Almost a year ago exactly, I was standing in a pub in Wrigleyville, Chicago spending the week of St. Paddy’s Day with Brian, Tom, Dave and Greg. Naturally, as happens when you are traveling, we began discussing our next trip. That conversation morphed into a discussion about where we would spend St. Paddy’s Day next year. Naturally, the idea of spending the day in Ireland was thrown out and with raised eyebrows we discussed how possible that actually was.

“We’re doing it. That’s it. No matter what, we’re going to Ireland next year,” Brian says, suddenly. And I agree. Who knew it would actually happen.

After I decided to retire at the end of 2009, it was pretty easy to decide where I would call home first. Ireland was an easy choice. The visa requirements for Ireland are much easier than for other countries in Europe. I had been to the island before, knew I loved it and knew I needed to live there for a bit to see if it was just a dream I’ve built up over the past couple of years, or whether this really was a place I could call forever home.

Though three of the five ditched (thanks guys), Brian came through (surprise, surprise) and I was also able to convince one of my besties from college, Emily, to come along as well as Diana of www.dtravelsround.com. Emily and Diana were meeting us in Dublin a couple of days later, but Brian decided to fly in a bit early into Glasgow, Scotland so we could visit our beloved roadtrip friend, Mark, who lives in Glasgow and who you might remember from the epic journey Brian, Dan, Mark and I took from LA to Canada in a weekend.

I flew from Belfast to Prestwick and took the train up to Glasgow to meet with Brian, who was flying in from Los Angeles, and whom I hadn’t seen in almost 6 months – which in my books is a hell of a long time for one of your best friends. The poor kid was quite a wreck when I met him. He hadn’t slept at all on the flight over and looked like he might die. We grabbed some beers and grub at a restaurant downtown while we waited for Mark to get off work.

The rest of our trip was pretty much amazing. We saw a little of Glasgow on the day of our arrival and then Mark drove us to Edinburgh the following day. We spent the whole afternoon talking, walking and taking in the beautiful city.

We had an absolutely incredible dinner at one of Mark’s friend’s restaurants in Glasgow with Mark and his girlfriend Nicola (who is absolutely amazing). Mark’s friend and his dad (who is an Italian immigrant) have an amazing Italian restaurant in Glasgow and they gave us the royal treatment. We had so much food, we were bursting and the conversation was so entertaining as we heard stories of Mark when he was growing up and got loads of stories about living in Italy.

This trip was less about seeing Scotland as it was about being with friends and it was a perfect change of scenery for me as I haven’t seen a familiar face in a long time. Though this trip could have taken place anywhere in the world and it wouldn’t have changed much, spending time with these cool cats was something I was really looking forward to. I still think back to the time when I met Dan and Mark, at a bar in Santa Monica via Couchsurfing and how, even though I’ve only spent two short weekends with Mark in my whole life, I still feel like he is a really close friend. It’s crazy how this twisted little world works. But I love it.

Thanks for an amazing time, Mark. Love you to bits.