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.