9.30 am the time to take the first step of the day!

Checkout from the hostel, another day of moving but this time to a better place. Going to live 5 minutes of city centre and it is less expensive then here. Gosh how great.

This day will be a day of waiting; have passed out cv’s to all the hotels applying for a receptionist. Going to call two today so I could get an interview later on today. 

So tired of this wait, give me a job now!

While waiting I am planning to find a place to have breakfast at, and then some coffee, and hum might even have lunch there and just wait, wait, wait. Or not, might actually try to find a nice museum or why not a gallery, I am up for anything. No photos taken so far, but the weather sucks so the pictures might as well. Promise to post some photos when the weather is back to sunshine and hot winds.

Hope that everything is all right with you all and that the flooding is not to bad, heard that it was kind of bad throughout Östergötland. See the bright side of it all, I got the same weather here (laughs).

See ya soon,. Story will be continued. 

“Good morning sunshine, its actually beautiful weather outside!” 

First sentence of the day.

On the way to the station, I got wrong directions twice, never trust the Scottish way of walking (laughs), but then I asked a taxi driver, believe me that was my last way out of finding the right way (no trust in them after the drive from the airport). This man gave me directions like this:

“Take the next right, then left, then right, then left, and the second right and there is the station you are looking for…”

Man, come on, give me some good advice. I started walking, left, lalal, right and so on, and then when I turned around the last corner, voila, the station. My God, I actually got the right directions. (smiles).

Train, 1 hour and 15 minutes, pain in my shoulder because of heavy bag and there I was, Central Station Edinburgh.

Did know it would be hard to find a hostel, but not “7 hostels later hard”. Well got one in last second for 2 nights, 500 Swedish crowns and a roof over my head. So that is the place I am writing from now. It is a nice place, got free Internet access and I got great roomies. The thing is, finding this hostel was easy but the directions as mention before was hard to follow. Here is an example for all the Swedish readers; Kågai that’s Cowgate; so when someone tells you to follow the signs to Kågai; you simply end up in the wrong side of the city.

Marco from Australia sleeps over my head, we just found a place to stay, 100 £ for a week. Kind of all right since everything else is fully booked. It is a big room five minutes from the station. (love it). This is nice since I don’t have to consistently think about where I’m going to end up every evening.

Have visited a lot of hotels today, hopefully will the managers contact me during tomorrow, or else I’m going too :P Sara called me today, when I was searching for a hotel that I found 30 minutes later, and that cheered me up. Always fun to hear from Sweden.  Believe me when I say, I find my way quite good here in the city, but not when I create my own map on the back of a paper. Ended up wrong like 4 times today, but in the end I always managed to understand that 2 lines, + a st, and a right arrow translates to second street turn right. Gosh I’m getting tired of myself.

Back at the hotel now, sorry, hostel and doing nothing. Had a dude showing me a apartment a hour ago, nice but to expensive.

Over and out.

Wimo

Departure; please have your boarding-passes ready and your passport open with the photo side up.

Ready for takeoff; 

A few mothers’ tears later I was finally in the air going for my new home.

Mistake nr one.

Found myself a place far back in the plane near the back exist so I would be able to get off quickly; but as you all know I always do the wrong things when I am travelling. They started to empty the plane from the front.

Mistake nr two

”…excuse me, could you please tell me the fastest way to the city?” the lady looked at me and said with a hard accent; ”Taxi” and pushed me towards a group of people. I smiled and said with a happy voice even though I was tired and the time was about twelve o’clock. ”Are you going to Glasgow?” What a stupid thing to say, where else? Well, I covered it up nicely by saying some words in Swedish. (Laughs).

Mistake nr three

Well off we went into the cab; me, a couple from Paris, two girls from some Baltic country and one Scottish dude. (I owe him great thanks, you will understand soon). The taxi driver looked at me and I said ”park terrace, please” He fingered on the GPS and found the road, started driving and this is where everything went wrong.

When we pulled out from the paring, a car almost hit us since our taxi driver couldn’t see that well, we all got scarred and tried to put on seatbelts; seatbelts in old taxi with old driver = non! Well we survived so why complain. When we got to the exit of the parking place we took a little detour over some rocks and the bike lane; just for fun. And out on the motorway we almost hit the lamppost in a ”t-crossing” as he didn’t see that the road was turning.

Well, scared as we were we tried to talk to each other so we wouldn’t focus so much on the road. And realised that the couple from Paris was actually going to the same youth hostel as me.

After 1 and a half hour drive we stopped, the girl from Poland was annoyed since the taxi driver was lost. We all said ”first time here, you got to take us to the right place” his reply was. ”It is my first time here too”. So it was up to us to find the way; with a map in my hand I guided him to the right place, and I just hope the girl from Poland got home nicely when we left her at our hotel. Cost of the Taxi drive; 130 L. Our cost 11 L person; so happy we decided the price before.

No Mistake just sleep…

While there I got into the hotel and two seconds later I was almost asleep; snoring people and someone puffing in the corner was nothing to care about; I really needed sleep!  As the time passed I woke up like 13 times because of the sun outside of the window! But hey, I checked out in time (laughs)…

A new adventure...

Iam sending my love,
I'm leaving now
Wilmo 11 August 2009


The summer is soon over and around the corner is cold autum winds;
It is time for something new something exciting.
It is time to take what I own,
Say goodbye to all the one I love,
Enter the plane,
And slowly wave goodbye to my family,
it is time for a new place.
“Put a ribbon round my neck and call me a libertine I will sing you songs of dreams I used to dream I will sail away on seas of silver and gold Until I reach my home.” Amy Macdonald, Lets start a band

The speakers scream out the music as I am dreaming away a late summer day in the middle of August. The words speaks to me like no song before, it was like she spoke right to me! I know it sounds like a cliché but when you hear a song that’s going from your ears, down through your body and awakes your heart like a defibrillator in the moment between life and death, then u know that this song has something to say. I am awake and I know I got to do this.

Ryan air, three minutes later, 70 £,
a printer that is about to die and then in front of me a paper with the ink not dry yet saying;
10.30 pm, August the 12 ’09, Sweden – Scotland.

The last air leaves my lungs, a sad mom and a whole new adventure, in a country far away.

“Scotland Gaelic: Alba is a that is the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland consists of over 790 islands including the Northern Islen and the Hebrides.“
Wikipedia

It is a bit strange to leave all things behind me that I love and travel to a country that I have visited once with nothing planed and alone with a backpack with hope stored inside. Everything is different even the way people look at me; will I be a strong person amongst all the others or a wimp in the corner?

The consisting reminding from my mom about dangerous things that could happen to me. “Please don’t do anything stupid, I do not want to find out that you are together with someone much older, that is using you badly” Well I guess I am not going to jump off a bridge or seek up gangs that could show me what it feels like living; but instead of calming her I just simply say;

“.. Well it depends, if his rich, then I am not complaining.”

The look upon her face, she turns into a 9 year old for a second without the sense of irony and with a red face and a annoyed look she let a tear sparkle down her face. I hope she understands that I am joking.

Even if I am a bit scared about what is going to happen; I see this trip as a adventure that will take me far away to a new level in my life. Have heard that the gay life in Scotland is not too bad, bars and clubs that is situated in the middle of the big cities. But I am still scared about what is going to happen, since everything is different and my friends is not a phone call, a bike trip and a nock on the door away.

I am a strong person and I know I will be safe wherever I go!
Stay with me, soon more updates.
Huggles Wilmo