Last 2 Nights in Scotland, First 2 Nights in Ireland
I was going to post this update awhile ago, but then things happened. So. Our second full day in Scotland started out by us taking a bus to the base of Arthur's Seat, which is basically a giant hill that you can climb up to see the whole city of Edinburgh. That was hard work. It was super windy and all up hill. We didn't make it to the top of Arthur's actual seat, but we got pretty far. I think to get up there you had to do some serious climbing and I was having a hard enough time with the up hill slope (which is pathetic because I live on a freaking mountain). The wind was blowing so hard it was blowing little rocks into our faces. We took some really lovely photos of our hair flying in the wind. My natural lion mane seems to only look good once it has been thrown about with 40+ mph winds. It looks majestic and magical the rest of the day.
After Arthur's seat, we walked passed the Edinburgh Palace (where the queen stays while in Edinburgh) and over to Nelson's Monument, which is a big tall Monument by The Shame of Edinburgh, on Calton Hill (with Alice's accent it took me forever to realize that it was not, in fact, Carlton, it's C-ahhhh-l-ton). No idea what Nelson's Monument is for (Alice probably told me but I cannot remember for the life of me) but The Shame of Edinburgh is a bunch of columns, that look like something you'd find in Rome, that were never actually finished. We did not expect to get these things done in the same day, let alone one right after the other, but we managed. It is really strange, when you are looking up at the monuments and the clouds are moving quickly, it looks like the actual monument is moving or is going to fall on you, it was super freaky. From there, we walked down to try to find some food, which took hours. Unfortunately, this meant that Alice learned about my hanger. She had never really dealt with a hangry person before, so that was a new experience for her. Sorry, Alice. We ate at a restaurant (which seemed like a place all the hipsters would go) called The Devil's Advocate. It was good and I had some whiskey-iced tea-lemonade-y thing. It wasn't too bad.
After my hanger was handled, we walked up to the Scottish Whiskey Experience and went on a tour. We went on a barrel ride (slowest ride in the world. You could drop your phone, get out, pick it up, and be back in your barrel before your barrel had moved 2 feet. We were then give cards that were touch and smell, not scratch and sniff, and they gave you an idea of the flavors the came from each region of Scotland: Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside, Islay (pronounced eye-luh). We were all allowed to try one; I picked the Speyside one and Alice chose the Highlands. Mine was better but still not great. We quickly learned that we are not whiskey drinkers (I think they spell whiskey without the E in Scotland. I can't decide which I like better or which looks more right). We got to try our whiskey while standing in a room with the largest private collection of Scottish Whiskey. There were 3884 (I think, I can't remember all that well) bottles that were all collected by the same man, some of the bottles were freaking awesome. Anyway, we got to keep the glass we tried the whisky in, so that was fun.
After that, we headed back to the flat to make ourselves some dinner and then get ready to go out, find a pub, have a pint, and listen to some Scottish music. We (and by we I mean Alice) did some research and found a little pub called Sandy Bell's, which was supposed to have some of the best live Scottish music in all of Scotland. On our walk there, we walked past this super big, super old building that looked like a castle. Turns out, it was a school I want to go to a school that looks like a castle. I mean, wouldn't that just be the coolest thing, ever?? Sandy Bell's was super small and packed. We got there, ordered beers (mine was a Tennent's Ice Cold I think, it was alright, and Alice's was something else that was not very good) and we found a place to sit. Turns out we had ended up sitting where the band was going to play so we had to move. And then when the band finally did start to play, they played one song and then stopped to talk to people. We left before they started playing again. It didn't feel like the friendliest of places, anyway.
The next day, our last full day, I had demanded that we have Nando's, because I needed to have Nando's in Scotland, just like I need to have it while we are here in Ireland, it was one of my must-do things. So we went walking and ended up back (I don't think I mentioned that we went there on our first full day, but we did) at Greyfriars Kirk, a church that is like 700 years old I think (I could be wrong and our wifi sucks, so I'm not going to look). We went in and one of the guys came over and started to talk to us about it and tell us the history of it. It started out as a small church, then there were two churches put next to each other, like super close, then at some point the wall was taken down and it was made into one church. In the graveyard surrounding the church, there is a grave for a man named Tom Riddell. Supposedly, this is where J.K. Rowling had gotten the inspiration for Tom Riddle's name. It's really pretty cool that I have been to some of the same places the J.K. Rowling has been. I think she might live in Edinburgh, too.
Then we went across the street to Nando's, which was fantastic. From Nando's, we went to a Scottish Museum, which was pretty cool. We went up to the rooftop terrace and looked out at the city all around us. After the museum, we wandered around for a bit and ended up going to the Curious Tea Room, which had an Alice and Wonderland (Tim Burton) theme. I had Lemon Gunpowder Green Tea (yuck) and a slice of sticky toffee cake (the buttercream frosting on it was AMAZING) while Alice had Scottish breakfast tea and a slice of lemon and blueberry cake.
We decided to start our wander back to the flat to get ready to go out for dinner and start to pack up all of our things. We stopped in a square and sat for a bit to listen to a guy play the bagpipes. It was nice. In the square, there was a national gallery (where I heard a guy say that the Rembrandt was "utterly phenomenal" and I am going to make that phrase something I say constantly), so we strolled through that for about 30 minutes before it closed (everything closes early over here, I'm not a fan). And then we moseyed our way back to the flat. We decided to go back to Whiski Bar & Restaurant, since we had such a great experience the first time. Alice made me try her haggis, which didn't taste bad but since I knew what I was eating, I couldn't handle it, and I had the chicken again. Sadly, Kyle was not our waiter, but we did manage to get a better picture of him. We each had three pints of Fraoch Heather Ale and by the end of the night, I was pretty drunk. We have video evidence and I don't think anyone should see it. Yikes.
Our last morning in Scotland was spent packing and cleaning. We tried to clean up as much as possible as there were people coming to stay later that evening and we wanted her to have as little to do as possible. We packed up and were out of the flat by 10:45 and ready to catch our 11:03 bus to the airport (which was only £1.50, if you can believe it. Also, Scottish money is weird, they still use pounds but they have Scottish notes that cannot be used in England, but English notes can be used in Scotland. Weird). The bus took close to an hour and then we waited at the airport for another hour before we could check in and check our bags. We got in, Alice got searched instead of me, and had some food. We waited and I decided to try to learn Irish with Duolingo. Irish is a really hard language. I think I would rather learn Scottish Gaelic instead of Irish Gaelic, but I can't find anywhere to learn that, while Irish seems to be available anywhere. I do know how to say "you know" in Scottish Gaelic though -- "ye ken" which is something that I am going to work into my every day language now. Scotland is fantastic and I think we just need to start adding turrets on to buildings willy nilly, that is what they seem to do. It looks amazing, I promise. I also think I forgot to mention just how many strip/lap dance bars were near our Edinburgh flat. There were at least three. It was super strange.
We arrived in Ireland yesterday on a prop plane and instead of taking a bus, I paid for a taxi to get to the flat. Buses make me nervous at home, I can't handle them in a city I've never walked around before. We got here and the flat is not at all what we expected. He did some trick photography because on AirBNB it looks super cute. It is tiny. The door has a pretty crappy handle and the lock is terrible, getting down the stairs to get to this basement flat is hard if there are cars parked up there and even when there aren't, the top step is so small that it would be really easy to fall off it. The bedroom is super small and the bed is really not for two people unless those two people just happen to be snugglers. It takes forever to heat up, the wifi only works in the living room (which is where I'm sleeping on the pull out couch because it was a little weird when we would both be turned toward the center and our faces were only a couple inches apart. We can hear the people upstairs loud and clear, it frequently sounds like there is someone coming into the flat. The bathroom is a wet room, so pretty much you have the door, and then you close that door and you have two curtains, one to block the door and one to block the toilet and you shower in with the sink. The floor never dries and the "extractor" or, as we call it in America, the fan, is so loud that it is hard to concentrate. I am not a fan. The kitchen is kind of a joke, You can barely open the fridge unless you open it so you are behind the door and then you bend over the door to get in it. There is no TV. We just are not happy with it. We really aren't happy with Dublin at all. I don't feel safe here. It feels dirty and I just feel uncomfortable. Everywhere we have been seems like a bad part of town even when we were right in the middle of everything. It's scary when the guidebooks even say that women should not be alone on the streets in the suburbs, which is kind of where we are at. We are not really even close to the main bit, like Temple Bar, like we originally thought. So last night we just found a place to get pizza, went to Tesco for some ice cream and other things, and came back here and watched a movie. We were not in the mood to do anything. I did my laundry last night. It was a nightmare. I had no idea how to use the washer/dryer (they are the same machine) and ended up drying my clothes instead of washing them. When I finally figured out how to wash them and THEN dry them, they were still wet when I woke up. It was a pain.
Today we had a bit of a late start because we just weren't super excited to go out into the world of Ireland. We walked (quite a long way) to the Guinness Storehouse, which was really cool. We took the tour, ate some baileys cheesecake and a Guinness muffin, got a pint (which I had to force Alice to finish, I mean, I'm not a Guinness fan, but you're in Ireland, you gotta finish), and shopped a bit in the store. After the Storehouse, which took several hours, we walked to the Hard Rock of Dublin where my daddy treated us to a meal. I don't think he reads this, but, Thanks, Daddy! and then we went to Tesco and decided to come back here and just have an early night in. Our taxi driver (we took another taxi because walking just makes us uncomfortable) was super nice and told us a bunch of places to go. We got back here and I made Alice watch The Wedding Singer and now here we are. Alice is in bed, I'm going to be sitting here waiting for pictures to upload for who knows how long, and I'm ready for bed.
We booked a tour for tomorrow to Wicklow National Park, so that should be better. Yesterday was national hug your cat day and while I normally hug my cats every day, it still makes me sad that I wasn't able to hug all of mine. We skyped with the Grandmas today. McKenna graduated from high school yesterday. It seems that lots of things are happening, I'm just not home to see them. Ugh.
I miss everyone at home so much it hurts. I am having withdrawals from some of you and it is just not okay. I hope you're all doing well!
Love you!
<3 Jessica.
After Arthur's seat, we walked passed the Edinburgh Palace (where the queen stays while in Edinburgh) and over to Nelson's Monument, which is a big tall Monument by The Shame of Edinburgh, on Calton Hill (with Alice's accent it took me forever to realize that it was not, in fact, Carlton, it's C-ahhhh-l-ton). No idea what Nelson's Monument is for (Alice probably told me but I cannot remember for the life of me) but The Shame of Edinburgh is a bunch of columns, that look like something you'd find in Rome, that were never actually finished. We did not expect to get these things done in the same day, let alone one right after the other, but we managed. It is really strange, when you are looking up at the monuments and the clouds are moving quickly, it looks like the actual monument is moving or is going to fall on you, it was super freaky. From there, we walked down to try to find some food, which took hours. Unfortunately, this meant that Alice learned about my hanger. She had never really dealt with a hangry person before, so that was a new experience for her. Sorry, Alice. We ate at a restaurant (which seemed like a place all the hipsters would go) called The Devil's Advocate. It was good and I had some whiskey-iced tea-lemonade-y thing. It wasn't too bad.
After my hanger was handled, we walked up to the Scottish Whiskey Experience and went on a tour. We went on a barrel ride (slowest ride in the world. You could drop your phone, get out, pick it up, and be back in your barrel before your barrel had moved 2 feet. We were then give cards that were touch and smell, not scratch and sniff, and they gave you an idea of the flavors the came from each region of Scotland: Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside, Islay (pronounced eye-luh). We were all allowed to try one; I picked the Speyside one and Alice chose the Highlands. Mine was better but still not great. We quickly learned that we are not whiskey drinkers (I think they spell whiskey without the E in Scotland. I can't decide which I like better or which looks more right). We got to try our whiskey while standing in a room with the largest private collection of Scottish Whiskey. There were 3884 (I think, I can't remember all that well) bottles that were all collected by the same man, some of the bottles were freaking awesome. Anyway, we got to keep the glass we tried the whisky in, so that was fun.
After that, we headed back to the flat to make ourselves some dinner and then get ready to go out, find a pub, have a pint, and listen to some Scottish music. We (and by we I mean Alice) did some research and found a little pub called Sandy Bell's, which was supposed to have some of the best live Scottish music in all of Scotland. On our walk there, we walked past this super big, super old building that looked like a castle. Turns out, it was a school I want to go to a school that looks like a castle. I mean, wouldn't that just be the coolest thing, ever?? Sandy Bell's was super small and packed. We got there, ordered beers (mine was a Tennent's Ice Cold I think, it was alright, and Alice's was something else that was not very good) and we found a place to sit. Turns out we had ended up sitting where the band was going to play so we had to move. And then when the band finally did start to play, they played one song and then stopped to talk to people. We left before they started playing again. It didn't feel like the friendliest of places, anyway.
The next day, our last full day, I had demanded that we have Nando's, because I needed to have Nando's in Scotland, just like I need to have it while we are here in Ireland, it was one of my must-do things. So we went walking and ended up back (I don't think I mentioned that we went there on our first full day, but we did) at Greyfriars Kirk, a church that is like 700 years old I think (I could be wrong and our wifi sucks, so I'm not going to look). We went in and one of the guys came over and started to talk to us about it and tell us the history of it. It started out as a small church, then there were two churches put next to each other, like super close, then at some point the wall was taken down and it was made into one church. In the graveyard surrounding the church, there is a grave for a man named Tom Riddell. Supposedly, this is where J.K. Rowling had gotten the inspiration for Tom Riddle's name. It's really pretty cool that I have been to some of the same places the J.K. Rowling has been. I think she might live in Edinburgh, too.
Then we went across the street to Nando's, which was fantastic. From Nando's, we went to a Scottish Museum, which was pretty cool. We went up to the rooftop terrace and looked out at the city all around us. After the museum, we wandered around for a bit and ended up going to the Curious Tea Room, which had an Alice and Wonderland (Tim Burton) theme. I had Lemon Gunpowder Green Tea (yuck) and a slice of sticky toffee cake (the buttercream frosting on it was AMAZING) while Alice had Scottish breakfast tea and a slice of lemon and blueberry cake.
We decided to start our wander back to the flat to get ready to go out for dinner and start to pack up all of our things. We stopped in a square and sat for a bit to listen to a guy play the bagpipes. It was nice. In the square, there was a national gallery (where I heard a guy say that the Rembrandt was "utterly phenomenal" and I am going to make that phrase something I say constantly), so we strolled through that for about 30 minutes before it closed (everything closes early over here, I'm not a fan). And then we moseyed our way back to the flat. We decided to go back to Whiski Bar & Restaurant, since we had such a great experience the first time. Alice made me try her haggis, which didn't taste bad but since I knew what I was eating, I couldn't handle it, and I had the chicken again. Sadly, Kyle was not our waiter, but we did manage to get a better picture of him. We each had three pints of Fraoch Heather Ale and by the end of the night, I was pretty drunk. We have video evidence and I don't think anyone should see it. Yikes.
Our last morning in Scotland was spent packing and cleaning. We tried to clean up as much as possible as there were people coming to stay later that evening and we wanted her to have as little to do as possible. We packed up and were out of the flat by 10:45 and ready to catch our 11:03 bus to the airport (which was only £1.50, if you can believe it. Also, Scottish money is weird, they still use pounds but they have Scottish notes that cannot be used in England, but English notes can be used in Scotland. Weird). The bus took close to an hour and then we waited at the airport for another hour before we could check in and check our bags. We got in, Alice got searched instead of me, and had some food. We waited and I decided to try to learn Irish with Duolingo. Irish is a really hard language. I think I would rather learn Scottish Gaelic instead of Irish Gaelic, but I can't find anywhere to learn that, while Irish seems to be available anywhere. I do know how to say "you know" in Scottish Gaelic though -- "ye ken" which is something that I am going to work into my every day language now. Scotland is fantastic and I think we just need to start adding turrets on to buildings willy nilly, that is what they seem to do. It looks amazing, I promise. I also think I forgot to mention just how many strip/lap dance bars were near our Edinburgh flat. There were at least three. It was super strange.
We arrived in Ireland yesterday on a prop plane and instead of taking a bus, I paid for a taxi to get to the flat. Buses make me nervous at home, I can't handle them in a city I've never walked around before. We got here and the flat is not at all what we expected. He did some trick photography because on AirBNB it looks super cute. It is tiny. The door has a pretty crappy handle and the lock is terrible, getting down the stairs to get to this basement flat is hard if there are cars parked up there and even when there aren't, the top step is so small that it would be really easy to fall off it. The bedroom is super small and the bed is really not for two people unless those two people just happen to be snugglers. It takes forever to heat up, the wifi only works in the living room (which is where I'm sleeping on the pull out couch because it was a little weird when we would both be turned toward the center and our faces were only a couple inches apart. We can hear the people upstairs loud and clear, it frequently sounds like there is someone coming into the flat. The bathroom is a wet room, so pretty much you have the door, and then you close that door and you have two curtains, one to block the door and one to block the toilet and you shower in with the sink. The floor never dries and the "extractor" or, as we call it in America, the fan, is so loud that it is hard to concentrate. I am not a fan. The kitchen is kind of a joke, You can barely open the fridge unless you open it so you are behind the door and then you bend over the door to get in it. There is no TV. We just are not happy with it. We really aren't happy with Dublin at all. I don't feel safe here. It feels dirty and I just feel uncomfortable. Everywhere we have been seems like a bad part of town even when we were right in the middle of everything. It's scary when the guidebooks even say that women should not be alone on the streets in the suburbs, which is kind of where we are at. We are not really even close to the main bit, like Temple Bar, like we originally thought. So last night we just found a place to get pizza, went to Tesco for some ice cream and other things, and came back here and watched a movie. We were not in the mood to do anything. I did my laundry last night. It was a nightmare. I had no idea how to use the washer/dryer (they are the same machine) and ended up drying my clothes instead of washing them. When I finally figured out how to wash them and THEN dry them, they were still wet when I woke up. It was a pain.
Today we had a bit of a late start because we just weren't super excited to go out into the world of Ireland. We walked (quite a long way) to the Guinness Storehouse, which was really cool. We took the tour, ate some baileys cheesecake and a Guinness muffin, got a pint (which I had to force Alice to finish, I mean, I'm not a Guinness fan, but you're in Ireland, you gotta finish), and shopped a bit in the store. After the Storehouse, which took several hours, we walked to the Hard Rock of Dublin where my daddy treated us to a meal. I don't think he reads this, but, Thanks, Daddy! and then we went to Tesco and decided to come back here and just have an early night in. Our taxi driver (we took another taxi because walking just makes us uncomfortable) was super nice and told us a bunch of places to go. We got back here and I made Alice watch The Wedding Singer and now here we are. Alice is in bed, I'm going to be sitting here waiting for pictures to upload for who knows how long, and I'm ready for bed.
We booked a tour for tomorrow to Wicklow National Park, so that should be better. Yesterday was national hug your cat day and while I normally hug my cats every day, it still makes me sad that I wasn't able to hug all of mine. We skyped with the Grandmas today. McKenna graduated from high school yesterday. It seems that lots of things are happening, I'm just not home to see them. Ugh.
I miss everyone at home so much it hurts. I am having withdrawals from some of you and it is just not okay. I hope you're all doing well!
Love you!
<3 Jessica.
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