ROOOOOAAAAARRGGHH!! Sorry to all my friends whose stuff I should have been reading, but I've been aw...
ROOOOOAAAAARRGGHH!! Sorry to all my friends whose stuff I should have been reading, but I've been away for ages! But now I have returned! Heavy Metal Rules!
Member since:14.12.2000
Reviews:65
Members who trust:19
OK, folks. Here comes my first non-music opinion! Exciting stuff eh?
Well, let me start by saying a few things about my good self, so you can get a feel for where my viewpoint comes from. I’ve been in Glasgow for less than a year, having started studying at Glasgow University in October last year.
Secondly I am, horror of horrors, English, so I may be a bit biased on that front.
So, Glasgow - I’m pretty damn impressed by my first few months here: the city has a wealth of things to do and places to go. You can scarcely walk down the street without falling over pubs and clubs galore. You’re never really short of anything to do in Glasgow, and so it’s pretty much a brilliant place to live on that front. Also to do with booze, there are some really good Scottish ales available
very cheaply up here, and some of them are absolutely marvellous. I would recommend anyone to try the Fraoch - heather ale! Brilliant taste and pretty strong for a beer.
As for food, well, it’s cheap. In both senses. I don’t visit expensive restaurants very much, because I’m a student and there’s just no way that I can afford to eat out much, but I haven’t been that impressed by the food in general. Also, there are hundreds of pizza and kebab shops, but not all that many Indian and Chinese restaurants, or at least I haven’t come across them yet, and as for Italian - unless you’re looking to buy very expensive bread sticks then you’re out of luck, as the only places I’ve found are cafes belonging to the Antipasti chain. So food is not quite so good, although at least it doesn’t normally set you back half of your life savings.
Entertainment is very important for me in any city, and generally, as a music fanatic, this means gigs, and lots of them. I haven’t really been looking out for the local talent much, but I am scoping about for local bands. Still, within 2 months of being here I’d been to 3 excellent gigs - Iron Maiden, Spirit Caravan and Queens of the Stone Age. I also have another two to go to this month. The venues available for rock gigs are excellent, ranging from the pleasantly poky 13th Not Club, which boasts a basement venue for bands to play in which has a fantastic atmosphere, all the way up to the SECC. This is a truly huge venue, reserved for truly huge bands, so needless to say, this is where I saw Iron Maiden. The other major venue, and probably the best of the lot is the Barrowlands, which is big but not on the same concert hall scale as the SECC. This also has an excellent atmosphere, along with several floors and a lot of space. The only downside with all the venues but the 13th Note is that the drinks are, as usual, really expensive.
For those who like shopping Glasgow has plenty of space to do that, especially on Sauchiehall street, which has all of the major chain stores. Still, it is worth going slightly out of the town centre to find some really cool little shops which are much more reasonably priced or more specialist than the major shops. For second hand records I can recommend Missing on Great Western Road, and for general strangeness I would advise that you pop along to Eurasia Crafts, also on Great Western Road, as quickly as you can.
Another small point which may influence my fellow countrymen is that you really can understand what people from Glasgow are saying! Absolutely brilliant considering that I had images of having to play charades with barmen every time I wanted a beer. But no, generally everyone is really friendly (at least as much as they are in any major city.) The whole city is also a lot cleaner than I expect a large city to be, especially in the centre of town which is kept in a wonderful state most of the time - almost spotless.
So, to conclude - go to Glasgow, or even come here to live. I can see myself being here for some time, and I’m really looking forwards to it. There, that wasn’t so difficult. I may start writing more town reviews in the future…
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Hey, nice opinion. I'm coming to Glasgow Uni to study in October 2001, your op was useful as I'm into decent rock too, and currently live in the south of England. Looking foward to coming..
Cheers, Jamie
starry 20.01.2001 16:08
Nice op! See, we Scots are friendly aren't we :) BTW if you are looking for a good chinese restaurant there is one on Renfield Street in the city centre (diagonally across from Central Station) called China Sea. They do a 3 course pre-theatre meal for £7.95 and a 2 course lunch for £4.95. I recommend the Chicken Chow Mein - yum!
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