Some Kind of Wonderful: June 2012

Wow, long time no post! Is June practically over already?! (And a big resounding YES is heard....I mean, have you stepped outside...summer is clearly in FULL swing.)

Well forgive me for my absence as my roomie and I returned last week from a long vacation/ trip to the UK and Ireland! It was AMAZING, to say the least. We saw lots of history, and lots of green- I think lots is an understatement- rephrase: we saw the most beautifully bold and draw dropping green countryside that there is! There is simply no possible way that I wasn't actually looking at a painting. I was editing photos the other night and by the time I got to Scotland there was really no need to edit. The colors are vibrant and magical.  We spent time at places like Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, Big Ben, The William Wallace Monument, Castles!!!!, The Cliffs of Mohr etc.

We began our adventure by flying directly to London where we ventured out on our own for a few days.  Unintentially our time in London also happened to be the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Holiday Weekend. Knowing this in advance, we went ahead and focused our first 2 days on visiting the most famous sights (Westminster Abbey, Parliment, Big Ben, The London Eye, The Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery- where we saw some Van Gogh's!, Harrods- this was a must of course, etc.)  Our third and fourth days in London were spent getting out of Central London and exploring some of the surrounding neighborhoods. The Queen's Jubilee brought hords of people into Central London so getting out of town was a great call on our part! We headed out to brunch in a northern neighborhood called Clapham, however we missed our reservation and ended up at an amazing little restaurant for pizza and later a cute coffee shop. After this we hopped back on the tube (there was a lot of tube hopping going on :)) where we ventured out to Notting Hill. I had read how the Notting Hill market on Sundays was a must. But the weather had other plans. When we got there most of the street vendors were closing up shop due to inclement weather. I mean come on, it's London people!  After an excessive amount of walking Mel and I were ready to get out of the cold and very rainy weather!! We were lucky enough to stay at Sarah's boyfriend, PJ's flat for our last night in London. (Thanks so much to PJ for letting us stay!) So our last night in London we picked up some food and wine and headed back to PJ's for a movie night and some much needed facetime with our boyfriends back home. It was just what we needed heading into our 2 weeks in Scotland and Ireland!

We arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland on Monday afternoon. Upon arriving at our hotel, we were greeted by our tour guide Glenn and a few of our trip companions. After getting some trip details and explaining meal restrictions (no red meat for this girl), we were off on our own to explore and grab some dinner. Drumroll please........Edinburgh was WONDERFUL....definitely one of the highlights from the trip! If you ever visit Scotland then Edinburgh should be on your list. The city was gorgeous. Surrounded by green and rocky hillsides it is filled with weather worn stone buildings and even some cobble stone streets. In Edinburgh we were able to visit our first castle of the trip and we stopped off at the William Wallace monument and the monument for Robert the Bruce.

Something I was not aware of going into the trip, was how late at night it stays light out in Scotland and even in Ireland for that matter. The summer months bring long days there. This meant there was plenty of sunlight, even behind the clouds, for the evenings we stayed out having a beer or glass of wine.

After Edinburgh we were headed up to the Northern Highlands of Scotland! This was some of the most beautiful countryside I had ever seen! Imagine rocky mountains covered in lush green vegetation. On our day into the highlands, the weather was awful...rainy...driving with low visibility and even driving into the clouds. However even with all that it was still magical :) I was able to stay awake for the drive but poor Mel was out like a light through a portion of it.

The Northern Highlands brought Lochness (No Nessie sightings) ha, St. Andrews- the home of golf, and a few other stops along the way.  Our last stop in Scotland was Glasgow. Hmmmm.....not much to say about that city other than I have seen it. Not a favorite and since there was not much else to do there, we headed out with the crew for a night out on the town!  (More to come on this later since I do not have the pictures on my camera, lol.)

The next morning we headed to Dublin, Ireland by ferry!....Stay tuned..... as this blog post is already ridiculously long! The pictures of Ireland are worth the wait!