u/marebear93

My husband and I are planning our first overseas trip for our 5th anniversary, but I have never planned a trip before and am nervous about the details. We have nothing solidified yet, so I was hoping to get suggestions and advice from people who have been there before I start making decisions. The threads here seem to get such helpful comments underneath, so I figured I’d ask here!

Since we haven’t decided on any specifics I’ll give the broad strokes of our vacation timeline and the kinds of things that we’d like to see/are important to us, and see what suggestions I get.

The first hurdle is that he and I have heritage in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and we haven’t officially chosen which to visit. Scotland is our frontrunner though at this point. We only have about a week, and we’re the kind of people who like to have downtime to take in our surroundings and feel peace rather than rushing one place to the next. Because of this, we’re really expecting to only be able to see one of the three, and that’s ok.

We’d be going in October, which I’ve read is past midge season, past peak tourist season, and is a lovely season to see there (although the weather is unpredictable - but I’ve read that is the case kind of always). Is that the general consensus here as well?

We love wildlife and the outdoors, but we are not mountain-climbers/campers/professional outdoorspeople. Low intensity walks and hikes, biking, and wildlife/scenery viewing are very much our speed. The only exception to this is that I’m an avid horseback rider, and including a horseback ride (or multiple) is very high on my list of importance! It would also be super cool to do one of those owl/falconry experiences, which I’ve seen offered lots of places there.

I’m also witchy and would love seeing anything in that magical/fantastical vein. Old forests, ancient stones, castles, witchy towns and shops - all things we love.

We’re also from the US and not familiar with driving on the opposite side of the road, so train route itinerary incorporation advice would be super helpful.

The one place we’ve found already in Scotland that we’re trying to decide whether to solidify plans for or not is Glen Tanar (I’ll edit if this spelling is wrong - reddit keeps deleting my whole draft every time I close this to check things to include). It looks absolutely gorgeous, we’d be able to rent a cottage, could explore a national park in the highlands at our own pace, horseback ride, etc. My only concern is whether or not Aberdeen is too far north to get to see a representative amount of the country in the time we have. As much as I’d like a slower pace in one country, I don’t want to make the trip and miss seeing all of the must-see representations of the place. I don’t need to see everything obviously, but is there enough to see and do in the Aberdeen area to feel we’ve gotten to experience the spirit and beauty of the country, if that makes sense. Or is it too isolated compared to other places/too far from someplace that shouldn’t be missed - etc.

I know this is a very general inquiry, and truly anything people can share will be helpful to me! I really appreciate everyone’s time in advance :)

I posted a few weeks ago about my sick sister and how I haven’t felt my health spells for her have been working. You all were so supportive and gave me great advice, the primary piece being that I needed to be more targeted with my spells’ intentions - that overall good health outcomes for her may be too vague/overarching. At your suggestion, I tried a sweetening candle spell to draw a caring and motivated doctor to her case. I’ve lit the candle over the course of several days the last couple weeks, and as of last week, the doctor who finally listened to and diagnosed me when I was suffering is now on her case! This man is a specialist in a field not even central to her symptoms (though he has broad experience), AND he’s retired, and bc he knows our family through my illness and working with my dad, he’s happily agreed to help my sister as well. He is the epitome of a caring and motivated physician, and he’s already been able to shed incredible light on her illness.

Not only that, but our dad is also a retired radiologist. My sister had her own team of docs in her home state (not the same as his), and he was trying not to step on their toes by ordering his own tests previously. The past couple weeks, her team has become even more aloof and unreachable, and he’s now dropped that pretense and fully immersed himself in trying to help her in ways he’s often reticent to do. He’s called in favors with old colleagues, been reading medical journals about similar cases, etc. So all of a sudden, she has two of the most caring and motivated practitioners I personally know!

This has been a huge relief and a massive boost to my magical confidence that I desperately needed. Obviously this situation isn’t about me, but my deepest desire in life is the health and safety of my loved ones, and it was debilitating feeling as though whatever power i have was unable to truly influence such things where it counted. I am so grateful to all of your for offering your reassurance and advice - you have truly directed me to a realization I will carry forward through the rest of my life and practice about looking at the situation I want to influence from many angles, being more targeted with my approach, and not falling to despair when it doesn’t seem to work initially 🖤