One of Those Days

A few images from my lovely hotel



Globalized Glasgow, in the rain (look closely and see Aldo)



There's a time, on every trip, I think, when all that curiosity and wanderlust and ambition that propelled you onto this adventure--it all falls away and suddenly it's just you and a crappy beer and a way-too-fishy Caesar salad, and some weird guy across the bar who thinks you're available, and you're not, thank you very much (and even if you were, you wouldn't be interested). It's rainy and cold on this day, say, and your umbrella is cowering beneath the gale-force winds. All the cabs are taken, and anyway, you're feeling shy, and maybe you don't want to jump out in the middle of the street to wave one down--especially after you've already accidentally waved down one police car and some sort of promotional pizza van. Your feet hurt, and you're tired of hearing the sound of your heels on the pavement-- why didn't you pack another pair of shoes? Yes, there always seems to be a day like that on every trip. Or at least there always seems to be one for me. Or maybe two.

The truth is, traveling solo-- as often as I seem to find myself doing it-- isn't particularly fun. Popping into pubs isn't all that fun, alone, and walking long distances in the rain, alone, isn't all that amusing, and deciding whether your story is going to be a terrible failure or a rousing success, something you contemplate on a day to day basis on trips like this-- well, it's hard to do that when you're an extrovert, and you process things out loud, and yet there's no one around to listen (except that guy across the bar-- ew). Days like this bring up questions like this: what am I supposed to do in my FREE time on a reporting trip? I mean, I'm here on work, right? So, what do I do when I find myself with a few spare hours, or a spare half-day here and there? Join the tourist circuit and go check out some museums? Wile away the hours in a cafe? Go shopping? Perhaps some combination of the above. Until it gets dark, and the rain gets heavier, and the winds pick up-- and suddenly, you'd really rather be back at the hotel now. "Taxi!... Taxi??"

Thankfully, I got a few cool pictures out of today's adventures-- which I took while I was waiting, for about an hour, for a cab, in the rain. And I found out about a Comedy Festival that I plan to check out later this week. I also got some important emailing done, for interviews later this week. So there, today was productive after all. And as always, I will forget this blah day, this inbetween day-- because I always do. And that's what keeps me going.