My sister Julie, who turned 50 last year, decided that she wanted to celebrate in a most extraordinary way. She wanted to go to Scotland...and....she wanted to go with her good friends, and 2 sisters.
Julie had been there before and fell in love with the country. Going to Scotland had always been a dream of mine as well, so I readily agreed to the adventure.
There were times when financially it didn't look like it was going to happen; for instance, when my house kept flooding because of a tree root obstruction that took forever to diagnose. It did happen, and I had an absolute blast, in my calm, soft spoken, dry sense of humor kind of way. I have fallen in love with Scotland as well.
Getting ready for the trip proved to be a minor adventure itself mainly because of the dramatic change of weather that Scotland is famous for. We were planning our trip for March just before "spring" was to officially begin. Julie sent me the BBC weather website, with the Portree, Scotland area highlighted. Portree is located on the Isle of Skye in just about the northern most tip.
According to the weather site at that time, within a 24 hour period on a typical day in March in Portree, the area was forecasted to receive light rain, some sun, heavy showers, perhaps a little more sun, light snow, heavy rain, maybe some sun mixed with light showers.....
As one who still tries to figure out what Florida weather people mean between partly sunny and party cloudy, I was having a difficult time trying to figure out what the difference was between a light shower and a light rain, or a heavy shower and a heavy rain. "The mind boggles," as my sister said. One thing was for sure; it was going to be wet at some point....at many points on our trip. Oh yeah, and cold. Much different than the weather I was leaving in sunny Florida.
The trip was getting closer and I had done all that I could do, except get on the plane and actually go. This included the purchasing of British pounds. Egads, that was an eye-opening reality check. Things were going to be really expensive in Scotland. The money sure looked cool though!
Finally, March 6, 2008 arrived; it was time for me to start my adventure. Of the group that was going, I was the only one leaving from the states, which means I would be taking my first adventure to Europe by myself. The rest of the group would be coming in pairs at various times, from Canada. I would be the first to arrive. Me, the newbie traveler. For some people that might not be a big deal, but for a somewhat introverted individual with a hearing disability...(um that would be me) it was.
My first flight took me to New Jersey and my next flight didn't leave until around 7:30, which meant we probably wouldn't be served dinner until 8:30 or 9. That, coupled with the fact that airline food is less than tasty, I took some time to grab a bite to eat.
While eating, I was joined by a very pleasant man, who was on his way back from Europe, heading to Wisconsin. I told him where I was heading, and a huge smile lit up his face. Scotland was one of his favorite places ever. It turns out, he worked with a golfing industry, and since Scotland is well known for being the "home of golf", he knew the country well. When looking at a map to determine how far it was from the Edinburgh airport to the hostel we were going to stay at, I couldn't help but notice the very high number of golf courses there were in the 10 mile distance. Listening to Mr. Wisconsin dude talk about Scotland, just made me more excited...if that were even possible. For my Packers fans, Mr. Wisconsin was very, very upset indeed that Brett Favre retired.
It was time to get on a plane again. Next stop, Edinburgh, Scotland.
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