And also, I took a walk up the hill in the village, and I just noticed a sign on a fence ''DUNEDIN'' which is the city in New Zealand, which I visited in 2008, where I felt the Euphoria / Heaven.. So I was really thinking to myself, this cannot be a coincidence, that I just chose this village. And the owner of the Hotel told me that some people emigrated to New Zealand from this village. I took a video of the scenery, and the Dunedin sign on the fence.
So after two days I grabbed my luggage and backpack and went back to Inverness (it's about 25 minutes by bus to get there) And on the bus stop I met a girl with Blue Hair. We were smoking cigarettes, waiting for the bus, so I started talking to her, I wanted to talk to some local people, just to get the idea how's life there, etc. She told me she is from the Isle of Skye, and that is a pretty cold place. She told me her boyfriend is from Lithuania or Latvia, I forgot, I always mix up these two countries. And also we talked about music, when I mentioned Maynard and Tool, she said her boyfriend is a big fan of Maynard and Tool, and his other bands. So we made some jokes about it, and then I asked her to show me how to get to the Train Station, because I was going to a village called Aviemore, where I booked a Holiday House for 2 weeks.
Now Aviemore is a town surrounded by the Mountains on all sides. It's probably the best place for skiing and snowboarding in the whole UK.
When I arrived in the village, I had to walk to my rented house. I didn't even look into a map, I just walked in the direction I was thinking to myself, this is a small town I will find it without a map. Needless to say I had to ask a few people where is the street with my house.
It was raining and cold the day I arrived, and I had to drag my 18 kilos luggage and a backpack like 5 miles to my house, so my back hurt a bit by the time I got to the house.
Then there was a tricky thing how to get to the house. The owner said there is a safe and I had to put a numbers combination to open it. The code for the safe was 1964, the year Maynard James Keenan was born. But even though I put the combination and pulled the small tab, the safe still didn't open, and I called the owner, but I still couldn't figure it out. So I just sat on the bench of the garden and started crying, I don't know why, I just thought I am a loser I cannot even do a simple thing like open the safe and get the key. So after about 30 minutes of sorrow and tears, I tried again and finally I got the key, went inside the house, and only lay down on the sofa, and rested, because I didn't sleep at all the previous night, and I was tired from the long walk from the Railway Station as well.
The first few days I felt a bit depressed because I was all alone, and I didn't find anyone to talk to, except through the social media.
The weather in the first 2 weeks was very cold, usually around 13 degrees, rarely more than 17 degrees, always cloudy. One day I decided I wanna go to the mountain, because I looked at the mountains and there was still some snow at the mountain peaks.
But I underestimated the weather, when I got to the mountain base, it was windy as hell, and there was a sleet, it was like rain mixed with snow up there, and I tried going to the top of the Mountain, but the wind was so strong, and I was freezing, I forgot to bring my winter jacket to the Mountain, I just had my hoodie, and it was cold maybe 7 degrees, but the wind and the rain made it worse, so I went half way to the top, then I retreated back to the Mountain base, talked to a few people there, one Ranger there was very friendly, so I talked to him for some time.
Here's a video I took at the Mountain-
My initial plan was to find a job and accommodation there, because I really love the place, the scenery is magnificent, and it's English Speaking country, so I would love to live there. I even went for a job interview for Home Bargains, which is like a supermarket where they sell all kinds of things. And I could have gotten the job, but the problem was the accommodation, I didn't find any apartment in the village, and staying in the Hotels or Hostels is not good, you gotta have a more permanent place, like a flat or apartment. So I was really disappointed, I took a train back to Inverness. I arrived and some dude showed me a way to a Hostel.
The City Hostel it was in the city centre, and I slept only like 1 hour, because it was Saturday night and every one was shouting and partying all night until like 5 AM.. So that was really not a good choice, but I do not regret it, because the owner of the Hostel was a nice guy, and we talked for a long time, about many things, and I talked to one French guy there also, I showed him some of my favorite music. And even though there was a job opportunity for me in Inverness (the Hostel owner gave me some contact where I could get a job.) After the experience of the drunk people partying all night, my mind was set on going back to the Village Aviemore again.
I ended up in a hostel in Aviemore, called ''Youth Hostel''
I took a video there, as I spotted some rabbits on the grass there.
and my roommate was a cool guy from Holland, but born in Singapore, and we talked for a long time the next day, shared some life experiences, and we also talked about some philosophical questions, and so on. He went back to Inverness and back to his country the next day. I still didn't give up with finding an apartment or a job. I asked many people, agencies for a place in Aviemore. I found a cheap apartment, and I almost got it, I talked to the woman on phone for a long time, she said this apartment is for senior people or people with disability allowance. So I told her I have disability allowance, I even gave her a translation of the document. I moved to another village Grantown on Spey to a cheap hotel there, for just one night because in Aviemore the Hotels are more expensive. The hotel room was sweltering hot, the weather got hotter in the latter part of June, but I think they left the heating on in the bathroom, making the room temperature ridiculously hot. I made a video about it for fun.
So after a long time filling in the application for the apartment, the next day I got an email with a rejection of my application, because ''You need to have the Disability Allowance coming from the UK, not a different country. So at that point I had kind of given up a chance to live in Scotland, because it seemed impossible to get an apartment, with an affordable rent, so I took a bus back to Aviemore, I connected to the Internet at the railway station, and I decided to go back to my country, disappointed that it didn't work out with the apartment or a job, but I still have hope in the future something will work out... I booked a ticket from Edinburgh to Prague, that was the cheapest one, and I just took a train to Edinburgh from the village.
So yeah, that's about it. I'll share below some pictures I took in Scotland.
This has been Joseph, thank You All for reading!
H.
Peace.
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