Thursday, March 16, 2006

Planes, trains and automobiles

I think I have probably said before that I am going to Scotland on holiday at the end of May. I was hoping to catch the sleeper train but a friend phoned me this morning to say that all the seats had already been booked, even though booking had only just opened. They only release one date at a time, so if you want to book a return ticket you have to wait until the second date has been released or else go to the expense of buying two singles.

I am kind of disappointed. When do you normally get the chance to sleep on a train? Actually, technically I do that every morning on the way into work but that’s not the point. It would have been really interesting to get the train up through the Scottish countryside, particularly as last year I stayed at Bridge of Orchy in a hostel which is literally on the station platform. Before you went to bed at night and when you woke up in the morning, the sleeper train would stop at the platform. You are slightly taking your life in your hands by staying there as there are triple bunks and if you’re in the top bunk, as I was, it is a bit precarious as there isn’t even a safety bar to keep you in.

When I was about 7 or 8 we were on holiday in Denmark and I fell out of the top bunk of a bunk bed on to the hard concrete floor below and injured my arm. Since then I have never been very keen to sleep in bunk beds, although admittedly I do seem to recall with that incident in Denmark that I was actually experimenting with how easy it might be to fall out of the top bunk. Erm, no, I’m not entirely sure why I needed to know the answer to that one, but I did find out... I therefore, of course, ended up in the top bunk at Bridge of Orchy last year, due to some German blokes (they are mixed dorms) being most ungentlemanly and taking the lower bunks.

Anyway, I now need to sort out some flights instead now. I should really fly to Inverness but it is probably much cheaper to fly to Aberdeen so I might do that and then get a hire car from there. *starts to count down to going away on holiday*

4 comments:

30-Something said...

My sister once broke her cheekbone after falling out of the top bunk.

A small useless piece of information.

Random Reflections said...

But did she jump or was she pushed??

30-Something said...

Well she was on a Brownie trip at the time. And was with my cousin, with whom she had a love/hate relationship. Neither of them gave any details. It was all very shady.

My mother blamed Brown Owl for not looking after her baby properly. I have other suspicions.

Random Reflections said...

Brownie camps *shudder*. I was a Brownie for a very brief period of time and despite all their bribes to try and entice me back, I couldn't be persuaded.

I went on a Brownie camp once and still look back with horror...