TravBuddy

Last night I was talking to some people at work who have taken trips to the UK and one said he used TravBuddy.com, so I decided to check it out and set up a profile.

Looks pretty user friendly: 

 

Click to go to my profile!

There are some great resources, I put in my tentative travel dates with a note saying I'm flexible and it tells me there are 2600 other people planning a trip.  You can look for people to go with you, review other people's trip experiences, find out ideas on places to stay and how to get around.

I'm definitely going to dig more into this site. I'm a bit cautious about going with someone I don't know, just in case they turned out to be a bit strange... IDK, maybe I could find someone that lives in Phoenix and wants to travel there the same time and we could get together and make sure we enjoyed each others company.

Jessica :-)

The Pla....

(The almost Plan, in case you are not a Friends watcher)
I really have no clue what I'm doing, but this is what I do know; I want to leave in 2011 around June or July. I don't want to be a part of a tour group with scheduled stops and itineraries, I would rather stay in a few towns and travel through the whole country and see things I want to see, when I want to see them. As for now, I have no clue really what those places are, or where I would stay, how I would get there... etc. I just want to go, and this blog's purpose is to help me document what I find, and help piece things together.

I went to the Visit Scotland website and signed up for a book of information on traveling to Scotland, and registered to win a trip to the Edinburgh Festivals (here). Of course the free trip would rock, but it is only 4 days, I don't like to even fly to Montana to visit my family for 4 days I have seen pretty much everything there and it's half the size of Scotland, I'll need more time than that. I've looked up information on Trains, but I don't understand that whole train thing and it might be best to decide where I want to go first before deciding how to get there.

For certain I want to see Edinburgh and Iverness, check out castles, and the Highlands. Yay! :-) 
Ooh! If I ran into a man in a kilt who looked just like the picture of Jamie Fraser in my head, I'd like that too. (This is more Outlander talk, I strongly suggest reading the books, I'll post a link to Amazon)


So far, here is my list of things that definitely need attention:

1. Money - No brainer, but working 2 jobs and going to school full time is not lucrative.
2. Someone to go with me
3. Passport
4. Rough Itinerary

That's not too bad, the list will grow for sure, and hopefully shrink...?
Now for some pictures of pretty Scotland places:





Aren't those pretty! Who wouldn't want to go?

It Starts

Hello! My name is Jessica. I live in Chandler, AZ and I have been saying I want to travel to the UK for a really long time. I've decided I want to go to Scotland (more on how this came about later), I thought this might be the perfect place to plan my trip. I am fairly unorganized, so I am hoping this blog will help keep me on track and add a little fun to the process.

As I said before, I've always wanted to go to the UK. The US is cool, but I want to visit a different nation, on a different continent, somewhere with rich history and ideally a place that speaks the same language until I get the hang of international travel (other than Canada).
I started reading a fantastic book series last year, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Outlander takes place in Scotland, and is filled with a rich appreciation for the country and it's people. While reading I would often research things as I came upon them, such as where exactly IS Scotland. Yes, I know... but I really did look. As I got more into the first book I was looking up clan histories, Gaelic, music and all sorts of things... Thank God for Wikipedia and YouTube. I started to fall in love with the dynamic of the country, the scenery, and their history. Just like that, I now know where I want to take my vacation!!

Please feel free to comment, make suggestions, or just read.

Jessica :-)