Scotland

Hey everyone!

On Friday afternoon, eight of my American friends and I got on the bus from Galway to the Shannon airport. We had to wait a couple hours until our flight took off, but then we flew into Glasgow, Scotland and had to take a 45-minute train ride into the city. It was pretty much a whole 6 hours of traveling, which is draining. We checked into our hostel, but since there were nine of us, we had to split up into a few groups. Melissa, Meagan and I were in a 4 person room. We never got to meet our roommate because every time we were in the room, she was sleeping or not there. It’s definitely kind of strange to be sleeping in a room with a stranger. Next, we went to a bar for dinner. They had a lot of different food, it was lot like an American bar. I had a barbeque chicken panini. It was pretty good. Then we walked around and tried to find a traditional pub, but Scotland has a lot of techno clubs. There really aren’t a lot of pubs like there are in Ireland, which is kind of upsetting. We ended up just having a drink at the bar we ate at and going to bed.

We woke up and had breakfast at our hostel. They provide cereal and toast for you, which is wonderful… we love free food here! We got on a bus to Edinburgh. It’s only like a 45-minute bus ride. We walked around the city and explored. We actually saw a man in a kilt playing the bagpipes. It was so stereotypical, but it was so cool to see! We went to the Edinburgh castle and got a beautiful view of the city. We weren’t really sure of what else to see in the city, so we wandered around and saw some buildings. I’m going to apologize right now for not knowing the names of the buildings I took pictures of. I was intrigued by the beauty of these buildings and I didn’t know what they were, but I took lots of pictures anyway ☺ We tried to get into a pub to watch the Scotland Rugby game, but obviously, they were all packed, so we took the bus back to Glasgow and went to a small Italian restaurant for dinner. It was a lot of fun. After dinner, we went to the same bar as the night before and then hung out in the bar below our hostel. It was a lot of fun and I really got to know more of the American girls that I’m friends with.

Sunday, Melissa and I woke up and went to mass at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. It was a lot more like mass at home, and we could actually sing and participate. One of the ushers even asked us to bring up the gifts. It was so cool. Afterwards, we walked around and took pictures of the city. We saw the People’s Palace and botanical gardens. Then we found the Cathedral and a medieval cemetery. There were so many old gravestones and it was so beautiful. Then we kept walking through the city and found a man playing bagpipes in the city square, so we got hot chocolate and sat and listened. It was so cool. It started snowing so hard. It was definitely a lot colder in Scotland than it is in Ireland. We checked out of our hostel, and went through the whole traveling experience again and got home at like 10 o’clock last night.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. It’s hard to try to cram so much traveling into one weekend. It’s definitely exhausting and hard with so many people. We try to do things that everyone wants to do and we try to see as many things as possible, for the least amount of money. We usually end up just walking around and exploring, but it’s a great experience anyway. They use pounds in Scotland, so it was even more expensive than Ireland. It was so beautiful and fun though.
I hope everyone had a great weekend! I miss you all so much! It’s hard to believe that I’ve already been here for five weeks. I’ll be home to see you all before you know it! I love you all and keep sending me updates on your lives!

Glasgow pictures link:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254493860/a=157881010_157881010/t_=157881010

Edinburgh pictures link:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254487064/a=157881010_157881010/t_=157881010