Onward to Scotland

 It’s been a while since I updated our quest for a new day to day life here in Scotland mostly because, even though it has been exciting in many ways, it has also been tedious in others.  Our trip from Jill’s to our destination here in Kinross was fairly smooth and exciting in entering and leaving roundabouts. Not only was I driving on the right hand side of an unfamiliar Vauxhall Corsa, I have a disability of not knowing left from right. I did make a score of 100% in entering the circles but knowing which lane to be in to make the correct exit proved to be a frustrating and anxious couple of moments for me. Susi tried her best to push me in the right direction but telling me to go into the left or right lane just doesn’t mean much to my addled brain. Eventually though I got the hang of it and we made it safely at our bed and breakfast. The place is low key and the room we were given is comfortable enough although a bit small. The best part of the place is the young man who runs it. If the room is low key he is LOWER KEY. I am writing this a week into our stay here and we appreciate him and his partner more each day. 

Once we got to the room and got unpacked we decided to venture into Perth to go to a pub called Dirty Dawg that promised vegan pizza. Now that trip after dark following the not updated navigation was a true test of Susi’s patience, but we finally got there. We discovered that is a beautiful town at night. It’s a bit large for a place we would want to settle in, but a nice place for a night out. The pizza and beer were just the right thing to take the edge of the day and getting back to Kinross was much easier either due to the familiarity of the route or the sedative effect of the pint of beer.

For the next few days were dedicated to using the car to look at nearby places we had seen on the web which looked promising as places we would like to settle. Those included, Forfar, Perth, Abroath,  Montrose, Dundee and smaller surrounding towns. So far, Kinross is on top of the list. The burrs in our saddle are that we can’t buy anything until we have a UK bank account and have established a credit rating (the one we have in the US does not count). The other is that we won’t even be considered for a mortgage unless we have at least three months of UK bank statements and counsel tax statements. So we need to find a place to rent for at least that long. So, the next burr is that for some reason, the rental market is red hot and it’s very difficult to find a place before it is snatched up. Again, thanks to Susi, we have been proactive talking to real estate agents and asking around to find something. She even got on a facebook group for Kinross and posted a request for heads up for anything that may be available soon. She did get two responses and has followed up. Who knows, something may come of it. In the meantime we have warned our hosts that we may be here for a while. Since it’s the off season, they have not problem with that.

In the meantime, we have been exploring our area.The car had to be returned to the Edinburgh Airport a couple of days ago and that was a day long adventure. Getting it there was no problem but dealing with the bus service getting back from the short drive to the airport took several hours. Some of the problem was that the first three people that we asked about getting the correct bus gave us incorrect information and later that was compounded by the first bus driver telling us that we needed to change buses at the wrong stop.  The trip was much longer than normal, but mostly people were nice and willing to offer help. Oh, and some of the characters at the bus stops were pretty entertaining even if we had the desire to place some distance from them. The last bus we needed to catch was coming out from Edinburgh had some kind of problem and showed up two hours late which gave us plenty of time to “enjoy” said characters. Let’s just say, we were glad to get off in Kinross at 21:00.  

Since we no longer have the car we have spent some quality time here in Kinross. The first day we went for a nice walk and had a relaxing meal in the Courthouse restaurant. Susi discovered it on her walk around town and made a reservation for a much needed romantic dinner out. The food and atmosphere was fantastic. They even had a vegan menu which included two vegan desserts. One was sticky toffee pudding which out of this world decadent! 

There is a Park Run every Saturday here in Kinross and we made plans to do it. The problem is that it is 4 miles from town and the only bus that goes out there does not get to the race in time for us to run. On top of that, we woke up to windy rainy conditions which were more appropriate for hypothermia than a 5k run. Still, we got up early, got dressed and walked to the bus park and shivered until it came. The ride was interesting as the bus plowed through deep puddles sending a waterfall of spray higher than the top of the bus. Sadly, as  we figured, we rounded the corner to see that the race had already started. It was’t all bad though because we got to enjoy the visitor center tea shop while we waited for the racers to come in for the post race coffee. Once they started coming in, Susi approached a group of them and they helped her get in touch with the race director. He in turn got us in touch with a very enthusiastic woman that was excited that we want to join their club and she arranged for someone to pick us up in front of our B&B next Saturday so we can do the run.  We then enjoyed the rest of our tea and toast before taking the 4 mile walk back to the town as the weather cleared. It was a good day overall. 

Today, we decided to chill and do things like type this chapter of the trip to the future we are taking.