The Settling in Series Part 1: The Travel Days (I’m finally in Glasgow!)
Sooo it’s been a while! At least it feels like it has, and lots has happened since we last caught up. I’m pretty sure the last update involved karaoke in a gay bar in Amsterdam… honestly that feels like a lifetime ago. I was intending to do more updates, but the last 6 days have been so full on, so we might be doing weekly updates from now on, we’ll see how we go. This part of the ‘Glasgow Experience’ I’m calling the Settling in Series. It’s not going to be all that riveting, but it’s realistically been my life recently, so it must be included.
Enjoyyyy ;)
07/09
Today was a pretty non-eventful travel day, I started the day in Amsterdam and finished in London. The flight was only around 50 mins, and spending more time in the airport itself than the actual flight will never not be weird. I did take the wrong train from my hostel, but it wasn’t too hard to figure out where I went wrong, it only added another 10 mins or so to the travel time.
Schipol Airport wasn’t too busy, there seemed to be a lot of people around, but security didn’t take long at all, and all the staff were lovely. I was itching to get on that plane and take off, I thought knowing my luck if any flight was going to be delayed it’d be the one that I was really relying on! Especially since I just needed to get to Glasgow, I was craving some stability and my own space for a little bit, every second of this day seemed to crawl by.
The flight itself did actually end up being delayed, but only by around half an hour or so, so it wasn’t too bad. I landed in London around 4:30pm, and picked up my suitcase with no problems. It was such a strange feeling being back in Heathrow after my menty b the last time I was there. I truly felt like a different person coming back, and I realised then that this would be the 3rd time I’ve arrived at Heathrow this year. That’s just wild. I almost felt like I was coming home, I didn’t need directions from arrivals, knew exactly where I was going, and even gave some directions to some other people. The Elizabeth line was running nice and smoothly for once, and it was a nice experience to not have to worry about getting off at the wrong stop, or my google translate to lose reception and have no clue what’s going on. I think I got to my station just after 5pm, and only had a 5-minute walk from there back to our friends’. I would be spending just one more night in London with them, mostly to collect my other suitcase that I had left there with them whilst I had my little euro summer.
Walking back up the street from the station was the most bizarre feeling, it felt similar to walking up the driveway at home after arriving back from a trip. I didn’t expect to feel such a familiarity with London so quickly, but I just felt so at ease again, it surprises me continuously how quickly a place can feel like home. They seemed to know I hadn’t had a proper dinner in weeks (I’m sick to death of pasta, never thought I’d say that) so we had a full roast dinner with veggies, roast chicken and pork. It was absolutely divine, genuinely the best meal of the month!
As much as I wanted to yap about my adventures with them, I did have to reorganise all my stuff back into the suitcases and make sure I was good to go for the following morning. It actually wasn’t as traumatising to get everything packed as I thought it would be. Especially after packing everything back home ended in me being panicked, I was nervous this would end up the same. But there was plenty of space, and since all my packing cubes were already labelled and I remembered kind of how I did it before, I wasn’t doing it completely from scratch. It ended up only taking me an hour or so, and was actually quite therapeutic to be able to keep my mind busy from overthinking the semester ahead of me. Of course as excited as I was to finally be in Glasgow (if that hasn’t been evident) I was also getting really apprehensive. What if uni there is a lot harder than back home? What if my expectations of the city are way too high and I don’t feel like I belong? What if my accommodation sucks? What if everyone is mean and judgemental and I can’t make friends? I was able to distract myself by thinking about what I could control, and trust me you’ve never seen a neater pair of suitcases than they were in that moment.
08/09
Today’s the day! I started today in London and finished the day in GLASGOW. Finally! It’s finally happening!
I woke up just before 8am to make sure I had plenty of time to get ready and organise myself so I wasn’t stressed, and ended up having time for a coffee as well before we had to head off. Jen and Graham wanted to come with me to the station, which was very sweet of them, so we left home just before 9am. It should’ve taken only half an hour or so to get from there into central London to Kings Cross, where my train left from, but (knowing my wonderful luck) there were ‘severe delays’ on the tube. Which was laughable, cos actually the entire Elizabeth line wasn’t working at all. We ended up having to take the District line in, which was 40 minutes compared to the 20 mins the Elizabeth line would’ve gotten us there in, but it was good to be going with Jen and Graham, they know the tubes much better than I do. They were also really relaxed about the whole situation, whereas I knew I would’ve been pretty highly strung in a scenario like that. Just get me to the train station.
We did make it to the station eventually, and I still had enough time to get a little baguette for lunch on the train, and another little drinkies before my platform was announced. It’s so funny to me how the trains work. The platform isn’t up until 10-15mins before the train actually departs, and you can arrive 2 minutes before that. It’s awesome. A lot of people were confused why I would take the train when I could’ve flown for potentially less, but that’s the thing. I love travelling by train! The whole process is so much easier, you just arrive and get on and it’s amazing. I had 2 trains to take today, the first from London to Edinburgh, which was 5.5 hours, and then the second from Edinburgh to Glasgow, which was 40 minutes.
The most confusing thing about the train was knowing where to board. You have a seat reserved, but the carriages weren’t labelled, and I didn’t know if the first-class carriage was A, or if it started with the first carriage of economy. I ended up getting on and off a couple of times trying to figure out which one my carriage actually was. Luckily, I found a girl who regularly takes this train and she showed me where to go thank god! Unfortunately by this point, most of the people had already boarded and there wasn’t any space left in the luggage racks at the end of each carriage. Again, luckily between each carriage on this train there was a sliding door to a small room where you could stack suitcases, which had just enough space for my suitcases. I did get a bit of a scolding though, one of the employees said that I had too much stuff for what my ticket allowed, which I definitely could’ve argued was incorrect, as I’m not the type of person to just bring whatever I wanted onto a train. I did my homework, and I knew what I was allowed to bring, and it was very much within the luggage limits. I think it was just because the train was pretty full, and everyone brought the maximum amount of luggage allowed per person, it wasn’t helpful that I too had the same amount. I didn’t bother making a scene because she said it would be likely I would be charged extra next time for it, but would let it go this time, so as long as I could get away with it this time I didn’t care, I won’t be taking this much stuff on a train again!
Once I finally got my stuff in and found my seat, the train was departing, so everything worked out well enough. I made sure to book a window seat, since I had heard that the journey was particularly scenic. And it definitely was once we made it to the northern half of England and into Scotland. The central bit of England, so maybe the first 2 hours wasn’t that special, but I was also exhausted and potentially still slightly hungover from Amsterdam, so I took that time to have a very much needed nap.
Waking up, I was greeted by dramatic coastline, beautifully misty rain, gorgeous old bridges, and tiny stone villages. This is why we prefer trains to planes my people!
Honestly 5.5 hours on a train feels like no time at all when you still have perfect reception and beautiful views, I had time to go to the toilet, nap, eat my lunch and look at the views for a bit, and then we had arrived in Edinburgh! For the 40 minutes I spent in the train station, I got great initial vibes from Edinburgh, and although it was bittersweet going through the city I was supposed to be moving to, I know everything happens for a reason, and clearly Glasgow was the place I was meant to be. And the train from Edinburgh to Glasgow was only just over 40 minutes, so it’s a super easy day trip when I actually have friends to do it with. Can’t wait to explore there when I can! But first thing’s first, let’s make it to Edinburgh.
The second train was much less busy than the one leaving London, so I left one suitcase in the luggage racks and kept the other one with me at my seat. I listened to my music for a bit and tried to take in the Scottish countryside, but really I was just itching to finally step foot in Glasgow and know that I was actually there, and nothing had gone wrong and I would have arrived!
And that’s just what happened! I pretty much sprinted off that train when we got to Queen St Station, and got spat out right at George Square, where (you guessed it) there were massive demonstrations being held over the weekend. I almost laughed when I realised what I had ended up in the middle of (yet again). Fortunately the walk to my accommodation was 15 minutes and away from the Square, so I didn’t have to go directly through it. Unfortunately for me and my 2 suitcases, bumbag and backpack, it was also 15 minutes up the steepest hill of the city. After 8 weeks of looking forward to finally being in my own space, realising I had to walk up that with 35kg of luggage seemed like the cruellest part of it all. But, knowing at the end of it would finally be able to have a shower and actually leave my shampoo in the bathroom was enough motivation to power through. And honestly I’m being dramatic, it really wasn’t that bad. I don’t know how I somehow have some strength left from pilates but it pulled through, I ended up getting up there faster than some people just with their handbag! Impressive, if you ask me.
I was so relieved to see my building at the end of the street, mostly because there was about 2% of me that was a bit worried it didn’t exist at all, but there it was! I walked right inside, and my keys were at reception waiting for me. One of the girls that works there is also a Lauren, and she took me up to my room which is on level 3, and gave me a little tour of the space. I was very happy with my room, the kitchen, the bathroom, everything! Very clean, and a lot more spacious than I was expecting. The only big downside was that it came with quite literally nothing. The kitchen was completely unfurnished, which was my biggest disappointment. I was very much looking forward to getting back into my meal prep, but there was absolutely nothing to use.
It was a bit jarring to go from feeling so excited and relieved to finally have the keys to my own place, to being so overwhelmed by the daunting task that you have nothing of what you need, and that the next couple of days that I initially thought would be for me to chill and explore the city would instead be for furnishing an apartment.
My first night in my place was a bit weird. I expected to be tired and eat something then just get 10 hours of sleep, but I felt really lonely, which I wasn’t expecting at all. I walked to the Tesco Express around the corner pretty much right after I arrived to buy some meals to tide me over until I could cook, and being a little bit out of the city meant I feel really tucked out of the way. Which I’m sure will be great during the semester, but when you’re in a new city, and most people in my accommodation hadn’t checked in yet, it was more isolating than I thought it would be. I’m not sure if I was feeling homesick, it was a different feeling than that. It was more a sense of uneasiness that everything I needed to figure out and get done would have to be done by me and me alone. No one else was going to figure it out for me. Got to get those big girl pants on!
I ended up having a little pizza for dinner and watching Inside Out (probably not the best movie selection when you’re in a fragile emotional state) and somehow the universe knew I needed a yap with someone, as just as I was getting out of the shower I got a call from Alex. We ended up chatting for around an hour, and it was exactly what I needed after the weird afternoon/evening. I ended up going to bed pretty late which was unexpected considering how shattered I felt, but having a long call with Alex was more valuable than sleep that night, so I think my priorities were in the right place.
I resolved to waking up the next morning and making a to do list to make the mountain of things I had to do less daunting, and went to bed.
Part 2 of the Settling in Series coming soon!
Currently MIA,
Lauren x
