Italy vs Scotland

EVERY day that the Scottish football team plays a match, all hell breaks loose in Glasgow. We (as international students) were warned not to go wandering around without purpose on Sauchiehall Street on match days, and if you were here yesterday you'd know why.

I of course :) had a good reason to be out. I was going out to a noodle bar with some friends for a nice dinner. We don't do it often so we weren't about to turn around and sit in the flat just because there was a match going on. But when we walked over the hill and looked down on Sauchiehall, even I felt a little bit intimidated. The street was completely filled with people, most wearing kilts, with a scottish flag wrapped around their shoulders and faces painted blue and white. I was not dressed for this occasion, but at least I wasn't wearing Italian colors... I think that a fight had broken out on the left hand side of the street so we kept our distance and continued walking. It was around 7pm, so mob rule had already ensued - none of the pedestrians were obeying traffic laws so cars became periodically stuck in the middle of intersections. Police officers were running everywhere, about every 15 seconds you heard sirens and saw police lights fly by...Where there was a pub, there were a million people outside either waiting to get in or watching the match through a window. And because its illegal to drink alcohol outside of establishments, no one carried bottles of alcohol but everyone was pissed to high heaven. The funniest part was watching herds of completely plastered men run around singing and dancing in the street with complete abandon.

Despite how I make it sound, my friends and I made it through unharmed and we made it to the restaraunt - Wagamama's - after an hour of being lost in the street. But the wait was short and the food was excellent - i had noodle something (it was spicy) and coconut ice cream with chilled mango sauce and coconut chips on top. Of course I remember exactly what the dessert was.