carnival and countries with funny accents

Just to recap why TP has been MIA this past like 10 days is because our school gave us the week off for Carnival. I really can't describe Carnival because words don't do it justice. The best description we came up with is if Mardi Gras and Halloween had a baby and somehow Dia Del Oso's DNA got sprinkled in...for 5 days straight. Its the one time and place of the year that if you don't look like this guy, you are a total weirdo.

After the festivities I watched the movie Braveheart, listened to the soundtrack three times and shipped out to Edinburgh, Scotland for rolling hills, castles, scotch, and bagpipes. All of such things were present. Edinburgh Castle, home of Robert the Bruce, was directly outside our hostel, which was tight cus hey I'm a castle kind of guy. Almost better than castles, our first night in the hostel we were exhausted and reluctantly decided to stay in only to find there would be a movie showing of Con Air that night. BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE. Nick Cage's awful, phony Alabama accent and one liners plus random Dave Chappelle was exactly what we needed to get the week going. I never realized how terrible and cheesy and incredibly entertaining Con Air was. Getting older opens your eyes to things...Anyway, the rest of Edinburgh contained exploring Harry Potter history and eating delicious Haggis in old Scottish pubs. If you don't know what Haggis is, you're lucky. Ignorance is bliss. We learned a little bit about the history of Edinburgh, and I was surprised to find that there have been a ton of martyrs in Edinburgh in the past. Appartenly there was a lot of catholic oppression on the protestant church and hundreds of men and women stood for their beliefs and were hanged and tortured for it. Here is a quick video of a stone platform in the middle of the Old Town where they used to martyr protestants. The video is a little cheesy, I know, but I was very moved by it and the important history of people who paved the way for my faith today.



Quick shout out to all Scottish people, who are literally the nicest, most respectful people I have met in my life. Every Scot I met, whether they were serving me in a pub or just on the street would gladly jump at the opportunity to go out of their way for me. I learned a lot about being hospitable from them.

Speaking of being hospitable, on Wednesday Kevin and I traveled to Glasgow to meet up with my sisters college roommate of three years and close friend, Suzy Lee. Suzy was the most amazing host as she bought us coffee, showed us the whole city, let us shower in her flat for our first all week, and made us an amazing mexican dinner. Hats off to Suzy Lee for helping recharge my travel batteries and being an incredible encouragement to me through her life and servanthood.

I have to get to Ireland before this blog gets any longer.

Highlights of Dublin include our first night when we checked out a place we heard was cool called Temple Bar. We walked in and were stunned by an Irish Folk band jamming some of the most beautiful music I have heard. Everyone had their pints of Guinness and were dancing around like free spirits enjoying the music and enjoying life. Not bad for a country that recently went bankrupt. Kevin and I went to Galway the next day and met a Japanese guy who works as a librarian and was visiting Europe for the first time. He chose to go to Ireland because he read a book with an Irish author that he likes (maybe George Bernard Shaw?) and also was a huge fan of whiskeys and was on a quest to find the best ones, so naturally he felt led to Ireland. Our real reason for going to Galway was to visit and experience the cliffs of Moher, which was insanely beautiful. Nothing gets the adrenaline pumping like dangling your feet off a 700 ft cliff.


On Sunday Beach and I went back to Dublin and hit up the Jameson Whiskey factory in the morning, so we had enough time to make it over to the Guinness Storehouse in the afternoon. I was picked to be a whiskey taster, we ate barley, and some guy at the Guinness factory gave us a free drink. Only the good things happened on that day.

Beach Moment of the Week: He wore one shirt (green and black flannel) for 6 out of the 7 days we were traveling in Great Britain. I mean I know I only took 2 showers and wore three pairs of underwear all week, but one shirt? And it wasn't even polo? nf.

Love you Mom!

Stay classy America.