KatieLyn

DUBLIN Day 97 I anxiously made my way to Hollyhead so that I could take the final leg of my trip back to good ol’ Dublin. The ferry took 3 hours and it felt like 20! When I finally did make it to Dublin and got on the 10min. bus ride from the port to Connolly station I was literally ready to explode. The bus took me past my flat and I nearly screamed for the bus to stop and let me off there but instead I waited until the designated stop. I got to Connolly station and literally ran the entire way to my old flat. Monika was waiting for me at home and I buzzed up for her to let me in. I threw open the door and dashed for the elevator. I ... read more

LIVERPOOL Day 95 and 96 I made it to Liverpool and was a little tired so I got some dinner and had an early night. The next day I went for a walk around Liverpool. It was interesting to see all the places I had visited nearly 9 years earlier. I think that being so close to Ireland and after all of the headaches the last few weeks my mind is already back with my friends in Dublin. I am so excited to get back and spend some time with them before I go back to Canada. My heart and mind have ended this trip so I just need to get my body back to Dublin to join the rest of me. ... read more

INVERNESS Day 94 Today is the big day. That is, it is the day I will hunt for Nessie. I hopped my bus to Drumnadrochit, which is the main spot to start looking for Nessie. I began with a walk along the Great Glen Way, which is a really long walking path but I only did about an hour of it in and then walked the hour back out. It was a really nice walk through the highlands. All of the trees have this moss that grows on them. I don’t know if it is some tree disease or just a harmless moss that grows on everything. But it does give an eerie feel to the forests. It was raining off and on all morning but not enough to deter me from my day out. ... read more

INVERNESS Day 93 Nessie here I come! I spent another few hours on trains in order to get to Inverness. It was raining on my arrival but the town is cute and quaint. And even though it is a smaller town it still has the feel of a big city town by having all the amenities readily available and lots of public transit coming and going at all times. I found my hostel quickly and went for a walk around town while I still had some day light hours. I stopped by the tourist office to get info on how to find Nessie. I went back to the hostel and met some fellow travelers, one very interesting one in particular. MacKenzie has been traveling for the last 15 years, since he retired actually. He is ... read more

GLASGOW Day 92 Today I have attempted to sort out my Scottish and Irish roots, with little success. I headed to The Mitchell library, which has the genealogy centre for the Glasgow area. I know that many generations ago my Irish great great great… married my Scottish great great great… in Glasgow. I found the marriage listed in the Old Parish Registry but it didn’t provide any real information other than the following: Thomas McCabe, Luarrier in Glasgow & Margaret McLean residing here married on 12 February 1854. I don’ know what on earth a Luarrier would be but it would have been his profession. So next I tried searching the census records for 1851 and 1861. Unfortunately, there are many Thomas McCabes and even more Margaret McCabes and without ages or parents names it ... read more

ROTTERDAM (still) Day 88 We began our day again with another massive breakfast and filled our pockets with as much as we could for our lunch and dinner later. We decided it would be useless to go back to the port when planes still aren’t flying so there would be no way anyone would have cancelled spots on the ferry. Instead we went for a walk around the town to check some things out. As we walked we passed the market where an old man was dancing to some jazz music as he tried to sell his old records and random bits. From there we went to the shopping street with lots of stores unfortunately we both were not in a mood to spend more of our money. Next we came across the random and ... read more

ROTTERDAM Day 87 We were woken at 7am this morning by rude, noisy, light flicking roommates. We went down and had our included breakfast which was actually really good. They had chocolate for us and sprinkles to put on something but I am not sure what, maybe the yogurt? Oh and I had grabbed a boiled egg and it was on my plate next to my choco bar and Jennifer pointed out to me that the egg had melted my choco bar and now it was covered in choco. So I figured since it was boiled it would be safe to lick the choco off the egg. It was a strange moment in my life to lick an egg. We have become quite giddy with the insanity of the situation and random things not working ... read more

COPENHAGEN/HAMBURG/ROTTERDAM Day 86 I went extra early to the train station to scout out the best location to get onto the train and to see how many people would be waiting for the same train; there were far too many people waiting. My plan on getting on to the train was not even to bother searching for an empty seat that is unreserved, the staff already warned us that there maybe 15 seats unreserved and about 100 of us waiting to fill them, I would look for the best spot to put my bag down and sit on top of it. So that is exactly what I did. I got on the train and found the perfect spot that I could comfortably sit on top of my pack while everyone else scrambled up and down ... read more