A slight change in plans.
It turns out that ferries don't run to the Isle of Skye from Mallaig on weekends. Guess what day I'm traveling on? Yep. A weekend.
This leaves me with two options:
1) Take a train from Falkirk to Kyle of Lochalsh, and then spend the night, and catch a bus onto the island via the bridge in the morning. Total travel time: FOREVER.
2) Screw the Isle of Skye. Figuratively, not literally. Take a train from Falkirk to Thurso, spend the night, and catch a ferry to Ornkey in the morning. That gets me there on a Saturday. Take a day tour of the main island on a Sunday, and see a bunch of wicked cool archeological things from the stone age. Yeah, it's not geology, and I probably won't get to hike as much, but...neolithic writings. Neolithic writings.
Plus, it seems pretty badass to say I've been to one of the northernmost points in Scotland. (I realize Orkney isn't the northernmost point in Scotland. It's ONE of them. I'm not seriously going to Shetland in the middle of winter, are you kidding? It's inside the arctic circle. Sheesh. I don't even plan on packing warm enough for that.)
Updated Itinerary:
Feb 12: Forget school exists, forget I'm Canadian, and get the hell out of here. Miss my cats.
Feb 13/14: Glasgow
Feb 15/16: Edinburgh. Miss my cats.
Feb 17/18: Falkirk/Bonnybridge/Stirling
Feb 19: Thurso?
Feb 20/21/22: Stromness?
Feb 21: Tour of Orkney (http://www.wildaboutorkney.com/112-t/daily-tours-winter-2009-10.htm)
Feb 23: Travel as far as I can get in one day. Sleep somewhere. Miss my cats.
Feb 24/25/26: Finish traveling, stay in London.
Feb 27: Head back up to Glasgow. Spend the night.
Feb 28: Go home, and begin to panic about my petrology exam. Deal with two weeks of my cats ignoring me and peeing everywhere because they're mad.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Scotland - It's Officially Official.
Plane tickets. Check.
Train tickets. Check.
First two nights in Glasgow while I remember what it's like to finally sleep. Check.
...and now I have to put dates to plans. Eek.
February 12: FLY THE HELL OUT OF HERE! Fly out of YVR at 6:15pm. Fly into Heathrow at 11:50am the next day. Sit in the airport for FIVE damned hours, until I catch the 5:15pm to Glasgow. Seriously. I still save 3 hours if I had flown into Heathrow, and then trained up. And somehow, it saves money. But...ugh.
February 13/14: Sleep in Glasgow at the SYHA. Think of something to do. I've never been to Glasgow.
February 15: Train to Edinburgh. ...2 nights? Maybe 3. Arthur's Seat, Geological Museum. Chill.
February 17-ish: Stirling/Falkirk. See Bry and Kimmie, if I can. If not, waaaaaaaander. 2 nights.
February 19-ish: ISLE OF SKYE. I'm so excited. I'm not even sure how long I'll stay here.
Sometime after the 23rd: Train down to London to see Paul. Squeeze in a trip to Reading to visit Jamie.
February 28: Get up far too early, in Glasgow - and fly home. 6:35am - fly out of Glasgow. Arrive in Heathrow at 8am, fly out of Heathrow at 1pm. Another five hour wait in a city I was JUST in. Arrive home at 3pm, the same day. I love traveling backwards.
Train tickets. Check.
First two nights in Glasgow while I remember what it's like to finally sleep. Check.
...and now I have to put dates to plans. Eek.
February 12: FLY THE HELL OUT OF HERE! Fly out of YVR at 6:15pm. Fly into Heathrow at 11:50am the next day. Sit in the airport for FIVE damned hours, until I catch the 5:15pm to Glasgow. Seriously. I still save 3 hours if I had flown into Heathrow, and then trained up. And somehow, it saves money. But...ugh.
February 13/14: Sleep in Glasgow at the SYHA. Think of something to do. I've never been to Glasgow.
February 15: Train to Edinburgh. ...2 nights? Maybe 3. Arthur's Seat, Geological Museum. Chill.
February 17-ish: Stirling/Falkirk. See Bry and Kimmie, if I can. If not, waaaaaaaander. 2 nights.
February 19-ish: ISLE OF SKYE. I'm so excited. I'm not even sure how long I'll stay here.
Sometime after the 23rd: Train down to London to see Paul. Squeeze in a trip to Reading to visit Jamie.
February 28: Get up far too early, in Glasgow - and fly home. 6:35am - fly out of Glasgow. Arrive in Heathrow at 8am, fly out of Heathrow at 1pm. Another five hour wait in a city I was JUST in. Arrive home at 3pm, the same day. I love traveling backwards.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Saturday, January 09, 2010
The Art of Traveling, or the Nitty Gitty Details
STILL no Student Loan notification. I don't need the money right away, I'm fine financially, but - until I at least get notification that I've been accepted, I can't book my plane or train tickets to Scotland. I have enough saved now to pay tuition, rent for the next four months, AND still go to Scotland, but that will leave me basically broke at the end of the semester. If I don't hop on a job right away after exams, that would leave me fucked. So I took out a student loan. I can use that to worry about my tuition, textbooks, and rent, I can still keep a few thousand in savings, and get to go to Scotland.
So until that happens, I'm on a bit of a standstill regarding travel plans. I've made some few small changes, since the last post.
- Fly into Edinburgh OR Glasgow, whichever is cheaper. If it's Glasgow, I'll stay a day, then train to Edinburgh, and stay there for a day or two. If I fly into Edinburgh, then I won't bother going to Glasgow.
- Train up to Stirling and meet Bryan. He's going to show me around Stirling, and then we're going to go to his town, Falkirk and explore that, too. That should take up 2 or 3 days. I just have to make sure I'm there during the time he's not in college. I have the dates saved somewhere.
- From here, I'd kinda like to see Blair Castle in Perthshire. The castle itself doesn't seem very interesting, but I want pictures of it, damn it. This stop might get changed or skipped, depending on weather and other stuff.
- From there, Isle of Skye. I finally found a transportation guide for Skye, and transit is shit in the winter, but if I travel during weird hours (I'm talking like 6am - 4pm) I should be able to go hike around the Trotternish, like I wanted. Hitchhiking too, appears to be an option if I'm in a pinch. I have no idea how long I'll spend in Skye.
- I have to be down in London to meet with Paul around the 23rd. He can't really get any time off work, though, so I'm going to try and be there around the weekend. (or maybe not. That following weekend is the weekend I have to leave. Hmm...I'll figure something out.)
- Before I leave, I'd like to hit up Reading and visit Jamie.
Other possible ideas:
- I have a friend who owns a manor in York, if I can get a hold of her before I go, I might stop in for a visit. She's not online all that often, and she's busy with work a lot of the time...but maybe. Just maybe.
It sounds like a lot, but I think I can do the whole trip in about $2500. Plane tickets are $1200, train tickets are $500 (for a two week pass) - accomodations will probably be about $500, and the rest is food and spending. It's pretty likely that I'll bring $3000 or more though. There's no way I'm getting into the pinch that I did last time. Stupid bank.
So until that happens, I'm on a bit of a standstill regarding travel plans. I've made some few small changes, since the last post.
- Fly into Edinburgh OR Glasgow, whichever is cheaper. If it's Glasgow, I'll stay a day, then train to Edinburgh, and stay there for a day or two. If I fly into Edinburgh, then I won't bother going to Glasgow.
- Train up to Stirling and meet Bryan. He's going to show me around Stirling, and then we're going to go to his town, Falkirk and explore that, too. That should take up 2 or 3 days. I just have to make sure I'm there during the time he's not in college. I have the dates saved somewhere.
- From here, I'd kinda like to see Blair Castle in Perthshire. The castle itself doesn't seem very interesting, but I want pictures of it, damn it. This stop might get changed or skipped, depending on weather and other stuff.
- From there, Isle of Skye. I finally found a transportation guide for Skye, and transit is shit in the winter, but if I travel during weird hours (I'm talking like 6am - 4pm) I should be able to go hike around the Trotternish, like I wanted. Hitchhiking too, appears to be an option if I'm in a pinch. I have no idea how long I'll spend in Skye.
- I have to be down in London to meet with Paul around the 23rd. He can't really get any time off work, though, so I'm going to try and be there around the weekend. (or maybe not. That following weekend is the weekend I have to leave. Hmm...I'll figure something out.)
- Before I leave, I'd like to hit up Reading and visit Jamie.
Other possible ideas:
- I have a friend who owns a manor in York, if I can get a hold of her before I go, I might stop in for a visit. She's not online all that often, and she's busy with work a lot of the time...but maybe. Just maybe.
It sounds like a lot, but I think I can do the whole trip in about $2500. Plane tickets are $1200, train tickets are $500 (for a two week pass) - accomodations will probably be about $500, and the rest is food and spending. It's pretty likely that I'll bring $3000 or more though. There's no way I'm getting into the pinch that I did last time. Stupid bank.
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Diamonds in the Rough
I find it's always so awkward posting for the first time in a long time. It's like 'Yeah, see that stuff below? It's old. Forget I wrote it.' ...well, after a few month hiatus, I'm ready to use my pretty little blog again.
Why, you ask?
Because in exactly 40 days, I shall be stomping in mud puddles made from Scottish soil. I have another travel blog, here, from my trip to the UK last year, but this one is prettier. Perhaps the photo format isn't as user-friendly as the other site (where I can massive dump photos like a memory card) but let's face it, if you're reading this, one of two things will happen: I will either be emailing you photos of my trip, or you'll see them on Facebook when I'm done. And if you're not reading this, well...
The basic plan:
- disappear from school from February 12th - 28th (thank you, Winter Olympics 2010)
- Travel more of Scotland than I saw last year
- Be in London sometime around the 23rd to have loads of mischief with Paul
- Find something to do until the 28th, when I depart from Edinburgh.
So far, I'm throwing around ideas of Edinburgh, Stirling, Blair Castle in Perthshire, Isle of Skye and surroundings. I wish I could see Shetland, but traveling to the Arctic Circle in February isn't the best idea. Trust me, I know - I've done it (and I'm not really complaining...I loved it. But I'm NOT traveling with a bloody parka.)
More to follow. I'm about to attempt going to sleep before midnight. I bid thee adieu for the night.
Why, you ask?
Because in exactly 40 days, I shall be stomping in mud puddles made from Scottish soil. I have another travel blog, here, from my trip to the UK last year, but this one is prettier. Perhaps the photo format isn't as user-friendly as the other site (where I can massive dump photos like a memory card) but let's face it, if you're reading this, one of two things will happen: I will either be emailing you photos of my trip, or you'll see them on Facebook when I'm done. And if you're not reading this, well...
The basic plan:
- disappear from school from February 12th - 28th (thank you, Winter Olympics 2010)
- Travel more of Scotland than I saw last year
- Be in London sometime around the 23rd to have loads of mischief with Paul
- Find something to do until the 28th, when I depart from Edinburgh.
So far, I'm throwing around ideas of Edinburgh, Stirling, Blair Castle in Perthshire, Isle of Skye and surroundings. I wish I could see Shetland, but traveling to the Arctic Circle in February isn't the best idea. Trust me, I know - I've done it (and I'm not really complaining...I loved it. But I'm NOT traveling with a bloody parka.)
More to follow. I'm about to attempt going to sleep before midnight. I bid thee adieu for the night.
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