Scotland Day 9-10: Edinburgh

From Ireland to Scotland... We begin our tour of Edinburgh catching the bus from our friend's place in a town outside the city.  First things first, we stop for coffee and then are off to see the castle.  

Edinburgh is quite an amazing city, being that it has been built up upon for centuries. So although I felt as if I was on top of a hill, I came to realize that it is just buildings on top of buildings that have caused the city to seem so much higher.  All the streets are connected through numerous closes, which can take you all the way from the top level to the bottom.  So very cool!

 The castle was absolutely amazing!  It was great in size with many cool things to see inside.  We made it inside the castle walls just in time to see (and hear) the gun go off at 1pm.  We learned that the gun goes off everyday at this time, except Christmas, Good Friday and sundays.  Originally it was to let the people of city know when to set their watches and as ship signal in the harbor.

 Pepe stumbled across the statue of Earl Haig and had to get a picture with his buddy.

 Here is a picture of the Scottish National War Memorial.  Take a good look at the flowers.  They were planted because the Queen was just there to celebrate 100 years since WWI.  Our guide mentioned that in not too long, they will be taken out and replaced with green shrubs again.

 Walking through town, we passed St. Gile's Cathedral.  

 We stopped for a pint at The Bow Bar.  I enjoyed a brew by the name of Why Kick a Moo Cow, which I picked entirely for the name and ultimately had my first taste of non-cold beer.  The beer was good, but the fact that it was warm was interesting to say the least. The bartender took a liking to Pepe and asked if he would like a front row seat up on the bar.  Pepe happily obliged.

 We then continued down the Royal Mile to my good friend Jennifer's shop... Upon opening the doors, I was immediately overcome with the most wonderful smell I had ever smelled, fresh shortbread!! Her shop was super cute with various types of shortbread including cinnamon and sugar, poppyseed, orange chocolate dipped and just good ole plain. My favorites had to be the plain and the cinnamon and sugar.  She also had truffle balls which were utterly fantastic!! I must say that if any of you ever make it to Edinburgh, you MUST get to Pinnies and Poppyseeds, you will not be disappointed.

 Not far from her shop we found Rabbie Burns Bar... Robert Burns was a lyricist and poet and is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language. He is often regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement and became an inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism.  Not only that, but he is also a member of my family, well, way back when.  Always fun to find some family history tucked into a wonderful city.

 After walking up and down the Royal Mile all day, we met back up with Jen and John and went out for a pint. We enjoyed a flight of beers at the Brewdog Bar, interestingly enough it is partnered with Stone Brewing Company out of San Diego.  We had an amazing dinner at Devil's Advocate and spent the entire evening enjoying the company of our friends.  Jen and John most definitely had to pose for a picture with Pepe before the night was over.

Ireland Day 7-8: Dublin to Belfast to Ballycastle

This morning came in a bit of a haze from yesterdays events.  We grabbed breakfast with our crew and said our goodbyes… at least for a couple days.  We will see them again when we get to London.  Ray and I putted around Dublin at little bit more before making our way to the train station.  

Off to Belfast we go!  The train ride was very pretty! Passing numerous cute villages, super green pastures and pockets of water.  Interestingly enough, the 2 of us didn't even realize (or I was just too busy trying to update the blog since I am so very behind) when we had crossed into Northern Ireland until we saw a sign. 

Once in Belfast, we hopped in another rental car and made our way to Ballycastle.  We stopped at a restaurant along the way to grab dinner, thinking The Big House was going to be a tiny roadside shack.  Wrong! It was actually a somewhat big place and the food was big with flavor.  We made it to our B&B with just enough time to have a chat with the owner and get some sleep.  We left the next morning to check off the rope bridge "Carrick-a-Rede" and the Giant's Causeway off our list.  The rope bridge was definitely a sight to see.  First, we had to hike up a bit to get to the bridge, cross over the little rickety walkway to a really cool island that used to be a big place for salmon fishermen to get their catch of the day.  
Apparently, that is the reason the bridge is there in the first place to allow them access to the island.  Also, apparently there used to only be one "railing" to hold onto in order to cross.  These days it is relatively sturdy with ropes on either side.  I found the bridge to be quite captivating and exhilarating to cross.  It somewhat blew side to side in the wind and was slightly bouncy, all the more making it fun to cross.  Other people, had a hard time getting across and became quite scared, requiring encouragement in order to finish the cross.  Come to find out that no one has ever fallen off the bridge, but they have had people need to be brought back by a boat since they could fair the bridge again in order to get back.

 

I could have spent more time on the bridge, but there seemed to be more pressing things going on around us... Unbeknownst to us, there was a tv show being filmed right before our eyes, starring a very famous cricketeer, Freddie Flintoff.  In order to get to the bridge, I passed right by this guy, essentially cutting him off so I could have my turn to cross.  I then realize the film crew on the other side and watch as they film a short segment with Freddie and his tree hugger buddy Robert cross over the bridge behind me.  Freddie was one of the guys who didn't seem so keen on crossing the bridge or at least that's what his character portrayed.  Upon reaching the island, I walk towards the edge of the cliff to snap a good ol' selfie... Look behind me... That is Ray chatting it up with Robert, Freddie's buddy.  Talk about perfect timing!

  
I climb myself up to where they are standing, just in time to meet the star.  Which at this point, still no idea who he is. The guys are super cool and are more than happy to pose for a picture with Pepe.  Hopefully Pepe will make a guest appearance on their show.

 

  

Here's there traveling fish n chips van...

  And of course Pepe found a friend along the road.
Back in the car to the Giant's Causeway in County Antrim.  We initially walk in to a huge visitor centre with a gift shop and loads of information about the causeway.  From the story behind Finn MacCool the giant, which I think Ray talks about to (if one believes) how it was formed by ancient volcanic eruption patterning.  We grab our audio guides and hit the trail.  Walking down the hill, we come to Cow's Bay known to be home of Humphrey, Finn's camel that he used as his mode of transportation (being that he was too big for a horse right?).  Pepe reached his neck out as far as he could, but being that he is just a little guy, he couldn't quite reach Humphrey.  If you look closely at the rock formation above his head, you'll see Mr. H laying down with his head stretched out.

We continued down the path and saw Finn's
Chimney Stacks. His place must have been way
off in the distance...

And then we make it to the famous Giant's Causeway... What a sight!! Thousands of hexagonal basalt pillars and rocks jutting out of the ground before our eyes.  We spent quite some time wandering around, climbing up and down the rocks, steps, and hill-like formations.  I must admit it was a wee bit windy out there, not to mention the huge waves crashing nearby. 

We even found a heart fit for a giant...

For anyone who is a Game of Thrones fan, we tried to adventure to the Dark Hedges.  Using our trusty travel book, map and GPS, we drove down somewhere around Ballymoney right to where it was pinpointed on the map... Unfortunately, we did not see it.  You'll have google it in order to see what we missed out on.  We didn't have much time to dedicate to finding it since we had to make it back to the airport to catch our flight.  Off to Edinburgh and a chance to catch up with friends.  

Ireland Day 6- The black pool turned blue and white for a day

WE ARE!! 

Today is the day, the day which planted us in the land of the Irish to begin with.  The day Ray has been looking forward to (probably the most) and the day where some of our crew get to witness an American football match firsthand.  Of course Ray’s inner alarm clock gets him up and moving before anyone else… I think I overheard the PSU fight song chiming from the halls of the apartment.  We all hurry up and put on our blue and white… minus one who forgot his shirt and will remain unmentioned (but I bet you can tell who it is from the pictures).  We grab breakfast as we make our way back to Temple Bar.  When packing for the trip, I came across Ray’s blue and white striped overalls placed nicely atop the rest of his luggage.  I thought he was crazy for bringing them and attempted to convince him not to… Little did I know at that time, these overalls gave Ray special powers.  They make him famous!! Everyone wanted to take a picture with him.  And ironically, he was not the only one…

The walk to Croke Park was anything but short; however, it gave us a chance to tour another part of the city that we hadn't been through yet.  It also probably didn't help that we bounced in and out of pubs along the way making our trek even longer.  The stadium was pretty cool!  

Penn State wore their away whites and UCF their home gold (even though from afar it was somewhat hard to tell the difference).    Pepe, of course, had on his blue and white ribbon to show his support.

Although a good portion of the game was spent explaining the rules of the game to some of our crew, I didn't mind one bit.  I enjoyed when they actually started to understand what was going on (or at least told me they did)…

At the end of the game, Ed had to make good on his promise to get Pepe on the field, with a cheerleader or even the “Lion”.  Mirko, Ed and I made our way through the crowd down to the field level, just in time for the entire team and cheerleaders to leave our spot to go to the other side of the field.  I figured in time they would come back to our side… We made friends with the security guards and asked them to bring over the cheerleaders or players if they could.  A few minutes later, over came a couple of players.  

As two of us were snapping photos, Mirko commanded the attention of a fellow in a suit walking by on the field, saying “You get Lion!” I looked over and noticed a lanyard and name tag hanging around the man’s neck.  I figured he was someone official, but didn't realize who he was until a guy next to me said he’s the new president of Penn State.  Wait, what? Mirko just asked, well kinda just told the President of Penn State to go get the Lion, unknowing that he was the president.  He also got offended when the president asked if he was from Russia… As we had learned earlier, Mirko is from Slovokia (“like slug”) not Russia.  After all that, unfortunately, Pepe did not get a picture with the Nittany Lion.  We figured if the president could not secure a spot with the Lion, then we were SOL.  But we did manage a few with some cheerleaders…

Ironically, we ran into the same cheerleader outside waiting for the buses and snagged one more picture.

Politics, Pints & Poppyseeds

So here we are, flying from Edinburgh to London.  It’s been three (I think??!) days since I last posted and there’s been some interesting stuff happening, so this could be a long one. Bear with me.   

We made it to Belfast on the train from Dublin, we promptly got a car from the airport and then drove north to the Antrim Coast.  We stopped at a little restaurant in Ballymena, The Big House.  It had tasty food, but the name left a little to be desired since we just left a Penn State victory two days prior.  

We made it to our B&B in Ballycastle on the northern coast of Ireland around 9 PM.  Just in time for our host to open the door, show us our room and hit the hay. Still recovering from the debauchery that was our stay in Dublin.  We woke to another fantastic breakfast.  You know, this is something that I could really get used to, stay at a place and in the morning they serve you a great sit down breakfast as part of your stay.  I’ll take it!

So, first things first, Northern Ireland feels a bit like southern Ireland, but with a distinctive British flavo(u)r to it.  Red phone booths, red mail boxes, and across the street an “Integrated Primary School”.  So we asked our host what that meant.  Well, here’s where things started to get a little interesting for us from a political stand point.  An Integrated school means that both Catholic (Irish) and Protestant (English) children go to school in the same building.  Something that happened in the 1960’s between white and black Americans was happening right across the road from us in Northern Ireland.  It was quite interesting to hear our host describe what was happening, and his thoughts on it.  He was obviously Protestant (British) because he let a couple little things slip showing his colors, referring to the “ballywho” that the Catholics cause, etc.  It was really fascinating to hear something that is so foreign to us, causing such a stir in these towns. I mean in the US, we’re pretty open to any religion, let alone religious persecution, at least in the current day in age. 

Enough politics, off to be tourists… We headed to town to mail back some trinkets and things that we no longer needed with us.  My stripped overalls, a sweatshirt, and some tour books etc.  Ahhh…. The currency exchange rears it’s ugly head…. Any thoughts on how much it cost us to mail some stuff back from Ballycastle, Northern Ireland to Palos Verdes Estates, California?  Leave your guesses in the comments… I’ll let you know when we’ve seen sufficient guesses…

Continuing on… we wanted to go and walk the Carrick-a-Rede.  It was pretty fun, about a ½ mile walk to the bridge.  We got there to find a film crew filming something at the bridge.  So we crossed and watched these two guys cross the bridge while the crew was filming.  We walked out and looked at the view, Amazing!

In the meantime, one of the guys walked over near us so I decided to ask him what they were filming.  I guess it’s some show for Sky Sports where they travel around Britain in a Fish and Chips van.  So, while I’m talking to him, Sarah walks up and his partner walks over and we just start talking about our trip, and their trip.  We go to take a picture with them and turn around to see the crew filming.  The assistant producer comes over and asks us to sign a waiver, and we’re talking to her about the show.  Turns out we were talking to Freddie Flintoff, one of the most famous Cricketers ever.  And he’s the one touring all over the place.  Who knew?  So, all our followers in the UK will have to let us know if you see us on “Flintoff’s Fishshack” come the new year.  Check out Sarah's next post for pictures of them together.  

On the road again…. To Giant’s Causeway.  What an amazing site!  You walk down the hill and you round the corner to this windy shore line that is just crazy looking.  8-10ft waves were crashing over the rocks, and the causeway itself looks a bit like a ruptured tile floor, or a super-sized one of those pin toys that you pressed your face into to leave an impression as a kid.  Just unbelievable, so stand there and look out over the ocean and see the islands out there, while standing on the very unique place in the world.  It’s a little hard to describe in words. 

The story is that Finn McCool (the Irish Giant) and the Scottish giant were going to fight, so Finn was going to sneak up on him.  He built the causeway to sneak up on the Scottish Giant.  When he did, he peered over the mountain to see how large the Scottish Giant was and got scared for the fight and ran home.  The Scottish giant saw the causeway and came over to Ireland for the fight.  Finn and his wife decided that Finn would dress up as their newborn baby.  When the Scot came barging into their house looking for the fight, Finn’s wife told him that Finn was out on working the farm, but he was welcome to come in and see their newborn.  The Scottish giant saw the size of Finn, thought he was the newborn and then became so frightened of the size of Finn that he ran all the way back to Scotland on the causeway, destroying it as he went.  You can believe that, or that it’s remnants of volcanic activity that created the Irish isles, choice is yours, I know what I think ;).

Driving around the country side in Northern Ireland is beautiful.  It’s quite amazing that it’s the same island, as it’s pretty different.  But, we get back to Belfast, fill up the rental car with gas.  All of you in the States can stop complaining about the price of gas.  Just stop!!!  It was 1.31 GBP per Liter.  Or 4 liters per gallon * 2$ per 1 GBP = $10.48/Gallon.  Fill your Hummers with that.

Anyway, we jumped on the plane and headed to Scotland.  It was prop plane and took about 30 minutes.  So we landed and we were lucky enough to have some friends come pick us up and take us to their house.  It was awesome to see some friends and catch up with them.  One of my personal favorites is the home cooked meal that we had.  After a week on the road, a home cooked meal tasted fantastic and catching up with friends in their home was awesome. 

From there, we woke up in the morning and caught the bus to the city.  It was really fun to catch the bus with the commuters.  We got into the city and walked up the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh castle.  What a crazy place.  First of all it’s a beautiful castle overlooking the city  It’s been there forever and it has quite an intricate history.  They fired off the 1 o’clock gun, that let’s everyone in town set their watches.   

And we took a tour learning about all the ins and outs of the castle.  Then we saw the crown jewels and learned their history. And then the Scottish war memorial. What a truly fascinating place.  Then we went out onto the Royal Mile and walked around in all the touristy shops.  Why the Royal Mile?  Well, the castle is at one end, and the Royal Palace and Parliament are at the other.  And it’s near a mile long, the Scots sure are clever with their naming.  PS - There are plenty of unicorns everywhere, you're right Croney!!

We spent most of the afternoon looking for the tartan or plaid that represented some of Sarah’s family.  The Burns Check it’s called, and it’s technically not a tartan.  And it’s not a very popular pattern either.  We found it very few and far between shops.  

Then we went to meet up with Jen at her shortbread shop, Pinnies & Poppyseeds, right off the Royal Mile.  The shortbread is amazing so if you find yourself in Edinburgh, make sure to stop in.  She closed up and we went to get drinks like the locals do.  

Walking through town, we started to notice all these Scottish flags with “YES” written on them. 

Well, here’s our second political lesson.  There is a Scottish Referendum coming up for vote in the middle of Sept for Scottish Independence.  They are voting to become a free and independent country for the first time in almost 700 years.  The country is split, apparently fairly evenly.  So this should be really interesting.  It could potentially turn into something similar to Northern Ireland, where some are loyal to the British, and some support the independent state.  Really an interesting time to be there, with lots of talk about this whole thing. 

The city itself is pretty crazy.  So they never tore down old parts of the city, they simply built on top of it, for centuries.  And I kept finding myself looking in amazement at these buildings that you see on the front side are only 2 stories, but the back side are almost 8 stories high.  So, when you walk down the royal mile, you are on top of about 6-8 stories of buildings.  You go through this little hallway, called a close and you come out to these stairways that lead you through all these older buildings.  It’s kind of crazy to look at from a distance. Just massive bridges going into this stack of buildings on top of each other.  

From the Front:

 From the Back:

We then said goodbye to our friends, and set off to a new place.  London, the biggest metropolis on our journey.  Already had some great Lebanese food for dinner.  Can’t wait to get into the office in London tomorrow and have some semblance of normalcy.  It will be great to see our friends from Dublin again, and to finally meet a lot of people that I have only known through email.