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October 2018 | Travel Summary and Statistics
Month #6 | Travel Summary
While September was a month of constant travel, October was a month of slowing downnnnn. We finished our tour of the Scottish Highlands and based ourselves in the Glasgow-area for a week and a half. It was SO nice to stay in one place for a full week. Afterwards, we left Scotland and re-entered England by way of the Borders in Northumberland. Our CS host was awesome and took us all around the nearby areas. Mac and I reunited with a former CS host-turned-friend in Gateshead. Here, we enjoyed seeing Newcastle again from different perspectives. (And seeing our friend again was a real treat as well!).
Related Posts: Autumn in Northumberland
From Newcastle, we made our way to the North York Moors where we hiked another section of the Cleveland Way. The small town of Helmsley was so charming and I had fun busting out my sketchbook in the market square. Following Helmsley, we spent a week House & Dog Sitting in the Manchester area. Coupled with our week in Glasgow, this week near Manchester was another perfect addition to our attempts to slow down our travels. After the house sit, we made our way to York to meet and stay with some distant relatives of mine. They were so hospitable and kind, and Mac and I really enjoyed our stay there. From York we headed back to London where we met up with our friend and former housemate from university! We spent two full days together walking all over the city. After London, it was back to Cambridge to see our other university friends again.
Related Posts: On Burnout and Slowing Down
Statistics
Number of Countries: 1 – United Kingdom (Scotland & England)
Number of Cities: 11 – Paisley, Hamilton, Glasgow, Mindrum, Gateshead, Helmsley, Manchester, Appleton, York, London, Cambridge
Number of Rides Hitched: 11
Number of Kilometres Hitched: 665km
Number of Different Accommodation Types: 6 – AirBnB (2), CouchSurfing (4), House Sitting (1), Hostel (2), Family visit (1), Friends visit (1)
Number of Belly Rubs: 3 dogs x 7 days x endless cuddles = too many to count
Budget Breakdown
Lodging: £341.05
Food: £214.72
Beers: £58.20
Activities: £31.50
Transportation: £184.00
Miscellaneous: £23.55
Total: £853.02 (~$1445.79CAD)
This works out to $23.32CAD per person per day.
Note, this does not include travel insurance, or foreign exchange/ATM & credit card fees.
After three expensive-for-us months (our average daily spending per person in July, August, and September was almost $40CAD), we were happy to have a little more padding in our bank account after October.
Highlights & Lowlights
House Sitting – We completed our first foray into house sitting this month, and wow, what an awesome experience. It’s definitely something I wish we had started doing sooner and something we’ll definitely be looking to do more of in the future! We stayed at a family’s home near Manchester while they were on vacation in Spain. We looked after their three dogs and aside from paying a nominal membership fee for the platform we used, there was no other money exchanged. This really helped keep our spendings in check this month. There were a few trying afternoons with the one dog (she was mostly deaf, going blind, and had a bit of dementia in her 14 years), but other than that, we had a lovely week of living slowly and relaxing. Something we definitely needed after a few hectic months.
Losing our water bottles – we haven’t lost any of our belongings in six months, and then we lost both of our reusable water bottles in one day. It was the day we were leaving our house sit and our minds were elsewhere as we were rushing to catch our train and bus across the country. Needless to say, we were not impressed with ourselves. Especially with our commitment to reduce plastic waste, we rely heavily on our reusable water bottles to keep us hydrated (while avoiding buying single use plastic water bottles).
Meeting Distant Relatives & Seeing Old Friends – My nana’s brother’s wife’s sister lives in Yorkshire (how’s that for confusing?!). When the family found out that we’d be visiting England, emails and phone numbers were quickly exchanged. We tried visiting earlier in the summer on our way up to Scotland, but the timing never worked out. When we firmed up our travel plans to head back south, we were fortunate to find a weekend that worked! Mac and I had so much fun meeting and staying with my relatives – I’m so happy we were able to make the connection happen. The good times just kept rolling after York too. Our friend and my former housemate was in London on a whirlwind Europe trip with his girlfriend’s job. We hung out and roamed the streets of London for two full days. It was awesome to see him again and we really loved the feeling of having a familiar face around.
LOLs
Booking Fail – During our house sit, we started to plan the next steps of our travel. I was searching ticket deals online when I came across an absolutely insane deal on train tickets from London to Barcelona. Normally we’d hitchhike, but the colder weather has Mac and I wanting to get as far south as possible, as fast as possible! Not believing our incredible luck, I jumped on booking the tickets. It was only afterwards that I started looking at the departure and arrival stations, and reading the fine print a little more that I discovered the deal that was too good to be true… was, in fact, too good.
Curious about hitchhiking in Europe? Be sure to check out my ‘How To‘ post!!
Instead of a luxurious train trip down the entire length of France, I had booked us a 29 hour (yes, TWENTY NINE HOUR) journey on a bus. The insane deal I found for train tickets was actually a very common, standard rate on bus tickets. *Cue the world’s biggest face palm*. We’ll still be en route to Barcelona by the time this post is published, so if you don’t hear from me for a while, it’s likely because I’m recovering from 29 hours of embarrassment at my lack of attention to detail (and a sore butt). Ha!
What’s Next
SPAIN SPAIN SPAIN SPAIN SPAIN!!!! Overlooking what is likely to be an uncomfortable journey to Barcelona, I’m actually SO excited to finally be visiting Spain! Following a few days in BCN, we’re going to head down the coast in search of beaches, awesome hiking trails, and (hopefully) warmer weather! I’ve loved the last three months we’ve spent in the UK, but I’m excited to immerse myself in a new culture and hopefully improve my waning Spanish skills.
Have you ever been to Spain? What was your most memorable experience? Also, have you ever done an oops booking like I did? Tell me I’m not alone!
Curious about previous months? Check out our past monthly travel summary and statistics!
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