Return of the Blog

As it turns out, the Internet is a luxury and one that is not often found while on the road. However, I have been doing my best to keep a blog going in Word so I can update without having the issue of trying to recall memories. Now, I have been gone a few weeks and in that time I have traveled to 5 different countries, finished school in Glasgow and had countless random adventures. Also, for the record, these were written on a combinations of boats, buses, trains, hostels and anywhere else I found I have a free few minutes, so the timing might be off because they were written long before they were posted. Here we go --

First chance I have had to sit and reflect on the last couple weeks, I am currently chilling on a cruise ship enjoying a relaxing ride back to Portsmouth from our short hop to Spain. But this will all come up in a minute. Lets go back to the beginning. And for the benefit of my devoted readers I will break up this journey by destination, just in case you don’t have a few hours of free time to sit and read it all at once. Now lets roll back to December 16th.

Trying to prep for my Law exam and show Lisa the wonderful city of Glasgow became a bit of a balancing act in which I favored the books and left Lisa to entertain herself for a few hours a day. However, we did get her to both the Kelvingrove and Huntarian Museums, took her on a brief trip into town, and took in a show in the east end. The morning of the 18th I wrote my final in-school examination of this degree and wrapped up my education at Glasgow. I say my last “in-school” exam because I only have 2 classes left and I will be able to take them online once I get back to Canada. So I will not be returning to Dalhousie or any other institution until I do my MBA or another degree!! As for the Law exam, well it is over and that’s all that matters, not looking for a noble prize, just looking for a pass at this point. And besides, I had other things on my mind, like the fact that I was lacing up my wandering boots and hitting the road that evening.

The night of the 18th we departed Glasgow for Dublin Ireland and we experienced the odd sensation of being the only two people in the departures check in. Not just the only people checking in for our flight, but actually the only two people in the entire departures section of the airport. Very strange. We did have a few other people on our flight but all in all it was about ¼ full. We arrived in Dublin late but you could not have told by the number of people bouncing in the streets. A very kind, very drunk, Irish man helped us with the directions to our hostel and off we walked. Time for a little side story (these will pop up from time to time) – After checking into our 8 person dorm room at Abigail's Hostel, we realized that everyone would be fast asleep as it was around 1am. The room was set up with 4 sets of bunk beds along the walls with the door and a bathroom at one end. So upon entering our room in the pitch black, I proceeded to have to feel the pillows of the beds to find two that did not already contain a head. There I am blindly reaching out in the dark, patting the tops of pillows, pleading that I do not smack someone in the face!

I will end this blog here as the next one is a doosie which includes our entire tour of the island of Ireland! (actually just the south, but it is fun to say "Island of Ireland" and we had a guide that said it a lot.)