A funny place …

Duke of Wellington

I may have mentionned in the past that I had a lukewarm first reaction to Glasgow. Some might even say I didn’t like it here. I mean with all the people running around drunk by dinner time, the junkies, the prostitutes and other neds©(*), can you really blame the guy who’s lived in Berlin for two years? But under its seemingly ragged exterior Glesga may have hidden qualities. The West-End ain’t half bad, and Ashton lane is just cute. But the neighborhood that’s really started turning things around for me is Partick. Kaska and I went Christmas shopping there a couple of days ago, and there is a live-able atmosphere to the place. It almost had a Berlin on a Saturday morning feel to it. I hear even better things about my future neighborhood of Shawlands. If those rumors pan out, then Glesga and I may turn a corner.

Another redeeming quality of the city is its people. Glaswegians are amongst the funniest people I ever met, and I am from Morocco. Take this picture for example. This statue of the Duke of Wellington is set in Merchant Square, in front of the Gallery of Modern Art. It is a Glasgow institution that, periodically, someone would climb up and place a road cone over the rider’s head. I read somewhere that sometimes you would see it with a cone on the horse’s head as well, but that true Glaswegians consider this a faux-pas. There is something wickedly funny about considering two cones on a statue bad taste, while one cone is juuust right …

(*)ned(s)©: Non-Educated Delinquant. Neds may be easily recognized by their uniform: trainers, track suit, baseball cap. Glasgow claims to be ground-zero of the ned epidemic. I believe it.