Glasgow

When we were planning our little Scottish jaunt, we had a choice: only see one city (Edinburgh, according to friends and family, was the must-see), or shorten our time to see both Edinburgh and Glasgow!? Since the train ride between the two was only about an hour, we opted for BOTH.

Although I do not regret spending time in both cities, I do want to acknowledge that we were only in Glasgow for a hot minute, and for that period of time, the weather was pretty gloomy.

Luckily, our AirBnB right on the water was within walking distance of some fantastic places to hide from the rain and, of course, eat!

Our first destination was a little sandwich shop called Roast. A small, unassuming storefront with a chalkboard menu, we had very little warning that our minds were about to be blown. This place was like an old-school deli, where every single ingredient is high quality, thus coming together to form a superior sandwich. The boys destroyed their cheese-smothered sandwiches faster than I could take a picture, and both ended up ordering a second round to go!

We trotted back to the flat for a little R&R-time as the rain continued to come down. I did some research for the rest our trip and hunted for possible events to attend that evening.  I stumbled upon a place called Stravaigin well-known for their Scottish food, but also for their cool events and in-depth interpretations of cuisines from other parts of  the world using Scottish ingredients (Stravaig literally means “to wander”).

We chose the most interesting things on the menu – squid-ink sliders, haggis, and some steamed mussels. The most picky of the three of us, Kyle was skeptical, to say the least.

The squid ink sliders were good flavor-wise, but the bread was awfully dry and hard to get down without a sip of the ol’ cocktail. The haggis was suprisingly fantastic, though I always favor mashed potatos over whatever they are served with. But the mussels. The MUSSELS you guys! Cooked to perfection in a tomato-y, olive oil-y broth. Honestly, you could have given me the broth and some bread and I would have been happy as a clam.

If there’s ever any general travel advice I can give you, it’s this: talk to your wait staff! Talk to your AirBnB hosts, and talk to random people you meet at the pub. They all have a wealth of information on places you’ll never find on TripAdvisor.

Throughout dinner, we casually chatted with our waitress. When it came time for the check, we asked her if there were any breweries nearby that we should check out. She gave us some vague-yet-helpful directions through a park, over a bridge, and down some stairs to a little brewery called INN DEEP located in a tunnel. Seriously.

Even though the beer was good, the atmosphere was distractingly better. I tried to take pictures, but with only the neon sign and few bulbs to light the way, it was pretty dark in there.

The next morning, we grabbed brunch down the street at a place our host recommended called The Steamie. The boys had breakfast sandwiches and I ordered a smoked salmon salad – all were worthy of ordering again.

Chauffer’ed by a cab driver with the thickest Scottish accent I’ve ever encountered, we trompsed back to the airport to reunite with Joe and Lauren and continue our Irish journey from Dublin.