Went to Scotland aaaandd...

It turns out I am SUPER allergic to bed bugs.

Scotland was beautiful. Well, we were in Edinburgh specifically. And the weather was absolutely gorgeous, sunny (and FREEZING) and perfect for wandering around the Christmas markets that opened this past weekend. And my friends and I took a tour to Stirling Castle and Loch Loman, which was GORRRRGEOUS.

But the problems began later that evening. At first I just thought I'd been bitten by some mosquitos or something. Then I heard about highland midges, which are like our noseeums and apparently lots of people have bad reactions to them.

THEN THE BADNESS HAPPENED.

I was pretty itchy on Saturday, and I noticed that some of the bites on my ankle were really red. Wore some boots to the Scotland vs. Australia rugby match (Also, I know that it sounds like all I do is go to rugby matches and travel. NOT the case.) because it was suuuper cold out, and then when we got back to the hostel to get ready to go out I noticed that I had a blister on the back of my leg. Gross, but not a big deal.

WRONG. 

We went out on the town and got back around 4 am. At around this point, I went to change into my pajamas and realized that the blister was LITERALLY (and NO, for once in my life, this is NOT an exaggeration. I know I am prone to them but if you want I can show you photographic evidence) the size of a golf ball on the back of my leg.

Luckily, one of the friends who was with me is a nurse (shoutout to Rosie, for being a lifesaver) and she handled the situation.

Oh but it gets so much worse before it gets better (I'm still not really at the getting better part). 

So now all of these bites that I have are starting to blister. None of them are as bad as the one on my foot (although my ankle is still so swollen that it's twice the size of the other one), but I look kind of like I have leprosy. So there's that. And I'm itchy like I have the chicken pox except that apparently scratching makes the ones that aren't that bad much much worse. So I'm kind of just writhing around trying not to touch anything.

And I have to go see a doctor to make sure that I don't have/get an infection. FUN FUN.

2013 has been crap, basically.

Other than that, Edinburgh was lovely. I didn't get to climb Arthur's Seat because my foot was too swollen to walk around much/the bug bites on my feet itch every time I put on shoes. But we went up to the castle on the hill in the city, went to the cafe where JK Rowling wrote parts of Harry Potter (!!!!!), saw some dude with an owl in the street (he OBVIOUSLY isn't following the Ministry of Magic's decrees about showing off pets to Muggles), watched the Christmas light show, rode in the ferris wheel at the Christmas markets, DIDN'T EAT ANY HAGGIS, learned that Band-Aids are called "plasters" in Ireland and Scotland, met some cool Scottish people, and saw some highland cattle.

In conclusion, Scotland was wonderful but bed bugs are THE DEVIL.

Connemara! (But still no dragons)

It has been far too long since I last updated my blog, so here you go!

Yesterday I went to Connemara, which is a beauuuuutiful stretch of mountains and hills in County Galway, with two Canadian friends and two Irish friends. Connemara's pretty remote, for Ireland -- about 1.5 hours away from the city of Galway -- and although there are houses in the area, we actually saw more sheep than people. And according to one of my Irish friends (although I can't remember which at the moment), people out there still use DIAL-UP TO GET ON THE INTERNET.
Seriously. Talk about dark ages.

Anyways, I go some incredible pictures. We went to the Connemara National Park, which was GORGEOUS. It was so bizarre to be in a place without power lines! We hiked most of the way up a mountain (I say most of the way because we kept getting to points that we thought were the top and then we'd look up and realize the path kept going up. So we finally decided that NOPE we'd done enough hiking). Here's a shot:

That was absolutely LOVELY. However, it wouldn't be a day in the life without some mishaps. Don't worry! The adventures keep coming. 

Long story short, we had some car trouble on the drive back to Dublin. As soon as we got back on the highway, my friend's car started making a loud beeping noise: the parking brake alarm wouldn't stop going off. So we pulled over to check that out, and even when she turned the car off and back on again, it just stayed on. 

Obviously, the next step is to call an adult. Her dad met us out on the highway to save the day -- turned out the car was out of brake fluid! -- and we eventually got back on the road (with a few minor bumps, bruises, and laughs along the way) and made it back to Dublin.

I've posted a bunch of pictures on facebook -- although not even half of the ones I'd taken because there are a lot of pictures of just mountains and then I was sweaty from hiking and you don't want to see any of THOSE, let me tell you. Anyways, check out facebook for more pictures. And I'll try to get better at updating.

Love you all!

-Stephanie