WHEW.
I've got Dad loaded up with email and Internet on his iPod so he's browsing away but we're getting ready for dinner so I'm madly checking finances, ferry reservations, etc...all the things we were hoping we would be able to do up to this point with ease. Looks like flickr uploading is going very slowly, so here's some quick photos (via blogger) of sights, sounds and smells from the beginning of our journey, which I have written about already and will paste after the pictures.
DAY 1: Thursday, October 8
By the time we rolled in to Amsterdam, the three of us were pretty much wiped out. Dad did well for most of the flight and Tasha seemed to handle the ride surprisingly well once liftoff was behind us, but the long hours in the air were rough and Dad had a sneeze attack about 2 hours before landing that sent him right toward a migraine. Thankfully, a cup of coffee and a rest in the Amsterdam airport seemed to perk him up substantially and the last couple of hours to Edinburgh went much better, except when Dad realized that he forgot to pack one of his medications. Dad had a good time chatting with a bunch of Scottish businessmen on the flight and they guessed rightly by the name Gilchrist that we were of Scottish heritage, which led them to ask (as a lot of people have), “are you here for the Homecoming?” In a way we were, but not quite the same way they meant it. :)
Customs went quickly and easily, and after changing some money, we grabbed a cab to the Granville Guest House. We were all a bit dazed but doing our best to hang in there, and the cabbie helped; he humored us all the way to the guest house while we oohed and ahhed at the churches and houses we passed by.
The owner of the guest house, Latif, greeted us at the door and showed us to our room, which was up a flight of stairs but not far beyond that. This would prove challenging for Dad in the days to come, and it was so even at the start given how tired we all were (being awake for 24 hours will do that). Latif helped us with our luggage and gave us a quick orientation about the facilities, then left us to get sorted in the room. We were all about ready to pass out but were determined to stay up and fight the jet lag, so we went to find some dinner.
I had checked before leaving on the wireless Internet access in the guest house, but was unable to connect. I figured it was just a temporary issue and would sort it out later in the evening, and we went to the nearest food shop within walking distance, “Pizza Corner”. Expectations were low despite the friendly counter staff, but wow…the limp pepperoni pizza and penne marinara (with corn!) left a lot to be desired. I’d heard a lot of negative things about British cuisine, but I still chose to leave this out of the equation just as I would bad pizza in the States, and besides, we were starving, so we happily scarfed the food in our room and channelsurfed for a while.
Once we were properly sated, I tried the Internet connection again but was unable to get it to work after troubleshooting with the house IT guru. Seems the last firmware update he had done to the router was causing issues with allowing Mac equipment to connect (shut it, Vail), so I was out of luck unless I used the owner’s laptop. Also, I tried the power converter we brought but was unable to get it to work with any of our electronics, and figured that would be something to deal with the next day. By this time it was just about 8:30; we had all been up for nearly 36 hours (save for catnaps on the plane) and we were all fading fast so we gave in and called it a night.
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