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Published: March 5th 2011
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Me and Haley
Fellow Canadians being goofy! The title is a Scottish phrase which means 'what's meant to happen to you, will happen'. Okay I had to look it up but I found it really fitting for this particular trip. Let's see where to start...
Well, on February 18th i woke up super super early to catch a bus to the airport but then realized my ridiculous alarm let me down and decided to stop working. The irony is, I woke up to on the dot that I was supposed to be boarding that bus...super! So back on the England trip I missed the bus for other reasons and had no choice but to take a cab -which cost me 200 bucks!- to the airport because it was either that or miss my plane entirely. I am all about learning from my mistakes, so once my heart started beating again I looked up every other possibility for making it to that airport. I found one train going out at 8am which would get me to the town beside the airport but at that point it was 7:30 and it takes some time to get downtown. I called a cab and that lovely swedish man drove like such
a maniac to get me there i wish I had the time to tip him better. I got inside just as my train was pulling into the station. i told the man at the counter what was happening and he printed that ticket so fast it was amazing. I had to run underground through a tunnel and up the other side (many stairs) to get to this damn train, but I made it. The train people told me i had to get off in the next town and hop on another connecting train to reach my destination. This excited me because at this point i finally got coffee and was feeling like I could conquer the world. As I stood on that stupid train platform and noticed that my particular train had just disappeared from the schedule board, another swedish train person approached me and told me my train had been cancelled. Cue the sympathetic groans and "oh no's!". So this wonderful Swedish man found me a bus and got me to the town I needed. By then it was 9:30 and my plane was set to board by 10:15. When the bus dropped me off i knew I was
close to the airport...ish...but not actually how to get there. I was told a city bus could get me there in 30 minutes so I found a cab driver and he also sped and broke many laws to get me to that airport. I literally ran to my gate (after security and everything) at 10:15 without a moment to spare. Upside: It cost me about 600 krona to do all this compared to the 1500 I shelled out for a cab the first time. HA!
Sooo I arrived in Edinburgh later that day and what an amazingly gorgeous city it is!! On the plane on the way over I also realized I forgot my camera in my haste to get to the airport so I took pictures with my friend Holly's camera once I met up with her, and later with a disposable. You want to feel like a total weirdo in another country? I'm pretty sure everyone thought i was nuts with my big orange disposable monster camera. Oh goodness...humiliation. Anyways I enjoyed a few hours in Edinburgh, caught the train and headed to Aberdeen where I met up with Holly! That night we hung out with her
friends there and had a little girls night (complete with nutella) and the next day I did a little Aberdeen exploration...okay I mostly shopped. Another day we took a trip to this totally adorable town called Banchory and I had THE most amazing meal ever! I still dream about that food.... We also did a night on the town and I saw some of the sketchiest and best parts of Aberdeen I think and we made tons of great friends along the way! No shortage of friendly, welcoming people in Scotland that is for sure! We learned that when its rainy and icky in Scotland it's not a shitty day, it's an authentically Scottish one. Gotta love that!
I had such a great time in Aberdeen but my time there came to an end pretty quickly. I left for Edinburgh on the 22 and spent the night in a hotel there since I had a flight out at 7am the next morning. EW! I went for dinner on my own that night and just explored the city and it was actually really nice. I stayed at the York House Hotel which was a really lovely little place with a
comfy bed and delicious free tea that I truly appreciated when I had to be up at 4:30 that morning. I was so excited to go through duty free at the airport at 6:30 in the morning. Such a weird feeling!!
I was relieved when I made it back to Sweden finally but then the organized side of me kicked in and I started doing a mental check for everything important. Bag? Check. Coat? Check. Bus ticket? Check. passport? Check. Keys to get into my place in Linkoping? oh wait....missing! Yep...another snag in the old travel plans. I checked every inch of everything I had on me and they were nowhere to be found...not fun! So I rolled into town in full panic mode, just the way I rolled out. Thank goodness I had the insight to put one key away in the kitchen so that if such a thing ever happened i could still get in my room and some wonderful soul broke the front door to my building so I didnt need the usual pass card to get in. When I later informed the building people of my issue, they let me know that they would be
charging an extra month's rent and installing a new lock. I felt sick. I came home and told Holly what was happening (as she had already had her place searched high and low for these damn keys) and she went into superhero mode. She called half of Scotland (never underestimate the power of an amazing friend) including the sketchbag bar we visited briefly on the Sunday and low and behold they had my keys!!!! Since we found them so quickly I didnt have to pay anything for newly cut keys or anything and they hadn't even had the chance to change my locks. Thank goodness!!!!
I am going to Spain in the beginning of April and I would really appreciate it if I could travel without the drama. I think it's like some kind of character building exercise but I have LOTS of character so...one trip without all that couldn't hurt! I am currently working on some kind of superchain device so that my keys to my place here are secure while I travel! Gahh. Stay tuned....
-R
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