The biggest city in Scotland.

Attractions

Kelvingrove Park

Kelvingrove Museum

A free museum! My head exploded when learned that. That’s what the high tax rate in Europe should be used for.

It’s like a bit like Taiwan’s 奇美博物館, except it’s better and is free. 奇美博物館 has a pretty building and contains a wide variety of items, while Kelvingrove Museum is even more beautiful in both the exterior and interior, and it also has more high-quality displays.

Riverside Museum

In a display room talking about the development of Glasgow in Kelvingrove Museum, there’s a super epic-looking building in one of the photos. After finding out it to be Riverside Museum located not far away using the amazing Google lens, I decided to visit it.

The actual museum turned out to be pretty underwhelming. The building didn’t look nearly as amazing as it was in the photos. It’s also free tho.

It’s actually a transportation museum with all kinds of relevant and irrelevant displays. It’s mainly for children actually, and there are tons of them there.

Oh and it’s beside a river.

University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow has a ridiculously luxurious study center. It was my first day in Glasgow, and I was wandering around the streets under a mild rain. I passed by a glowing building with a sign, “James McCune Smith Learning Hub”, and it seemed to be free of entry. So I went in, turned out it is several stories tall.

I went up the stories with the escalator, and my mind went 🤯 There are all sorts of seats, some ordinary, some in crazy styles, some open, some very private., some for one person, some for a group of people. Each floor is also pretty different. At National Taiwan University, we have several libraries and study places, some are really good, but none reach the height of it, not even remotely close.

There’s even 2 or 3 super private 4D sofa seats on the top floor, absolutely crazy.

The main campus area is also very beautiful. There’s even a castle-like building, straight up from Assassin’s Creed. The longer I stay here, the shittier Taiwan becomes. Well to be fair, under a bright sunny day, National Taiwan University is still gorgeous. But with all the money it gets, there really should be something like James McCune Smith Learning Hub. The EE department should stop building more useless buildings for one.

Glasgow Central Station

Glasgow Central Station is MASSIVE. You won’t necessarily feel that when you’re inside, but when you’re out walking on the streets, you can’t walk for 5 minutes and still be just beside the station.

City Center

Glasgow Airport

Glasgow Airport has a pretty basic public area. When I first landed there, it gave me an impression of a tiny airport in a poor third-world country. However, at the day I left Scotland for Taiwan, I discovered that it actually has a pretty awesome secure area, accessible only after you get your bags and passport checked.

There are tons of good restaurants and cafes there, so I picked one with window seats and ordered an overpriced peanut-size meal with a latte, and stayed there using my laptop until 20 minutes before boarding time. I would say it’s much better than Taiwan’s airport (TPE). There are no decent cafes or restaurants in Taoyuan Airport unless you go to a lounge despite being the biggest airport in Taiwan.

The gate is also pretty cozy and comfortable, definitely much better than Dubai’s. Dubai Airport is such a strange airport. It’s massive, and they surely get a lot of money, but its interior feels pretty cheap. No culture. The worst mega-airport I’ve ever been in. Singapore, Heathrow, and Turkey for example all look decent.

Transportation

I’ve tried taking a bus, taking a train, riding a bike, and walking in Glasgow.

Train

Train is a pretty nice way to get around Glasgow. There’s one beside my hotel, and several in the city center. Some stations don’t have a gate tho, so you can go on a train without a ticket. You’ll most probably need to show your ticket to the train conductor at some point on your journey tho.

Bus

You need the First Bus app to take the bus as a foreigner. Just register, find the desired route on Google Maps, buy the ticket on the app, and then scan the QR code when getting on the bus.

The station for the bus to the city center is just outside of the airport and has a bus like every 15 minutes, with a huge luggage storage.

Cycling

Glasgow really isn’t bike-friendly at all. For most of the roads, there are only 1 or 2 car lanes and the pavement. Bike lanes are basically inexistent, and since the car lanes are right beside the pavement (no scooters of course), there is no place for a bike to be on the road.

The pavements are big and wide, however, they are for pedestrians, and there are LOTS of pedestrians in Glasgow. Only in the most off-peak hours can you possibly ride a bike through the city center without any obstacles.

Walking

Walking in Glasgow is the best. The pavements are nicely constructed, and the roads are easy to cross.

To cross a road currently in red light, you can press a button and wait for the light to turn green and then cross, or just cross it anyway when you find it safe to do so like every other Glasgow pedestrian, or I should say, every people in the world.

The city center is not very suitcase friendly tho. Or more generally speaking, the pavements of the city center are not wheel friendly at all. There are so many bumps and cracks.

Hotels

I’ve stayed in 2 hotels, Moxy Glasgow SEC & Motel One Glasgow.

Moxy Glasgow SEC

This is a really bad 3-star hotel compared to other ones in Scotland I’ve stayed in. The room lacks a lot of basic things. No safe, no desk, and no “Do Not Disturb” signs. The showerhead is undetachable, which is super inconvenient. The hot water is inconsistent. The room is also pretty small. Staying in this hotel will only make sense if you have no plan other than attending some events in the Hydro or the Scottish Event campus, since they’re only a 5-minute walk from the hotel.

6/10 don’t recommend.

Motel One Glasgow

I stayed in this hotel the day before my return flight. It’s a very solid and almost flawless 3-star hotel. It’s located right in the city center, and the views from the 9th floor (where my room was) are pretty nice. There is a safe, a desk, “Do Not Disturb” signs, a detachable showerhead and consistent hot water, all inside a spacious room. It’s everything you want from a 3-star hotel.

9/10. I may very well choose to stay there if I go to Glasgow again.