When the Cheshire emerges...

A year ago today I was in Edinburgh, Scotland, sitting in the spot JK Rowling did to write much of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
*Review's tomorrow night folks :D

I wrote a bit about my UK travels in bits here and here, but thought I'd recap a bit differently now.
As well as excitedly writing about how inspired I was, how cool The Elephant House is (you can really see the castle from there), and how incredible their hot chocolates were, I was busy revisiting the events of yesterday when I'd been on top of the world. I'd climbed 250 metres to the top of Arthur's Seat - that trek took me over an hour because I think I went from the back way. It took an age and I questioned my motives for doing it, but after crawling on hands and knees for the last part of it, the view and the sense of achievement were totally worth it. Plus not having done exercise for two months, I needed it.
I missed out on a ghost tour because I misjudged the time, but I did reward myself by buying an expensive meal of haggis, mash and neeps. It was really good actually, I just managed to eat it all. Big serve.

The next few days would see me take in Edinburgh Castle as well as the Highlands on a day-trip where I was picked up by a Scotsman. After that was Glasgow, where like Edinburgh, had some amazing vintage. I loved Edinburgh in particular so much, I got an immediate feeling of the 'it' factor, which only London has reeeally given me before. The 'I could live here for a bit' factor.
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On entering the UK after Spain, I was so relieved I was in an English-speaking country once more.
The wave of relief that washed over me as I flew into Gatwick Airport was ridiculous. I actually laughed out loud as I walked towards the luggage collection area. People were going to understand me.
I learnt a big lesson in Spain about communication barriers and subsequent hostility. I wasn't so understanding at the time and still feel I wasn't wrong to be angry, but even then it washed away as I once more entered a city that I was starting to feel rather familiar with.
While in England, I went to Bath for a full day and saw a smidgeon more of London, hung out with friends new and old and just had a nice few chilled days before heading to Birmingham, where a daytrip included Cadbury World. Leeds came with daytrips to York and Hebden Bridge, where the rain began and wouldn't stop for some time on my travels. This time with more friends was nice, just the familiarity of seeing faces I knew was a relief at the right time.
My time in England and Scotland in a nutshell:

Apple pie icecream made on the spot with liquid nitrogen. OMG.

The Cadbury gorilla! He even performed 'In The Air Tonight'... I believe I reverted back to being a five-year-old in excitement.

One of Leeds' many arcades

Hebden Bridge: the third best hippie town in the world apparently.

This was the Yorkshire pudding I had - not the norm apparently. But still really good. Was pining at the chips the people next to me had left behind though, there was no side!

250 metres. You can tell I was impressed with myself.

One of my favourite shots actually, just the early-morning bustle amidst such an olden setting

Thought I saw Nessie! The home of the sea monster in the Scottish Highlands

See? Picked up by a Scotsman! My tour guide Andy.

Glasgow: great vintage. A jacket I scored for 2 pounds is sitting on the top of that tub on the floor.

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*I have two photos entered in the current Qatar Reflections competition. Please show your support for me by voting for either photo! Short backstory and links here.

The time you spend on overseas trips should be amazing. It's a time where you forget about everything you know and just roll with what you want to see and do.
(Okay, you can't forget your bankcard details and how to say 'hello, how are you' in any given language...)

Writing for a living now, I expected that a three-week holiday wouldn't present any problems in keeping up to date with my thoughts. The two weeks in New Zealand particularly were meant to be very relaxed.

But as I discovered once again, I'm notorious for not being able to keep up to speed.

Edinburgh, 2011

In New Zealand and on my European trips, I loved sitting in a cafe and just wiling away a couple of hours over decent sweets and processing my recent experiences. Sitting in JK Rowling's seat at The Elephant House writing as she did for Harry Potter was pretty awe-inspiring to say the least.

But all in all, my European travels were bad. For trip one (2010) I wrote about 30,000 words after coming home, which I think took the better part of two weeks, or months maybe. Trip two last year is even worse. Yes, IS.

I'm still trying to recount events.

From as early as April when I left. IT'S APRIL AGAIN NOW. Let's just say I've had a huge weight on my shoulders for some time.

Queenstown, 2012

Back on New Zealand, I had too good a time to be writing to myself every night. It was more chilled overall but I still wandered around places more than expected. So instead of writing a blog for my lovely readers last night (whoever you may be, make yourselves known one day and say hi :D ), I focused on finishing the latest thing that I'd started. And at 11:58pm I was DONE.

A massive wave of relief came over me, as well as a blistered finger and cramped arm. Yes, I hand-wrote it all. And that was only for a three-week trip.

I've been working on and off on collecting Europe 2011 thoughts for some time, but with this achievement (and a welcome change in working hours) I think I'm on a roll. The sense of achievement I'll feel when this is done will be UN.BE.LEIVE.A.BLE, because I AM going to do it.

DO you have a bad record with diary entries on holidays? I feel like I'm the worst in the world so I'd love to hear what anyone thinks!