Lodging

I have been placed in charge of finding and paying for lodging during our time in the British Isles. As of about 10 minutes ago, we now officially have places reserved in every city where we are staying. Below is a summary of each place and a bit about where they're located.

Dublin, Ireland
Saturday, August 16 through Sunday, August 17:
Four Courts Hostel
Rick Steves' Ireland guidebook recommends this place, as it is clean, cheap, and close walking distance to many desirable destinations in the heart of Dublin.

Conwy, Wales
Monday, August 18:
YHA Conwy
The YHA (Youth Hostel Association) is an organization that runs hostels all over England and Wales. They're fairly uniform in quality (pretty high) and price (decently low). Also, they're often in beautiful old buildings that have been renovated to fit their needs. The YHA Conwy is located on the edge of town, but since it is a fairly small place, everything is in walking distance.

Keswick, England
Tuesday, August 19:
Denton House
This place is quite spartan, with very basic rooms and unromantic decor; however, it was about half the price of the YHA facilities and we have to cut costs somewhere (though Nick might disagree with that statement). Also, the place just has attitude; they're not as polished as the big chain hostels, but they embrace it and it serves them well. They also run expeditions out to various adventure spots in the Lake District (the area around Keswick), though we won't be able to go on any of these jaunts.

Edinburgh, Scotland
Wednesday, August 20 & Thursday, August 21:
Brodie's Backpackers Hostel
Rick Steves' Great Britain guidebook (basically our Bible for this trip) describes this is more "laid back" than some of the other hostels, and not as hip and happening. However, it's about a block from all the others, which are all located right smack dab in the middle of everything on High Street. And more importantly, they weren't full like the others, (as we're going to be there during its biggest festival of the year).

Worksop, England
Friday, August 22:
The house of the guy named Henry
John's parents know a cool guy named Henry, who will be letting us stay at his place after our crazy day of running around northern England. I know nothing about his house, but I'm sure it's awesome.

Stratford-upon-Avon, England
Saturday, August 23:
YHA Stratford upon Avon
A pretty standard YHA facility. The only downside is that it's 3km away in the neighboring village of Alveston. Meh, there will be a bus, or we could even walk if we have to.

Bath, England
Sunday, August 24 through Tuesday, August 26:
Bath YMCA
It's fun to stay at the YMCA (sorry, I couldn't resist). I know nothing about it... look at the site and you'll know as much as I do. They've got lots of sweet exercise machines, but I suspect after our days of wacky adventures we'll be too tired to use them. It's kind of on the "edge" of town, but is less than a half mile from pretty much everything.

London, England
Wednesday, August 27 through Saturday, August 30 (last night in country):
Bakers Hotel B&B
This is the only non-hostel we're staying in during this trip. Since Rachel will leave us once we reach London, we decided to go with just a regular room (three beds). It is a couple miles (or less) from just about everything, and since we'll be taking the Tube everywhere, distance hardly matters anyway.

And that's it! We're getting so close... it's almost starting to feel real! (But, not quite.)