Where's Wally?: April 2014

Starting April 6th, I'll be exploring Ireland and Scotland for three weeks.

Once again, I'll be with my favorite Aussies - Harriet, Maddie and her friend, Keely, and I are going to Ireland for 12 days. After, Maddie and I are meeting Alex in Scotland for another 7 days before returning home to Bangor.

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Since I'll be MIA for about a month (and not bringing my laptop), here's what I'll be up to:

Ireland (6/4 - 18/4):

We are heading to Dublin via ferry from Holyhead.

Dublin --> Cork --> Killarney --> Dingle -->
Galway --> Belfast --> Dublin

A couple of highlights:
We plan on going to the Blarney Castle to see the Blarney Stone in Cork.

There weren't many hostel options in Dingle, and the one we choose looks questionable. Here's to hoping we don't get murdered.

In Galway, we are going to the Cliffs of Moher and then plan on taking a day trip to the Aran Islands.

While in Belfast, we will visit the Giant's Causeway and I'm also hoping to go to the Titanic Dock and Pump House.

Scotland (18/4 - 27/4):

We will spend most of the 18th in Dublin, as our flight to Edinburgh doesn't leave until 10pm.

Edinburgh --> Inverness --> Fort William --> Edinburgh

Again, highlights:

We will be in Edinburgh for Easter! Hopefully there won't be an issue with places being closed. We want to go to The Elephant House (where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter), King Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh Castle, etc.

From Inverness, we plan to take day trips to Aviemore (Balmoral Castle is there) and Loch Ness. Maybe we will see Nessy.

In Fort William, we plan to climb Ben Nevis, which is the highest mountain in UK. We also will take another day trip from there to go see the Eilean Donan Castle in Dornie. We might see the Glenfinnan Viaduct (that the Hogwarts Express went over).

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All our accommodations and transportation are booked, except for our day trips. We looked into hiring/renting a car in Scotland, but it was too expensive with underage fees and everything (although, let's be honest, I don't know how well I would manage with driving on the opposite side of the road).

We're packing a lot into three weeks, and will be exhausted, but it's going to be so worth it. Speaking of packing, I need to do that. So much to do, so little time.

If you have any suggestions about sights we need to see, let me know! :)

From Mt. Snowdon to food shopping to our recent trip to Chester Zoo -

Here's a video that (kinda) sums up this past month:

I can't believe March is over.
I'm so sad - not about March specifically, but just time going by quickly (especially considering Easter Break is basically taking up all of April).

Chester Zoo (30/3):
Recently, the weather has been nicer (aka the sun is out and about). Luckily, it was sunny and warm (well, warmer) when Maddie, Alex, Dan and I went to Chester Zoo (third trip to Chester...I need to go to other places, oh god) with Bangor's Photography Society.

It was nice to go with the society because their fee (£15) included transportation and entrance fees (which was significantly cheaper than if we had gone solo). I was excited to be in a car again, however, I thought we weren't going to make it with how this girl was driving. I digress, we arrived and stayed until closing at 4:30pm.

We saw everything from elephants to meerkats to porcupines to penguins to orangutans to anacondas to SLOTHS. You catch my drift. We even saw aardvarks...Arthur doesn't look like a real aardvark, fyi.

Also, they had a butterfly house and a bat cave (that you could walk in and weren't barricaded from walking into a flying bat - which happened to Alex and his face).