Starting is the Hardest Part

Maybe we're too old for this.  We retired early, but we're still going to work - hopefully.  We are leaving our family and friends, but we'll make new friends, and everyone has promised to come visit us.  We don't speak the language.  We're trying, we're studying.  Czech is really hard.  They have 40 letter/symbol combinations in the alphabet, and sounds that don't exist in English.  Everyone speaks English in Prague, don't worry.  We'll see.
We've gotten to visit with all 4 of our adult children in 2018, and no one lived nearby anyway.  So we didn't really see them all that often.  But still.  We have family who are getting pretty old.  Can they hang in there until we get back?  When will we be back?  Who knows.
Do we have enough money to live on if we don't find work, or it doesn't pay well?  We'll see.  We are told we are very brave.  But maybe we're just too chicken to chicken out.
So here we go.
I left the USA on April 11, 2018, and flew to Edinburgh.  It was a very cheap flight, and it was miserable.  I couldn't sleep, but I'd taken an Aleve PM, so my brain kept shutting down and jerking back awake.  What a relief to land and find Anna!  I had brought my bike in a huge box, plus 2 suitcases, and they wouldn't fit in her little car.  It would cost 120 pounds to store it at the airport for a week.  But only 45 or so to have it shipped to Allen and Anna's house in NE England.  Plus about the same again to fly it from Edinburgh to Prague next week.  Maybe I should have bought a new bike when I got here.  Too late now.

I made it through the day with just a tidgy nap.  Anna helped haul all my luggage around, including up the stairs to my lovely spare room.  Morris the cat seemed to remember me and gave me a warm welcome.  We hadn't seen Allen and Anna, our oldest son and his wife, since they left Boston to live in the UK last October.  Bart is very jealous that he isn't visiting them with me.  It's lucky for me Anna works part time, and could come fetch me, almost 3 hours drive away, on a weekday morning.
Allen is a "locum" Veterinarian, which is like a long-term fill-in position.  It pays well, and he gets the apartment and a work car as well.  He works long hours, with some overnight and weekend time as well.  Anna also works long hours on the days she is in, working for a Veterinary organization that provides care for low income people's pets.  We walked into the downtown for Fish and Chips the first night.  Heaven.  Poor Anna has a cough, and is so tired with some bug that she ends up on antibiotics at a Dr. appointment the morning after I arrive. I slept until they got back around 9:45 and they gave up on me waking up on my own and knocked on my door.  And we're off!
Allen has taken the day off (Friday) so we can tour around in the morning, and then drive west to Scotland to visit Anna's folks, Sue and David.  First we drove east to the coast, to Craster.  The weather was chilly, foggy, and windy.  It made the ocean so impressive, with big waves and mountains of foam piled up on the rocks.  We were headed toward a castle ruin called Dunstanburgh, and it looked very mysterious in the fog.  I think Heathcliff might live there.  But the field along the way was spotted with sheep and if they could survive it, so could we.  Goodbye nice clean blue sneakers.  Hello grey, gritty, slippery sneakers.  Thank you, Allen for keeping me from falling in the muck.  Actually, I loved the whole adventure, and felt very intrepid.  I love that word.  There weren't any little baby lambs, although we'd been seeing them all along the drive.  My professional vet guides think they were yearling sheep, like teenagers.
By the car park there was a shed with hot food and tea.  Allen and Anna ordered a smoked fish on a bun.  It wasn't called a bun, exactly.  It was called a bap.  I thought a bap was a baby's bottle.  I was close.  It's the shape of the Momma milk provider.  Cute.  The fish was tasty, but salty, and I worried about tempting the fate of the kidney stones again, so I let them finish it after one bite.
We took lots of pictures, did a lot (for me) of walking, and then headed on to Thornhill, near Dumfries.

Craster, England on a foggy, windy morning in April

Summer cottages, some available for rent

Anna and Allen

This is the new color of my previously blue sneakers

No one seemed to be out fishing today, so here are the traps.  This little sheltered cove was created in memory of a WWII soldier, by his friends and family.

Terrace and fireplace for locals and visitors to socialize and watch the sea.

I love this curved bench.