trip to Glasgow & Inverness

Last week my hubby and I did some touring around Scotland. We went West to Glasgow and then north to Inverness and the highlands. I had heard a lot of negative things about Glasgow so my expectations were quite low, but it really was a nice city. We both liked it.





A good friend of mine is getting his masters at the Glasgow School of Art so we visited that fabulous building. I must admit that I'm really envious that he's going there.







In the lobby inside main entrance there are really cool mosaics of famous artists:






We took the train from Glasgow to Inverness. Gorgeous landscape. Because of the mountains and the lush green, a lot of it reminded me of British Columbia, Canada, but not as rocky.

A train station along the way:




Loch Ness:




Urquart Castle:




Inverness:














We had a great time. It was really nice to get out of the city to see some of the Scottish countryside.

where we live

These are just a few shots taken in Edinburgh, the city we now call home.

some welcomed challenges

Here are some things which are different here:

• The way the traffic works here is definitely going to take some getting used to. I'm super paranoid about crossing the street. And, unlike north America, pedestrians don't have the right of way.

• The street names along one continuous street change every few blocks. Very frustrating for someone who doesn't know the city, but we're getting the hang of it.

• Phone numbers that start with 01, 02, 03 and 07 don't have extra charges, while 08 numbers have a charge that varies. Also, the price you are charged changes depending on if it's a land line or mobile. We learned this one the hard way. In it's defense, there's so much competition for mobile phones in the UK that you can get good deals if you know what you're doing.

• The process for the letting companies seems over complicated - if you want to rent a place, once you've viewed it you have to be the first to show up at the letting company's office with the deposit in hand. In our case, we viewed a place at the same time as another couple, we both wanted it so it was a race to see who would get to the office first. Since we don't have a car, it was a 30-40 minute speed walk across town.
It would have been so much better to pay the letting agent and have him write up a receipt, or to even be able to call the letting company, say we wanted the place and have them hold it until we showed up with the cash, but give us a window of time. (We ended up getting the flat and will be moving into it next month - it's small and cozy and cute).

• Their buses don't have transfers so when you change buses you have to pay a new fare.

• The Scots use the British pound, but they also print their own currency which has the exact same value as the British pound but it's only accepted in Scotland and not in other parts of the UK.

• They use a slightly different size of paper. It's about an inch longer than 8.5 x 11 and it's slightly more narrow.

• Their toilets are also very different from north American ones and will take some getting used to. They flush differently and it takes a long time for the tank to fill up. The one in our flat requires a lot of muscle to flush too – if you don’t push hard enough on the lever, nothing happens.

haggis & bagpipes

My husband and I arrived in London by plane on July 29th. We took the tube to the train station and waited there with our luggage for 4 hours. We were exhausted and took turns taking uncomfortable naps in a corner of the station. Around 1:00 in the afternoon, we boarded our train. It took around 4 hours to get to Edinburgh, Scotland.

About a month ago, we were contacted by a Canadian girl, through couchsurfing.com, who was living in Edinburgh getting her masters. She was moving in with her boyfriend and offered to rent us her room in a student flat for the month of August so that we'd have a place to go to when we arrived. Her name is Mel and she met us at the train station. She's been amazing - so helpful and friendly. Thank you couchsurfing.com for bringing her into our lives.

We took a cab to our new home, which only cost about £4 since it was so close. It was my first time riding in a vehicle on the left side of the road and if felt strange. The cab itself was pretty neat compared to north American ones. They don't have boots (trunks). Instead, the backseat has tons of leg room and your luggage goes back there with you.

It was really nice to have a home to go to when we first arrived as we were so tired. We slept for about 14 hours that first night. It took about 4-5 days, but we got over the jet lag and are on UK time now.

Our current home is a 3 bedroom flat which we share with 2 other masters students (both very nice). It's in the old part of town which means that the flat has loads of character - tall ceilings, crown moldings, tall windows with shutters... It's a beautiful place. But it's also quite chilly so we drink lots of tea. We have a mouse as well; I saw it the other night.

The weather here is fall-like. Although we've had a couple of pretty hot days too. It's humid, but not nearly as humid as Montreal was. The city itself is beautiful. Lots of old brick and stone, lots of big chimneys, lots of green space and parks.

We ate haggis for the first time the other night. We both really liked it. It tastes kind of like peppery shepard's pie. Good and filling.

And, yesterday we found a wood folding table and chairs in excellent condition in a parking garage for FREE.

We've been here just over a week and things are going quite well. We managed to set up a bank account without a problem - something we were warned would be difficult to do. We're on our way to getting national insurance numbers. We have a place to live for the next 6 months and are looking for work. We've been meeting nice people and making some friends. I love the way people talk here. And, the other day I heard Celine Dion's 'My Hearth Will Go On' being played on bagpipes. Awesome. I think we're really going to like living here.

in the spirit of making someone else's experience smoother...

As I mentioned in a previous post, my husband and I are in the process of getting visas for the UK. Because it has been a confusing process at times with several unpleasant surprises, I though I'd put up some info and some links to help other people who are thinking of doing the same thing. Although some of this stuff will apply to people from other countries, this will be mostly relevant to Canadians who want to work in the United Kingdom.

This site is run by the UK boarder Agency. It has info about visas and can help you figure out which visa you need:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk/

The visa we need is called a tier 5 youth mobility scheme. It's for people aged 18 to 30 who want to work in the UK to subsidize their holiday. It's good for 2 years, but you can only work part time.

This is the main site that you'll need and I really wish we had come across it sooner because it was the most helpful:
www.visainfoservices.com

Until we found this site, we didn't know that we needed to have biometrics done as part of the application process. There are only 4 places in Canada where you can have this done - fortunately one of those places is in Edmonton, which is only about 3 hours away.

I also stumbled onto this site which I think is a really good one. It has information about stuff you need to know about living in the UK, like the cost of food and shelter, how to open a bank account, and so on.
http://www.workingholidayinfo.com

One thing that isn't mentioned anywhere until you're halfway through filling out the on-line application form is that in addition to your current passport number, if you've had a previous passport you also require that number. When I renewed my passport, I checked the box to keep my old one so this wasn't an issue for me. However, my husband didn't have his old passport. You can get old numbers from Access Canada, but it takes time. We waited 3 weeks for it to arrive by courier - not fun when your documents are all time sensitive and the application is supposed to be sent off 3 months before you want to leave.

We're almost finished at this point. I'm just hoping that we filled everything out properly and that our visas will be approved and will arrive before we need to leave. Fingers crossed.