Days 129-133: The Genuine Scots

The Genuine Scots

Days 129 – 133

May 6 – 10

Glasgow, Scotland

“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.”

-Yogi Bera

In theory, a long-distance night bus kills two birds with one stone: it saves the cost of a night in a hostel and large distances are traversed without losing waking hours.  The problem is that sleep is assumed to be possible during the journey.  So far, save for a few exceptional cases, I have yet to get a good night’s rest aboard a bus, no matter how far the seats recline. 

I arrived at the Glasgow bus station as the sun was breaking the horizon.  It was an eight-hour span from London, and the necessary walk was a leg-stretching relief.  I wandered down an empty downtown street towards the River Clyde, stopping at the cheapest and most centrally located hostel in the city.  Before arriving, I made a connection on Couchsurfing, and although he could not start hosting me until the next night, he wanted to hang out later this day.  To occupy myself, I made a half-day tour around some of the city’s sites. 

Now firmly in an English-speaking part of the world again, connecting with locals was easier; in fact, far easier than it is in the States.  Scotland has been voted among the most welcoming, the friendliest, and the most beautiful countries in the world.  While I would have to wait until next week to test the latter of this triad, I witnessed the truth of the first and penultimate within my premier day in Scotland. 

Picture not related, but I saw this in a restaurant.
We need to step up our sign game to Scotland's level.

Also not related, but this is a famous statue in front of the Modern Art Museum
in Glasgow.  This is the Equestrian statue of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of
Wellington.  It has been a Glasgow tradition dating back to the first half of the
1980s to place a traffic cone atop his head.  While it serves as a symbol of the
lighthearted Glaswegian culture, city officials have urged citizens to cease coning
the Duke.  Each year, the city spends about 10,000 British Pounds removing it.

Mark, my Couchsurfing host, met me at George Square.  When we walked back to his car, I was surprised to find three other Couchsurfers there: one from Poland, one from Vietnam, and one from Serbia (it’s like the start of a bad joke).  Mark couldn’t host me tonight because he was already hosting the other three in his small apartment!  As we wandered the town for the rest of the day, Mark’s magnetic personality was immediately evident.  Not only did he create a great social dynamic for our group, but he seemed to know everyone in the south side of Glasgow, all of whom were also friendly to us.

Couchsurfing is a weird place.  But it's nice to be among good company.

The next three days I spent in Glasgow were reminiscent of the first: everyone I met was friendly.  It was like being caught in a reality TV show where they wanted to see what Americans do when people start being nice to them.  On my fourth day there, I voiced this observation to an older couple from London who often visited Scotland: “It’s one of the reasons we love coming up here.  And it’s not that they are just friendly; Scots are very genuine people.  They feel no need to hide their personality, and this is what makes them so open to others.”  Although I’m not a fan of cities, I would be more than happy to come back to Glasgow in the future.  

Look at this beautiful man.  Someone even drew a picture of him, which is
framed in this shot (fortunately, I was not the artist).