Okay, so after existing in the professional world for about a dozen years, I get this strange urge to do something relaxing, yet stressful, that would remove me from my normal environment, expose me to new experiences and have fun all at the same time. I discussed this strange urge with some of my friends at work, and from church, and they explained to me that what I desired is called a vacation (pronounced: vay-cay-shun). I was unfamiliar with the term, so I checked the dictionary to see what it had to say. I decided this was the relevant definition:
Vacation: a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday.
Hmmm. . . travel? I liked the sound of that! So I began with the research and uncovered a bus tour package that would take me to some of the parts of Europe that I’ve always wanted to see: Ireland, Scotland, and England!
What follows for the next several entries is an account of my experiences and musings while on this trip. I will endeavor to make them entertaining, though I can’t promise anything. However, if you tire of reading my drivel, feel free to just peruse the photos.
First I would like to talk about the people I traveled with. There were something like 44 people on this tour that I took. They were all very friendly, and I was able to spend time with nearly all of them at some point or another, however, there were 4 people that I connected with and spent the majority of my time with: Mackie, Peter, and Matt and Monica.
Mackie was this very sweet lady, about my parent’s age, that was also traveling alone. She and I wound up being seat-mates on the bus. We often had similar interests when it came to the daytime tours, so we usually stuck together for the daytime bus stops. She was good company, and we had a fine time sharing stories on the bus.
Mackie in Stratford
Peter was another fellow, like myself, traveling on his own. Peter is from New Zealand where he works as a city planner. He is also a Christian, and helped me slow down and appreciate some of the faith-based elements of our trip. It was good to have Peter along. He was also a fine drinking buddy, on the evenings when we decided to go pub-hopping.
Matt and Monica were a couple of newlyweds, though not exactly honeymooners, taking their first vacation together. They were quite entertaining. Matt is a software programmer/engineer, so we had some shared work experience that we could laugh about. Monica was something of a fantasy / sci-fi buff, so we had a lot to talk about as well. This was good, because Matt and Monica were the other half of my pub-hopping company.
Monica, Matt and Peter at the Guildford Arms Pub, Edinburgh
Good company all around!
More about the the actual trip in the next entry.
