Skye!

Skye

Skye was absolutely unreal. I could squeeze all the emphatic celebratory words in my vocabulary into a sentence and they would still fall short of how wild and incredible our weekend in Skye was.

We cancelled out enterprise car (and later, magically also got the return back which is not supposed to happen? Not gonna fight that one) and Matthieu came to chloés flat about 30 minutes after we were planning to leave, so the timing could not have been more perfect. Matthieu added two tents to our collections of sleeping gear and packs. Whereas I am normally a "drive until you get there, you can take your time and explore once we've arrived" person, Matthieu is not and it honestly set the perfect tone to the weekend. We all did our best with small talk, putting a good foot forward in getting to know someone new. I'll be the first to admit that my mind got swallowed by the views, which were incredible.

 

We made our first stop at a family lake area, loch something.. I can't remember the name but I'll find it later. Chloé and Matthieu caught up in their native tongue while veronica and I laced fingers to wander towards the lake. It was so beautiful and big and clear. Matthieu told us that he had climbed the mountain that stood behind the lake and the view from the peak was apparently incredible. My usual feelings of "c'mon, keep driving" quietly dissipated as I saw the views to which Matthieu was introducing us. Breath taking.

We drove through Glen Coe (glen means valley) and I think the world stopped while our eyes followed the carvings of the mountains. We took in the view for a few minutes and wandered around, glued to the wonder surrounding us. 

Our next pit stop was ft. William (where you can catch the Jacobite train, aka the Harry Potter train) we came up with a meal menu for the next day or so and split a massive 5L of water. We pulled over by a castle, the name of which escapes me entirely at this moment. I think time slowed again. I've seen a million sunsets as a standard Floridian, but I've never seen one light up a castle. Once the bats started up, we decided to look for a place to put our tents. 

Slowly, I think we all started to realize how compatible our travel group was. "sure" became the response to every "do you want to..." over the weekend. Do you want to stop at Glen Coe and look around? Sure. Do you want to try the tent rather than bother with a hostel? Sure. 

Matthieu was all about getting off the beaten path, so the 9£ campsite was insufficient, which I respected. After 10 or so minutes of driving, we decided to just knock on someone's door and see if we could discreetly pitch our tents in their yard for the night. Matthieu later told us stories of him hitchhiking, so he had a bit more experience. He asked us if anyone wanted to join, and obviously I said sure. Lucky for us, no one was home which was close enough to permission for us. So we grabbed our packs and food and climbed a wire fence to pitch our tents near the water. This is where we learned our first Skye lesson.

MIDGES ARE REAL AND THEY ARE EVIL SPAWN OF GNATS AND MOSQUITOS.

They were awful and they were damn everywhere. When chloé mentioned them before, I thought they were just gnats, which are annoying but ultimtalely harmless. NOT with midges. Midges will make you believe in God out of pure desperation for something to stand in opposition to them. In cliff notes, the worst peak time for midges is just after sundown, in tall grass, near water, with no breeze. Check, check, check and check, and man where they unbearable. Not helped by the fact that one of the tents had broken, so we were wrestling with it for about an hour when, overwhelmed by midges, we collectively decided it would be better to sleep in a shanty of a tent using 2 poles instead of properly setting it up with the 3rd pole and the tensioners. The midges swarmed, but most intensely on chloé. It was the saddest thing. She looked like she had chickenpox. And the itchiness of the bites  LASTS. At one point, we asked a guy at the nearby gas station how to best deal with midges. He suggested a lighter and a can of hairspray. He also mused that when you kill one, a thousand show up for the funeral. He wasn't wrong.

  

I will say, for the wild wrestling match the night before, our morning view was incredible. Matthieu and I both woke up bright & early and unbeknownst to the other, ended up exploring the same bit of shoreline until we heard chloé and veronica ruffling the tent flaps. We gathered our belongings, climbed back over the barbed wire fence and said thanks to the house & the absent owner for hosting us.

Next we drove over to the fairy pools after stopping for a couple of breath taking views. Isle of Skye knows what it's doing! It wasn't cold but I wouldn't say it was warm either, but somehow, largely at matthieu's suggestion, we ended of swimming and climbing through the fairy pools. It looked like the scene in Fern Gully where the main characters run across the natural pools, making it impossible to see how wild and beautiful the world can be. And those views! Holy wow! We spent a few hours there, getting out right before the crappier weather settled in. We drove around a bit more, snacking on the combination of lunch items we packed, until we made our way to Portree in hopes of finding housing for the looming rain.

 
           
  

The Isle of Skye is usually pretty busy in the summer (whoops, you're supposed to book several months in advance) and this weekend in particular, Portree was hosting a fiddle and accordion festival. Can't even make that stuff up. So we combed the whole town, asking churches, community centers, baristas, the outdoor store guy, anyone we could find, if they had a roof we could borrow. Didn't need a house, didn't need any attention, just a place to be horizontal for the night. The rain slowly started picking up while we asked for housing, so eventually, after finding an open door to an empty church narthex and a playground with some awnings, we settled for one of those options and took our lunch properly in the time square, in the middle of a light rain.

And that's when a young person saved the day. Katelyn, a high school student asked what we were doing in the rain. We explained our predicament and she told us that her family lived behind a b&b, the owner of which happened to be a good friend of her grandfather. She phoned them up & they had 2 rooms, both fitted with 2 twin sized beds. We almost cried! Katelyn lived close to the b&b so we gave her a ride and gratefully stepped into a beautiful bed and breakfast that offered FREE DELIGHTFUL breakfast in the morning and hot showers. We almost cried. 

After we got settled in, we jumped in the car & just started moving in a direction. The scenery was astounding. Our decision making process mostly looked like one of seeing something we found interesting, naming it, and everyone else in the car deciding that yeah, we should check it out. So along the way, we found a lake and a bunch of sheep peppered along its borders. Veronica fell in love with every sheep we saw, which entailed speaking sheep, which was perfect. and THEN we saw a boat. Surely this boat was securely anchored to the shore? Surely someone hadn't left it with rope superficially tethering it to land? Oh wait, no, that's exactly what happened. Matthieu suggested we try it and after I eventually got over my concern of somehow getting arrested/in trouble (c'mon chels, the only living things near you were sheep, hellooooooo) we jumped in and paddled out. It was absolutely surreal. The lake was like something out of a Harry Potter movie; it honestly felt like it was magic. Matthieu and I paddled while veronica and chloé directed the ship. We were motley, but we were out in the middle of a beautiful lake sandwiched between a few mountains, the tendrils of rain clouds slowly moving along their ridges. I think it was as wild as I've ever been. Eventually, the looming rain clouds moved a bit quicker, so we tied up our boat and said thanks for letting us have a ride. We drove back in a drizzle and after we parked our car at the b&b, we made our way to the local bar for a few well deserved drinks over some new card games. It was more perfect than I ever could've imagined.

     

 

Glasgow

Glasgow

We caught the bus to Glasgow, which mostly brought jealous views of windmills compared to the bullshit "I care about the environment but I'm also invested in the massive gas and coal corporations" of 45. (Per the 4th grader in me who finally grasped foreshadowing, that aspect only got worse)  anyways, veronica slept and I drifted between windmills and rolling hills until we got to the subway in city center (fun fact: the oldest continuously running subway in the world) we met chloé on the way to her flat, and holy wow, was it a sweet reunion. Chloé and her roommate (also chloé) made dinner and veronica and I gratefully scarfed it down.

The next day, we trekked back to city center and explored a super old church, where we met a goofy tour guide who gave us the next 2 hours of fun facts, theories, and laughter. He was lovely, and recounted sweet stories of his love Carol, who also volunteered at the church. It was very sweet.

That evening, we joined chloé's international barbecue, mini grills in tow with backpacks of veggies and meats slung across our shoulders. It was so beautiful I could've cried. Several folks from France, one Scotland, 2 Spain, 1 Morocco, and 2 Americans laughing and navigating "what is it like in..." questions. It was wonderful and reminded me of things I dearly love; food, hospitality, and sharing life as the sun sends itself onward. Ugh, my favorite.

 

Veronica and I had talked to chloé about trying to get to Skye, largely without a plan... Naturally we asked chloé if she wanted to join and she said yes. We booked a rental and then at the bbq mentioned it, and several of the attendees raised their eyebrows to our ambitions, since it was tourist season. But still, they offered sleeping bags and pads, so after the bbq ended, we walked through the Glasgow streets to collect some camping gear, in case it came to that. Spoiler, it definitely did.

We woke up Friday morning, anxiously reaching out to gumtree users (like craigslist) who'd posted about cheap tents. Our plan was to leave around 3, with chloé and myself nervously splitting the drive. Both of us can drive stick, but I'll be the first to confess that the thought of driving stick with my left hand AND on the opposite side of the road ANDDDD in a foreign country with narrow roads made me wowzers nervous. But we were willing, and that was enough to take the plunge.

AND THEN A HERO SHOWED UP

With boatloads of anxiety and very little in the way of solidified plans, we were about an hour out from leaving when blessed Matthieu messaged chloé on Facebook to see if she was still going to Skye because he too was heading that way. The 3 of us checked in with each other and i happily took a hammer to the ice and said I would feel much more comfortable with Matthieu driving and having a guy who had been to Skye on our journey. And thus began a truly infinite and adventurous weekend.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh 1

Edinburgh was absolutely unreal. We stayed with our friend chloé's friend David, who was a perfect host. He took us to the royal Mile after we'd dropped off our packs. We wandered into a nearby pub where we had a damn good dinner. I tried the local whisky & learned about adding a drop of water to the drink to infuse it somehow? Not sure, but it tasted good all the same. We also tried haggis, which is a local delicacy (eh, delicacy? Def local to the region) Haggis is in the same vein as scrapple and livermush, which lands it in my "you should try everything once" list. It wasn't bad, just not something I'd really pine for.

Veronica and I got up the next morning to catch the bus & whoops whoops whoops we were not paying attention and essentially ended up in a field on the way to midlothian (hint: not down town Edinburgh like we had planned) fortunately the same bus driver picked us up & made no mention of our mishap. So we wandered into town and explored the Royal garden (STUNNING) before we traipsed over to the underground ghost tour. Veronica is more into ghostly occurrences than I am, but I would honestly recommend the tours for history & perspective. There was an underground tunnel system intended to be a shopping center for the rich, but whoops it leaked, so instead, it became a sleep space for folks unwanted by society, while a bridge was built on top for a path between the university & the top of the city, allowing your rich kids and doctors to skip over the market place and the poor folks literally and socially beneath them. 

We wandered around a bit more and explore the city before popping into a coffee shop to configure an international phone. NIGHTMARE. I was so frustrated. We sorted out some more details for our trip & then met David & his fiancé Lorna for dinner at an Indian restaurant & holy wow it was so good! They took us to see Greyfriars cemetery, where JK Rowling came up with some of her character names for Harry Potter. There is an actual Tom Riddle. And an actual McGonagal. It was lovely. David & Lorna headed home while we explored a bit more. It was so nice to walk around a city holding hands and to receive no looks. It was nice!

We got up the next morning and went to hike Arthur's seat and climbed to the top. So as a funny moment, I would like the world to know that I had suggested climbing to the top with a bottle of wine & a small picnic after dinner bc I was told the hike wasn't too bad. L O L. the hike up was indeed a HIKE. Many stops and many sips of water later, we made it and it was absolutely worth it. I mean look at that view! You could see the whole city and holy wow, it was sacred.

 

 \ 

 

Eventually we climbed down and traipsed towards some food, finishing our tour by walking up to the castle but not inside bc lolz, I'm not paying 20£/per for an hour of self guided castle wandering. Nay. We went back to David's, left some coffee & a thank you, and made our way to the bus station for Glasgow!

May 21st pt 2

Massive amount of traveling today. Veronica and I landed in Iceland around midnight according to our bodies, but about 445am according to the clock. We got to sit together on our second flight which was nice; I slept most of it, which is to say, about an hour and a half. We landed in London around 1030 & didn't make it through border patrol until about 1245, so that was fun. But Bri warned us of that ahead of time. It was just a long time to be standing.

Fortunately, my cousin Aiden sent detailed instructions on how to get to him to we successfully navigated the tube (thanks Aiden!) on our way to him. Dropped our bags at aiden's and had a cup of coffee to power through the day, rather than nap. I tend to do well without sleep, but in either case, the hope is for us to acclimate our bodies to a different time zone. Aiden gave us a great tour of historic London, complete with history & local spots. Veronica's friend Maria joined us for lunch and beyond which was lovely. We started out in Barbican Centre & moseyed around to the Gerkin, the bridge, London Tower and a million winding alleyways.

It was exactly the right balance for a quick London tour which was nice. We didn't take too many pictures but enjoyed it all the same. Aiden has come over to the states a few times, so we compared a few stateside things to London's atmosphere. In London, the streets and sidewalks are wide and made for walking whereas in the US, the sidewalks are narrow, not easily shared, and lack the appeal of wanting to stay on them for very long. Plus the public transit here is pretty impressive & effective. Aiden doesn't even have a car, and hasn't for years because he doesn't need one. I wish wish wish that public transit in the states had this kind of accessibility. And it's just a beautiful city. There is a ridiculous amount of history here, and skyscrapers butt up against cobble stone churches in a way that seems less threatening than it does in the US, as if the church building is in charge & merely granting the massive skyscraper permission to be there. Also, before today's tour, I was pretty skeptical of Britain's power in the Brexit process, based largely on country size and international relationships (historically speaking) but I also realized it has a lot more clout than I previously realized. I'm still pretty Brexit-skeptical, but ya know, knowledge adding one more complicating factor and what have you.

We've just left Aiden in the city and we're heading out to Auntie Una's house for dinner & a bed (🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌) veronica is adorably asleep on the train & I'm keeping an eye on the stops. It's been a long day, but a reallyyyyyy good one. Seeing family doesn't happen often but when it does, it feels like a very natural catch in a groove & for that I'm pretty grateful.

Also, vastly unrelated, highly recommend the Sampha album & halfassedly recommend the new Paramore album (it's fine, just not as good as the classic angst that I love)

We're stopping through London again & heading off to Edinburgh tomorrow! 

Cheers & goodnight,

xx V&C 

May 21

nWe're made our flight! The past few days have been fun & filled with good folks and good convos.

I made it into philly wed morning & grabbed some hang time with stephanie before we joined her other Chelsea for a showing of The Fifth Element (I'd never seen in and fortunately, neither had stephanie). I now understand a lot of pop culture references that I should now, notably all the times justin & jondra would threaten to do the opera scene. But let's be real, if I got nothing out of the movie but the "buzz bzzzzz!!" I still came out as a winner. Chelsea suggested a pier mosey & some exploring, which led us to some hammocks and a chucky cheese style net that you could climb on over the water. Stephanie & I went back to her place & crashed, which was wowzers so nice. 

Jumped on a trolley & a train the next morning to meet veronica and her sister caroline & her partner Sebastian for breakfast at a local diner. It was sweet to be on a double date & feel like we would continue doing this well into the future. Ya know, some good mush for you to roll your eyes. We spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for Caroline's graduation and spending time with the Dress crew. Graduation was roasty toasty hot & I 100% sweat through my clothes which was not ideal, but a masters degree is worth sweating for. Also, we proudly had one of the loudest sections which felt great because caroline is well deserving. Got dinner with the rest of her cheering section before making home, where I admittedly tapped out around 830pm. Adulthood is treating me well.

Veronica and I went out to breakfast with Veronica's dad & his partner cathy, at a diner called Daddy Pops. It was exactly what you would hope for from a Philly diner ❤️ after breakfast, we jumped in Caroline's car with Sebastian to meet up with Veronica's mom in Chestnut Hill which is the WORLDS CUTEST. it's filled with cobble stones, thrift shops & earthy co-ops, and holy wow was it cute. We went back to her mom's place till dinner with Veronica's friends Andrew & Kathleen. Most of the night was spent laughing at some of our own stories of unearthing ourselves and realizing that maybeeeeee the reasons our past relationships hadn't worked was by whoops maybe some of us weren't straight whoops again. One of the things for which I am most grateful for in my relationship with veronica is how seamlessly our friendships converge. Makes me think we're onto something & I'd say that something is pretty damn good.

 We parted ways & went to a Laura Marling concert. I've been to about a billion concerts (rough estimate, might be more, dontchya know) and it was honest to God, one of the best I've been too. It was simple, proficient, responsive but all almost entirely music. Save a round of Laura asking each band member to give a fun fact (and we all know I'm a sucker for a a good fun fact), there was very little stage talk. It was all music and it was amazing. She's a master of her craft and knows exactly who she is within it. Ughhh can't stop replaying it in my mind. We scrambled home & finally walked in the door at 130am (woof).

Woke up slowly this morning (also, holla at your girl for doing a final load of laundry AND setting up an automatic payment for one of my bills 👏) and met stephanie for breakfast at a place called Honeys. I'll admit that even on my best days, I don't like biscuits & gravy, but then I tasted Stephanie's and I take it all back. I'm actually drooling a little as I think about it on the plane as I type this. 

After lunch we rushed off to catch a bus to catch another bus on our way to the airport. As some one who has just enough dyslexia and has butchered enough dates and time margins, I get a weeeeee bit anxious about not having my ducks in a row for big things, aka today. Despite my anxiety and the cosmos' occasional chaos, we made it to the airport on time which was a huge relief. Veronica would also like me to tell you that her backpack weighed 5kg less than mine did; she's very proud of this so feel free to do something with it. We had enough spare time to make a few calls and grab dinner before getting on the plane. Unfortunateeeeeeely, for whatever reason, even though I booked our tickets next to each other AND we checked in at the same time, we had to sit separately. And despite some extroverted attempts at making friends, no one would move, so that was a bummer. But it's only a 5.5 hour flight since we have a layover in Iceland. (And a wee salty moment: yours truly is 6ft tall with some gangly legs. Dude in front of me pushed his seat all the way back to sleep, roughly 20 minutes into the flight. If you are a human who likes to recline, feel free but help a human out and ask first! Salty rant over... At least until I see you in person and bring it up again, I have this tendency, whatevs) we're about 2 hours into the flight and though I am optimistic about sleep, I'm not totally hopeful bc historically I can't sleep sitting up. But you & I both know that this is 100% my problem, not yours. Oh well.

Alright, that's all I can think to say. If you're reading this, you're probably a great human, so carry on & have a great day.

Peace & blessings y'all❤️

xx V&C 

May 20

Yesterday was magic. I took an Amtrak to meet Hannah and her fiancé brandon in Richmond. I think I spent something like 12 hours in Richmond, but those 12 hours were honest to God perfect. It felt old and new and cemented the gut feeling that Hannah and I both had when we met; "I think I'm going to be friends with this person forever." 

Hannah and I met freshman year in college. I thought her Pokemon backpack was cool and she thought I was terrifyingly tall. She reached out to try and hang and the rest has been stomach clutching hilarity. 9 years later, it's still the best, and we're better versions of ourselves for the lives we lived.

We spent the evening moseying around Richmond, and giving me time to get to know brandon since they're getting married in September. Spoiler, he's so great and I love him. After dinner at Pepe's we tried to stop by an ice cream shop but hey we're closed. Not to be deterred, brandon and I scampered off to the grocery store, collecting our treasure and jumped back into Hannah's car to head to some overlooks to watch the sunset.

It doesn't get much better than that, ya know?

Got back to the house where brandon watched tv and hannah and I shared our thoughts on mindwanderings on a thousand different things. Same as college, same as grad school, same forever. I look forward to when our partners get to meet, and our wild futures since we always be in each other's.

I left Hannah's at 4am (😳 I know) to catch a plane to philly, where I am currently. I'm meeting my friend stephanie for some good shenanigans until I meet veronica for breakfast with her sister tomorrow. Cheers y'all! ."

stuck on a train.

Check out that pack! Shout out to Lydia for my lunch bag.

Last night, I left my gaggle of folks in a smoothed out frenzy to catch a plain to Raleigh. I spent most of yesterday running errands to get ready for our trip. Bri jumped into my day and graciously helped sew (read: actually sewed, in entirety. I did nothing but pop into the living room occasionally) while I did a last minute trim down of my backpack. (6 weeks of Europe came to about 30lbs, some of that weight in the form of gifts ❤️) 

Veronica made dinner and katie mixed a few beverages while I made some Chex mix with jenna. I wish I'd taken a picture of the scene, it was cute and encouraging and it definitely reminded me of the whole, "it takes a village" adage.

Bri finished her stitches and jenna took over the cooking so veronica could take me to the airport. I was pretty anxious but excited. Veronica & I rode to the airport, departing for a few days until she meets me in Philly for her sisters graduation. Fortunately, the airport was pretty empty so I made it to Lydia & Dustin's before midnight. At breakfast with Lydia at chickfila, resembling the many Friday

breakfast dates we shared while she was in college.

And now, I'm chilling on some train tracks about 30 miles outside of Richmond. On the first leg of the ride, I sat next to a kind (polish, I believe) woman on her way back from her granddaughters graduation. Talking with her and skimming the train map in the seat-back pockets reminded me of how important it is to travel if you have the means. That's littered with privilege, i know. But my God, watching the trees and swamps pass by, peppered by the subtle accent of a Eastern European ex-pat was unreal. She told me stories of her family packing 5 children + tents + backpacks into a station wagon to through camp portions of the east coast. She said it was certainly an adventure, but she would gladly do it again. I hope that in my older age, I too will be a warm crinkle eyed woman quietly staring out he window, resting in the gift of simultaneous stillness and movement.

From here, I'll get to meet up with hannah Vaughn (AND meet her fiancé!!!) before I catch my early ass flight to philly. It's finally happening & holy wow, I'm excited about it. Veronica and I will get to adventure through the UK and navigate the terrain of being long distance for a month or so. It'll be grand and wild and full. And for that I give great thanks.