’s good weather.  As soon as there’s a really sunny day, even if it’s only 50 degrees or so the park is absolutely full of people enjoying the weather.  One day this week was about 60, which was fantastic.  It’s crazy to think that if I were at home, 60 degree weather wouldn’t be a big deal and I probably think it was too chilly to lay around outside.  Here, about ten of us spent several hours hanging out in the park, listening to music, reading, painting nails, eating.

The day after my exam, I went to the first going away party.  It’s insane to think that we’re already at the time when people are going home!  Most of us, though, are  still doing exams and don’t even have the option of leaving yet.  I only have one more exam (two total…insanity), which is Wednesday.  A few of my friends don’t finish until the 16th, though.

I’m so excited to be officially done with school and not have to worry about it!  Over the next week and a half, I’m going to Loch Lomond (again), Edinburgh (for the 4th time), and England.  We just got the England trip planned out today – I’ll be going to London (where I’m doing the Harry Potter Studios Tour!!), Bath, Oxford, and Cambridge.

The Rest of Germany!

After a train ride a bit of miscommunication, I arrived in Hamburg and saw my friend JoJo, a native Hamburger (which never ceases to amuse me) who studied abroad at my high school three years ago.  We stored my bag in a locker at the train station for the time being and didn’t waste any time getting to see some of the city.  We went down by the harbor and hung out there for a while.  It was full of sail boats, the sun was shining, and the daffodils were in full bloom.  It was so pretty and relaxing.  Hamburg is built on a lot of water, and this is something that is important to its inhabitants.

(it’s not a straight shot, but it’s because I was blinded by the beautiful sun so that’s okay!)

We saw the Town Hall, wandered and saw a bit more of the centre, and then grabbed my stuff and headed to Bergedorf, a suburb that is still technically part of Hamburg.  I loved it – it really operates like a small town.  We didn’t spend much time there, but just walking through it was so nice.  It’s very quaint and looks more like I expected Germany to look like.  Much of Hamburg was destroyed in WWII and been rebuilt, so most of the structures really aren’t that old.  Bergedorf:

Back at his house, his mom made us what I was informed was a very common German meal: sheep, red cabbage, and potatoes.  It was all really good!  I had been a little nervous about the sheep, but was pleasantly surprised.  The red cabbage was prepared in a way I’d never seen before, and I think is uncommon in the U.S.  It was really sweet, and almost tasted like it should be a dessert.

The next day, I did some exploring while JoJo was in class, and then he showed me around the city some more.  I saw an old building in ruins, some empty space in between, and then a steeple.  JoJo explained that the whole thing had been a church, but was bombed in WWII.  It was left in ruins as a reminder of the consequences of war.

We went to another church and decided to go up to the top.  We had the option of taking the elevator, but I always feel like that’s cheating so we opted for the stairs – a decision that I was regretting about 15 flights later.

Afterwards, we went by the port, and then to a district that JoJo said was extremely expensive and that all the rich people were moving to.  It looked completely uniform and lifeless, and when I said so JoJo said that that was what the public opinion was as well.  Apparently people move there anyway just so others will know that they have money.

St. Pauli was our next stop – the absolute opposite.  It used to be a poor area, but recently has become very popular among the younger generation, and getting a flat there is actually pretty difficult now.  It’s home to the famous St. Pauli football [soccer] club, which has a friendship with Glasgow’s Celtic team.  It’s also home to Hamburg’s red light district and lots of sex shops.  You definitely couldn’t call this area lifeless.

After some crepes in a cafe that combined French, German, and American culture, it was back to Bergedorf.

The next day, JoJo had class for much of the day, and I set off to explore on my own.  I meant to go to the Hamburg History Museum in St. Pauli, but got distracted by a really nice park on the way.  Still exhausted from traveling for so long and in serious need of a nice day to relax, I wandered for a while and then found a nice play to lay down and read.

 

When I met up with JoJo, we actually went to the museum until we got kicked out for closing (this seems to happen to me a lot), saw a bit more of the city, and headed back.

The next day, Hermann, an old family friend from Neumünster, came with his wife Gundy to pick me up.  They decided to take me to Lübeck, a small town about an hour outside of Hamburg.  I loved Lübeck – it was quiet and and nice.  Our first stop was a shop that sells everything you can imagine made out of marzipan.  We saw many of the old, historical buildings, including St. Mary’s Church.  It’s a really pretty Protestant Church that was bombed and rebuilt.  However, they’ve left the bells that fell and broke in their place as a reminder.

We went down some of the old alleyways, which were absolutely picturesque (I feel like I’m gushing now):

And went to see the old hospital, which was a nursing home until recently:

After having lunch in a very historic restaurant that was frequented by sailors in its early days, we headed for Neumünster.  We made pit stops at the butcher’s shop and another at a place famous for its country cakes.  Our third and final stop was probably one of my favorite experiences of the trip – the Stock factory.  My dad worked for the American branch of the company, and I got to see the machines I had only heard about and seen pictures of in the factory where my dad went on his numerous trips to Germany.

We had a traditional German dinner of sausages and bread, which was really good (although I did avoid trying the blood and liver sausages, which sounded frightening and were oddly colored).

The next morning, we went to the market.  There were lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, including the extremely popular white asparagus, fish, and some unfamiliar foods I couldn’t even identify.  After a nice breakfast of several types of bread and more sausage, Gundy packed up some food for me to bring along and they brought me to the train station.

I was so lucky to stay with two such wonderful families, and both were very welcoming and kind.

My final stop was Bremen.  I got very lost getting to my hostel, but at least stumbled upon some pretty sights along the way:

Fortunately the rain held off while I searched for my hotel, but it started up soon after and didn’t stop until the following morning.  The city was really nice, and I would have really enjoyed my time there had the weather been better.  I still liked seeing the city, but I also spent a lot of time being a good student and reading for my upcoming exam.

Next it was back to Glasgow!  It was kind of sad to be done traveling, but I was definitely ready to be back!  On my flight, hearing the Scottish accents surrounding me was one of the best feelings.