Going Home to Barra

Hello lovelies,

We are back from Barra and all I have to say is WOW. I absolutely loved it there -- it's sooooo gorgeous and peaceful and filled with family heritage and beaches and ocean and rocks and scenery and history and it was amazing. I loved every single moment and I knew I would regret not booking a longer stay there.

My cousin Mary Kate met us at the airport and was a generous hostess, giving us island tours and doing up my whole family tree and having us over for tea, and all that. She's quite the character. Very nice. I have taken about a billion photos. Mary Kate works for the Barra Heritage Society so that came in quite handy.

Met some family at the Clan Macneil Gathering, and got on quite well with the chief, went and saw Kisimul Castle and attended the Clan Macneil dinner. It was lovely. People are so friendly, and everything is so quaint. Island life, you know.... I don't know that I would live there, but I sure wish I had been able to stay longer. Next time I come to Scotland I will make sure to do all the Hebrides up properly.

Got to see the house that my great-grandfather lived in, and my great-grandmother, and the church where they were married. Visited a few graveyards, monuments, ruins... so much personal history there.

We walked in to town every day and everyone waves to each other on the road... I love that. And there is only one single-lane road anywhere on the island, with "passing places" where people pull over if there's need. Last night Christine and I walked home from the Clan dinner (about 40 minutes) back to our hotel, and it was dark, but we had a dog go with us the whole way... our patron saint! It was so sweet to have a friendly furry canine guide with us. I miss my cats.

Anyways, we are doing really well and having lots of fun but mostly in awe of everything and feeling so lucky to be here and to have the opportunities that we have. We are just about to pick up our rental car and start driving on the other side... so I wonder how long I will continue to feel lucky, ha!

Hope all at home are well... thanks muchfor the messages.
xo
Elaan

Belfast to Barra

Well, Belfast was cool and all, but we just plainly didn't have enough time there. Got some photos of some amazing things, but we don't feel that we did it justice... not like Glasgow anyways!

The hostel experience... now that's an interesting one. I have never stayed in a hostel before, and it was... not good. Although, Christine said it was not typical.

The room we stayed in had 6 bunk beds stuffed into it, and it was co-ed. Windows did not open so it was super humid, especially with all 12 people in there breathing at night. Kinda gross actually! Everyone was coming & going and sleeping & waking at all hours... the bathroom was on the other side of the building... people were snoring and wheezing and farting and whistling through their nose, and we had to listen to people scratching themselves and rifling through what seemed like endless plastic bags. The staff at the hostel were not friendly and did not give good service.

BUT, I know I sound like I am complaining, but it wasn't that bad actually. Being a hostel-virgin I was actually kinda fascinated by the whole thing. We are going to be staying in other hostels on our trip, and Christine says that the next ones are recommended by someone she knows, so we will see. I have to say it's really nice to have your own room & privacy. I must be spoiled. :P

Today we are on our way to Barra... where my grandmother's family orginates. Should be interesting! Going from Belfast back to Glasgow, we got hassled at the airport a bit -- I got the "random" pat-down, and Christine got all the stuff pulled out of her bag and they made her go back and re-pack everything into plastic bags. We have found that when leaving a major airport, they are much more lax about stuff, but when leaving a small airport they are really strict.

Okay, I am off... thanks to all of you that have sent messages!
xo
Elaan

A Day in Belfast

Hello, hello!

Right now we are in Belfast, we arrived safely and are staying at a hostel called Paddy's Palace... but trust me, it's no palace. Our dorm room is right by the front door and we suspect that our sleep might get interrupted by the all-night partiers! We will see. The flight here was super short and much less eventful than that last one, hehe. Tomorrow we get on our third and fourth airplanes when we fly back to Glasgow and then out to Barra in the Hebrides.

We are definitely looking forward to some R&R. Today we did a tour of Belfast and we saw some amazing things, like the peace wall, the famous murals and war-torn historical parts of town, not to mention downtown with all the shopping and pubs. Some of you warned me how expensive the pubs are, holy crow you weren't kidding! Today my lunch cost £14 which is about 29 bucks... for a burger and fries, oh and a Guinness!

Yes, I tried a Guinness... and those of you who know me well know that I don't drink beer, much less Guinness, which can only loosely be classified as beer. But I really wanted to try it here in N. Ireland, to do what the Romans do, as they say... let's just say that it was not my kinda thing. I did admirably, said Christine, but I was unable to even drink half of it. Yikes!

Tonight we are happy to relax back here at the hostel, as we are both exhausted. This morning we got up bright and early to get to the airport, and the bus stop we were told to go to (by 3 different people, no less) never actually produced the bus we needed and as a result we had to break down and get to the airport by taxi. On Friday we pick up our rental car so there will be no more taxis after that! Just expensive fuel. By far the best taxi driver we've had was the gentleman who drove us from Belfast City Airport to our hostel... he was hilarious!! We are finding the Irish accent significantly easier to understand than the Scottish, and this guy had us cracking up.

That is one thing that we are a little nervous about, driving on the other side of the road. I have almost gotten us lost twice because I was thinking traffic was going the opposite way from how I thought, and this afternoon I almost got shmucked by a bus when I looked the wrong way for cars before stepping out on the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah I know... rookie mistake. If I manage to survive being a pedestrian on these roads, the next challenge will be driving around! Please send us your best wishes... :P

Tomorrow we wake up early and head back to airport, stay there for a few hours and then catch out flight to Barra. There is a cousin of my grandmother's meeting us at the "airport" -- which is a beach. Our flight to Barra is the only scheduled flight in the world which lands on a beach. Should be interesting! I will get photos... I get photos of everything.

Thanks to those of you that have written short messages to me, it's nice to hear the updates from home and feel connected to y'all... I don't have time to write you back but I read all of them and it's great! :) Feel free to keep 'em coming if you get a chance to drop me a line.

Anyways, I gotta get going but I will email again sometime...
Hope you are all well,
Elaan

On the Way to Belfast

hi everyone,
i am at the airport wasting a bit of time on a very painful internet station so this will b short, sorry about the mistakes.
we had an amazing day yesterday, we did glasgow proud by going everywhere and doing almost everything! my favourites were st. mungo's cathedral (could have spent allllll day there), the necropolis (so many great photos), the gallery of modern art (very cool & free), and the burrell collection (lots of famous stuff in there). by the end of the day yesterday we were totally exhausted.
today we are off to belfast! i will write more later.
xoxo
elaan

ps how are my babies tracy?

Glasgow

Ok, now I know I just emailed everyone, but rest easy knowing that I won't be filling your inboxes with minute-by-minute detailed messages of our every waking move.

Christine & I got a great sleep last night and had a decent breakfast this morning, made up our itinerary for the day and headed out... only to discover that it is a Glasgow city holiday today and everything is closed.... which severely limits our options! So in order to regroup and figure out what we're doing today, we stopped in this little internet cafe, and the rest is history.

Turns out the museum and art gallery we saw yesterday was rated #1 of the things to see while in Glasgow -- cool! We are boggled over the fact that not only was it free admission, but we were allowed to take photographs everywhere inside. There was some cool stuff, I only wish I was more coherent.

Talking to the Scots here reminds me of talking to Newfoundlanders... you KNOW they are speaking English, but you can't get a handle on 100% of what they are saying. We have found that the older people are harder to understand, but maybe it's more of a factor of origin rather than age. We will see... I wonder how it will be once we get to Barra.

Tomorrow we head back to the airport and get on a domestic flight to Belfast, where we are staying overnight. It's the only part of the trip that won't be in Scotland. We plan to pretty much do a day tour while we are there, have dinner in a pub (maybe have a Guinness?) and then head back the next morning... and pretty much get straight on the plane to Barra.

Ok, well we are off on our Glasweigan adventure! Hope y'all are well! :)
Elaan

We have arrived!

Hello everyone,

Just a quick email to let you know that Christine and I have arrived in Scotland safe and sound! Well, safe, anyways... we basically haven't slept since we left, so we are a wee bit tired and zombie-like. We hope to get a fresh start on the day tomorrow.

As for the flight, it was bearable considering that we had a 2 hour delay in Vancouver, an hour delay in Calgary, it was freezing, you had to pay for blankets and headphones, and the food made us, well, unsettled. Apparently others felt the same about the food because about 45 minutes before landing in Glasgow a kid threw up (and I mean, really explosive projectile vomit... sorry for the imagery there hehe...) in the seat right in front of us, and that started a chain reaction. In total, 5 people were sick on the plane before we landed! Those poor flight attendants, they sure earned their money on that flight. I was fine though, I actually thought it was mildly amusing and kept thinking of that old movie "Airplane" with the guy with the "drinking problem".

Anyways. We are in Glasgow, birthplace of my grandmother! We had dinner at a lovely pub, the place we are staying seems clean and decent, and we are starting early tomorrow to do some serious sightseeing. We spent part of the afternoon today in an amazing museum and art gallery... but there is lots more to see other than the dingy streets and general disrepair that reminds us just a little bit of East Vancouver.

Hope y'all are well, will update you again when I can! :)
Cheers
Elaan

The Last Queen of Scotland

I might go to Scotland this summer. If I can afford it. I am tempted to just buy a plane ticket and "work the rest out" later, but I am fearful of including things like food & shelter in my oversight.

Hmm... to go or not to go. If I go, I will attend my clan gathering in July:
http://the-macneils.org.uk/
Looks cool! :) I guess I should try to book accomodation on that tiny island first before I book my flight there... hate to be found sleeping on the beach!

Other things to consider...?