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Bumblings Of Miss Button

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Bumblings Of Miss Button

Tag Archives: Scotland

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Wise Travel Words: Other Skies

30 Friday Aug 2013

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photo, Photo of My Day, quotes, Scotland

Scotland at night

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Posted by sarabutton | Filed under Photo of My Day, Wise Travel Words

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Favorite Five: Hostels I Stayed In

03 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by sarabutton in Favorite 5, Travel Musings

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accommodation, Czech Republic, Greece, hostels, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain

Now that I’m back in a non-shared sleeping space and don’t have to rent a towel, I can reflect on the many types of accommodation I’ve used. I’ve been welcomed into homes, which were always my favorite, and stayed in some very cute budget hotels and AirBnB rooms.

Our hotel room in Litochoro--NOT a hostel. They upgraded our room to a triple with a balcony...

Our hotel room in Litochoro–NOT a hostel. They upgraded our room to a triple with a balcony…

But much of my travel and time was spent in hostels. Here are my five favorite hostels I stayed in during my nearly eight-month stint traveling Europe.

Click on the name of the hostel in the header to get to their site, which has all their details and current pricing!

Art Hole Hostel: Prague, Czech Republic

Know when you watch a trailer, and the movie is totally NOT what you were expecting? Well, at Art Hole Hostel I totally got what I wanted–and expected–from their description. On their description for Hostelworld and Hostelbookers, they clearly say they are not a party hostel and are great for solo travellers.

This was absolutely true on both counts. With a great location nearby to bars, guests could go out and dance the night away or party to their heart’s content, but quiet hours started at midnight and were pretty well enforced, meaning those of us who wanted to stay in (read: I am an old grandma and like my beauty sleep) or go to bed before 3 a.m. could do so.

Plus, they don’t book big groups, and it was really easy to chat with other travelers there. AND breakfast is included–WITH protein! Cute little hard boiled eggs in egg cups right in the kitchen, ready for your enjoyment.

I also loved the look of the place; it’s in a big old building with wood floors and high ceilings, and the lockers were big enough for me to fit my entire bag into it.

The cons? The number of bathrooms is a little low compared to the number of folks staying there, and for those of you who are unwieldy packers, you’ll have to lug your stuff up a few flights of stairs, as there is no elevator.

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Wise Travel Words: Trailblazing in Scotland

21 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by sarabutton in Destinations, Photo of My Day, Wise Travel Words

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Scotland

Isle of Skye, Scotland. Click to enlarge.

Isle of Skye, Scotland.
Click to enlarge.

Obviously sometimes this is a bad idea (has anyone else seen The Descent?!), but some of the coolest travel memories I’ve had have been from getting lost down side streets or, like this photo, from a day wandering through the Scottish Highlands.

Have you ever paved a way?

Capture the Colour Photo Contest

27 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by sarabutton in Photo of My Day

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California, Greece, Photo of My Day, Scotland, Travel Musings, Turkey

For the past six weeks I’ve been admiring other travel bloggers’ submissions to Travel Supermarket’s Capture the Colour Photo Contest.  Anyone can enter, but for some reason it took me until today to decide to do so using photos I’ve taken in the past few months. I was timid about not having my many photos from previous years on this computer, but now I guess I have a number of shots that are more worth including. Besides, it’s a really fun contest idea and it has a load of great prizes.

Red: Ayvalik, Turkey. We had just taken an 8-hour bus ride from Istanbul, and were ready to resume our tradition of watching sunsets. The first glimpse we caught of it was from a tiny alley just off the water, and I practically started running to the shore when I saw how brilliant the colors were, evident just from the reflections in the car windshield. Needless to say, the sunset itself did not disappoint, but part of the beauty was the teaser that got us there.
Sometimes the preview is just as good as the feature film.

 Blue: Ankara, Turkey. We were being guided by our friend’s good-natured brother (in the navy shirt in the back), and he was the perfect embodiment of Turkish hospitality. We became fast friends with him, and he happily did everyday things with us, like taking my boyfriend (in the blue smock) to his first Turkish barber shop for a beard trim.

First beard trim with our new friend looking on.
Yellow: Sonoma County, California. I had recently quit my job to travel and write for a year, and my extended family decided to take a trip to northern California. It would be the first time that I would fly abroad and they would not be able to see me off due to the trip, so every day we spent together was truly precious. This photo was taken at one of the beaches near our rental in Jenner. At the time of this photo being taken, my father was ten feet away from me creating beautiful sand art and my mother was reading under the umbrella. It was a beautiful day, and the sands were dotted with the bodies of jellyfish. 

White: Thessaloniki, Greece. We had taken a bus to the top of the town and explored, eating fruit and people-watching in a tiny square before meandering some more. Greece is home to many white-washed buildings and many stray cats, and here I found it fitting that we spotted both complimenting each other. The cat slunk through the alleyway with the power of a miniature panther. 

Green: Isle of Skye, Scotland. It was our first day near Glen Brittle on the Isle of Skye, and we had been told that among the countless sheep dotting the countryside there were also ruins of a clan long-established in the area. We ran into another hiker and he joined us for the trek, even giving us a lift to the trail head after having known us for 10 minutes. Here the stone remains look out onto the abundant green overgrowth in what had once been the courtyard of the castle. 

And now, as part of the contest, I nominate 5 fellow bloggers to participate in Capture the Colour. Sorry for the late notices, guys. :-/ My nominees are:

–Regina of ReginaRae.Com
–Tarreyn of TarreynLand.Com
–Kat Carney of Kat Carney Photography
–Lori from Random Road Revelations
–Lily from A Modern Writer’s Adventures and Misadventures

Getting to Glen Brittle

15 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by sarabutton in Destinations, Travel Musings

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Scotland, Travel Musings

I mentioned earlier that Glen Brittle was in the middle of nowhere.

I may not have mentioned that Kat & I were getting around Scotland without a car. Public transport all the way, baby! This wouldn’t have been a problem, if we had known not to trust the very convincing internet.

Kat while hitchhiking down the road in Glen Brittle

We had our fancy (and totally worth it) Explorer Passes for CityLink. These passes allowed us to travel on CityLink buses, the main company in Scotland, for 5 out of 8 days. It turned out being a very good investment, because we a) didn’t plan our trip, and the flexibility to hop on to any CityLink bus was comforting and b) almost none of the drivers’ marked the pass, even when presented to them, so we probably got a lot more out of the pass than we were supposed to. Ah, Scotland.

But I digress. We had arrived in Portree with the intention of staying for a few nights and using it as a home base of sorts to visit Old Man of Storr and a few other possible hikes. We really liked Bayfield Backpackers, the hostel where we stayed, and it was there that we ended up meeting some truly wonderful travelers and making friends. Again, though, I digress.

Portree. So, our lovely hostel didn’t have room for us for 3 nights in a row, and we really wanted to stay put. We wandered around town for awhile knocking on doors of B & B’s in the hopes that there’d be a room that wouldn’t charge 30 quid for each of us a night, which would equate to $60. Stupid exchange rate.

Alas, we had no luck. But everything happens for a reason, and so on to the internetz we went. Our next stop that we had wanted to make was Glen Brittle, which was where the Fairy Pools were, and a bunch of other hikes. Was there a way to get there?
  Yes! said the Internet. Bus 53 leaves from Portree to Glen Brittle twice a day during the summers! Lovely, we said. Let’s do that! 

So we booked the hostel in Glen Brittle, and the receptionist at the hostel said he’d look up the bus times, as we couldn’t seem to find when it actually left.

Foreshadowing!

We returned from watching the Olympic opening ceremonies to find a note to us from the hostel reception. “Couldn’t seem to find the bus schedule. Try Tourist Info tomorrow a.m.”

No problem, we said. We rose early, did some grocery shopping, and ate some yogurt while loitering outside the Info office. At 9:00 sharp they opened the doors and in we marched, determined to make it to Glen Brittle, armed with the knowledge of the Internet. Bus 53. (See!? This looks like a relatively legit source of info, right?!)

Us: We’d like to get to Glen Brittle.
Them: Do you have a car?
Us: Nope. But we have Explorer Passes! (insert expectant and optimistic smiles here)
Them: Well, there is no bus that goes to Glen Brittle.
Us: Oh, really? We read online that Bus 53 goes right there from here…

Them: You must be mistaken. That bus does not exist.
Us: Are you sure? It said it only ran in the summer, perhaps… (insert initial fade of our smiles)
Them: Sorry, there’s no bus to Glen Brittle. You can take a bus to Carbost. That’s about 8 miles from Glen Brittle.
Us: Okay…well, what are the rates for renting a car?
Them: The guy who runs the cheap place is in Glasgow for the weekend, so that’s out.

Them: 60 pounds.
Us: (insert furrowed brows) Hmmm…that’s a bit pricey for us. Do you think we can call the hostel? We already have reservations to stay there, perhaps they can pick us up or something.
Them: Probably not, but we can call.
Louise, Glen Brittle Hostel Co-Manager: Hello! I hear you’re having some trouble getting to us.
Us: Yes! What’s your advice?
Louise: Are you experienced walkers? Do you have packs?
Us: Sort of…
Louise: You can walk from Sligahan, but it’s quite a trek and I don’t recommend it. Take a bus to Sligahan Hotel and hitchhike from there. Many travelers get here that way.
Us: Okay.

And so my first hitchhiking experience began. We took the bus to Sligahan Hotel. The weather was overcast, as Scotland weather is wont to be, and after situating our bags, we started walking. I converted my pack into a backpack rather than rolling it, and as the rain started to fall, we pulled on our ponchos and trudged along the road.

Maybe 10 cars passed us, some of them looking more remorseful than others. A handful of cars were full up, but some just kept going. I can’t really blame them, although we were definitely not very threatening-looking, with our wet hair. I wished so much that I had Hermione Granger there with me to apply that water repelling spell on my glasses.

The eleventh car drove by and passed us, too, and I wondered, as it disappeared around the curve, whether we’d end up walking the many miles to Glen Brittle after all. We had heard hitchhiking in Scotland, and particularly in the islands, was easy and very safe. Lo and behold, the bright red tail lights of the car illuminated and it maneuvered slowly backwards towards us. We had a winner!

Of course, we got picked up by a Russian. Maybe I smell like borscht or something, because man, after I started dating a Russian they seemed to come out of all sorts of woodwork in my life. Yet again, I digress.

Sergei was a PhD neuroscience student studying in Cambridge, on the Isle of Skye to camp and kayak. He was on his way to the Talisker Distillery in Carbost, and the turn-off for Glen Brittle was on the way. We assured him that it was fine if he dropped us there. The backseat of his car was down and replaced with camping gear. A kayak graced the roof rack. We made small talk until the turn off, and he even got out of the car to help us with our bags, apologizing that he wouldn’t take us to Glen Brittle proper.

We parted ways and again started walking, still with a number of miles left, but at least much closer than we were.

Only about 10 minutes or so passed when another car pulled over; a Czech couple on vacation were on their way to a trail that happened to be across from the hostel, so we got a ride all the way to our final destination.

Total travel time: approximately 1.75 hours, maybe 2.

We arrived at the hostel just before Louise was finished cleaning; the kitchen and rooms close from 10:30ish to 5, and so we left our gear in the common area and waited for some of the weather to improve.

We managed to squeeze in 2 hikes that day, including one with another Russian who was staying at our hostel. My sweat must smell like borscht or something…

Dorky videos from Scotland: Part II

12 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by sarabutton in Destinations, Travel Musings

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Scotland, Travel Musings, videos

For your viewing pleasure. These actually were taken as we hiked from across the street from a telephone booth in Glen Brittle to a waterfall to a lake to another lake high in the mountains, which is often covered in clouds and mist and less accessible to map-less tourists like us. 

Dorky videos from Scotland: Part I

11 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by sarabutton in Destinations, Travel Musings

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Scotland, Travel Musings, videos

Scotland was the first place I really started taking video, in part because Kat, my travel buddy, was really good about it and it reminded me to do it. But also because I never felt like I could really capture what I was seeing; video is slightly closer than a photo, but still not quite the same as being there. Excuse the utter nerdiness and unpolished quality of these vids. Needless to say, I will not be a YouTube sensation any time soon.

First video, taken across the street from our hostel in Glen Brittle, which we loved so dearly. You can hear Kat mention a rainbow, which will become a theme of the trip: spotting rainbows, photographing rainbows, wouldntitbecooliftherewerearainbowhere, etc. We heart rainbows.

This second video has symbolism that I think many of my close friends will appreciate. People who know me well know that I have a…er, reputation, for telling really…uh, let’s call them “compelling” stories that are incredibly detailed and then may or may not have any kind of resolution or point. They are known in some circles as Sara Button stories. My award in high school drama was Write It Down And Tell It At A Party award…you get the irony. 
As I was uploading this video, I realized the video itself quite parallels this theme. I had started taking it because the sheep appeared to be about to have some sort of rumble, sans finger snaps, so we watched with rapt attention. 
As you can see, nothing happened, and the sheep walked away. A lot like what happens in a Sara Button story. And then I found $20. 
This video (sorry for the bumpiness) is of our hike to the ruins of the MacAskill with Vlad, a Russian hiking buddy we picked up along the way. 

Stay tuned for more cinematic majesty, courtesy of Button Studios!

My Favorite 5: Things to Do in Scotland

07 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by sarabutton in Destinations, Favorite 5, Travel Musings

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Scotland, Things to do, Travel Musings

When I agreed to go a bit out of my way to hike in the Scottish Highlands, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. Scotland was on my list of travel destinations, to be sure, and hiking in the Cuillins with a photojournalist sounded pretty good, despite the fact that we had never met in person before. Turns out, Scotland is one of the most breathtaking places I’ve been privileged to visit, in every sense of the word.

Oban

 Here are my favorite 5 things we did in Scotland:

View in Oban


Isle of Skye (#1-3): Kat, my travel companion, really wanted to head for the hills on this trip. She’s an avid hiker and has summited a jillion things. I was game to try to keep up as well as I could, and so we took an early morning bus to the Isle of Skye.

The Isle of Skye is in the Inner Hebrides, a series of islands off the western part of Scotland. It’s also home to some of the most striking landscapes I’ve ever seen: lush, rolling hills with patches of forest, waterfalls rushing down rocks and glimmering lakes in places you’d never expect. The highlights of our trip really took place here, with no frills except those provided by nature.

How the heck can anything be so beautiful!? 

Clouds drifting in above the Fairy Pools waterfalls

After our swim in the Fairy Pools. It was COLD.

1.       Glen Brittle: Not even a true village or town, Glen Brittle is where you want to position yourself if you ever go to the Isle of Skye. It’s along only one road, at the end of which is a campground and lake reaching into the sea. We stayed at the Glen Brittle Scottish Youth Hostel, which was located minutes away from trailheads leading to some of the coolest hikes I’ve ever been on. We swam in the Fairy Pools and made our way up a mountain to find a stunning lake. I think specific posts deserve dedication to what we did and saw there, so stay tuned for more on the jaw-dropping beauty of Glen Brittle. (And also, a post on how we got there…)

The Cuillin
2.       Driving through the Quiraing: One of the best things about travel happens to be meeting new people, and Kat & I sure did that. In our hostel at Portree, we were fortunate enough to meet Anna-Marie and Bas, whose plans to hike around Portree were foiled by bad weather. What luck that was for us, because the four of us ended up renting a car and driving around the island together for the day! Yes, I drove in the UK and didn’t crash/harm anyone/kill a sheep! It was quite thrilling, and one of the very cool, windy roads we went through was in the Quiraing, which is a landscape created by a series of landslides called the Trotternish Landslip, some of which still occur.
The Storr
3.       The Storr: part of the whole landslide-derived landscape, the Storr, which includes the famous Old Man of Storr, has alien-looking rock features that jut into the sky. There are sheep, too. 
Me at the Storr

4. Edinburgh Fringe Festival: Every August for most of the month, artists from all over the world descend on Edinburgh. The Royal Mile is clobbered by tourists, performers and locals just trying to get to their bus, and acts ranging from general street performers (you know, fire eaters, magic, balancing acts, guitar) to music to mime to dance to experimental theatre to whatever the heck one can qualify as “art.” Hundreds—yes, hundreds—of shows take place, many of which are free or very cheap. If you hate crowds and the risk of hit-or-miss performances, avoid Edinburgh at this time, as accommodation prices skyrocket, but if you’re interested in the quirky, thought-provoking or plain old funny, definitely check out the Fringe. (FYI: We stayed at a great hostel, Castle Rock. Highly recommend!)

5. London 2012 Olympics! We heard that tickets to soccer in Glasgow were cheap, sometimes even free, so we figured we’d break up the long bus ride from Skye back to Edinburgh with a stopover in Glasgow to catch some Olympic action. Although we didn’t get to see Team USA play that day (they were over in Newcastle or somesuch), we did get to see France defeat Sweden in a hard fought women’s quarter-final soccer match! Tickets were not as cheap as we had been promised, but when else was I going to go to the Olympics? 

Team USA during the Opening Ceremonies! We watched from a pub in Portree.

Photo of my Day: Glen Brittle, Isle of Skye, Scotland

04 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by sarabutton in Photo of My Day

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Photo of My Day, Scotland

Sheep. Just chillin’.

Photo of my Day: Glen Brittle, Isle of Skye, Scotland

03 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by sarabutton in Photo of My Day

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Photo of My Day, Scotland

Here is a photo collage from our favorite place in the Isle of Skye: Glen Brittle. Click to make it bigger!

So much GREEN!

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