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MM Monthly Thoughts: June 2017

Since Migrating Miss isn’t a chronological blog, the monthly thoughts are a space to see what’s happening, plus what’s coming up! Check out the full archives here

I know I’m a broken record every month when I say that I can’t believe it’s over, but I just can’t! June has gone so quickly! I feel like I just got married, and it’ll already be seven weeks tomorrow. Between mini-moons, freelancing, trip planning, and visa applications, the month has flown by.

June is meant to be the real beginning of summer, but it hasn’t exactly seemed that way up here in Scotland. Sure we had a few hot and muggy days, but since the summer solstice, the weather has been all downhill. It’s like it knows we’re on the slope towards Christmas already!

This month I’ve been working to revamp some aspects of the Migrating Miss website, including adding more navigation pages to try and organise all the content here better. I’d love for you to check out the Destinations, Expat Interviews, Expat Life and Get Inspired pages and tell me what you think!

Destinations of the month

Edinburgh, Scotland

Never fear, I am still a travel blogger, even if I’ve stayed in one place for a month! As an expat, I’m not constantly on the road. I prefer to have a home base and travel from here, but sometimes that means only doing day trips, or actually taking the time to see friends, an important part of building an expat life!

Luckily, Edinburgh has an amazing amount of things happening all the time.

Edinburgh 101

I spent an afternoon touring some unique, and more well-known, places in Edinburgh and hearing the stories behind them as part of the Edinburgh101 campaign. As part of the year of heritage, history and archeology, 101 objects have been identified to tell the story of Edinburgh!

Edinburgh 101 Migrating Miss

Hidden Door Festival

Hidden Door is a not for profit, volunteer-run festival dedicated to the arts. It’s a real mix of everything, with music, theatre, film, and art installations. This year it was held in a theatre that had been previously abandoned for almost 30 years. So yea, it was pretty awesome!

Pickering’s Gin Tour

Gin is one of my favourite drinks, and with 70% of the UK’s gin being produced in Scotland, I intend on taste testing a lot more of it now that I’m living here! Pickering’s Gin is made in Edinburgh, in a tiny little distillery at Summerhall. And when I say tiny I mean it’s smaller than my 2 bedroom apartment! They perfected their recipe from an original Bombay Gin, scribbled on a bit of paper in 1947. I’d highly recommend their tour at Summerhall if you come to Edinburgh!

MM Pickerings Gin Migrating Miss

Devils Pulpit Day Trip

There’s a secret canyon in Scotland that I kept seeing amazing pictures of on Pinterest but I never knew where it was. I finally managed to find out, and then it was in the Outlander movies and all of a sudden there’s info about it everywhere!

So one weekend in June we set off to find the Devils Pulpit, or Finnich Glen. You have to find a park on a random junction, walk down and climb over a fence (or if the gap in the stone fence is still there, use that) wander through some bushland and then use muddy ropes to half climb and half abseil down a steep staircase to the glen. Totally worth it.

MM Devils Pulpit Finnich Glen

Highlights of the month

Something that took up a fair bit of time this June was my UK visa application. Yes, again. My last visa allowed me to move from Spain to the UK and get married, but I had to apply again once we were married to get residency for the next couple of years. Another almost 80-page application, plus evidence, several thousand dollars and a trip to the Glasgow office and I’m visa approved! Woohoo!

Moving to the UK definitely isn’t easy if you’re from outside of the EU (and who knows what’s happening for those that are from it, really) so I’m really happy that process is over and I can forget about it for two and a half years.

UK Marriage Further Leave to Remaind Visa

Lowlights of the month

 

Did I mention the visa application process? Getting all those documents together is stressful to say the least, especially when the information isn’t that clear and you’re worrying you’ve missed something!

Migrating Miss Travel and Expat BlogGraffiti in Glasgow, Scotland

Popular Migrating Miss posts from June

But Really, Why Do You Travel?

After an Instagram campaign which called for us to share why we travel, I wrote this post on my reasons why. Are yours the same?

All About the Top Harry Potter Sites in Edinburgh + Map

Did someone say it’s been 20 years since the first Harry Potter book was published? Well… it is! J K Rowling wrote a lot of the Harry Potter books in Edinburgh, and there’s plenty of locations around that are either related to her writing the books or could have served as inspiration. Here’s what you need to know about them, and how to find them.

Guide to the Top Harry Potter Locations in Edinburgh + Map

Journeying Through History on the Isle of Lewis

I fell seriously hard for the Isle of Lewis when we visited for our mini-moon. And a lot because of the amazing history and stories about the place.

Other posts you might have missed

Expat Interview: What’s it Like Living in Kyiv, Ukraine?

Have you ever thought about living in the Ukraine? Here’s what it’s like to be an expat there.

Discovering Edinburgh Through 101 Objects

As mentioned above, how you can discover Edinburgh’s stories through objects all over the city!

Migrating Miss Travel and Expat Blog

What Happens When A Long Distance Relationship Ends (And You’re Finally Together)

Suddenly living together after being in a long distance relationship can take some getting used to. Here’s what you might want to know.

Top Instagram Photo

Have you ever really thought about why you travel? Is it to tick off a bucket list of places you’ve seen others go to? Or because you want to see it all with your own eyes? Does Instagram influence the way you travel, making you want to go to particular places for that certain photo opportunity? Instagram may have made me consider the places I’m seeing in a different way, but travel for me is much more than that. I travel for the feeling it gives me. The feeling of freedom, of excitement at new explorations and the newness of a different place. I loved the feeling I got in the wide open spaces of the Isles of Lewis and Harris, and I think it what has given me itchy feet for another trip already! // @tqpineapple started this campaign to show there’s more to travel! Why do you travel? #travelismorethaninstagram . . . . . . . . #scotland #igersscotland #igersscots #scotlandlovers #lovegreatbritain #visitscotland #scotlandsbeauty #explorescotland #brilliantbritain #OMGB #lovescotland #passionpassport #isleoflewis #isleofharris #outerhebrides #lovetheouterhebrides #getoutside #exploreeverything #adventuretime #wilderness #hebrides #uig #girlsabroad #islandlife #travelbug #travelcouple #theoutbound #thelostlife #ladiesgoneglobal

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What’s coming up?

All the things!

In July I’m travelling to more of Scotland’s islands, this time in the north east. I can’t wait to visit the home of my great grandparents again, up in Unst, Shetland. I’ll also be seeing Orkney for the first time, and I’ve heard amazing things about all the sites to see there.

I’ll be back in time for Edinburgh’s Festivals of course, and then the rest of the year’s travels have fallen into place with Italy, Ireland, Iceland, and New Zealand on the list! There’s some sort of theme going on there…

So tell me, what have you been up to this June, and what’s happening for you in the second half of the year?

Sonja x

2 thoughts on “MM Monthly Thoughts: June 2017

  1. Laura Yackel says:

    This blog has really given me hope for my future plans of travel. In my mind, only those who had extra money just lying around could travel, but slowly I’ve been learning otherwise. What is the cheapest place you’ve traveled to?

    • Migrating Miss says:

      Hi Laura!

      Thanks for your lovely comment. I’m really happy to hear you’ve been inspired to travel. It’s definitely not just for the rich, and there are a lot of different ways you can try and save money to travel as well as travel cheaper. Probably the cheapest places I’ve been to were in South East Asia, and they’re not even the cheapest in the world!

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