Take a Seat Arthur! I am gonna hike all over ya!

After running into our pub crawl friends from Chico State, Bryce and Jillian, the night before, I made the decision that we would go with them on their Edinburgh explorations the next day that mirrored our own aspirations. This involved an earlier wakeup that Ruth and I had anticipated. However, the day ended up being quite productive and fun. We started at the National Museum of Scotland where we attempted to follow Scotland from its early Pictish (heavily painted and tattooed natives) beginnings all the way the way to modern industries of textiles (i.e kilts). We literally could have spent 3 days in the museum but instead spent just a few hours. Next, we grabbed some lunch nearby and visited the birthplace of Harry Potter, the coffee shop where J.K. wrote her fabled series while gazing up at Edinburgh castle. After filling up, we were off hurriedly to Callans Hill to catch a glimpse of the 1pm castle cannon shot and accompanying tower ball drop. We arrived just in time! We got some awesome pics and video as smoke billowed from the castle and the ball dropped (which used to signal ships in the harbor of the time). We then climbed all over the Parthenon replica on the hill and took some more cool pics. Then, our two friends and I descended the hill to climb Arthur's Seat, another huge hill overlooking the city and harbor. This was  quite a short but arduous hike even for a fairly experienced hiker like myself. It was well worth it, however, as we got some more incredible views and even ran into th cutest little English kid who was so excited to see the ruins on the lower part of the hill. His excitement rubbed off and I had to sit back and really reflect on the beauty of the place. The whole hike up and down took about 2 hours and by that time we were getting quite hungry again so we headed back to the hostel to share beers and an appetizer platter while watching the England vs France Eurocup game at the bar downstairs. Ruth came down and I got a kick out of an Aussie trying to explain why PCs and Androids are better than Macs and iPhones in terms of their power to complete a range of tasks and be customized. To a heart loyal Apple user and non-programmer like Ruth, this was incomprehensible since she could do all the tasks she needed to do quickly and easily...of course, she won the argument and got good recommendations to study abroad in Melbourne rather than Sydney Australia. Ruth and I got to reflect on the trip and what are expectations were moving forward. This trip has truly has strengthened my relationship with Ruth with the way we have been able to get along in close quarters despite some minor squabbles. As if on cue when our discussion ended, Bryce knocked on our door and asked if we wanted to get food with him and Jillian. We followed him in search of a Spanish Tapas place, which was evidently closed by the time we finally found it at 10pm (food stuff closes so early here!). We elected to "go big" on both our last nights in Edinburgh and splurged on some Hard Rock Cafe. It was a great way to cap a really awesome, although short, stay in Edinburgh. Feeling the onset of a cold worsening and with a relatively early wakeup tomorrow for checkout, we headed back to the hostel.

Howth the Hell Did this Hat Get Here

I will keep this shorter than my first entry (kinda), which is fitting since it was a bit more of a low key day. It started with my first run in Europe, a 6am, 6.5mi fartlek run around the squared outside of the city park of St. Stephen's Green (it turns out this park doesn't open until 7am :/). Upon return to he hostel, I was ready to "conquer the day" and tried as hard as I could to get Ruth to do the same. Unfortunately this was not in the cards with how hard we went last night. Thankfully, I was able to rise Sleeping Beauty for some breakfast in the hostel kitchen. She would thank me later because she got some good toast with butter and a nice conversation with a loft-raging Aussie, who told her all about the benefits of studying abroad in Australia as a college student. Of course, she passed out after this, giving me some time to type up my first blog entry. 

We officially started our day when we met the brother/sister combo from Indiana we met last night, Pat (not Matt I soon realized) and Jessie Muehr, at the DART train station near the River Liffey. We almost missed them due to a miscommunication from no wifi communication but gladly we saw them in time to jump on the train to the fishing community Howth. A short 20min ride and we were on a peninsula with all the small village charm on Bainbridge Island near Seattle. We got some advice from another nice Irish couple to hike up into the hills behind a hotel up the street from he main drag. We were so glad we did this since we got a muddy but picturesque hike and a funny story. Ruth, in her typical fearless leader fashion, lead the way up the hills overlooking the city and came upon a dry and mint condition Leprechaun hat! The funny part of this was how dry it was despite the consistent rain throughout the day, suggesting it was dropped just before we came upon it...we did not see another soul the rest of the hike. We just unanimously decided that a leprechaun had dropped it and that he was now watching Ruth, waiting for the minute to trip her up and snatch it away. Each time Ruth tripped on a branch or slipped, the running joke was that the "Leprechaun made her do it". We finally arrived at a great lookout over the town but were dismayed to see how foggy it was, limiting the scenic view. Regardless, we trekked down and explored the roof fish & chips places before settling on the warm little pub directly below the train stop. This was an excellent choice as we munched on delicious local fish & chips washed down by some Irish coffee around a warm fireplace. Ruth elected for the just dessert approach with a rich brownie while she chatted it up with an Irish family living in Australia. Some funny quotes came from this exchange:
Irish guy to Ruth with new hat: "we don't do hiking, we do Guinness", "that is not your best look, you look fuckin' ridiculous!"

Full anrd warm, we headed back to Dublin by train

The evening was much more relaxed than the night before even though we ended up being treated for FREE to the hostel pub crawl.  This was in place of a comedy show that we could not for the life of us find but I'm not complaining because free beer is indeed free beer! The highlight of this second go-round of the crawl was the live music at the second two pubs, which Ruth and Jessie really enjoyed through dancing, singing, and giving the band members a good ole American hard time. However, the last few pubs were far more dead than the last few nights so we just decided to Irish our time together over a cheese pizza near our hostels. This was a great way to cap a nice night and allowed us time to gather advice from Pat and Jessie as they finished their similar trip to our own. They were great buddies and we will definitely stay in touch with them!