Wei Li's solo adventure to Glasgow - Part 2: Howzitgaun?

It's good to finally be in Glasgow after a long journey. The weather was cool...no, it was COLD...

The first thing to do is to get to my accommocation and park my luggage there. My sister and I went to the bus stop. Since we will be spending about 1 week here, we bought a weekly bus ticket that costs £13.50 per person for unlimited rides (for a week, of course).

The bus conductor said something to us, and I didn't managed to grasp what he said. Before I even replied "I beg your pardon", my sister already replied. Wow! She can understand the Glaswegian English accent?

We arrived at the Buchanan's Bus Station and being lazy to walk and wanted to maximize the bus ticket's worth we decided to take another bus that will take us right to our accomodation.

It was weird, after a while in the bus, we felt that we were on the way back to the airport again. My sister suggested that we get off the bus, wherever we may be and just to take the taxi to the hostel.

But when we alighted from the bus, my sister saw a familiar landmark..and thank God it was no too far away from where we were.



We saw Jury's Inn from far, and the place we stayed is Euro Hostel. This is a very practical place to stay for travellers. It's cheap, has a clean bathroom, comfy double decker beds (sharing with my sister) and pay TV.



Sorry for the unclear picture. It was taken with my handy camera phone at night in the hostel room. As you may have guessed it, the room is dimly lighted.

So, about the TV.. You need to put in £1 in the TV coin box compartment and your TV will turn on for 15 hours. If you decided to turn it off after 3 hours of TV time, then be prepared to say bye bye to the remaining 12 hours as well. There is no CNN, no Discovery Channel, etc, etc. It's purely 5 UK local channels and most of the programs does not interest me.

There is no need for an air cond, not a fan in our room. It was almost winter time in November 2008, so it does not really matter. There is heater in the room, but the heater is not strong enough..cannot control it either..But I am the kind of person who rather feel cold than to be hot =)

There is no fridge in the rooms, but residents are allowed to use the common fridge in the pantry. Yeah, there is a common pantry and hostellites are allowed to cook their own meal if they wish.



This is the common dining room and the pantry is not visible in this photo.

Oh, we did buy some of our own food stuff and we depended on the outside air temperature to "preserve" our food.



My favourite pure premium orange juice, some brussel sprout at the background...they didn't go bad at all!

So, this is so much for the place where I stayed with my sister. It's cheap, provides all the basic needs and is located at a strategic place. After all, visitors would spend most of their time outdoors and will only come back to clean up and sleep, yeah?

WL

Wei Li's solo adventure to Glasgow - Part 1: The Quest to find the Cheapest Ticket and on the way there

Mid of November 2008, I went to Glasgow to "bring my sister back"..hehe..

Actually it is a multipurpose trip. It's for me to go for a holiday in Glasgow (the last time I was in UK, I only sleep a night there and there was no chance to explore the city), for me to help my sister to bring back some of her things, for shopping (the best part of the trip!) and etc etc...

It's a solo adventure without LK =P

It was sort of a last minute decision to go to Glasgow, due to my health condition 2 or 3 weeks earlier. After making decison to "just do it", I was busy looking for the best priced ticket.

Glasgow being a less popular overseas holiday destination, there was no direct flight to Glasgow Airport from KLIA. I went to a few airline website to check for cheapest tickets (MAS, Thai Airways, KLM, AirFrance, SIA, Emirates, and a few others which I have forgotten the names). So, guess which one offers the best rates?

I did try to ask travel agents, but surprisingly, I found that KLM offers the lowest price. Bought my online ticket and also called the local KLM ticket office to ensure that my seat is really booked. I will be flying with MAS airline for about 15 hours to Schipol Internatiol Airport in Amsterdam and will transit for about 3 hours before flying with KLM to Glasgow International Airport.

During the flight to Amsterdam, it was a really pleasant journey. I get the whole row to myself and the flight is not even half full. I watched Mamma Mia for the 2nd time during the flight, as there were not many movies that interest me. I also try to catch as much sleep as possible as I will be arriving in Glasgow at about 10.30am in the morning.

During my sleep, I did wake up a few times due to dehydration and asked for some fruit juice. The outside temperature was the lowest when I was flying over Russia and the air inside the plane is really dry.

I arrived in Schipol airport at 5am plus local time. Malaysia is 7 hours ahead of Amsterdam. This is the only shot I took of the airport with my handy 2.0 megapixel handphone, "passed down" from LK.



How did I pass 3 hours? Window shopping, reading newspaper, listening to my MP3s... Then I was thirsty..Went to McD and bought a bottle of Lipton's Iced Lemon Tea for EUR 3! It's pricey, even for the locals I would think.

Before going to the departure gate, I went to the KLM's self check in kiosk, confirmed my check in status and reselected my seat. At the gate, there were so many people sitting around the walkway. There is no chair for passengers to sit before they are allowed to go into the departure hall. It's quite an eye sore actually..And there were so many people queuing up.

Thank God it was a short flight, and it was a nice one as well. When I was already in the terminal and was walking into the luggage collection place, I felt very cold. So I went into the ladies and put on another shirt. Thank God once again, my sister is coming to "pick" me and bring me a warm jacket.


WL