Reflections on a Glaswegian Day
The last few days have been so good, with Sunday's grand adventure to Loch Lomond and the science centre (the infrared harp is brilliant!) and hanging about town with the girls (minus the good-bye to Cherith.) You all are certainly not making it any easier for me to leave.
I spent yesterday afternoon roaming the city centre to shop and check some more things off my things-to-do-in-Glasgow-before-I-leave list. First of all, ceilidh/ball shoe shopping is not easy, especially for a girl who a)doesn't really like shopping and b)who has bad balance anyway and for whom wearing heels is a bad idea. I really don't know how these Scottish girls do it, plus they wear heels to uni all the time and walking on cobble stones and up and down hills. Anyway, I finally settled on a pair, so come Friday we'll see how it goes.
Something on my list of things to do was to buy a couple meters/yards (which ever measurement you prefer) of Hunter tartan to take back home and have Mom transform into a skirt or other wearable item. My plan has been slightly foiled however. Apparently it costs 45 pounds a meter. I'll have to think about whether it's really worth that to me or not. So far, I'm thinking not.
Onwards I went to the Modern Art Museum. Nothing particularly grabbed me. There was a collection of works by a woman who looks and geography and our relationship with it, which was pretty interesting, but mostly I was more fascinated by the architecture of the museum building itself. The iron ralings on the oval mezzanines are very attractive. Overall, it's worth a look. I always leave art museums with a new perspective on things, a new awareness of how I view the world. It's good to expand your mind in creative ways I feel. From there on I mostly just wandered about the city and took a few photos.
I'm not really a city girl (despite the fact that I'm probably doomed to having to live in some type of metropolitan centre with lots of international organizations like New York or Washington D.C. maybe even London, hopefully Geneva, because of my calling to save the developing world from injustice and inequality). I grew up in a pretty small Western Colorado town, although I realized early on that there was more to life than Grand Junction, CO. My idea of a good day usually involves at least some sort of sparsely inhabited space, good company and preferably horses. Don't get me wrong, I love the cultural opportunities and attractions of a big city, but at the end of the day I would prefer not be living in a concrete jungle full of people. I wasn't even really sure how I felt about Glasgow when I first got here. I immediately loved the contrast between old and new architecture here though. That's something that you just don't get in the States, especially in the west where a really old house has only been around for 100 years. Back east you might be able to find something from the colonial period, but if you think about that the University of Glasgow has been in existance for several hundred years longer than my country it gives it some perspective. Overall, I didn't really care for Glasgow much.
Glasgow has grown on me though. I love wandering around the city centre on a nice day and seeing the masses of people wandering along with me or sitting on the steps of the Concert Hall and listening to the street band du jour. I love looking down side streets to see old and new buildings creating a varied skyline. I love watching people sitting outside sipping their beverage of choice. I love walking the city and I love public transportation. I love it when people gather in the park on a nice day like it's some sort of event (I suppose sun in Glasgow is an event). I love sitting in the court yard of the University looking at all the spires and the cloisters and watching people roam through. It's a little sanctuary really. I love the cone hats that Kelvin and Wellington are usually porting. Since my first visit to Scotland when I was about 13, I have loved it here, but mostly for the dramatic landscapes of the country side. I have grown quite fond of Glasgow though and my old preference of Edinburgh (gasp!) over Glasgow has been overturned. Glasgow is the truly Scottish city--absolutely captivating and inviting whilst bearing the scars and grit from its rough life all at the same time. I love it for that.
In the beginning of the book 'Blue Like Jazz' (which I highly recommend, it's subtitle is 'Non-Religious thoughts on Christian Spirituality', he's very honest, but funny as well), Donald Miller writes about sometimes needing to watch someone love something before you could actually love it yourself. I think that's how I am about Glasgow.
I spent yesterday afternoon roaming the city centre to shop and check some more things off my things-to-do-in-Glasgow-before-I-leave list. First of all, ceilidh/ball shoe shopping is not easy, especially for a girl who a)doesn't really like shopping and b)who has bad balance anyway and for whom wearing heels is a bad idea. I really don't know how these Scottish girls do it, plus they wear heels to uni all the time and walking on cobble stones and up and down hills. Anyway, I finally settled on a pair, so come Friday we'll see how it goes.
Something on my list of things to do was to buy a couple meters/yards (which ever measurement you prefer) of Hunter tartan to take back home and have Mom transform into a skirt or other wearable item. My plan has been slightly foiled however. Apparently it costs 45 pounds a meter. I'll have to think about whether it's really worth that to me or not. So far, I'm thinking not.
Onwards I went to the Modern Art Museum. Nothing particularly grabbed me. There was a collection of works by a woman who looks and geography and our relationship with it, which was pretty interesting, but mostly I was more fascinated by the architecture of the museum building itself. The iron ralings on the oval mezzanines are very attractive. Overall, it's worth a look. I always leave art museums with a new perspective on things, a new awareness of how I view the world. It's good to expand your mind in creative ways I feel. From there on I mostly just wandered about the city and took a few photos.
I'm not really a city girl (despite the fact that I'm probably doomed to having to live in some type of metropolitan centre with lots of international organizations like New York or Washington D.C. maybe even London, hopefully Geneva, because of my calling to save the developing world from injustice and inequality). I grew up in a pretty small Western Colorado town, although I realized early on that there was more to life than Grand Junction, CO. My idea of a good day usually involves at least some sort of sparsely inhabited space, good company and preferably horses. Don't get me wrong, I love the cultural opportunities and attractions of a big city, but at the end of the day I would prefer not be living in a concrete jungle full of people. I wasn't even really sure how I felt about Glasgow when I first got here. I immediately loved the contrast between old and new architecture here though. That's something that you just don't get in the States, especially in the west where a really old house has only been around for 100 years. Back east you might be able to find something from the colonial period, but if you think about that the University of Glasgow has been in existance for several hundred years longer than my country it gives it some perspective. Overall, I didn't really care for Glasgow much.
Glasgow has grown on me though. I love wandering around the city centre on a nice day and seeing the masses of people wandering along with me or sitting on the steps of the Concert Hall and listening to the street band du jour. I love looking down side streets to see old and new buildings creating a varied skyline. I love watching people sitting outside sipping their beverage of choice. I love walking the city and I love public transportation. I love it when people gather in the park on a nice day like it's some sort of event (I suppose sun in Glasgow is an event). I love sitting in the court yard of the University looking at all the spires and the cloisters and watching people roam through. It's a little sanctuary really. I love the cone hats that Kelvin and Wellington are usually porting. Since my first visit to Scotland when I was about 13, I have loved it here, but mostly for the dramatic landscapes of the country side. I have grown quite fond of Glasgow though and my old preference of Edinburgh (gasp!) over Glasgow has been overturned. Glasgow is the truly Scottish city--absolutely captivating and inviting whilst bearing the scars and grit from its rough life all at the same time. I love it for that.
In the beginning of the book 'Blue Like Jazz' (which I highly recommend, it's subtitle is 'Non-Religious thoughts on Christian Spirituality', he's very honest, but funny as well), Donald Miller writes about sometimes needing to watch someone love something before you could actually love it yourself. I think that's how I am about Glasgow.
posted by Diana at 11:03 AM
1 Comments:
man alive.i totally just read the 1st few pages of that book.crazy.did you see the gnome made of cigarettes in the GOMA??amazing.i totally had that same thing about edinburgh, but now i reckon glasgow is way cooler, and a lot less full of english people.super doooooper blogging :)
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