Payday

I've made it to pay day!
Tomorrow I finally get paid (a once per month affair here). My first cheque in December has carried me through - after only working 2 weeks before the holidays I was able to pay my Council Tax, rent for January, buy enough food to subsist and have a bit on the side to come and go on. I got a bank statement yesterday telling me I had a total of £5.13 left in my account! I figure I should be alright from here on out (until about the end of September, but more to come on that issue a bit later on in the reading).

Because of my limited budget, things have been fairly low-key the past couple of weeks; quite a few movie nights in and lots of planning of future trips. Last week I had some friends over for dinner at my place, but other than that I have been just hanging out with my flatmates.

This Friday I am going rock climbing with work for a Team Building Activity Day. The other options were a visit to the museum or a cooking class, but I have cooked for myself and wandered through museums enough this year...

In other news, I had shaved off my beard so that I didn't look like a bum/terrorist in order to get a job when I first came over here, but after landing my contract have abstained from the razor since Christmas. I had worked for 2 weeks at the office, and thought nothing of coming back after the holidays looking a bit different. However, just yesterday (after being back at work for almost 3 weeks) I got stopped by the receptionist and she asked, "Excuse me, but who are you?"
I had seen her the 2 weeks before the holidays and have talked to her just about every day since I have been back. As I told her that I was the Canadian guy that started in the Education Department before Christmas I could slowly see her begin to place me. Then she proceeded to turn bright red as she realized that we had been talking the previous 3 weeks and I wasn't just some random stranger.

Now, on to my trip planning.
I think I may have mentioned parts of this plan before, but this is how I stand at the moment.
My current contract ends 31-March. At that point I am going to explore a bit of the UK by taking a bus tour around Scotland and hopefully getting through a bit of Wales and back to London to see Tyler now that he is there. Then I will come back to Edinburgh and (fingers crossed) find work to last me until July. At that point I will leave the UK for good and head out on a 3-4 month trip. I have already bought my railpass for the Scandinavian portion of trip, so that is a go - the rest is still in the early planning stages.
This is the rough itinerary that I have got so far, just to give you an idea of where I am looking at going:

Bergen, Norway
Geilo/Finse/Aarland, Norway
Oslo, Norway
Trondheim, Norway
Bodo, Norway (Arctic Circle)
Lofoten Islands (Stamsund/Svolaer), Norway
Narvik, Sweden
Kiruna, Sweden
Ostersund, Sweden
Karstad, Sweden
Gothenburg, Sweden
Frederikshavn, Sweden
Aarhus, Denmark
Skanderborg, Denmark (6-10 Aug)
Odense, Denmark
Copenhagen, Denmark
Malmo, Sweden
Halmstad, Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden
Turku, Finland
Tampere, Finland
Helsinki, Finland
Tallinn, Estonia
Tartu, Estonia
Riga, Latvia
Vilnius, Lithuania
Gdansk, Poland
Warsaw, Poland
Lodz, Poland
Wroclaw, Poland
Prague, Czech Republic
Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
Brno, Czech Republic
Bratislava, Slovakia
Budapest, Hungary
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Zagreb, Croatia
Zadar, Croatia
Dubrovnik, Croatia

Then depending on my situation (if I have any time or money left) I would like to check out: Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina

Belgrade, Serbia
Bucharest, Romania

Istanbul, Turkey
Sofia, Bulgaria
Skopje, Bulgaria
Tirana, Albania

So, if you are planning on being in any of those places this summer/fall be sure to let me know and we can meet up! I'd also love to hear any advice you might have on any of the places.

I'm planning on going to an Edinburgh Capitals (hockey) game in the next week or two with some guys I met, and my flatmates and I have plans for a party in the works, so I will keep you posted with how that goes.

Holidays in Edinburgh

Friday marked the first day of Hogmanay. I walked up Calton Hill by the observatory – they were setting up for a torch light parade and bonfire to be held that night. Last year they had 20,000 people walk through the city and up the hill where they set fire to a huge viking ship and animals modeled from sticks (see the picture of the stag in the link below). I didn't take part in the march, but around 9pm we watched the fireworks from our flat.

I got my first taste of the Scottish Highlands. On Sunday my flatmates, Sarah and Hazel, and I drove out to Central Scotland and hiked up Ben A'an (Ben is Scottish for mountain). A lot of other people had the same idea of getting in one last hike of the year; there was even a bit of a queue to get up the last section of the trail. The weather was great and I couldn't have asked for a better hike. Afterwards we stopped in at the Woolen Mills for lunch. This is a fairly famous/touristy spot because outside the restaurant is Hamish, a big, shaggy Highland Cow (the first I have seen since I got here). We took our obligatory pictures with the rest of the the tourists and headed back to Edinbugh.

That night there was a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee; traditional Scottish music and dance) all along one of the main streets downtown. At one end they had the traditional fiddle and pipe music and at the other end they had “American” line dancing to country music and karaoke. Just like Ireland, Dolly Parton is the be all and end all when it comes to country music. They really only played Kenny Rodgers, The Gambler, and Dolly Parton, Working 9 to 5, over and over again but everyone seemed to be loving it. The stages were separated by about 3 blocks with a parade of balloon animals/monsters making its way around, as well as a few event tents with games and story telling. I met up with a couple friends and we wandered through everything for a while before making out way into a couple of bars for the rest of the night. I had heard that Ashley McIssac (the fiddler from Nova Scotia) was supposed to be playing, but nobody quite knew when or where he was performing, so I missed out on that.

Finally New Years rolled around and I made my way out to the Hogmanay Street Party. I met up with the same group that I was out with the night before and we fought our way through the crowds and watched a few random bands play on the stages that were set up. The event is mostly BYOB, but there are beer tents set-up all the way down the street. We realized that the planning kinda failed when it came to trying to find a washroom. It was like being at Arts County Fair all over again... I think I spent about 40 minutes in line and got the most action I have had since coming to Scotland courtesy of the woman grinding against me as she danced around trying not to wet herself. I successfully made it to the “porti-loo” and got back to my friends just in time for the fireworks. At midnight the Red Hot Chili Pipers (yes, bagpipers) started playing and carried things through until about 1am when it started to rain and the crowd started to thin. I stopped to take a few pictures, but when I looked around I realized I had lost my friends in the mass of people. Calling was no use because of the noise, and I couldn't get a text through because the services was swamped with other people trying to do the same thing. I decided to just go back to the flat and am quite thankful I did looking back on it as I write this now. A solid nights sleep and no hangover is definitely the best way to start 2008.

Check out the links HERE for pics and videos of all this stuff.

Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year.