Arrive in Scotland!

Sunday, 02 March 2008

Finally!! An update from the Causeys!!

Well, we've finally been able to find a UK power supply for Matt's lappy, and now we're ready to start sending updates back home!! Let me start at the beginning of the trip.

We left Lexington at 2pm on Thursday the 28th of February. It took us about 12 hours of travel before we landed in Glasgow, Scotland. The flights were uneventful, and we landed at 7:30 am Glasgow time. (2:30 EST) All of our bags were in perfect condition, and we "hired" a car and took off for downtown Glasgow! The car rental company had an automatic trany car waiting for us, but of course Matt asked for a standard. Aparantly, the only one available was a brand new Vauxhall. It was so brand-new, that it only had 15 miles on it!! It's a large station-wagon type car - over here called an Estate Car. Remember that the Scots drive on the left side of the road. Just a little bit unnerving, but actually not too bad once you get used to it.

Once we had the car straightened out, we headed into Glasgow. At this point we didn't have a cell phone, and we didn't have directions yet either. We knew that our apartment was supposed to be in "Merchant City" in downtown. We didn't see any signs to Merchant City, but we did follow the signs for the City Center. Once there, we pulled over because we had no earthly clue where we were or where we were going. There was a sign declaring that we were on North Street. It just so happened that Matt found a wi-fi connection that was unlocked, and we Google-mapped "North St to Albion St" and soon had our directions! Lucky for us, we were heading in the right direction, and were only 10 minutes from our new residence.

When we found our apartment, and parked the car in the nearest parking garage. It had been quite a nerve racking drive, due to the rain, traffic, new roads and left-side-driving. We walked into our apartment reception area, and were informed that we could not check in until 2pm. It was currently 8:30am, and we had been up for almost 24 hours. I went into the car and had a nap, and Matt opened a bank account. We had lunch at a little Russian Cafe, and then proceeded to check into our apartment, and have a nice, long nap.

Our apartment is temporary. It's in a corporate housing complex for long-stay business trips. It has a bedroom, bathroom, and livingroom/diningroom/kitchen. I'll post some pictures soon. It's not a bad place, and has the added benefit of daily room cleaning service, just like a hotel. We're in a corner room on the third floor, and the 2 streets we overlook are full of shops, pubs and people (most of the time). I suppose it's very much like any other large city, but I've not spent any time in large citys, so I wouldn't really know.

Tomorrow, we're going into Gourock to look at a few apartments. Hopefully, we'll find one we like soon, and we'll be ready to move in when our boat shipment arives about the 15th of March. Matt will start work by the end of this week, and life will (hopefully) begin to become normal.

Well, this epistle is about over. Future postings shouldn't be this long. If you've made it all the way to the end, thanks for sticking it out with me. If you didn't make it to the end, you're not reading this sentance, so .