THIS was a big one. Grace and I decided before embarking on this international trip to Ireland that we both had this extreme desire to see Scotland, specifically Glasgow. Seeing as we were so close, we knew we would regret it if we did not go while on this school trip.
I was honestly extremely proud of both of us. We bought our plane tickets and booked our hotel even before we left for Ireland. We then planned exactly what we wanted to do within our day-and-a-half-long trip. We both had certain bucket list things we wanted to hit.
We arrived in Glasgow around 9:30 in the morning on May 11 and got straight into our adventure. Our first stop was the University of Glasgow. This was actually a school I seriously looked at going to before deciding on Point Park, so I wanted to make sure to visit while I was able. We actually happened upon a museum on campus that I was not expecting, so that was a fun unexpected addition to our excursion.
As we went through the day, we realized that we were rather swiftly hitting a lot of the things on our list since we planned it out well. We even stopped at Greggs on the way to the Botanical Gardens where I was able to get some Irn Bru, a drink I had heard loads about in my Glasgow/Scotland research I did years ago.
The botanical gardens in Glasgow were something that I discovered shortly before our trip and I was attracted to them because they seemed accessible via transit and were completely free. Therefore, the gardens were added to the list!
I’m usually someone who doesn’t expect all that much from botanical gardens, but WOAH these actually were breathtaking. I especially enjoyed the rainforest areas. The koi fish they had also were entertaining to watch.
That night we had dinner at an Irish restaurant, ironically enough. They did have haggis and black pudding there, however, so I did indulge. Our first day ended in relaxation thanks to the hotel pool we had access to.
Our second day, we went to Pollock Country Park because I read somewhere that they had Highland Cows. And by jove they did. They were so close too!! Somehow as we went through the park, which was huge by the way, it just kept getting better. We only probably went through an eighth of the park, but we happened upon these gardens that were so whimsical and just kept going on and on and on in the best way possible. I wish we had more time there because there was just so much to see.
We then saw this house that looked straight out of Bridgerton. This was seriously just like breathtaking thing after breathtaking thing.
Glasgow, you will forever have my heart and I cannot wait to visit you again.
You felt like home (Pittsburgh) but with better public transit.
