Scotland. Or Anywhere. It doesn't really matter.

Almost a year ago exactly, I was standing in a pub in Wrigleyville, Chicago spending the week of St. Paddy’s Day with Brian, Tom, Dave and Greg. Naturally, as happens when you are traveling, we began discussing our next trip. That conversation morphed into a discussion about where we would spend St. Paddy’s Day next year. Naturally, the idea of spending the day in Ireland was thrown out and with raised eyebrows we discussed how possible that actually was.

“We’re doing it. That’s it. No matter what, we’re going to Ireland next year,” Brian says, suddenly. And I agree. Who knew it would actually happen.

After I decided to retire at the end of 2009, it was pretty easy to decide where I would call home first. Ireland was an easy choice. The visa requirements for Ireland are much easier than for other countries in Europe. I had been to the island before, knew I loved it and knew I needed to live there for a bit to see if it was just a dream I’ve built up over the past couple of years, or whether this really was a place I could call forever home.

Though three of the five ditched (thanks guys), Brian came through (surprise, surprise) and I was also able to convince one of my besties from college, Emily, to come along as well as Diana of www.dtravelsround.com. Emily and Diana were meeting us in Dublin a couple of days later, but Brian decided to fly in a bit early into Glasgow, Scotland so we could visit our beloved roadtrip friend, Mark, who lives in Glasgow and who you might remember from the epic journey Brian, Dan, Mark and I took from LA to Canada in a weekend.

I flew from Belfast to Prestwick and took the train up to Glasgow to meet with Brian, who was flying in from Los Angeles, and whom I hadn’t seen in almost 6 months – which in my books is a hell of a long time for one of your best friends. The poor kid was quite a wreck when I met him. He hadn’t slept at all on the flight over and looked like he might die. We grabbed some beers and grub at a restaurant downtown while we waited for Mark to get off work.

The rest of our trip was pretty much amazing. We saw a little of Glasgow on the day of our arrival and then Mark drove us to Edinburgh the following day. We spent the whole afternoon talking, walking and taking in the beautiful city.

We had an absolutely incredible dinner at one of Mark’s friend’s restaurants in Glasgow with Mark and his girlfriend Nicola (who is absolutely amazing). Mark’s friend and his dad (who is an Italian immigrant) have an amazing Italian restaurant in Glasgow and they gave us the royal treatment. We had so much food, we were bursting and the conversation was so entertaining as we heard stories of Mark when he was growing up and got loads of stories about living in Italy.

This trip was less about seeing Scotland as it was about being with friends and it was a perfect change of scenery for me as I haven’t seen a familiar face in a long time. Though this trip could have taken place anywhere in the world and it wouldn’t have changed much, spending time with these cool cats was something I was really looking forward to. I still think back to the time when I met Dan and Mark, at a bar in Santa Monica via Couchsurfing and how, even though I’ve only spent two short weekends with Mark in my whole life, I still feel like he is a really close friend. It’s crazy how this twisted little world works. But I love it.

Thanks for an amazing time, Mark. Love you to bits.

Cold was invented here

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

After we arrived in Edinburgh, we spent a lot of time walking around and getting our bearings in the new town. We ended up at a cute little restaurant on Rose Street where we met a nice old man who showed us exactly where to go for some good authentic Lothian food. After having a nice meal (cranberry and brie stuffed bread... yum) we went to a local pub which had no name on the corner of York Place (which was the street our cute little hotel was on).

After a good nights sleep we went on a day full of running around. We started at Edinburgh castle which was so interesting. We did an audio tour so we could really learn about the history of the place. The things I remember the most about it were the dog cemitary (which was soooo cute) and the part about the Hanoverian horses. The castle itself was HUGE and we kept getting lost. We even got the chance to go into this really neat tower that was destroyed in some war in the 1500's but it has since been excavated and the rooms are still in tact. It's incredible to think that people actually lived here at some point. Of course, it was drizzling the whole time we were there, so it was a little chilly, but definitely a good experience.

After that we went to this all boys school called George Hariot's School. It's an active school so you can't actually go inside, but the buildings are incredible. After this, we walked back to little internet cafe called the Elephant Room which is the cafe where J K Rowling wrote the first edition of the first Harry Potter. It was a cute little cafe and they had great tea.

Afterward, we went to the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the accompanying park which was my favorite part. The Palace is the place where the Queen goes to stay whenever she is visiting Scotland. The front gate was so beautiful and the palace itself was lie something out of your imagination. There were also some cute old houses in the park that you know had been there forever. We took a cute old cab back to the train station (it looked like a PT cruiser but older and way cooler - and it had fold down seats; 5 people could sit in the back seat facing each other). From here, we took a train to Leuchars where St Andrew's golf course is (the course where the British Open Gold Tournament is and the place where golf was invented). It was beautiful. The golf course was SOOO cold but it was really cool. We found the place where Van Der Velde shot the ball into the water on the 18th and ended up climbing in to shoot it out and blew his shot at the British open championship title. It was really interesting. Strange though because we got to just walk right out on the course. There were no boundaries or fences, it was just a public course, right off the road.

After we got back to Edinburgh, which took about an hour, we went to a really neat little restaurant in Old Town called Doric. It was a really cool little pub right off the main street. You could see the Ferris wheel, Sir Walter Scott's monument and the ice skating rink in the Loch from the front door. The food was also fantastic. We had a conversation inside about how we had always heard that Scottish, and all British food for that matter, left something to be desired, but this food was amazing. We had fish and chips where the breading on the fish literally melted in your mouth. The fish fell apart on your fork as you were trying to pick it up. After dinner we had this amazing desert with poached pear, in a raspberry sauce with clementine and starfruit slices on a scoop of vanilla cinnamon ice cream from the local dairy. Needless to say, mom had to command me and Andrea to not lick the plate because it was so good, and believe me... we wanted to.

Afterward, we headed back to the corner pub for one last local brew before heading to bed. Tomorrow, the train takes us back to London. I guess I'll give it a second chance!

XOXO

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Neeps and Tatties

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Finally in Edinburgh. It is amazing here. The train ride was really eventful. We had a little book that told us things to look at while we were riding. Unfortunately, we missed every single one of them. I'm not realyl sure how because I felt like we were looking really hard but we just flew by them I guess. The country was beautiful. There were so many sheep and huge cottage farm houses. The land was so green and there were hedges that divided the pastures. IT made me understand why steeplechasing is an event. If you had been riding in this country, it would be extremely easy to jump over hedges, stone walls, gates and wells.

As we got further north, ice started to cover the ground. The cute little white sheet started to blend into the background except every once and a while, there'd be a black sheep. The black sheep were so cute Cheesy Grin. We finally got to Edinburgh after about 3.5 hours and checked into our hotel which is a really neat old house that hs been converted into a hotel. Our room is called a "family room" which is basically a huge old bedroom with 3 beds in it. The bathroom is VERY nice though. We walked down the main street in "New Town" to look at a couple little churches and statues and to be able to see the castle and the beautiful architecture of "old town." We met a really nice old man outside of the pub we ended up eating a late lunch at and he told us about the history of old town and new town. After talking to him, I think we're all really excited to be able to head to Old Town tomorrow. At the pub, me and mom split a wonderful brie and cranberry stuffed bread. Their "chips" were also very tasty.

I think the plan is to take it pretty easy tonight considering that we have been travelling all day and then do some SERIOUS exploring tomorrow. The castle looks amazing from accross the Loch, I can't imagine what it looks like up close!!

XOXO

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