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.