Sunday at the hotel

Sunday wasn't all that eventful. I did laundry, woo. I should have been able to walk two blocks and turn left, but due to some roadwork, I had to walk three blocks, up, and back. Of course coming back I was able to go down just the one street. Confused? Somehow, I wasn't. Although, I am confused how it's fair to charge 20 pence for THREE minutes of drying time. I spent 2 pounds ($3) for a half hour to dry my clothes, sheesh.

For lunch, I went down to Sauchiehall Street (the main street of restaurants and shops) and turned right instead of left, and tried a different Chinese buffet, which was pretty good. I didn't do any sight-seeing since my foot and leg were still bothering me, but about 5:30 pm I headed towards the train station. Not a complicated route, I took Renfrew Street (the gradual slope, not the insanely steep streets) a few blocks, turned right, then left on to Sauchiehall. By the way, that's pronounced SAW-(ch)ee-hall, with the "ch" being the soft "ch" sound like you're working up some spit. It's from Gaelic and means something about a meadow of willow trees, I believe. Anyway, the street dead-ends at the Royal Music Hall of Scotland, and you turn right and follow that street around. Just next to the Royal Music Hall is Buchanan Galleries, which is a three story shopping mall. The Tron Church is just a few blocks down, and the train station is a left turn from there. I saw so many street musicians, from Clanadonia (the group of men in kilts playing bagpipes and drums) to a guy with a guitar who sang something like "Rocky Mountain High" and then "House of the Rising Sun" (I recorded him and tipped him), a guy in Native American garb (I think South American) playing a panpipe. He as playing along with a recording, but I gave him a little bit of money for being so bold. I completely passed a black woman playing small conga drums and singing because she was just bad.

I got to the Tron Church, where I met up with my Edinburgh friend, just before 6:30 pm and we went in to the worship service. It was a good service, the minister had a very good message about John chapter 3, some interesting thoughts. He pointed out that in the original Greek, there was no such thing as punctuation and translators have to guess where to put things like commas and quotation marks. They tend to include John 3:16-21 as part of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, but there is disagreement, and this minister believes that it is actually an explanatory sidenote by John. Verses 22 through the end of the chapter follow a similar format of telling an event followed by an explanatory sidenote, at least in the English Standard Version translation (which ends John the Baptist's quote at verse 31). The minister discussed why God wanted to save the world (because he loved it so much), what he had to give up (his only Son), for what purpose (so that the people of the world can have eternal life). He also pointed out that not everyone can be saved, but those who believe; that there are those who shun the light because they enjoy their wicked ways and would rather continue in them than be saved.

After the service, we went to a Starbucks (there were three within a quarter mile!) for a quick chai latte each and a little dessert, then we went to the train station so she could return to Edinburgh, and so I could inquire about a train ticket. My next post: my adventure to the Highlands.