Sunday 10/23: A fun, but exhausting, day in Glasgow

Luckily for me, Crystal was still waiting for me when my bus arrived. Since we didn’t have each other’s phone numbers (and mine is a French phone, so it would probably be super expensive to call), it would have been extremely unfortunate if we hadn’t met up. But, it all worked out!

We walked towards her dorm, stopping for a delicious hot chocolate and muffin on the way, and arrived there about an hour later. It was nice to talk to someone from home—and to speak in English!! So much easier!

Photo: Crystal and her hot chocolate!

When we arrived at Crystal’s dorm, I met her friend, Megan, who lent me her air mattress! We inflated it pretty much immediately because I was exhausted and Crystal had only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before. We both passed out for about 1 1/2 hours, which definitely helped. I was still really tired when we woke up, but we wanted to go out for some tea before heading to the cinema to see The Three Musketeers. The tea shop was great—a tiny place tucked away in a little alley! We enjoyed some apple tea (it tasted just like hot apple cider!) and hummus with pita bread. Delicious!

From there, we headed down to the cinema to meet up with Crystal’s friend, Andy, and his flatmate (whose name I’ve forgotten). While we were talking about where we were from, I discovered that Andy’s flatmate had graduated from Connecticut College and knew a friend of mine who went there (Jessica Dewing-Hommes)! What a coincidence!!

Photo: Crystal and Me

The film wasn’t brilliant, but it was very entertaining and we enjoyed it. Afterwards, we met up with another friend, Richard, and we all headed to a pub for dinner. It was about a 30-minute walk and we ended up passing the Occupy encampment outside of the City Hall. I was thrilled to finally see one, since I’ve been reading lots about what’s been going on in the US.

Photo: Occupy Glasgow

Dinner was pretty good—I had a kidney bean and sweet potato burger, “chips” (French fries), and a pear cider. We spent a few hours swapping stories and laughing. Unfortunately, the tube closes early on Sunday evenings, so we had to walk all the way home. However, it was a lovely night and Richard, Crystal, and I enjoyed the hour-long walk. We were planning to play “The Chocolate Game” (something I’ve been hearing about from Crystal for years, but have yet to play), but Richard had to leave just as we got home. Instead, we went to visit Kate (another of Crystal’s friend), who lives in the next building over. We didn’t stay for long, though, because we were both absolutely exhausted and were falling asleep on Kate’s bed!