Day 7, 8, and 9

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I am behind in blogging due to not having free Internet every night and being busy on the days when the Internet was free. I am finding that the Internet costs to use in the big cities so far (Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin) with the exception of the hotel I stayed in London. It has been free in the small stops we make. I do need to remind my mother that I am on holidays and should be out enjoying the cultural experiences of the countries I am in-so please don't nag for blog entries. This blog will be a long one but, I will write quick summaries of each day in hopes to shorten the length.

The night before heading out to try and catch the Loch Ness monster we had a trivia night. My team consisted of four Canadian girls, an Aussie, and myself. We came close to winning but, we lost by 3.5 points.
The next day we hopped onto the Loch Ness Lake cruise in hopes of finding Nessie but, we had no luck. We then drove toward the Isle of Skye. The scenery driving through the highlands was absolutely breath-taking. There were some amazing waterfalls, lakes, and mountains that I wished we could have stopped at for a quick photoshot. The Isle of Skye was a beautiful place. Denise-this is one of the places that I wished I could have had more time at. We then went off of the Isle of Sky and eventually stopped to see the Eilean Donan Castle. There was, also, a quick stop at Ben Nevis which is supposedly the tallest mountain in Great Britain. It was very cloudy and with all of the clouds you would never know it was the tallest mountain. We eventually arrived at our hotel after a stop for a walk about dinner in Fort William. This dinner was an awkward one as the servers couldn't figure out why some of us only wanted starters as our main meal (we weren't too hungry). We then pushed onto our hotel outside of Fort William. This hotel had peacocks outside of it.

Our breakfast at the peacock hotel was a different experience.This was the first hotel that didn't have a big breakfast spread (most of the time we have toast, cereal, yogurt, eggs, bacon and or sausages, other hot items, pastries etc to choose from). This one had sour and rancid juices as well as no toast at the front (finally coming out to our tables) as well as waiters coming around with plates of hot food after most people were done eating. We then took off for a few hour visit to Stirling (home of the Battle of Stirling Bridge) after watching Braveheart on the bus (I only watched a bit as I was tired). We wandered around the town; seeing sites, doing some shopping, and having lunch. I tried a banana milkshake from McDonalds for lunch. It was quite delicious! We then drove onto to Glasgow. I was't impressed with Glasgow asit was very dirty and not as old looking as Edinburgh (not as many historical looking buildings). I wandered around Glasgow with two Canadians and an Aussie. It is nice being able to hang out or walk around with different people and not hang out with the same people the whole time. We made our way back to the hostel for an included dinner.

Yesterday we headed out to catch a ferry to Ireland. Our guide paid for the ferry and then a lady had to come on board and count us. We then had to go through a kind of bus security thing where they took off six suitcases to randomly checked. Thankfully, my suitcase wasn't a selected one. It pays to have been one of the first people to have their luggage ready to go on the bus. There weren't any issues with the bags. We then spent three hours on the ferry before hopping onto the bus for another three hour drive, this time to Dublin. Once we arrivedin Dublin I went walking around with the two Candians from yesterday before heading back for supper and to meet our new tour mates (17 people joined in Dublin yesterday). We then took a walking tour of the city before heading to an Irish pub.

Today we drove to Belfast and had a tour of the city from the bus (a local guide came on board). She provided us with some background on the city as well as the political issues. It was very informative. We then drove onto Giants Causeway. It was another breath-taking site. There have been many breath-taking sites. Ireland is very beautifu.l. Scotland is still my favourite though. Tomorrow we are taking a tour of Londonderry-it should be interesting as it is another divided city. The Internet costs at this hotel too but, I thought I should do a blog to let my mum know all is still well. I only paid for twenty minutes so this blog wasn't edited. I wanted to use the left over minutes to read about the Oslo situation as I haven't had a chance to see or read any news on it-very sad situation.
Here are my shout outs:
Joseph: It is very cool that you are reading my blog. Your nana (is that what you call her-I don't remember) must have given you the address. I am having a great time. England, Scotland are lovely countries!
Myra-Belfast was interesting. Tomorrow we have a tour of the walled city of Londonberry. This is another city with division. I will write about it on my next blog.
Melissa-I only tried a bit of haggis from inside of another girl's chicken. I'd never eat it by itself but, it wasn't horrible.
Denise-You and Terry should definitely travel through the UK. I am not finding the tour too fast (most of the time that is). As I mentionned before I would have liked more time to take photos in the Highlands and on the Isle of Sky but, other than that I haven't felt too rushed.
Nissa-It is Nessie not Nessy. You should check out this website and think about doing a tour with me. You would have a great time on the tour. I am having no problems with the partying aspect (I just don't do it). I didn't even think to think about Pride and Prejudice while reading your comments.
Crystal-I am having a great time. I am doing fine with elevators. There is always a crowd to use them when checking in and out. The other times I just take the stairs unless there is somebody on my floor (or a higher one) heading up when I am going up. The highest floor I have been on is the 5th/6th. The rest of them have being first floor or second (we have been in a few small hotels along with bigger ones).

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