Alright, so here we go, I'm back at work and exhausted from a serious case of jet lag. But I feel like I must spew forth the details of my amazing week in Ireland and Scotland, so here you go! Also, Pictures are available now at my .Mac website, just scroll on down and you'll see the most recent photo galleries!

First, since I was all over the place and encountered so many people, let me give you the cast of characters.

Matt: That's me. If you've been here before you probably know more about me than you want to.
Elena: My loving girlfriend, currently wrapping up a year in London getting her graduate degree in musical theatre.
Amanda/Ina: My mom's cousin who lives in Ireland and whose gorgeous house we stayed at. She was born Ina, but changed her name to Amanda.
Paul: Amanda's husband, who is Irish and one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.
Jen: Elena's best friend. They were roommates at NYU and it was Jen that first had the idea to go to London for graduate work and got Elena to go with her. She's a singer too.
Peter: Jen's boyfriend who lives in Edinburgh. They met last summer while Jen was in Scotland working the big festival thats held every August.
Clayface: Peter's band, consisting of lead singer Matt, Peter and Paul on guitar, Malcolm on bass and Aaron on drums. We hung out with them a lot, since they all live together, minus Malcolm. Great guys, a blast to get drunk, or pissed as they say in the UK, with.

OK, so now that you know who most everyone is, here are the details.

Friday, July 2: I got to the airport with way too much time to spare, so much so that the check-in agent was curious as to why I was even standing in her line. I had to explain that it was because as being freakishly tall I needed a better seat, which she happily provided for me. Once that was all set I made my way to the gate to chill out for about the next three hours. I passed the time by watching some DVD's, surfing the web with the $6.95 wireless connection in the terminal and drinking a couple of pints of beer to get a nice buzz going so I could pass out once on board. I finally boarded the plan, passed out like planned and woke up sometime Saturday morning with about two hours to go until we landed in London.

Saturday, July 3: Plane landed and I hauled ass through the terminal only to wait on an excruciatingly long line at passport control. Once I finally got to the agents desk he gave me the third degree and 20 questions about why I was there, how long I was staying, when was my return date, where Elena went to school and even asked to see my return ticket. Once I was through I went to baggage claim and from a distance saw that my suitcase was about to leave the conveyor belt area so I ran like hell and grabbed it and rolled on through customs. Elena was waiting for me on the other side, so we kissed and hugged and made our way through to the Underground to hop on the tube and make our way to her flat.

Finally made it to her place and chatted with Jen and Karina, Elena's roommate. Once they finally headed in their own seperate directions Elena and I took a much needed nap. Once we were up we headed into town and caught a matinee of Shrek 2, which was pretty funny and cute, but not as good as the first one, then we headed into Central London to grab some Mexican for dinner, changed my cash to Pounds and got raped on the conversion fee and headed back to her flat where we packed for Ireland and Scotland and finally went to bed.

Sunday, July 4: Weird thing about Elena. She sets her alarm clock 20 minutes fast. That way, she can get two snoozes in and still be on time. So we set the alarm for like 5 AM, because we have a taxi coming to take us to the airport at 6. Alarm goes off, I get up, shower, shave, get dressed. I wake Elena up, tell her to go shower. I sit down, hop online and notice that the clock on her laptop reads 3:30 AM. She comes out of the shower not to happy to hear this. So we go back to bed after she resets her alarm. Then, we're woken up by the taxi driver buzzing us. Turns out she reset the clock, but didn't turn the alarm on. So we haul ass getting ready and hop in the cab. Check in at the airport, go through security, you know the drill. We finally get to Ireland and meet up with my cousin who is so happy to see us she's ready to explode. Turns out we're the first family, aside from her mother, who's ever come to visit her, so she's thrilled beyond belief. We pile into the car and head off to do some sight seeing. First up were the Cliffs of Moher, which we pretty damn beautiful. Check out the pics for yourself. Of course the pics don't do it justice. Next up were the Alliwee Caves, which were pretty interesting too. Not much to them and I've seen bigger caverns in Upstate NY, but it was cool. We then headed to a cafe to get a quick bite to eat and then back to her house so we could get some rest. After a nice long nap we got up, got some Chinese take out for dinner, which wasn't half bad and took a nice little walk around where she lived before settling in for a movie and then bed.

Monday, July 5: Woke up and got ready to head into Galway, Ireland to take a boat trip out to the Aran Islands, which were off the coast of Galway. Let me tell you, I have never seen a rockier country than Ireland, or at least the part that I was in. Everywhere you go there are little rock walls blocking off squares of land for livestock to graze in. Crazy. I've never seen so much grey in my life and the Aran Islands, or at least the one of the three we were on, was so damn rocky it wasn't funny. Highlight of the Aran Islands, walking up to this pre-historic fort called Dun Aonghaso. Pretty interesting up there, again, with some pretty breathtaking pictures to check out. Also caught a little show in the main town with authentic Irish dancing and music called Ragus. That was cool and Elena really liked it. Took the boat and bus combo back into Galway where we got some dinner, then met up with Amanda and Paul and headed back to their house. Watched another movie and went to bed.

Tuesday, July 6: We weren't in the mood to get up early and take another tour of who knows what, so we took our time getting up and went into Galway city around 2:00 or so. We went looking for this boat cruise thing up the main river in town but had no luck finding it. Not like Galway was that big, we just had no clue where we were going. I had an easier time getting around Edinburgh than Galway, and Edinburgh was much, much bigger. We finally found the tour and had to wait because we missed the boat. We killed some time just walking around the city and when it came time for the boat tour we climbed on board and proceeded to get bored to death. We took a nap, a nap that cost something like 24 Euros, or about $30. We got off the boat and grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading over to the opening night of the Galway Film Fleadh, or festival. Saw a pretty cool movie called Ae Fond Kiss about clashing cultures and romance. Once the movie was over we had another quick bite at the festival's opening night bash then headed back to my cousins house to pack and talk until about midnight. Our flight was at 7:00 AM the next morning so my cousin hired a cab for us at 4:00 AM to get us there on time.

Wednesday, July 7: Barely went to sleep the night before and got up at 3:30 AM, this time on purpose, cab came at 4:00 to take us to the airport, where, upon arrival nothing was open. We had to wait for someone to staff the checkin, wait for someone to staff security, and wait for someone to staff the gate. From what my cousin told me, thats classic Irish laziness for you. Nothing against the Irish, they were great people, but according to my cousin, most of them, her husband included, are just lazy. So we got in the air and landed in London and then proceeded to check into our next flight heading to Edinburgh. Once we were all checked in we had some time to kill so we watched some of a DVD, finally boarded, and did the whole travel thing until we got off a bus in the heart of Edinburgh to meet Jen, who was so happy to see us and so happy that we came to visit she could hardly contain herself. We made our way to our hotel, which was pretty damn cool, it was more like a little flat, with a living room, little kitchen table, and mini kitchen itself, with a stove, oven, sink, microwave, washing machine and dishwasher. Elena and I took a nap while Jen watched a movie, then we set out to walk around Edinburgh. Beautiful city, let me tell you. The castle is amazing and its just in the middle of town, up on a stone hill with sheer cliff faces. Crazy. The city is multileveled too, with all this little streets called close's running up and down them. We walked all over the, see the pics and headed to eat some Indian food. We met up with Peter, Jen's boyfriend at the restaurant and when were done got some drinks at a bar down the road, then headed to Peter's flat where we drank some more. Once we were tired we headed back to our hotel via cab and went to bed.

Thursday, July 8: Got up and caught the bus to Peter's flat and one of his roommates drove Elena, Jen and myself to Arthur's Seat, this mountain/hill thing on the outskirts of town which we proceeded to climb up, which was insanely crazy. It was pretty damn high up and it was windy as hell up there. I thought I was going to get blown away or something. Took some pics up there, but again, a picture doesn't do it justice. This thing is massive and climbing up was a feat and accomplishment in and of itself. We climbed back down and then walked up the Royal Mile all the way from the bottom where there's a palace where the Queen stays when she's in town all the way up to the top, which is Edinburgh Castle. We took the castle tour which was really, really cool. Then headed back to the hotel to take a nap before meeting Jen and Peter for dinner before his band played at a local club. The performance was pretty good and Jen joined the band to sing backup on a song. We then headed up the street to another bar, where it just so happened to be karaoke night. A couple of pints of Guinness later and I was singing Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer." I rocked, it was cool. Headed back home and went to sleep for the night.

Friday, July 9: Slept in big time and met Jen and Peter for lunch before we went back to the hotel again and just chilled for the rest of the day. Made reservation to take this haunted tour of Mary King's Close, one of those streets I mentioned that link up the lower parts of the city to the upper part. Its supposedly haunted because of all the plague victims that died down there. I didn't get a weird vibe, but it was cool down there. Met up with Matt, Peter's flatmate and lead singer of the band and his girlfriend and had some dinner. Then headed to a bar to drink, some more, and met up with Aaron, pronounced Arn to Irish (they're all Irish, from Northern Ireland, so technically UK citizens) and hung out till the bar closed. Went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Saturday, July 10: Left Edinburgh that day at around 7:00 PM, but before hand walked around to the Hard Rock Cafe to get Elena's Mom's friend some pins, because she collects them. Headed to Peter's and just relaxed for a few hours, watched a movie. Then we left to get a bite to eat at the Hard Rock and appropriately sat in the Bon Jovie memorabilia section. It was fate I tell you. Got some good food then picked up our luggage at the hotel and headed for the airport. Your usual flight home and taxi ride back to Elena's. We got some dinner, relaxed a little and then had the best and longest lasting sex we've ever had. Sorry, had to throw that in there. Went to sleep.

Sunday, July 11: Packed in the morning and relaxed most of the rest of the day. Taxi came to pick us up in the afternoon and got the airport and proceeded to check in. They had no open seats for me to switch with so I could be more comfortable so I was forced to upgrade to business class! That was awesome, let me tell you. I must've had three glasses of champagne, two and a half of wine and a screwdriver all within the first hour or two of the flight. Great stuff. Elena and I said goodbye at the airport and although it sucked to leave, technically its the last goodbye like that we have to do, as the next time I leave her at the airport in London, she'll be following suit a few days later. So its all good.

So I'm exhausted and this work day is over. I know the details are kind of odd on my trip, but if you want details details, drop me an e-mail or something, I'll be glad to answer your question. In the meantime, go to Edinburgh before you die, preferably in the summer, because its not as cold and it stays light out until about 11 PM at night, which is awesome. Alright, I'm out, adios, enjoy... I'm going to bed as soon as I get home. Jet lag sucks.