Edinburgh (RTW) – Month 3

So it has been a month since my last update and quite a few things have gone on. First of all I’m in my 3^rd week of working and absolutely loving it. Alright I’ll get the bad story out the way first. Our little rover 25 we bought of a dodgy bloke turned out to be a bit of a dodgy car. It overheated and the engine needs to be replaced. This all happened when Katherine was on her way home on a Friday night, she got half-way and the engine died on a small motorway. Some nice boys came over and help her move it off to the side of the road. We called the AA and got towed back to Edinburgh for the measly sum of £200. We then quickly booked a hire car for the week so Katherine could still work while I quickly looked around for another car as the engine replacement was going to cost us more than what we bought the car for. I quickly found a nice 1998 Citroen Xsara turbo diesel for £1000, we get more miles to the litre, runs nicer and it is a little bit bigger as well. About the same size as a corolla from a few years back. I’m still waiting to here from the Trading Standards about the rover as we might be able to get our money back (figures crossed).

Dublin

Anyway now that we have put that behind us I can tell you about the little weekend trips we have been on. Easter weekend we decided to go to Dublin and have a look around. We got a bargin of a flight on the way back only costing us £0.49 + taxes. We set off late Friday night and got into Dublin around 11pm after the huge flight of 40min. Our cabby was a great introduction to Ireland as by the time we got out he had rambled off about the history of Dublin I think as we were only getting every 10^th word or so. Anyway we got to our hotel and sneaked in our 4^th person. We went for a bit of a stroll that night down to Temple bar and had a bit of a look around. The next day we were up at the crack of lunch and off to Temple bar for breakky. We then walked our way down through the old medieval part of Dublin down to the Guinness brewery. We had to stand inline for about 2 hrs before we got in. Little did we know you can pre-order your tickets online and walk straight thru. The brewery was great and we all poured our perfect pint and then ate our way through it. That evening we went to a traditional Irish pub where they had Irish dancing and a band.

The next day we went on the Jameson old distillery tour which was great as we got to have a nip of jameson afterwards which was nice and enjoyable. After that we went on a great tour around Dublin that I would highly recommend. It is not your everyday run of the mill tour but more a specialised one. We went on the Unofficial U2 tour. If you go on it it is the tour that actually takes you out of Dublin a wee bit and to where all the members of U2 grew up, some of their current houses, the school where they met and the old and new studios. After that we had an interested dinner at a little noodle bar (wasn’t that good) but if you wanted we could have got a Thai red curry on chips!

Visitors

Well the weekend after our tour of Dublin some friends came up from Manchester, we took them out to Stirling where we went up the Wallace monument which is amazing both in the stuff inside it and how many bloody stairs you have to climb. It seems like everything that was built always had tight little stairs that corkscrew up. We got to see what they believe is William Wallace’s sword. IT IS HUGE!!!!! We got a great view from the top of the moment and going back down was just as challenging but a lot quicker. We then made our way up to Glenturrent whiskey distillery. Many of you may not have heard of it but it is one of the major whiskeys that is used in Famous Grouse. It was an entertaining tour and each tour we go on we always learn something new. Oh yeah we got a dram of Grouse as well. Later that night we went on an Auld Reekie tour: there tag line – Probably the scariest tour in the World! Scariest part of the tour……..paying! It was pretty cool as they had actual torture devices that had been used and man they were nuts back then. Part of the tour we went into the underground vaults and apparently one was haunted by a poltergeist. Well we were laughing as then night before after a few drinks one of us a slip of the tongue and Poltergeist turn in to Poultry ghost……so we kept of think little chickens were going to start pecking us……Any way that was that weekend gone.

Wirral and Wales

Last weekend we went down to visit Nab and Nat where were up the week before. It took us quite a while to get down there……we were expecting about 5hrs but after the girls had picked up Phil and then me I was in the front directing…after a few pints Big Mistake. I ended up taking us West near Glasgow and a wee bit north…..We finally got there after a few stops and 7 hours. The next day we went on a drive to North Wales and Snowdonia and the country side was amazing there were castles built into sides of mountains protecting the coast line and ones that just seem to pop-up from nowhere. We went for a walk at Snowdon up to and into an old Keep which was beautiful. We finally got back to Wirral in time for a magnificent sunset which was just beautiful. Nab and I had a short jam which was interrupted by the next-door neighbour. The next day we headed up to New Brighton a seaside town and went to an old English arcade which was great fun…..we played some games and ate rock (a hard lolly). We then headed back to Edinburgh which only took us about 5hrs with a few stops.

Anyway that’s it for me this week/month. This weekend Katherine and I are off to Prague!

Will talk to you all when we are all a wee bit older.

Until next time

Dan