Umbrellas, Treats and Stuff

Well guys, it's been THREE WEEKS since C senior and I set off on our adventure. We've been all over Ireland and halfway around Scotland. It's hard to believe we've seen so much and still have so much more to see!

Since you lovely people have been so nice to read our posts, I thought it would be nice to write a bonus post for you all. Just a wee insight to our actual experience being so far from home. I know pictures of castles and rolling hills are pretty cool, but I want to share more details on everything that surrounds the sightseeing. 

"It'll be grand."

This is a phrase you've all heard. However, our tour guide way back in Dublin taught us how the Irish use it. He distinguished between the English 'grand' and the Irish 'grand.' Most people use 'grand' in the English context: "Isn't that sunset GRAND?" "We know exactly where we're going and how to get there! Isn't that GRAND?" Basically it's an adjective saying something is great, awesome, fantastic, wonderful etc. But the Irish use 'grand' to describe a state of thinking. Example: "Well, we've got 8 hours of traveling from Skye to Edinburgh today... but it'll be over before you know it. It'll be grand." "I have no idea which bus we're supposed to take! But we'll find our way; it'll be grand." It's like saying "It'll be fine. It'll be alright in time." As you can imagine, we've had to adopt this phrase as a kind of motto for this trip :P

Weather

I feel so blessed in terms of weather during our trip so far. Thank you so much to those who prayed for nice weather because God heard you! The Irish, Scottish and English will readily joke with you about the loads of rain they get - all 357 days of it. But thankfully, the rain has mostly come at opportune times for us - travel days, during the night or in the evening after we've already been 'oot and aboot. Keep praying because we've got 3 1/2 more weeks until we get to Berlin!

Food

Between the two of us, we've been exosed to mighty strange foods in Africa and South America... but thankfully the weirdest thing in the UK is haggis. If you don't know what it is, wait only until after you've eaten and then look it up. There's also little to no language barrier when choosing off a menu; in fact, the hardest item to request is soda... I haven't quite figured out what they call it aside from asking for "Coke." The best thing I've found at local grocery stores is real fruit smoothies. They're not like America's "real" fruit smoothies, the ingredient list is literally: 1/2 and orange, a bunch of red grapes, 5 strawberries, an apple and 2 bananas. They're my new favorite thing!  

C senior and I have our own little indulgences when it comes to food... she drinks tea all the time like any proper person would, and I try every kind of dessert and pastry I can get my hands on! And just to prove my indulgence is better than my sister's:

But sometimes our two treats collide, and it's grand.

Hostel Situations

If any of you are curious how a person gets a good night's rest abroad... let me enlighten you: you don't. Okay, it's not that dramatic but living the hostel (not hostile) life is a world away from being at home. For our younger readers, think of your dorm room but with 5 bunk beds in it and getting new roommates every night. For my less young readers... imagine the same thing. This might help you understand:

It was more comfortable than it looks! And don't worry, this is just an "extension" of our hostel (which is an actual building).

You kind of get used to it after three weeks. And it's a great way to meet fellow travelors. You must know, however, that hostel conversations do not follow the same rules as every other day conversations.

Question 1: Where are you from?

Question 2: How long have you been in _____? How do you like it? You should check out these places....

Question 3: How long is your trip?

We would respond with 2 months and the next question would depend on the questioner. 

a) If the questioner is Australian (it's normal for young Australians to travel for 8-10+ months at a time): "Oh that's cool, I've been to all those places and you'll have a great time."

b) If the questioner is American: "WOW that's SO long! I would love to go to all those places but we're only here a week..."

c) Anyone else would say: "Where have you been/where are you going in that time?"

Question 4: (this question is only asked out of habit but no one really cares what the answer is and is the first thing they'll forget. It sometimes isn't asked at all even if you room with the same people for 3 days) "What's your name?"

Overall, it's an interesting experience staying in hostels. Your really get to know the local culture plus many others.

Other Stuff

I've covered the main bits of the traveler's life, but here are a few other things I've noticed:

Not only do they drive on the left side of the road (the wrong side) their lanes are SO SMALL! Basically their highway lanes are about the same as our back road lanes. You can probably fit 2 full Irish back roads into our highway lanes. And the people here are such good drivers too! They only need two highway lanes because people go at a proper pace, know when and how to use the "fast" lane, and (the most admirable and lacking trait back home) they are understanding drivers. They're okay with sitting for a minute while you make a three point turn because it happens, it's not a big deal and they get that. If you can't tell, I have strong opinions about drivers' conduct. Maybe if we cut the size of our roads in half, we'd learn to drive as well.

The views are always better on the other side of the bus. Buses, trains, ferries or tours we always seem to sit on the wrong side. Granted, the best photos usually aren't taken through a window, but it's a trend we have unfortunately fallen into.

Speaking of photography, here's the story of how my first camera bit the dust... literally. It was several years ago in Mexico, and my camera got dropped in the sand and consequently ruined it forever. I learned an important lesson from that experience though. Before, I would take pictures of everything and then I would immediately go back through all these pictures deciding which to delete. I would spend all my time looking at the camera display that I missed out on what was happening right in front of me. Learn from me: yes, it's important to document new scenery and experiences, but not so important that these new things pass right by you (through the opposite window of the bus, of course).

I hope you enjoyed this wee insight to the experience of your two favourite travelers. More soon from Edinburgh.