Got up as early as I have in a while today in order to give us proper time to check out Edinburgh (apparently pronounced Edinburr - and lop off the rest just like Scots do with most words) today. Took the hour long train out there around 11am. The train pulls in to Edinburgh in just the absoutlely dead center of the touristy part of town. It's practically right at the base of the hill that the famous Edinburgh Castle sits on. Coincidentally that was our first stop. We walked up the steep and curvy Edinburgh roads to the Royal Mile, the street that stretches from Holyrood Palace (Scotish home of Queen) to the castle, and has the majority of the tourist attractions in the city. Walked up that road to the castle which sits on ... read more

Just like the last entry this one may be a little short as well. As I mentioned in the last one today we are heading north, slightly into the highlands to go camping on the shores of Loch Lommond. So of course I'll start off with the lyrics from Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond: Oh! ye'll take the high road and I'll take the low road, And I'll be in Scotland afore ye; But me and my true love Will never meet again On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. After messing around for most of the afternoon and visiting Strathaven (where Niall and most of his pals are from, about 20 minutes south of Glasgow) to check out the town and grab camping supplies we got up to the Loch around 8pm or so ... read more

Josh and I said a quick goodbye this morning at around 6 am as he headed out the door to the airport and back home. Definitely going to miss having him around, had a good time together here on the Emerald Isle. Slept in about as late as I could today as I really had nothing much to do before catching my evening flight over to Glasgow. Around noon I eventually checked out and said goodbye to the wonderful fellow travelers who I got to know over the last few days. Spent a couple of hours wandering around Dublin in a futile effort to kill time before retiring to the hostel to relax in the common room. Hung out with the other pub crawlers from last night who were equally hung over and watched Hostel in ... read more

Slept in today and missed breakfast. Not really a big loss since it is usually toast and watered down orange juice. After a couple of relaxing days Josh and I are getting back to work and looking to check out the Dublin we missed on our first trip here. Headed out across the River Liffery to the northside of town and up O'Connell street and some of the big shopping streets up that way. The street is just littered with statues and monuments to honor some of the famous politicians and military leaders in Ireland's history. Ended up turning onto Henry Street, another big shopping street but I think we went the wrong way since we ended up in a mini-China Town and starting seeing signs that read "Hot Foode with white Rice 5 euro". That ... read more

Got up today in Galway with little to do and less planned. We pretty much just took it easy today. Checked out of our hostel on Eyre Square as late as we could and headed down to our old Barnacles hostel to book our 1st night in Dublin at the Barnacles there and get the discount. We ended up just leaving our packs in their storage area so we could check out the town freely. Walked around a few artists markets but didn't see anything too interesting. Walked down towards the beach resort town, Salt Hill, among other parts of town we hadn't seen yet. Just a nice early afternoon stroll to get the day going. After lounging on the grass in Eyre Square for a bit on a surprisingly sunny Irish afternoon we headed over ... read more