Ireland, blarney stone and civil war

J Glasgow was a nice little city (second biggest in Scotland), we scored a 4 bed doorm-room to ourselves, it had an onsuite and T.V. with 7 channels. Needless to say we wish we had more then the one night in the place. We visited St. Mundo's relgious museum and the Necropolis which sits behind the Cathedral, it was quite the spooky graveyard, built on a hill, back in the days when many of the diseasesed surcame to the "black death". We also enjoyed visiting the Kelvingrove Gallery/Museum and walking all over Glasgow (although it had a tube system, it really only had one line that went in one direction or the other).

We flew from Soctland to Northern Ireland on our first EasyJet flight. It went smoothly, and to our amazement we didn't go through any customs or immigration. We arrived in Belfast and were dropped in front of the gates to the Queens University, only a block from our hostel. Unfortunately (thanks to bad directions from the hostel) we walked around in a big circle for 15 minutes before finding our way. Luckily a friendly student saw us and offered directions.

After ditching our gear we walked around the campus and not finding a grocery store we settled for some traditional Irish garb at a place called Maggie Mays' and took in a foregin film from the Queen's Film Theatre. The Film was called Yella, named after the German woman in it who is trying to get a new job while escaping her maniac husband, it was neat.

The next day we left from Belfast on a 1 day Paddywagon Tour. Our driver Joey, who was a local, entertained us with singing and stories the whole day. We saw the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, the Giants Causeway (very cool) and the city of Derry. We took a walking tour in Derry and learned about the "troubles" and the history behind the war between the Unionists and Republicans that had been boiling over since the late 1960's. It was the site of Bloody Sunday (we all know the U2 song), and there is a memorial there to the 13 people that died that day (and many more in the days, weeks, and years to follow). Joey shared his thoughts on growing up in the area and how the situation affected him and his family. There was a lot of information to assimilate in the few hours that we had, but it was only the beginning of our education on the civil war.

We met a couple of Aussies the next day and went on a Black Cab tour, it was very interesting as we gained a viewpoint which was different from the one we recieved on the Paddywagon tour. We saw the murals, the "peace" wall, and learned about the two communities who fought with each other, killed each other, for decades. Although there has been a cease fire called and many strides toward peace since 1998 when the Good-Friday or Belfast agreement was signed. Our driver grew up in all the violence and hate, and it was amazing to learn how he grew up in fear. It made us very aware of the blessings we have in Canada and thankful for all we have.

We spent the majority of the rest of the day with our two new Aussie friends, we also saw a bit more of Belfast and did some shopping, and then we left Paddys Palace (which wasn't quite a Palace really, look for our reviews on hostelworld.com, our username is canadiantraveljunkies2969).

We jumped on the 8pm bus to Dublin, the bus ride was a little bumpy, our driver was a maniac and the roads in Ireland (never mind the fact they drive on the left) are narrow, and constantly winding, and not smooth. Luckily we had gravol handy. At about 11pm we arrived in Dublin. We had entered the E.U. without being asked to produce our passports, or declare the vegtables in our bags. Amazing.

We hiked across town to our Hostel and fel asleep. Despite the 16 beds in the room our bunk-mates didn't keep us awake, the constant traffic and pub-goers did however. Luckily it was only one night in that room. The next morning we took a Taxi to Paddy's "Palace" Dublin and headed out on a 3 day Paddywagon tour of Southern Ireland.

Our first day we visited Clonmacnoise, the site of an ancient monastery. Then onto the coast and a beautiful city called Galway. We did some shopping, did our first load of laundry while on the road (first laundry goes to Grandad and Eileen, thanks) and got to know the people our on bus . We had a nice meal in the local pub while watching some Rugby, and then walked home through the pubs and buskers.

The next day we visited the Burren, which was a stone expanse that went for miles and had caves underneath (which we did not see unfortunately). Here's a poem I found about them..
The Burren, where there are no trees to hang a man, not enough water to drown him, and if you finally succed in killing him, it's too rocky to bury him. Later that day after lunch we visited the beautiful Cliffs of Moher. After a short ferry ride and some more of the winding and narrow roads we reached our destination for the night, the town of Killarney.

We watched as South Africa beat England in the final of the 2007 Ruby World Cup, it was awesome, the atmosphere, the cheering and of course the fight that broke out on the patio.
We spent the rest of the night at another pub that had traditional Irish music and dancing, we stayed up late and partied with our new friends from the Paddywagon.

On our last day of the tour we visited the national parks nearby via a Horse and Buggy, and then we stopped at Blarney Castle. Michelle kissed the Blarney stone, and I did not. It was wet from the stream of tourists kissing it, and that was the final nail in the coffin. It didn't help that to get your lips on the rock you had to lean over and basically hang off the castle to kiss it, mind you the safety bars meant you probably wouldn't fall to your death, but I figured I already had "the gift of the gab" anyway, and didn't want to find out how well the bars had been fixed to the rock.

We arrived back in Dublin and had made a friend named Katlynn(a fellow Canadian from Vancouver). We finished the day off with a trip to the Arlington Hotel where we enjoyed music and dancing by 5 professional dancers that did their own mini version of the Riverdance! A few pints of Guinness later and we were off to bed with Irish ballads in our heads.

We'll give you an update on our time in Dublin later, it's 11pm and time for bed. We're here until Wednesday when we leave for Madrid, Spain. Goodnight fellow travellers.

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

J On our last full day in Edinburgh we walked up to Calton park which has the royal observatory and allows a great view of Arthurs Seat, it also has some cool roman columns and some tower which was a monument to some dude, but alas they wanted to charge us £3 to get in so we took a picture and left.

We used the city bus system today, went to Portabella beach, which was very nice, took a walk in the sand with our bare feet. Then we got lost going this way and that on the bus system, an all day ticket was £2.5 or $5 compared to £9 or $18 for a tour bus system that takes you to all the major sites. Still we enjoyed ourselves, I bought a Hard Rock Cafe T and Michelle bought a bra from a department store. We spent the evening at a local pub listening to traditional music (live) and chugging back a few strongbow. I had too much to drink, ended up sick later on, and suffering a hangover the next day. I learned a lesson.

Friday morning we were up bright and early and off to the Island of Skye, on a bus, with 27 other people and a Scottish man in a kilt! Looking back it was an amazing adventure but we wish we had done it over 4 or 5 days because we spent a long time on the bus, as Skye is pretty far away.

The first day we saw an ancient battlefield known as Culloden, where after King James I was defeated the English decided to stop any further uprisings and began what is now called the Highland clearances. Basically it was an all out genocide of the Scottish highland people, they were raped, murdered, and forced to flee. Then, as the English started to realise the potential for wealth that sheep rearing could bring, they started systematically removing highlanders from their homes, taking titles and politely asking them to leave, otherwise moving in with force to kill and destroy. It was a very sombre experience learning these things, and realising that what happened in Ireland could never have happened in Scotland because the Scottish had been brutalised so that they would never pose a threat again.

The second day of our tour was spent exploring the island of Skye, we weren't' fans of the fairie-tales for which there were many, but the landscape and history was interesting, and the views as we drove up these tiny mountains (or big hills) were breath-taking. After an amazing day, three dozen pictures and a hike straight up the side of a mountain (to see the Old Man of Storr), we settled down and had dinner at the local neighbour hood pub. We made some friends on our bus, but also met two travellers that were working out of the Hostel, one an Aussie and the other a fellow Canadian. They answered many questions we had and got us pumped up for Ireland!

The last day seemed like a long one, being that we were spending most of it on the bus again. We saw Castle Doune, used in Monty Python and the quest for the Holy Grail. Clencoe where 38 people (from the MacDonald clan) were murdered by order of the English for signing a document 5 days late, and finally we saw the awesome William Wallace monument, which was pretty cool looking from the outside, but alas we didn't have time to go on the tour of the structure, not to mention saving another £6.50.

It was an very enjoyable 3 days, we learned a lot, saw a lot, and sat on the bus at lot. lol
Back in Edinburgh, we scored a bed in a 10 room dorm that only had 3 couples in it, which was very nice. We met a very friendly Aussie couple and talked their ears off for most of the night, made ourselves some pasta, showered and hit the sack early. We had a great sleep and now as I sit and write this Michelle is hauling our bags and checking us out of the hostel.

Next up, we're onto Glasgow! Only for the night though, as we have a flight with EasyJet to Belfast tomorrow. We'll probably post again somewhere in Ireland. Caio

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Haggis!

J Yesterday we arrived in Edinburgh Scotland, it rained most of the day and we chose to see the castle immediately. Which, in hindsight, was a bad idea. They cancelled the guided tours because of the rain, which for the UK was pretty sad, esp. since it was a light drizzle that dried up an hour after it began. The castle was really cool though, and we spluged on audio guides so we had some idea of what we were looking at. Basically the low down is that there were many, many sieges on the castle, Scotland and England traded ownership of it over the centuries, and many many men died in its shadow. Also, dogs. Interesting enough there is a dog cemetery within the walls of Edinburgh Castle.

We spent the rest of our evening in search of a cheap meal and we found it.. in a mall. It gets worse, we headed there to use the loo (and I'm proud to say I haven't paid for a bathrooom yet). After relieving ourselves we decided we were both starving and we couldn't afford to wonder around the medievel city any longer without sustinence. As the mall was closing in a mere 20 minutes and the security guards were moving in fast, we had a choce to make, fish and chips (again) or McDonalds. Yep, we chose the golden arcs. Mind you the menu was pretty different from what we were expecting, and they pimply 15 year old that took my order had no idea what I meant when I asked for "iced tea".

We wondered the dark streets back to our hostel and cuddled up on a couch for a relaxing evening. We watched Nepoleon Dynamite. Amazingly we enjoyed ourselves, probably because we expected nothing from the movie, having seen it already. For some strange reason though we noticed things we haden't before and found a lot of humor in the one day cult classic. We retired to our 16 bed dorm-room and attempted to get some sleep. Tomorrow, I'll be shopping for another pair of ear plugs (lost mine) and a second eye-shade. With 16 people in one room, and people going to bed as late as 2 and getting up as early as 6:30.. you can imagine that sleeping was quite a chore.

M This morning we got a bit of culture while we wandered through the National Scottish museum. It is HUGE! We didn't even see it all when we became a little museumed out. Our feet sore and tummy's grumbling. We went to the supermarket and were able to enjoy lunch outside in a park as it was SUNNY. Yes can you believe it sunny.

Edinburgh has catacombs beneath the city, so we went on a tour of them this afternoon. They have scary ghost tours, but I didn't want that, so we just took the normal ones. It was very interesting.

Then with sore feet we decided to be a little crazy and do a hike up to Aurther's Seat, the highest point overlooking Edinburgh. After following a path which we thought was it and going up up up, the path started to come down down down. At the bottom of that we saw what we are pretty sure was the way up, and a short flat path back to the road where we were before going up up up. We both took one look and decided forget it. We when up another smaller, but still big with beautiful views hill for a few pictures. We then walked back to the grocery store to buy some food. By the time we reached the hostel we were exausted. We ate our dinner then went back to the movie room and watched "About a Boy".

We are now typing this listening to a large group of crazy Scottish "football" aka soccer fans chanting and yelling outside. We assume they are at a nearby pub. There is no Rugby on tonight so they must be football fans. We've been told there is an under 25 game on.

Good night from Edinburgh! (Not sure if we will sleep with these crazy soccer fans) :)

Rugby

M Sorry the pictures are all out of order. I wanted to just correct a few things in Jesse's post :) First, my Grandad's wife is Eileen, they live in Walkington, not Walkerton, it is very close to Beverly which is just beside Hull. We will be leaving Tuesday morning for Edinburgh, not Friday. We have a hostel there for 3 nights. Then we will be going on a 3 day tour of Scotland, which looks like a blast, leaving early Friday morning. That's all we have planned for now.
Jesse has become quite interested in Rugby since being here. The world cup is on and England beat Australia today so there is much excitment around here. He is currently watching the New Zealand vs France game and learning all the ins and outs from my grandad.
Cherio from England.

A Picture is worth..

Old York and Hull

J Well hello folks, we're in the middle of our week staying with Michelle's Grandad and his lovely wife Ileen, I thought I might give you an update on what's been happening.

On Wednesday we took a coach (bus) from London to Hull, a 5 hour journey (late one hour because of a Lori that had caught fire on the dual carriageway). For you history buffs: Hull is actually Kingston Upon Hull, however the city of Kingston which was formerly Kingston upon Thames decided to take the name first, so they call this place Hull. Now we're not actually staying in Hull, but just outside the small village of Walkerton, which is very close to Beverley.

Michelle's grandparents are wonderful people, they enjoy cooking and entertaining, and I must say it shows! We've had some superb meals these last two nights. Tonight we had sausages wrapped in bacon on top of leeks, apples, tomatos, and a heap of mashed potatoes. Every night has been a treat and we're certainly being kept well fed. lol

The other day we travelled to York (old York really). It is a lovely city with a big Minister that looks to be as big and impressive as the one in London. It cost at least $15 a person to tour the building however and so we just took some pictures from the outside, had a cup of coffee at a local cafe and saw some of the city. One old area of the city is called the shambles, where the street is just tiny (narrow) and the buildings almost touch above street level.

As you may know London had some pretty big floods here in the past year and this one bar we visited has been underwater over a dozen times since they started recording the water levels in the 1940's. The latest flood which was in 2004 I believe, almost totally submerged the first level of the bar. We also took a walk upon the outer wall (built by the Romans) that once completely surrounded York, as it was a strategic and defensive city.

Tomorrow we're going into Beverley where they have a Saturday fair, and on Sunday we're meeting with Michelle's great aunt Pat who lives in this area. Monday we're touring some of the museums in Hull and on Friday we leave for Edinburgh Scotland. We just booked a tour that we'll be taking at the end of next week, which leaves from Edinburgh and takes us to the highlands of Scotland. The company is called MacBackpackers, we'll let you know how that turns out but it looks to be a real fun time.

The weather has been hovering between 12-18 C and we've had two nice sunny days in a row with scatter cloud, although the day we got here it was cold and rainy. Perfect weather for sitting on a bus for half the day. My next post will be strictly pictures, I promise. TTYL