Ways to Go

Sorry for no pics on this blog the signal is too low.
Well, here we are on the last days of our journey, just 9 days to go and looking for the end. It is a very rainy day in Dublin, quite rainy and we are planning how we will get to Trinity College to meet Megan Proper and stay dry, my short rain jacket will manage to channel all the water onto my pants. We love Dublin though! The few days we have been here have been grand. We love Ireland and have decided to forgo our return to the south of Spain for some exploration here. We will travel to Belfast tomorrow and then right up to the north coast to stay by the sea for our last few days. We had a great stay in Edinburgh last week, exploring the city and enjoying the pubs there. Thanks to our friends Sean and Megan Adams we learned that we really like Haggis, Neeps and Mash and I found heather(the shrub) beer very tasty. We explored the many historic sights and learned from our "free" tour guide just how the Scots managed to include the Pics, the Romans, the Norse, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Anglos and anyone else who happened along, in their community. I was saying to Terry how this has been a history tour as much as a vacation and we have really enjoyed it.

We are to the point where we won't do anymore laundry until we come home and the clothes which we have been circulating through will be gradually discarded, dirty now equals garbage. We are really quite a sight sometimes as so many of our shirts and other things have warn out. They have lost their elasticity, become faded and developed random holes and are ready to be let go. You know, "If you love something, let it go and if it comes back to you it is beyond dirty and should be burned." We will be glad to get home and I think the two things I am looking forward to is having my own bed and not sharing a bathroom with strangers anymore! I don't think I will ever get used to coming out of a stall in a common bathroom and having to greet the young women who is also there. Just what do you say in a situation like that? I think I settled on the Australian phrase, "How ya goin?" but even that gets some funny looks.

I have actually become quite the expert on bathrooms over these last five months, toilets especially. I have seen every kind of toilet you can imagine, from squatties to real bowls and even ones that appear completely backwards to me. I think the most fun ones are squatties on trains. Mind you Terry does not show the same appreciation I have for these little times of adventures and prefers the elaborate one we saw at the Monte Carlo Casino. That one actually rotated the seat through a sanitary wash before the next person used it. You can just imagine how much that one got flushed just to see it work! Speaking of fun toilets, the ones on airplanes are always adventures. Did you know if you hold a long piece of toilet paper close to the spillway on this toilet it will virtually pull it from you hands when flushed and the paper will disappear down the spout with a snap. You should try it when you get the opportunity. The most annoying toilet I have used are the round ones. It is like sitting on a tall bowl or vase. They are very efficient in flushing but 'going' on one is like dropping stones into water, there will be a splash! The most interesting set up I saw was the, so called, by Jacob, Dutch toilet. This toilet seems to be completely reversed. There is a small reservoir of water but it is completely at the front of the toilet. When you have completed your task your work sits on a little platform waiting for you to flush to wash it off. Very disturbing to see unless you are into examining the efficiency of your digestive system. So you see why I will be so happy to be home and enjoying the 'comforts' I am used to there. Well that's all for now, I have to go!
Wes