Rock the boat

To get to Scotland, Andrea and I were feeling a little creative. Instead of those boring old planes, trains, and automobiles that everyone else takes to get places, we decided to go by boat! 

We got a lot of questions about why we decided to go by ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle. Our main reason was simply to get out of Germany a day earlier. We originally wanted to head up to Scotland for new years, but the people we wanted to visit there were not going to be around until a couple days later. I knew at the point we'd have been in Germany for over 2 weeks and an overnight ferry might be a good solution. 

In the end, I thought the ferry was a really fun alternative to flying if you have some extra time to kill. So for those of you also considering the benefits of seafaring, I've put together a pros and cons list of ferry travel.

Pros:

• It's fun to be on a boat
• There are no luggage restrictions
• It's cost effective considering you're essentially getting travel and a hotel for the same price as a plane ticket
• There are no restrictions as to what you can bring on board (if you want to, say, bring lots of liquids).
• Your ears don't pop
• You don't have to turn off your electronics at the beginning and end of the journey
• You can shower before arriving at your destination
• You don't have to climb over angry people or use scary public restrooms just to go to the bathroom
• You're on a boat!
• It feels like your drunk 24/7 when you try to walk down the hall of a rocking boat.
• The passport/customs people are a lot nicer
• You can tell all your friends you went on a cruise

Cons:

• If you get bad weather like us, the boat rocks like mad
• Everything is about 5x times as expensive on board (but this can easily be avoided by bringing all your own food/drink on board, as there are no restrictions)
• The toilet is located inside the shower 
• It's not super convenient if you do not have an easily accessible port of departure
• You might get bored if your travel companion has a history of motion sickness and refuses to take drugs despite a career of dealing them.
• Public transportation to/from ports isn't as standard as to/from airports
• It's significantly slower than flying
• You're more likely to hit an iceberg a la Titanic than with any other mode of transportation

So as you can see, the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I enjoyed our ferry ride and I definitely want to give it another go, now that I know how it works (e.g. bring all my own food and drink and a travel buddy that doesn't get seasick).