Travel to York

It’s been a quiet few weeks on the website, which isn’t the ‘bang’ I hoped to start this with, but there are good reasons! The first that I had to travel to York for my bestie’s birthday party. And secondly, once I got back I was straight into work, a chest infection and general daily life.

But that’s not why you’re here! You want to hear about my travels! Living in Orkney, I have to factor in a day either side of any sort of event for travelling. I’m mostly used to having to do that, having grown up here, but I must admit it had been a good 15 years since I last took the overnight boat south and unfortunately that means I am 15 years older than the last time I did it!

Travel from Orkney to Aberdeen

My journey south took around 22 hours, including waiting between train stations and to be picked up at the end of the day. I started my journey on the boat south to Aberdeen, which is a well used transport link here in Orkney and one I have used many times. I am quite a cheapskate when I travel so, while there is the option to stay in either a private cabin or a ‘pod’ (which didn’t exist last time I got the boat, but from the glimpses I saw, they are quieter rooms that are a bit comfier), I opted to just go for a basic ticket and try my luck.

As a teenager I would find a spot on the floor and sleep the night away, but I was aware of my increased age and mass since the last time I took this journey, and went to the quieter bar at the back of the boat. My intention had been to sleep on the padded couch seating, thinking it would be an upgrade from the floor, but about 20 minutes into the journey I curled up and immediately went ‘nope’ and up I got again. In the end I relocated to a room full of recliner chairs (which, again, weren’t there last time I took this boat) and found an empty one next to a window so I could prop my laptop up and watch films. Side note – I only thought about the fact that you don’t have signal when you travel across the North Sea about an hour before I left so I only had time to download two films to watch. They were The Proposal and Juno – two of my favourite films, but after watching them back to back for 5 days, I may need a break!

I didn’t sleep much, which I didn’t expect to, but before I knew it I was watching the sun rise and Aberdeen was coming in to view. The walk from the ferry terminal to the train station was shorter than I remembered – probably because the shopping centre didn’t exist last time I was there either – and the mothership immediately called me home as I felt my legs carrying me to Costa for a morning almond croissant and a latte. I then waited about 3 hours for Burger King to open; I used to be obsessed with their mini hash browns before they stopped doing breakfast, and when I heard that they had brought them back I knew I would be popping in for some when I was going to travel south. Unfortunately, they were crap and not at all like I remembered! So I binned them, and spent the rest of my wait time either on the phone to my husband or reading a book. I may or may not have popped in to WH Smiths and picked up a couple of extra books too, but we won’t go into that!

Aberdeen > Edinburgh > York

One train journey came, and then another, and then after hours of beautiful views of Scotland out of the train window I crossed over into England and then was in York and waiting for my friend to come and pick me up. I had a sandwich from Pret while I waited (again, no food chains in Orkney!) which was probabaly about a 4 out of 10, and then it was time to go and sing Happy Birthday to her husband (it was his birthday, I wasn’t just being weird) and then I needed to crash and sleep for a week.

Except I couldn’t sleep for a week! There was party prep to do. We spent the next morning getting ourselves woken up and ready for the day, and then headed over to my friend’s parents house to do things like making party food and building marquees. I was pretty exhausted from all of the travel, and pleased to head back to hers for dinner and just to spend the rest of the evening decompressing before the party the next day. The next morning brought more party prep, and then we headed back to get glammed up for the party. We had a lovely BBQ, the sun behaved, one of the number balloons blew away and it was great to catch up with friends. My bestie and I are notoriously bad for having photos together and had never taken a selfie, so I made sure to do that at the party so there was actually some physical evidence that our friendship existed. And then it was time to travel back.

Going home

The journey home the next day was less eventful, although one thing of note was that the train to Aberdeen was unbearably hot and lots of us were dripping with sweat all over the train carriage. There was an American lady in front of me who kept taking a fan out of her bag and flapping it at her face, so I would angle my face into the gap between the seats so I’d catch some of the cold air too. I’m glad she didn’t turn around! About halfway into the journey my heart skipped a beat when I remembered the Cuthbert Cake I’d put in my suitcase after the party (they were going spare, I didn’t just steal it!) and wondered if I’d open my case to a drippy, melty white caterpillar face later on, but thankfully it was all fine. I genuinely was so soggy from sweat that I had to change on the boat though!

I love to travel, and I’m so happy I got to see my bestie. I’m not a very extroverted person so I do struggle with being around people for a long amount of time, but I find having trains at set times etc actually does help me because it gives me a reason to leave and guidance for the trip.

I’ve got more travel planned for the next year – international travel, in fact! – but other than a trip or two to Inverness for my 6 monthly hospital check ups I probably won’t have much travel content until next Summer. I’d love to hear about your travels in the comments though!

And if you’ve read this far – leave a guess in the comments – where are we going to travel to next Summer?!