Three more countries!!

So, it's been a long few days since I last posted! Picking up where I left off...

On Friday, July 14 Mom and I decided to spend our last day at the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. Other than the Pantheon, these are some of the most ancient bits of the Roman Empire, and some of my favorites. I think Mom enjoyed them too! After a super-hot day in the sun we cleaned up and went out for our last meal in Italy... pasta, of course!! Then we took the evening to pack up so we could get an early start to the airport. Moms flew out early, so we said our goodbyes at 7am (Italy time) and she spent the next 20-hours or so traveling home to Wisconsin (and made it safe!).

I flew out a bit later and arrived to Dublin in the early afternoon. The very first thing that I noticed was how cooooooold it was there! Dublin was 30-degrees colder than Rome! The second thing I noticed was that understanding Irish-English was not as easy as expected (although it gets better fast)! Anyway, I caught the bus (where a random local confessed that he hated Guinness and preferred Miller), found my hotel, and climbed under the down comforter to keep from freezing to death (actually, it was just for a nap!). After waking up I decided to wander around and found the city to be beautiful, the locals to be very friendly, everything to be very pedestrian friendly. I had a sandwich in O'Neills, one of the oldest pubs in the city (300+ years) then went home to bed.

The next day, Sunday, I caught a city bus tour and spent a lazy day hopping off at a few places. I saw St. Stevens Green (an awesome park in the middle of the city), several very cool churches, the shopping district (including a store called "knobs and knockers" and several "TK Maxx'"), Trinity College, and Temple Bar (the bar/restaurant area of the city. After a lot of walking, I went out for a late dinner at a pub and had amazing steak and Guinness pie, then I slept like a baby!

Monday I took a tour of Kilmainham Gaol (jail). It is a pretty important part of Irish history and was very interesting. Did a little more wandering around, had more steak and Guinness pie (YUUM) and a Guinness (eeeeeeew) for dinner, then packed up to head out of town the next morning.

On Tuesday I left Dublin and caught the train up to Coleraine, on the NE coast of Northern Ireland. I was met at the station by one of my very best friends from high school whom I haven't seen in about 14-years!! Marianne and her daughters were staying in Coleraine for a few days so I joined them. Tuesday night we walked along the Giants Causeway which is an incredible natural wonder! Once the girls went to bed we had some wine and caught up on life.

On Wednesday we drove down to Belfast. We took a cool bus tour where I learner that I really need to brush up on Irish history! Did you know that Belfast still has and uses "peace walls" to keep the protistant and catholics separated?!! After dinner Marianne took me out to a few Irish bars which were very fun and exactly what I envisioned!

Yesterday, Thursday, we went to the Titanic museum. The Titanic was built in Belfast. I was amused that they said that the ship was in perfect condition when they gave it to the English captain, so the sinking wasn't their fault! In the afternoon we hopped on a ferry and headed to Scotland. It was a few hours drive to Edinburgh, where Marianne and her family live, so I got to see some of the beautiful Scottish country. It has been a very rainy summer here for them, but hopefully the weather clears up for the next few days so we can enjoy our time together!