I plan to go to Niagara Falls after the work week, so I’m looking forward to that!

Now maybe I’ll get around to going through some more of my photos, I hope to get them uploaded soon!

I’ve gotten to the Trinity College and National Museum of Ireland, both of which are really worthwhile – albeit the Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity is a bit pricey, seeing the old library (and the books themselves) was worthwhile. The National museum has lots of great antiquities covering all periods of Irish history – with some things from as far back as 7000 BC.

I visited the Guinness storehouse and the Old Jameson distillery – the Guinness storehouse is very worthwhile and really well done – it’s a huge exhibit and it’s clear they’ve put a ton of money in to it. The Jameson tour wasn’t as good – and it cost more!

I ran in to a friend Hugo from Montreal at the Guinness storehouse – we knew we were both in Dublin but communicating was a bit tricky, fun to run in to him there! We did the Jameson tour after and met a local friend of his afterwards.

I made it to Kilmainham Hospitol where the Irish Museum of Modern Art is – and that was pretty interesting, unfortunately I didn’t make it to Kilmainham Gaol before it closed – I really wanted to see it, but it closed at 4:30, earlier than I thought I had read. It’s an old prison, where people from the 1916 rebellion were kept and some executed. Lots of neat architecture, and it’s a Panopticon, which I’ve wanted to see for a while. That’s a design such that the guards can overseen every part of the prison, and all of the inmates without them knowing they are being observed.

So, now I’ll be heading home tomorrow – my flight leaves at 9:10 and I should be back in Seattle just after 6PM.

I haven’t uploaded pictures in a while – hopefully I’ll get some uploaded tonight, but it may not be until I’m back until they’re all uploaded.

It’s been a good trip! I’m looking forward to visiting again in summer or spring some time, especially to see more of Scotland’s highlands.

I think I’ll stay a night in Belfast, depending on the cost to go down to Dublin, my BritRail pass expires after today and it may be useful for at least part of the journey down to Dublin.

Next update will be from Ireland, later!

Here’s a picture of the ferry from Mull to Oban.

We are going to stay here another night, we’re at the Rockcliff B&B in Tobemory with the great hosts Donna and Pattrick, an English couple.

Here’s a picture of the coastal scenery!

I’ve booked a bed at the Oban Youth Hostel, which looks very neat and is really inexpensive – 19£ including 4£ for breakfast. The building looks pretty amazing, like an old abbey. Take a look at their website:

http://www.syha.org.uk/hostels/highlands/oban.aspx

Tomorrow I plan to check out Oban itself, and figure out what to do for getting to the Islands of Mull and Iona – from what I’ve heard, it should be pretty simple and there’s frequent running ferries throughout the day. I hope to stay a night or so on Mull, which should be nice and relaxing.

I’ll try and update again once I’m in Oban! I haven’t yet uploaded any pictures from Edinburgh, perhaps I’ll get to do that some tonight as well. Bye!

My stay at the Abbey Hotel was good, it’s up a hill a bit but it’s centrally located between the old and new towns of Edinburgh.

I met some great people while I was here, Jim, a fellow from Musselburgh was very kind and invited me to come along with him and two of his other friends last night to The Stand Comedy Club – that was great fun, stand up comedians from Scotland and Ireland – a real local treat! Thanks to Jim and Steven for showing me around, and I’m afraid I don’t remember the other fellows name – but thanks!

I arrived in Edinburgh at 17:00 sharp, and managed to find my hotel without too much difficulty – it’s a bit away from things from what I can tell, but only by maybe a 10 minute walk.

I went out to dinner without any of my things, so I just snapped a few photos with my iPhone – this one, while not too great, shows how neat it is here. There’s huge Baroque style buildings, castles, abbeys, and cathedrals everywhere in the old town area and along the Royal Mile. Very cool to see and walk around – and this was just on my way to find some dinner! I’m looking forward to wandering around more tomorrow and in the coming days.

It’s -9ºC right now – but it’s not as bad walking around here as it was in London. Lots of people out and about, too!

Well, I’ll post more as I discover things, good night!

The train has free (shoddy, but given where we are and what we’re going through – impressive) WiFi which is nice.

Checking the weather forecast shows that Edinburgh won’t be getting above freezing the next few days, with lows down to -13c! That’s about 8.6F, cold! Glad I got that coat when I did.

People on the train after our last stop (Newcastle – the last England stop) now have the distinctive Scottish accent, they say Edinburgh quite differently than I (try) to say it, and differently than the English say it as well. It’s more of just an “Eburh” than ed-in-bur-oh.

Here’s a picture from the train of some cooling towers in the flatlands of England, there were a bunch of plants in this one area. The geotag for the photo is probably incorrect – I think it got applied when I uploaded the photo vs when the photo was taken.

Cooling towers in England