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Published: June 12th 2007
So my time in Scotland is over unfortunately. Overall it was a great time, and a beautiful country. I spent Friday night in Edinburgh and then got up bright and early to catch the bus back to Glasgow. I didn't really feel like spending my last day in Scotland in the city, but I also had no idea where a good day trip would be. Since I didn't really feel like going back to the hostel to research options I decided to catch the next bus out of Glasgow and see where it took me. I ended up in Loch Lomond, a really popular lake in Scotland. But really, that's all there is there....I literally got dropped off on the side of the highway at this lake with absolutely nothing around. About 10 minutes into my hour hike to the nearest town I was starting to think maybe my attempt at being spontaneous was not such a great idea. But on the plus side it was a beatuful day and the hike was through a nice wooded trail. But it still kinda sucked. I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the town of Balloch and found that it was
their annual dragon boat race festival, which turned out to be a great afternoon. I sat on the beach and watched the races while reading my book. Well worth the hour hike.
I spent that night in Glasgow and then caught a morning flight to Dublin. I got into Dublin around 8am Sunday morning with nothing to do since I couldn't check into the hostel until the afternoon and nothing was open because it was Sunday morning. So Justin (a Canadian I meant on the flight) and I roamed the city for most of the day looking for stuff to do until we could check in. We went to a couple of cathedrals (which were awesome) and the Guinness Brewery. The brewery tour wasn't too interesting but the free pint at the end on their rooftop bar was just what we needed after a long day of carrying our huge packs all over Dubin.
First impressions of Dublin, it's not quite as clean or pretty as most of the places I saw in Scotland, but it certainly is a fun city. I've never seen so many pubs and bars in one place. Seriously on almost every corner! And
it seems there's always people in them. My first night in Dublin I spent on a pubcrawl with about 20 other people from my hostel checking out 4 of these Irish pubs. It was probably one of the best night's I've had so far.
Monday I decided to go to Bru Na Boinne, an archeological site about an hour and a half outside of Dublin. It's a neolithic necropolis that dates back to 3200BC! Even older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids! It was pretty impressive. We even got to go inside the tombs. It was so cool to go inside and be able to see the architecture and artwork from the stone age. That night I went to another local bar with a few girls I'd meant at the hostel, which was another great night out in Dublin. So far the city during the day isn't that great but the nightlife can't be beat. I think I'm leaving Dublin today and heading to Cork for a few days. I'm also looking into going to Portugal sometime in the next week if I can find a cheap enough flight. So hopefully in a few days I'll be on the beaches
of the Algarves!
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Cathy
non-member comment
Wow!
Hi Jen, I am enjoying your "blogs" so much! It is a little scary reading about you just being "dropped off" on the side of the highway like that but that is the "aunt" coming out in me. You don't seem to be having any trouble meeting young people your age which is a great relief to me...the thoughts of you travelling alone all the time have vanished. When will you meet up with your girlfriend from Hallifax? Anyway, great pics Jen!!! Love, Cathy