Hello Again, internet.

It’s been quite some time since I checked in here, and even longer since I put up a travel post. So, in brief: I am finally out of my residency and in the midst of a job search. More posts on that when I have something worth reporting. In the meantime, I am going to focus on finishing up the Scotland Posts, and enjoying time with the new ladyfriend. Free of my residency at last, everything is coming up milhouse!

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Years and Years of books and films about Scotland have taught me one thing; namely, no trip to Scotland is complete without a visit to the highlands, for in the end, there can be only one

 

so off Brian and I set for the home of William Wallace and the highlanders, with a brief stop along the way to visit one of the most well known residents of the highlands

Hamish, the Hairy Coo, the most photographed animal in all of Scotland

Friendly. Powerful. Dopey. These are all descriptions that immediately leap to mind at the site of these gentle, goofy beasts

Hamish is a single dad, with his two calves, Hamish Jr and I forget.

A couple veggies are all it takes to get their undivided attention

But we had to bid a fond farewell to Hamish and his fold as we set off for the deep highlands, where along the way we hoped to catch a glimpse of the Hogwarts express coming back from summer break

Sadly, either the express was not running, or the train was not visible to our muggle eyes

The highlands are covered in bogs, peath and heather. They are Magnificent, marvelous…

And incredibly, freaking cold. These mountains create hardy folk, and being a bit of a mountain person myself, I can vouch that you do not want to mess with anyone who grew up in these hills

On rainy days, this river turns into a raging torrent that weeps for the slaughter carried out on the highlanders by the british king Longshanks

however, even the greatest sorrow must eventually heal, and even the worst weather will pass

and without rain, there would be no rainbows

As the fog lifted briefly, we journey deeper into the highlands and deeper into mystery, to begin our search for one of the most infamous lost legends still around

The waters of the local lochs began to darken, obscuring what may lie beneath. This region is no place to go unprotected

so we paid homage to the fighting men of the green berets

They trained in the highlands, some of the harshest conditions imaginable to survive in

hope and blessings restored we continued on to the little town of Ness

locks at the loch enable ferries, and perhaps other things to travel uphill and upriver

The sun briefly came out, but the fog quickly rolled back in. A mysterious and enchanted place this was

The townsfolk pay tribute to their patron

The black waters of Loch Ness are 21.8 square miles across and 230m (755 ft) deep, deeper than the height of London’s BT tower

It contains more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined and the low visibility of the water is due to the high peat content

seriously. freezing.

Scanning every inch from bow to stern, looking deep within the murkey waters, our eyes strained for a glimpse of the fabled monster

 

The earliest report of a monster associated with the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán, written in the 7th century.According to Adomnán, writing about a century after the events he described, the Irish monk Saint Columba was staying in the land of the Picts with his companions when he came across the locals burying a man by the River Ness. They explained that the man had been swimming the river when he was attacked by a “water beast” that had mauled him and dragged him under. They tried to rescue him in a boat, but were able only to drag up his corpse. Hearing this, Columba stunned the Picts by sending his follower Luigne moccu Min to swim across the river. The beast came after him, but Columba made the sign of the cross and commanded: “Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once

A brief glimpse of the monster confirmed its existence, and though we gave chase, it slipped away in the storm. So Brian and I had no choice but to turn back, wondering if any would believe our tale. It mattered not however; we knew the truth. So we climbed back on our bus and returned to Edinburgh from the highlands

and watched as the sun set on another adventure filled day.

Day one in Scotland, and Brian and I decided to start the morning off with a wee dram of whisky.

Then we took a look at the volcano we were planning to climb, and had another. 

Okay, we definitely had about 4-5 drams of whisky before beginning our hike, but hey, vacation, right?

Situated right in the center of Edinburgh, the views offered throughout the hike were amazing

The climb kept getting steeper and more gravelly, but finally the end was in site

Graceful as always, I levitated my way down

Fee fi fo fum

A entire city surrounding an extinct volcano, and more nature and countryside surrouning that. The city is like an urban donut!

At last! On top of Arthur’s Seat

Love Rocks

So you know I wuz here

Watch for those falling rocks on the way back!

An exploration of Edinburgh proper next post

Quite a long break in between posts (oh no you moan, as you realize there is another metaphysical intro coming…) NaNoWriMo is almost here and the goal is to finish all the trip postings by then and just write every day for a month to get back into the swing of things. To start commenting back and participating in this community again. Partially because I miss all y’all and partially because I dont have a lot else going on for me IRL right now. But on to the last of the Irish posts…

On A last minute whim (see! I CAN be spontaneous) Brian and I booked a tour to go out and visit Newgrange, one of the oldest known dwellings known to man, a stone age construct predating the pyramids

The majority of the tomb has been reconstructed, but the duel entryway you see is original, as is the large rocks with glyphs and whirls in the front

As large as this thing is around the outside, once you enter it is roughly the size of a broom closet

It is unclear what the newgrange tomb was intended for, but we know it had something to do with the solstice as twice a year a single ray of light shines through the upper entrance and reached the back of the tomb

The prevailing theory is that all these whorls and spirals were drug induced. Cheers to the human drive, getting effed up on whatever is available

Another abandoned hut, but not quite stone age, Brian and I discovered while wandering where we werent supposed to. As usual =)

Hello Hobbittesses

Oh look we have found the shire in Ireland

Hidden throughout these rolling fields are other remains of stone age societies and tombs

The narrow winding walk to the center of the tomb

Next stop was the Hill of Tara, seat of Irelands high kings

Although the scenery is lovely, the was not worth paying to take a tour for. Ireland is filled with equally stunning scenery wherever you turn

It is said from the top of the high seat, you can see 30 of the 36 counties in Ireland

I only count 25 COWnties though. get it? haha I kill me

Ewe know what I mean

As it turns out, boy sheep are spray painted blue, girl pink, and all of them run away when you come toward them. Sheep are nervous creatures outside of petting zoos

I tried so hard to catch a sheep and boy, do I make a terrible sheperd. At least I had more fun running around like a maniac and rolling down the hill again though

And handily located nearby were these celtic crosses!

Well, this concludes the Ireland portion of our tour. Later that night, Brian and I hopped on a plane and crossed the water to arrive in Scotland, where we will continue our tour, but now with more scotch!

Having gained the gift of gab and gazed upon the gardens, Brian and I hopped back into our rental car and set off in yet another compass direction, deep into county fermanagh (say that as ethnically as you can) to head to the Marble Arch Caves, one of the worlds 5 geoparks

This place was in the middle of nowhere, took 3 hours to drive round trip and was 100% totally worth it for road trip time with my brother. 

So apparently a geopark, as designated by wikipedia is A territory encompassing one or more sites of scientific importance, not only for geological reasons but also by virtue of its archaeological, ecological or cultural value.…and the marble arch caves were the first such geopark in Europe

That is roughly our tour through the caves. You will note the spelunkers in a boat. splunking. speleology is fun.

Yes, Brian and I drove 1.5 hours into backwoods ireland so we could take a boat ride in a cave. Thats the kind of guys we are, and if you are shaking your head in dismay, you are clearly new to this site

The Marble arch caves are made up primarily of sandstone and limestone

I do heart me some nature time

Ooh! an entrance to the batcave, perhaps?

gratuitous celtic cross

Cave dock

The Porridge Pot formation, because it looks like…well, a lump of rock to me, but I guess if you are irish, you have some disappointing breakfast foods

This was one of my favorite formations. Its totally a little cave house on the river. Nature, you are one fine bitch

Getting photos with minimal cave lighting, not easy. Thanks for all those flashes, german tourist group!

So Brian and I enjoyed our boat ride/hike through the caves, but sadly, I have no facts for you about them, because the only availble tour group for us to join was entirely in german. Which is not a good cave language. There are lots of angry echoes. That said, we had a fantastic time despite the language barrier and spent most of the tour mentally redecorating our superhero lair. 

We are rapidly approaching the end of the Ireland part of the tour, but there are some great ghost stories and sights coming up, just in time for Halloween. I should hopefully finish documenting this 2 week trip within this month, and can get back to more regular posting in time for NaNoWriMo

Happy trails!

Having explored the northernmost section of Ireland, Brian and I returned to Dublin, had a pint, and the following day set out to explore another direction of the Emerald Isle. This time, we crossed the Cork and Kerry Mountains, setting our sights on Limerick, Galway and the cliffs of Moher

 

There once were two brothers so charming

who traveled places quite alarming…

Their pictures and tales…

describe their travails…

You’ll find them to be quite disarming!

This castle was built for the sole purpose of impressing the ladies. No really! Google that shit!

If this looks vaguely familiar to you at all

Thats because these are the Cliffs of Insanity scaled by the man in black in The Princess Bride

 

I have been blessed to travel quite a bit this year. India, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia, Ireland, Scotland…looking back I dont know how I got so lucky. Each trip was remarkably different, not only in location and culture, but in whom I traveled with…my close friends, my girlfriend, my brother. Each one brought something different to the table, totally changed my experience of the country, and made it impossible to imagine doing with anyone else. Just wanted to take a moment to count my blessings. Anyway, onward to the tomfoolery

Arising early the next morning, Brian and I set off for Northern Ireland! After a quick breakfast of course

Our first stop, the Carrick A Rede Rope Bridge in Antrim.

This sums up my feelings about the experience pretty well. We could all use a little more wobbly bridges and discovering scaryness

Doesnt seem that bad, does it?

It’s a long way down to be wandering on a plank between two pieces of rope that were only added for tourists. This bridge used to be utilized for fishermen, who crossed it to reach the nearby island, a popular salmon fishing spot

Ireland truly has 100 shades of green

Just me and my potato, looking incredibly pensive and lonely

This is the softest grass it has ever been my pleasure to roll around in like a puppy. Read all the entries from the trip and you will eventually see a video of me doing just that!

After the rope bridge, we took a short drive over to the Giants Causeway.

Seen from afar, the causeway doesnt appear all that impressive, a simple strip of land jutting out to the sea. As the legends go the Irish Giant Finn Mcool, and his Scottish counterpart would shout at each other over the distance of the sea separating them

RAWR!

At one point, Finn threatened to come over to scotland to fight the giant and began building a series of steps across the sea, only to stop halfway when he realized just how large the scottish giant was, and retreat back home

But the scottish giant was having none of that, so he began the crossing himself, while Finn ran, hid, and told his wife

She came up with a clever plan, to dress Finn in the clothes of a baby, and place him in the bed of their child

Then, when the scottish giant arrived spoiling for a fight, the wife instead offered him coffee and told him her husband was out at the moment, but he was welcome to stay for tea and postpone the murder until Finns return. Bemused, he agreed

However, when a cry was heard from the next room, he ran in to see the biggest baby he had laid eyes upon and figuring that if the baby was that large, Finn must be even bigger, and not worth fighting. So he left, destroying the bridge behind him, leaving only the steps from Finns front porch behind

Also, a piece of his ear is somewhere still laying about.

In fact these natural rock formations were instead caused by volcanic eruptions and lava flow splitting basalt stones into this roughly hexagonal shape as lava flows hit each other

An impressive place to be no matter what the story of its origin, thinks Mr P

Castle on the Sea

Our next and last stop of the day was Belfast, one of the six counties of ireland that is still part of the UK rather than independent

These murals commemorate various sides of the fight for Irish independence, the loyalists and the IRA doing battle to determine the fate of a free Ireland

A lot of tragedy is quite literally, as well as metaphorically buried in this town

The old courthouse and prison stand as silent testaments to the horrors man can wage on his neighbor

This was all explained to us by the famous black cab tours of belfast, taxi rides given by those who grew up during what is only referred to as “The Troubles”

Even today, a large wall separate the protestant and catholic parts of town to prevent scrimmaging in a place where tempers still run hot beneath the surface. But we left our mark on the peace wall, two brothers who though we often fight, still come together for whats important

One of many memorial gardens to honor the dead from both sides who lost their lives fighting for what they believed in

All in all Mr Joyce, I think it would make a great story. Mr Joyce? Mr Joyce?

The Alhambra is a unesco world heritage sight that is competing for the title of of one of the seven wonders of the world. Did you know there are multiple sets of seven wonders? The ancient world, the new world, the modern world etc. I was always under the impression that there were 7 and that was it. If we keep changing them, why not just say everything is marvelous? Anyway.

The Alhambra is a Mighty Moorish Muslim Monarch palace/stronghold, named for the color of its red clay walls (Al Hamra=the red in arabic), and is a large structure so it might take more than one post to get through. Lets begin in the generalife. In arabic it means the architects garden (jannat al arif), and is one of the oldest surviving moorish gardens (thanks, wikipedia!)

Yes yes, i am a giant sucker for nature, especially gardens and pics of flowers. I am a sissy, i know, but i am a sissy who has learned about the macro feature on his camera (thanks, Andysensei!)

I know i know, there are not a lot of words in this post, particularly for the ordinarily verbiose me, but try and just look at the pics and get a sense of the peace and tranquility the gardens brought me. Or, speed through them like our tour guide decided too. Man, she lost me so fast i didnt even know i was on a tour.

Alright, I will leave you to muse on the gardens for a day or so, while I upload pics of the Albayzin, the main buildings of the alhambra for the next post