Glasgow - Day Four

Inside the cathedral.
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Today was another beautiful day in Scotland.

Karin had a stomach ache and decided to take a day off to rest, so I hit the center of Glasgow on my own. It was interesting to experience traveling solo for the first time, a bit intimidating, but it wasn't long before I got into the swing of it.

"It's very frustrating to not understand someone who is speaking the same language as you."

The problem lies in communication. It's very frustrating to not understand someone who is speaking the same language as you. But for the most part we conveyed our points with simple english and a variety of hand gestures.

Stain glass windows.
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The train to Glasgow central is about 30 minutes from Meaghans. I left quite late in the afternoon so I only hit a very small portion, figuring I'd save the rest for tomorrow. First off was the Meuseum of Religious Life & Art. This was absolutely facinating. And best of all - It was free! Every budget travelers dream. The exhibits ranged from Christianity to Hinduism to Australian Aboriginal Religon. I didn't have much time to look at everything, as I arrived about an hour before closing. The place was about a five minute walk from the train station, in Cathedral Square. It's a really beautiful cobblestone closed off area.

View of the Cathedral from the graveyard.
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After the Meuseum I went over to the Cathedral. It was absolutley amazing. They had an organ player and everything at the front, and St. Mungo's Tomb in the "basement". It was interesting to also note that most of the tourists were Polish - but I was mostly suprised at myself that I recognized that they were Polish when they were speaking. It was fun to chat with them in broken english, and after looking around the Cathedral a group of us headed up to the graveyard behind it.

At one point when I was walking through a clearing to get a good camera angle, I noticed some stonework under the grass. Moving some bits of moss with my feet I discoverd that I was actually standing on a tomb, and had been standing on many more before that. I'm not sure why they weren't maintained, but it was a bit creepy to realize that the entire field was a hidden graveyard. Some of the dates went as far back as the 1600's!

Hidden graves (this is where you could see them the most clearly)
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As we headed towards the main graveyard we passed by a family around a grave more open and new then all the others. This was very sad as I noticed that small toys had been placed around the tombstone and the inscription read that buried there was a baby.

The graveyard itself really is a spectacular thing. There is nothing like this in Canada, and no words to describe it. Bright green grass with little footpaths weaving through the gravestones on a little hill. Some of the tombs were very, very elaborite and must have cost a fortune to make, let alone reserve a spot to be placed here. Mostly the place was filled with tourists, but every so often we came across a family paying respects. The graveyard is huge, and we probably spent about a half hour walking around, maybe only covering at the most half of it.

Tombstones.
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The sun was starting to go down so I bid my Polish friends goodbye and headed back to the train. Tonight will be a quiet movie night and tomorrow we're going to go do more sight-seeing and go out dancing for the evening.

Thanks for your comments, and we miss you all a lot!