Greetings! I write this one from Sheffield this time. I dont think Ive ever written one from my home city before, though I guess times such as these are rather unusual and unprecedented. I write once more on the eve before a big trip – my biggest trip since summer 2019. I am excited to be getting back on the travelling road again, after such a long time away from it. I have indeed done some short trips over the last 17 months, but this one feels a bit more major, a bit more exotic, a bit more back to normal. Tomorrow I head to Scotland!
In theory, I could spend the summer visiting a number of places around the world, as the world is starting to open up again once more to tourism and to British tourists. In practice, an overseas journey at this time seems fraught with bureaucracy and headaches, in terms of proof of vaccination status, tests tests and more tests, queues at borders, and having to get my head around another countrys restrictions, when I have yet to get my head around my own countrys and rules, laws and guidelines.
Last summer, a number of British people headed overseas, mainly to European destinations, only to find they were given days to get back to the UK as the countrys status changed from green, to amber, to red, and back again, having to rebook tickets and make cancellations, to avoid having to quarantine upon their return. It all appeared rather shambolic on the governments part to say the least, and I have no intention of wading through their ridiculous at this stage.
So I decided a few months ago to arrange my major summer trip this year in a relatively region of my own country, whence a flight is not needed, but where an exotic flavour can be experienced, and a new history, culture and even language can be delved into. I have thus planned four weeks of travelling around Scotland, starting tomorrow in Edinburgh, and making an up the east coast via Aberdeen and the Cairngorms, to the northern tip via Inverness and Loch Ness, and then down the west coast via Fort William and Ben Nevis, to finish my journey in Glasgow. I am excited.
the islands of Scotland, but I shall leave these for another journey I think. This time, I would like to really get a feel for mainland Scotland, our distant cousin and neighbour, and save for potentially another time. There seems already much to explore on the mainland. I have twice visited Scotland prior to this trip, but both were only very fleeting trips.
My first visit was when I was a mere 21 years old, and I had planned three nights in Inverness and Loch Ness, taking a coach journey there and back again from Sheffield, changing buses in Glasgow. This was intended as a for a months interrailing around Europe which I had planned for the following month, and I wanted to get a feel for backpacking and youth hostelling, before I hit the continent. It was like a practice, a and I remember thoroughly enjoying it, finding my freedom out there on the road, and perhaps it was this little trip which had me bitten for life by the travel bug.
My second visit took place seven years ago, also a short trip of only four nights, flying up to Glasgow Airport
from London Gatwick, and spending a lovely four nights on the Isle of Arran, and the nearby Buddhist island of Holy Isle. This was amazing, and a great time of healing for me. I had just finished my first year of a MA degree in Religious Education, whilst teaching and my soul felt exhausted. I had a dream prior to my visit, of an island, with small houses along the coast – the dream filled me with peace, and I felt like this place existed. Not long after, and to my amazement, I happened to see this exact place I dreamed about in a TV documentary on the Buddhist island of Holy Isle, just off the coast of the Isle of Arran.
