{pt.1}

when barclay's mum was just a bit younger than i am, she moved to canada from scotland. she got married and settled down here, but all of her immediate family still live on the east coast of scotland in the city of edinburgh. i met her two brothers and her parents a few years ago at his older sister's wedding but after 2 years of marriage, i still hadn't met any of barclay's cousins or aunts on that side.

so in october when his boss told him he had some time off coming up, we didn't really hesitate. we jumped online and booked a couple of international flights.



{and we didn't really tell anyone.}

about that:
if you're one of the majority of people i know in real life who was completely shocked to find me in another country with absolutely no warning, please don't think i don't love you.

there's this thing with me about being excited: i love being excited for a day, for a week. i can't handle being excited for longer than that. it's like fire ants under my skin. it's like the hot burning sun in my pocket. so if something big is coming up in the future, i don't really like to talk about it until it's either come or passed. i pretend it's not happening until it's happening. is that weird? it's just how i am.

plus, i like secrets. that's how i am too. i feel like a more interesting person when i have a thing or two up my sleeve that i'm not telling anyone. i don't know if this actually makes me interesting or if it just makes me unpredictable and shady. but the point is not that.



the point is that the morning of november 29 found us in kind of a blur of harried hurriedness, packing our bags to go home, arriving home, unpacking our bags, repacking our bags to go to scotland, and finally at the airport checking our sloppily-packed luggage through to edinburgh--me checking to make sure i had my passport for the 60th time and barclay fighting off the remnants of a really nasty stomach flu. we're kind of ridiculous; we decided to do a major bathroom renovation right before leaving for our trip {we're talking tearing EVERYTHING out and redoing drywall, wiring, plumbing, flooring, tile, you name it. major.} we were living out of our suitcases in barclay's parents' basement, barclay working like a madman to get the bathroom finished, me packing and running around the city buying insurance and good walking shoes and train tickets. that same week, we both got the flu and lost our truck {an inconvenience at the very least, especially when your car has up and died again}, and consequently sent our sanity on ahead to the uk, where we decided we would meet up with it when we arrived.




i don't know if we ever really found our sanity but that's ok.

airport: 9 am. flight: 11:30 am. calgary airport: 11:39 am. {time change -1 hour.} flight: 3:30 pm. amsterdam airport: 8:30 am. {time change +7 hours}. flight: 9:45 am. edinburgh airport: 10:15 am. {time change -1 hour.}



i didn't sleep on the plane trip over the ocean, due to a ridiculously large gentleman wearing a turban in the seat next to me who smelled strongly of spicy food and salty sweat and who neither acknowledged nor appreciated my existence, but who spilled over into my personal space to the point where i felt there was not enough air for the both of us.



i did, however, develop a decent appreciation for bon iver, who serenaded me from iceland to ireland.

{part 2 >>}