Scotland Adventures

I haven’t travelled much before this year. At least abroad. Really, I feel like we can treat every day like we’re seeing the world through traveller’s eyes so in a way I’ve travelled endlessly. And I’ve had the great joy of getting to travel a fair amount to retreats over the past few years. But hoping on a very long plane ride to another part of the world many time zones away…not so much.

It started this spring with a trip with family to where my matrilineal side is from, Latvia…plus an adventure to Paris solo before heading home. I caught the travel bug, big time. I loved the way it brings out this wide eyed wonder both in myself, and in the conversations I’d have with people before and after. I loved shaking up my normal and walking the world with everything looking anew. And what has truly stolen my heart is the way we find connections to ourselves and sometimes to our history abroad especially in the places I’ve been travelling to. My travels this year have also been very family related, either travelling with family, to visit family or to places where I have heritage.

Plus, there are those parts of my life that are unanswered, places I have yet to find home (like finding a partner or being a parent) and I realized that this is the time to travel, to nourish myself in this way. The time is now.

The first trip sparked the travel bug, so I decided to add one more big trip to 2015 over to parts of the UK & Ireland. The first part of this next trip was to Edinburgh, Scotland to visit my brother who is there doing his Ph.D there (proud sister over here)! Getting the chance to visit my brother in this incredible place he lives was something I had to say yes to. Not only that, but getting to spend a week one-on-one with my him and have some sibling connection time feels deeply important. Even with all the places we went, all the photos I took, the part I know I’ll remember the most in this lifetime about this trip is how special it was to get to get to spend this time with him.

That said, Edinburgh was divine. It’s such an old city and I really had the best tour guide. Every day we went on an adventure. Some days to a different part of the city, out of town to a beautiful town called North Berwick (where the castle you’ll see in the photos below are taken), to Glasgow, to galleries, a lovely market and of course some vintage stores. We’re also both introverts so there was a great amount of down time and hanging out with his cat who I adore.

Over the years I’ve found myself posting less about my life itself and more about all things selfies but pushed myself to share this post (and one about Ireland coming soon, part two in this adventure) as this is part of the adventure of being my own beloved, of the choices we make to nourish ourselves. To see my life and myself with compassion. This travel is a part of doing the best I can to support the woman I am right now in this stage of my life. The ‘what is still missing’ can take hold of me and pull me down often and this as well as my regular photo walks back home lift me up, help me savour what it here now. But travel feels like a communication with that part of myself, saying I’m listening and reminding myself of what is here now as well as opening up the door to the unknown, to what is possible.

So here’s the visual story of a week with 1 of my favourite humans, his cat, of Edinburgh, the places we went and the story of a woman who is learning to find a new part of herself with a passport in hand.