Once in a lifetime...

"I'm so excited for you. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"

When people said this to me last year, I felt it to be true. Spending 4 weeks abroad was likely not an opportunity that would repeat itself. Until this year. We're doing it again and we leave in 4 days!

1st week - Edinburgh Scotland for both of us.
2nd week - Edinburgh Scotland and surrounding area for me and
                   Beijing, China for Tim.
3rd week - Budapest, Hungary for both of us.
4th week - Oxford and London, England for both of us.

Due to delays in getting my passport renewed, I wasn't able to get a travel visa to China in time to go there with him. Well, technically I could still get it, but I'm unwilling to pay $500 for a rush to get it.

So, I've been searching around trying to decide what to do while spending a week alone. And, I've decided that this is where the once-in-a-lifetime really applies. How often will I have the opportunity to spend each day, for 7 days straight, exactly how I want to in Scotland?! Not very often.

I could take the Jacobite train ride (Harry Potter train), visit Isle of Skye, visit Loch Lomond or Loch Ness, Stirling Castle, Dunnottar Ruins (Tim and I might do this one together the first week), Leath harbor (oldest or one of the oldest in Scotland), haunted underground in Edinburgh or so many other options available to me.

You might think I'm excited to be separated from my husband for a week, believe me, I'm not. Any and all of these things would be much better with him. However, I refuse to allow the separation to keep me from enjoying the sights around me. I'll walk through Dean Village in the Fall. I'll shiver along the coastline of Leath and see the Forth of Firth bridge (without having to cross it) and stroll through a cemetery surrounded by trees of yellow, orange and red leaves. And I'll be grateful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.