scotland

The day after our bike trip around Killarney, we spent a couple hours on the lakes of Killarney in kayaks. We had a guide take us around, he showed us some really cool caves and islands. It was the lake we had previously just biked around the day before. It was only the two of us, our guide Nathan, and another girl, who works for the company, Bridget. It was stunning, the water was as smooth as glass.

The next day, we hopped on a bus northward to the town of Galway (via Limerick). It was a much more boisterous place, but we avoided the craziness and walked out to the pier. It used to be a port town, but now it has died down. We sat out on a peninsula for a while and just took in the sun and breeze and everything around us. That night we headed to a pub for some music, but we couldn't find any traditional Irish bands, just covers, so we headed to bed after one drink.

The last three days caught up to me that night and I got sick. I could barely move the next day. Erica and I were supposed to go on a full day tour of the Cliffs of Moher, but instead, I made sure she went and I stayed back and slept.

Since we had changed our plans around so much, we were staying one more night in Galway before taking a 3:45am bus to Dublin (to catch a 9am flight to Inverness, Scotland). But our hostel didn't have any room, so we had to move about 6 blocks over to another hostel. I spent my day in limbo, sleeping on the couches of the respective hostels between check-out and check-in times. Since it was a weekend, there was so much cleaning to be done that no one would let me stay longer or go earlier to my bed.

I was all fine and rested up after a full day and half night's worth of sleep. I was WIDE awake on the 3 hour bus ride to Dublin airport that arrived at 6:45am. We flew to Inverness, Scotland, in the Northern Highlands. Erica and I took a bus out to Loch Ness and checked out the ruins of the Urquhart Castle and then toured the lake on a boat. (I have spent way too much of the last 30 hours on moving objects. Buses, boats, trains, and planes... :S) Our guide was someone who has actually worked as part of the Loch Ness Monster Research Team. The general consensus regarding the Loch Ness Monster is that it's a combination of different animals and fish that people have seen and miscontrued it to be something much bigger and intriguing than it is. Most of the time, what people saw were seals.

Today, we got to Edinburgh and we are staying just beside the Edinburgh Castle. We are about to go tour the city and then tomorrow we will be heading down to London. We will have a full day there before Erica takes off on the 18th.