What Kind of Language is Ghoulish?

One of the ports on our British Isles cruise a couple years back was Greenock, Scotland. We’d done our research and knew that a quick train ride would take us to Glasgow.

Before we’d left home, I’d bought City Sightseeing Glasgow Hop-On Hop-Off Tour tickets for us from our affiliate, Viator. (Because we’ve found we love taking HoHos when we can.)

Plugging In

We found the HoHo stop, exchanged our Viator vouchers and were given headsets upon boarding the bus.

I didn’t really pay attention to all the language selections at first. Pretty much I did what I always do and looked for the English one.

Which in this case was the first channel. (And was a little off-putting because it was our first time on British soil. Where was the familiar red, white and blue American flag I was familiar with from other HoHos to indicate the channel I wanted? Not on this one, toots. You’re on English soil now!)

At any rate, the narrator had a pleasant English accent and, most importantly, I could understand him.

I merrily listened to the narration until it was time for us to get off at our first stop, which was near the Necropolis.

I didn’t pay much mind to the other choices then. But after we finished walking around the Necropolis and hopped back on to continue the rest of the HoHo tour, I got curious…

What Does Ghoulish Sound Like?

I’m not very curious by nature. I mean, I am. I look at things and wonder, “Hmmm…” but rarely do I investigate or explore to answer any questions I may have.

This was sort of a lesson that I need to change that.

I hadn’t really paid attention to all of the language choices for the headset narration because I really only understand one. English.

However, one did catch my eye. One I’d never heard of before.

“Ghoulish. Glasgow.”

“Glasgow has it own language?” I wondered. Then, later, “I wonder what that sounds like?”

I did finally end up pushing the button just to listen and low and behold, what’s this? Still English? I can understand it!

But, wait, what are they talking about? The narration is a bit different. The topics are a bit darker.

Heck even the narrator was a bit different. (Narrators? I forget now, so much time has passed. There may have been two, a man and a woman.)

At any rate, they were otherworldly. And they were dishing about Glasgow’s grittier, more macabre side.

Fluent in Ghoulish

Mysteries, murders, and ghosts…they were speaking my language! The language of dark tourism!

Okay so it’s not really a language, but if you’re like me and lean towards such things, imagine how much fun it’d be to discover such a channel!

Then I got a little mad.

Why don’t they advertise this more? Like on the the brochure map they gave us?

Well, it’s there all right if I’d taken time to look more closely.

Sort of.

They bill it as “kids commentary,” not so much paranormal or mystery.

Great. So you know what that means right? I’m really fluent in “inner-child.”

Is Ghoulish Really Child Appropriate?

But when I did discover their mention of the G for Ghoulish kids commentary it was after I’d listened to a good portion of it.

Not that any of the stories were graphic, but a couple were a bit grim and gruesome. Not to mention a tad scary.

But there were some great ghost stories thrown in too.

A Couple of the Ghoulish Ghost Stories

1. The Witch’s Skull in Saracen’s Head – When the bus passed Saracen’s Head pub, the commentary told about the lady who had been burned there for being a witch and now her skull is kept behind the counter. Not sure if her ghost haunts there, but it made for an interesting story.
2. The Woman in the River, or a Case of Astral Projection in the Park – I don’t remember at what part of the tour we were on, it may have been when we were by the Botanic Gardens, but this was a ghost story involving a park. The story happened in the 1700s. Two men were walking in a park when they saw another man they knew laying in the grass. They asked if he was alright. He said he wasn’t doing well and something about how they should look in the river. They did and ended up finding the body of a woman. When they turned around, the other man was gone. I’m not sure if they thought he had something to do with the woman’s demise or had answers about it, but it turned out that the man was not ever in the park at the same time they were. He had witnesses that he was elsewhere at that time. Trés bizarre.

The only trouble is, now I’m spoiled. I feel disappointed every time I get on a HoHo and see “regular” languages.

But I keep getting on hoping I’ll find other Ghoulish commentaries in other cities.

Have you discovered any? Be sure to leave a comment letting me know where!