The Cliffs of Moher

Saturday, June 27, 2009 - On Saturday we took a bus out to The Cliffs of Moher - one of the most picturesque spots in Ireland. This is where the rugged "Burren" area comes to an abrupt stop in the Atlantic and produces these dramatic cliffs. Pictures!

Burren

Saturday, June 27, 2009 - On Saturday we took a bus out to one of the most famous landscapes of Ireland - The Cliffs of Moher. But on the way out we stopped to check out some stuff in the "Burren" area - an area within Ireland with a very rocky and interesting landscape. Pics of the cliffs to come next, but here are some from the ride out there:

Galway III

Saturday, June 27, 2009 - Galway, and especially our hostel, were something else.. I haven't felt so at home since we left. Each night everyone at the hostel, including the staff, would get together to watch a movie. The last one we watched, by the way, an English movie called It's All Gone Pete Tong, was really, really good.. Kind of Trainspotting meets Best in Show meets As Good as it Gets. Watch it. And make sure there aren't any kids around when you do..

Each night I found myself feeling so much like I was at home watching a movie with family that when these movies ended, it almost shocked my system to realize I wasn't in America.

There was a Canadian family at the hostel (husband, wife, and 2 kids still in school) that had been travelling all throughout Europe together for 3 months. It was fascinating talking to them about how they made it that long and that far successfully as a family unit. They also had some great suggestions for us as we make our way farther into the heart of Europe. We also all exchanged contact info and plan to stay in touch.

The day we checked out, Sam, the french dude that runs the place, tried to get us to stay longer. A friend of his was having a house party that night and we were invited, and we were offered our same room for however longer we wanted at the same rate.. I was considering this, even though we'd already entirely paid for our next hotel in Limerick.. But we painfully declined, basically just because we really hadn't slept at all the previous couple days because of noisy partygoers at the hostel and were excited to sleep again.

Brasileiros
Nos adoramos o Galway.. O albergue parece como familia. Nos encontramos muitas pessoas, que nos queremos manter contato.

Galway II

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - Lots of interesting conversations with folks here yesterday.

USA vs SPA
Yesterday Spain was playing USA in the semi-finals of a soccer tournament, and some of the guys here were from Spain (though living in France now). Anyhow, as of yesterday Spain was the #1 ranked soccer team in the world, and had also set a world record for longest winning streak ever. One of the Spanish dudes asked if anyone here was from America. I offered up my hand as unashamedly as possible. Spanish dude said "Loser buys the beer?" and I took him up on it, though Ana quickly corrected me and said "No, no, no, no.. No deal!" But I persisted. We're talkin' about the U-S of A here pal! Right?..

And USA won.. Taking down the #1 team in the world, and ending Spain's world-record win streak. Everyone here (including me to be honest) was shocked.

"I'm never drinking coca-cola again! I'm never going to consume another American product again!" The poor frenchiard was so despondent, I told him I'd buy him a beer instead.

Bikers
Had an interesting converstaion with a canadian couple. They'd been travelling all over Europe for a few months already, and told me they'd been "biking". "Biking, as in vroom vroom?" "No, as in push-bikes." "You mean, you've been biking across all of Europe by bicycle only for several months?" "Yep."

I became intruiged, especially about the logistics of a journey like that. I tried to convince Ana to do the same, but she politely declined. :)

Obama
Later that night after USA took Spain down, I saw the guy I made that bet with upstairs about to take a shower. He kinda gave me a chuckle to let me know 'no hard feelings'. As I was entering my room, he kinda ran over (half-naked) "Wait wait wait!" This should be interesting, I thought.

"What do you think about Obama?"
I told him my thoughts in general. Taking a cue from Obama's ultra-diplomatic demeanor, I told him how important I thought that the entire world was watching our election, and that had a huge bearing on me.
"Yes " he told me, "The coverage of this election was more than any American election before. But what I mean to ask you is, how does the rest of America feel about Obama? Does everyone in America like him?"
"No not necessarily. There are plenty that were opposed to him being elected, and still are."
"A-HA! I knew it! I knew the media in France wasn't giving us the full story!"

I found it pretty fascinating that apparently some French citizens feel like their media sways their opinions in one general direction and doesn't give them the full story.

Image of America
I asked the guy what the French's general opinion of America is - and was shocked at his response.
"We feel that America is kind of like a legend; like a fantasy."
"What?! That's how most americans feel about Europe!"
"Yes but, your culture's standard of living seems to be so high. French people dream of going to America."
"But also, we feel that America is wrongly stereotyped sometimes. The general idea is that kids live there like the kids in American Pie, and that they have parties there like that. We know that this is just a legend, and things like that don't really happen there."

(At this point his other two friends from France came up the steps and he yells at them "Hey hey guys! Come over here! We're talking about America!")

They come running over, wanting to know more. We're about 20 minutes into this conversation by the way, and the same french guy is still in just his bath towel. I kept thinking; surely he'll want to take a shower soon?

"Guys! Tell him about the stereotype of America. You know, American Pie?"
They all agree in unison "Ahh yes, yes. All french kids think Americans have parties like that in American Pie, but surely, it can't be true."
I kinda chuckle and tell them "Weellllll.. It's really not that far off, to be honest. I mean in college y-"
They all cut me off and start jumping and cheering "YES! YES! YES! Are you serious?!" They're all pumping their fists and screaming.
I proceeded to tell them how if you're not 21, you can not drink in bars in general; unless you have a fake ID. They gasped at this, and told me how they started drinking in pubs in their earlier teens. So I told them most kids throw house parties to get around this issue.. And yes, sometimes they're a little crazy.

"We must go to America! Tell us, where should we go in America to have experiences like that?!"

So funny.. I never expected this was the impression the French have of Americans..

Galway I

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - Galway is very cool - we both love it here. It's a smaller city but on the coast, the people seem much more easy going and a bit happier. It's been sunny & warm ever since we've been here. There's also Brazilians everywhere here - even some advertisements in Portuguese.

Apparently nobody works here. In the middle of town is Eyre Square, where hundreds and hundreds of people flock to bask in the sun, apparently all day. 2:00 on a Tuesday, 3:00 on a Wednesday, it's packed full of people of all ages. Really, does anyone work here?

Monday night before we left Dublin I did something really stupid - drank coffee at night in order to keep up with work. We went to sleep at 12:30am, and I slept hard - until 2:30am, where I was wired awake. I read for a few hours, then surfed the internet for a few hours, read more.. Then we left for Galway. After a total of 2 hours of sleep, I was exhausted by the time we made it to Galway.

But the hostel is super cool and horribly international. Here in the common room with me right now are Australian, French, Spanish, and Irish. The manager is a young french guy that plays lots of french music here, sings a lot in french, etc. I find it very cool; very peaceful.

This morning we woke up around noon, feeling very refreshed; and for some reason I had Brazil in my head. I'm starting to get kind of excited to go back in August. Warm sun, happy, familiar faces, struggling to speak, eating way too much food. But for now, I am happy here in Galway, and can already tell I'm going to miss it when we leave.

Brasileiros
Nos estamos aqui na cidade chamada "Galway" - no oeste da Irlandia; perto do mar. Eh linda aqui, e ja nos gostamos mais que Dublin. Tem sol mais quente, pessoas mais tranquilas, e mais linda em geral.

Guiness

I forgot to post anything about Guiness! This was pretty cool. Obviously pretty touristy, but cool nonetheless to see the original Guiness brewery where it all started and still happens. And apparently, will happen for some time, as the founder Arthur Guiness signed a lease on the place centuries ago for 9,000 years.

The brewery is laid out in 6 or 7 floors, each one with different displays or demonstrations of the brewing process. Each floor smells like beer, which is even awesomer.

On the 2nd floor from the top is an area where they show you the proper way to pour a Guiness if you want, then you get to drink it. Which is even awesomerer.

Then on the top floor is a panoramic bar all glassed-in that gives you views all over Dublin. And you get to redeem your entry ticket for yet another free pint, which is even awesomererer.

Featured in the above picture is me, achieving cosmic understanding of the way my fingers float through the air and leave a rainbow trail behind. Awesomerererer.

Brasileiros
Eu esqueci para escrever sobre a cervejaria Guiness! Fotos..

Dublin V

Saturday, June 20, 2009 - I will say, I've found a couple other pubs around that have had friendlier people than I'd experienced so far..

Dublin has been one place in the world I've dreamed about coming to for so much of my life; I think maybe I've built it up in my mind a bit too much. It's cool here, but I wouldn't rank it the prettiest we've seen. There are indeed some specific areas that are pretty though, most of which we saw on our yet-again touristy free 3-hour walking tour. Pictures from yesterday & today:


Brasileiros
Dublin eh legal, mas nao eh mais linda cidade que nos vimos ainda. Mas, nos fazemos um passeio e achamos fotos legais.

Dublin IV

Thursday, June 18, 2009 - We head out together to find wifi today, and after about 3 hours, we give up. I think at this point I've seen a total of 3 cafes. Forget the wifi, just cafes.. Perhaps we're just looking in the wrong places though.

But again, we come back to the hotel so I can work. It turns out, Ana did some researching on the net and found many visitors with the same issue.. Apparently the wifi wave just hasn't really hit here. Very strange to me though for being the capital of Ireland, no?

Dublin III

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - After my second joyous experience here, I set out to find a cafe to work from while Ana stayed back and rested. I walked around Dublin for about 3.5 hours and found a total of 2 cafes. Neither had wifi. At that point I'd settle for a cafe, pub, bathroom - as long as it had wifi. Lo and behold - a pub with my favorite little sign in the window - wifi! And it's pretty cool inside. Like 4 levels. I ask a waitress "You guys have wifi here?" "Yep! It's unsecured so just look for the one with our name on it and.. Ahh, you know the rest right?" "Definitely - Thanks!" So I go ahead and settle in, find a place with a plug nearby and order a €5 pint (about $7.50) and connect to the network. Pull up the internet and see the page come up asking for credit card information - about 20 euros to use their wifi.

So I headed back to the hotel to work from there. Not. very. happy.

Ana couldn't really believe that I couldn't find any cafes with wifi, so she vowed to go with me the next morning and we'd find one together.

Dublin II

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - My second experience with a Dubliner was about a 1/2 notch above my previous. The main difference being that this time my money wasn't forceably attempted at.

All I wanted was to get a SIM card for my cel phone and also see if I could figure out why this broadband internet card I bought at another Carphone Warehouse store (a europe-wide chain, kinda like a smaller BestBuy) wasn't working. So I headed into downtown Dublin to find another Carphone Warehouse. I've used them all throughout the UK and they'd rocked. I enter, conversation ensues:

Me: "Hey how's it going?"
Dub: "Hey."
Me: "So, I bought this mobile internet card from another Carphone Warehouse store but it's not working here in Ireland. Do you -"
Dub: "Yeah I have no idea about that you'll have to call the manufacturer."
Me: "Uhhh. Okie dokie."

At this point I notice a box of various SIM cards for sale on the counter - just what I was looking for.

Me: "Are these SIM cards for cel phones?"
Dub: "I have absolutely no idea whether or not that'll work for your phone."
Me: "Heh. Ok - I need a SIM card for my cel phone. Is that what these are for?"
Dub: "Yeah."
I grab one of the SIM packages (inches away from him) and hand it to him.
Dub: "That one's empty."
I put the SIM package back in the box and shuffle through others, grab another and give it to him.
Dub: "That's empty too. All those are empty."
At this point I drop the package on the counter, put my hands on the counter and laugh audibly "Heh. Ok man. May I please have a box that's not empty?"
Dub: Pulls a box from behind the counter, I pay him, he slams my change on the counter, gives me my receipt, and doesn't say another word.

I try my best to just chalk both these incidents up as bad luck. So far though, I'm not horribly happy.

Welcome to Dublin

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - Our entry into Dublin was not exactly what I was hoping for.

My first encounter with a Dubliner
Ana mentioned later on Tuesday night how she noticed a lot of the windows on the buildings & houses were barred-up for safety, kinda like in Brazil. We arrived at the bus station and the first thing I wanted to do in Ireland was get some Euros from an ATM, as all I had were pounds. After this and while walking back toward the bus station, a less-than-desirable looking Irish guy kinda jumped in front of me, while I then noticed his buddy come up behind me. This didn't seem good. So I pushed my way through the guy in front of me. He then grabbed my arm as I passed him and he shouted "Hey are you from here!#@!" - relevance of which I still have no idea. I yanked my arm out of his grasp, kept straight ahead and refused to look back. I found Ana inside the bus station and told her "Let's go let's go let's go..." As we rounded up our stuff I noticed the two guys now inside the middle of the bus station, looking at us. We headed outside and luckily a cabbie was right there. We hopped in and as we did so, I noticed those two guys coming outside, just short of having that much-anticipated chat with me about, I can only assume, poetry and rainbows.

Brasileiros
O primeira coisa que foi quando nos chegamos em Dublin (Irlandia) foi dois homens tentando pegar meu dinheiro. Massa!

Scotland -> Ireland

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - Tuesday we left Edinburgh for an all-day journey to Dublin. We took a bus from Edinburgh to the port town of Stranraer, where we then caught a ferry. I was very surprised at our ferry experience.. I'm almost positive we haven't stayed in a hotel as nice as this ferry. There were restaurants (plural), cafes, little movie theatres, lounges, bars, etc.. Even free wifi.

I don't know if it's because of what my sister said not too long ago about Ireland - "Ireland is like the Texas of Europe isn't it?".. But driving in, I felt like I was in Texas for some reason. The drive into Dublin felt like the drive into houston on I-45S. I saw some Irish people wearing UT shirts. I might be over-stereotyping but there's also still a little tinge in Texas, at least the smaller towns, that seems to have it's old west culture still attached to it. And somehow, I feel the same thing here in Ireland. I don't know exactly how.

Brasileiros
Na Terca, nos saimos de Edinburgh na Escocia e fomos para Dublin, na Irlandia. O barco foi ridiculo; nos nao temos um hotel esse legal ainda..

E eu nao sei por que, mas eu sinto como estou em Texas aqui.. ??

Edinburgh III

Sunday, June 14, 2009 - We've wanted to see Rosslyn Chapel since we came to Scotland, and as it's close to Edinburgh, we saved it for a Sunday. If you don't recall this name, it's the chapel at the end of The DaVinci Code where the Christian lineage is discovered. However, I'd seen a few things about Rosslyn Chapel pre-Davinci Code.. Most notably that it's the supposed resting place of the Holy Grail, but also supposedly has ties to the Knights Templar.

In any case, we attended Sunday mass there rather than cattle through with the masses that pay to go through. 1) This is cheaper, and 2) I personally prefer to congregate in the fashion originally intended.

Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside the chapel which is a shame (for you), as the stone carvings inside are some of the most intricate I've seen.

Sir Walter Scott Memorial
This gigantic memorial in the metro area actually has a staircase you can walk up to get to the top.. That was probably the weirdest experience I've had here yet. The winding staircase has 287 steps to the top, and the staircase is tiny - at points, barely big enough for you alone to fit through.. Couple that with the fact that people are coming down while you are going up - this is not the best idea for those of you that are claustrophobic.. Which includes me.

Luckily for me this entire experience is surreal, so that means I'm able to suspend phobias if I feel so inclined; which I did. There are 4 different landings to get to the top, and we stopped at each of them to regain our equalibrium, take pictures of the people/ants below, then get dizzy again from the height and climb up more stairs. It's quite a funny task to have to stop in mid-flight (and mid-darkness) work with the person coming down as to how the two of you are going to get past each other. As you near the top, the staircase gets narrower and narrower until the end, where both your shoulders are squeezed against the walls. You kinda have to turn sideways and pop out the top.

And once we got to the top, there was a tiny walkway of which to walk around that comfortably held maybe 7 people. Unfortunately, people kept coming up, and nobody was going down. And it's physically impossible for more than 1 person to go through this area.. Which meant that the stairway was clogging up with people, with nowhere to go. There were now probably 14 people out there.

But alas, a couple people went back down and we were able to go back ourselves. Pretty sure my face was white. What a wacky experience.. But I'm glad we did it.

Edinburgh II

Saturday, June 13, 2009 - Yesterday we became supertourists again and found a free walking tour of Edinburgh. It was quite good actually and lasted 3 hours. They're very touristy, but very informative; and better yet - free. A few highlights -


Greyfriar's Bobby: I found this to be a very cool story.. In the 1800s Scotland had a law that once you died, you were no longer your own property. Which meant that any possessions on yourself were up-for-grabs.. So grave-robbing became so out of control that it was actually considered an industry (apparently it had it's own union). So in this particular cemetery in Edinburgh a night watchman was hired to watch over the graves. As was customary for this job, he got himself a ferocious beast of a dog; the Skye Terrier you see on the left - Bobby. The dog never left his owner's side -whether walking the grounds at 3:00AM or frequenting a pub. The two became known around town as unseperable.. Until the night watchman died 2 years later. At the funeral the congregation noted how Bobby sat next to the grave for the entire ceremony. The congregation also noted how Bobby stayed at the grave after his owner was buried and everyone proceeded out. Folks then noted the next day that Bobby was still there at the grave.. And the next day.. And the next week.. In all, he stayed at his owner's grave for 14 years. Apparently the city took good care of the dog while he tended to his master's grave for those 14 years. On the pup's tombstone: "Greyfriars Bobby — died 14th January 1872 — aged 16 years — Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all."

In tribute, we drank some toasts & ate some chicken-filled haggis at the "Greyfriars Bobby" pub. A really cool pub with great atmosphere, ales, and the best haggis we've had so far.

Brasileiros
No seculo 19, um homem que trabalhou num cemeterio para vigiar pegou um cachorro para lhe ajudar - "Bobby", da raca "Skye Terrier". Os dois foram sempre unidos, inseparaveis.. Ate o dono morreu dois anos depois. Bobby ficou perto do tumulo no enterro.. E ele ficou perto do tumulo o proximo dia.. E o proximo catorze anos.. Ele nunca saiu. Uma pedra de granito com inscricao "Greyfriars Bobby - morreu em 14 de Janeiro de 1872, aos dezesseis anos - Que sua lealdade e devoção sirvam de lição a nós todos."

A medievel burglar alarm - Notice the 3rd step in the staircase here. This unusually large and awkward step served as a deterrent for burglars, which at the very least would wake up the owner when he tripped.. And at the most would cause the burglar to fall down the stone steps. Quite engenious..

Edinburgh I

Saturday, June 13, 2009 - We love it here. Of all the larger cities we've visited in the UK, this has been our favorite (sorry Jen).

Edinburgh is just oozing with charm.. It's naturally beautiful, horribly hilly, and the architecture is somehow a little different. I don't know if it's because of the stone available in this region, but monuments/cathedrals and such seem to have been built with some sort of black stone. It's quite pretty.

Already I can tell this is the kind of place you could live your entire life investigating and see something new & fascinating each day. Edinburgh doesn't have "alleys", they have "closes". And basically every close has some story behind it, with a shield of arms above it and details engraved. Almost 90% of the time, walking through a close will put you in the middle of a courtyard, pubs, cafes, shops, old flats, etc. And it really doesn't matter where you walk or where you look: everything is beautiful; nothing is not beautiful.

Brasileiros
Nos adoramos essa cidade.. Ate agora, essa cidade eh nossa favorita de todos as cidades grandes no Reino Unido.

St. Andrews II

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - Jolly Green Giant snored louder than the previous night. That makes night #3 with almost 0 sleep.. I'd say out of our 3 nights there, we slept 4 or 5 hours total. Pictures from St Andrews!:

Scotland fun fact #1: It doesn't get dark here. At least not this time of year.. The sun kinda sets around 11:00PM and officially rises around 4:00AM, but it's plenty light between those hours. I guess I never realized, we're at the same longitude as Alaska, the top of Canada, or Denmark.

St. Andrews I

Tuesday, May 9, 2009 - We are in St. Andrews - the birthplace of Golf. Only I don't play golf. But I found a WalMart and bought a 'Nines of Iron' or something, some sort of club, and went onto one of the golf courses here called "The Old Course", which was really expensive, and tried to play a few holes with that club, then I got bored so I just quit.

Just kidding. But I almost wanted to just to tick off all my friends & family that play golf, which is probably all of them.

We did stroll around the course though, which is quite pretty. Right on the beach, and probably a quarter mile down the beach are ruins of a cathedral and a church, of which date back to the 1300s.

Hostel
Sucks. It's actually a really nice hostel, but this hostel doesn't have private rooms so we have to stay in dorm rooms, and apparently it's a requirement that at least one (1) other patron snore like the Jolly Green Giant. If you're not loud enough to be easily heard through your earplugs awkwardly jammed into your earholes, they will find someone else that's better equipped to fulfill the task. The hostel is also placed just ontop of a loud & busy bar/restaurant, so it's also apparently a requirement that if you were somehow able to sneak in some sleep past the Jolly Green Giant in your room, you will be given the opportunity to sing along to the lyrics of the song below your arse.

It's very interesting who comes through the hostel though. I chatted with a german couple that spoke english quite well, and the guy and I debated on German beer vs. Belgian beer. He insisted that any of the beers I liked from Belgium are 'piss'. Then we watched a couple there do a few lines of coke in front of us.

Ahh, good times.

Brasileiros
Estamos em "St. Andrews", o lugar onde o jogo do Golf comecou. Eu nao jogo Golf.. Mas ainda, eh linda aqui e muito legal; eh uma cidade universitaria.

Nos nao conseguimos dormir as duas noites passadas, porque estamos dividindo um quarto num albergue. Nos gostamos dessa cidade, mas estamos animados para ir o Edinburgh agora!

Inverness III

Saturday, June 6, 2009 - Today we went outside of Inverness a little to check out some castles.

1. Urquhart Castle - Remains of a castle right on the water of Loch Ness.. Great views, crazy location. Sounds like the name of a castle from Shrek, doesn't it?
2. Eilan Donan Castle - Gaelic for, surprisingly, Donan Island. This was the coolest maintained castle I've seen yet. It seems obvious now: the Scots must have roamed the entire country looking for the most ridiculous places to plop a castle on. This one is on a little island formation jutting out from the bank of a loch. This was also the first castle that I've actually got to see the interior of (that's been maintained at least). There must have been 25 rooms in there! I wasn't expecting that. Each of the rooms was tiny, had a little window with a ridiculous view, and were located in very inconspicuous places. I can't imagine how many secret rooms were in there..

Brasileiros
Hoje nos fomos para ver as castelos a fora de Inverness.. Primeira foi "Urquhart Castle" - um castelo na uma serra sobre "Loch Ness". E depois foi "Eilan Donan Castle" - um castelo na uma ilha.. Os dois sao ridiculos!

Another video

From Jamie Smith -

Pub Experiences III

Thursday, June 4, 2009 - Last night was possibly the most enjoyable night I've had since we've been in the UK.

It started out with a humbling encounter with a 'pissed' (self-referenced) Scot at the pub we were eating at. We're sitting there minding our own business, Ana using my laptop and me reading a little theology via my iTouch, when an angry Scot comes over to our table screaming at us "NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!@#! NO F!@#ING LAPTOPS IN OUR PUBS! I F!@#!ING HATE TO SEE LAPTOPS IN OUR PUBS!"

He continued on a loud tirade as to how technology is ruining their culture. Then I told him "May be. But if it weren't for this laptop, I wouldn't be able to come here to Scotland - a place I've wanted to come my whole life."

Then a big smile grew on his face and he shook my hand. He became at least halfway friendly after that, admitting "Okay, I'm a bit pissed (drunk)." But as he walked away he put his arm around a patron, danced a jig, then shouted from across the room "Welcome to Scotland! Where we hate to see laptops in our pubs!"

Yeesh.

This this was perfectly balanced however by our next experience.. Live music at a venue called "Hootananny's", a place voted Best Live Music Venue in Scotland a handful of times in the past several years. And I can see why..

Tonight there was traditional Scottish music led by UK-award-winning fiddler Jamie Smith. He was accompanied by an Irish accordianist and an Irish guitarist. Their music was beautiful; what I assume were Scottish & Irish classics but slightly modified with jazz chords. I could listen to them every night.

At intermission I went to buy their CD, which I wasn't aware was being sold by the fiddle player, Jamie Smith himself. He was horribly humble, very personable, and honestly seemed as interested in me as I in him. He wanted to know where I was from, and was very interested in the fact that I'm from Texas. He told me that he understands Irish music is popular in Texas, and it seems that the Irish like Texans. That would go along well with what my sister said - "Isn't Ireland like the Texas of Europe?".. I mentioned to him that I thought I picked up some jazz chords in their music, which surprised me being in traditional Scottish music. He told me the guitarist is getting a degree in music in London and is actually a drummer in a jazz band. He then wanted to know if I played music and became interested in that..

Jamie then wanted to know where we'd been so far, how I was able to travel for so long, etc. In any case, I was truly astonished at how humble this talented and successful of a musician really was. It was one of those nights so conducive for introspection and such. This is why I wanted to come here..

I recorded a few clips and will upload them as I'm able.. Below is the 1st of 4 clips; here is, I believe, Lawrence McElhinney warming up on the accordian:

Inverness II

Thursday, June 4, 2009 - Today we popped into a pub and finally, I felt like I was in Scotland. It's so weird, but I really haven't been into a pub or cafe that seems to play any music from the UK. It's always either pop music (mostly from the US), or nothing at all.

This place, Hootananny's, apparently was voted best live music venue in Scotland in 2005. Live music every night, awesome decor, super nice people working there, very happy (probably drunk) patrons, and finally: Scottish music playing. Now I'm in Scotland.

And tonight, an award-winning UK fiddler will be playing there and admission is free. We will be there.

Hey, I do have photos! Oops.

Brasileiros
Hoje nos fomos para um bar e fin-al-mente, eu sinti que estou em Escocia. Eh estranha, ate agora, eu nunca achei um bar ou cafe que tocou musica Escocia. Mas hoje noite, eles estao tocando musica Escocia ao vivo.. E estou animado demais..

Inverness I

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - We are here in Inverness - the Highlands of Scotland. We have walked a considerable amount since we've been in the UK, and with considerable weight.. It's taking its toll on my legs a bit lately, so we honestly haven't done a whole lot here. I am enjoying being lazy. No pictures to post yet however..

I did find a cafe here that would likely be my local hangout if I lived here (I like trying to identify those for some reason). The owner is Polish, which is of interest to me as my grandfather was from there, and of which we plan on going back to this year and perhaps see if we can find the village where my grandfather lived.

It seems that much of the clientele here are Polish as well, which kinda reminds me of Portland and how the Brazilian community is so close there. Like a little family.

Brasileiros
Estamos aqui em "Inverness" - um lugar em o distrito famoso na Escocia chamado "The Highlands". Mas, nos nao fizemos muito ainda.. Na verdade, acho que estamos cansados de tanto andar muito. Entao, nao tenho fotos ainda.. Sinto.

Mas, eu achei um cafe muito legal. A dona do cafe eh Polonesa, que eh interesante para mim porque meu Avo nasceu em Polonia, e eu quero ir para la para ver a cidade onde meu Avo morou.

Muitos Poloneses vao nesse cafe, o que me faz lembrar de Portland, porque a comunidade Brazileira la eh muito unida. Como uma familia.

Oban III

Sunday, June 2, 2009 - On sunday we embraced our true american cheesiness and took one of those bright red, double-decker buses full of pasty-white, farmer-tanned, sunscreen-clad americans and brits.. And it was actually worth it. The bus took us to some remote areas of Scotland, of which were naturally breathtaking and unspoiled. Pictures:

Brasileiros
No Domingo nos estamos turistas bregas; nos pegamos um onibus por turistas, e valeu a pena. O onibus nos levou para lugares incriveis. Os fotos: