Scotland - Part 1

I guess the story continues...

After 6 fast and fabulous weeks back in Canada, I find myself back across the pond exploring Western Europe. It was great seeing everyone from back home, but I just wasn't ready to come back to reality...so here I am in Scotland.

Now I must admit, this was almost one of the fastest trips in history as they didn't want to let me into Scotland. Can you blame them?

It started out innocent enough, Edinburgh has a pretty small airport and ours was the only plane to arrive at the time. Since I hadn't filled out my landing card, I let everyone go in front of me to customs. Let me tell you...don't ever do that!

As I was the only one left to pass through customs, I think they wanted to put in some time and decided to interrogate me. They asked the usual questions like why was I flying to Edinburgh, etc. After telling them about my travels, they questioned my new passport as it didn't have any stamps. I explained that my last passport was damaged and I had to get a new one. They certainly didn't like that answer and grilled me for quite awhile on how I could possibly get my passport wet in Surfer's Paradise Australia. Come on people...it's surrounded by water.

Then came the question about only having a one-way ticket. It really didn't help my case since I only had 20$pounds on me. They hated that. So then they had to take stock of every possession I had on me. I was feeling a little bit violated, but at least the rubber gloves hadn't come out yet. Then the questions on how I could afford to travel for so long without working...yada yada.

Finally after about 25-30 minutes, I said..."Look...I made X amount of money the last few years which I'm sure you'll agree is enough to travel on." Now they really HATED that answer. I was getting mad, but they were even more mad...I thought I had finally pushed my luck too far when I think they finally got bored and couldn't be bothered to continue. All they said, was "we expect you to be out of the country on the 25th" as I had told them I would be.

Oh yeah...I'm in. However, things didn't get much better as my backpack was nowhere to be seen in the baggage claim area and I was the only person in the whole area. After 10 mins...a guy wearing an airport suit came through and I basically stepped in front of him and asked if he knew anyone who could help me find my bag. He said continue through the airport to departures and ask the girls at the counter.

I walked through two large rooms with me being the only person around and finally came out to the departure area where a guy yelled at me...where'd you come from?...but I just kept on walking. I found the counter and they said they were waiting for me. They had noticed I was having trouble at customs and laughed, but gave me my bag and I was outta there. Good riddens!!!

From that point on, things have been marvelous. The weather in Scotland was the best it had been all summer. I actually only saw rain once and for a very brief time...nice. I thought Edinburgh was amazing and would certainly put it on my recommendation list.

The people were so friendly and seemed to push other Scots out of the way just to help me. I had found my people and proud to have Scottish roots.

It was also awesome to hook up with Karen, who is a fun, drinking Edinburgh girl that I had previously met on the Magic Bus in NZ. Like old times, we started drinking early and didn't stop to the wee hours of the morning. It was Karen who cooked up my first ever Haggis meal and I must admit...I really enjoyed it. I had seconds. It tastes and looks much better than the preconceptions I had about it.

It was now time to depart Edinburgh and make my mark in this world by capturing the Loch Ness monster.

I found myself on a slow bus to Inverness, but it allowed me time to hatch an awesome plan to find Nessie in the dark, cold waters of Loch Ness.

You don't want to miss out on that adventure.