Purr Inside Of Me

All in all I didn’t write in June. I was promising you to add a note by the end of the month, but I had a lot of to do, so I had almost no free time. The most time consuming was making a movie. It’s really easy, but I had to pick not a lot of photos (from thousands of great shots) and movies, cut them, adjust contrast and find the soundtrack, which fits the theme and movie time.
So, the post will be long because of photos I want to share with you. But to make it simpler for you to read it, I’ll categorize everything I want to write about. Today I’m going to write only about my trip, no side topics. I’m leaving them for the next time ;)

Way to Scotland with a car


The way from the Warsaw to the Scotland is around 2000 km, what gives us around 23 hours driving. But you have to also add some time for small stops for the toilet, coffee, lunch, dinner etc in every 1,5-2 hours. If you’re like me we’re so close to ‘somethinginteresting’, so we need to see it, you’ll have to reserve even more time for getting there ;)

In our case, the way to the UK took us 2 days, and the way back home (from the top of the island) 3 days.
After the trip, the counter showed us, that we’ve made 7000 km instead of 2000.

Diesel prices are totally different depending on the country you’re going through. In Poland you’ll pay around 1,3$, in UE it’ll be around 1,4 - 1,7$. In the UK we’ve paid up to 2$.
Despite that we’ve paid a fortune for the fuel and some high-speed road paid sections, we’ve spent less money than using the plane and renting a car at our destination (well, visiting Scotland without a car would be impossible for us in the time we had).

The fastest way from the Warsaw to the UK is going through the German Eco Zone. If you’re not going to leave the high-speed road you don’t have to bother it. But if there is any risk, that you’ll have to take a night or visit some interesting place nearby, you have to get the confirmation, that your car is permitted to the access to the ecozone. Most of the cars are in the limit of emission of impurities to air, but you need to have a sticker on your front window, otherwise, you will be towed away.
We’ve bought it in Warsaw before we left, but you can also do this in every vehicle control station in Germany (you have to show the registration document) and it’ll be probably cheaper than in Poland. But you have to be very patient because I heard that during the sticker making process, you’ll easily eat two-course dinner with a dessert ;)

Parking a car in the most of the cities we’ve seen is ridiculously expensive (if you compare it to the most of Polish cities). In Poland, the fee usually applies to the city center, in Amsterdam, Brussels, and the most of the cities we’ve passed by you have to pay even if you’re parking on the suburbs.
The fee per hour is around 2,6 - 3,2$ (for the comparison - the paid zone in Warsaw is ~1$ per hour).

It’s totally different if you leave the city, but this is the thing I wanted to write about later - in a different section.

In my opinion, driving a car was the most comfortable in Germany. German people have high driving culture. No one will overtake you with the right lane, almost no one will get in your way, most of the drivers will show you the desire to maneuver for long before they start it.
If you make some mistake, like using the wrong lane on the intersection, someone will let you in. Even if you screw up something, other drivers probably won’t use a horn to scold you. Let's face it - do you know any driver, who never made a mistake? So do I ;)

Driving in the UK can be confusing sometimes. The left hand traffic is not very popular in Europe ;) For me the least intuitive was turning right, for Adam - driving around the roundabout. But believe me, after one day I stopped feeling uncomfortable while driving in the city. It’s something, you can easily get used to, so you don’t have to be afraid ;)

The ferry or the train?
Well, it’s a good question. Regardless what you choose, the best way to not to overpay is to book the ticket earlier. If you buy a ticket for specific time you’ll save the most. If you don’t know what time you’ll arrive (like we), I recommend you to buy a flexible ticket (you can use it during the whole day). It’s twice as expensive, but still cheaper than the ticket bought in the cash desk before the departure.
If you pick the train you’ll save around 1 hour, but it’ll be also more expensive than the ferry. They are of comparable quality and comfort.
Waiting time in the queue for entry is the same in both options - you should get to the line around 1 hour before you depart.

Where are the best sleeping spots?
If you plan to spend a lot of time in Scotland I think, the best way to save the money is sleeping in the wild sleeping spots.
In the South part of the UK island most of parking spots have a sign “no overnight parking”, but I haven’t seen it in the Scotland. These parking places are usually free.
So you can sleep in the car (like we did) or in a tent. You’ll need inflatable mattress, sleeping bag and optionally a tent. Yes, they’re also not free, but if you compare their cost to the shitty quality hostel room (which costs at least 43$) it’s worth to invest ;) Well, the cheapest room we found was 43$, but most of the offers at booking.com and airbnb are around 123$! One of the wild sleeping spots we took (in Loch Lomond) looked like this:

Amazing view, isn’t it?
On the parking spots like this you’ll probably share the space with campers.

These are not all inclusive holidays, but if you don’t have high expectations - they’re good enough. The silence, tranquility and freedom.
It’s possible that you’ll meet new people during the breakfast ;)
The worst issue can be no shower option. We were sleeping every second night in some hostels or private rooms, where we had an access to the bathroom. Good alternative could be taking a shower on the lorries night spots, but they’re not very common in Scotland. In the future, (when we’ll travel to warmer countries than Scotland) we plan to buy a portable shower cabin. It has to be filled with hot water just before you use it.

What are the best dining spots?
Hmm… we usually didn’t plan any spots for dinner, it was a spontaneous decision to stop for food. When we were traveling through the Germany, Holland, Belgium, and France we were usually eating some fast foods nearby the high-speed road. It wasn’t the healthiest way, but we wanted to save the time.
When we reached the UK island we were mostly cooking for ourselves.

Sometimes we were eating dinners in some restaurants, but we didn’t have high budget for this trip. It was important for us to spend as little as we could. So we were buying some ingredients in markets during the way and when we were hungry we had to just make a stop on some parking ;)
And again - the gas stove and propane + butane cartridges will cost the same as eating dinners during 2 days.

We’ve used the Aeropress to make a good coffee.

I have to admit that sleeping in the car and eating self made meals somehow define me the successful Scottish trip. I finally had a chance to spend my time far away from the civilisation, to be in touch with the nature, and I have a feeling that I made something for myself - for the body and for the soul. I always have this feeling when I travel to the mountains.
Probably you think, that I’m silly and preposterous, but I really needed this escape. In some sense I left behind all the problems, difficulties, and dilemmas I have.

Amsterdam - the bicycles city
It was our first longer stop during the way to Scotland.
Well, I should have probably written - the city of bicycles and canals.
Almost the whole city center are full of canals and small cute bridges!

The bicycle infrastructure is highly developed - the bike routes and bike facilities are everywhere. Most of the Amsterdam citizens are using bicycles to get from the point A to point B. There are also few bike sharing companies, where you can take a bike from the biking spot and return it somewhere else. They can be easily used by tourists and all the people who’re not living in Amsterdam. We also decided to rent a bike, to be able to make a sightseeing :) Parking a car in Amsterdam is kind of a nightmare! ;)

We’ve spent one day in Amsterdam and I can’t say, that I fell in love with it. But for sure it has its own unique style and charm. I definitely think it’s worth to visit it.

Sweet Brussels
Brussels is another city which ‘we couldn’t miss, because it’s close to the route we took’. We haven’t planned to stop there before, but I don’t regret :)

Pretty buildings in the city center, delicious belgian waffles with the original belgian chocolate!

I think you should suspend your diet, when you travel here ;)

Stonehenge and hippies
Stonehenge is a place with some kind of magic. I mean - don’t believe in any connection with real magic, Aliens etc, I mean its energy and style.
Despite many visitors there is quiet, ease and imperturbability out there. You can make a contact with the mother Earth to some extent.

But the price is crazy… Well, British people know how to earn the money. If you want to watch some rocks in the middle of nowhere you have to pay around 27$ per person. And most of the people are willing to pay it. Yeah, when you buy a ticket to the Stonehenge, there is also included the enter to the visitor center, but still it’s too much to pay for me.

But there is a way to avoid the exorbitant fee - you just need to go from the other side!. What else - it’s totally legal, although you have to enter on someone's private property. But as you can see in the photo below - he/she doesn’t care about that. You’re around 2-3 metres farer from the Stonehenge than the people, who have paid for that (for the niggard like me - these are coordinates to the free entry: 51.181009, -1.828879).

Birmingham and UK Games Expo


The next step during our way to Scotland was Birmingham. I’m doubly happy about getting there!
I’ve finally met with my penpal friend - Erika. We’ve been writing each other for more than one year and I feel she’s the only one person who really understands me and accepts me who I am now. Actually I’ve never believed that I’ll ever find the person who I’ll really trust to. I’m not going to get into the dark corners of my messed up mind, because it’s not today's topic, but believe me - I’ve found my soulmate.

We’ve spent 3 days in Birmingham, including the UK Games Expo. These are probably the most popular board games fairs in the Europe. We had the opportunity to meet the same board games freaks like us, games developers and get to know some new board games projects (which are limited editions right now). And the most important thing - we could have a good time together.

We decided to buy one new board game there and we also found some items for Adam’s diorama which we’re going to make in the nearest future. Adam loves to play Warhammer and he would like to make a diorama for some Games Workshop contest. I want to help him, Warhammer is not my hobby but I’ll willingly make some DIY with him :)

While driving further we’ve stopped in Nottingham to go to the Warhammer World. As I’ve told before - it’s nothing interesting for me. but I was really surprised and amazed with all the diorama I’ve seen there! All these details were awesome!
But you can evaluate it yourself ;)
I would like to mention that these diorama you can see below are quite small. The biggest one is built in the room area around 20m2 and it’s at least 2 floors high!
I found it difficult to capture the entire diorama and also the lighting was very weak.

During the way
We’ve visited few cities more during our way to Scotland and after we got there. We wanted to see some interesting places and be able to take a rest, because driving for a long time can be really tiring.

Oxford
Student dormitory city. Colleges and students are everywhere. It’s really nice to get lost among the beautiful buildings, which probably have seen a lot of resits and also a lot of graduations.

York
Main attraction for me is small cute street called Mermaid Street. But beside it you can easily slow down and take a rest from big city hubbub and rush.

Leeds
We’ve spent around 1 hour in Leeds city. The only one thing we wanted to see was the Kirkstall Abbey. From the outside it seems to be not very interesting - just the knocked down temple. But when we’ve entered we felt “something” more.

Dover
Small city in South part of the island, which is famous of amazing white cliffs. It’s worth to go there especially if you decide to use a ferry to get to the continent.

London
We’ve stopped off in capital of the UK during our way back because of Adam’s business issues. It was that day, which I could spend with myself only. I could to loop along the Soho streets and make a stop to drink a perfect coffee. But I’ll write about the coffee map of our trip later.

Highland midges
Scotland = midges. And don’t think that it’s nothing serious; it’s the biggest bane in this region! They’ll torment you everytime they have the opportunity. And none of the mosquito repellent will help. The only way to avoid them is mosquito net, but not this popular one which you can buy in most of home improvement stores. This net is not fine enough to stop them. We’ve used the tights ;) Anyway, we couldn’t totally hold them off.
If they bite you, you’ll have huge swollen pustule which itches like a hell! I still have some traces of bites, some of them are almost invisible and I still feel the itch! It’s been more than 3 weeks since we’ve returned!
Adam passed it more gently, he doesn’t feel any discomfort right now. But I think I’m allergic to any mosquitos :(

Scotland in the pictures
I’m pretty sure that I’ve written everything I wanted to about the Scotland. Now it’s time to show you some pictures of stunning Scottish Highlands :)

I think I liked the Skye Island and the Coral Beach the most.
I’m sure that I’ll return to Scotland one day. There are still some places I wanted to visit, but I didn’t. I think our greatest enemy was the time.

Places, where you should drink a coffee
When we were looking for some nice coffee shops we were usually using Foursquare and Google Maps. I’m a beginner coffee freak, so it was really nice for me to be able to try new tastes, get to know some beans from different parts of the world and brewed in a different way. So let’s go:

Amsterdam - White label coffee

Brussels - OR Espresso Bar


Birmingham - Faculty
York - The Perky Peacock Coffee Shop
(unfortunately I haven’t made any picture, because we were busy - we just grabbed a coffee and went further)

Edinburhg - Brew Lab Coffee

London - 39 Steps Coffee
Berlin - Chapter One Coffee

Poznań - Stragan Kawiarnia

To sum up - our trip was amazing. I would love to return there even now. It’s not possible to describe all these fabulous views, and even the best photo won’t be able to show you the uniqueness of the visited places.
So, for the next time Scotland!

And at the end I wanted to show you the movie, which is combination of the best photos and movies we’ve made during our Scottish holidays. Enjoy!