Going to Scotland - Part 1: June 30th to July 3rd

Going anywhere from this place means that I have to do some bit of planning ahead. First I have to go an hour by bus to the nearest train station, then by train for 3 hours to get to the nearest major airport - Værnes. Then there is the matter of whether I'll make it to the airport on time to catch whatever flight I need to catch to get to my final destination. Usually when going abroad, I won't be able to get there on time, so I will have to stay overnight in Trondheim, the hub of our region.

Now, Trondheim is a rather nice place to stay for a few days anyway, so I don't mind having to go there every now and then. Got quite a few friends there, as well, so there's usually a chance of getting together with someone for a beer in the evening. So, this time around, I set out from home in the morning of June 30th, caught the bus to Grong, to catch the train to Trondheim.

Now, for some reason, there seems to be something delaying every other train ride I'm on. Be it repairs, busted engines, landslides, avalanches, train running into a herd of reindeer, train hitting a moose, floods, locusts (nah, we don't have those), leaves on the line, derailing, whatnot. This time around, people building the new highway into Steinkjer messed up blowing up some rocks, blocking the railway track in the process. Thumbs up to ya, guys! So we were transfered onto buses from Steinkjer to Trondheim. Well, got to Trondheim in the afternoon, checked into my hotel and stayed overnight to catch the early morning flight to Oslo.

From Gardermoen (Oslo airport), I got onto my flight to Edinburgh. Nice flying weather all the way, with beautiful views of Telemark, Ryfylke and the North Sea. Got into Edinburgh in the early afternoon and caught a minibus to my hotel. As I got there, me and a Taiwanese girl were told that our rooms were not available due to some repairs, so we would have to stay temporarily in another hotel. My original hotel was on Cowgate - as central a location as you'll get in Edinburgh - and the other hotel was placed down by the Meadows - sort of within walking distance of the Royal Mile if you don't mind a good walk (I don't).

After a very confusing taxi ride, we got to our new hotel, where it actually took some effort in convincing the receptionist that the Taiwanese girl and I weren't travelling together and for that reason were going to have separate rooms. We actually got checked in three times - first in a double room, then in a twin bed double, before finally getting our single rooms. Confusing, but good fun.

Spent the rest of the day just roaming the streets, and after going for a stroll in the Meadows and dining in my favourite Edinburgh restaurant, I went to bed, quite content to be back in the country.

Moved back to my original hotel the next day and found myself in a three bed room, as my intended room still wasn't ready. Very spacious, at least for a country where people seem to build as cramped as possible, no matter how much space they've got to build in.

Roamed the streets for the next two days, trying not to give in to going ape in the bookstores before going out on my 9 day tour with Wild in Scotland. No need lugging tons of luggage along as I'd be back in the city for some days later on. But I couldn't quite escape the urge to buy something, so I got myself a guitar. Been looking for a traveller's guitar for ages, and finally found something suitable. In hindsight, did I really need a seventh guitar? Oh well...

Basically, the first days in Scotland, I was just winding down from work. Doing as little as possible except allowing myself the luxury of being absolutely random: walk wherever my legs took me, sleep in late in the mornings, just being lazy. The only exploring I did, was going to the Butterfly & Insect World to just have a look at somewhere I hadn't been before. Not the biggest place, but good enough to kill about an hour. By this time, I was rearing to get on with the 9 day tour the next morning.