Oh one thing I forgot to add, I met up with Amanda and Amy who were also on the tour and had dinner with them in the dining hall. They didn’t talk much on the tour but were quite fun once you got to know them.

Hugo, a Mexican guy from the tour, and I decided to room together and we’d go exploring the next day. I also called Valeria a few times but those stupid phone numbers are so long and they’re hard to figure out. I kept getting this weird answering machine thing so I never met back up with the sexy Italian, alas. Ah well, moving onward.

Hugo and I got breakfast and walked over to the Guinness Storehouse to go on the tour and get our free pint of Guinness, free after paying 9.50 for the tour of course. The tour was actually quite impressive, it was self guided through very creatively designed exhibits of all their ingredients, the process, and the history of gooiness. I actually didn’t put this one together until I saw the exhibit on the Guinness Book of World Records. Apparently, this happened when the president of Guinness was out hunting and missed a bird and an argument arose about which was the fastest bird in the world. He realized that such questions must arise in bars all over the world and answers must be found to such questions, thusly the Guinness book of world records was formed, and actually in the first addition excluded which was the fastest bird in the world, but this was corrected and added in the second addition. It showed old advertising which consisted mostly of banners saying, “Guinness makes you strong.” and “Guinness is good for you.” Quite obvious propaganda, but very effective before the information age.

Leaving the Storehouse, we stopped at a little Italian place to have lunch. The staff there was actually Italian and there were actual Italians in the kitchen! No Mexicans. Amazing.

Next, we walked over to Trinity college and got a lovely tour from a student there named Cat. I was able to even tell her a story. They have at their Library of Berkley a giant golden mechanic looking ball, similar to the one in New York which was damaged in 9/11 and is now on display in Battery Park. It was actually made by the same artist who has placed many of them all over the world. I told her how the ball was damaged and the artist was quoted saying, “It now has a life of it’s own, one I did not originally give it.” which I’ve always thought was interesting.

While there, we saw the Book of Kells which was made by the monks of Kell who wrote down, in the most ornate fashion possible the gospels of the bible and the story of Jesus. The pages are made of calf skin and the lettering is calligraphy and so colorful, it’s amazing how much time they must’ve put into it.

We stopped by a shop to get some stuffage and then went back to the hostel when Hugo immediately took a nap, that guy can sleep! I went to the dining hall to use the internet and decide what I was doing for dinner. I met Andree there and she said she was about to make dinner and I could have some. Sweet! I love free food. SO we made dinner which was pasta, minestrone, and garlic bread. Quite good. I did the dishes of course, it was the least I could do. I told Andree that I was going to get on the net and then take a nap and we’d go out around 9:30. She said she wanted to go now, but I had to sleep so she agreed to meet me back down there at 9:30. I set my alarm, but apparently didn’t hear it cause I didn’t wake up till 10:30. Hugo was still asleep and had been for like 3 hours now. He got up and I said we were going out. I raced downstairs to find Andree talking to two girls she had met. She said she’d almost given up hope on me. So the five of us went out to temple bar.

On the way, we ran into Robyn and Ryan who were on their way home, but we convinced them to come out and have a drink. So now there were 7! We went to one bar and had some pints and saw this girl in a clown suit which was weird. After that, Robyn and Ryan left and the rest of us headed to this club they’d heard about. It was a 5 euro cover, but there were 3 euro drinks inside. So we went in and had some shooters and popped onto the dance floor, on which I see Starin and Rebel, the girls from the Doolin bonfire. Crazy small island. So we all danced together and had a good time until people started to leave and I got tired and decided to retire back to my bed.

On the way, I met these two girls on the side of the street and started talking with them. They said I should come into the club with them so I did, but the bouncers said the place was closed and wasn’t accepting anyone else. The girls got in though cause they were just on a smoke break. It seemed my night was truly over. So I walked back to my hostel in the rainy darkness of Dublin and pondered my adventures.

The next morning, I said goodbye to Hugo and walked to the bus station, took a bus from there to the Dublin port, then the ferry to Holyhead Wales, and finally the train to Colwyn Bay. So many different forms of transport on this trip. I hit em all actually. There was no one at the Sherry house. I hadn’t been able to call ahead cause once again the stupid number thing wasn’t working. Freakin long confusing telephone numbers. I waited with the cat in the conservatory for about 30 minutes until I decided to walk up the street. Just as I began walking, I saw Christie and Trish drive by.

Since then, we’ve eaten dinner, watched some Inspector Linney, which is a British mystery show, not as dramatic as American shows I must say, and talked on length about writing projects we both have. Good times. I plan to buy some wine for the Sherrys when I get back to the States.

And then I’ve been online for the longest time updating yall on everything that’s happened. Phew so much. It’s all good though, make it easier to sleep on the plane tomorrow. Oye I still have to pack and it’s almost half one.

Let’s see, what have I learned on this trip? I’ve learned a lot about Celtic mythology. Oh, I learned that Irish engineering is the most ridiculous in the world. They built a millennium bridge to commemorate the millennium, yeah it went over budget and was finally finished in 2003. Same with the millennium spire. James the tour guide was wondering why they couldn’t have built a millennium hospital or something. They also made this clock which was supposed to count down to the millennium and set it up just over the river, but of course river gunk got into it and it broke several times finally at last 3 days before the millennium and was never used. We also drove over a bridge around “devil’s elbow” a very dangerous corner on the Ireland roads and you know how bridges typically have water going underneath them? Well not this one. They made a bridge over a large gap but have the water going over the road and through these holes in the bridge wall on the other side. The best one though has to be their dart system in Dublin, which is Ireland’s first tram system, it consists of two lines, the red line and the green line and is the only tram system in the world with lines that don’t actually connect anywhere. Not only that, but they can’t connect. To save money, they used old rail tracks for one line and so the gauges on the tracks are different, so if in the future they want them to connect, they’d have to completely rip out one set! Not to mention that Britain had put in a really good rail system, but the Irish decided they didn’t need it and in the early 1900s pulled it out cause they’d just all buy cars.

The British did do some pretty mean stuff to them though. In the potato famine of the 1850s when the entire potato harvest got an epidemic of spoiled harvest and all of Ireland was starving, instead of helping out the Irish, they decided they’d make them work for their money. So they paid them next to nothing to work all day long building these walls that serve no purpose. All over the Burren, you’ll find these stone walls which separate paddocks that have no real use, they’re just there. 1.5 million people died in the 5 years of the famine and 1.5 million fled to other countries. Ireland had 8 million people before the famine and still today has not yet recovered with its 5.5 million people.

Now, back to what I’ve learned. I’ve learned that now I am ready to go backpacking with a group of friends and am going to make a more conscious effort to try and arrange trips with others. Also, there’s nothing I want more after being in all this rain and gloom then to be on the beach in LA. I’ve realized, that I really live in a vacation spot and it’s nice to know the beach is always right there when I need it.

I’ve learned that I enjoy doing my own thing then doing tours or at least do the hop on hop off tours, those are okay. I’ve learned I’m getting arthritis in my right wrist from typing so much. And I’ve learned that I need far less crap then I think I do. Next time, the backpack will have far fewer clothes in it.

Also, I learned that if you want to really experience a culture, camping is not the way to go. I can camp in my own backyard of the Rockies just as well. Oh and that no trip to a new country should be any less then a month long.

Oh yeah, and I learned that our family name Turner is not actually Scottish or Irish as I might like it to be. It’s actually an English name meaning one who works with the lathe and I’ve found our family crest as well. Apparently we came from the black castle in Normandy, wherever that is. I really want to research this now and see where exactly we came from.

Twas a good trip, as they all are. Ireland, tis feckin cool. Scotland, land of warriors. Wales, they have a really weird language. Until next time kiddies. Be safe, travel, be passionate, and pursue your loves.

The next morning, this’d be on Saturday the 24th, we got up early, much to my misfortune to head out to the cliffs of Moher.

Despite my late night, I was up eating breakfast with my tent struck before go time. It had rained that night and while sleeping with the pattering of rain is good, the striking of a wet tent is not.

The cliffs of Moher are supposed to be beautiful, cause they have a slight red tint to them. I saw them in a post card and they really don’t seem like much, but then I’ve driven along the Pacific Coast Highway, and I’ve been to the ocean cliffs of New Zealand so I may be slightly jaded. We got the pleasure of partially seeing them, the rest clouded in mist. It was kind of mysterious and cool, but then there wasn’t good visibility either. Plus, they’re commercializing the whole thing, putting in barriers and a visitor’s center so there was construction going on everywhere. They’ll most likely charge once they have it all finished.

We took a ferry over to Tarbert and James had said there was a glass bottom on this ferry. A group of us went to go find it and without luck, asking someone. The man smiled and said, “Is someone puttin you on?” I smiled in realization and cursed James, to later scold him for his lies. All lies!

Next, we came to Slea Head which in the ancient world was the edge of the earth, cause as far as Europeans knew, there was nothing else after that, only water. James had been telling us many Celtic tales along the way which I found very interesting. Such as the tales of Fun McCool (pronounced: Fiune MicKool), yes that’s a real name, who was a giant back in the day and was the greatest of the Fiene warriors. Well, Fun McCool never died. Instead he went to sleep to awaken when Ireland needed him, much like King Arthur. And here at the edge of the world, you could see McCool’s sleeping self. Looking off into the distance, an island looked pretty much like a sleeping giant and he was huge. It was said that when Fun McCool would stand erect, you could see all of Ireland between his legs. Now besides the sexual implications, that’s still a pretty big guy.

Next we went to Coumeenole beach, which was beautiful. And this is one of those reasons why I don’t like to do tours, cause we only had about 30 minutes there, which was enough time to dip our feet in the water and take some pics, that’s it. But it’s a beautiful secluded beach you have to walk down a cliff side to get too. All throughout this country, the basalt rock spikes out of the ground and the coastline is the most dramatic example of this. You have soft sandy beaches contrasted by sharp and sudden protrusions of black rock. It’s soo cool. I would’ve liked to spend more time there and told James so.

Next, we headed to some ancient beehive huts which were built by arranging stones in circular stacks and then making a roof by making the circles smaller and smaller with no support structures whatsoever. They were dated to be built around 400 AD, but the old lady on whose property they lie has a sign up that says, “Ancient Beehive huts- 2000BC” which I thought was quite funny. She’s a mean old lady too, you have to pay her two euros to go and touch the huts and if you don’t, she has her kids chase you down.

Next stop was Killearney, a small quiet Irish town, but wait! What’s this? Could there be a huge convention of 10,000 Harley Davidson bikers here this weekend? yes, I think there might be. The town was packed! There were beautiful bikes everywhere and big hairy, burly men in leather walking all over. We went to have a big group dinner in a restaurant and I had the smoked stuffed salmon which was stuffed with garlic mashed potatoes and covered in cheese. Soo good. Then James had said we needed to see this show from a guy named Paul, although it sounded like Paw when he said it. It turned out to be like Irish melodrama, something I would see in some off shoot theatre by one guy in LA. It was reminiscent of high school monologues, so not all that great, but at least I got to experience a little look into Irish culture.

Although to Paul’s credit, he might’ve been thrown off by the loud uproar outside and the periodic rumbling of Harley’s being thundered around. He ended the show with this phrase, “Don’t fight mother nature, have sex tonight!” which we all found quite funny.

After that, there was drinking and dancing and fun times. Once again, we were subject to the horrible music they play in clubs in the UK. HORRIBLE!! Like you can’t even dance to them, it’s terrible. You just sort of sway around looking like an idiot all confused. Course that’s not too far off from my normal dancing skills, so perhaps I should’ve been thankful that now I had an excuse. One girl in our group seems to be the only one who took advantage of the severe disproportionality of men and women, especially with all the bikers in town. She said, “I’m gonna go get me an Irishman.” And sure enough, she picked one out of the crowd and he was more then happy to go with her. So easy for the ladies, erg!

At around two, we stumbled our way back to the hostel and went to sleep. The group I was with were very cool. There was especially this young Australian married couple who were super cool. Adam, the guy, was really funny and we laughed at each other all night and his wife Natalie was this tiny little girl who could really dance something amazing! I was entranced, she was quite good. And she loved to laugh as well. I like people who love to laugh, makes life so much easier.

Most of the trip, I seemed to be the entertainer of the group which was fine by me. I even impressed myself at how funny I was, or maybe it was just the Guinness. Good times.

A few of us got up early to go on a jaunt, which was a horse drawn carriage ride through the National Park that was nearby the town. It was a nice relaxing jaunt and put me in the mood to sleep a long good while on the bus. In fact, James had been promising the entire trip to talk about the IRA and what exactly happened, but said he’d wait till the last day. Finally the moment had arrived and he started out by saying it started in the 1100s and the next thing I remember is waking up to him saying “and there ya have it. Wow, that’s a whole history in 50 minutes, not bad.” I had missed it all. But luckily I wasn’t the only one who had been asleep and we all got him to repeat a summary later on.

Next stop was Blarney castle, Robyn, her boyfriend Ryan, Jennifer (an American engineer), and I went romping around the castle and inside the dungeon which led into this really long tunnel that was too dark to continue into, so I said I’d go get my headlamp and we’d come back. We went on to explore the small castle, which by this point I’d contracted what James calls ABC, “Another Bloody Castle” or “Another Bloody Cathedral.” We waited in the long line to kiss the Blarney stone and I can now confidently say that I have in fact kissed the Blarney stone and feel no different whatsoever. Yay! But supposedly I now have the gift of gab, as if I didn’t have that before.

We went to the gift shop cause the bus was locked and shopped a little bit. Before we were to leave, and Martin our bus driver had unlocked the bus, I grabbed my headlamp and ran back to the dungeon and found that the tunnel went quite far back and was really damp. It ended in a large room I could actually stand up in and had all these names drawn in chalk on the wall. It was neat.

Next we went to the Rock of Cashel which is another monastery founded by St. Patrick and we learned about its history. I found an odd engraving on the side of the chapel of the cathedral depicting pagan symbols, one of a lion and a centaur hunting it. I thought this was odd to find on a Christian chapel and they don’t actually know why it’s there. It was built in the 12th century and perhaps its meant to depict England as the lion and the Celts fighting them, that’s my interpretation anyway. Theirs was that the lion was Christianity and the centaur was paganism and the two fighting each other, but in the figure it looked like the pagan had the upper hand. Whatever, who knows what they meant.

And finally, we arrived back in Dublin after trading emails on the bus. Some of us were staying in the same hostel, the Kilnay house so we said we’d meet up later on to go out. But as it turned out, everyone was quite tired and just went to bed. I went to Temple Bar anyway, which is where all the hang outs are to have a pint and look around. I can’t remember at what point, but at some point that day, I saw a girl sitting in the dining hall smiling and pointing at me and I was confused till I realized it was Andree, the girl I met in Portree, Scotland weeks ago. SO that was cool. Then I went to bed. More in another email.

Okay, where were we, distilling. From there, we went to Clonmacnoise which is a really old monastery set up by St. Kieran who was the second most popular missionary in Ireland. Most popular being St. Patrick of course since he converted the most people. From there, we entered the Burren which is a stretch of land named for the Gaelic word meaning barren and it is. It’s basically all limestone rock with grass growing up between the stones. It’s a very dynamic looking landscape. It’s like a huge kitchen with stone floors. In this barren place, we went to an ancient tomb which is marked by some balanced stones which look like the thinner version of one of the Stonehenge stones. Apparently in this barren place, between the cracks in the rock all types of plants grow, from arctic and alpine to Mediterranean, pretty crazy huh?

We stopped in a place called Gort to get some lunch and my nerdiness couldn’t help but say “Clattu baratta nikto” every time someone said Gort. On the way, James, our guide talked ALOT about different things and then played some Irish music including the song Lisdoonvarna which is extremely catchy and was stuck in our heads the rest of the day. It’s about the town we were passing through where they hold an annual match making festival. The ratio of men to women in Ireland is 3 to one, so they’re not too happy about that. There’s a particular county called Kerry where the ratio is the worst and it also has the highest suicide rate of any other county. That’s what happens when you can’t get no lovin.

We stopped in Doolin for the night which held a place called McGann’s that James boasted was the best Irish lamb stew in the world and I have to agree with him on this one. It was excellent! The best stew I’ve ever had! Truly. I ate the rest of other’s as well, I didn’t want it to end. And of course had a couple of pints of Guinness. That’s good stuff that Guinness, only beer I will drink and actually like. I drank more beer on this trip then I think I ever have. The drawback of this is that typically on these trips I lose weight, but on this one I think I’ve actually gained weight. I’ve got like a little beer belly going on. it’s terrible!! No more drinking for me for a while. Oye.

Anyway, we noticed on the way in that there was a huge bonfire being prepared next to a bridge and was set to be lit at 10:30 so we all left the pub with our drinks and wondered over to the bridge. Even though only about 100 people live in this tiny little town, there were at least 4 times that out there watching this huge blaze. It was quite hot too. Every once and a while, they’d throw in a sofa or what have you. While there I ran into to girls, Starin, an American, and Rebel, an Australian, yeah I know interesting names.

Anyway, we got to talking and then two Irishmen come up to them and they seriously look like they’re kids, but they start trying to hit on them in these nearly unperceivable thick accents. Rebel says, “what are you 12?” and they didn’t like that at all but were ever persistent. We all had a good laugh.

Oh, I almost forgot, I had asked James if there was a place at the hostel in Doolin where I could set up my tent. He looked at me like I was crazy but would call anyway. We got there and he said I could put my tent up in the back for 4 euro less. So I said okay. He thought I was a fecking cheapskate, which by the way apparently “fecking” isn’t a bad word and was allowed by the tourist company and he liked to say it ALOT!

Anyway, he made fun of me for it and I told him you watch, there’ll be a party in that tent tonight! So back to the bonfire, I told these two girls, Rebel and Starin, about my tent and they thought it was hilarious and I invited them back to the tent for cards. They agreed, so it was me, Rebel and Starin, Kelly and Natalie from the tour all in the tent playing cards till 2am. It was awesome.

Oap, I’ve just been informed that chicken is ready, so I must go. Will update more later.

::sigh:: I am at last back at Christie’s in North Wales. Tomorrow I will be getting on the plane home. Never again will I go away for 3 weeks, it’s just not long enough; month minimum. That being said after all this rain, I am ready to get back to the beach. I can’t wait to lay out in the sun all day long when I get back. Oh it will be so nice.

So, last you read I was in Belfast doing laundry which ended up taking all freakin day cause the dryer didn’t work all that well.

The next day, I got up to go on the day tour of Ulster, or Northern Ireland. I had met an Italian girl the day before named Valeria and she was also going on this tour. She didn’t speak a lot of English but she wanted me to help her with that. She had that Italian accent that’s just awgh ::drool:: so sexy. It’s like say, “I’m a little teapot.” I love it! Anyway, we spent the day together going across northern Ireland. We went up to the Giant’s Causeway which was a large group of pillar like rocks in different hexagonal and pentagonal shapes. It’s was quite interesting to see. Apparently, they do from there down into the ocean floor and then come up again ion another island somewhere. Ancient explorers noted this and said it was built as a causeway by giants so that they could conquer Ireland, but the giant was tricked and went running back to where he came from, destroying the causeway in his wake so that no one could follow.

We also went to Bushmills distillery which is the oldest licensed distillery in the world, since 1608. I learned all about whiskey, the process of distilling, and the differences between liquors.

Basically, whiskey is distilled three times, scotch twice, and bourbon once. Distilling is when they take the spirits produced by the fermented and malted barely and mix it pure hot water. Alcohol boils at a much lower temperature then water, so the alcohol evaporates into these pipes and is turned back into liquid in these condensers, then they do this twice more. What this does is purify the alcohol.

The avg level of purification after the first distillation is about 20% alcohol, after second distillation, it is 75%, and then around 88% on the last one. It smelled horrible in that distillery too. You actually couldn’t use anything with batteries cause there was so much alcohol in the air, the slightest spark could ignite it.

The whiskey is then stored in caskets and this is what mainly gives the different flavors. Most whiskey is stored in a casket that once had sherry wine in it and so the sherry is soaked into the whiskey a bit, other whiskey is put into bourbon caskets and so on for different flavors. AS it sits for sometimes up to 25 years, about 20% of the alcohol will evaporate and that’s called the “angel’s share.” See, even heaven has alkies.

I had quizno’s for lunch which was soo good to have after constant noodles. We saw some other sites, but the majority of the day was spent talking to Valeria and teaching her English. She is studying in Dublin and was up to Belfast just for the week. She was headed back to Dublin the next day and invited me to a party that night. At first I was excited but then realized I’d already booked my 3 day tour, so oh well. Women are always trouble anyway. She gave me her email and phone number and I said I’d call her when I got into Dublin.

After the tour, I caught a bus down to Dublin to stay for the night before the 3 day long tour the next morning. I don’t really like to take such tours anymore, cause you don’t really get a sense of the culture and you’re totally at the mercy of the bus driver and tour guide. No hop on hop off. The tour was actually entertaining despite the guide’s compulsion to repeat himself and be distracted, but I don’t think I’ll ever do another one.

There was free breakfast downstairs which consisted of toast and jam so I ate, mailed off some postcards, got some cash (I needed euros now that I was in Ireland), and got on the bus. There was almost 40 of us on the bus. The majority of the group was fun, but there were four girls and two guys from SC who were studying abroad, and these weren’t the fun types. Despite our connections with USC, we had nothing else in common. They were what I would describe as plastics, otherwise known as b!#che$. Not fun at all. They had their hair all done, with huge shades, furry like coats, and of course Louie Vatoghne bags. Louie Vatoghne! Backpacking!! Argh makes me so frustrated. Anyway, thankfully, there were enough cool people that I didn’t have to deal with them, just made me ashamed of where I went to school.

Anyway, first place we went to was the second oldest whiskey distillery in the world, but since I had already gone to the oldest one, I skipped out on paying for this one and wondered around the little town instead and talked to our tour guide. He was a young Irish lad who had a hankering for binge drinking and pointing out “sexy” tractors.

Hmm, I’ve just been told that this computer is quite old and slow and might actually crash, so I’m going to go ahead and send this and then continue to update on subsequent emai

One thing I forgot to mention about my Aberdeen experience is that Mel taught me how to say a bunch of Scottish sayings, such as bawjaws, which basically is a friendly way of telling a friend, he’s being a pansy, ie, balls in his jaws. Such a colorful language.

We got up early on Monday and walked over to Asylum, a comic book store she goes to so I could peruse the Scottish selections; cross culturing is good. Then she walked me to the bus station and we waited eating granola bars and telling jokes until it was time to go. We said our goodbyes and I said that I could empaTHIGHS with her (only Mel will get that.)

Slept most of the way on the round about 3.5 hour bus ride, switching in Perth and finally arriving in Edinburgh, the capitol of Scotland. This is a beautiful city, the most beautiful I’ve seen in Scotland and there are a great many things to do there. It’s built on all these hills, not to mention the ruins of old Edinburgh which was built on the ruins of old Dun Edin. So it’s got many tiers to its streets. Everything is cobblestone of course as is the case with most old cities, and Edinburgh castle dominates the skyline in the center of the city.

I walked to the information center with my huge bag that’s only getting heavier and found a hostel. I accidentally walked up the wrong bridge and ended up on a street overlooking the street I should’ve been on, so I had to find some stairs to get down to it. So much fun, it’s like a 3d maze of a city, but still relatively easy to navigate because it’s much smaller then say Los Angeles. Only about 300,000 people live there but they’re all crammed into tenement housing and the like.

Upon entering my room at Belushi’s, which is the attached bar to the hostel, I saw Marti and Garri, the Finnish couple I had met in Inverness. Small Scotland. Oh, and upon arriving at the hostel, I learned of their buy one meal get another free deal until 5p, so I bought a vege lasagna and an Aussie burger with everything on it for £7! It was quite good, what a savings!

I walked the Royal Mile which is a group of streets that have a bunch of history sites and shops stretching from Edinburgh castle to the Queen’s Palace. Walking in the park which actually used to be a loch, I ran across some real Scottish dancers, basically old people hopping around to Scottish music. It was still fun to see.

After walking around, I headed back to the pub to do the pub quiz. I had met an Aussie named Josh earlier in the day and teamed up with him and two London girls for the quiz. Marti and Garri, which by the way Garri is the nickname I gave her because her full name had much to many syllable intonation changes, joined us later and even though there were six of us, we still managed to merely get second. The winning team were two Scottish guys in wheelchairs with whom we talked for a while afterwards, also while the Londoners, Tessa and Sarah showed us how to make paper origami lilies. The bar began to fill up as we discovered that a hockey game was going to be played between Edmonton (Oilers) and Carolina (Hurricanes). Apparently it was filled with Canadian fans so only Erica, the American bartender, and I were cheering for the US. Carolina ended up blowing them away of course. I’m sure Law was watching that game. It felt good to see the team that beat the Sharks lose.

The next day, I got up sort of late and had some free breakfast downstairs. Then I headed out to Edinburgh castle. Another American girl had told me the £10.30 admission fee was not worth seeing the inside of the castle. She must not’ve liked history cause I thought it was well worth it. It was huge. The castle itself is built upon a huge basalt mountain which shoots up from the center of the city; it’s basically an ancient extinct volcanoes, great place to build huh? This place is like a large village inside its walls, circling up to the Great Hall in the very center of the castle. There are living quarters, shops, chapels, chambers, vaults, all sorts of interesting things. It’s been all redone as a sort of history lesson that you can walk through.

You can also see the Scottish royal jewels and read about their history. By the time I made it to the war museum 3 hours later I was read out. You could spend a whole day there. In the War memorial, the architecture and statues were beautiful. If I ever make some sort of memorial, this is the one I will use as the model. And the crests are so intricately done. In the great hall, there was a man who was playing the part of a real Earl who actually existed during the time of Mary, Queen of Scotts, and was even married to her at one point, although I don’t remember his name. He was a great story teller, he really put you in the time period as though you were actually talking to this man.

I had lunch there and watched the 1 o’clock gun fire off as it does everyday but Sunday. They also told us of the many attacks against the castle, the longest of which lasted three years. It was a mighty stronghold, but had one weakness, water. It was built on dense, hard basalt rock, so there was no source of water except from the sky.

They had set up rain drains which would empty into a huge well that supplied all the water for castle. Since it rained quite often, this worked alright until one of the catapults of the enemy launched a rock into the north wall and broke of a piece of it which crumbled over the well, burying it. With no water supply, the people of the castle had no choice but to surrender.

Afterwards, stopped by Pasta Fresca to use the internet, then went back to the hostel for a bit. I met the London girls and Josh there who were about to have dinner. It was still buy one food, get one food free, so Josh and I split two meals. The girls had been trying to decide how they were going to pay for another night at the hostel and had spent the whole day making these paper lilies and selling them in the park. They actually made £16 off these stupid little things. I was quite impressed. That was enough to buy them food, drink and another night’s stay.

I left them to wander down to the palace just to see it. I had no intention of paying the huge admissions to get in there as well, I’ve seen palaces before. It was your typical palace looking thing, almost a run down version of Buckingham palace. I was more interested in the building next to it which I’m told is the Parliament building. It has some funky architecture, with bamboo rods and stones sticking out of it. I don’t think it really worked all that well to be honest.

Back at the hostel, I was looking forward to a nice shower since I hadn’t showered in 2 days. But only found cold water dripping from the heads, so no shower for me.

After that, I went downstairs and made paper airplanes with the girls until we all went to Three Sisters, a pub, to watch the England/Sweden game. It was quite a good game and ended in a tie. England is moving forward. Tomorrow, our game against Ghana will be the deciding game.

I left there to go to the City of the Dead Tour. Apparently, Edinburgh is one of the most haunted cities in the world and is literally built on the bones of its dead inhabitants. The girl giving the tour was quite good at story telling and actually had me a bit nervous. We walked down to the tenements where she explained in the olden days, these buildings were packed with people and there was no sewage system, so everyday at the same time, they’d say “Look out” and toss all their trash and waste out of a bucket into the street, hopefully not on someone although that happened often, from where it would run down the street and be ankle deep in some places. It would eventually make its way down to the North Loch, now the Castle Gardens Park where I was earlier, which of course was the primary source of drinking water for the city. It’s no wonder people got sick all the time.

We went on to Friar Grey’s graveyard, the only graveyard in the whole city. For hundreds of years, people have been buried here and although you’ll only find about 600 headstones, there’s said to be more then 250,000 people buried in the grounds, piled one on top of the other.

There are many legends of the dead rising in this graveyard, largely due to the amount of rain they get. The soil would erode and bones would begin to appear from the ground as though they were working their way back to the land of the living. The tour guide told us many disturbing tales of grave robbing, being buried alive, and a dog named Bobby which guarded its owner’s grave for 14 years, although really we think it was to gnaw on the bones of the deceased.

The finale of the tour took us into Covenant’s prison which was a section of the graveyard that had supposedly been closed off for many years because it was deemed dangerous. Too many people had been attacked by poltergeists and ghosts there. And actually in the last 7 years, on the tours, they’ve had a total of 700 supernatural attacks, 193 of which ended up in people being knocked out by something they couldn’t see.

After telling us the tale of McKenzie, a cruel man who would torture people and kill them for fun and him being buried feet away from those that he tortured and that his soul could not rest after what he’d done, if you weren’t scared from the supernatural stories, she brought in the science. Scientists believe that ghosts and poltergeists are the result of condensed pheromones in the air which feed off of your pheromones, hence the more you fear, the stronger it becomes. She was excellent at making you feel afraid. In fact, there were too local girls who were so scared, they latched onto me the whole time for protection. I was quite amused.

After telling us all these wonderful things, we enter into the tiny Black Mausoleum where McKenzie is buried and where is ghost seems to have the most activity and power. She continued to tell us, while we were in almost complete dark about a homeless man who wondered in here and ended up in a pit of dead bodies. Oye, she was good at her job. After many more tales of the damned, in mid story, a masked man jumped out from the doorway to scare everyone.

Okay, haha, it’s all a joke, and then she got all serious and told us of an actual event which occurred just the week before of a guy having to go to the hospital because he was freaking out so badly. She said the masked man was there if nothing happened and to tell her it was time to go.

Leaving the covenant prison, it doesn’t end. She said that in all of the attacks that had happened, victims have immediately or later found scratches and burn marks on their body which were not there before. So when you go home tonight, you might want to check to see if you have any. So now we’re all going to be scared all night as well. It was fun though.

Afterwards, the two girls, Emma and Rachel, who had been clutching onto me and Emma almost broke my hand, and I went out to get a drink at a pub. Rachel’s bf who was Irish joined us and told me some things that I should do while in Ireland.

Whoo, this is a long email. Finally, up to today. Even though I only got 3 hours of sleep, I got up early and walked to the bus station to go to the Edinburgh airport. I had booked a flight from Mel’s, leaving Edinburgh and going straight to Belfast. It was only £40, prolly the same price is getting there by land, and would save me a whole day. I met an American girl on the bus who was looking to teach in Edinburgh but was a bartender instead. She was moving to Greece soon for a teaching job she had found. I was jealous. We sat and waited for our separate planes talking until hers finally left and I laid down to get some quick shut eye.

The flight was only an hour and I landed in Belfast at 8am. I picked up my luggage and then laid in the baggage claim on the seats for about an hour sleeping. I found an information center and got a bus, which was quite expensive, to the center of town and walked to the nearest hostel where I am now. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and take a shower which I hadn’t done in 3 days. But upon arrival, I found I couldn’t check in till one. So I dropped off my pack in the luggage room and walked around the city. Not much to it. I hadn’t heard any great things about Belfast, so I decided to use it as a recouping day, which worked out quite nicely.

I went to an internet cafe and burned a CD from a memory card so now I have plenty of pictures left. I talked to some girls waiting to check in until finally it was time. After dropping all of my stuff off, I checked out some pamphlets of things to do. I found some pretty cheap tours so instead of trying to do everything myself like I had in Scotland, I decided to go the tour route, especially since I’d heard the buses are not as good in Ireland, and they seem to be a bit more expensive. I booked a day trip up to Giant’s Causeway which has some interesting rock formations and then a 3 day trip to the western end of Ireland.

Oh, just so you know, I’m currently in Northern Ireland which is still a part of the UK, while Ireland is it’s own country and uses Euros, so I’ll have to switch again when I get down there.

So at last, I have taken a shower, gotten some much needed sleep, eaten dinner, and done some laundry. I resupplied with snacks and drinks and am ready for the last leg of my UK trip. I’ll end in Dublin on Monday, prolly go to the brewery and then back to Colwyn Bay to see Christie, pick up my stuff and fly home.

The internet is not so prevalent in this country. I’m sitting in a pasta restaurant using theirs, but the food is making me soo hungry. Anyway, here’s the update of the last week.

Last we left our fateful hero, me, I was in Broadford waiting on a bus to Portree on the island of Skye. I made it to Portree, but missed the bus to Uig peir to catch the ferry. None of their buses are labeled, so you pretty much have to go to every bus and ask, are you going where I’m going? Plus it came 10 minutes earlier then the shelter said. Ah well, I caught a cab, which cost more but got me to the peir anyway.

Took the ferry over to Talbert which turned out to be a nice little town. Found a hostel up the road that was only £10 so I decided to stay there. Met some Scottish guys who said they were going over to the pub later and I said I’d join them. I sat down to watch the Paraguay football game and started talking to some girls from Quebec. They were quite nice even though they were french.

We talked about how Quebec is trying to suceed from Canada and I ask them why. And basically the only reason they could really give me is they want to keep their french culture and language intact, but they would still be largely dependent on Canada. That to me doesn’t sound like a very good reason to suceed, but the Quebecan youth are quite fired up about it.

Later, one of the Scots I’d met earlier came in with some Hebrides beer, which is Scottish, and shared it with us. We hung out till the end of the football game and then went to bed.

The girls had told me to wake them up in the morning cause they wanted to go to the Callanish stones as well. However, when the moment came, they lacked the strength to wake up at 6:30a, so I stormed forward alone. The stones were quite cool. They aren’t as thick as StoneHenge, but their thinness makes an interesting affect I think. There are three stone circles within 2 miles of each other in Callanish, one of which is huge and looks like a stick figure from above. The other two are quite simple, however they all have some significance with the alignment of the moon. From the primary standing stones, the moon moves over the tops of the stones at an 18.5 year cycle and rolls over the old woman of the moor which is a mountain range in the horizon which resembles a woman laying down, that is if you squint your eye, tilt your head, and furrow your brow it kind sorta might be a woman laying down.

There is one group of stones that’s supposed to symbolize the three parts of the goddess: daughter, mother, and old sage, as represented by the celtic triscalia.

There is a small rock, then a larger red rock (menstrual cycle), and a smaller gray rock. In front of them stands a large phalic like stone (got a head and everything). If you watch the moon at a certain time, it will come up out of the hard rock (giggle) and down into the womb of the lady of the moor. Those crazy celts, too much time on their hands.

After the standing stones I went back to the hostel at Talbert to grab my pack which thankfully I didn’t have to carry with me all that way. Took the ferry back to Uig, which is still my most favorite name to say: eeewww-Ig. Getting off the peir, I met this Scottsman named Marshall who was on holiday from studying politics at Glasgow. Did you know someone from Glasgow is called a Glaswegian and someone from Liverpool is called a Liverpuddlian; I thought that was quite humerous. He was also camping around and was headed back to Portree. We got to talking on the bus back about politics, the current state of things, good and bad, the G8, possibility of change and the reality of the impossibility to be uncorrupt when entering gov’t. By the time we got back to Portree, we searched for a hostel and he said he’d come with even though he intended to head up to the camp site a mile away. The hostel was only £10 and there was free breakfast, so I decided just to stay there, but I’d walk him up to the campsite.

On the way up, he changed his mind and said he’d stay at the hostel. Neither of us looked forward to the midgies. So we put our stuff away and headed to the pub across the street. We had met a Canadian girl named Andree earlier who joined us halfway through the night. Marshall and I were already in heated political discussion, mostly about the state of Scotland and it’s continued fight for independence from Britain and the US and it’s foreign policies and actions. Did you know that Scotland, as of 96 I beleive he said, has its own Parlaiment now. They also have their own money, although all the parlaiment does really is control that money even though they still pay taxes to Britain. They have no control over policies really. So it’s sort of England’s way of throwing them a bone as though they were headed for independence.

But England builds most of it’s warships in Glasgow and stores all of its nuclear submarines in Scotland. Scotland is very rich in oil, so it’s far too valuable to let have its independence in England’s eyes. It’s odd to me how passionate Quebec is about their independence even though they have very little reason to get it, while Scotts seem to be complacent about the matter in general. Perhaps because it’s been such a long waged battle, switching sides so often, they’re just tired of it.

We continued on to discussing Socialism and Capitalism and they thought Socialism was a better idea and I argued theoretically it’s great, but it would never work cause it just takes the greed of one person to destroy the entire system. They argued it would still be better then capitalism, since capitalism hinders a person’s freedom. I said that any gov’t will hinder freedom for the stability of the union and furthermore I think socialism stifles invention, for there is no reason to further ones self if all is provided to everyone. I think there were good points on both ends, in any case, a mighty good argument it was. Nothing like discussing deep politics with three nations over 4 pints of guinness in a pub.

After we got thoroughly pissed, we left and I got a burger at the burger stand outside which was actually run by a guy from Illinois. Mmmm, that burger was my salvation from praying at the porcelain throne.

Got up early the next morning since there was much ground to cover and had breakfast with Marshall and went shopping before saying bye to Marshall and takin the bus to see Dunvegan castle. It was a nice castle and had been lived in for the last 700 years. It’s now inhabited by the McLeod clan, the orginal founders of the castle. There was a lot of interesting information there, but I think I like ruined castles more then living ones, more fun to climb on.

Took the bus back to Portree, ate some leftovers from the night before and grabbed my pack. I sat watching football with a girl and talking about the Pictin tattoo she had gotten on her arm. We compared tattoo designs we’d like to get and I got a few more ideas for mine which is coming closer to fruition.

On the bus to Kyle, went over the Skye bridge and back onto the mainland, I met some teachers from Stornoway, which is in the Isle of Lewis where the Callanish stones are. I had to go through Stornoway to get to Callanish. They were headed off to Broadford for the music festival that was going on. They were quite talkative as I’ve found female teachers are and happily entertained me along the trip. The buses on Skye have some kind of shock problem or maybe it’s jsut the roads, but it feels like you’re on a boat constantly rocking back and forth and bumping you all over the place. Makes it very difficult to use the onboard toilet, especially when the toilet seat keeps closing on you.

In Kyle, I hopped a train bound for Aberdeen so I could meet Mel. I slept the first leg of it, until I had to get off and switch in Inverness. I had a 2 hour layover there so walked around looking for things to do. I walked into a few pubs, but didn’t find anything interesting until I noticed the USA/Italy game was on in 12 degrees North, a bar. I went in and used their internet quickly then ordered a drink and watched the game.

There was a finnish couple nearby and they seemed to be enjoying my antics at how well the US was doing against Italy. I was quite proud. So many people got thrown out of that game and despite the fact that for the entire second half, Italy had 10 players and we had 9 on the field, we still held our own for the tie of 1-1.

I left to catch the train and once again, I expected to sleep on the train, but no, as luck would have it, something far more interesting occurred. Oh, let me first say a little something about my hat. I’ve been wearing my straw hat I bought at Coachella this last year and it seems to have a real impact on people here, especially the ladies. I’ve often noticed girls giggling and looking at me and pointing me out to their friends. At first I thought it was just the massive pack on my back, but apparently, as I’ve noticed, no one wears cowboy hats around here and I must say I’m quite enjoying the attention.

So of course, standing in que to board the train, there were a group of women looking over at me, laughing and looking away, so I moved in and asked what it was. That’s when I figured out it was the hat. We got to talking and they were a gaelic choir who were performing in Inverness and were now headed back home to Aberdeen.

BTW, there are two different gaelic languages, in Scotland, it’s pronounced Gaalick, in Ireland it’s pronounced, Gaylick, and they are apparently different from each other.

The whole rest of the trip, they sang to me and gave me wine and Chardonay and made me sing to them and it was a good time. That was a once in a lifetime sort of thing. How often do you get a personal concert from an authentic gaelic choir on a train in Scotland? And they actually spoke gaelic, they weren’t just singing the words, gaelic was their first language.

We had some great fun and there was much hugging at the station in Aberdeen. I walked out of the station and there was Mel just walking up, great timing. We walked back to her flat which she OWNS might I add and is quite nice. Her friend Shelly was staying over that weekend and even though it was past midnight, we all went out for drinking and dancing at Espionage, which is a club. It was quite fun. I got to pimp it, dancing with two girls. WHoo hoo!

The next morning, we walked down to the beach and I stuck my feet in the North sea, which was quite cold and full of jellyfish! We ate some whipped icecream and returned to the flat to get Shelly’s car and go see some castles. We went to like 3 castles, some of which the girls hadn’t even been to.

Unfortunately, it started to rain on our way to another stone circle which I thought was your more typical representation of a stone circle. It had an altar and everything. Shelly and Mel had packed a picnic and we ate outside after the rain had subsided. The last few days have been more like typical SCottish weather with overcast skies, little sun, and constant showers going on and off.

Heading back, we went over to the Basement which is the pub Mel and Shellie typically hang out at. I met some other of their friends like Debs, Fliss, and Chris. I had some good bar food and then Mel, Shellie, Fliss, and I went off to go see a movie. I know, I’m in a foreign country, I shouldn’t be seeing a movie! But I was with friends and we were all pretty tired anyway. So we thought we’d see the worst movie out there which was Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. It was pretty bad, but a good laugh. Afterwards, Shelly had to drive home and we walked back to Basement, hung out and played pool.

Oye, my fingers are tired. I must stop even though that only updates you to Sunday. I’ll update the rest later. That’s what happens when you put it off having too much fun huh?

Slange! (Scottish for cheers)

Can’t talk long right now, I’m using a free internet site at a pub called 12 degrees North where the USA game is on. I’m on the road to Aberdeen, but had to stop in Inverness for 2 hous where I am now.

Quick summary, I’ll go into more detail later: Went to the Callanish standing stones and it was quite cool. Met some interesting Quebecan girls and the next night met a Scotsman named Marshall with whom I shared some quite heated political discussion over many pints of beer and Bailey’s. Oh so good. We were joined by Andree, a Canadian girl, and then we really got into it. They argued that Capitalism suppresses freedom and I retorted Socialism stifles invention. Man, I love a good argument.

Gotta go, more to come.

Man, I am getting one lucky break after another on this trip! So got up Wed morning early and climbed up Ben Nevis which is the highest mountain in the British Isles. Apparently, they call any mountain “Ben” something or other. It’s 4,406 ft tall which isn’t very high except that you’re hiking from sea level and it’s a 5 mile hike up so if I do my math right, that’s about an 880 foot elevation increase every mile of walking, so it’s quite steep.

To give you an idea, when I did Half Dome, the hardest thing I’ve ever done, it was only an incline of 555ft every mile but it was much longer. Melanie, Arno, I thought of you while going up those hard rock steps and then my mind drifted to the Milford track on the South Island of New Zealand when I got higher up to the strewn jagged rock paths.

There are SO many rocks in this country, I have no idea how they got there. I’m used to the Rockies which are huge solid rocks, but Scotland and all its Bens are a whole bunch of small rocks piled up. At the top of Nevis, it was so weird, it was basically flat, but covered with jagged rocks of all sizes. How did they get there? Why haven’t they fallen down in an avalanche or something?

There was also the ruins of an abandoned ranger station up there and an emergency shelter which was neat to see. Apparently, the weather conditions can get quite extreme in the winter with snow rising up to 15 feet or more at the top. I had to pass through some bits of snow on my trek as well and it’s June! It was freakin cold and windy up there. I couldn’t have picked a better day though, the sky was clear with only a few clouds brushing across the summitt. Awesome. Talking to Helen, the hostel receptionist, most of the time it’s raining or snowing or overcast. Lucky.

So as it turns out, Helen was going to the Isle of Skye that day as well, so I just followed her onto the bus, then the ferry, and onto Skye.

Before I left, I gave a call to Loren, a friend of Christie’s, who’s an author and lives on Skye. She offered to pick me up from the ferry since it wasn’t too far from her. Navigating with maps is odd in this country cause everything is so small. You expect a distance to be quite large and in reality, it’s very close. I’m used to the spread out cities and towns of the States and it taking a whole day to get through Cali or Texas.

Along the train ride, Helen showed me some of the sites like Ben Nevis from another view, the momument to Bonnie Prince Charlie where he first raised his standard for the Jacobites to try to reclaim his thrown from a british ruler. There were two uprisings, one in 1715 I beleive and another in 1745, neither of which was successful. We also went over the viaduct which is in one of the Harry Potter movies. It’s nice to have your own personal tour guides wherever you go.

Upon arrival at Skye, I said goodbye to Helen and hello to Loren who was waiting there for me. She’s tallish with red hair, a proper scottish color although she was born in Florida. She’s published 6 books and knows Christie through her mom who had read one of her books and wrote her a letter. She told me about Skye life and how even though everything is quite close, it takes a while to get there because most of the roads are single lane and you have to wait to let people through. They’re all quite courteous drivers here.

I asked if there was a place I could camp somewhere and she said yes, you can camp on the moor at Tormore close to where I live. She lives on a beautiful plot of land next to her landlady. It’s right on the water, and it’s right out of a romance novel which is prolly why she’s a writer. Her landlady owns a huge portian of land for sheep farming. It’s a law in Scotland that you can camp anywhere you like provided it’s alright with the land owner. SO I could be walking down the street, get tired and just set up camp if I wanted to. That’s awesome!

Anyway, she said go ahead and find a spot somewhere up there just close any gates you open and try not to disturb the sheep. All the grass is so thick, it feels like I’m almost walking on mud cause your foot sinks into the fluffy green sprigs. I found me a spot right on top of a cliff overlooking the water, man that was beautiful. I set up camp and made some dinner consisting of curry noodles and water, plus some left over cheese slices.

They have little flies here called midges which are horrible little critters that will eat you alive if you let them. Why do all the beautiful places have man eating insects in them?

After dinner, I brushed myself off and ran around to get as many midges off of me as I could and then unziped my tent, jumped in, and closed it. There were still some that got in, so I spent the next 30 mintues smashing midges against my tent wall with my finger. It is a warning to all other midges, “Bite not, those who enter here.” I also came to find ticks crawling all over the place, oh happy day. So I killed them when I found them. They’re smaller though then American ticks and seem to be easier to kill.

Since I’m so far north, the days here are quite long. The sun will rise around 3:30am and won’t set till around 10:30. So it took me a bit to get to sleep.

During the night, it started to rain and there’s nothing more relaxing then lying in your tent listening to the patter of rain, you know as long as you put your rain flap up. Oh that’s right the one time of all times that I decided I didn’t need it was in Scotland where it rains most of the time. Nice one. I put it off for a bit, then finally scrambled outside, threw it on, took a pic of the sunrise, and went back to sleep, not before the ritual killing of midges of course.

This morning I couldn’t decide which of the many things to do I was going to do, but finally because of time I decided to take the bus up to the Western Isles to see the standing stones and then I’ll head back down to the mainland and Aberdeen. Loren was heading up to Broadford anyway, so she gaveme a ride.

On the way, she pointed out the Cuillen mountain range which is one of the most perilous in Scotland, so much so that the army goes there to train. The wheather conditions change suddenly, so much so that you could be wearing shorts in the morning and be in a blizzard by the afternoon. And compasses don’t work there because of all te lead in the mountains, sounds like a movie.

So now I’m in Broadford at a fill station using their internet. Looking at the time, it seems the Information station has just opened so I’m going there and then to the bus station and up to the Western Isles.

One more thing. Welshmen are such characters. Well techincally, Dave’s a Yorkshireman, but whatever. I just had dinner with Neil and Dave who are old friends and I couldn’t help but think, “It’s my birthday and I’m sitting here with two old Welshmen, having a few pints, and talking about how things used to be and how they’ve changed and where I should go next. So good.

They’re such characters. Neil, Dave’s dad (young Dave that is), looks the epitamy of an old brine worn sailor, which he was at one time. He doesn’t talk much and is quiet when he does, but that’s okay cause old Dave does enough talking for the both of them. And he’s got a little closed mouth laugh that’s so… well hobbitish I suppose. So much fun.

Argh! I hate that about internet kiosks! I just got done describing the last two days and it shut me down even though I hadn’t finished my time yet. Whatever, I’ll try to redescribe with the same further.

Okay, so right now I’m a bit knackered anyway cause it’s my birthday and Neil and Dave took me out for beers. I just had two pints of guiness. That’s a lot of beer for me!

Anyway, the last you heard was I think when I arrived. The second day, we went to Bodanet Gardens which were beautiful and had flowers and plants of all shapes and sizes. Daddy, you would’ve loved it. It was Shauna, Paula (her mom), and I. We had though that others were coming, but apparently they had already arrived in a previous car trip. In any case, the gardens were beautiful.

Afterwards, we went back to the house to relax a bit and get ready for the big BBQ that night.

Staying at the Sherry’s house was Neil and Trish (Dave’s parents) in seperate rooms (don’t know if that’s a Welsh thing or just them), Shauna and her mum in one room, me in the sitting room upstairs, Dave and Christie in a tent out back, and Dave (Neil’s old friend) out on the deck behind the garden.

They’re very nice people and I need to pick up some wine for them on the way back as a thank you. They love their wine, that’s all people drink here is beer and wine. Old Dave, as I’ll call him to differentiate b/w the two, is 68 and looks great even though he drinks everyday and never eats a salad. But he’s always going on trips and hiking.

To the BBQ, came Steve and Cathy (Paula’s sister, Christie’s aunt) and their two kids who were a little younger then me, Erin and Kyle, as well as some other people. We ate meat and drank wine and talked and laughed. After the party had died down, we made a fire in a bucket outside Christie and Dave’s tent. Shauna is a massuese and gave massages, Rock on!

The next morning, we were awakened early to head to the hotel where the wedding ceremony would take place. We rehearsed in the morning since it was a simple ceremony and then the girls went to do their hair and I took a nap. Later on, we all got ready and the wedding was on. The service was simple and since Christie and Dave had already been legally wed in the States, there was no minister, just the reciting of vows, some music, and the readings which Claire and I read. Everyone said we did quite well.

After the recessional, there were of course many pictures taken, then the food, the cake and the dancing. Shauna and I ripped up the dance floor since it seemed we were the only ones who kinda knew how to dance. It was awesome! The music selection was odd. No club or party in the States would be caught dead playing such music. It was mostly oldies and stuff I didn’t know which was difficult to dance to. Apparently, that’s the kind of music they play all over the UK although no one listens to it on their own time. They did play Footloose though, so I was good.

That night, everyone stayed in the hotel. Unfortunately, I was roomed with Steve who’s a snorer. I took my duvet and pillows and tried some other rooms but couldn’t find anything comfortable. So I finally settled on the hallway outside my room which everyone else found quite humerous. “There’s a dead man lying in the corridor,” they’d say.

After so many people stepped over me, I finally got up and went to breakfast. After checking out and paying for the hotel, we went back to the Sherry’s and then to the beach to throw the rugby and frisbee. We came back to the house though before the USA futball game. eeehhhh, if any of you saw that one, man that was sad. Czech Republic beat us 3-0, oye! And we’re playing Italy on Sat, so I’d say we’re not going anywhere this year.

The next day, we went to Conwyn Castle on Conwyn Bay which was awesome! It was my very first castle if you don’t count the Tower of London, which is more of a dungeon. There were so many corridors and teirs, you could get lost in there even though it’s relatively small. It’d be a great place to play paintball in! After the castle, we did some shopping.

Afterwards, went back to the house and I did laundry and Shauna and I watched a movie. Neil and Old Dave were planning to go on a 3 week long trip up to Scotland the next day and offered to give me a ride. Sweet! We had another little get together that night with everyone and said our goodbyes since they were all leaving on planes in the morning. I packed up my backpack and daypack and left everything else in the sitting room for me to pick up on the way back.

So Neil, Old Dave, and I headed out early the next morning. They took me up as far as Fort Williams which is right next to Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Great Britain. Coincidence? I think not. So I’ll be climbing that tomorrow morning. It was only about a 9.5 hour drive. I was amazed at how small this whole island is. After Ben Nevis, I plan to head over to the Isle of Skye and then to Aberdeen to visit Mel who I haven’t seen since college.

Phew, I think I finally have ya updated. Hope yall are doing well and I’m thinking of you.