Glasgow

After checking into the local backpacker's hostel it was already dark, but I decided to go on Lonely Planet's suggested walking tour anyway. The undisputed highlight was the Gallery of Modern Art. 

Outside the gallery, the statue of the Duke of Wellington is often hatted with an orange traffic cone, a thirty year long tradition that amuses the locals, if not the local authorities. 

Much later on the walking tour I saw another statue with a similar hat. This one looked like a wizard in the dim light and with the pointed hat that augmented his long beard. 

In the morning over breakfast I talked again with a young German couple I had met in Inverness (not be be confused with the middle-aged German couple who gave me a ride and who I also ran into twice in Scotland). Since there was now daylight, I checked out some of the buildings I had liked at night, such as this grand hall of the University of Glasgow, which was right by the hostel. 

Inside the University grounds are kept the Hunterian Museum and art gallery, the oldest public museum in Scotland. The museum holds formerly private history and art collections, a well curated history of Mary Queen of Scots as told in coins, and my favorite part: a curiosities collection from a doctor/midwife/anatomist who amassed things like conjoined animals and deformed human bones. 

Visible across a park is the magnificent Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. 

Constructed for the 1888 International Exhibition, the grand building holds an assortement of treasures. My favorites were paintings by Dali, sculptures by Rodin, and a remarkable Egyptian tomb. 

I walked back to the Modern Art Museum. Now that I was able to see the interior, I was most struck by the weird films being shown. Rhubarb Boy featured pterodactyls and creepy toys. Another film focused on a child while airplane radio traffic chatter played in the background. Modern art is always hit or miss for me, and the rest was mostly miss. 

Further across the city was the Glasgow Cathedral and its Necropolis. 

I noticed a memorial to Korean War Veterans. I also had seen some Korean restaurants. I bet I wouldn't have noticed at all except that I was so primed to see the Korean flag after spending a year there. 

Right by the Cathedral was the "World Religion Museum." At this point, after walking nearly the entire length of Glasgow, I was too tired to care about the exhibits, or possibly they would have too eclectic for my taste even under better circumstances. In any case, I did get to see Scotland's only Zen garden. 

I had the hardest time trying to figure out why I wrote 'Alice in Wonderland' in my blog notes before realizing that I had seen the film in 3D. I think my inability to remember this fact tells you all you need to know about the movie.