jacobite queen
Ireland:
When we got on the plane the (very attractive) steward assumed we were going to Dublin for 'Arthur's Day' & seemed surprised when I asked him what it was (Arthur Guinness... 250th birthday of Guinness.) Anyway, he was nice enough to tell us what time we had to be in the pub (5 or 6, I forget.) My first impression of Dublin wasn't too good when the taxi driver couldn't find out hotel & then ripped a paper out of my hand (that was a spreadsheet I'd made of our vacation itinterary.) I think he was frustrated he couldn't find it on his gps, but still it was a little much, and I said something. The older I get, the worse (or better) I seem to get. When I was younger I would let people say/do/get away with anything, and that never really worked out for me... so now I can be tough... so now I can be a bitch. I try to be exceedingly polite and patient, but there is a line.
Anyway, we found our hotel and it was really nice and in Temple Bar and that was good for us. When T was getting ready I could hear people counting down and then singing. This was the night T spent the longest getting ready (I am certain she thought she was going to pull this night. We had separate bedrooms so would have been shocking (only because of how repressed she is) -ly interesting to me. We finally made it out at 7, and I was pleasantly surprised at how big of a deal it was... It was like St. Patrick's day here x 1000! We just walked around the pubs and streets of Temple Bar and they were packed. There was this big crowd on the street and we couldn't really see what it was so T asked this girl and she was like "they're trying to ride a fucked up bike." Every night we were there the fucked up bike was on the street there (under a red carpet) and every time their was a crowd watching people trying to ride it. I think the handle bars were backwards or something... I don't know, the one time I waited long enough all I saw was a girl spend 15 minutes psyching herself up and then 1 second riding directly into an old lady.
I loved the energy, and the fact that there were so many people outside. It felt a little (nicely) out of control... all of the pubs were packed and people were spilled out onto the streets. L was a little shocked that they had glass glasses everywhere outside (the street sweeper came by every 30 mins,) So festive was I that I attempted 1/2 pint of Guinness
We stayed at the one pub we could squeeze inside of for about 2 hours (4 vodka & orange juices for me) and then I begged T & L to try to go somewhere else as it was so squishy and oppressively hot. Anyway, just down the street we found this other (Equally packed) place, but it was so fun- Everyone sang! Every song. (These two guys even did the dance/lift from dirty dancing when they played the song.)
It was kind of my idea of perfect!
We stayed there for a long time (3 hours?). We were hanging around with this guy from Liverpool & his lady boss and they were quite nice. They bought us jagerbombs, and that was kind of the beginning of the end for me. He had to catch a flight back at something like 5 am and I kept repeating "better still drunk than hung over!" I kind of didn't want to leave because of all of the singing, but after Liverpool and his lady boss left, I seemed to have attracted a creepy guy who kept grabbing and hugging me, and then gave me a drink but wouldn't tell me what it was: "It doesn't even taste like alcohol." "Good- keep drinking" and he put it up to my lips... I got a little creeped out (whether rightly so or not.) when he went to the bathroom I made L & T leave, even though T didn't want to. On the way back to our hotel there were about 20 other pubs, so L & T wanted to stop at another one. I was really drunk by then and went to sit at a table in another room, I'm not sure how long I was gone, but when I went back into the bar part they were talking to some guys. T was turning on full flirting mode so I just kind of stood back. (I was also really drunk and really tired.) I was standing on the other side behind him and in view of T and she was like "Oh, this is my friend." and he turned around and smiled and shook my hand, and then I went to talk to L, and unbeknownst to me, that guy spent 5 minutes telling T how beautiful I was and how much he loved redheads (I was v. surprised to see so few in Dublin) I didn't know this, so when T came up to me I thought we were going to leave... instead she just kind of said "He wants his photo with you."... and I was like "What?!?!" Then she told me about all of the "Your friend is so beautiful stuff" and I felt like shit. I went over to take the photo (She took it) and he kind of pulled me onto his lap... and then said "You're so beautiful" and a bunch of stuff, and I said "Thanks". He kept going on and T was beside me and I was just feeling quite badly... I'm not entirely sure what happened to precede this... but he kissed me... all I really remember about it was the feeling of sitting on the barstool and both of his lips covering both of mine and thinking 'what the hell?!'... I didn't do anything with my mouth (I'm not an indiscriminate kisser!) T actually took a photo, so I don't know if he asked her for another photo and then did that or what, but after that I got up and left and T & L followed... and T was annoyed. I just remember walking and her saying something like: 'For fuck sakes Dixie, what do you have..."
Then she tried to talk to this guy on the street and he was a complete dick. He was like "Don't talk to my girlfriend." and they were kind of arguing and he kept saying that, and I couldn't tell whether he was joking or whether he was that much of a jerk, but I kind of dragged T away when I realized he was serious and just kind of said "well that was a bit of a disaster" and she said "I think it's pretty obvious that you and I aren't into the same kind of people." (who would be into that kind of person?) I was like "wait.. what do yo mean by that?" "Your kind of people aren't my kind of people" ... "well what does that mean?". I felt like she was making some kind of judgement call about me, and I could feel myself getting mad, and I started to walk and she yelled after me, and I just kind of let loose. I don't remember what I said initially, but I ended with something that I have been biting my tongue about for years: She always tells me what to talk about and what not to talk about, and tells L and I to stop talking when we are saying things to each other... it has always bothered me and I had told L about 6 months ago that I was someday going to snap and say something, and I did.
The next morning we all were hungover, and had a little difficulty looking for somewhere to eat- the places we went to weren't serving food, things were too $$$ for T, there was nothing L & T would eat... I was about to the cold sweat point when we finally found a place. Was a bit... delicate... so decided on one of those bus tours rather than walking around, and the air was nice.
We walked past the Christchurch Cathedral to get to our hotel every night, and when T saw in a pamphlet that they had a mummified cat and rat she insisted that we go.
The last night in Dublin we switched to the Clontarf Castle Hotel (per T's request to sleep in a castle)
It was nice, a bit far from things, but I was quite keen to go clay pidgeon shooting (kiboshed by T due to $$$.) Also kiboshed- Spa and room service!
Scotland:
I must say, for someone who is afraid of flying, L did quite good on the 6 flights!
Our hotel was about a 1 minute walk from Edinburgh Castle (just under), and they could not have been more lovely there. They took our bags up whilst we went for breakfast; left hot chocolate and shortbread cookies every morning. Compared to Ireland, L & T loved Scotland and the people (I knew they would.)
I dragged those guys into a lot of tourist shops (I don't think T minded) Got my brother a towel that looks like a kilt.
For some reason, I allowed myself to be persuaded to go on a ghost tour. And so went into the underground vaults with L, T and about 15 other people (and one rather attractive young Scottish Sweeney Todd looking tour guide.) As soon as we got down there in the dark, I knew I'd made a mistake. The dark, the dampness, the feeling... I kept thinking 'what the hell have I gotten myself into?' On a scale on 1 to 10 for being scared, I was probably... 20. I just kept trying to keep myself in the middle of the group. The guide was telling us not to freak out and that one of the ghosts was a little 5 year old boy and if we saw him to act like it was a regular 5 year old.
I was kind of standing near the guide, but looking around kind of frantically scanning the room to make sure I wasn't surprised by anything. (My knees were also pretty much knocking together, sweaty palms, rapid breathing...) and in the very back I just kind of saw this white fog low to the ground cross about halfway and disappear... I didn't really know what it was, but looked up to see if anyone else had seen it, and quickly met eyes with T. I could tell from the look in her eyes that she'd seen it, but then I asked her (we were maybe 4-6 feet apart) "Did you see that?" She quickly said "No."
The tour continued and after about 5 minutes of talking the guide said "the ghost that supposedly haunts this room is a woman in a white dress... people sometimes see her walking here (where we were) and then down to there where she is crawling (the distance where I saw the thing) "And that is because she was supposedly a prostitute that was murdered down here and dragged off down there." Then we moved on and he gave us the history of all the rooms there and said skeptics could enter certain ones even though he wouldn't, etc. I was so terrified I barely moved... I was scared of being the last person with her back in the dark. The last room he said was 'very active' and had a poltergeist instead of a spirit in it. He made the men and women separate and the guys go in first. I was probably a 25 out of 10 scared by then and was grateful when both L and T offered me their hands (and grateful and shocked at T. - If I am not a 'touchy feely person, she is about 1000x less. We didn't even hug when my grandparents died.) Anyway, then the girls went in, and were standing against the opposite wall... and the guide came in and said "A psychic told us to separate the men and women and it seems to work... we have much less 'incidents' now... I told you the spirit in here is very active... that was half the truth... he especially likes women. He especially likes women with red hair." and he flashed the flashlight on me. I was like "Don't tell me that!" and squeezed L & T's hands. I could hear some kind of heavy breathing behind me (and so could L, she kept saying "Can you hear that?" and then footsteps kind of pacing... and then the flashlight went out, and I started feeling like I was going to have an asthma attack, and my chest felt like it was burning, and I very nearly started to loudly cry. I was trying to talk to myself, like "This is because you are so scared." and some guy on the tour tried to light his lighter to give us light but it wouldn't work and the guide said: "If you knew what happened down here, you'd know why you should never do that in this vault..." and went on to describe how about 30 people had died in there due to a fire... I could still hear the breathing and pacing and put my hand holding T's and my hand holding L's behind me (I was thinking 'If something touches me, I don't want it just touching me.") then a girl who was on the other side of T screamed and kind of jumped into the middle of the room and said something grabbed her, and I blurted out without thinking "Can we leave NOW?!" and we did- we went into a little room with whisky and shortbread, and I could hardly wait to have mine (whisky) and to leave. When we got outside I was telling L about the fog and said "I thought T saw it too" and she said "I did."
The next morning we left at about 8 am for a coach tour and boat cruise on Loch Ness. The coach driver was a really funny guy who looked quite like Billy Connolly. T didn't know who that was (but she also didn't know the Venus de Milo or Anne Frank (!)) It felt a little like a class trip- in the best possible way. I kind of loved it ("Your boat is the big boat, your boat has 5 steps...", "If you want tea or coffee, get it before you see Hamish.") He asked all of our nationalities when we first got on and was thrilled there were no English. But then he was like 'Wait a minute... Canadians... do you have any English in you?" (I'd like to.) I said: "We'll say no..." and he said "Smart girl!"... He was very knowledgeable and funny and played certain music pieces driving through the highlands... when we were driving beside Loch Ness, he said 'I'm going to play something to get you in the mood to go on a cruise on really cold water" and then he played a bagpipe 'My heart will go on' ("It's not as bad as the Celine Dion version... who am I kidding, It's just as bad as the Celine Dion version.") and then he said "Do you know what difference is between the Titanic and the boat you're about to go on?"... "The Titanic only sank once." I loled.
He did lots of explaining about using the proper words for things "Lake is an english word!"... I started thinking of how Scottish my grandpa pumpkin's name sounds: Glenn Craig Gowdey. (I kind of did some poking around on ancestry.com yesterday but could only really find out that he fought with the Essex Scottish during WWII)
It was quite a long day, but very, very nice. The coach driver/tour guide was really fantastic. L, T & I gave him a nice tip.
The next day T wanted to go to Edinburgh castle, so we did (in the rain!). They shot off a canon whilst we were there.
Scotland was all of our favourite part of the vacation.
When we got on the plane the (very attractive) steward assumed we were going to Dublin for 'Arthur's Day' & seemed surprised when I asked him what it was (Arthur Guinness... 250th birthday of Guinness.) Anyway, he was nice enough to tell us what time we had to be in the pub (5 or 6, I forget.) My first impression of Dublin wasn't too good when the taxi driver couldn't find out hotel & then ripped a paper out of my hand (that was a spreadsheet I'd made of our vacation itinterary.) I think he was frustrated he couldn't find it on his gps, but still it was a little much, and I said something. The older I get, the worse (or better) I seem to get. When I was younger I would let people say/do/get away with anything, and that never really worked out for me... so now I can be tough... so now I can be a bitch. I try to be exceedingly polite and patient, but there is a line.
Anyway, we found our hotel and it was really nice and in Temple Bar and that was good for us. When T was getting ready I could hear people counting down and then singing. This was the night T spent the longest getting ready (I am certain she thought she was going to pull this night. We had separate bedrooms so would have been shocking (only because of how repressed she is) -ly interesting to me. We finally made it out at 7, and I was pleasantly surprised at how big of a deal it was... It was like St. Patrick's day here x 1000! We just walked around the pubs and streets of Temple Bar and they were packed. There was this big crowd on the street and we couldn't really see what it was so T asked this girl and she was like "they're trying to ride a fucked up bike." Every night we were there the fucked up bike was on the street there (under a red carpet) and every time their was a crowd watching people trying to ride it. I think the handle bars were backwards or something... I don't know, the one time I waited long enough all I saw was a girl spend 15 minutes psyching herself up and then 1 second riding directly into an old lady.
I loved the energy, and the fact that there were so many people outside. It felt a little (nicely) out of control... all of the pubs were packed and people were spilled out onto the streets. L was a little shocked that they had glass glasses everywhere outside (the street sweeper came by every 30 mins,) So festive was I that I attempted 1/2 pint of Guinness
We stayed at the one pub we could squeeze inside of for about 2 hours (4 vodka & orange juices for me) and then I begged T & L to try to go somewhere else as it was so squishy and oppressively hot. Anyway, just down the street we found this other (Equally packed) place, but it was so fun- Everyone sang! Every song. (These two guys even did the dance/lift from dirty dancing when they played the song.)
It was kind of my idea of perfect!
Click to viewWe stayed there for a long time (3 hours?). We were hanging around with this guy from Liverpool & his lady boss and they were quite nice. They bought us jagerbombs, and that was kind of the beginning of the end for me. He had to catch a flight back at something like 5 am and I kept repeating "better still drunk than hung over!" I kind of didn't want to leave because of all of the singing, but after Liverpool and his lady boss left, I seemed to have attracted a creepy guy who kept grabbing and hugging me, and then gave me a drink but wouldn't tell me what it was: "It doesn't even taste like alcohol." "Good- keep drinking" and he put it up to my lips... I got a little creeped out (whether rightly so or not.) when he went to the bathroom I made L & T leave, even though T didn't want to. On the way back to our hotel there were about 20 other pubs, so L & T wanted to stop at another one. I was really drunk by then and went to sit at a table in another room, I'm not sure how long I was gone, but when I went back into the bar part they were talking to some guys. T was turning on full flirting mode so I just kind of stood back. (I was also really drunk and really tired.) I was standing on the other side behind him and in view of T and she was like "Oh, this is my friend." and he turned around and smiled and shook my hand, and then I went to talk to L, and unbeknownst to me, that guy spent 5 minutes telling T how beautiful I was and how much he loved redheads (I was v. surprised to see so few in Dublin) I didn't know this, so when T came up to me I thought we were going to leave... instead she just kind of said "He wants his photo with you."... and I was like "What?!?!" Then she told me about all of the "Your friend is so beautiful stuff" and I felt like shit. I went over to take the photo (She took it) and he kind of pulled me onto his lap... and then said "You're so beautiful" and a bunch of stuff, and I said "Thanks". He kept going on and T was beside me and I was just feeling quite badly... I'm not entirely sure what happened to precede this... but he kissed me... all I really remember about it was the feeling of sitting on the barstool and both of his lips covering both of mine and thinking 'what the hell?!'... I didn't do anything with my mouth (I'm not an indiscriminate kisser!) T actually took a photo, so I don't know if he asked her for another photo and then did that or what, but after that I got up and left and T & L followed... and T was annoyed. I just remember walking and her saying something like: 'For fuck sakes Dixie, what do you have..."
Then she tried to talk to this guy on the street and he was a complete dick. He was like "Don't talk to my girlfriend." and they were kind of arguing and he kept saying that, and I couldn't tell whether he was joking or whether he was that much of a jerk, but I kind of dragged T away when I realized he was serious and just kind of said "well that was a bit of a disaster" and she said "I think it's pretty obvious that you and I aren't into the same kind of people." (who would be into that kind of person?) I was like "wait.. what do yo mean by that?" "Your kind of people aren't my kind of people" ... "well what does that mean?". I felt like she was making some kind of judgement call about me, and I could feel myself getting mad, and I started to walk and she yelled after me, and I just kind of let loose. I don't remember what I said initially, but I ended with something that I have been biting my tongue about for years: She always tells me what to talk about and what not to talk about, and tells L and I to stop talking when we are saying things to each other... it has always bothered me and I had told L about 6 months ago that I was someday going to snap and say something, and I did.
The next morning we all were hungover, and had a little difficulty looking for somewhere to eat- the places we went to weren't serving food, things were too $$$ for T, there was nothing L & T would eat... I was about to the cold sweat point when we finally found a place. Was a bit... delicate... so decided on one of those bus tours rather than walking around, and the air was nice.
We walked past the Christchurch Cathedral to get to our hotel every night, and when T saw in a pamphlet that they had a mummified cat and rat she insisted that we go.
The last night in Dublin we switched to the Clontarf Castle Hotel (per T's request to sleep in a castle)
It was nice, a bit far from things, but I was quite keen to go clay pidgeon shooting (kiboshed by T due to $$$.) Also kiboshed- Spa and room service!
Scotland:
I must say, for someone who is afraid of flying, L did quite good on the 6 flights!
Our hotel was about a 1 minute walk from Edinburgh Castle (just under), and they could not have been more lovely there. They took our bags up whilst we went for breakfast; left hot chocolate and shortbread cookies every morning. Compared to Ireland, L & T loved Scotland and the people (I knew they would.)
I dragged those guys into a lot of tourist shops (I don't think T minded) Got my brother a towel that looks like a kilt.
For some reason, I allowed myself to be persuaded to go on a ghost tour. And so went into the underground vaults with L, T and about 15 other people (and one rather attractive young Scottish Sweeney Todd looking tour guide.) As soon as we got down there in the dark, I knew I'd made a mistake. The dark, the dampness, the feeling... I kept thinking 'what the hell have I gotten myself into?' On a scale on 1 to 10 for being scared, I was probably... 20. I just kept trying to keep myself in the middle of the group. The guide was telling us not to freak out and that one of the ghosts was a little 5 year old boy and if we saw him to act like it was a regular 5 year old.
I was kind of standing near the guide, but looking around kind of frantically scanning the room to make sure I wasn't surprised by anything. (My knees were also pretty much knocking together, sweaty palms, rapid breathing...) and in the very back I just kind of saw this white fog low to the ground cross about halfway and disappear... I didn't really know what it was, but looked up to see if anyone else had seen it, and quickly met eyes with T. I could tell from the look in her eyes that she'd seen it, but then I asked her (we were maybe 4-6 feet apart) "Did you see that?" She quickly said "No."
The tour continued and after about 5 minutes of talking the guide said "the ghost that supposedly haunts this room is a woman in a white dress... people sometimes see her walking here (where we were) and then down to there where she is crawling (the distance where I saw the thing) "And that is because she was supposedly a prostitute that was murdered down here and dragged off down there." Then we moved on and he gave us the history of all the rooms there and said skeptics could enter certain ones even though he wouldn't, etc. I was so terrified I barely moved... I was scared of being the last person with her back in the dark. The last room he said was 'very active' and had a poltergeist instead of a spirit in it. He made the men and women separate and the guys go in first. I was probably a 25 out of 10 scared by then and was grateful when both L and T offered me their hands (and grateful and shocked at T. - If I am not a 'touchy feely person, she is about 1000x less. We didn't even hug when my grandparents died.) Anyway, then the girls went in, and were standing against the opposite wall... and the guide came in and said "A psychic told us to separate the men and women and it seems to work... we have much less 'incidents' now... I told you the spirit in here is very active... that was half the truth... he especially likes women. He especially likes women with red hair." and he flashed the flashlight on me. I was like "Don't tell me that!" and squeezed L & T's hands. I could hear some kind of heavy breathing behind me (and so could L, she kept saying "Can you hear that?" and then footsteps kind of pacing... and then the flashlight went out, and I started feeling like I was going to have an asthma attack, and my chest felt like it was burning, and I very nearly started to loudly cry. I was trying to talk to myself, like "This is because you are so scared." and some guy on the tour tried to light his lighter to give us light but it wouldn't work and the guide said: "If you knew what happened down here, you'd know why you should never do that in this vault..." and went on to describe how about 30 people had died in there due to a fire... I could still hear the breathing and pacing and put my hand holding T's and my hand holding L's behind me (I was thinking 'If something touches me, I don't want it just touching me.") then a girl who was on the other side of T screamed and kind of jumped into the middle of the room and said something grabbed her, and I blurted out without thinking "Can we leave NOW?!" and we did- we went into a little room with whisky and shortbread, and I could hardly wait to have mine (whisky) and to leave. When we got outside I was telling L about the fog and said "I thought T saw it too" and she said "I did."
The next morning we left at about 8 am for a coach tour and boat cruise on Loch Ness. The coach driver was a really funny guy who looked quite like Billy Connolly. T didn't know who that was (but she also didn't know the Venus de Milo or Anne Frank (!)) It felt a little like a class trip- in the best possible way. I kind of loved it ("Your boat is the big boat, your boat has 5 steps...", "If you want tea or coffee, get it before you see Hamish.") He asked all of our nationalities when we first got on and was thrilled there were no English. But then he was like 'Wait a minute... Canadians... do you have any English in you?" (I'd like to.) I said: "We'll say no..." and he said "Smart girl!"... He was very knowledgeable and funny and played certain music pieces driving through the highlands... when we were driving beside Loch Ness, he said 'I'm going to play something to get you in the mood to go on a cruise on really cold water" and then he played a bagpipe 'My heart will go on' ("It's not as bad as the Celine Dion version... who am I kidding, It's just as bad as the Celine Dion version.") and then he said "Do you know what difference is between the Titanic and the boat you're about to go on?"... "The Titanic only sank once." I loled.
He did lots of explaining about using the proper words for things "Lake is an english word!"... I started thinking of how Scottish my grandpa pumpkin's name sounds: Glenn Craig Gowdey. (I kind of did some poking around on ancestry.com yesterday but could only really find out that he fought with the Essex Scottish during WWII)
It was quite a long day, but very, very nice. The coach driver/tour guide was really fantastic. L, T & I gave him a nice tip.
The next day T wanted to go to Edinburgh castle, so we did (in the rain!). They shot off a canon whilst we were there.
Scotland was all of our favourite part of the vacation.