I came to Glasgow to attend Glasgow University's post-graduate open house. Lots of smart people with lots of info hanging about in one room with tea and coffee for a couple hours - it was generally a good time. Best of all was their museum, the Hunterian, exhibit on the Antonine wall which helped to satisfy my love for antiquity. **small history lesson on Antonine and how awesome Romans are following**
Main building at Glasgow University. Unclear what the name is, but Bute Hall, where the post-grad stuff was, was apart of it. There are two courtyards inside and the arches are to die for. Any architect or history/art history enthusiast would agree.
It's no secret that the weather in Scotland is sub-par. While it was a beautiful, sunny, and warm day when I made out for the university, it turned for the worse shortly after I left. What I mean by that is sleet. I have no problem handling rain but the temperature outside changed so drastically within minutes that I had cold, stiff fingers and a very wet head! Naturally I ducked and hid inside a coffee shop to plan out the rest of my stay.
Beyond the university my time in Glasgow had two high particularly high points - Auchentoshan and Hootenanny. Sounds like a good time already, yea?!
Auchentoshan
A Lowland, triple distilled, single malt whiskey located on the outskirts of Glasgow in a place called Clydebank. I found Auchentoshan based on a recommendation from the coffee-making savoir at the cafe I hid from the weather in - and it was a fantastic recommendation! The tour guide, Flora, was sweet, accommodating and helpful! There were three of us on her tour - myself and a couple originally from Moscow but living in Glasgow for 15 years. We all got on quite well.
The tour itself was simple and what you'd expect - the distillation process from farmer to your glass but Flora was sure to explain that Auchentoshan is a very green company. They manage to recycle almost all the leftovers from the distilling process.
The only distillery in Scotland that triple distills! Their water comes from Loch Katrine in Stirling.
Hootenanny
My other favorite thing about Glasgow was a pub I found around the corner from the hostel. A place with great character and full of characters, called Hootenanny. I think the name is part of the attraction.
I had dinner there my first night - its hard to beat a full plate of British pub fare for 5 pounds! The bartender and manager, Colin, was quite accommodating and was happy to tell me about the area and the pub. The second bartender, David, was really great helping me plan my day at Auchentoshan and good for a chat (...I could never sit at a bar and NOT get to know everyone there). He was also the wonderful man who handed me a price list and pointed out that a pint of beer costs MORE than a dram of good single malt whiskey....which is crazy. And amazing. I quickly finished my pint and switched courses.
They have a live singer/pianist on Fridays and Saturdays and I'm happy I got to see Shonagh performing both days; she does a fantastic 'Sweet Home Alabama'!
Things to take away from Glasgow
- the University is visually and academically appealing and I really hope to be accepted
- the people are very friendly even if you can't understand a word they're saying
- there is live music everywhere
- the whiskey is cheap
- the weather sucks. drink more whiskey
- after dark it is a pure party town - stay indoors after midnight for you own sanity (when I went to catch my 5am bus to Newcastle the streets were still bursting with scantily clad girls and partying boys...still going out for a bite to eat, being drunk and raucous. Its a whole new world)
Me enjoying Auchentoshan. The top photo is at the first stage - malting. The second photo is the distilling phase. I'm standing at the second filter (trying to break in!).
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| Really cool building facade in St Enochs square (more of an area, really). It has metal ivy/leaves on the side that are lit and some other fun artsy structures. |
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| A small lake in front of Auchentoshan. Except that it isn't...the distillery was bombed in WWII and the lake is actually a crater |
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| TARDIS. I have no idea why it's there. In vain hope I did stand there for a bit crossing my fingers a Doctor would come out. No such luck. Its a bit beat and I'm not sure what the point is, but its neat, |
***
So! Romans are awesome. Really they're the English of ancient history. They pillaged, warred, imposed themselves on other cultures, built up other cultures/places, and left lasting marks wherever they went. To sum up, the Romans showed the English how to do Imperialism.
After Rome had expanded and the time of Caesar and Augustus had passed (note that all succeeding emperors had either Caesar or Augustus in their official name) there were some really crappy men in charge of a lot of people. In the year 96 BCE there began a time of the "5 good Emperors". In fact there are 6 of them but there were 5 successions.
- Nerva (ruled under 2 years, was the father of the Nerva-Antonine line..which was important because he adopted Trajan by choice and merit, not by blood or for power.
- Trajan (named 'optimus princeps' by the senate and oversaw the largest expansion of territory)
- Hadrian (Hadrian's Wall and the Pantheon in Rome)
- Antoninus Pius (Antonine Wall). His name, "Pius" was adopted after his succession for a couple reasons - he asked the senate to deify Hadrian and he also saved some senators from the death they had been sentenced to under Hadrian.
- Marcus Aurelius (author of Meditations)
- Lucius Verus (you may remember a small boy in the movie Gladiator...that's him!)
But this is about Antoninus Pius... the 4th 'good emperor' was originally from Gaul and was adopted by Hadrian to be his successor. The Antonine wall took about 20 years to construct and was further north than Hadrian's wall; it runs across Scotland just north of Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is a bit unclear as to why the wall was built so shortly after the completion of Hadrian's (larger, built across the North of England against the Britons to protect Rome's interests) but was likely in part to secure his tenure (each emperor in Rome has a legacy of monuments/temples/conquests to show his power) as emperor and to help defend against the Caledonians.
The wall is just about all dismantled now but some of the forts are still there or have been memorialized. Sections of wall can be found in museums (like the one at Glasgow Uni) along with the Legions' distance stones (which were carved for the Legion that did the work and the distance they completed). All construction work was completed by Rome's Legions and each stone will show a symbol to identify them.
Antonine's wall is cool, and so is Hadrian's! Go Rome!
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