Day 4 (September 17, 2025):Glasgow

Gaslamps and Graffiti                                                    

(by Emma A., Emma W. and Carlotta)

Our day started a bit later than yesterday. At 9.30 we met up in the lobby and then walked to the house of Ms Agnes Toward. Agnes was a lady that lived in a tenement house from 1911 to 1965. The special thing about her apartment was that since she and her mother had moved in they didn’t change much. Later it was bought by the daughter of a friend of her who then sold it to the “National Trust for Scotland“. Nowadays people refer to it as a time capsule of the early 20th century. We had the chance to walk around and discover her apartment and later could read some of her letters and pamphlets. Most of them were about marital advice, which is upsetting because she herself was never married but seems to have tried very hard. 

It was very interesting to see all the different products that the people used back in the day, and a friendly guide was there to answer all of our questions. 

For lunchtime we went our separate ways as we had to meet up again at 2 o’clock. Some ate in the city and others, like us, preferred to return to the hostel and cook for themselves. Back in the city we had a very nice and interesting tour about Glaswegian (Glasgow) street art. Our very funny tour guide named Gabe told us interesting facts and stories about the local culture and their artists. One artist named Smug impressed him and us the most. 

 

He specialises in realistic work of human texture and in light reflections. The piece above, which is very popular, shows all these aspects. Each section of the mural depicts one season of the year and all the animals you can see in Scotland during this time of the year. If you look very closely, you can even notice that the reflections in the eyes of the animals show the skyline of the opposite side of the street. The craziest thing about it is that the artist finished this piece in only two weeks. As a point of reference: it is about thirty meters long and seven meters high. 

After the tour, two of the students even decided to do a project on their own on a so-called tolerated wall. It turned out great. 

For dinner most of us ate at the hostel. Before we went to bed we played some games. 

Have a lovely sleep y’all!