I am in a Bubble. Literally though, I am sitting in this café in the lobby of Erin’s dorm entitled “The Bubble”. Nice bustling place with coffee & baguettes ready at hand, sitting one table away from HILARIOUS bantering British students. I may be creeping, but what better blogging environment would one ask for?

&& So let the blogging begin… emm…. Well basically, since our Lovely disaster at Stirling last Thursday, we have witnessed RAGING pre-puberty Scottish boys, drum-wielding Scotts who wish they were Irish, and a drunk woman LITERALLY crawling onto a bus. Where else could all this take place within the confines of one city, than the looovely GLASGOW! (Which is QUICKLY becoming my favorite city in Scotland, in spite of, or perhaps because of, these epic & hilarious events).

As explained in earlier blogs, or at least an attempt at an explanation, Scotland has not only a huge obsession with Football (Soccer, for you clever Americans) but for two individual Glasgow teams in particular: The Celtic & The Rangers. Apparently, one cannot leave Scotland without going to witness yourself, one of these epic teams at play. So, Saturday was the day that Mike, Erin & I bought tickets with the infamous Joshua Hannah to go to Celtic Park & watch our FIRST SCOTTISH SOCCER GAME!

So, on a beautiful Saturday morning, Erin & I trek it to the St Andrews bus station in hope that Michael Gilmartin has actually woken up this time to make the bus. It can be summed up in Erin’s statement “I am going to be pissed if he misses this bus just because we didn’t call him, I’m not his mother!” haa. Coincidence would have it that Michael happened to make it earlier than us & we found him calmly sitting on the bus bench. So, trio reunited, we hopped on an early bus for the 2 ½ hr trip to Glasgow.

As we hop off, 3 hours later, we find a leisure Josh Hannah waiting at the station to greet us. (: This being Mike’s first time to Glasgow, we decided to grab a coffee on Buchanan street (the main shopping mile of Glasgow) & then slowly make our way through the centre of the city to show Mike as much of Glasgow as possible. With so little time, Mike was unable to see my favorite parts of the city, but from what he was able to walk around & witness, I hope he loved! The plan was, to find a bar on the way to the Stadium to witness the crazy fans at their finest, because apparently the walk TO the stadium is supposed to be just as, if not more so, epic as the game itself. After my first Heineken (Yes, Stacey, it was in honor of YOU!) at a posh bar we begin our walk to Celtic Park.

The thing about Celtic Park is that it is located in the WORST part of Glasgow, the “projects” if you will. So, to get the full effect it is necessary to walk to the game with the MASSIVE amounts of people all dressed in Green & White. Within seconds / LITERALLY turning a corner, you exit the nice, posh area of Glas. & enter into what can be perfectly described as the “normal” run-down parts of Detroit. Josh kind of scared us with his tales of blood & chaos we were going to experience in the “projects of Glasgow”, but I REALLY think he underestimated just how AT HOME we can sometimes feel in a Detroit setting. I mean, it was run down, and it was by no means the place you would want to be at night, but having lived in or near Detroit my whole life, by my standards it wasn’t really that bad at all.

My Detroit speech aside, on our walk past the graffiti buildings, deep-fry stands, and carts containing NUMEROUS Celtic green & white paraphernalia, we gradually started becoming immersed into the “Celtic atmosphere” that is so widely known and loved. It is as if the further and further you walk into the “ghetto”, the more and more Irish these Scotts wish they were. The Celtic team being originally an Irish team, obviously their colors, chants, emblems all resemble Ireland / Irish culture. So, it came to no surprise when we walked into this hole in the wall bar (I WAS SOOO EXCITED FOR THIS! Perhaps, moreso than the game itself! To be with the native Celtics (; It took SOOOOOO much convincing to allow cautious Josh Hannah to allow us “American naïve byrds” to enter a REAL Celtic Bar, with REAL crazy fans. My vote was to enter the bar (pictured to the left) across the street that his father specifically told him NOT to take us too… for “our own safety”, PSHH! I can take a few drunk Celtic fans! All for the more authentic experience, I say. But, in that argument: I lost. So in we go, to the SECOND best “Celtic looking” bar I could find) I was not disappointed. This TINY wee bar held not only men garbed in the green & white stripes, but also a BAND of sorts, composed of drunk Scotts carrying HUGE drums and fiddle/whistle things. So, we spent the next 20minutes listening to these crazy fans/band singing chants to a very Irish sounding band, all the while Josh was eying every person in the place. Our scout for danger, I suppose. I don’t know if I was being just some naïve American, but I felt as safe as a… well.. just safe. So thanks for the concern cautious Scott, I am sure padre will be thankful. All in all, definitely (most of) the experience I was looking for.

The rest of the walk to the Stadium consisted mostly of one flow of green and white, chaos, and chanting; All in good fun. What surprised me most when we walked up to the stadium was that... well.. you could do just that. There was no outer gate surrounding the structure like in America, and there were no ticket takers to allow access to the building. The ticket part was required when you were trying to enter into the stands. So, we scan our ticket, I get stuck in the turnaround cage access-thing, and we finally make it to our upper level seats. The scott said we had crappy tickets, but I thought they were PERFECT! We had an open view of the ENTIRE field, with little obstruction, surrounded by Celtic loving Scottish men... That’s qualifications for perfect in my book. The experience at the game was such an…amazing one that I am not even going to attempt to describe it. I am sorry. Basics: being surrounded by fans that HEART AND SOUL loved what the team and the game going on in front of us. Whether or not we were into the game, you HAD to be drawn into the genuine passion of it all.

What probably MADE the full experience, were the group of what SOUNDED like post-puberty guys screaming and yelling at every play, every call, and every kick in their AMAZING accented way. The constant soundtrack of “OH FUCK OFF REF! YOU STUPID WANKER!” & the singing of EVERY Celtic song ever created, throughout the ENTIRE game just left Erin & I laughing to ourselves & smiling out right the entire time. We were in heaven, just soaking in the atmosphere. Just perfect Little did we know, that upon turning around to get a glance at these raging fans, we found what looked like pre-puberty 13year olds. An awkward moment, but did not detract from the overall amazingness of their excitement!. In the end, the Celtic ended up wining 2-0, to the crowds GREAT approval. We left the park with nearly every one of our expectations met. No fighting, or masculine-showdowns, but I guess that can wait till the next game.

We gradually follow the crowd and make our way back to the safer posh city-center. We would have called a taxi, but apparently as soon as you mention “The stadium”, they simply say no & proceed to hang-up on you. Before we caught the last bus back home, we walked around the city in an attempt to find some decent food. We ended up settling on some the WORST pizza of my life & seeing the gorgeous string lights located in Glasgow’s square. The trip home was a long one, especially discovering that we had some more pre-teenage Celtic fans, so graciously singing every celtic song (yet again) throughout the entire 2 ½ bus ride.

Despite the loooooong bus rides to and from our near 7hour excursion, it made for a perfect day & such a great experience. Now, it is Wednesday, classes are over & it is time to start the weekend full of essays and Scottish novels. Quiet weekend in St. Andrews, getting ahead on these essays is exactly what we need before our visit from Martyn Elizabeth Fox next week! 5 days, 4 cities in Scotland. BRING IT ON! If this week is productive week(end), then next weekend can be pure entertainment with bestie (: