A little french's journey - Day two

Et je continue ^^.

Early :

I was so tired yesterday that I went to sleep early. Now it's 5 o'clock and I'm ready to begin the day!

Later this morning :

Well, I wasn't that ready finally :D. I slept again.
After a little check on the web, I saw that Google that the logo was disguised as Nessy, the Lockness' monster. 
Nothing to do with that, apparently, today is the Queen's anniversary.

Later :

Believe it or not, the man doing the breakfast is French ^^. He helped me to book a bus tour for Thursday et gave me some explanations that were lacking from yesterday when I came.
After a stop at shop nearby to take some food, I walked to the Botanic Garden.

The park was great and the greenhouses were enjoyable. In some areas you could find some stone blocks with poetry on it.

"Our dreams are as bright as your lions;
those golden beasts in tapestries of thought"

I took a little too much time to reach the bus stop and I had to wait a long time but it gave me the opportunity to discuss with a couple of Canadians : Gloria and Gail who were waiting the same bus. Funnily enough during the day our paths crossed several times ^^.

The bus was a classic Hop-On Hop-Off. The one I took was live commented by a Scottish man. My god the accent he had! After a long stop, Gloria told me that she didn't understand either. I felt less stupid after while, because if a native English talking person didn't understand, it could explain why I struggled that much!
But after a while my ears began to take the round. You have to make a lot of phonemic substitutions. The only limit is the pace of conversation. That was my real first day, so I was happy at the end of the tour to understand more than 50% of what was said ^^.

Here some keys in French phonetic :

• "i" in "right" pronounced "aï" become "èï"
• "ow" in "now" pronounced kind of "ao" become "eu" with a little bit of "u" at the end
• "oo" in "food" pronounced as a long "ou" become a kind of short "u"
• "ch" at the end of a word can sometimes be pronounced dry "r" like the German "ch" in "auch".
• in general the "r" are rolled but it's a short roll, not like in Spanish.

I'm telling you that like it's horrible but I really love the Scottish accents! I mean it's hard in the first place because you're struggling to understand, but for me it's easier to speak with a Scottish accent than with the English one we're learning at school. And, imitating it,  I can hide a little bit of my terrible French accent ;D.


Well, the language put aside, the tour gave me the opportunity to see a large part of the city. I can't said that Glasgow is a beautiful city because the architecture feels kinda random, but some place are great and the street arts making some buildings better looking.
It has its charm and I'm warming to it.

Noon :

I've made a stop at Green Park which have seen some great moments of Glaswegian history. I visited the People's house, a really interesting museum about the history of the city. I met Gloria and Gail two times in a row there ^^.
The city was in a high level of technology once, but as most of the industrial cities, it shined bright and then decayed. But the Glaswegians are strong, clever and supportive. There is a saying here which I read a lot on the streets : "people make Glasgow". Looking at their history, it seems very truth ^^.

Inside the People's House

Afternoon :

After lunch, I went to the St Mungo's Cathedral which is a magnificent building in dark stones.
I visited the crypt and the romantic graveyard beyond : Necropolis - and by its size It could be the name yes!
It's kinda strange but the graveyard are like parks there. Youngsters can be found there chatting, making there homework and so ...

St Mungo's Cathedral

At the top of Necropolis

I walked back to the city centre and took another Hop-On Hop-Off bus to return to the Botanic Garden which is near my b&b. This time the tour wasn't live commented and I completed what I learnt in the morning with the recorded voice.

It was almost 6 o'clock when I came back home. I'm ready to see more tomorrow ^^!

PS : There are lot of Tardis in Glasgow! I tried not to fangirling too much XD