Travelling Cacti

“I never liked Jeremy Hunt until he came up to Scotland for a photo opportunity with an Irn Bru…he’s really changed my opinion of him”

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As cliché as it sounds, I fell in love with Glasgow. During my visit I decided that this was going to be the place I settle down in once I finish my studies & where I will start working full time; this would be the place where I would learn to fall in love with my partner again & again in many ways & this was going to be the place where I bring up my hypothetical children & grow old. That seems a lot to decide in one visit, but Glasgow to me just felt like home & somewhere I would be proud to call home.

So I spent most of my visit in the area around the University of Glasgow, because my primary motive for the visit was to see what the university was like & in short I loved it but I digress. The area around the university, the West End, is full of obscure restaurants & cafes selling food from every corner of the globe, second hand book shops & record stores which are a hipster’s paradise, & coffee shops with more types of tea than you can shake a stick at.

One of the main tourist attractions in the area are the Botanic Gardens, so as a cacti lover this was a must for me. The gardens mainly consist of several Georgian glasshouses (which are absolutely beautiful in themselves) residing in well-kept grounds full of flowers.  Outside the Kibble Palace Glasshouse are replica of The Kelpies & as someone who hasn’t had the opportunity to see The Kelpies in person these were very impressive. As a total biology nerd, plants are kinda my jam so I absolutely loved each of the glasshouses. There were these silver leafed trees which were really soft & fluffy with little pink firework-like flowers & trees which have leaves which close up when touched & huge collections of succulents & tiny cacti! Everything in there was an experience in itself. If you find yourself in the West End of Glasgow, then I definitely recommend a visit as we spent the whole afternoon in there & would never get tired of exploring. This place is honestly like a jungle in a greenhouse!

After wandering back through many streets of wonderful 5 story homes constructed by an architect with a beautiful imagination, we finally found where we had left the car after losing our way many a time.  We drove through the city for a quick visit to the Necropolis. You might think that being somewhere that 50,000 people are buried might be a bit creepy (I’m scared of the dark, so I’m creeped out by near enough anything…), but the astounding beauty of the place far overwhelms the creepy-ness. Though there is no replacing the weird silence which surrounds all cemeteries, but that is unavoidable if you want to experience the gothic beauty of this place. The monuments & architecture is absolute artwork achieved by time & detail put into such intricate work. The whole place is a masterpiece & that is what makes this place so unique. This may be a place for the dead to sleep, but nobody said that this place can’t be admired by the living.