Week 7

So its almost mid week of my second to last week. Meaning I am wrapping things up and procrastinating writing my 8 page reflection essay for credit for school. On the upside of school stuff I did get a $750 scholarship for Fall! On top of a grant and work study meaning Fall semester even with my 2 additional freshman history classes is looking good.

 On a sad note my baby dog is still not doing well. We took him off the prednisone based on my sister-in-laws old vet information. That seemed to help and get him to eat more. BUT now today his leg is swollen and has fluid so might be signs of kidney issues. I just want him better or to know what is wrong so we can do what we have to do to make him happy and not be in pain. This has been going on for 3 weeks now and its so hard not to be there for him. 

Today at work I did get to leave my mark on Dublin, as I worked to Paint the front of the Building next to The Icon Factory. Aga my boss got the space for a year basically donated. So we are converting it into a interactive artists space for the public to come see artists actually creating in a studio. Below is my work at changing the facade of the place to be black like The Icon Factory. We were also working to take down the walls on the inside too so you can see all the bags of trash with old drywall in them.

Here I am in the window in my painting shirt having just finished the above.

You can also see my gym in the reflection too.

I hope everything goes okay with my baby dog Guinness.

Till another day...

Scotland Adventure Long Day 2

As with yesterday and all short trips all days start out early! This day tour was 12 hours long! But totally worth it if you don't have a lot of time to see stuff in Scotland. So the tour we did was by The Hairy Coo a big orange bus decked out to look like a highland cow... more on them later. 

We got lucky that a pickup was right outside our hostel. 

Our First stop was a 13th centurty Church in a very small town. It was kinda misty and rainy but it made for some secnic shots.. 

Close up of the church

The tower that was getting some renovations. Also someone was practicing on what sounded like and organ inside. 

The town was not much more than this side street and the main stretch. But here we are walking up to get some tea and coffee for Breakfast. Bri, Caitlin and Sylvia.

Next it was time for our Scottish whiskey tasting. We went to the Dalwhinnie Distillery. It was an extra 6 pounds but totally worth it. This was an active distillery unlike Jameson in Dublin so we got to experience the smells and see the whole process. Amazingly they still test and monitor everything manually not with cameras or sensors. We also got to get a dram of 15 year aged Whiskey and got a free glass out of it! very fun even if it was drinking before noon!

Here is our very Orange bus in the parking lot!

I was lucky to be able to set up my camera to take motion pictures from the bus so I could catch some of the beauty of the Highlands.

This was a short stop to see the national forest and the natural forest of Scotland or which only maybe 12% is still left after serious deforestation.  

Amazing prettyness!

Cute building that we speed past in the bus...

Canal Dams from the Lochs.

Next we hit up Loch Ness and got on a boat! Here is the abbey that is on Loch Ness.

On the boat running around the loch.

The boat had very neat sea floor mapping stuff so we could real time see where were were and what the loch floor looked like.

Also Sonar to see nessie with! We did not see anything but it was cool to know how to read this stuff! Thanks Geology! 

Here is everyone on the boat!!

And me!

Amazing views on the water.

Pretty!

Oh look here is nessie!! Only not really a nice painted decal on the boat window glass so you can take corny pics likethis one!! notice that the boat was moving so it was hard to line up the decal with the edge of the water....

We did learn about eels that are in the water and some huge normally saltwater fish that have adapted over time to be fresh water as this used to be a sea loch.. Apparently these fish are only eatten raw.... 

Sheep!! We wanted to take sheep selfies but the sheep were anoyingly far away when we stoped.... This was as close as we got! 

Mistly Highland Mtns

So misty also very rainy!

This stop was so pretty I wish we had sum but the mist did make it very atmospheric. 

And lastly Hariy Coos!!! This is Hamish the famous highland cow that you will see 95% of the tine on postcards and all sorts of stuff. We got to feed him and his lady bread. He really knew how to pose!!

Now Hamish is 21 years old. Apparently very old for a highland cow. So they do have his replacement picked out....

His replacement however was not intrested in being fed... So he hid out in the shed.

Hamish posing for the camera and his lady friend giving us the cold shoulder after all bread had been given to them. 

This huge house and some sheep made a very nice scene. 

After this it was a long trek back to Edinburgh. Where we had dinner at the hostel and some beers then went to sleep for the short night before our early flight back to Dublin!

It was an amazing trip but too short I really needed another day in the city and then wanted to see more of the small towns. Oh well have to go back!

Only 2 more weeks till Les gets here!!

Cheers!

Scotland Adventure Long Day 1

I took friday off of work to go on a weekend adventure to SCOTLAND! It was the only trip outside of what was planned for us by CIS that I was going on. It was EXPENSIVE. The pound is not nice let me tell you!

Well the day started bright and early with a taxi to Dublin Airport at 4:30am... After a sleepless night because of last minute planning and just being unable to sleep. The flight was only 40 min long so very short! We were in and out of customs/security in no time. We arrived in Edinburgh and took a bus to city center and walked to our hostel. The hostel was nice and really centrally located but it was 22ish pounds a night for a shared room! We dropped our stuff then went out to go see the  Edinburgh  Castle.  If you do this book ahead of time for your tickets!!! We did and we avoided the massive line of people and we were there only 15 min after opening. 

This was the walk up to the main castle grounds.

Castle walls

The amazing view... The skyline here is so pretty and all the building are so nice looking.

Gun that they actually fire all days save sunday.

Rocking it out on the cannon!

This castle is old! 15th Century! 

Stained glass from the cathedral.

Main hall with lots of swords! Most of them as big as me.

Key to the castle.

Royal Crest... Also fun fact the national animal of Scotland is the Unicorn! Very Magical!

Next on our tour was the prison cells. We in them and they seems pretty similar to the Irish Gaol I went to but the space was much smaller. These were for military discipline. Also here are Bri in pink and Sylvia two of the girls in my intern program that I traveled with!

A dark creepy stair well that we were not allowed to go down!

More city views because it was amazing from the walls of the castle!

Mtns!! 

The streets were clean and all the buildings just amazingly pretty! This was on our way home from the castle. we had some lunch then checked in to our hostel then napped we were epicly sleepy. After our nap we walked around the city and got some dinner and drinks. The drinks we got at a bar called The Last drop. It was very reasonably priced and very fun! 

Then at 10pm we went on the Double Dead Ghost Tour! We did first the South Bridge Vaults, it was so dark that I could not take any pictures. We walked though these vaults that had been underground but are no longer. The had been built to hold luxury goods but the stone was poraus so water is able to get in a flood them so they eventually became a location for crime and housed 100's of poor in each vault. They also had a reputation of body snatchers and of devil worshipers. All very fun to learn about and a MUST see!  Net it was on to the Greyfriars graveyard and Covenanters Prison. 

Covenanters Prison cell

The cell that I kept going back to for no reason and looking at. It felt like someone was watching me from this one the whole time I was in this sectioned off place. So back in the day  ie mid 17th century there was unrest between the crown and presbyterian covenanters.  This guy George Mackenzie figured that hanging these guys was not good enough so he put them in a locked area neat to the church so everyone could see then dieing of starvation and the elements. Basicly the first concentration camp.  However the ghost stories don't start till some years ago the story goes that some kids broke into Mackenzie's vault and then opened his casket and took his head and then played football with it in the graveyard. They got caught by police but after that people visiting the location started reporting interactions with something. This has been called the Mackenzie poltergeist. It was so bad that the Government and the Church shut and locked the prison part of the graveyard. However now tours can go in at their own risk. 

This is the edge of a death vault ie a place to lock up your loved ones before they are placed in their real graves so that they decompose enough to not be body snachted and sold for disection.

The inside of Mackenzie's mausoleum.

So the other interesting fact about this graveyard is that JK Rowling actually spent a lot of time in it while writing Harry Potter. The boys school in the background behind the area was what she used to make up Hogwarts. And Even better!!! The names of many characters are from headstones in the graveyard. So yes there is a Tom Riddle grave and several others from the books!

Well that was it for the first day! Be warned lots of pictures in the next post about the Highlands!