In limbo

I had trouble sleeping, and took a melatonin around 3:30 am. Finally I woke up around 9:30 am. I was feeling insecure and uncomfortable, like I didn’t belong here. I was having trouble figuring out what to wear. Where to eat? I zoomed in on Google Maps, just being a virtual tourist. I found what looked like a cool coffee shop with pastries nearby, so I decided I’d go there. But should I head out with my big camera, camera bag and stuff? Putting it all on and looking at myself in the mirror I just looked too tactical somehow. I decided I would leave that stuff behind for now and just use my iPhone.

So finally (finally) I headed out the door and down onto the street. I felt very conspicuous, but of course no one was paying any attention to me. I’m sure there’s a clinical term for what I was feeling (some kind of phobia/anxiety thing). But, ok, ok, just head down to the corner, turn right, and walk a couple of blocks, and eventually I found the coffee shop IRL that I had scoped out (kaf coffee). A Scottish guy was chatting about holidays with the barista (right, turns out most of the people here are in fact Scottish, and speak with Scottish accents!). But I made my presence known (politely), and then I was out the door with a cup of house coffee and a takeaway box containing the most amazing looking praline snail!

The coffee shop faced onto a park. I figured I could sit there (somewhere) and enjoy my treat. I sat down facing the Tesco Express across the street, but then realized the sun was right in my eyes. So I got up and walked around the park…tried sitting on another bench, but a grassy berm blocked my view of anything. So got up and kept walking around…finally found a spot I felt comfortable enough in, on the low concrete retaining wall for the grassy part of the park. I opened my takeaway box and began consuming that snail, interleaved with sips of coffee, and OMG it was so amazing! So I sat there and just tried to absorb the street vibe into my skin, something to help me feel like I belonged there.

Pastry and coffee consumed, I located a bin on the corner, and just threw that trash away like I lived there. Many young and beautiful and tattooed people about. I walked past a gothy/punky middle aged couple arguing loudly with each other, but in a Scottish accent, which just made it so charming! Then back into the AirBnb to wash up from that pastry, and reconfigure myself.

The hero’s journey

Ok, that was a success. Baby steps. It was a nice day, clouds in the sky, but the sun was shining too. I wanted to head downtown and see the Glasgow Cathedral and the adjacent Necropolis. But how to kit myself out camera wise? I was still uncomfortable with taking my big zoom lens waist belt bag arrangement. Again, looking at myself in the mirror it just seemed like too much, like, who is this guy? Is he on assignment on something? Visions of Denis Hopper in Apocalypse Now crossed my mind’s eye.

So, ok, just clip the camera on my Black Rapid strap with a small 40 mm MF f/1.2 lens. An equally small 15 mm MF f/4.5 lens fit in my vest pocket. This’ll work…

Once again I was down the stairs and out the door. The Kelvinhall subway station was literally just around the corner. I was getting more confident using my phone for the contactless payment thing on the turnstile gate. Down the steps onto the platform, wait, which side of the platform should I be waiting on? There’s what’s called an “inner” and “outer” ring (the Glasgow subway just runs a single ring route, which mostly makes things simple). I see an approachable seeming middle aged guy standing there, so I ask him “Hey, I want to go to Buchanan Street, which train do I get on?” And he replies something, and I swear to god I think it’s English, but whaaaaat? I say “What?”, and he says something again, and maybe I’m picking out a word or two (maybe), but this is some deep deep Scottish speech. But he’s friendly and wants to be helpful, and with some gesticulations and what not I finally figure out which line I should catch to get most directly back to downtown: I want the orange color coded “Outer Circle”.

The subway train arrives, and I, the helpful guy and others get on. These trains are really kind’ve funny, they seem almost like toy trains, kind’ve comically low and narrow. Really just narrow long tubes. The seating is just long benches facing each other running the length of the train (I always find that kind’ve awkward).

BUT regardless, the train gets downtown, I get off and I’m in the middle of it. My discomfort just melts away—a lot of busy people here, walking all over the place (as they will), with no doubt no small number of them being tourists just like me (although actually what I’m noticing is that most tourists here do not seem to be American)! So I just started walking along West George Street, and I was loving it! Unfortunately George Square was fenced off (some kind of reconstruction going on), but no mind! I walk for a bit behind a Scottish middle aged couple, both in traditional dress (he’s wearing a kilt). So awesome!

I was seeing if I could just kinda wing it towards the cathedral, and ended up wandering through this park with various interesting sculptures, including a faux riparian zone (looking it up tonight I learn this is Rottenrow Gardens, part of the University of Strathclyde Campus, built on the former site of the Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital).

Emerging from this charming public space I finally sighted the Cathedral ahead… (TBC).