Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish you were here.

Ireland

(ps. title of post: "Beautiful Gorgeous Wish you were here" is from what movie? Hints: must-see chick flick.. stars Meg Ryan)

Day 3

Ok, so we land in Ireland.

Since you know, apparently our luggage was already there somewhere, we go looking for it. "We don't have any missing luggage." they tell us. Hmm.. we check baggage claim (from our flight). There it is. It was on our flight. It was not already in Shannon. JFK lied to us because they didn't want to look for it. Fabulous. (that was my last whine-fest about our airline troubles I promise!)

So we are traveling in our hire (in Europe you do not rent cars, you hire them). The steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car. We drive on the wrong side of the road. The stick (manual car) is handled via your left hand.

We hit two vehicles within the first hour. Not. Lying.

I say "we" because I feel bad blaming my brother because he was the only one of legal age (like 21 or somethigng..) to be driving said rental car (or skilled in handling the stick). --Legality aside, I did drive it for a grand total of 5 blocks just so I could say I did ;)

Anyways.. Those were our only two accidents for the whole trip, and they were both just busting up other people's side-rearview mirrors. No big deal.

Then we drive (through which I slept much of..) from the airport to Belfast. Oh yea Jaim met us at the airport in shannon.. Our ferry from Belfast, scheduled to leave at.. 8pm I think, gets cancelled due to "technical difficulties" (uhh.. sketch.) So we find a pub for supper, where I promptly order my first Guiness for the trip. Sadly, throughout our stay, throughout the drinks I ordered, I was not once carded. I had my 18-year-old ID all ready and everything, but they just don't care. I love Ireland.

Our re-scheduled ferry leaves 3-hours later--disappointing because it is now dark outside and we can no longer see our gorgeous surroundings.

Day 4

We finally reach Stranraer, UK at about 1am. Our b&b is aDORable. Sleep. Ahhh..

In the AM we get a full Scotish breakfast from our host (lies.. Luke gets the full breakfast, the girls grab some toast and coffee. Half-cooked piggie? I'll pass.)

We had planned to go up to Isle of Sky (like wayyy northern Scotland), but we had to reevaluate due to losing an entire day because of airplanes!! (whoops I was supposed to let that go..) So we make our way via the hire to Galloway Forest Park, a huge like "national park" by our standards.. Studying our travel books, we find a cute little hike that says will take about 2 hours. Ha. That's hilarious. I mean, none of us are monster hikers, but there is No way that hike could take 2 hours..we circled a lake! It took most of the day.. no big deal. It was beyond gorgeous. I took so. many. photos. And internet is shite out here in no-mans-land, so I'm not going to even try to upload many photos.. maybe a couple.

So.. exhaustion stole the rest of our night. Plus it took us many a stresses to find our b&b (I mean, not for me, because, as quickly became a general rule of thumb, I was sleeping).. Aaaand, I don't even remember what town that was in.. Whatever the case, the floor had red carpeting that reminded me of my childhood (scared? ;)) and the bathroom had mirrors on three walls (which did Not remind me of my childhood.) It was.. interesting.

Trivia Answer: French Kiss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6mb1wFPRhs

about 15 seconds in..