I walked alone down the pitch-black street. My shadow was my only companion. I walked aimlessly without direction. The only thing I could hear was the sound of my steps on the pavement, and that sound marked the minutes. The stars slowly emerged in the sky, drawing a path on which I dreamed I was walking aimlessly, without direction. I walked alone for years and my steps counted the minutes, the hours, the days. The path led me to the river, to the shore, to the pine woods. I walked down the road, thinking that I will never stop walking, I thought that I love the road, more than everything, more than anyone. 

    ​Passing every day on my way to and from university, I found myself spending most of my week on Byres Road. I've always liked the vibrancy of the street in the morning, the cars buzzing along, the people hurrying to catch the subway, the way that you can get lost in the crowd of students in a rush hour and suddenly bump into a friend you haven’t seen in a long time. Byres Road has it all! If you want to take a break from the busy street, you can simply hide in one of the many coffee shops or restaurants, or if you are like me you can bury yourself in the pile of books of the new Waterstones book shop or Oxfam or Hillhead Library or wherever you can find a pile of books on Byres Road. As much as I like the dynamics of the heart of the West End, I prefer the quiet places. That’s the reason why I love Byres Road - you can easily escape it by taking a stroll into one of the lanes, especially Ashton Lane and Cresswell Lane and enjoying the autumn colours slowly changing rainy Glasgow into a beautiful winter prelude, I tend to do that quite a lot.