March 2, 2020
WHAT A TRIP. I had some of the worst traveling moments I've ever had, but I also had some good times. Let's just jump right in:)
Ever since the summer, I think like June or July, I was really excited about Lana del Rey's European tour. Sooooo excited. She is my absolute favorite singer ever, and has been for a while. So you could say that I was at the very least mildly hyped that she would be here at the same time I'm here, for a reasonable price. My friend from Rocky, Danielle, and I decided to go to the show in Glasgow because it was the best price and time for both of us to be here. If you read my post last week, you'll know that she came to visit me first before heading over to the UK to visit friends of hers she made while studying abroad there a couple years ago. So after she left me, she spent about five days with her friends before we were supposed to meet up in Glasgow to go to the concert. Last week, Lana del Rey cancelled the EU tour because she was sick, and though I feel really bad for her and hope she gets better, I was just a little disappointed. I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to see her again. I decided I'd go to Glasgow anyway since I had already bought plane and train tickets, got a room at another hostel (Danielle went to London instead so I got another room at another hostel; this will be important in a second:)), and was excited to go.
So I flew into Edinburgh, then took a bus straight from the airport to Glasgow. The bus was super cool. It was, of course, a doubledecker. So I, of course, sat on top because what a neat opportunity. I had almost finished my book on the plane, so I pulled it out to read while on the bus. I quickly finished it, then sat, looking listlessly out the window while listening to music. It was raining, but from what I could see, the countryside was really pretty.
Once I was in Glasgow, I decided to buy some things that I had been meaning to buy, like bar shampoo and conditioner from Lush (side note, it's amazing, it's going to make traveling light much easier in the future) and an umbrella. I made my way to the hostel, where I had a quick bite to eat in the pub downstairs, then checked into my room. I had booked a 14 bed female room, but it did have an ensuite, so there were pros and cons. I left to walk around the area a little bit, then stopped at Tesco to get my absolute favorite drink, Kopparburg mixed berry cider. Along with my drinks, I decided to get some food, so I found chocolate chip rolls, then got a pen and a sudoku book since I had finished my book already. I had my treat in the hostel's communal kitchen and had such a good time remembering the last time I was in the UK, enjoying the same snacks I used to have on the bus to the next location. I ended up going up to bed around 10:20 that night, and set my alarm for early the next day so I could sight-see a little before my train left.
At 12:30, the whole room was woken up by three girls who came in from their night out. For the next 40 minutes, we in bed had to listen to them talk loudly on the phone to a friend of their's, get ready for bed clumsily, and, in the case of one girl, cough wetly. Finally they made it in to bed, though one girl on a top bunk kept talking to the person on the phone. The older lady sleeping under her got up angrily and kept saying "earphones!". She got back into bed, and about ten minutes later, there was a gagging sound and then a distant splash. I sat up and, along with the older lady, discovered that the drunk girl in the top bunk had puked off the end of her bed, getting her vomit on the floor, the bed under hers, and the lower bunk of the bed nearby. Of course the older lady and the girl in the other bed got up and went down to reception to see if we could get a new room. In the meantime, the puke girl laid back down and told her phone friend that she had thrown up.
During this time, I was hurriedly googling the symptoms of coronavirus just to make sure throwing up wasn't one. Like I knew that it's like the flu and that the girls were drunk, but I was terrified of being thrown up on. I was on a lower bunk along the wall between where the toilets were and where the sinks were located. If she or another girl got sick again, and decided to make it to a receptacle, I would be right in the puke pathway. The ladies who had gone downstairs came back up and said a person would be coming in to clean up, then starting getting the last two empty beds ready for them to sleep. The Scottish lady that came up to clean the puke had a very strong accent, but I was able to understand what she was saying. I wish I hadn't though. Here is what I learned from her: she has a sore back and can't bend over (she dropped a towel and spread the mess with her foot, not clearing it, just spreading it), and that it looked like cheesecake. Thank you to all who read that because now I don't have to keep that inside anymore😂
We all got settled again, but I was so worried that I was going to be thrown up on I had a hard time getting to sleep. Puke girl didn't though, but her phone friend didn't know that and kept talking to her. For probably half an hour he kept saying hello then typing loudly on the phone, maybe hoping to wake her up. I was just about to tell him that she was asleep when one of the other drunk girls started gagging. Good thing she was in a bottom bunk because she got right up and rushed to the sinks.
As you can imagine, I wanted to be out of there as soon as I could, so after sleeping for a few hours, I left around 7 to check out. I had the buffet breakfast, and was on my way to see more of Glasgow. The first place I walked to was called the Glasgow Green, and it's a large park along the river with the People's Palace. I just had to see it. According to my tourist map, part of the attraction of the palace is that it was winter gardens, so I was excited to see what they were growing. To my disappointment, the gates were closed and the signs said that because of the inclement weather, the gardens were closed. As you can see in the pictures, the weather was wonderful😂
From there, I headed to the cathedral. What I was excited about with the cathedral was the necropolis next door. It's huge and you might recognize it from several movies, including one of the Batman movies (I don't really know any of them so I can't tell you which one).
After meandering through the necropolis, I walked through a university campus (or maybe more, I thought it was University of Glasgow, though there seemed to be a couple different colleges next to each other) to the City Chambers.
At that point, I wanted lunch (it was only 10:45😂) so I headed back in the direction of the hostel where I had left my bag, and found a pub that had just opened. I was the only customer the whole time I was there. But they were open so it was only half weird. I got a grilled cheese sandwich and a cider. It was a really cool place and was decorated really nicely.
After grabbing my bag from the hostel, I headed up to the train station and got my ticket, though my train didn't leave for another couple hours, so I went to a Tim Horton's (for my first time!) and had a chai tea while doing sudoku puzzles until it was time for my train to depart. I took the train down to Manchester, though my friend Danielle and the friends she was staying with picked me up at the Preston stop because it was closer to where they lived. The house was super cool! There were books everywhere and it was pretty old, built in 1898. They also had a dog, who looked like a little white fox😭
On Sunday, I had tea and crumpets for breakfast. They hated me for saying so, but a crumpet (to me) was just a tall English muffin😂 Before I left, they made a (lamb) roast, and I had all the vegetables, plus the Yorkshire pudding. Incidentally, Yorkshire pudding isn't pudding at all- it's like a pancake in the shape of a chef's hat.
I caught a bus out of Burnley to Manchester train station. The bus company that provides buses in that area is called WitchWay because the area used to be known for burning witches, and each bus is named after one of these burned individuals! I tried to sit on the upper level of bus, but it was about ten minutes in before I got super carsick (or is it bussick?) so I went back downstairs to sit on the bottom level. Thankfully I didn't throw up in the UK, unlike my unfortunate hostel roommates. From the train station, I took a bus to the airport and got there around 4 pm. It took me about 20 minutes to find and walk to my terminal, but I still had about an hour left before my plane boarded. BUT OH MY GOD. Sorry mom for that but I could use much stronger language. The security lines were taking forever to move. There was easily 150-200 people in line waiting to get through security, but I wasn't too worried because in my experience, the line moves along fairly quickly, regardless of how many people are there. But BOY was I wrong. They had three walk through machines, but our baggage was scanned in two lines. And barely anything made it through the machine without being flagged. So even though I had done my walk through part, I still waited about 40 minutes for my bag to come through. They had two people doing the in-person check for all of those bags. And they were taking absolutely everything out. The boarding on my flight closed at 5:30, I didn't have my phone because it was in the box that had gotten pulled, so I was desperately and periodically asking strangers for the time. At 5:25, a really nice girl around my age told me to just tell one of the security people and they would bring my bag up. I found a guy and told him what my situation was and he told me that I should have gotten there earlier. I though he was kidding at first, but then he didn't smile. I told him that I'd been there for about two hours already (a little bit of an exaggeration, but when they suggest that you get there two hours before your flight leaves and I was still at security an hour and half later, I think saying what I could to get out of there sooner was called for), and he told me I hadn't. I almost cried; I could not be a lawyer, arguing professionally😂 I think he could see that, so he said he'd see what he could do, then took another five minutes to get back behind the counter. He wanted to see my boarding pass, but it was on my phone, in the box. He grumpily went to get it, and I was able to convince him I wasn't lying. He had one of the two security workers look through my bag (it was my sewing scissors that had set off the machine), and then I was free. I ran to my boarding gate and got there before the gate closed, so I made my flight. And I appreciate the people who helped me: the girl, the security checker, and the grumpy man, even though he made me cry😂 If I'm ever to fly out of Manchester again, I will be there four hours early. And anyone planning on using that airport, know that they are big sticklers. I know that they had a terrorist attack recently there, and I appreciate added security because it makes me safe, and I have nothing to hide. I just wish I had known how slow they would be, and I would have planned to be there earlier so as not to make myself or those around me feel rushed.
Anyway, I got back to Luxembourg, and I ended up taking the right bus but on the wrong end of its route, so it took me an extra hour to get home. BUT FINALLY I was there!
This weekend, I went for a walk through the woods near the house. It was really cool, and there are several trails you can pick from. I chose a short one because it was supposed to rain in the next hour, and I was able to get back before it started raining, so I timed it perfectly. Along one of the routes, they have fitness equipment at random stops along the trail. I think my next goal is to find each one (there are four) like a treasure hunt! I also read outside this last Saturday, it was warm and dry enough, so that was really nice. And today, Tuesday, I accidentally knocked the car's right side mirror off, so that's great. It's been a great day😂😭 I didn't total the car, and it was easily fixed so it's not the end of the world. If I say it enough times, it'll come true.
In April, I had planned on taking a trip to Italy, where I would go to all the touristy cities, and I was especially excited about going to Pompeii. But if you have been paying only a little bit of attention to current events, the coronavirus has completely shut Italy down, so I'm not going to go there anymore. My new plan is to go to Prague and Budapest around my rehearsal schedule, so I'm super excited to go there! And maybe I'll do some stay-cation type stuff for the first weekend. Brussels is only a two hour train ride away....
Alright, have a good evening! I'll post again in the next couple of weeks!
Ever since the summer, I think like June or July, I was really excited about Lana del Rey's European tour. Sooooo excited. She is my absolute favorite singer ever, and has been for a while. So you could say that I was at the very least mildly hyped that she would be here at the same time I'm here, for a reasonable price. My friend from Rocky, Danielle, and I decided to go to the show in Glasgow because it was the best price and time for both of us to be here. If you read my post last week, you'll know that she came to visit me first before heading over to the UK to visit friends of hers she made while studying abroad there a couple years ago. So after she left me, she spent about five days with her friends before we were supposed to meet up in Glasgow to go to the concert. Last week, Lana del Rey cancelled the EU tour because she was sick, and though I feel really bad for her and hope she gets better, I was just a little disappointed. I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to see her again. I decided I'd go to Glasgow anyway since I had already bought plane and train tickets, got a room at another hostel (Danielle went to London instead so I got another room at another hostel; this will be important in a second:)), and was excited to go.
So I flew into Edinburgh, then took a bus straight from the airport to Glasgow. The bus was super cool. It was, of course, a doubledecker. So I, of course, sat on top because what a neat opportunity. I had almost finished my book on the plane, so I pulled it out to read while on the bus. I quickly finished it, then sat, looking listlessly out the window while listening to music. It was raining, but from what I could see, the countryside was really pretty.
Once I was in Glasgow, I decided to buy some things that I had been meaning to buy, like bar shampoo and conditioner from Lush (side note, it's amazing, it's going to make traveling light much easier in the future) and an umbrella. I made my way to the hostel, where I had a quick bite to eat in the pub downstairs, then checked into my room. I had booked a 14 bed female room, but it did have an ensuite, so there were pros and cons. I left to walk around the area a little bit, then stopped at Tesco to get my absolute favorite drink, Kopparburg mixed berry cider. Along with my drinks, I decided to get some food, so I found chocolate chip rolls, then got a pen and a sudoku book since I had finished my book already. I had my treat in the hostel's communal kitchen and had such a good time remembering the last time I was in the UK, enjoying the same snacks I used to have on the bus to the next location. I ended up going up to bed around 10:20 that night, and set my alarm for early the next day so I could sight-see a little before my train left.
At 12:30, the whole room was woken up by three girls who came in from their night out. For the next 40 minutes, we in bed had to listen to them talk loudly on the phone to a friend of their's, get ready for bed clumsily, and, in the case of one girl, cough wetly. Finally they made it in to bed, though one girl on a top bunk kept talking to the person on the phone. The older lady sleeping under her got up angrily and kept saying "earphones!". She got back into bed, and about ten minutes later, there was a gagging sound and then a distant splash. I sat up and, along with the older lady, discovered that the drunk girl in the top bunk had puked off the end of her bed, getting her vomit on the floor, the bed under hers, and the lower bunk of the bed nearby. Of course the older lady and the girl in the other bed got up and went down to reception to see if we could get a new room. In the meantime, the puke girl laid back down and told her phone friend that she had thrown up.
During this time, I was hurriedly googling the symptoms of coronavirus just to make sure throwing up wasn't one. Like I knew that it's like the flu and that the girls were drunk, but I was terrified of being thrown up on. I was on a lower bunk along the wall between where the toilets were and where the sinks were located. If she or another girl got sick again, and decided to make it to a receptacle, I would be right in the puke pathway. The ladies who had gone downstairs came back up and said a person would be coming in to clean up, then starting getting the last two empty beds ready for them to sleep. The Scottish lady that came up to clean the puke had a very strong accent, but I was able to understand what she was saying. I wish I hadn't though. Here is what I learned from her: she has a sore back and can't bend over (she dropped a towel and spread the mess with her foot, not clearing it, just spreading it), and that it looked like cheesecake. Thank you to all who read that because now I don't have to keep that inside anymore😂
We all got settled again, but I was so worried that I was going to be thrown up on I had a hard time getting to sleep. Puke girl didn't though, but her phone friend didn't know that and kept talking to her. For probably half an hour he kept saying hello then typing loudly on the phone, maybe hoping to wake her up. I was just about to tell him that she was asleep when one of the other drunk girls started gagging. Good thing she was in a bottom bunk because she got right up and rushed to the sinks.
As you can imagine, I wanted to be out of there as soon as I could, so after sleeping for a few hours, I left around 7 to check out. I had the buffet breakfast, and was on my way to see more of Glasgow. The first place I walked to was called the Glasgow Green, and it's a large park along the river with the People's Palace. I just had to see it. According to my tourist map, part of the attraction of the palace is that it was winter gardens, so I was excited to see what they were growing. To my disappointment, the gates were closed and the signs said that because of the inclement weather, the gardens were closed. As you can see in the pictures, the weather was wonderful😂
From there, I headed to the cathedral. What I was excited about with the cathedral was the necropolis next door. It's huge and you might recognize it from several movies, including one of the Batman movies (I don't really know any of them so I can't tell you which one).
After meandering through the necropolis, I walked through a university campus (or maybe more, I thought it was University of Glasgow, though there seemed to be a couple different colleges next to each other) to the City Chambers.
At that point, I wanted lunch (it was only 10:45😂) so I headed back in the direction of the hostel where I had left my bag, and found a pub that had just opened. I was the only customer the whole time I was there. But they were open so it was only half weird. I got a grilled cheese sandwich and a cider. It was a really cool place and was decorated really nicely.
After grabbing my bag from the hostel, I headed up to the train station and got my ticket, though my train didn't leave for another couple hours, so I went to a Tim Horton's (for my first time!) and had a chai tea while doing sudoku puzzles until it was time for my train to depart. I took the train down to Manchester, though my friend Danielle and the friends she was staying with picked me up at the Preston stop because it was closer to where they lived. The house was super cool! There were books everywhere and it was pretty old, built in 1898. They also had a dog, who looked like a little white fox😭
On Sunday, I had tea and crumpets for breakfast. They hated me for saying so, but a crumpet (to me) was just a tall English muffin😂 Before I left, they made a (lamb) roast, and I had all the vegetables, plus the Yorkshire pudding. Incidentally, Yorkshire pudding isn't pudding at all- it's like a pancake in the shape of a chef's hat.
I caught a bus out of Burnley to Manchester train station. The bus company that provides buses in that area is called WitchWay because the area used to be known for burning witches, and each bus is named after one of these burned individuals! I tried to sit on the upper level of bus, but it was about ten minutes in before I got super carsick (or is it bussick?) so I went back downstairs to sit on the bottom level. Thankfully I didn't throw up in the UK, unlike my unfortunate hostel roommates. From the train station, I took a bus to the airport and got there around 4 pm. It took me about 20 minutes to find and walk to my terminal, but I still had about an hour left before my plane boarded. BUT OH MY GOD. Sorry mom for that but I could use much stronger language. The security lines were taking forever to move. There was easily 150-200 people in line waiting to get through security, but I wasn't too worried because in my experience, the line moves along fairly quickly, regardless of how many people are there. But BOY was I wrong. They had three walk through machines, but our baggage was scanned in two lines. And barely anything made it through the machine without being flagged. So even though I had done my walk through part, I still waited about 40 minutes for my bag to come through. They had two people doing the in-person check for all of those bags. And they were taking absolutely everything out. The boarding on my flight closed at 5:30, I didn't have my phone because it was in the box that had gotten pulled, so I was desperately and periodically asking strangers for the time. At 5:25, a really nice girl around my age told me to just tell one of the security people and they would bring my bag up. I found a guy and told him what my situation was and he told me that I should have gotten there earlier. I though he was kidding at first, but then he didn't smile. I told him that I'd been there for about two hours already (a little bit of an exaggeration, but when they suggest that you get there two hours before your flight leaves and I was still at security an hour and half later, I think saying what I could to get out of there sooner was called for), and he told me I hadn't. I almost cried; I could not be a lawyer, arguing professionally😂 I think he could see that, so he said he'd see what he could do, then took another five minutes to get back behind the counter. He wanted to see my boarding pass, but it was on my phone, in the box. He grumpily went to get it, and I was able to convince him I wasn't lying. He had one of the two security workers look through my bag (it was my sewing scissors that had set off the machine), and then I was free. I ran to my boarding gate and got there before the gate closed, so I made my flight. And I appreciate the people who helped me: the girl, the security checker, and the grumpy man, even though he made me cry😂 If I'm ever to fly out of Manchester again, I will be there four hours early. And anyone planning on using that airport, know that they are big sticklers. I know that they had a terrorist attack recently there, and I appreciate added security because it makes me safe, and I have nothing to hide. I just wish I had known how slow they would be, and I would have planned to be there earlier so as not to make myself or those around me feel rushed.
Anyway, I got back to Luxembourg, and I ended up taking the right bus but on the wrong end of its route, so it took me an extra hour to get home. BUT FINALLY I was there!
This weekend, I went for a walk through the woods near the house. It was really cool, and there are several trails you can pick from. I chose a short one because it was supposed to rain in the next hour, and I was able to get back before it started raining, so I timed it perfectly. Along one of the routes, they have fitness equipment at random stops along the trail. I think my next goal is to find each one (there are four) like a treasure hunt! I also read outside this last Saturday, it was warm and dry enough, so that was really nice. And today, Tuesday, I accidentally knocked the car's right side mirror off, so that's great. It's been a great day😂😭 I didn't total the car, and it was easily fixed so it's not the end of the world. If I say it enough times, it'll come true.
In April, I had planned on taking a trip to Italy, where I would go to all the touristy cities, and I was especially excited about going to Pompeii. But if you have been paying only a little bit of attention to current events, the coronavirus has completely shut Italy down, so I'm not going to go there anymore. My new plan is to go to Prague and Budapest around my rehearsal schedule, so I'm super excited to go there! And maybe I'll do some stay-cation type stuff for the first weekend. Brussels is only a two hour train ride away....
Alright, have a good evening! I'll post again in the next couple of weeks!
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