Take me back to Scotland!

It’s hard to believe that three weeks ago we were traveling back from this amazing country. Honestly, I didn’t want to come back. The people were so friendly, I loved being able to walk everywhere, and even with some spitting rain, the weather wasn’t that bad. It’s been in the mid-90s here, and I’m dying.

But enough about Carolina summers…

This isn’t the most exciting post; it’s really just a recap of the travel from here to there with a few pics of our arrival.

Since we were with a group (it’s an exchange through sister cities in North Carolina and Scotland), our goal was to find some affordable plane tickets, which we did through British Airways, but we had to fly out of Dulles rather than Raleigh. I think we saved almost $1,000/ticket, so it was financially worth the six hour drive (I felt differently on the way back).

Our flight didn’t leave until 6pm, so after dinner and a movie on the plane (the airbus was awesome!), I tried to snuggle up for some sleep, woke up just in time for breakfast that consisted of a squishy, brown bread bar (it was weird, but good!), and by then it was time to unload at Heathrow.

Oh, Heathrow. The bane of our trip both ways. We had a short layover that was made even shorter since we had to go through customs, and of course a few of our kids (we were chaperoning twelve high schoolers 😱) got pulled going through security – seriously, how many times do you have to tell someone to take their liquids out?? Because it took thirty minutes to get bags searched a couple kids (and a chaperone) barely made the flight.

Another hour to Glasgow and we were done with planes. But we then had a two hour drive to Oban.

I was struggling at this point, but we were in SCOTLAND! I managed to stay awake during the whole ride and saw some really beautiful scenery…it actually reminded me of home in southwest Virginia!

Everything was so green!

When we finally arrived in Oban we were greeted at the school by our kids’ Scottish hosts, and a bagpiper! Once we snacked and went over the itinerary, most people headed home with their hosts to nap. We passed our host on while he was out walking his dog, so we joined him for a trip to the store, but to also get our bearings in Oban.

Our hosts’ had a great location at the top of the hill. We enjoyed being able to walk down to the town and gasping for air when we had to walk back! And we always had really fantastic views of the town and the harbor.

Our host had to work during the night at the distillery and our hostess was in Rome with a school group, so we were kind of on our own during the evenings which gave us a lot of time to explore.

That night we were given a welcome dinner at a local golf club. Someone made delicious caramel, chocolate, and rice puff bites that I ate wayyyyy too many of. I regret nothing.

Did you know that during the summer it doesn’t get dark in Scotland, or at least the part we stayed in, until around 10:30? I was always so confused when I came out of a building at night and the sun was still shining!

Our room had skylights, so I was convinced that I would never get to sleep that night…I had been up for almost 40 hours at that point, so as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was gone!

Stayed tuned for a wee bit more from Scotland!