Blogs from Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 458

Happy Birthday, Amber! The day began beautifully with the sun trying to shine through the clouds covering the sky around the bay. Cindy prepared an excellent breakfast of scrambled brown eggs, which have a slightly stronger 'egg' taste to them (fortunately mine was covered up by the cheese) than regular white eggs, with toast and jam. Today we're taking the car on the ferry across to the Isle of Mull and driving around the inhabited portions of the island to visit some restored castles (what else?!) and the coastal town of Tobermory. The ferry ride will take 45 minutes across the bay and through the ocean strait that runs between the mainland of western Scotland and the Isle of Mull. We arrived at the ferry at 9:30am as instructed so that we could load our car ... read more

Ok ok!! Hello hello!!!!!!! Ok so I'm not in Scotland but I will be tommorrow...we are catching the National Express up in about 4 hours....1.10am....yeah!!! Then heading down to London on friday for the weekend....I'm quite excited about our trip to London.... Have had another friend from NZ join us.....'Rangi'.........So we had decided to call ourselves the RAT PACK cause Rangi, Alison & Tina..... Anyways we are considering a permanent move up to Edinburgh, but we are gonna suss the situation out while we are up there.... So not much to report.... The homeless night at the airport was GREAT!!!!!!!!!! Ali woke me up at 1.30am in the morning chucking things at me.....I was about to yell, when I realised she had a very good reason for chucking things...There was a policeman handing out fines to ... read more

When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was get my little mini-Maglite out of my suitcase and put it on the nightstand, just in case I have to get up in the middle of the pitch black night again. Though I awoke at 7:10am, I remained warmly ensconced beneath the thick covers until 7:45. Today is to be our "easy" day of staying close to the cottage and village of Oban so as to shake off the last vestiges of jet lag and weariness. That was a decision we had made prior to leaving because we expected to be tired and "off" on our first full day here. It turned out to be a good decision. Though we all woke fairly refreshed, by the time we reached mid-afternoon we found our energy ... read more

5:50am-Iceland time. After the flight from hell, which lasted 6 hours and 40 minutes and took us through several time zones, we have arrived at Klefavlik Airport in Reykjavik, Iceland. The flight was packed solid with passengers and, of course, behind me was a crying, screaming infant. The seats themselves are fine for passengers who are 5' 8" or shorter and weigh less than 160 pounds. Anything taller or heavier than that and the discomfort level increases exponentially. Thus you can imagine how wonderfully uncomfortable they were to a 6'4", 260 pound person such as myself. Adding to the fun was the fact that my seat was an aisle seat, which at first I was happy about since it would give me a little more breathing room than a window or middle seat would. That happiness ... read more

Had a great day in St. Andrews today. Walked around the beach and around the Old Course (only the oldest golf course in the world). Watched some golf...was dissappointed. I thought that St. Andrews required certain handicaps before you could play on the Old Course. Apparently one group of Americans we watched either forged their documents, or somehow slipped by, because they were terrible. One guy hit a car, another almost hit me. We visited the Castle at St. Andrews where they had a Medievel festival going on. Walked around most of St. Andrews...it's a small town so it only takes about a day. I loved it here. I'm from Arkansas so I like small towns. I like fresh air and open spaces even more. ... read more