We're home!

I don't know if I'm going to dive into posting about the trip straight away - but I wanted to let everyone know that we're home and all four flights were successful :) We actually got home last night and I was falling asleep at 9:15pm! When I woke up this morning, bright eyed & bushy tailed at 5:20am I was happy to realize that I think we didn't mess up our internal clock too much and I just hope I'll be able to fall asleep & wake up so easily indefinitely.

Here's a short list of what I'm going to miss and what I'm not going to miss from Scotland...

I'm NOT going to miss:

• The smell of gas on all the streets. It appears that despite all of their commercials about saving the environment they don't have very strong smog regulations in place, at least not in comparison to California that has some of the strictest. I know that everyone complains about smog checks and all that, but I'm now very grateful. Being able to walk down the street - or be in the vicinity of cars without gagging on fumes - is nice.
  
• Lack of toilet seat covers, and toilets that flush the first time. Before everyone starts in about the toilet seat covers, I know that there have been studies that prove them next to worthless - but that doesn't matter to my piece of mind and I'm just glad to have them back in public restrooms.
• Driving. Enough said.
• Banking hours - for EVERY business. I'm an American and a Californian, the fact that I can't find hot food at 1am is appalling and was very frustrating as we couldn't adjust to the time change despite waking at the crack of dawn for our included breakfast everyday.

I'm going to miss, very very much:

• The sky. I'm going to miss those thick sweeping clouds that moved faster than us and spotted the hills with shadows. Playing peek-a-boo with the sun was a big game that we never get to play here.
  
• The wet weather. Everywhere we went, people were apologizing about the weather - and everywhere we went we said, "This is what we came for!" I'd like to point out that it was in the high 90s (° Fahrenheit) with a chance of burning alive while we were gone from our home area.
  
• The sight of livestock everywhere. I was telling my dad when he asked if we saw sheep, "We saw them everywhere - and up to the very end I shouted 'SHEEP' or 'COWS' every time we saw some!" :) I don't know much about sheep, so I'm just going to assume it's our luck, but there were lambs everywhere. I felt like I was browsing cute overload 24/7!
• The easy access to fresh, affordable produce. The reason I don't eat as many fruits and veggies as I'd like is because everything that looks good and fresh, is so expensive! Since we had to feed ourselves a lot because we missed the open hours of so many places, I began to rely on these stores. I love Sainsbury!
• The open, open landscape. I'm going to miss this one the most I think. Everyone had boundaries to their properties - it just wasn't as loud and foreboding as it is here. Short rock walls and tree lines seemed to be all they needed - and that's what I'm going to miss. If I never saw another chain link fence again - I'd be ecstatic.

Anyhow... So I'm home. I was really home sick towards the end but now that I'm here I feel like I just left and I'm so sad it's all over so soon :(

A few hiccups, but what's new?

The flight to Dublin was long, very, very long. But was on the whole enjoyable. I wasn't able to sleep more than a half hour or so, and there was this set of little girls that I really wanted to drug, but other than that it was good. We got a full dinner of beef ravioli and a good light breakfast that really refreshed me - maybe I'm just not picky but I liked it a lot! Take off was actually very fun and landing was a breeze, I like to fly!

When we landed we went through the airport and bought our bus tour passes. We were told to meet our luggage in Glasgow - which I didn't even think about but I'm so glad that how it was going to work because having to tug that luggage on the tour would have been a nightmare! The tour was very nice - fast paced! I was shocked by how the traffic worked in Dublin. Pedestrians were not God like - but acted like it. The cars passed so close together sometimes I thought we'd crash! Whenever the doors shut the driver took off like a shot and you just prayed you were in your seat. When we went on the transit bus (different from the tour bus) all the locals looked to take it in stride so I assume personal injury lawsuits aren't nearly as out of control as in the States.

By 2pm local time, I was exhausted and actually began to feel nauseated - so we cut the tour short and headed back to the airport. There I found the one and only bunch of seats that didn't have permanent armrests and slept a teeny bit. We jumped onto the flight and almost directly after takeoff we were landing again as it was only a 45 minute flight. We landed and I was barely able to stand on my feet as we waited for our luggage. Then the hiccup came - our luggage never showed. Apparently it was held back in Dublin for no apparent reason and we'd get it the next day. I'm going to down play it here - but I was pretty broken up about it. I needed sleep, a shower, and I was getting hardly either of both. But I was nice and didn't get mad - only sad - and left with my one carry on that only had my contact case & glasses and Linnet.

Then came the second hiccup. Driving. I don't know what I was thinking - I didn't do nearly enough research. I stupidly thought that it would be the same - other than the driving on the left side of the road thing. It's not. They don't have stop signs as far as I can tell - but rather yield symbols on the road and do not enter signs. Glasgow is so busy - the area we're staying in has a ton of one-way streets which made getting lost easy and getting found very UNeasy. We drove in circles for what seemed like hours but what was in reality only an hour and a half for a supposed ten minute trip. Early on I broke down from no sleep, hunger, a full bladder and then accidentally driving on the right side for a second and Paul had to take over. He's wonderful at taking direction that I'm good at giving and just getting us there. It might have taken awhile but it was so less stressful than me trying to drive.

To top off the hiccups - our phones actually DO NOT work here... at all. I'd be fine with this - but both of our parents were looking to make sure we'd landed all right and since I told them our phones would work I knew that they'd panic. Plus, with us having no idea where we're going - being unable to call our hotel for help was a big inconvenience - to put it mildly. I cant call T-Mobile as they only have a 800 number and 800 numbers are not accepted here. I've tried emailing them but it's been over 24 hours and no matter the time difference that is still surprising. We went to a T-Mobile store over here but they were not very helpful other than telling us to get a phone card. We bought one for £5 that gave us a lot of minutes and so we're just going to use that and buy another later. The pay phones are gross here (the booth I was in smelled like urine and the one next had vomit dripping down the window on the inside - eeeewww!) - I don' t like using them - but I'm doing what I have to.

We got our luggage this morning and tried out the power converter. It works! However it took us awhile to get the laptop working with it. Wouldn't be a big deal if our phones worked but they don't. Tonight I'm going to get DETAILED directions for the rest of our stops and saved them offline to our laptop since we can't print. That way I can just pull out the laptop if we get lost. Oh! And the car is nice, so teeny but nice - and hybrid apparently so I hope that it saves up on gas. We've had to spend a bit more money already in getting some phone cards in order to contact our families - so I hope to make that up on the gas.

Hiccups aside: We're doing great. I'm excited to get out of Glasgow and the busy city though and continue on! We leave tomorrow morning for Fort William and this will likely be my last post until Edinburgh because I'm assuming we wont have internet connection at any of the B&Bs and my phone is unusable. I've uploaded some pictures - but not many - more later I promise!!!

On the plane!!!

I took the window seat!

Day 1: LAX

We woke early on Monday to start packing in the hopes that having the whole process fresh in our minds would keep us from forgetting anything. I was also hoping that by waking early we'd be exhausted for the plane ride - I was still skeptical that I'd sleep even though everyone said that's what would happen. We had plans to leave around 11am because our flight was scheduled for 4:15pm and we knew it would take us about an hour and half to two hours to get to the airport. We also built in plenty of time to get through security as I had no idea what to expect. I'd never flown and we were also traveling internationally.

Paul's parents had volunteered to take us to the airport and they showed up close to 10:30am. I was running around at that point because I'd forgotten to print out our paperwork (not tickets, just planning paperwork) and also get all these last minute things done. His mom started building this list of things that Paul needed and of course he hadn't packed any of them. I really wanted to make sure the house was clean too, and I was worried we'd forget to take out the trash and run the dishes and whatnot and come back to a rancid smelling apartment. That wasn't the welcome home I wanted! My own parents showed close to eleven and together we still got out of the house just fine, and on the road easily. Saying goodbye to my parents was hard. I've never really "traveled" and all I remember is when I was a little girl and went to a Christian camp for a week. I don't remember being home sick while at the camp but I remember running frantically to my brother once they came to pick me up. My mother did surprisingly well in the goodbyes to me - though she broke down a bit when saying goodbye to Paul and telling him to keep me safe. I have to admit that if she didn't show a little bit of concern I'd be concerned :)

Once we were in the car, I felt I could sit back but at the same time I was anxious for the two hour drive to pass. Paul pulled out the video camera we'd borrowed from his parents and started filming, which I hated. I hate myself on camera and I wish I didn't. I wish I could have the entire trip on camera - but my self-consciousness kept me from being myself when the camera was on. Besides, traffic was boring and there wasn't much to talk about on the way there. It was on the way there that I realized I'd forgotten my toothbrush - but I knew I could just buy one there. We actually had wonderful luck with traffic, and we were there within an hour and a half. We stopped in a loading zone and popped out quickly and grabbed our luggage. There wasn't any long goodbyes here - as traffic was building behind us - and we started into the airport pretty clueless. We knew which terminal we needed to be in, and we saw our airline listed on the signs outside, however that's where our knowledge stopped. I'd never been to this airport before, and it was confusing. Our airline was listed at one end of the terminal but international departures was listed at the other. Plus, there was a second story that was for security checks - so we didn't know where we needed to go.

After a lot of walking around we found that we needed to check in with our airline desk where we'd also check our non-carry on bags, head up to the security checks for ourselves & our carry on bags and then to the other side of the terminal for our departure gate. Everything went pretty smoothly, though it grossed me out that when we did our security check we were forced to take off our shoes and walk around in our socks or barefeet. I could smell the odor on the ground - which completely disgusted me - but I wasn't about to cause a scene so I just did it. Frustratingly, you could tell who had done this before and who hadn't and no one was there to direct you. I just tried to follow what everyone else was doing - and at one point this man grew so impatient that he just cut in front of us and a bunch of others. Whatever, we got there with plenty of time. It was a mad dash to throw everything into these trays that would be scanned as they were pushed down this path of rollers, then a mad dash through the metal detectors, and then again a mad dash to grab your things before they were pushed off the path by all the others being pushed through. It seemed very unstructured, like they needed someone there to meter how many people were being checked at a time.

After everything, we sat down outside our gate with about a half hour to spare before they would begin boarding. We took this chance to munch on some snacks, drink some soda and generally catch our breaths. It was exciting to be sitting there, knowing that soon I'd be on my first plane :) I was a bit nervous, but I just kept remembering that I'd done a lot of other things that were much scarier - like when I went on the roller coaster at Wild Bills in Nevada. This would be tame in comparison.

LAX... waiting to x-ray our bags

The line is long. I hope I haven't brought anything I shouldn't have...
:(

We're on our way!

We're in the car, on our way to the airport! I hope that we've
remembered everything... I know I've already forgotten my tooth brush -
but we'll just buy one there :)

Our last night

We took Ripley (dog), Junior (cat), & August (fish) over to my parents house tonight. It feels very still and quiet in the house now. I spent all day cleaning as I was determined to leave it as clean as I wanted to come back to it. Without the animals to make it messy I know that I've succeeded. We've got everything plugged in charging which include; two DS Lites, my sidekick, Paul's dash, PSP, Zune, laptop, video camera and still camera. I hope we don't break a circuit :) I've got my clothes in the wash, and soon in the dryer, and then tomorrow I'll fold and pack everything.

I have a plan. My plan is to wake up early so that once I get on the plan I'll feel tired enough to sleep as I'll need it. So if I wake up early I'll need something to wake up early for - and that is going to be packing. Plus then I don't forget anything thinking I'd already packed it.

Yesterday we had some of our money exchanged into Euros & Pounds. They only have fives in euros - so we have a hundred eruos in fives. They had appropriate dominations of pounds though. It was so cool to have it in my hands!!! I just hope I've gotten enough to start with.

Anyhow... I'll post more tomorrow before we leave but after 4pm PST I'll be out of contact!

Five days!

I was telling Paul the other night that I didn't even notice when it went from double to single digit - but suddenly we only had six days! Now I can't seem to keep my eye off of it for more than an hour. I'm so shocked - I thought this would never happen! We've been planning for almost a year I wonder what we'll do once we get back :)

I'm a little concerned about how well our money is going to hold up. Despite all the talk about the USD going down the crapper, we're actually getting a slightly - and I mean slightly - better return on our money now than when we started. I think that'll probably just even out the rise in gas prices.

I just hope that I've done all my calculations right. I've calculated and projected almost every cost I can - I just hope that I'm right. I take comfort in knowing that I've over calculated a bit and I may just plain be wrong for what we're going to need. Maybe we wont need to fill up so much. Maybe we wont have to eat out so much. Maybe we'll have to skip on an activity or two - who's to say?

Everything is going to go just fine...

Give me SOMETHING!

We got our myguideBritain travel package today, and I was disappointed to find that they still have not provided us with street addresses for 4 out of our 7 accommodations. Some of the directions are pretty straight forward - but most are not. One place simply says Bruce Gardens - but that place has more than one B&B in it so how are we to know which one it is?

I emailed the person I'm working with at myguideBritain and told them that if they can't give me street numbers - that's fine. But I need some longitude & latitude coordinates or something. I'm not going to go tramping across half of Scotland looking for one B&B. Sure, that'd be a story to tell and I'd see some cool stuff but in the process I'll be wasting time I could be spending seeing places I've been dreaming about for ages.

25% off is throwing me for a loop

Awhile ago I posted on my Scotland blog about me wanting to purchase a different toiletry kit as the one I have now is just a tad bit too small and it took me ages to pack it so that everything fit - the very thing I was trying to avoid. So I went onto Amazon and bought another bag through one of their merchants. Two weeks later and I'm still waiting for A) The money to be taken out and B) For the item to be shipped. After many emails asking for a status I get an email that says the item is actually out of stock. Nice. However, as an apology they'd like to give me a 25% discount & free shipping to use at their online store (not Amazon). Looking around I've found a few options and I'm having trouble deciding.

First we have two Eagle Creek (I've come to love them!) toiletry kits that are essentially the same however one is larger. The reason I'm debating is because I don't want to get a monster kit - but I don't want to do what I've done with my current kit which is get just enough. Their sizes are 10" x 6.5" x 4" for the medium and 11.5" x 9" x 4" for the large and the price difference is about $10 which bothers me a bit... In fact, as I'm writing this I think I've decided to just go with the medium. For one thing, I don't like paying $10 for a total of 4 inches more. Plus, the inches are height and width but not depth which is where I think I'd find it most beneficial. So, now we've narrowed down which toiletry case to get :)

Second we have two shoulder bags. The reason I'm considering these is because as everyone knows, I'm taking Linnet with me and I want to have her as my carry-on and in a proper bag that will keep her safe and protected. These bags drew my attention because I can't have her stretched out due to carry-on baggage size limitations so I need something that will allow her to bend at the waist but not have to bend at the knees too. These bags are perfect in size, they have a stiff bottom, and the bottom has those metal numbs that will prevent the bag from resting directly on the floor which I think will protect her even more. The decision to be made here is which color/pattern to choose.

Once I choose between which tote, then I have to decide between the toiletry case, or the tote! I might be able to find a good tote, and for cheaper (though, not as cute) else where though I know I've been having trouble finding a good toiletry case. However, once I'd found out I wasn't getting the case I wanted I did another packing and decided to just make do. So, should I buy another toiletry case even though I have one - or should I buy the tote even though I could find these at a dime a dozen?