Warning. This first part is me complaining about a hard day. If you’re not interested, skip to the end with the pictures after everything works out, as it always does.
I’m afraid of busses. Not afraid of them hitting me, but afraid of riding them and having them not take me where I want to go. I understand trains- you buy a ticket, it’s on a track, there’s usually a map so you know where it’s going, the connections are easy to figure out. But a bus could go anywhere! I don’t know how people figure it out! When you go to a bus station, it doesn’t tell you where that bus is going! They get stuck in traffic so they may or may not come when they say they will. I don’t know how much a bus ticket costs, and it’s strange to me to pay on the bus.
So my options for getting to my Air B&B were to walk 30 minutes with my suitcase or to catch a bus and arrive in 15. I was torn. I started walking and about half way there, after seeing 2 of the busses I could catch go by with signs saying day pass for 4.50, I got on one and bought a day pass.
My host was as delightful as her flat. It had big old heavy doors that needed old keys, the living room was bright and my little room had no windows which promised a deep, long sleep. I was offered a cup of tea or coffee, given the wifi password, instructions for the shower and then she was off for an appointment.
I looked up how to get to the Apple Store and found that it was very close to the train station I had just come from. I went back down the street and after waiting 20 minutes, caught the same bus going in the opposite direction to go back to the city center, a little excited about the possibility of getting a new expensive phone that could find wifi and didn’t die midday.
At the Apple Store, I told them my situation and the sales person said I could get an upgraded iPhone for 319 pounds or I could swap one at the genius bar and get the same phone I have for 250. I got an appointment at the genius bar for an hour and a half later. I found a pizza express which is all over London and got a pizza loaded with a bunch of veggies- some of the usuals, but also artichoke and pine nuts. It was perfect. Then, half way through my pizza (and certainly not an hour and a half later) I got a text saying they were ready to see me at the genius bar. Inconvenient. I responded requesting the option to delay 30 minutes and got a response text to be ready in an hour.
An hour later, no longer hungry, I met with the genius, he said it was a battery problem and the best thing for me to do would be to buy a portable charger (which I had brought but left in Amsterdam and had it shipped to Paris but it didn’t get there before I left) and get a new phone in the US because it will be much cheaper there. So I did. I bought the one at the Apple store knowing I could get a cheaper one somewhere else but didn’t know the city well enough to find one (and that’s not how I wanted to spend my time). Strangely, my phone was working great in the Apple store. I uploaded all the pictures I had to Facebook since the internet was so fast. The man who sold me the charger asked if I needed a cord for it (which I thought it was shitty to not come with one) but as it’s the same cord that I use to charge my kindle, I have one.
All set, I walk out onto the street to start my Rick Steves self guided tour, I find something awesome and go to take a picture and my phone doesn’t work. I open the camera and nothing happens, I press the icons and nothing happens, I try to power it off to restart and it doesn’t work doesn’t work until it powers off and then comes back on with a light shadow. I think this is a battery problem like the genius said (it’s about that time of day for it to die by now) and there are a million people between me and the Apple Store. I take the bus back to my current home to find that that cord I have is no where to be found even though everything I own is organized and in its place. And when my phone is plugged in, it’s still doing the light shadow thing. I leave it plugged in hoping it will come to life like it has in the past and look up Apple’s hours on the internet. They close in an hour.
I take the bus back to the Apple store, (I’m really getting my money’s worth out of this day pass) excited again about getting a new phone, and find a guy who fixes my phone in 2 minutes.
And now everything is fine again! I find a store that sells the cord I need for 5 times what it’s worth, but I buy it anyway and set off finally, again on my walking tour.
I walk along the pedestrian shopping street where I am instructed to look up over the modern shops to see the incredible architecture that is all over Glasgow. I love it. I come across a little festival that’s sponsored by Coors Light and think of my Colorado family.
There’s a peacock on this building
I wind around to the GOMA- the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art and appreciate Glasgow’s sense of humor. This picture doesn’t capture it, but the top part is quirky and the statue has a traffic cone on his head. 
I saw a video about one of these on Facebook a while ago but couldn’t figure out where they were- It’s a restaurant in the sky! I can’t imagine how expensive it is, but here is one in person (well, for me)!
After my walk, I decided to seek out a whiskey. I found a place that I’d seen from the bus but it was too noisy. So I looked to see if my buddy Rick had any recommendations. He did. Between the terrible map on my kindle and my offline google maps, I found it!
I had the whiskey of the month and enjoyed it, then asked for something similar and enjoyed that. Browsing through Rick’s other places to eat I found a vegetarian restaurant tucked into an arts school not too far away. I found it.
I opened the menu. So many things to choose! I gushed about this place on Facebook with their free wifi. I was so used to finding the one or two vegetarian options on the menu, and here was a whole list! And they were actual vegetables too– not just want-to-be meat substitutes. The mushroom pasta with pine nuts was the thing I wanted the most (that didn’t closely resemble my amazing lunch).
Walking home I realized that I was falling in love with Glasgow. I loved being in Scotland- it was beautiful and I was happy (not that I wasn’t anywhere else) but I just really like it. And Glasgow is a city. I saw a place that offered adult dance classes. This city would have everything I needed. And it had a sense of humor. There was funky art and statues all over the place. I made this assessment after a couple of drinks and a few hours, but Glasgow moved onto the list of places I want to live. 
And there’s my friend Rose!
My laundry flapping in the wind:
Sunday I slept until 10 (thanks dark room), spent 2 hours unsuccessfully trying to buy bus tickets in Ireland, wrote some blog, took a nap, and then went back to that vegetarian place to try something else on the menu.
I settled on beetroot salad and roasted red pepper and lentil soup. They were amazing and my digestive system was appreciative.
