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Cheers, mate!
Aug. 10th, 2005 08:51 amWe are back!
I'm taking today off as a catch-up-on-sleep day (much needed) and I am actually happy to be back, even though I thought Glasgow was a beautiful city and would love to have stayed there longer. Alas, we're back in the states and ready to face the world again. Much laundry to be done, much books to be shelved, much pictures to be downloaded.
First off: I LOVE FLYING. Landing is meh, but I love that little adrenalin rush when the jet kicks in and you're just about to take off. It's like going down the first hill of the rollercoaster. ;) So yeah, I had no problems with the flying. However, I did learn from my two traveling companions that one often runs into the idiot side of traveling when on a plane...like the people in front of us leaning their seat back BEFORE WE EVEN TAKE OFF (thus nearly bashing me in the head) or the kids that don't stay in their seat. Or, as seen on the way back, the section ahead of us that looked like a garbage truck exploded in it. All in all, though, a good, if cramped, flight.
Second off: Glasgow is BEEEYOOOTIFUL. The first thing that struck me was the architecture. It's a curious mix of contemporary buildings mixed in with what looks like 18th and 19th century style (I could be wrong), giving the city a cross between historical and conventional. We were on Argyle Street, which seems to be a main street of sorts, about five or six blocks from the convention center. To our east, about four blocks, was Central Station--which reminded me a lot of Causeway Street in Boston before the Garden was taken down. A few streets further was Buchanan Street, a long open street (no traffic) full of stores and stuff. One more street parallel to that was Queen Street which had a lot of really good restaurants to eat at. At the end of Queen Street is George Square, which had a lot of beautiful statues and two main buildings (a stock exchange and I forgot the other one) on each side. Definitely a tourist trap but it was a lot of fun! Yes, pix were taken...
Oh yes! And the weather was pretty much a nice, cool 65-75 degrees all day....
Third: The Convention! The SECC was a very large convention center, at least in terms of acreage. The size of some of the rooms left a bit to be desired (so-so planning caused a few of the panels to be stacked to the gills and people turned away, especially if a certain Terry Pratchett was in the room...), but otherwise it was a very nice place. My only other complaint was the extra rooms being in separate buildings. Not that much of a problem, though a bit of a pain to get to. There was the "Moat House" which is also a small hotel, which had a few rooms, and then there was the funky auditorium, named the Armadillo due to its shape, where the Hugo Awards took place. Overall, though, I had a lot of fun at the convention. I tended to go towards a lot of anime-themed panels as well as a lot of "is the US/UK government splintering?" type panels, though I did get to see a lot of writing-themed ones as well. And I only bought three books in the dealers' room! (Okay, I bought three more at the local Borders, but these were books I've been searching everywhere for...)
Fourth: The Corus Hotel is quite nice, but for some odd reason, drunken singing auditions take place on the side street almost every night at approximately 3.30am. Most of it was annoying, except for this one man who was continually shouting "I WEAR WHITE SOCKS!" over and over again...
Fifth: Gatwick Airport just outside of London is a MESS to get through. It doesn't quite make sense and you don't know where you're going until you actually ask someone. Other than that it's not that bad of an airport...
Sixth: Sorry I didn't get any postcards for anyone, but the only ones I was seeing were ones of castles and greenery and castles. I think everyone was buying up the city ones before I could find them. So I'll make up for that by sending out some pictures I took with my NEW CAMERA! :p
Okay, that's it for now...I'm going to try to wake up here and take a shower. Emm and I are about to do some chores (and I'm going to do some much-needed writing later on), so I'll update more later...
I'm taking today off as a catch-up-on-sleep day (much needed) and I am actually happy to be back, even though I thought Glasgow was a beautiful city and would love to have stayed there longer. Alas, we're back in the states and ready to face the world again. Much laundry to be done, much books to be shelved, much pictures to be downloaded.
First off: I LOVE FLYING. Landing is meh, but I love that little adrenalin rush when the jet kicks in and you're just about to take off. It's like going down the first hill of the rollercoaster. ;) So yeah, I had no problems with the flying. However, I did learn from my two traveling companions that one often runs into the idiot side of traveling when on a plane...like the people in front of us leaning their seat back BEFORE WE EVEN TAKE OFF (thus nearly bashing me in the head) or the kids that don't stay in their seat. Or, as seen on the way back, the section ahead of us that looked like a garbage truck exploded in it. All in all, though, a good, if cramped, flight.
Second off: Glasgow is BEEEYOOOTIFUL. The first thing that struck me was the architecture. It's a curious mix of contemporary buildings mixed in with what looks like 18th and 19th century style (I could be wrong), giving the city a cross between historical and conventional. We were on Argyle Street, which seems to be a main street of sorts, about five or six blocks from the convention center. To our east, about four blocks, was Central Station--which reminded me a lot of Causeway Street in Boston before the Garden was taken down. A few streets further was Buchanan Street, a long open street (no traffic) full of stores and stuff. One more street parallel to that was Queen Street which had a lot of really good restaurants to eat at. At the end of Queen Street is George Square, which had a lot of beautiful statues and two main buildings (a stock exchange and I forgot the other one) on each side. Definitely a tourist trap but it was a lot of fun! Yes, pix were taken...
Oh yes! And the weather was pretty much a nice, cool 65-75 degrees all day....
Third: The Convention! The SECC was a very large convention center, at least in terms of acreage. The size of some of the rooms left a bit to be desired (so-so planning caused a few of the panels to be stacked to the gills and people turned away, especially if a certain Terry Pratchett was in the room...), but otherwise it was a very nice place. My only other complaint was the extra rooms being in separate buildings. Not that much of a problem, though a bit of a pain to get to. There was the "Moat House" which is also a small hotel, which had a few rooms, and then there was the funky auditorium, named the Armadillo due to its shape, where the Hugo Awards took place. Overall, though, I had a lot of fun at the convention. I tended to go towards a lot of anime-themed panels as well as a lot of "is the US/UK government splintering?" type panels, though I did get to see a lot of writing-themed ones as well. And I only bought three books in the dealers' room! (Okay, I bought three more at the local Borders, but these were books I've been searching everywhere for...)
Fourth: The Corus Hotel is quite nice, but for some odd reason, drunken singing auditions take place on the side street almost every night at approximately 3.30am. Most of it was annoying, except for this one man who was continually shouting "I WEAR WHITE SOCKS!" over and over again...
Fifth: Gatwick Airport just outside of London is a MESS to get through. It doesn't quite make sense and you don't know where you're going until you actually ask someone. Other than that it's not that bad of an airport...
Sixth: Sorry I didn't get any postcards for anyone, but the only ones I was seeing were ones of castles and greenery and castles. I think everyone was buying up the city ones before I could find them. So I'll make up for that by sending out some pictures I took with my NEW CAMERA! :p
Okay, that's it for now...I'm going to try to wake up here and take a shower. Emm and I are about to do some chores (and I'm going to do some much-needed writing later on), so I'll update more later...
