Caroline Peterson

Edinburgh, Scotland: Part 2 – Flight & Accommodation

October 14, 2014 By Caroline Peterson

Welcome to #TravelTuesday, a new series on Caroline Made This about anything travel related – from adventures to advice to allÂ out awesome stories about traveling.

Last year,Â we traveledÂ to Edinburgh, Scotland for a quick mini-moon after our wedding in Somerset, England. We spent 4 days exploring old castles, climbing rolling hills and of course, sharing some Scottish whiskey with friends. I want to keep each part of these Trip Reports as short and sweet (and maybe picture-filled) as I can, so you can easily pick out the major details.

This Part 2Â in a series about our trip to Scotland. Â Stay tuned for more.

Edinburgh, Scotland – Â Trip Report Index

Part 1 -Â Planning & Introduction

Part 2Â -Â Flight & Accommodation

Part 3Â -Â Edinburgh Castle & The Whiskey Tour

Part 4Â – Arthur’s Seat & The Ghost Tour

Part 5Â -Â St. Andrews, Castle Course

Part 6Â -Â Conclusion

Flight

We got married in Somerset, England which is about 2 hours southwest of London.

Quick! Cute wedding break:

Instead of going back to London, Heathrow, we took a one-way flight from Exeter, England to Edinburgh, Scotland. It’s a quick 1 hour 30 minute flight from there. London would have been more expensive and added another 2 hours (driving) to our trip. We chose the ultra-cheap carrier, Flybe, at the recommendation of a seasoned-traveler friend of mine who was actually going with us too. Ever heard of Flybe? Neither had I! I usually just flew Ryan Air while trying to save money flying in Europe.

Anyway, had I known then what I know now, I probably would have tried to use points, but that said, you can’t pass up $125 (including luggage) for tickets to fly to Scotland with your friends. It was well worth it!

The Exeter Airport is adorable. I mean that in the nicest way possible. The security line was quick.

And we were on our way to Scotland in no time.

Exeter Airport Flybe — Look at those props!

Did I mention I was really sick? All the stress and travel related to a wedding overseas hit me in one snot-filled swoop and I had the nastiest cold known to (wo)man-kind. Super, right? So the plane ride wasn’t anything spectacular to me. I basically was just trying to not be that annoying person blowing her nose a lot.

But I was. Sorry ’bout it.

exeter airport — I actually used that scarf as Kleenex.

We landed a bit late and shared a cab with our pals to our separate, respective accommodations. It would have been cheaper to take the Â£4 Airlink bus that goes from the airport to the center of town.Â Check it out. But, again, I was feeling like shit and blowing snot out of each nostril like it would earn me money, so I just wanted to get to our place.

Which ended up being spectacular.

Accommodation

I found our flat through Airbnb. I really enjoy saying, “flat.” Our flat. Ha! Anyway, I didn’t have enough points for a free hotel stay yet (now I do *dusts off shoulder*) and I wanted to get a unique experience, not just a buffet breakfast in the morning.

Airbnb is great for an authentic, local experience. If you haven’t heard of it before, the basic gist is that people rent out their apartments, houses or rooms in a house for a pre-determined amount of time. Airbnb has a great satisfaction policy if you aren’t happy with your stay. In my opinion, the owner takes on more of the liability. That said, be smart. Only rent from people who have good reviews and you should be fine. If someone doesn’t have many reviews or has a bad response rate, even if the place looks fan-fucking-tastic…NEXT! We’ll definitely being doing this again after such a great experience.

After narrowing down our Airbnb options in the city and generally knowing we wanted to be close to the “Old Town” area, we decided on this gem. We were greeted promptly (even after our flight delay) by the owner’s friend who helped us up 4Â flights of stairs with all our luggage. No lift. That’s elevator in British, mates.

Hey, so, have I mentioned yet that I was really sick? No? I could barely breath as it was. 4Â fucking floors with luggage, a backpack and my purse, which was essentially another piece of LUGGAGE…?! No way! I stopped on the 3rdÂ floor, waving my white flag, gasping for air through my mouth, desperately looking for a snot rag. He probably thought I was just some out of shape American.

Wait a second…

Anyway, the trek was worth it. I mean…come. on.

airbnb edinburgh — That view. FROM OUR LIVING ROOM.

The flat is right next to Edinburgh Castle, with stunning views of the entire city, as well as a fully equipped kitchen, double bedroom, TV and free wireless internet. Oh and a washer and dryer, which any long-term traveler knows isÂ brilliant. (Trying to sound as British as I can.)

After explaining we could call with any questions, giving us some great pub recommendations (duh) and telling us to enjoy our mini-moon, we were left to enjoy some bubbly.

How sweet, right?

Next up, Edinburgh Castle and The Whiskey Tour. Mmmmm.

Until next time, travel buds!

Have you ever done Airbnb? Have you ever thought about renting a place instead of a hotel? Any questions about our fab flat?

Sobertober

October 10, 2014 By Caroline Peterson

After my recent trip to Spain and Portugal, I knew I needed to give my good ol’ body a break. A detox, if you will.

There was lots of chatting over sangria.

And tapas.

And wine.

And paella.

And sangria.

…and wine.

One of my friends asked on Facebook if anyone wanted to join her for Sober October. And while the responses were quite entertaining, it got me thinking…

I can do that. I want to do that.

Well you know what happens when Caroline sets her mind to something, right?

Oh? You don’t know?

I decide to train for a half-marathon in 3 months.

Or go vegan for about a year.

Or find an obscure bar in Bangkok I heard about even if it takes us over an hour and half to find.

Or jump in the water with elephants because I. want. to.

Or learn Spanish again.

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#Mexcellent #Epcot #latergram

View on Instagram

Or complete an olympic-distance triathlon.

No wonder I needed to drink…

I’ll be honest, I hesitated posting this because of the stigma around theÂ word “sober.” I could carefully craft a blog about how I’m doing it to raise money for charity (I know there is a great cause) or to help meÂ lose those last 10 pounds.

But the truth of the matter is, I want to be healthier and I want to see what not having that glass of bless-your-heart wine after work will be like. I want to take myself out of my comfort zone and find another outlet rather than kicking my feet up and having a beer when I’m stressed. I like waking up early and refreshed on the weekends and going for a run. With my half-marathon training just starting, there’s no better time than right now! I’ve been trying to lose weight and this should help a bit, so added bonus!

I got an emergency project that I worked on through last weekend and this past week hasn’t exactly been relaxing. I thrive on busy weeks at work, it’s when I feel I do my best writing. But that means I’ve desperately wanted a nice glass of Cabernet SauvignonÂ when I get home just to…chill.

But I didn’t.

Next week, I’m going to the USA vs. HON men’s soccer game and you know what? I’ll want a good ol’ american beer.

But I won’t.

Because it’s SOBERTOBER, y’all.

Care to join me? Even if you have had alcohol during the first 10 days, why not join me now? Try it out. Everyone is doing it…

Yeah.

I just peer-pressured you intoÂ notÂ drinking.

That just happened.

So…whatdoyasay?

Find out how I did:
Sobertober Update
Sobertober Conclusion

Edinburgh Scotland: Part 1 -Â Planning & Introduction

October 7, 2014 By Caroline Peterson

Welcome to #TravelTuesday, a new series on Not Your Average Gal about anything travel related – from adventures to advice to allÂ out awesome stories about traveling.

This the first part in a series about our trip to Scotland. Â Stay tuned for more.

Edinburgh, Scotland – Â Trip Report Index

Part 1 -Â Planning & Introduction

Part 2Â -Â Flights & Accommodation

Part 3Â -Â Edinburgh Castle & The Whiskey Tour

Part 4Â – Arthur’s Seat & The Ghost Tour

Part 5Â -Â St. Andrews, Castle Course

Part 6Â -Â Conclusion

Â

Introduction:

First, decide if you want to go to Amsterdam or Edinburgh. Then agonize over that decision for a week, annoying your soon-to-be-husband with a long list of “What if’s.” Long story short: We had the opportunity to travel with my funÂ fam to Amsterdam after our wedding.

Quick! Cute wedding break:

north cadbury court wedding — Weddings in England are fun!

I had been to Edinbugh beforeÂ but I knew my soon-to-be-hubster would puffy heart love it. Ooops, I mean super masculine heart love it. We had a few friends who were going to Scotland after our wedding and a few waiting to see where we’d choose. Â I hadn’t been to Amsterdam before but it was on my list of places to see. I was really torn. I even made a pros and cons list. In the end, Scotland won and we decided to enjoy a few bagpipe-filled days with our pals.

(Basically, I knew I’d want to kill my family after being with them for so long during our wedding and then spend more timeÂ with them in Amsterdam.)

Just kidding. Love you guys.

Not really kidding. Love you guys!

So after that, the planning began.

Planning:

We mapped out how long we wanted to stay and chose the itineraryÂ around the best prices for flights back to the states and also when I needed to be back to work. Minor detail.

We had 4 days to explore what Edinburgh and St. Andrews had to offer. It’s funny, even over the course of a year, my travel planning has changed since this trip. I really utilize the awesome travel blogs I follow, download apps for various cities or countries and even download the good ol’ Fromers travel guides. But for Edinburgh, perhaps since I had been there before and also since, you know, planning a wedding overseas is slightly time consuming, I didn’t download or research much. Normally, and in upcoming blogs about my travels, there will be more “in-depth” planning. Promise.

I used these following apps:

Edinburgh Scotland travel — Call/text over free wi-fi

Edinburgh Scotland travels — Train times to St. Andrew’s

Before we took off across the pond toÂ get hitched, I knew we wanted to go to:

Edinburgh Castle
St. Andrews to play a round (The hubster didn’t know about this. WIFE OF THE YEAR!)
King Arthur’s Seat
A pub, any pub, a pub, any pub

Follow along for the next post where I explain just how cheap our flight was and what a kick-ass-bomb-diggity place we got through AirBnb.

A place with aÂ view…

Edinburgh Scotland Travel - Planning & Introduction - Caroline Made This — (insert ahhhhhh here)

Until next time, travel buds!

Halloween Decorations Bust

October 5, 2014 By Caroline Peterson

I went to pull out the giant bin of holiday decorations and…

No.

Just no.

I have no interest in it this year. I can’t entirely put my finger on why other than it doesn’t add much to my life…and only adds something more to dust. It just seems like fluffy shit to me now. Maybe it was something I used to feel the need to put up to fill some void. I don’t know.

The hubster is doing is psychiatry rotations this month. Perhaps he can offer some insight.

You guys, this is weird! I LOVE October. Halloween is my favorite. Shit man, I even wrote 2 blogs, 2 years ago that are STILL getting hits today.

I still love October, I still love Halloween.

I’m a pretty insightful person and if I were to narrow it down to a reason, it probably is that I don’t give a fuck anymore about how cute my decorations look to other people. At least right now. Prior to moving to Florida I spent a lot of time looking for more work and filling the time in-betweenÂ with projects. Some of those projects were crafts.

Have I ever shown you my dream craft room?

Oh wait. That’s not it. That’s my dream dresser.

Moving on…

I still love whipping out the craft drawer from time to time, but I just don’t feel the need to put things up for show. Is it a show? Who would it be for other than me and guests? Perhaps traveling to impoverished areas of the world reminded me that having perfectly arranged autumn leaves will no more contribute to my life than another Starbucks GrandeÂ Ice Coffee with soy milk (no sweetener). Maybe I’ve been Pinterest-ed out. Sure, you have lots of cool things pinned that you put up for the holidays, but that still doesn’t cover up what an empty, mind-numbing person you can be.

Yeah, I said it. You’ve thought it, too!

I can still feel the Halloween spirit without my sparkly skeleton hanging on the wall. I’ll still watch The Great Pumpkin on ABC and force the hubster to join me regardless of whatever game is on where they grunt and bash their heads together in helmets.

Last year, we were in Thailand and Cambodia for 2 weeks during December. I put up one lone, small, white, bomb-diggity Christmas tree in the middle of our dining room table and you know what? It felt so relieving!

Perhaps living in Florida contributes to it. It’s October and was 93 degrees today. It still doesn’t register in my grew-up-in-Michigan-and-wore-a-snowsuit-under-my-Halloween-costume mind.

I felt a bit guilty as I put away the decoration bin today. So one thing survived:

See. I’ve still got the Halloween spirit.

Just make sure to keep them straight as you dry your hands after pooping.

Oooohhh, a shiny object!

September 30, 2014 By Caroline Peterson

I write for a living. Sometimes the last thing I want to do when I get home is write some more. I mean, I write some kick-ass marketing copy during the day. That takes brain power, people.

I say sometimes it’s the last thing I want to do, because almost 100% of the time, I have all of these crazy, weird ideas in my head of what I want to write about.

But, I get distracted.

I put my copywriter hat on

and re-read the post 17 times before I decide to change three words that were CRITICAL to the blog being understood.

Both options suck.

Distractions are the worst. I’ll sit down to write what I know may be a more time-consuming post, like this one onÂ My Travel Essentials, and I’ll easily get distracted.Â Distracting things include:Â my cat, a commercial, “Did I get the mail?”, Facebook, the news, a golfer missing his shot so I can run to the window to make fun of him (we live on the 13th hole) or needing to pee and then forgetting to come back to the post.

I’ve also had to make a concerted effort to not be so hard on my writing in this here blog. It’s fun writing. I can relax more. You people are my lovely clients and you’re a blasty-blast! So if I miss a comma, just know I did it on purpose.

Like the gangsta’ I am.

If I know it takes some time, instead of breaking it down into smaller writing sessions, I’ll just actively avoid it.Â Since that’s what mature adults do.

Like the gangsta’ I am.

How do you avoid distractions or blogger’sÂ block?

I’d love to hear your input or ooooohhh shiny object!

A Balancing Weekend

September 29, 2014 By Caroline Peterson

The hubster is all about learning how to save lives and take care of patients. Sometimes, that makes our alone time few and far between. For instance, I probably won’t be with him on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Saving lives and taking care of patients won’t stop for the holidays, you know?

Did I mention he’s in his 3rd year of medical school? Yeah. He’s not a doctor yet and we’re figuring out this fine balance of studying so hard that he doesn’t sleep for over 2 days and, you know, saying more than hello and goodbye to each other.

We’re actually pretty darnÂ good at the balance.

We take the time when we need it. Sometimes that time has to wait until exams are over and sometimes it needs to happen. right. freaking. now. because. I. want. to. talk. to. you. I’ve often said that there isn’t room for both of us to be stressed out because med school is pretty mother-effing stressful enough. That’s accurate sometimes, other times it just feels like that.

When people are hard on him for not having time for them, I sort of want to say, “Take a number!”

He’s doing really well in his rotations this year and putting all the studying to good use on actual real-life situations. It’s nice to hear his stories about how his input was valued (or not valued) with patients because he sees that what he’s worked so hard for, for the lastÂ eleventy billionÂ years, is panning out.

I’m sure I can go into it more about how being a med school ~~widow~~ wife is one of the toughest things I’ve ever willingly done…and I actually love my alone time more than most people! Perhaps I will write about it more. My husband is lovingÂ and flexible and that makes it a whole-heck-of-a-lot easier during this time period. Â But needless to say, it requires work to schedule time and not come across as a nag (can you PLEASE ask me on a date!) and also be cognizant of school needs.

So, with that said, we left for the weekend and headed to the in-laws glorious place on Marco Island.

It started off very much like most of our trips…with some unexpected, fun entertainment! Like, we drove an hour and a half to the other side of the state and both asked who brought the key to get in. Yup. Neither of us. So another trip almost back to Ft. Lauderdale (big thanks for the Father-in-Law and building manager who rounded up another key for us) and we finally got in. We settled in and started enjoying the smell of the Gulf, gazing at the stars and also watching a pool-house have a minor explosion. No, I’m not making that up. Again, we travel to entertain everyone else.

But after those minor hiccups, we enjoyed a weekend full of:

“I love you.”Â