I am old and stingy.

How about this last week and a half of not blogging? I have proven quite the failure at travel blogging, so I am mentally scratching that off my list of career possibilities...as if it ever were on it.

Anyway, so now I have to summarize everything that has happened since I left Northern Ireland with my parents! Bullet points? Nice cop out, and I think I'm going to take it!

Actually, also separating sections would make my life easier.

FRANCE
- Orleans to visit my mom's former supervisor, Andree
- Versailles
- The usual tourist-y places: Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Invalides, Champs-Elysees, Arc of Trumph, Montmartre, Sacre-Coeur
- Visiting Andree's sorta-love interest's (Andree is almost 70, Jean is 85 - how cute is that?!) daughter, Chantel, who is a professional singer and music professor living in Montmartre.

France is...expensive, especially if included in your traveling party is someone who is particularly picky about food. It was ridiculously difficult to find a decently-priced restaurant the entire time in Paris, which meant that we had to either brace ourselves for the bill and just pay for it or pay the bill and try to forget that you did.

And yes, we did end up at McDonald's a few times. Hey, it's relatively cheap and fast. They do their job well, excepting the notion of serving good and healthy food.

The Louvre was closed on May Day! I was so so so dumb to think that of all places that wouldn't be closed on a FRIDAY was the Louvre, perhaps one of the most popular tourist attrations in the world. Everything else was also closed, which brought the tourists outside in droves. The Louvre courtyard was brimming with people, the street of Champs-Elysees was a powerful stream of humans going all directions simultaneously, every restaurant was about to burst open with all the people.

And although it was pretty awesome to hear all sorts of languages mixing together in one place, I was so ready to go to an English-speaking country again by that day. I'm not hating on foreign languages, mind you. It's the obvious frustration in both parties that makes communication difficult and discouraging.

But I don't actually feel compelled to go learn another language (and have it stick) despite these experiences. Oh well. That's just me.


SCOTLAND - Highlands Experience
GAH! Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!

- Fort William
- Isle of Skye
- Urqhuart Castle
- Loch Ness
- Other such and such lochs without monsters
- Millions of streams and waterfalls
- Beautiful scenery after beautiful scenery.

And I ran along Loch Ness!

I saw a dead deer - broken neck trying to get to the young trees.

I stopped caring whether I got wet!

I have too many pictures to filter through for posting!

I'll stop this madness now and just talk about Fairy Glen. I FOUND NEVERLAND. I did. I totally did. I now know where to go if I ever want to visit Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. It really is called Fairy Glen, friends. I thought I wouldn't be one of those who bought into those stories, but seriously, it's Neverland, hands down.

I love the mountains of Scotland. My dad said they weren't as majestic as Yosemite, but there's something different about the Highlands that appeals to me. There's a mystical, thriving oldness that makes them come alive with stories of fairies and enchantment. As we passed by all of them in bus, the [very few] fantasy novels I'd read in the past raced through the glens and pranced down the hills. And I don't care if LOTR was shot in New Zealand. This was the road to Mordor.


SCOTLAND - Edinburgh
- Edinburgh Castle
- John Knox House
- Holyrood Park
- Arthur's Seat
- St. Anthony's Chapel

I loved the streets, can I be mundane and just say that? So pretty and medieval. I definitely got the royal procession shown in "Sleeping Beauty" stuck in my head as I walked up the winding inclined road to the castle. "Hail to the King! / Hail to the Queen! / Hail to the Princess Aurora!"

Okay. Arthur's Seat is a 30-40-minute hike up to the tallest hill in Holyrood Park, for future reference. It is not a good idea to venture up in wind AND rain, as the entire top part of it, where Arthur's Seat is located is rock. Rock that gets very slippery when wet. And wind that threatens to blow you down the slippery rocks is not that great. We didn't make it right next to the stone of Excalibur as that would have been extremely dangerous, but we made it! And the view of Edinburgh was gorgeous! Stops at St. Anthony's Chapel and the swan pond on the way down were nice bonuses, might I add.


Scotland - Glasgow
- University of Glasgow
- Kelvingrove Museum
- Shopping!

Just a regular day trip to Glasgow.

The back story to this is that I made a huge mistake and thought my parents were leaving for America on May 6th, so I had booked all the flights and hotels around that.

Wrong-o!

They left yesterday, May 7th. So I ended up canceling our flights back to Dublin (aka just missing the flight and paying for it) and the reservation at Clarion Hotel on May 6th. I then had to re-book flights from Edinburgh to Ireland (DUB and BFS) for May 7th. Also had to find another place for accommodation for three nights instead of two in Edinburgh.

But that was all figured out, and we lost a bit of money, but oh well. We had a great time in Glasgow, and I'm glad they got to see it!



Back in Edinburgh, it was way too windy, so I just hopped onto the bus to get to the airport really early! As in...I was #6 to check in. Haha. I mean, I would have loved to explore more of Edinburgh, albeit with my suitcase and heavy purse, but the wind came from all directions, sweeping my hair this way and that, and blowing random things in my eyes, so I gave up.

It's really windy here in Northern Ireland as well. Phooey. Had looked forward to a good run in Edinburgh, but this sickness doesn't recommend it. Yes, I have a cough. No, I don't have the swine flu. It's really just a common cold stemming from stupid bacteria that made its way into my system.


This is boring - my apologies. But I needed to do this for my own records and the sake of reflection! I'm looking foward to having a break from traveling. I know a week and a half isn't all that long, but I'm old, I suppose. Another two-week trip awaits next Saturday, so I think I do indeed need some rest.

Though, what awaits me are forms and applications. I need to get all the financial aid (essential for getting my diploma apparently) and the graduate school application finished in this next week so that I can be stress-free during my travels.

Baaaah. Time and life never stop, do they?