Last Sunday it was my wonderful flatmate’s 25th birthday and to celebrate her quarter life crisis, we decided to do what we do best –  drink lots and lots of alcohol and take lots of photos of it. I’ll leave this post as fairly photo heavy and text light, but we had a cracking day touring about Glasgow and it really made me miss the West End!

First up was breakfast in Stirling at Monterey Jack’s. I’ve never been up early enough for their famous pancakes and I’m so glad we made it. I over ordered as usual…

We had a few train issues due to some industrial action and I felt a bit like Samantha from SATC trying to get us to Glasgow but we managed it and the celebrations kicked off straight away with the standard birthday embarrassment for Marzy! A woman across from us couldn’t stop laughing at us with our table cover, birthday banners and tacky alcohol (it was after 12!). That and I kept calling the new passengers gatecrashers…

We headed straight to the West End for midday mojitos in Vodka Wodka and a HUGE lunch at Cafe Andaluz. It was absolutely ideal, I felt like I was on holiday.

All that food was a big case of make or break and I’m so glad I had that ridiculously strong espresso (with condensed milk, GAME CHANGER). We headed back into the city centre on a recommendation to head to Sugar Dumplin’ with a quick dive into Lush first to pick up our #gayisOK soap bars. If you’ve not head of the campaign, you can still support it here.

The decor is so cool, no other word for it. I loved it and I’m getting George to make me a light fixture out of the copious number of empty gin bottles I have.

Sadly the atmosphere was severely lacking due to it being completely empty but I can imagine if it was busy, it really would feel like you were in the Caribbean (if you don’t look out the window). The cocktails were standard prices and tasty and the staff were fab, but I’d probably only head back in if I knew it’d be busier.

We finally made it to the place we’d planned to go to all along – Gin 71. Cup on the corner of Renfield St turns into a fantastic, juuuust slightly opulent gin bar after 6pm and it’s definitely my new favourite Glasgow haunt. I made a bold order of a No3 gin with coriander and lemongrass with Fevertree tonic. It’s one of the tastiest ways to serve a strong gin and I love it. The range is fantastic and the staff are super knowledgeable…and particularly handsome. By this time I was suitably rosy cheeked and I think I fell in love with one of the beardy barmen. I don’t even mind if they tell him, he was lovely.

I’m actually worrying about the sheer amount of different alcohol that I put in my wee body. This post doesn’t include the ‘waiting for the train to Glasgow gin’ or the ‘waiting for the train to Stirling gin’…

We made it home and popped into the Curly Coo to say hello to Mandy, the cracking wee landlady. She was all excited to say Happy Birthday to Marzy and even came to the table with a ferrero rocher with a candle in it. Adorable. I took a wee snap of the pub but I think I’ll do a proper post on it because it really is my favourite pub in Stirling.

You’d think we’d be taking it easy after all that but no no, we’re off out tonight. Don’t think I’ll do a blog post about pre-drinks pitch perfect soundtrack karaoke and ring of fire though…

Where did we go?

Vodka Wodka – Ashton Lane, Hillhead subway and turn left.

Cafe Andaluz – Cresswell Lane, come out of Vodka Wodka and stumble along the cobbles.

Sugar Dumplin’ – Princes Square, right at the top – go on a Saturday.

Gin 71 – In Cup but only after 6pm, near Burger Meats Bun on the corner of Renfield St.

Curly Coo – Stirling, but worth the trip through just to meet Mandy.