Travel Musings

While traveling your way of thinking begins to shift along with your definition of the ordinary.

You just have to trust people. In Edinburgh, Colin, the owner of the B&B was kind enough to make me gluten free pancakes for breakfast. As a guest in his home and his country, it would generally be perceived as rude to question his authority. I had to trust that elderly, kilt-wearing Colin did indeed make me pancakes sans gluten. Similarly, you have to trust that your cab driver is taking you where you asked to go and along a route that won’t double your cab fare. In Chicago I feel very confident telling the driver how to get me home, or whether Lake Shore, Clark or Halsted is the best route to avoid traffic. In Europe I feel very confident I have no idea where I am going 96% of the time

You develop a new definition for dirty. When you have an entire dresser and closet full of clothes at your fingertips dirty means you wore something once and it now needs to be laundered. When you have a 60L suitcase and barely enough clothing to get you through the week, dirty means you wore it 5 times, it doesn’t smell too bad, and you can barely see the small spot of ketchup on your sleeve.

Your vanity goes out the window. I actually got excited to wear my Patagonia wedges to lunch after a week of rocking Birkenstocks.  I felt dressed up. I felt dressed up in Patagonia wedge sandals.

You enjoy traveling in a group. Ryan and I have been talking about taking this adventure for years. When we found out our wonderful friends Richard and Julie had the same idea we decided to start the trip as a foursome (Richard and Julie are also blogging). If I am being totally honest, I was a bit hesitant to change the dynamic of what I believed to be a trip Ryan and I would take together. However, Ryan and I have a relatively similar travel style.  New people bring new perspective, force you to try something you might otherwise not have, teach you to go with the flow and you always have a buddy.

You get really excited when you find free wifi. “Excuse me, what’s the wifi password?” has become a thrice-daily (if not more) utterance.

You develop monopoly money syndrome, which is a bit dangerous given the stellar value of the dollar.

You start, arbitrarily, comparing things to home. It is a bit like the section in US Magazine reminding us that stars are just like us. “Oh look! They use pillows in Scotland too!” “Craft cocktails and beer are trending in Dublin too!” “Whoa, people wear suits to work here as well!” It is silly.

You have an exaggerated sense of everything. For example, I walked by a rose bush and while I did indeed stop and smell the roses I also thought, for a fleeting moment, these were the most beautiful roses I had ever seen. They weren’t.  They were just roses. However, in that moment, in another country, they were just better. This happens more often then I wish to admit.

You think it is cool to incorporate local buzzwords into your daily vernacular.  I am embarrassed to admit we (for the record mostly ironically) have been using “wee”, “arse”, “ye”, and “pint”. Can ye pass me a wee pint before I fall on me arse?

You feel very small. It is cathartic, terrifying and remarkable.

Kickin' It Old School at the Old Course

St. Andrews, the unmatched epicenter of golf.  We made the short trip today from Edinburgh and it was everything we imagined it would be and more.  Although, you may have not known we were headed to the worlds most famous golf course in the car, as the conversation was initially dominated with discussion of Will and Kate.  If you didn't know, they met at University of St. Andrews, thanks to our friend Julie, quite exciting.   We immediately forgot the tales of Will and Kate once we got the first glimpse at the unmistakeable beauty of The Old Course.

It was nothing short of amazing, sorry Pebble but St. Andrews wins.

Enjoy the scenery:

Bridge on the famous 18th fairway at The Old Course.  BTW the foursome walking up the 18th were all terrible. 

Ryan's golf swing finish, Jamie apparently decided to play baseball instead.

Nothing else needed to say. 

Fun Fact: The Old Course at St Andrews is a fully public course, which means that as long as you are not interupting play, you can walk the entire course.

Edinburgh....The adventour continues

Edinburgh is great, a must stop if you are planning a trip to Scotland.  This fact, however, does not appear to be a new revolation as the city is chuck full of tourists, comfortable walking shoes are out in full effect.  Even with the number of tourists and occassional feel that you're walking thru a section in Epcot the city still wins with its charm and amazing history.  If anyone does need me to pick up a kilt and a graphic t-shirt, a plastic sword and a bottle of whiskey (at the same store) do let me know.

Here is a snapshot of how the past few days went down:

Literary Tour - This was right up our alley.  A combination of drinking, walking, storytelling and a sprinkle of being a nerd on top and you have the Literary Tour.  Our guides engaged in a lively debate as to the appropriate legacies for many of Edinburgh's literary hero's.  Spoiler alert: they were all pretty much drunk the whole time.  Fun way to see the city while enjoying a few pints along the way. Word of advice, don't be a douche and try to high brow order single malt Whiskey in a bar that is literally in the basement.  Especially when you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.

WWW Tour - The W tour was a full day bus tour consisting of a visit to the William Wallace Monument, Whiskey Distillery and Waterfall.  Typically we are not all that interested in a full day bus tours, however this offered an opportunity to see some important Scottish landmarks.  Nick was our friendly (ok no so friendly) tour guide.  Off we went, taking off from the Royal Mile.  Nick's voice was hypnotic, it immediately lured us into the best naps of our trip yet.  Maybe it was his rhythmic, Jim Nantz like delivery, or the fact that we haven't been sleeping that well on our rock hard mattress, we all caught up on some much needed sleep.

Yes Nick, we are totally listening.  We are not at all sleeping.

While it was a full day on and off the bus it was a great way to see more of the Scotland countryside. Add to that we all got the opportunity to practice our best Braveheart accents.  Interesting fact, Braveheart was not the name given to William Wallace, but to King Robert (aka Robert the Bruce).  Nick was all about Robert the Bruce.

Battle of Stirling Bridge - This is where William Wallace camped prior to his famous battle with King Edward.  The yellow castle in the distance is where the English Army camped the night before.  Talk about your stare down.

We also learned how whiskey is made at the worlds oldest working Scotch Whiskey distillery, The Famous Grouse Experience (Glenturret Distillery).

Don't make a big deal, just enjoying my single malt from the same cask as Prince William / Princess Kate

Edinburgh Castle - The only working castle left in Scotland, it's truly amazing.  Completely dripping in history.  Daily the castle engages in a cannon ceremony, which is used to give a time confirmation to the ships in the harbor.  There is a ceremonial reenactment each day at 1pm, we all wanted to see it. We of course were waiting in line to get our tickets at 12:57.  12:59, tickets purchased, go!  Naturally the cannon went off as we were running up the drawbridge.  We successfully missed the only point in the day where time actually mattered.  Nice work team.

Took in a walking tour of the castle, was able to learn some great factoids and future answers to a wednesday night bar trivia question.  Hard to fathom all the work that needed to be done to logistically run a castle today, yet alone in the 1500's.  Certainly one of the must see items in Edinburgh.

Do we dance in a 14th century Scottish Castle?  Oh we dance. 

Escape - Richard had found on TripAdvisor a link to a live action game called Escape.  The premise of this game is that you are trapped in a room in which you have 60 minutes to escape.  In order to accomplish your goal you will need to complete a series of puzzles, riddles, etc to ultimately allow you to open a safe, find keys and get out alive.  All of us were fairly convinced we were walking into the live version of the movie Saw, thankfully that wasn't the case.  We were shown into our room and the clock starts...We cruse thru the first few riddles, pulling combinations from clocks, maps and bus schedules.  We hit a snag once we get to a puzzle that we all thought were dominoes but in actuality was a section of braille that we had to decipher, who knew?  Clearly none of us had sufficient braille experience but we managed to get thru.  Clock is ticking, final code is needed.  30 sections left, we find the CD we need, final code is 1977, go!  Richard enters the code just as time expires, we did it, well sort of as we still needed to get out of the room once we had the keys inside.  We'll call it a draw.

Fun game, great couple days.  The Adventour continues...

Just your average Tuesday.

Fun fact: William Wallace was 6 foot 5.  Mel Gibson is 5 foot 6. 

Edinburgh: Castles and whisky and kilts, oh my!

Richard, Julie and I taking in the view at Arthur's Seat

We bid adieu to Glasgow and hopped on the train to Edinburgh. We were promised castles, charm and kilts and were not disappointed. Our day (6/22) looked a little like this:

-Arrived at our B&B and were greeted by the owner, Colin. He was wearing a kilt. Not for show. People wear kilts. It is awesome.
-We are sharing a large room with two twin beds and one double bed with Julie and Richard. The bathroom, which we are sharing with a few other patrons, is down the hall.

-Hiked to the top of Arthur's Seat to take in the view. Stunning. 

-Walked along the Salisbury Crags to the palace and spent a few hours wandering the streets and filling our bellies with more Scottish fare (read haggis, meat and more meat)

-Took the "Malt" Disney Scotch whisky tour (aka the scotch whisky experience) and learned a thing or five about Scotch whisky. 1) There are 4 regions in Scotland that produce whisky, all with a distinct taste and smell 2) Just because a whisky smells like a banana, doesn't mean it tastes like a banana 3) Edinburgh is home to the Diageo/ Claive Vidiz whisky collection with over 3,000 different kinds of whisky 4) No matter how many times you ask, they will not let you try any whisky from the collection. Not even Claive drank his collection whisky, it loses value if you open it, seems like a waste of whisky to me 5) I like scotch whisky

-We finished the day with dinner in the basement of Petit Paris (we needed a break from meat) and watched the USA tie Portugal (grrrrrrrr)

Edinburgh, as seen from Arthur's Seat

Outside the Palace

Richard and Ryan at the whisky tour

Fun Fact: Edinburgh is full of street performers and they don't mind if you video tape them. Just ask Richard.

Glasgow, home of the scotch egg and "farmers markets"

We knew we would be a bit jet lagged when we landed in Glasgow so decided to stay 3 nights to adjust to the time difference before moving on to Edinburgh. Which, it turns out, was about 2 nights too long. We stayed in an Airbnb apartment on the south side of town and won the room lottery as we rock, paper, scissored for the "master" bedroom with an ensuite bathroom which had a silver, glitter toilet seat (which I seriously regret not snapping a photo of). Julie and Richard bunked up in the little boys room (Ethan) and were forced to spoon in the tiny, blue bed while gazing at posters of legos and pirates.

Day 1 (6/19): We dropped our bags at 9am (after being awake for nearly 20 hours) and I challenged everyone to stay up until at least 8pm to try and beat our impending jet lag and subsequent adrenaline crash. We devoured our first Scottish breakfast, which was a vegetable and egg dish disguised as meat, beans and more meat. Our gut bomb carried us to the city centre where we passed cultural delights such as H&M, Urban Outfitters, GAP and Starbucks. It is only fitting that we had our first tired, giggle fit in a local Starbucks and promptly decided we should walk back to the south side before attracting any further attention. We picked up a few items at the local co-op and snacked on cheese, crackers, apples and wine as we counted down the minutes until 8pm. Total time awake: 32 hours.

Ryan and Richard nodding off at about 7:02pm

Day 2 (6/20): Since day 1 was essentially a wash, we vowed to give the city another chance and took the train to the city centre. From there, we walked to the West End. The locals rave about the West End and recommended we check out the pubs, restaurants, and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. We achieved all of the above, however were underwhelmed by the museum. I realize I sound like a jerk, but when the highlight of the museum is the free wifi you know this is not a city known for its art scene. However, Glasgow is totally awesome at serving a pint, being full of friendly people and serving up a mean gluten free pizza (yes!). We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on a self-made pub crawl and watched the world cup amongst the locals. We cabbed home after midnight, serenading our cab driver with songs from Disney's The Little Mermaid (Julie and I, although Ryan and Richard LOVED it....).

One of the thrilling "art" exhibits

Ryan, Julie and Richard outside the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Bar 3, watching Futbol

Day 3 (6/21): We must have still been recovering from "jet lag" as we woke up around noon. Whoopsies. We intended to take a day trip to Loch Lomond, however our late start forced a change of plans. We recalled reading about a music festival and farmers market at the Queens Park, just down the street, and started imagining an afternoon filled with soft jazz and copious amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. Heaven. As it turns out, a Scottish farmers market is just an excuse to sell meat, more meat, scotch eggs and the random taco during off hours on a Sunday. Our woeful misinterpretation of a farmers market was soon depressed by the music festival, which was a concert put on by children ages 9-25. While not an exaggeration, I am being a bit overdramatic. All in all, the day was lovely and the icing on the cake was the traditionally dressed Pakistani man who crop dusted us while we were laying in the grass. We finished the day with a delicious home cooked meal of salmon, salad and potatoes (purchased at the co-op, not to be confused with the farmers market).

Ryan and I at Queens Park

Farmers Market Meat Extravaganza

Scotch Egg

Fun Fact: Do not take a multi-vitamin on an empty stomach

Sprint from Chicago to Glasgow

And with an Uber pick up we were off...

True to form Chicago O'Hare airport welcomed us with a 300 person line to our flight even with a 3 hour early arrival to its International Terminal.  After a woefully unsuccessful attempt at getting seats together we kicked off our adventure, with seats 20 rows apart. Aer Lingus 1, Ryan & Jamie 0. (Word of advice here, if you are planning on flying on Aer Lingus anytime soon bite the bullet and get to the airport 3.5 hours in advance.)

Playing the honeymoon card worked quite well as Isabella agreed to move 20 rows back to swap seats with Jamie.  Well, that and my sweet negotiation skills.  We owe you one Isabella, I promise I intended to send you a drink on the flight even though I was too tired to remember.  After a 90 minute weather delay, two terrible movies (I'm sorry Kevin Costner I don't believe you are a bad ass CIA operative) and a surprisingly delicious meal we landed in Dublin, a mere 7.5 hours later.  Here's the problem: with our delay, by the time we got off the plane, we had all of 20 minutes to make our connection in Glasgow.  Add to that we had to clear customs as well.  Ok Dublin, challenge accepted.

Thankfully the customs process in Ireland when you arrive from the US is about as strict as any Caribbean destination.  Customs Card? Nope.  Confirmation of destination required? Nope.  Dublin's airport clearly states that when flying thru to another destination they literally couldn't care less.  10 minutes and we were through.  It would have been about 5 minutes but my terrible line luck sprung into action when the grandmother in front of us inexpicably decided to get snippy with the generally unpleasant Immigration Officer, thanks nana.  10 minutes down, 10 to go.  Jamie and I employed our most ferocious flag football skills as we weaved our way, in an all out sprint, thru the Dublin terminal to make it to our gate.  We finally arrive to that gate, where we see "final boarding call" still blinking above the gate.  We wait, in somewhat desperation, as the gate attendant calls down to the plane to see if we can still board...."yea, we can still take em"....we made it.  Jamie & Ryan 1, Dublin 0.

Glasgow here we come...

Fun Fact: Zzzquill feels more like a recreational drug than a sleep aid on a transatlantic flight.

Little bags, big world

After much consideration, we decided to pack carryon bags for ease of travel and to feel liberated. We almost named this blog: Same outfit, different city. We checked out a ton of options and finally landed on the Osprey Transporter 60. We liked the simplicity of the bag and its ability to convert from a duffle to a back pack. We both purchased ebags packing cubes to keep ourselves organized and optimize space. Our clothing consists of quick dry and cotton blends and everything (theoretically) goes with everything. Finally, we brought along day packs for our electronics, day trips and any souvenirs we acquire along the way.

Our final packing lists look like this:

Ryan- 7 t-shirts, 3 short sleeve polos, 4 shorts, 2 swimsuits, 2 athletic shorts, 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of jeans, 2 button ups, 1 jean shirt, 2 sweaters, 1 long sleeve golf pullover, 7 pairs of underwear, 3 pairs athletic socks, 1 pair dress socks, 1 small toiletry bag for liquids, 1 small toiletry bag non liquids,1 flip flops, 1 Toms, 1 Merrell barefoot running/trail shoe, 1 brown driving shoe/loafer, 2 pairs sunglasses  

Jamie- 2 jeans (normal and black), 3 shorts, 3 skirts, 2 dresses, 1 romper, 5 t-shirts, 7 tank tops, 1 long sleeve t-shirt, 1 jean shirt, 1 black cardigan, 1 light rain jacket, 1 jean jacket, 1 scarf, 3 black leggings for working out (??) and everyday wear, 2 athletic tanks that can pass as normal tanks, 2 sports bras, 2 bathing suits, 10 pair underwear, 3 bras (nude, black, strapless), 3 pairs of athletic socks, 1 Birkenstocks, 1 Toms, 1 North Face 8oz running/trail shoes, 1 flip flops, 1 slight wedge sandals from Patagonia, small makeup bag, small toiletries bag, 2 pairs sunglasses, 1 glasses

Electronics-iPad mini, Sony mirrorless camera, 15" MacBook Pro, headphones, iPhones, kindles

Misc-sink stopper, clothes line, luggage locks, power adapters, Rick Steve's best of Europe book, travel docs, water bottles, Forever New laundry detergent 

                                  

While we realize this is incredibly exciting information, we had a difficult time finding a blog with packing and bag suggestions. This post is for anyone who is thinking about traveling for a few months and perhaps even for us if we want to look back and laugh at how little clothing we brought.

Fun Fact: Forever New laundry detergent is powder and when transferred to a smaller container may or may not get you stopped at security...

Hello.

Ryan and I have been talking about taking some time to travel before "life gets in the way" for awhile now. We recently got married and are in the process of making significant career shifts, which is not an exaggeration as Ryan recently quit his job at Sun Life Financial to fulfill his entrepreneurial fantasies and I am on leave of absence with a tech start up, which may or may not be able to take me back upon our return... as you never know with tech start ups. It may sound irresponsible or untimely, but is there ever a "right" time to fulfill a dream or take a risk? This question is rhetorical.

With that being said we have decided to take 4(ish) months to immerse ourselves in European travel and make what some may refer to as a career break, an adventure, a Banjo abandonment, temporary insanity or the best decision of our lives. I choose the latter. 

We plan on using this blog to chronicle our adventour, which begins on June 18th.  We hope you will join us.