Europe // 10 // Scotland - Glasgow

Our second day in Glasgow started bright and early, but due faltering health and some terrible headaches we didn't get out of the door until mid morning. We did however enjoy breakfast at our hostel for really cheap! By the time we were ready for the day we decided to skip the People's Palace Museum, which houses the stories and histories of the Glaswegians, and head straight to the Burrell Collection. This museum is a massive "art" collection that houses art/artifacts from nearly every historical empire, including the Ming Dynasty, the Egyptians, ancient Iraq, ancient Greece, the Romans, the medieval and renaissance eras, etc. The entire building was incredible, and it all belonged to one man! 

Sir William Burrell, who donated all of his collection to the city of Glasgow, wasn't born into wealth. Instead he understood economics and beginning at the age of 14 he used meager funding to build his collection. His actual profession was ship building. When living, he had to purchase a castle to display his collection, but even that was too small. Upon inheriting the collection, the city of Glasgow built an adequately sized building in a park about 4 miles south of central Glasgow to house the entire collection in one place.

{Disclaimer: Pictures/Video weren't allowed in the museum, so here is our single illegal documentation of the entire day. Also, sorry it's so quiet-we were trying to be sly.}

Steven's favorite artifacts were the ancient Iraq stamps used to mark clay, which would be used to mark property (such as a clay vase or bowl). Most were dated as far back as 3800 BC!! I, as always, was a sucker for the Egyptian artifacts, but I also loved the medieval suits of armor! It reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, which you just can't beat. The ancient Greece and Rome artifacts also caught our interest, since we hadn't been exposed to those civilizations previously on our trip.

By lunchtime I was feeling ill and was running a fever, so we decided to take it easy and just spend the rest of the day at the Burrell Collection, really taking in every artifact. Even though we could have rushed to another museum, it was a nice change of pace to just stay in one location all day long. We left about 20 minutes before closing, and although by this time I really wasn't feeling well, we had to stop at the park's playground!!!! Apparently health and safety is not a thing in Glasgow-the playground equipment was fantastic!

Steven really wanted haggis before we left Scotland the next morning and I really needed something warm and filling to try to help me feel better, so we went to a restaurant called The Piper, based on a recommendation. It was great! Cheap enough (maybe not the cheapest, but definitely affordable), and Steven got his haggis. I ordered meat lasagna, which warmed me up quite successfully. Steven said the haggis was good, and reminded him of a gamey meatloaf.