While on my travels...

Well, turns out I didn't have access to the internet while on my travels, so I guess this will just have to be a long blog in order to update everyone on what I have been up to.

Last Sunday, Sarah, Will, and I hopped on a train to Edinburgh (pronounced Edinborough), Scotland. And guess who got kicked off public transportation again?! You guessed right! I told Sarah and Will that they should have known better than to travel with me. We were chuggin' right along, when we hit a stop, about an hour into our five hour train ride and an announcement is made that the train is terminating there and we all had to get off. We quickly went across the platform to another train, and to oblige all of us immigrants, the train made a special trip to Edinburgh for us.

Once again the bathroom has a funny story associated with it. (Why can't I just have a bigger bladder?) So because two trains had merged there were not enough seats for everyone, and there were bodies everywhere! In between two cars, where my closest bathroom was, a group of young, hot, drunk Scottsman were camping out. I was unaware until it was too late and I was committed to using the restroom. They all made hooping and hollering noises when I came into the room and opened the electric door for me. Once I got in, they were all shouting how I need not worry because the walls were sound proof. Right. The funny/creepy/scary part was the way the batroom was set up, you had to press a button to lock the door. It took me a few minutes to find it (I did have an audience outside), but once I pressed it, a collective aaaaagh, was sighed outside, followed by an "it's a good thing you did that!" I was laughing nervously, could hardly pee, and held it the rest of the trip.

We made it to town, and the first day was a day in. We didn't have much time, so we just ordered room service for dinner, and crashed early. By the way, Will snores. Constantly. All...night...long.

The next day rocked. We went to the Castle, the Whiskey museum place, and walked the Royal Mile. That night we did a ghost walk around the town. It was scary, because they took us into the Vaults, which were old, creepy cave like structures. The tour ended at this really weird bar that we ended up having an awesome time at, because the musical entertainment rocked!

Did I mention that Will snores?

The next day we took a bus tour of Loch Lomond, the country side, and Sterling castle. Scotland is so pretty. It's just as magical in real life, because of all the magical mist and fog.

Another early night spent listening to Will snore.

Wednesday we packed up and flew to Ireland. Our hotel ended up being off the beaten track, so we just grabbed some Burger King for dinner, and then Sarah and I stayed up and had a girls night in her room. The TV was awesome. Sex and the City, junk food, and girls only really rocked!

I shared a room with Will. A room that had no air conditioning, so it was also hot while I listened to him snore.

The next day was the longest, and the most fun!

We started out by taking a tour of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Sarah then left us to meet her friend who would be staying in Ireland with her. So Will and I hit Ha' Penny Bridge (the first foot bridge to cross the river). Then the Guinness Factory, which turned out to be way more interesting than I thought it would be. And the beer wasn't bad either!

That night the four of us (Will, me, Sarah, and her friend Caitlin) did a musical pub crawl. Basically two musicians took us to three bars and played tradtional Irish music, and joked around with eachother and us. It was a ton of fun. If you're ever in Ireland, do a musical pub tour.

That finished at ten, so we went back to the first pub, where we were lucky enough to run into a bachelor party (or stag party, as they call it here)! All these hot guys had matching green, collared shirts on that had the rules of the night on the back, and their name and duty, on the front. For example, one of the guys was the "challenge master." Throughout the night the guys had to do different challenges, and whoever lost, the challenge master was in charge of their punishment. Best job ever right? No, because if he loses, the rest of the group determines his fate.

I skipped the best part, though. Their bottom halves were loosely wrapped in cloth, which they continually pulled up throughout the night, to expose their thong that had an animal in the front to cover themselves...kind of.

Once again, I have video of this, however, I am so not putting it up on this sight...I don't want to get in trouble. But if you come over when I get home and let me bore you with all my pictures, and video, I'll treat you to that video!

It ended up being an extremely late night, where I only got two hours of sleep. I was set to get four, but at this point the snoring was unstoppable. I sadly said goodbye to my 'mates, and one taxi drive, airplane ride, bus ride, tube ride, and another bus ride later, I am back in the dorms. Cereal for dinner, and heading to bed soon. I have to get up early tomorrow to go meet my family at the airport. I can hardly wait to see them!

What did I learn while "studying" abroad this week? Although, Edinburgh was a cuter town, Dublin had the cuter guys!