Glasgow

The Glasgow Vegan Festival was on Saturday morning, and I took a bus across to a very compact event. Held in the Trades Hall, there were two levels of stalls and a section for talks. The lines were long, the food delicious, and the venue packed so tight with people it was hard to move or see much. How fabulous that it was so busy!

I met some very inspiring, creative and forward thinking people, all contributing to the world in a positive way. There seemed to be a lot of soap stands - is there some subliminal message I missed here? Some standout stalls were the non-alcoholic wines (no room in my suitcase!), Missy's Cupcakes, The Vegan Kind and another store similar to the Cruelty Free Store of Sydney. Everyone was very keen to discuss their methods and sources, and the general feeling was positivity, perhaps with a touch of claustrophobia.

After a couple of hours of conversations, food sampling, and shuffling past people in the upstairs room, I met Alex for an afternoon out in Glasgow.

First stop was the Necropolis, which is a Victorian cemetery on a hill, overlooking the Glasgow Cathedral. Most of the named stones were rich or well noted members of society, such as poets or merchants. We happened across the memorial stone for the man who wrote "Wee Willie Winkie", and suddenly I had verses floating through my head.

Many of the monuments were large and well-sculpted; a declaration of a person's monetary worth, even in death. Several were kept behind closed gates, with whole families listed together in one small cavern. Other than my morbid fascination with those lying on the hill, the view was quite special. Alex was very patient while I took photo after photo, and with several stops along the way, we made it to the Botanic Gardens.

Inside the greenhouses, I was quite uninspired to find a collection of ferns and bottlebrush from my own Australian backyard, but it was pleasant to be in a warm environment for a short while. Some of the display was quite interesting, but for the most part we wandered around alternating between pleasant warmth and humid sweltering.

There are several large murals around Glasgow, part of a council initiative called the City Centre Mural Trail. Some of the works are quite stunning, especially one of St Mungo at High Street, with a small bird. We passed quite a few of them on the way to the subway, walking on through parkland which was much prettier than the gardens themselves.

We had a late lunch at The 78, where Alex tried his first vegan burger. Not sure he was as enamoured with it as I was, but it was a good meal with good company. A couple of drams at the pub, and back to the bus station, it was already almost 9:30pm when I left. Again and again I'm reminded how lucky I am to have friends who make the effort to spend time with me while I'm here.

Glasgow is still a place I'd like to explore more, but that will have to wait until my return, which can't come soon enough.