Glasgow

The sleeper bus wasn't as horrendous as I was expecting. Having had to sleep in a semi-foetal position in quite a few tight and creaky bunk beds over the last few weeks, I could actually fully stretch out in my bus bunk. OK, so it was barely 6 inches wider than me and the base of the next bunk was just over a handspan away from my face, but at least I didn't have to have my knees up under my chin. Sleeping on my side in the bunk, which I could just barely do, was out of the question as the motion of the bus rocked me back and forth violently enough to prevent me from sleeping, so I had to lie on my back the whole way. I got a few good periods of sleep though, but I am less than perky writing this.

George Square is a nice place in the sun to just sit and be. Having got to Glasgow even earlier than scheduled, it was nice to have somewhere to be while everything was shut and watch all the suckers heading off to work. I ate a macaroni and cheese pie, which was incredible, as always. After that, I wandered round, gradually making my way up to Glashow cathedral and its Necropolis. Peaceful, as graveyards tend to be, and glorious in the sunshine, I was in awe of the vast wealth on show through the monuments that live there. And they really do deserve to be called monuments; complex, beautiful and downright bloody huge, I've not seen any like them anywhere else.

The cathedral from the Necropolis

One of the monuments

Following the footpath round to the top of the hill, the closely-packed plots that live there came into view, reminding me vaguely of Stonehenge in its remote, almost out-of-place location. Looming over the city centre is the tallest monument there; the column dedicated to John Knox, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland and all-round Pope pest, is visible from town to be enjoyed by all who live there. Everybody loves a nice monument, right?

At the top

Glasgow city centre has approximately 5 million Greggs. The Heritage of Scotland shop has a traditional tartan bikini on display in the window. The Chippy Doon the Lane charges almost a tenner for half a normal portion of cod and underdone chips. A very angry terrier-type bloke spent quite a while telling me how shit Scotland were at football and how sick of it he was, ignoring the fact that we were watching them beating Croatia at the time and went on to win. I had a few drinks with Natasha and Sam, a couple of Canadian girls who were staying in the same hostel as me. They were from Saskatoon in the province of Saskatchewan, the capital of which is a place called Regina. GUFFAW.

I shared a room with two Germans, a Spanish guy and a couple of lads from Harrow. I had a drink with Kareem and Amir in the hostel bar who were both very nice, although Amir did make a bit too much of a deal of the fact that we had all got the Megabus from Victoria on Thursday night. Was it really such an inconceivable coincidence that three people who live vaguely in the same region of the country had travelled from the main coach station in London to a city 8 whole hours away? It wasn't even the same coach.