More plans

My grandparents where kind enough to email me some information about the Chisholm family history. Apparently my Great x4 Grandfather Andrew Chisholm is from Lauder in Berwickshire, 45 minutes away from Edinburgh. Andrew and his wife Margaret had 13 children, and apparently many of them are buried in Lauder itself. So I'm catching an overnight bus up to Edinburgh on June 13th, and hopefully will find time to cruise on down there. Current hostel plans are Caledonian Backpackers.

From there, onwards for another 10 hour overnight bus ride to London, and another 2 hour ride to Portsmouth. Can't complain about the 1 pound fare for the Portsmouth bus! Conveniently my Grandmother's family, the Vollers, are originally from Portsmouth, in the Portsea area. Her great grandfather and grandmother were married in Ebenezer Chapel in Castle Road, Portsea. Sadly it was demolished in 1979 and now the area is simply housing.

My original reason for going to Portsmouth is to catch the ferry to Jersey. Unfortunately, I've had trouble finding accomodation: there are no hostels to speak of, and the only B&B which has rooms over the weekend I want to stay charges a bit more than I'd like. So, I've taken some advice and had a look at couchsurfing.org. Was a little dubious, but when people write up a decent profile about themselves it's a little more comforting. If worst comes to it I can just pay the extra I suppose, or spend a few nights less in Scotland, as I'd prefer not to eat into my 2 month Eurail pass, which I'm wasting if I don't start using it until after June 25! I guess we'll see.