My how times have changed....

While we were in New York we took this as an opportunity to catch up with a really dear friend who we met in Scotland. We all lived in this tiny hostel on the Royal Mile, which houses a total of 50 people and at the time there were about 20 or so of us made it a long term home for ourselves while we lived in Edinburgh. The long term room which had about 14 of us long term people in there was like a slumber party every night. People would roll in drunk, talk all night, it didn't matter that you had to work the next day at 8 am, as most of us had jobs at the time.

Safiya was one of my main accomplices at the time, this crazy American from Brooklyn, NY, who was fleeing from the US in search of an Irishman. She and I would be out all hours of the day and night partying, or just hanging out in the common room. One of our most notorious nights was when all of the long term people went out to our usual pubs and clubs, and rolled back in around 3am, only to come across Shelby, the crazy Scot who lived downstairs behind the desk in a room the size of a shoe box. Some how she convinced Safiya and I to get dressed again and head to the Postman's Pub, this pub opens at 4am and closes at like 2pm. It was a ridiculous time, we got in around 8am, and were met by two of the other people who lived in our room, wondering were the hell we had been all night. was also one of the people who thought Paul and I should be together back then. At the time Paul was working at the hostel and sharing the Shoebox room with Shelby.It was a crazy time in all of our lives. One that bonded us all in ways we never would have imagined.
It was shortly after my arrival, along came Brooke and her boyfriend Ian, they didn't live with us for too long before they went and got a real flat in Edinburgh. The funny thing is here we are making our plans to see Safiya and find out the Brooke and Ian now live in Brooklyn, just a bit away from Safiya! So we planned a Mini Brodies Backpacker Reunion.

So here we are seven years later, meeting at this crazy cuban bar in Brooklyn. It was like no time had passed. Safiya and I have seen each other since then but it has still been about 5 years since we were face to face, but we keep in touch often. We all caught up and were planning on where to go next, to continue with our reunion special. We ended up at this dive bar, had a few more drinks.

(In Photo; Me,Kyoko,Michael,Safiya,Brooke & Paul)
Paul and I were leaving the next morning to head to Connecticut, and So was Safiya and her boyfriend, for a family thing so they were leaving early the next day as well, Brooke had to work, so we decided it was likely later than we thought. IT was MIDNIGHT!!! And we are going home?!!!!!

WOW have times Changed!!!!!! Now if it gets past 11:30pm its way past my bedtime, and if I have a few to many drinks, my hangover is horrible, and lasts a lot longer! This sucks!!!! Gone are the days of staying out late, and getting up to work the next day like nothing happened.