Glasgow! Day One or How Meeting People on the Internet Isn't a Bad Thing

The bus ride up to Glasgow was uneventful if late and a little boring. I have to admit to being a tad nervous about meeting the people in Glasgow. Sure, I've "known" them for a long time, but have you ever tried to explain the concept of blogging to someone who isn't too familiar with the internet? It's impossible to not sound ridiculous. After trying to find a dignified way of explaining to the customs/immigration agent how I knew people in the UK I finally just sighed and said, "I met them on the internet." That terminator of a woman just stared at me, letting the ridiculousness of the statement sink in while I looked down at my shoes sheepishly. Then she stamped my passport, slid it back and forgot about me. Some people are just born into their jobs.

Anyway, obviously I'm alive and blogging, so they didn't turn out to be serial killers or anything. In fact, they're about the nicest people in the world. Even their underbite-plagued spaniel was charming.

Glasgow itself was really, really nice. I don’t know where I’d gotten the impression (ok, I do know – the news and that book about hooligans “How Soccer Explains the World”) that Glasgow was a seedy, dangerous place. Sure I’d seen pretty pictures of statues and historic buildings and things, but I’d always assumed that just outside the frame of the shot someone was being stabbed. But it really is nice, mostly clean, and I felt totally safe the whole time. In fact, I felt safer there than in most cities in Ameica. I wonder how those news reporters who write up those stories on violent Glasgow would react to a place like LA. Hell, North Portland might be too much for them. There were seemingly endless amounts of old stone buildings with either domes, ornate carvings or statues on top of them, wide pedestrian only streets and packs of people. I’m not sure I’ve seen a place with more walkers (er, that’s people walking, not those things pushed by the geriatric).

After unsuccessfully trying to watch a soccer match, I got back to the apartment I was staying at and tried in vain to stay up late enough to watch the US men's qualifier against Costa Rica. Though I fell asleep before it started, I got a hold of my mom via text message and talked on the phone to my cousin that I'll be staying with in Spain.