Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Glasgow, Scotland: the Best Pubs, Restaurants, and Places to See in This European City of Culture

Episode Date: November 10, 2018

Glasgow had a reputation for being a down-on-its-luck former industrial hub for decades. But the Glaswegians worked hard to turn their city into a world-class tourist destination with museums, opera, ballet, and more. In 1990, Glasgow was named the European City of Culture and since then travelers from around the world have visited to enjoy its cozy pubs, great restaurants — which include a lot of veg-friendly options, delicious food markets, designer shops, and, of course, cultural offerings.    On this episode, my guest Kathi Kamleitner and I share the best of Glasgow, plus some great off-the-beaten path places for you to discover in Scotland. Kathi is an Austrian expat who moved to Glasgow for grad school. She loved it so much she stayed and now gives private tours of her adopted home. She also blogs about Scotland at Watch Me See. Find photos and links to the places we discuss on postcardacademy.coDo you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy, your weekly travel and culture podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Micatel, and today we're visiting Scotland. Many people who travel to this beautiful country don't venture out of its capital city, Edinburgh. Or they stick to the gorgeous rolling green of the Scottish highlands. But if you want to know the real Scotland and its people, you have to spend some time in Glasgow. My guest today is Kathy Komleitner, in Austrian who moved to Glasgow, for grad school, and she loved it so much she decided to stay and now gives private tours of her adopted home. For many years, Glasgow had the reputation for being a down-on-its-luck

industrial city, but the Glaswegians have worked very hard to revitalize and develop themselves into a world-class tourist destination, with museums, opera, ballet, and more. In 1990, Glasgow was named the European city of culture, and since then, more and more international. national travelers have come to enjoy its cozy pubs, its great restaurants, which include a lot of veg-friendly options, delicious food markets, designer shops, and of course loads and loads of cultural offerings. And today, Kathy and I will share the best of the best, plus some great off-the-beaten path places for you to discover in Scotland. If you love castles and whiskey, then this is the episode for you. Find photos and links to the places we discuss on

Postcardacademy.co. And if you like this episode, I would love it if you subscribe so I could share more great stories and travel recommendations with you. This episode is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Well, you can get a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up using the link, audibletrial.com slash postcard. And if you're traveling, of course travel insurance is a smart idea. Visit postcardacademy.com slash insurance to get an easy-to-understand cost estimate using the handy travel insurance calculator by world nomads. Now into my conversation with Kathy. Welcome, Kathy. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thank you very much for having me. So Scotland is your adopted home. Where did you grow up?

I'm originally from Vienna in Austria. And I grew up there and I lived there until I was about 25 years old on and off I went to school there I did my undergrad there but then moved to Scotland for my master's degree because I was just always fascinated with the country and I thought oh it's all green and it's going to be rainy and moody

but I had never been here so I didn't know what to expect or what the people would be like or you know I didn't have any connection realistically to the country other than this weird fascination that came out of nowhere when I was a teenager So how did you end up in Glasgow? I applied for master's degrees in Glasgow Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and I just really wanted to study abroad.

I wanted to study in an English-speaking country, and I wanted to study in a country that I could afford. I would have loved to study in Canada, but the university fees in Canada were just way too steep for my savings account. And so Scotland has very affordable student fees at universities, which is very nice. And then when I applied for the universities, it was a very busy time. I was working for the Berlin Film Festival at the time. And Glasgow sent me an offer for a place in their master's program within two weeks, I think. And then I was contemplating whether I should take it or not. Edinburgh came back to me and they wanted some sort of, again, an English essay that I've written

or, you know, some sort of like they wanted to see some work of mind to see whether I would be a good fit for the university. and because I was working at the festival at the time, there was just no way I was going to be able to translate any of my previous work because obviously in Austria we speak German and so all my previous film studies had been in German. And I just didn't have time and I thought, you know what? I'm just going to go with Glasgow.

They didn't want anything in addition. And again, I think it was fate and I just belonged here. Yes, and I have to compliment you on your English. Your accent is lovely. I could listen to Utah. all day long. It's a funny accent. I didn't understand anyone when I moved here. And I still don't understand everybody, but I've kind of taken it on. And some people even think I'm Scottish, which I'm always very proud of. I would have taken you for a Scott for sure. So you've been

in Glasgow for about five years. Why do you love it so much? Why did you decide to stay? So I decided to stay about maybe three quarters through my master's, which lasts 12 months. So after about three quarters of a year, I decided, you know what, I've not seen enough of the city. Glasgow is a very vibrant city. There's a lot of cultural things going on. I studied my master's in film journalism. So I'm very interested in the film, in a film landscape, but also in festivals and anything else that is going on. So it was, on the one hand, it was that.

It was like, I felt I didn't know the city well enough and I didn't know all the venues well enough. And I wanted to see more of what's going on. but it's also the people it's the glaswegians are very friendly they're very open and welcoming and you never sit anywhere on your own for a very long time because people just want to chat to you and there was something about that growing up in vienna and having lived in berlin which are both much bigger cities where people can get quite anonymous and almost unfriendly it was that kind of feeling of people actually care about you here and people are interested in each other other and that only makes things happening in a much nicer and more organic way that really fascinated me about the city so if you if you kind of look at Glasgow on the map there's the city center and then there's kind of like four parts of the city north south east and west and the university that I went to is in the West End and that's where I lived and I only really knew that area and I thought the

city's quite big for for the fact that there's only about a million people, I think, or one and a half million people in the greater area. But the city is so big and I only know one part. I need to kind of stay longer and see more of the city and live in the different areas as well and get to know it much better than I did. Well, you sound like the perfect person to talk to you about Glasgow and Scotland, so I'm glad we're chatting. So where is Glasgow geographically?

So it's in the south of Scotland, really, or like the middle of Scotland, and the highlands are north of it. The parts of Scotland that people know most about or even further north than Glasgow. I think that, yeah, the most famous parts of Scotland are Edinburgh and Glasgow as far as like the big cities. How would you say those two cities are different? Oh, they're like worlds apart.

It's like being in two different countries, really, which is funny because they're so close together. I think Edinburgh, because it's the capital and there's a lot more of the international business going on there and much more tourism. It's a bit less personal. It's a bit more of a city where there's a lot of people who don't live there and a lot of people who only live there for maybe half a year or a year.

And people aren't quite as open because there's a lot of non-Scottish people. Whereas Glasgow is a very Scottish city and I think because of the way that the city has kind of lifted itself out of quite a rough time from the 70s and 80s onwards. There's a lot of enthusiasm for the city here and people are very glad to share it. Whereas in Edinburgh, it's a bit more like, oh, there's so many tourists. Like we were trying to keep it to ourselves almost. So if we want like a real flavor for Scotland, Glasgow, I should be the city. Yeah, Glasgow is definitely your best choice to get an authentic, maybe not authentic,

but it's your best bet to get a real connection with local Scottish people, I think. What would the postcard look of Glasgow? I think he would see a lot of very grand buildings from the 18th and 19th century, buildings that have been built by the merchants of the city and really gave the city its reputation as the second most important city of the empire. You would see the river, for sure, River Clyde, which has brought work and life and the industry to the city. And you would see a lot of museums, a lot of parks.

It's a very green city. Glasgow and Gallic means a deer green place. So it's a very green city. You would see lots and lots of outdoor spaces and people enjoying those. You would see street musicians and festivals going on all the time. And you would see a lot of students. There's about five universities here, I think, and a lot of whiskey.

Nice. It sounds like the ideal city for me. I can't believe I haven't been. Been to Glasgow. I mean, I've been to Edinburgh, I've been to Isle of Sky. I need to get to Glasgow for sure. So you give private tours of Glasgow. Tell me more about those.

I started doing tours of Glasgow about a year ago. And they're walking tours. They're private. So when someone books me, I'm going with them. And there's no other people on the tour. And I really did it because I noticed that a lot of people, people, just like you just said, a lot of people only go to Edinburgh and the Highlands, and they're not really sure what there is to see in Glasgow.

Glasgow has still fights with its quite bad reputation that it got in the 70s or the 60s and 70s when a lot of the steel industry in the city crashed. So there was a high unemployment rate, a high crime rate, a high pollution rate because of the industry. And so that has changed completely, but I think that's still in people's head. that it's dangerous and that it's not pretty and there's nothing to see. And so I thought, well, if I do tours, I can show people why I fell in love with the city and what I think is so beautiful about Glasgow.

And I love sharing that. And I share it on my blog, but I felt I wanted to do that in person as well. Yes. And your blog is? My blog is called Watch Me See. It's a travel blog that focuses mostly on Scotland. I do write about other destinations sometimes. But it's really mostly about Scotland.

And it's a place for me to share my love for this country and everything that I do here, all my adventures. Yeah. And so you mentioned that Glasgow has undergone like this big transformation and it's become very revitalized and just full of life. What caused that transformation? It used to be such an important city for the industry, for shipbuilding, steel industry, but also architecture and design and engineering. and any sort of like, it was called the workshop of the world, I think, or the workshop of the empire. So there was a lot going on here in the 18th and 19th century

and the beginning of the 20th century. And then other shipyards around the world in Hong Kong and Amsterdam and so on, Rotterdam, I think, they took over in technology and Glasgow kind of fell into this hole of, well, we can't keep up. There's no more money. No one needs the amount of steel that we're producing anymore. and it all became very sad and pessimistic and lots of people lost their jobs. And then I think there was just this need to find, get back on their feet and find the positive,

the positivity of the city again. And then in the city was made the European capital of culture in 1990, which brought a lot of, you know, they brought a lot of investment to the country. cultural life of the city. So a lot of museums were built or re-housed and a lot of free cultural activities were created for the locals, not for the tourists, but for people to just have a better quality of life again. And I think that where we are now is just the

continuation of this year, 1990, where there was so much good happening. And now it's still very much when you come here, most of the museums are free. What you would called tourist attractions. I don't consider them tourist attractions because they're really for everybody. And I think that's something the city holds very dearly is that it's not a place that is made for tourists, but it's trying to be at its best for its own inhabitants. Yeah, that's great. So let's say that I'm coming to visit you. Where would you take me? What are our must sees? I would definitely start in the oldest part of Glasgow, which is around

the cathedral and the necropolis, which is a big big big course. cemetery. The cathedral is the oldest building in the city and it's the only kind of medieval gothic style cathedral, I think, in the entire, no, probably in Scotland and it's one of the biggest ones. It's not officially a cathedral anymore because there's no bishop anymore. But it's really interesting to see how the city started and what it might have looked like back in the medieval times. Most of the buildings from that time were dismantled. and the building material was reused to build the city center where it is now. Okay.

And that's where I would take you next to the city center and the merchant city, which is where you will find the grandest architecture of Glasgow. Merchants who were trading with the Americas, and unfortunately, a lot of them were also plantation owners. So a lot of the money that came to Glasgow at that time was coming through the slave trade and through slavery. but they built this beautiful city centre that reminds me very much of American city centres

because it's on a grid and it's not a typical European with winding alleys and so on. And there's these palaces that they built for themselves and the Glasgow City Chambers and it's just beautiful to see but it's also a good place to remember the history of the country and the British Empire

and to think about, you know, where all that wealth and all this beauty came from and what is related to. Are you allowed to tour these buildings? Some of them, yeah. I mean, the Glasgow City Chambers, for example, that's still the city chambers today, but they do free tours of the building or of parts of the building twice a week. So anybody can just join and see the insights of the city chambers. Others, like, for example, there's a townhouse, which you wouldn't believe that it is a townhouse.

it was built for a rich merchant to live there and is now the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art which is the one with the it's the one with the statue of the Duke of Wellington in front who was wearing the traffic cone which is one of the most iconic symbols of the city really it's quite funny the story behind it

because people just kept putting a traffic cone up on the statue he's riding a horse and so people kept putting traffic cones on his head and the city kept removing them to the point where the back and forth of removing it and people putting it up again and removing it again, it got too expensive for the city to constantly keep going up and removing the traffic cones. So they just left it. Okay. And now he always wears it and sometimes he wears a rainbow one, you know, when it's when it's

the pride or he wears a black one when something bad happened or, you know, it's quite a nice symbol of the city. Is this just a mysterious person who is switching out his? is cone hats? Yeah. That's so funny. Yeah. What are some other things that I should check out?

What are some hidden gems that you introduced to? I love taking people around the street art trail. It's not particularly hidden because there's some really big murals in Glasgow, but it's something that people don't really expect to find in the city. And there's literally just murals all over the city center, and there's a trail of the wee map that you can get and just follow that. And there's always new ones popping up. This week, we got a new one of some kittens playing,

which is probably only through mural in Glasgow. Is there an app or something that we can download to check those out? There's not an app, but there's a PDF that you can download that is usually updated with the latest murals, and it shows you the trail through the city center on a map as well. You can find it on the website of People Make Glasgow, which is our local tourism board. And if you just Google Glasgow City mural trail map, you'll find it.

Okay, okay. Very cool. And then there's a lot of markets, particularly street food markets, but also design markets that happen on a weekly basis or on a monthly basis. So they're not in your tourist guide. But they really show you the creativity of the city and they're great for souvenir shopping or just shopping in general. I love a good market.

So did you have a... a favorite designer market or artisan market or tell me more about that so difficult to decide you can tell us all of them yeah so there's a new street food market called platform which is in an former in a former club venue under glasco central station the train station and they sometimes do a market called supermarket which is a bit of everything it's a mix between vintage and second hand antiques but also new design and I think any artist can just sign up for a stall and sell their stuff and sell their product. So you'll find plants next to nice jewelry

and then prints and vintage clothing. So that's probably one of my favorites. And two minutes away, there's the food market. So it's a perfect combination. And it's indoors, so you never get wet, which is very important in Glasgow. That's a nice place. Yeah.

And then there's one other market I really love. It's the dry gate market at the Drygate Brewery. They have a monthly market and it's always a different theme. So sometimes it's food, sometimes it's design or home. And particularly before Christmas, they do one every Sunday and it's fantastic. There's the best Christmas gifts I've ever picked up were there. Oh, that sounds good. So if we were visiting Scotland and we wanted to pick up a gift to remember or a gift for somebody else,

what's like a typical product we should get? Well, I would buy something from a local designer if you have friends who like art or jewelry or something. But the other thing you could get is something inspired by the designs of Charles Rennie McIntosh. Charles Rennie McIntosh was an architect and designer in Glasgow who is probably the most famous architect that ever came from Glasgow. He built the School of Art and several other buildings in the city

and he pioneered the Glasgow style, which was kind of like an art deco style of design and architecture. And so it was his 150th anniversary this year, so there was a lot of celebrations and events around him. And you can buy jewelry that is inspired by his designs. You can buy artwork. If you have a lot of money, you could buy furniture.

So that's a really nice souvenir, I think, to take home because it has, it's something practical, but it's also something that really reminds you and captures the flavor of the city. That sounds like a great gift. And you mentioned the food market. Is there one main one? And is that every day?

So the one I mentioned, the platform market is on every weekend from Friday to Sunday. And then there's a few other food markets that run more on a monthly basis. Glasgow is kind of picking up on the trend of food markets a bit later than other cities, which is surprising.

Because it is such a vibrant food scene, but there's a lot of restaurants, but the food markets are fairly new. They've only been around from you two years or something. Okay. So there's unfortunately no daily ones, but the ones that are there are fantastic. And so what foods should we try in Scotland? What are some traditional foods? Well, the very traditional food is usually very heavy on the meat and seafood, but I'm vegan. So I actually don't try any of these anymore.

but one of the most important or one famous dish, most famous dishes from Scotland is definitely haggis and I don't know if you've ever heard about that. I have, but why don't you tell us what it is? So haggis is mashed up sheep intestines basically mixed up with oats and all sorts of spices. It sounds horrible. Yeah, it sounds disgusting. But it's actually really nice. If you eat meat, it's actually really lovely.

just don't think about what it is but the good thing is that there's vegetarian versions and a lot of those are vegan and they're usually made from oats and mushrooms or lentils it depends on you can get them in tins or you can get it homemade and then it's always a different recipe so if you

if you're not too keen on the meat version of it try the vegetarian one that's a really traditional Scottish dish and traditionally you'll get that with mashed potatoes and mashed neaps okay so the veggie one I could do that does sound good. So where would you recommend a good veggie haggis?

My favorite place to go and eat veggie haggis in Glasgow is the red onion, which is a restaurant in town. It's not a vegan restaurant, but it has a great vegan menu. And all their dishes are very much Scotland inspired. So you'll find Scottish classics with a twist. And they usually have vegetarian haggis on the menu. All right, good tip. Are there any other Scottish foods we should try?

Scottish food is not really healthy. A lot of Scottish food is not very healthy. Fish and chips is a very popular treat here. Again, I don't eat fish, but you can get vegetarian haggis, for example, out of a chippy. We call a fish and chip shop a chippy. And that is usually just deep fried. You can bring anything in, anything deep fried with a portion of chips. So veggie haggis or veggie sausages, you can bring in a slice of pizza probably.

In some places you can get fried pizza. It's a bit ridiculous. But it's great. It's a great wee stack. Wait, so at any chippy, you can just bring whatever you want and they'll fry it up for you? Not all chippies will do that, but some chippies will fry whatever you bring for you as well, yeah. Is there any popular chippy you would recommend? To do that?

I guess so, yeah. I'm not sure, but my favorite chippy is in the south side of Glasgow, which is close to where I stay. It's called Hooked. They do your fish and, you know, they do the whole thing, but they also have a great vegan menu, and they do a really good job at keeping us vegans unhealthy. So what would you get there? I usually go for a veggie haggis supper, which is two slices of haggis, deep fried with chips on the side.

Here in England I really love going for Sunday roast. Is that something that's popular up in Scotland? Yeah, yeah, we do Sunday roast as well, and you can get them in a lot of pups and a lot of, you know, more traditional restaurants will do Sunday roast as well here, yeah. So it's got a cozy pub culture. Yeah, absolutely. There are many clubs and bars and everything in the city as well,

but it's really the pups are kind of like the centre of life almost. You'll go after work, you'll go in the weekends for a wee drink in the afternoon, and you'll go on a Sunday to get a Sunday roast, absolutely. What's your favourite pub? So my favourite pub in Glasgow is called The Bell. I used to work there, actually. It's in the west end of Glasgow and it has a fireplace, which is maybe why I love it so much, especially in the winter. And it's also very dog-friendly, so it's great to make new friends.

That sounds great, so you can just go get a drink, sit by the fire. Exactly, yeah. What would you say the going out in drinking culture is like in Glasgow? It's a big party town? It's quite a big party town, I would say. I'm always a bit shocked, to be honest, because Austria's. has such a laid-back and very casual drinking culture. For us, it's very normal to, you know,

you'll have a glass of beer with your lunch and, like, bars are open until 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning. So there's no pressure, whereas here bars close, well, pub's close at midnight and clubs close at 3 o'clock in the morning. So there's a lot of pressure to get your partying into a very short amount of time. So there is a lot of drinking. There is a lot of party drinking. But usually people stay quite happy and friendly around it.

A lot about meeting your friends in the pub and having a drink there rather than, to me anyways, rather than going to the club and dancing. Yeah. I like the more casual and more comfortable and cozy spaces of pubs. You could go right after work and then maybe grab a bite or stay until they close 11 or midnight and then grab a bite from the chippy, get a portion of chips or a fish supper after. you've had your drinks.

But clubs are very similar to what you might be used to from other countries. They don't open until 10 or 11. So if you're going clubbing, you either warm up at home and then you go out or you're at a pup and then you go out or you go for dinner and then to the clubs. It depends on what you're after and what sort of bar you want to go to. So is Glasgow quite walkable? Is there public transport? How are we getting around?

Glasgow is very walkable and because of the way it's laid out, a lot of the, you know, the main points of interests for visitors are probably in the city centre and the West End and you can walk between those fairly easily. And there is a subway. There's only one line that goes in a circle in both directions, so it's a bit ridiculous, but it's very useful to travel between the West End and the city centre. So that's very useful for people who come to visit. And then there's buses, although I find them quite difficult to navigate because there's a few different companies and the alt-charged different prices. And for some you need the exact change and for some you don't. So they're a bit of a nightmare. Okay. But then there's also, yeah, but then there's also local trains.

So if you wanted to go down to the south side and see the parks in the south side, which are beautiful, or go to the east end and see some of the older parts of the city, and you can just hop on a local train, which go very frequently as well. So it takes a bit of navigation, but it is actually really easy to either walk or just hop on a train to get somewhere. Okay. So what are some of your favorite neighborhoods to wander around in? I love wandering around the university because there's just so much to see in so many different neighborhoods.

So Glasgow University in the West End, the area immediately around is called, hillhead and you get loads of little lanes with which are free from traffic but there's lots of restaurants and little design shops and just tucked away in the back of the city so that's really lovely but then as stone's throw away you get really grand streets up on a hill that overlook a beautiful park with beautiful townhouses so you kind of get that contrast of of more student-friendly and then the more the richest parts of the city okay there's a huge park in that area as well and a huge museum, the Kelvin Grove Art Gallery. So you get a little bit of everything and that's definitely one of my favourite areas. And then the other area I love is the area

where I live. It's called Mount Florida, which is right next to Queen's Park. And so that entire area, all the neighbourhoods around Queen's Park are lovely. Again, there's lots and lots of little design shops and pubs and restaurants to explore and then the park in the middle, which is wonderful. and there's a hill from where you can see almost all the way up to Loch Lohmann actually. So do you have any favorite design shops? Yes, I do. So there's a designer who recently opened her very own shop,

which is exciting. She's called Libby Walker. She's an illustrator. She draws these illustrations of streets in Glasgow which contain all the shop fronts or restaurant fronts. So they're really nice little snippets. If you like a neighborhood, she will probably have an illustration

with all the shop fronts from that neighborhood. It's very localized. And then there's a couple of wee independent shops that sell local design. There's one called Sunshine Number One, which is where I live in Mount Florida. That's all local designs and products from local designers. And there's a few like that. Brawby Emporium comes to mind or there's a new one near the university as well. So there's a lot of connection between the designers going on.

Yeah, Glasgow sounds like such a creative city. Where do you go when you're in the university? mood for some culture. One of the most popular spaces, cultural spaces in Glasgow is called the CCA, so Centre for Contemporary Art. It's a brilliant space. There's a bar and restaurant. There's a little book shop, a little design shop, but they also have gallery spaces where they usually have exhibitions on. They have a little cinema with screenings. They have a theatre space for performances and a lot of cultural organisations in the city have their offices there. So it really is a for cultural activity in Glasgow.

And then the other place I really love is called Glasgow Women's Library. It's the only women's library with a library accreditation in the UK. And they're open to everybody, but they focus on books by women and literature by women and feminist literature. And they also do workshops and classes for the local community. They do events, again, cinema, theatre performances, and they have an exhibition space as well. And it's a really welcoming menu. And I just love going there. Oh, that's a great one.

Yeah, I hadn't heard about that one. Yeah, they're fantastic. They were up for Museum of the Year this year as well, because they're a library and a museum. But they didn't win it, and everybody was very sad. Aw. What are some other museums we might want to check out? My favorite museum is the People's Palace, which is in the east end of Glasgow near the cathedral and the barris market.

and it's in the middle of a big park called Glasgow Green and it tells you the social story of the city so you'll learn about where women went to do their laundry in the city and how the first parks came about and where people went on their summer holidays from Glasgow and things like that. So it's all about the local life and the local history and it's a really lovely space as well.

They have a kind of a glass house attached to it with a winter garden and the cafe. So whether you come for the main, museum or just to hang out being surrounded by plants, it's a great space. Yes, that sounds like a must say if you really want to get to know a feel for the city and into people and where everything's, you know, where it's come from. Yeah, absolutely. And it's the kind of museum you'll enjoy even if you're not, you know, if you're not a museum

goer, if you're not into art or whatever, because it does give you so much about the context of the city. And then another really cool one is called the, it's the Riverside Museum. is a museum for transport, which sounds not as exciting as it is. It's very family-friendly, and it's just this museum. It was built by Saha Hadid,

very famous, and unfortunately, because she passed away a few years ago, very famous architect, and it looks like a wave, and it's right at the river clide, at the riverfront, so it kind of takes on the water out onto the land. It's really beautiful.

And inside, it's just stuffed with old trains, trams, buses, cars, images of boats and little film. And you can climb onto some of them and there's motorcycles on the ceiling and bicycles. And it's just full of these things. But again, it picks up the history of the city and the importance of the city as a shipbuilding industry and also the steel industry for all the trains and so on. So it is, it's very interesting. It's very cool.

Very cool. Is there a good venue to see some live music? Oh, loads of them. Glasgow has a very thriving life scene, life music scene. There's pups with life music all over the place and lots of venues. One of my favorite venues is the Barrowlands. In the 50s and 60s, people used to go for dances there, so a lot of relationships were formed in the Barrowlands,

and now it's more like a music venue with gigs. And that's really lovely. It's a very iconic venue in the city. I think if you Google Glasgow Life Music Guide or something, You get to a really old school website. It looks like it's not been updated in centuries, but it's actually always up to date, and it always gives you a breakdown

of the different styles of life music and where you can see them, and it includes both paid tickets and free events. So you can just go and find something, you know, if you like jazz, it tells you all the jazz kicks that are on that month, or if you like rock or electronic or whatever, it gives you a comprehensive guide.

It's brilliant. That's a great tip. Thanks. So where else do you like to go out in the evening? I like going. So my partner is a musician. So I like going to pups where he's playing, which is quite nice. And then I just like pup hopping around the city center really.

There's a few pups. I like the ones that are old school that have a kind of horseshoe-shaped wooden bar. And there's quite a lot of those. There's the Griffin, the state bar, Sloan's McSorley. There's so many pups that are within walking distance from each other, so it's easy to just pup crawl your way through the city. So the ones that you just named, we could do a little pub crawl on that? Absolutely, yeah.

And you love every single one of them. And they're all really laid back. They're not the touristy ones, but they're really laid back pups with a lot of locals in them. That sounds really perfect. Are there any other sort of special events we should know about that happen either on like a weekly or monthly? or a yearly basis?

Again, Glasgow is such a culturally rich cities. There's a lot of festivals that happen annually that are really interesting, lots of film festivals, music festivals and so on. I really like the Glasgow International, which happens every two years in April. That's an art and performance festival. So a lot of modern art and contemporary performers

will come to the city and put something on. And that's always very interesting and there's lots of crazy stuff you can go and see. And obviously now with the Christmas season coming up, the Christmas festivities in Glasgow are really nice. There's a Santa Dash where, I don't even know, hundreds of people dress up as Santa Claus and run through the city, which is quite an experience. And then we have our Christmas markets and a little fair with a big wheel and everything at our Central Square, George Square. So that's really lovely coming to Glasgow for the Christmas season, for a cup of mould wine

and then some Christmas shopping is very nice. That sounds lovely. So you've lived in Glasgow for five years, but I know that you get out and explore Scotland all the time and have all sorts of good recommendations. So if I were coming to Scotland per se, I don't know, a week to 10 days, and I love whiskey and castles and beautiful scenery,

where else should I go? Do you want the tourist route or do you want the what I really love? What you really love. Okay, let's say that like, people know about the highlands which are gorgeous like the Isle of Sky is gorgeous and Edinburgh is really cool and also a must see if you're in Scotland I think especially the older parts

but yes let's get your what you really love okay cool so I love recommending people to go and check out Aberdeenshire which is in the north-east of Scotland you can drive down the Scottish Castle Trail which, and I think there's about 19 castles on that trail, but there's many more in the area. Both ruins, as well as really beautifully renovated castles. So if you love castles, Aberdeenshire is absolutely for you.

In that area, you also have the Kerr and Gorham Mountains, so you don't have to give up your ideas of highland scenery totally. There's a lot of beautiful hills and mountains you can either walk on or just drive through. The coast is really close. there's the Scottish Coastal Trail or the Aberdeenshire Coastal Trail where you can drive from small fishing villages to harbours and to Aberdeen which is the biggest city in that area which is worth a trip in itself, lots of culture again

cool festivals, really cool street art and a beach right in the city so who wouldn't want to go to that and then if you drive a little bit further to the northwest of that area there's the space side, which is an area in Scotland that has the most active whiskey distilleries considering its size, the regional size. I don't know how many distilleries there are, but there's a lot. And you can throw a stone and it's probably going to be your next distillery. Many of them are open to the public and you can do tours. You can also join guided tours so you can actually

enjoy the whiskey without having to drive yourself. And there's also a public bus that connect someone the distilleries so you can even do it on the cheap. So yeah, if you love whiskey, the spayside is definitely where you want to go. How do you spell that? I'm hearing space side. It's S-P-E-Y side. Okay. And it's named after the river Spay, which flows through that region. And most of the distilleries get their water from one of the little streams that flows into the Do you have a favorite whiskey or a distillery from that area? I really like Macallan whiskey, which is from that area, which is one of the bigger distilleries. But if you're looking for like a smaller distillery, there's a new one that opened or that, you know, it did.

It opened a few years ago, but it just started selling its whiskey, which is called Balindalach. And that's a really lovely small distillery right by the river Spie. my favourite whiskey is actually from the Isle of Jura, which is on the other side of the country, very close neighbouring to the Isle of Isla, which is the most famous whiskey region maybe. But yeah, the whiskey from Jura is called Journey, and that's my favourite whiskey of them all. A lot of great recommendations. Thank you very much, Janice. So it sounds like you would recommend going by car? Yeah, you can travel Scotland by public transport,

and there's a lot of connections. And if you have the time to, you know, sit out a long bus ride or wait a little bit until your next connection, you can definitely do it. But there's a lot of areas and a lot of places in Scotland that I love that are not accessible by public transport or more difficult to access by public transport. And I think if you're pressed for time,

if you only have seven to ten days, you will get the most out of that if you have your own car and if you can drive down those little roads and explore by yourself. Okay. Yeah, I think you recommended auto Europe for renting. Yeah, that's where I usually rent my cars through because they usually have really good deals and you get good insurance coverage as well through them, which is much cheaper than if you get it through the rental agency itself. And then if we did decide to do public transport, there's something called the Scott Rail travel pass. Yeah, exactly. Scott Rail has a variety of different travel passes.

There's one, I think, that covers the entire country and then you can get regional ones for. example for the northeast or for the highlands or some include the ferries and some don't and so on. So there's a lot of different options how you can do that. Just logistically, I really liked your favorite places. So if we actually wanted to do that and check out Aberdeenshire, let's say, I mean, would we fly into Edinburgh and then which way should we go? Yeah. Yeah, you can fly into Edinburgh and then. drive up, I would drive up over the Perth of Fourth Bridge, which they only opened about a year ago,

which is a beautiful new road bridge, which goes over the Firth of Fourth and next to the Fourth Railway Bridge, which is a UNESCO site. So that's a very beautiful bridge to drive over just for the views. And then you could stop in Dundee, where the new VNA Dundee just opened, the new museum. and that's also a really lovely small hidden gem to check out is that city, also right by the river, by the water, sorry. So that's a lovely stop. And then you could drive up just straight to Aberdeen and explore around there. The Aberdeenshire Coastal Trail goes all the way up the east coast

and then the north of Aberdeenshire as well. And from Aberdeen, if you base yourself in Aberdeen, you can do day trips down the Royal D-side, up the coastal trail, You can even do day trips over to the space side to see some whiskey distilleries. So that's a really good hub to see that area. And then after that, head to Glasgow. After that, you could either head straight to Glasgow or you could go via the highlands. If you have a bit more time, you could drive via Fort William or even via Inverness to see some of the more postcard popular highland scenery.

I think at Fort William you can pick up the Harry Potter train as well. Is that weird? Yeah, exactly. So the Harry Potter train, its official name is Jacobite steam train. So that leaves from Fort William and goes out to the west coast to Malik and then comes back. And yeah, you can pick that up from Fort William. And that's a lovely day trip as well. If you're coming in the winter or the springtime or if you just can't be bothered with the tourist train,

you can even just take a normal Scot Rail train and it goes the same route. So it also goes over the viaduct and it has the same views. It just doesn't have the steam train in the front. So, yeah, if you're on a budget, that's still a really good option. So, yeah, you don't have, like, the cool, historical celebrity feel of the train. But if you're going on the news, you still get the same. Yeah. Okay, yeah, that's a really good tip.

And then if you didn't want to do public transport and you didn't want to drive, there are also some small group tours, right? Yeah, there's loads and loads of different companies that offer small group tours. and some of them even offer private tours. So if you were to come with your whole extended family, you could just hire a private driver as well. Yeah, I did Rabies a year or so ago. And I really liked them, and they were nice and small.

Exactly, yeah. I've tried, I've gone on tours with a few different companies. Rabies is always great because they use small buses only, so they have a maximum number of 16 people per tour, which is great. And their guides are really knowledgeable and really lovely. but I also really like timber bush tours. They do occasionally use bigger buses, but again, their drivers are so lovely

and their routes are very similar and their service is just great. So yeah, either one. And there's lots and lots of other ones that get good reviews, so it's not just those two. Right, okay, great. Before I let you go, I would love to do a quick lightning round

of your favorite places in Glasgow. Okay. What is your favorite bakery in Glasgow? It must be the V&V cafe on Great West Weston wrote, a vegan bakery and cafe. What do you usually get there? I usually get their vegan donuts or any other vegan cakes that they have an offer on that day. And then a good coffee as well.

I was just going to ask about coffee shop. Do you have a particular cafe that you like? My favorite coffee shop is River Hill, which is by Glasgow Central Station, really central located. I think that's why I love it so much because you can just go in and pick up a coffee on your way to somewhere else. and it's a really tiny space and again they also do great cakes there how about lunch spot malacane is a cafe in manned

florida and they do the best vegan food in the city it's a vegetarian and vegan cafe but their vegan options aren't just to die for and really healthy what's one of your favorite dishes so i usually i'm really boring i usually order the same thing my favorite dish out of malacana is a smoked carri

bagel, which is supposed to resemble smoked salmon, but it's a lot better. How about favorite dinner spot? I love going for dinner at the Hanoi Bike Shop, which is a Vietnamese restaurant in the West End. It's tucked away in one of the tiny lanes, and you can go in and order, or you can also just say, feed me, and then they bring out a selection of their best dishes for you, and they can cater to vegan and gluten-free diets, well. So it's very nice to go there and just treat yourself. Okay. How about bar or pub? So my favorite pub is the bell, which is in the western of Glasgow and has a really lovely fireplace.

How about museum? My favorite museum is the people's palace in the east end, which is about the social history of the city. I'm going to throw this one in because of Scotland. How about castle? Do you have a favorite castle? Anywhere, it doesn't have to be in Glasgow. I have two favourite castles and they're both very similar. I love ruined castles that are by the water. So one of them is Kilcharn Castle, which is in the West, in the West Highlands of Scotland. It's right by the shore of a lake. And then my other favourite castle is Don Otter Castle in Aberdeenshire, which sits on a headland, on high cliffs above the sea, and it's surrounded by the sea on three sides, and it's absolutely gorgeous. The views are incredible. How about food or artisan market in Glasgow?

My favorite food market is platform in the city center. And I always get vegan Freddie and Hicksburgers there. They're fantastic. And my favorite artisan market is at the Drygate, which is a beer brewery and they host monthly design markets. Are there any culture tips we should know about Scotland or Scottish people before we go? So the first thing to remember is to not call Scotland, England. I think that is very important and really understand and consider it that its own country. And then the other thing to remember is that people are incredibly chatty and they might really want to talk to you and hear why you're visiting their city. So don't be intimidated. Don't be intimidated by the accent. If you don't understand someone, just ask to slow down or repeat it. And yeah, just go and chat with them.

How much should we tip at a restaurant or a bar or taxi? At a restaurant. So if you sit down and you're served at your table, I would say 10%. is the average. And if you go to a bar where you have to pick up your drink at the bar yourself, then you can leave like a pound or 50p on the counter, but you don't have to. It's not expected by the waiting staff, especially if it's self-service. And then the same counts for taxis. If you think that the driver did a very good job, you can round up on the next pound or you can give them a pound or something when you leave, but you don't have to. It's not necessary.

What neighbourhood should we stay in if we're visiting Glasgow? If you only really have a day to explore the city, I would definitely stay in the city centre because you're central and you're much closer to everything. But if you're staying for a little bit longer, maybe a long weekend, then try and check out some of the local areas where a lot of young people and younger artists live. So either around the university, the areas of Hillhead or Finiston, or if you're come down to the south side, which is my neighborhood, anywhere around Queens Park and Shawlands, and Mount Florida is really lovely.

What would you say is the best time to visit Glasgow or Scotland in general? So my favorite time to travel around Scotland is May, because it's usually drier and already kind of summery. But I also really love this time of the year, so September to November, because the autumn colors are just really on full blast, and you get those early winter. turn days that are really crisp and sunny and you feel the impact that the weather and the environment have on the mood of the cities and the looks of the landscapes and everything. What advice would you give to somebody who was interested in moving to Glasgow?

Don't overthink it and just do it. It's such a welcoming and friendly city that no matter what you worry about meeting people or like making friends or not knowing how to get around, people will just be there to help you and you will find what you're looking for. I do think it's one of the most welcoming and friendly cities in the world. Well, thank you so much for all of this great advice on Glasgow and Scotland overall, Kathy. Are you very welcome? Where can people find out more about you? So people can find me on my website, watchmec.com or on social media.

I'm always at Watchmec on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I also run a website called Glasgow Vegan Guide, which has information about vegan restaurants, but also other vegan businesses in the city. And I have recently started a feminist film festival called Fem Inspectives, and you can find that online and on social media as well. And we're launching next March. Fantastic. So the festival will be next March if we want to trip around that. Okay. Awesome. Well, thank you again, Kathy. This has been really great. Oh, you're very, very welcome. accidentally got married in Scotland. My tour guide on the Isle of Sky was demonstrating an ancient

tradition called hand fasting, and he volunteered me. So we walked arm and arm in front of the group demonstrating a trial marriage that couples participated in for a year and a day to check their compatibility. After this time, they could either get married or walk away. So far, it's worked out great because we never have to see each other. I wonder what Sean is up to now. Okay, visit postcardacademy.com for a roundup of everything we talked about, including links and photos. While you're there, you can sign up from my newsletter if you would like more stories and travel recommendations. And if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe if you haven't already and tell a friend about the show. That is the best way to help it grow.

That's all for now. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahygotele.com slash blank no more.