Stirling

This time around we planned our trip way in advance, gave our passports for VISA three weeks before the date and everyone we spoke to told us that they had got their VISA within one week and thus we had no reason to worry. All bookings were done, payments made but if you have read my blogs before then you would know we always end up having some twists and turns in almost all our trips. So here we are ready to fly out, tickets done, hotels booked and the main thing NO VISA.

5 days before our travel date we were confident that we would get the VISA, still positive and a little nervous tried to find out from few contacts if the process can be hurried up but no luck.

4 days before the travel date Aakaash finally went to the embassy and they had no news about the VISA and could not guarantee if we would receive it in another 4 days.

3 days before the flying date, we were as nervous as could be and finally decided to cough up the extra buck to speed up the VISA process however we were specifically told there was no 100% guarantee still.

2 days before our flying date we are sweating and shitting bricks, yet no new and the embassy people who were a little irritated by our constant inquiry.

1 day before our travel…phewwwww finally Aakaash got the passports from the embassy with our VISAs…  the additional cost to speed up the VISA process for all 4 of us did mark a dent to our trip but finally we were ready to board.

When all our bearings fell into place, the excitement started since this was going to be our first road trip and that too with my sister. First vacay with my sister abroad who was doing her post grad from Stirling University on full scholarship which for me is definitely one of her big achievements. Well technically I was going there to visit her and then she was accompanying us to a few of the places. She couldn’t do it all coz she had her dissertation to finish. Finally, we started our journey in the morning from Nairobi and reached Edinburgh at 9:30 at night. We had already booked a car, so all we had to do was pick it up from the airport parking and we headed straight towards Stirling which is in Central Scotland. Instead of going to our B&B we headed straight to where my sister was staying, wanted to surprise her and was also eager to meet her but it backfired since she was not there in her apartment and was studying in the library so we just went to our B&B.

There was a sweet surprise waiting for us – a beautiful bouquet which she had left earlier that evening. I really liked the concept of B&B which I was experiencing for the first time. We were so tired after the long journey that we just changed and crashed in this cozy little Scottish house. Tomorrow would be a fresh new day to start our first ever 13-day long road trip. Was truly looking forward to this wonderful experience of geting up every morning in a new city.

Let the journey begin….