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Europe on a budget
Alrighty. So we are now in Glasgow but in our tradition I will update you on our last city visited.
We spent three days in Dublin Ireland. Beautiful. Honestly, you just fall in love with the city. The people were all so amazingly wonderful and helpful and the scenery...okay Dublin itself may not be breathtaking but a short drive away totally is.
Our first day we did the free walking tour. Our guide once again was fabulous. He knew his stuff and was super friendly. Afterwards we headed to a local pub for some Irish food. I had the aubergines (which were much better than the ones Ariane had in Athens becaue there were other veggies and cheese too) and Ariane had the cabbage and bacon (ham not actual bacon) stew type thing. Ginormous portions. Crazy stuff. We also made our way to dog races. It wasn't super sad or anything because the animals still had a lot of spirit and were all playful when they were going to the race and after it. Ariane made her money back plus one euro and I broke even. Big spenders that we are and all. We had no idea how to pick a dog so I just went by the names. I bet on bogus betty and baltimore bullet. Bogus bettey made top three (so no cash) and baltimore bullet made first i think...if I remember correctly. The next day we went on a wild wicklow tour. This brought us to the country side. We stopped at this place called Glendalough which was an old monestary. There was also this lake and waterfall we could walk up to. We didn't have a whole lot of time to stand there and take it in so we had to walk and take it in. We stuck with this older couple because there was no way the bus would leave without four of us right? We also stopped along the way to take some photos from a mountain which was breath takingly beautiful. That night we went on a pub crawl to celebrate my big 22. It was actually pretty fun. I found a beer that I super like too. It was a strawberry kind. At another bar Ariane bought me a shot of vodka and the bar gave one on the house and I took both in a row and chased it with some beer. Gross. AND there was live music at that bar and Ariane told him it was my birthday. He sang happy birthday to me and wished me a happy 29. Sooo, I must say, I look damn good for almost 30. At the end we met these spanish guys and I was the right amount of intoxicated to practice speaking with them which was really fun. Now, the usual after bar needing food occured and we bought sandwiches. I paid for mine and Ariane couldn't find her wallet so she went back to the bar and I was looking for change to get hers until she found her wallet but didn't have enough so this guy in back of me who super needed smokes gave me the change because the cashier wouldn't let him go before me and there was no way I would find that change. So a discounted dinner was there for Ariane thanks to a smoker. But the guy thought it was all mine ahha so I had two egg salad sandwiches, an orange, a drink.... The next day was a little more slow. We did the hop on hop off thing which was interesting. Then we went to the Archeological museum which was free. There was a lot of interesting things there because it wasn't the same history we had seen every other place. There was a lot of info about the vikings, their life style, life before them and after, etc. We ended our night with an evening of Irish music and dancing. It was amazing. And free. Well we bought drinks but still good price for an evening of good times. Now we are about to get ready to leave for Paris. The ferry and train ride from Dublin to Glasgow took most of the day but it was pretty affordable so I won't complain. When we first arrived at the train station in Glasgow we went to ask about getting to Paris and the guy working asked the guy in back of him if there were any trains to Paris and the guy said no. I thought he was joking with us so I said a smart comment of some sort and then once I realized he wasn't joking I was like how do we get there and didn't appologize for having been rude...like I don't think it was rude at the time when I thought he was joking with us I was joking back but since he was serious it probably could have sounded douchey. Oh well. SO we are flying to Paris tomorrow. It was cheaper than the train. Our first day in Scotland we went to Edinburgh. Beautiful city. The part we were in had so many old buildings. We did the free walking tour which stopped in a graveyard that had some of the names that people think inspired the names in Harry Potter. It was really weird because the graveyards are used kinda like public parks and people just go off the path and sit which isn't rude or disrespectful in and of itself. We accompagnied our guide to a pub where Ariane tried Haggis. She says it was pretty tastey. That particular location didn't have the veg ones so I couldn't tell you. We then went on a ghost tour which was kinda short and just kinda so-so. I think it would have been better if we hadn't been on the free tour because we had heard a lot of the stories already. THEN because it was Fringe we decided to go see a play. Ariane had talked to me about this movie called Trainspotting and there happened to be a theatrical adaptation of the film so we did that. So good. It looked into the drug problem that exists in Scotland. The next day, we did the hop on hop off in Glasgow. There was a piping competition and we got to see a canadian band of bag pipes! There was also this typa strong man competition (Highlander games). One of the sports basically consisted of picking up an almost tree trunk and throwing it up and having points accorded depending on the landing. The second sport we saw was using a pitch fork to throw a 20Ibs bag of hay over a 22 foot high bar. The guy who won threw it 29 feet. So crazy. We were pretty tired that night and went to bed pretty early. Today we had to be downtown by 7:45 to do a tour. We went to see the home of Nessie (the loch ness mosnter). The loch is HUGE. At it's deepest it is 900 feet deep. Apparently you could put all the water from lakes in Britain and it wouldn't even come close to filling the loch. Before making our way all the way north we stopped at a few places. One was Glencoe which again was beautiful. It made me really want to do this thing next year. It's called the West Highlander Way or something along those lines. Basically there is a trail that starts in Glasgow and you go all the way up north to fort William which can take about 7 days. There are some b&bs and hostels along the way but you can also just sleep on the side of the trail...but that leaves you exposed to the elements. So yeah, that is basically Ireland and Scotland. I am definately going to come back here <3
We spent three days in Dublin Ireland. Beautiful. Honestly, you just fall in love with the city. The people were all so amazingly wonderful and helpful and the scenery...okay Dublin itself may not be breathtaking but a short drive away totally is.
Our first day we did the free walking tour. Our guide once again was fabulous. He knew his stuff and was super friendly. Afterwards we headed to a local pub for some Irish food. I had the aubergines (which were much better than the ones Ariane had in Athens becaue there were other veggies and cheese too) and Ariane had the cabbage and bacon (ham not actual bacon) stew type thing. Ginormous portions. Crazy stuff. We also made our way to dog races. It wasn't super sad or anything because the animals still had a lot of spirit and were all playful when they were going to the race and after it. Ariane made her money back plus one euro and I broke even. Big spenders that we are and all. We had no idea how to pick a dog so I just went by the names. I bet on bogus betty and baltimore bullet. Bogus bettey made top three (so no cash) and baltimore bullet made first i think...if I remember correctly. The next day we went on a wild wicklow tour. This brought us to the country side. We stopped at this place called Glendalough which was an old monestary. There was also this lake and waterfall we could walk up to. We didn't have a whole lot of time to stand there and take it in so we had to walk and take it in. We stuck with this older couple because there was no way the bus would leave without four of us right? We also stopped along the way to take some photos from a mountain which was breath takingly beautiful. That night we went on a pub crawl to celebrate my big 22. It was actually pretty fun. I found a beer that I super like too. It was a strawberry kind. At another bar Ariane bought me a shot of vodka and the bar gave one on the house and I took both in a row and chased it with some beer. Gross. AND there was live music at that bar and Ariane told him it was my birthday. He sang happy birthday to me and wished me a happy 29. Sooo, I must say, I look damn good for almost 30. At the end we met these spanish guys and I was the right amount of intoxicated to practice speaking with them which was really fun. Now, the usual after bar needing food occured and we bought sandwiches. I paid for mine and Ariane couldn't find her wallet so she went back to the bar and I was looking for change to get hers until she found her wallet but didn't have enough so this guy in back of me who super needed smokes gave me the change because the cashier wouldn't let him go before me and there was no way I would find that change. So a discounted dinner was there for Ariane thanks to a smoker. But the guy thought it was all mine ahha so I had two egg salad sandwiches, an orange, a drink.... The next day was a little more slow. We did the hop on hop off thing which was interesting. Then we went to the Archeological museum which was free. There was a lot of interesting things there because it wasn't the same history we had seen every other place. There was a lot of info about the vikings, their life style, life before them and after, etc. We ended our night with an evening of Irish music and dancing. It was amazing. And free. Well we bought drinks but still good price for an evening of good times. Now we are about to get ready to leave for Paris. The ferry and train ride from Dublin to Glasgow took most of the day but it was pretty affordable so I won't complain. When we first arrived at the train station in Glasgow we went to ask about getting to Paris and the guy working asked the guy in back of him if there were any trains to Paris and the guy said no. I thought he was joking with us so I said a smart comment of some sort and then once I realized he wasn't joking I was like how do we get there and didn't appologize for having been rude...like I don't think it was rude at the time when I thought he was joking with us I was joking back but since he was serious it probably could have sounded douchey. Oh well. SO we are flying to Paris tomorrow. It was cheaper than the train. Our first day in Scotland we went to Edinburgh. Beautiful city. The part we were in had so many old buildings. We did the free walking tour which stopped in a graveyard that had some of the names that people think inspired the names in Harry Potter. It was really weird because the graveyards are used kinda like public parks and people just go off the path and sit which isn't rude or disrespectful in and of itself. We accompagnied our guide to a pub where Ariane tried Haggis. She says it was pretty tastey. That particular location didn't have the veg ones so I couldn't tell you. We then went on a ghost tour which was kinda short and just kinda so-so. I think it would have been better if we hadn't been on the free tour because we had heard a lot of the stories already. THEN because it was Fringe we decided to go see a play. Ariane had talked to me about this movie called Trainspotting and there happened to be a theatrical adaptation of the film so we did that. So good. It looked into the drug problem that exists in Scotland. The next day, we did the hop on hop off in Glasgow. There was a piping competition and we got to see a canadian band of bag pipes! There was also this typa strong man competition (Highlander games). One of the sports basically consisted of picking up an almost tree trunk and throwing it up and having points accorded depending on the landing. The second sport we saw was using a pitch fork to throw a 20Ibs bag of hay over a 22 foot high bar. The guy who won threw it 29 feet. So crazy. We were pretty tired that night and went to bed pretty early. Today we had to be downtown by 7:45 to do a tour. We went to see the home of Nessie (the loch ness mosnter). The loch is HUGE. At it's deepest it is 900 feet deep. Apparently you could put all the water from lakes in Britain and it wouldn't even come close to filling the loch. Before making our way all the way north we stopped at a few places. One was Glencoe which again was beautiful. It made me really want to do this thing next year. It's called the West Highlander Way or something along those lines. Basically there is a trail that starts in Glasgow and you go all the way up north to fort William which can take about 7 days. There are some b&bs and hostels along the way but you can also just sleep on the side of the trail...but that leaves you exposed to the elements. So yeah, that is basically Ireland and Scotland. I am definately going to come back here <3
- comments
Collette Hey Jenna Great to hear your news. I love reading your blogs. Always glad to hear you are both enjoying the adventures. Read a few days ago...this morning I was looking for more. Guess you are just having way too much fun and that's great! I'm having lots of fun too...with Joce, Sylvie, and Denise at Glenn's cottage. Just can't tell you everything here...what happens in Gogama stays in Gogama...they tell me! LOL En tout cas, je t'aime bien gros et j'ai hate aux nouvelles. Hugs and kisses. Miss you Mom XXXX
tante clemence salut les filles!!! Ariane, j'ai recu la carte postale de Glencoe...ohhh...comment le savais-tu? L'aventure de Rachel et la mienne ont debute la, a Glencoe en 2003 lors de notre voyage en Ecosse!C'est vert du "glen" et les couchers d'soleil qui sont fantastiques ...comme sur la carte postale que tu m'as envoyee!!! Excellent choix!!!Mille mercis!!! L'irlande et l'Ecosse sont deux pays avec leur propres et incroyables beautes!, n'est-ce pas???et Edinburg possede son charme exclusif, eh?! Continuer de vous amuser car le voyage doit tirer a sa fin. Bonne fin d'voyage et bon vol de retour! Grosses caresses et au plaisir de vous relire tantot!!!Prenez bien soin la!!!
tante clem Bonjour les filles!!! Bonne fete Ariane!!!! Je ne sais pas ou tu es en ce moment mais c'est le 28 du mois d'aout et quelques annees passees, ta mere t'a regarde "dans les yeux et a decouvert ton joli minois" pour la premiere fois!!!!Wow...qu'elle devait etre heureuse...sa fille!!! Alors, meme si tu es loin, je te souhaite une belle journee de fete et tu devrais celebrer cet evenement a la mode du pays ou tu te trouves en ce moment. Bonne journee et grosses caresses de fete ma belle niece!!!