London 9/9/09-17/9/09 Paris 17/9/09-20/9/09
9/9/09
This day we spent on a bus. Because our apartment was right near the Tower there was a tour bus right near us which we jumped on and took a tour of the whole city. We saw Trafalgar square, Piccadilly Circus, the London eye, the Globe theatre, Big Ben, houses of parliament. We got off at the stop of Buckingham Palace, had a look round at the funny guards and then got back on the bus. We did this for the whole day and from this we got a good view of London and we now knew where everything was in relationship to each other. We also got a feel for the town which we always find important.
10/9/09
With the bus tour tickets we got a free boat cruise down to Westminster or Greenwich. So we took the cruise early in the morning down to Greenwich. We went through the observatory and looked at heaps of clocks and I learnt how to know which latitude and longitude you’re at when no landmarks can be seen. The second part of the exhibition was about astronomy and we got to stand on the Prime Meridian!
We then jumped back on the boat and headed up to Westminster (all free :D) we had a quick look around and then we went to the Abbey. The Abbey was closed form tourist visitors but we still got to go in because, after looing at the cloisters and the garden, we joined in in evensong. Dad was happy because we got to go in for free :P. It was beautiful and the choir was great.
11/9/09
This morning dad stayed at home because mum and I had pre booked tickets to go on the London Eye. We walked passed the reeeally long queue and got our tickets and we jumped on it. They never stop the eye and we had to run on. It was great and we had a fantastic view of London. The whole trip took about 45 minutes.
After the London eye there was this free 4D experience that came with the ticket. It was 4D because the video was 3D but then when there was something with bubbles the spurted water at us.
Then we went to the Dali exhibition. It was ok, I actually found it a bit too weird for me. I liked the melting clocks though :P
Then we got sucked into the movieum which was again ok. The beginning was boring but it got better when we saw some of the Harry Potter costumes and props along with Darth Vader, C3PO and R2D2 :D
After that we went for a big walk to St Paul’s cathedral down Fleet street and I think we did the whole Monopoly board that day :P. inside the cathedral it was unbelievable. The mosaics were a bit like the ones we saw in San Marc’s in Venice except these had slight glass cuts in them which meant they glittered like diamonds. When we first arrived a pries had welcomed everyone with a prayer so after we looked around we went to thank him. He then asked me if I was a Harry Potter fan and of course I said yes. He then showed us a secret staircase that no one else sees. He got the key and let me unlock the door. This staircase was used in the third Harry Potter movie! ARGH I was so excited. I had been on the London eye that day and seen one of the most famous cathedrals that day, but the staircase was the best of all!!!
12/9/09
The next day, we took a train to Kew Gardens where mum and I spent about half an hour in. Afterwards we went shopping but we left dad there and he thoroughly enjoyed. Mum and I both ended up getting a few more outfits but the best part of the day was going into Harrods. It was the most consumeristic place I’d ever seen! We even went through a wedding dress section! It blew me away!
That night mum and I went to the Lyceum and we saw the Lion King stage production!!! It was absolutely fantastic! I loved it I loved it I loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13/9/09
This day dad and I went to the natural history museum. We learnt about Volcanoes and earthquakes and loads of rocks. Afterwards we had to meet mum (who had been in an art gallery) at Diana’s memorial fountain and then we went into a big tent where we watched a performance of Peter Pan. It was a centred stage with seating all the way around (except one side) and above us was a projection screen so when the kids got picked up by ropes and began flying it sort of felt like we were too! The best part was that Captain Hook and the father was played by a man called Jonathan Hyde who was one of the people in a movie called Richie Rich and he’s also in Titanic!!!!! I was very excited :D
Afterwards we met up with Scott who was on our Egyptian tour! That was really good. We went and had dinner and then walked back to our apartment, had a quick cuppa and then walked out to Tower Bridge and watched fireworks!
14/9/09
The next day mum and I took a train to Hampton Court Palace where there were lots of little acts going on. People were dressing up as Henry VIII, Jane Parr, Thomas Seymour and some other randoms that told the story of Jane Parr’s marriage to King Henry VIII. This way we could learn about all the past as well so all the other wives were mentioned as well. They were really good! At one point mum and I went into the gardens and we went to the maze which we quickly got lost in and the found ourselves too :)
15/9/09
This day it rained all day and I spent it inside the apartment blogging non stop while mum and dad went to the British museum. But when they came home we took a big walk to the Globe Theatre. Thanks to my aunt Jenny, we went to watch “As you like it” one of Shakespeare’s comedies. Its performed in the reconstructed Globe and performed exactly as it was in Shakespeare’s time with no microphones. Though they did use some lights but no spot lights or special coloured effects, just yellow lights so everyone could see. It was really funny :)
16/9/09
Today was our last tourist day in London and we spent it in the London Tower. Just like at Hampton Court Palace, they were doing skits. Today we watched Anne Boleyn’s trial and we were the jury. Every said not guilty but we were all threatened to be locked in cells but, everyone knowing it was just a play everyone still said not guilty. In the end they just gave up and sent her away as “Lady Anne Boleyn” and no longer Queen.
We also looked at King Henry’s armour. There was an exhibition called Dressed To Kill on and as we went further and further into the exhibition we gradually saw the armour grow bigger to fit his enormous amount of fat he carried!
We then said goodbye to the tower, tower bridge, the eye and everything else. *sniff*
17/9/09
We had left our apartment early and we had caught peak traffic on the metro. It wasn’t very nice with our packs on but it wasn’t very crowded which was really good. We took the tube to the station closest to the bus stop. We waited about half an hour and then we were on the bus until 5 in the afternoon. We went on a train at one point. All cars and buses get loaded into a train and the train takes you through the chunnel (cross between tunnel and channel- the tunnel under the channel). I was kind of annoyed coz we couldn’t see out but the small windows showed us it was just dark anyway. :( just before we boarded the train we saw another white horse in the hill! It was a brilliant farewell from England.
We then arrived in Paris and took the metro to our hotel. It was a short walk and perfect from the metro. I think that night we just found some food and slept. We were all pretty tired from the early morning.
18/9/09
For our second last proper day we took a bus around the city and saw some things we missed last time but I realised how much we had seen. I felt so at home. I don’t know why but it felt really comfortable even though everyone spoke French.
19/9/09
For our very last day mum wasn’t very well so dad and I went La Grande Arch which is a huge arch that is in line with The Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Eleysee’s. There was a museum up the top where we saw heaps of ancient computers and 3D pictures and negative pictures so that when you stare at them and then look on a white board you can see the original picture burnt into your retina! It was amazing!
That night (mum was feeling better) we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant and we planned on going on a night bus tour. Instead (because we needed to have booked) we walked down the seine (from Notre Dame) down to the Eiffel tower, which, at 10:00 and 11:00 all the tiny lights in it began to flicker making the whole tower look as if it was glittering. An amazing thing for our last night.
20/9/09
Our final day. We walked to the George Pompadour centre and sat by a fountain, sat at a big church and then went to the airport. I wasn’t sad or happy. Just was.
I’m not really sure when the next day started whether you look at Paris time, Singapore time or Melbourne. Anyway, we arrived after a reeeeeeeeally long flight and a delayed waiting in Singapore (but we weren’t too late). We caught a bbus from Melbourne down to Castlemaine and arrived just before ten. We were greeted by so many and it was fantastic! Thankyou everyone.
And that’s it. Over and done with… The best experience of my life so far and perhaps my whole life, we’ll see. I’m so happy to be home and I still have all the memories. What more could I want???
9/16/09
Oxford and London
Oxford and London 8/9/09
This day we left Bath and headed for Oxford. Dad went to the Natural history museum while mum and I went to one of the colleges. Inside we saw the great hall where the students eat every morning and lunch. It was filled heaps of portraits of all the famous people who had studies there, such as Henry IV and Elizabeth I.
When we left the hall we went out into the open grass, but before we got there, one of the guards (when I say guard I mean a person who is just keeping their eye on things like if people are lost and just checking no one breaks things, doesn’t touch things or take photos if they’re not allowed). He was wearing a great hat and he sort of took us again on a mini tour and showed us little things that other people don’t notice.
After that we went into the school chapel where one of the female saints was buried. We continued through and saw a little movie showing us how the whole place was designed by Cardinal Woolsey but the tower was actually Christopher Wren.
After we left the College we went for a quick walk around the town. We went into Radcliffe square and lots of other interesting buildings that I don’t know the names of. Anyway, I enjoyed our time in Oxford.
We were then back in the car and on our way to London! We dropped our car off at the Heathrow Airport and jumped on the tube to where we were going to stay. We had booked an apartment to stay in and when we arrived we realised in what a fantastic place we were in! We walked out of the tube station and found ourselves facing the London Tower! After a quick settle in we went for a walk in the beautiful night. It wasn’t cold or raining! Suddenly we were on Tower bridge over the Thames looking out to London Bridge and me going absolutely nuts!!! I was so excited and in such a good mood! I was so high!
We crossed Tower Bridge walked along the bank of the other side until we came to London Bridge, crossed that bridge and then walked back to our apartment. One of the best walks I’ve ever done!
This day we left Bath and headed for Oxford. Dad went to the Natural history museum while mum and I went to one of the colleges. Inside we saw the great hall where the students eat every morning and lunch. It was filled heaps of portraits of all the famous people who had studies there, such as Henry IV and Elizabeth I.
When we left the hall we went out into the open grass, but before we got there, one of the guards (when I say guard I mean a person who is just keeping their eye on things like if people are lost and just checking no one breaks things, doesn’t touch things or take photos if they’re not allowed). He was wearing a great hat and he sort of took us again on a mini tour and showed us little things that other people don’t notice.
After that we went into the school chapel where one of the female saints was buried. We continued through and saw a little movie showing us how the whole place was designed by Cardinal Woolsey but the tower was actually Christopher Wren.
After we left the College we went for a quick walk around the town. We went into Radcliffe square and lots of other interesting buildings that I don’t know the names of. Anyway, I enjoyed our time in Oxford.
We were then back in the car and on our way to London! We dropped our car off at the Heathrow Airport and jumped on the tube to where we were going to stay. We had booked an apartment to stay in and when we arrived we realised in what a fantastic place we were in! We walked out of the tube station and found ourselves facing the London Tower! After a quick settle in we went for a walk in the beautiful night. It wasn’t cold or raining! Suddenly we were on Tower bridge over the Thames looking out to London Bridge and me going absolutely nuts!!! I was so excited and in such a good mood! I was so high!
We crossed Tower Bridge walked along the bank of the other side until we came to London Bridge, crossed that bridge and then walked back to our apartment. One of the best walks I’ve ever done!
Bath
Bath 2/9/09-7/9/09
The travel from Corris to Bath was huge and unbelievably dangerous. Even on the motor way, I was freaking out. It was raining and mum was uptight. It was windy and the spray of the water on the roads from cars was so misty we couldn’t see anything except the headlights of cars on the other side of the road!
Anyway, finally we got to the University of Bath where we were staying, like the Edinburgh uni they’re renting it all out.
For the first few days we didn’t do much, just homeworking and cruising. Though it was such nice weather on the 4th, we just had to get out there. We got up early and went to Stonehenge! We beat all the crowds and disappeared just as they were coming in. it was so cold but it was sunny so the photos make it look like a glorious day except when you see us in some of them shivering in our coats. Its believed to be a calendar, because when the sun shines in different gaps between the stones at different types of the year. Not much of it is in its original structure because, after people stopped using it and worshiping at it, people took the stones and used them for their own resources. But some of them are soooo huge that no one could move them, and the really big ones are actually a third underground so they wouldn’t move.
After we left Stonehenge we drove through a tiny town with a castle turret, a tower clock and lots of thatch-roofed houses. Of course mum had to stop and get photos. Dad was very interested in the way it was done and jumped up on a seat to look over someone’s house at the thatched. Now this was embarrassing as it was but when a woman came round the corner and yelled something at dad I felt even worse coz it was like he’d just been caught perving. Luckily the woman was very understanding and she actually took us back to her house (which was also thatched) to show us. We must have spent about 2 hours there. We talked with them for ages, they were really nice people. They were actually going to travel to Australia and do some bird watching. They were well travelled and they told us many of their great stories. What was even better was that we could actually swap some!
We then got back into the car and headed to Avebury. Avebury is like Stonehenge but scale it up 50 times. Avebury is a town that is actually situated right in the middle of this stone structure, a huge circle of stones all the way around with the pub in the very centre!
Just before we got to Avebury, dad saw a white horse. First I thought you know, “wow a white horse” in an extremely sarcastically but then I did a double take and realised it was one of the white horses cut into the hills. The grass is cut out and reveals white soil underneath.
***
The next day we took a bus into the city of Bath and were instantly greeted by a large group of dancers, you know the ones that wear big bells on their feet and jump around with sticks, the sort of English folk dance.
We then went to the number one attraction of Bath, the Baths. When the Romans invaded England, they found the only hot spring in England. From this they built a whole bath system because the Romans were quite hygienic unlike the English. We spent about 4 hours in here, we got an audio guide and waked through countless rooms. The best part of the place was a stone mural they’d found. The very centre piece was a circle with the engraving of a man with swirly hair and beard. Imagine, the man version of Medusa. On one of the side stones, there’s a girls foot standing on what obviously a globe. So the from this we know that the Romans knew the world was a sphere aged before Columbus even set sail. That was probably the highlight for me out of the whole thing, even though it was all absolutely brilliant!
Afterwards we took a bus tour, the same we took in Cardiff, Glasgow and heaps of other places. On this bus tour you can hop on and off where ever you like, so we did one tour, then got onto another which went right up to the university. It was so convenient!
***
The day after the next day (because the day before that I spent all day doing homework) we went to a small town called Lacock. Some of Harry Potter has been filmed here and also the BBC TV series Cranbourne. We went into a little church and then went into the famous Lacock Abbey. It was an Abbey where often when men left to fight in wars, their wives would stay there. One of the windows was taken in the first photograph which was also invented here by some scientist.
When we went into the cloisters I went wild because I realised this was where Harry Potter was filmed and I was walking in the exact footsteps of the characters!!! Only the first two movies were filmed here, but it’s the corridors where Harry follows the wall hearing the basilisk.
On our way we went through Devises where there was a museum dad wanted to see. Lots of it was good, I enjoyed “The most tasteless collection.” 3 cabinets were filled with things about Stonehenge. There was a whole pink crockery set, like the whole shebang, cups, saucers, plates all Barbie pink with a photo of Stonehenge on it. Also a little porcelain green shoe with a picture of Stonehenge on it…. ??? why would anyone ever create these things!?!
***
The next day was more homework. The only thing we did, was at 8 o’clock at night. We drove into town and met up with a walking tour. This tour was not at all historical and was just a complete night of entertaining. It started just seeing the guide, a fat man in a purple jacket.
The whole tour was jokes and magic tricks. The best one was the man chained up a toy rabbit, put it in a bag with two heavy disks then threw it in the river. After 10 seconds the bunny floated back up. Unchained and out of the bag!
The travel from Corris to Bath was huge and unbelievably dangerous. Even on the motor way, I was freaking out. It was raining and mum was uptight. It was windy and the spray of the water on the roads from cars was so misty we couldn’t see anything except the headlights of cars on the other side of the road!
Anyway, finally we got to the University of Bath where we were staying, like the Edinburgh uni they’re renting it all out.
For the first few days we didn’t do much, just homeworking and cruising. Though it was such nice weather on the 4th, we just had to get out there. We got up early and went to Stonehenge! We beat all the crowds and disappeared just as they were coming in. it was so cold but it was sunny so the photos make it look like a glorious day except when you see us in some of them shivering in our coats. Its believed to be a calendar, because when the sun shines in different gaps between the stones at different types of the year. Not much of it is in its original structure because, after people stopped using it and worshiping at it, people took the stones and used them for their own resources. But some of them are soooo huge that no one could move them, and the really big ones are actually a third underground so they wouldn’t move.
After we left Stonehenge we drove through a tiny town with a castle turret, a tower clock and lots of thatch-roofed houses. Of course mum had to stop and get photos. Dad was very interested in the way it was done and jumped up on a seat to look over someone’s house at the thatched. Now this was embarrassing as it was but when a woman came round the corner and yelled something at dad I felt even worse coz it was like he’d just been caught perving. Luckily the woman was very understanding and she actually took us back to her house (which was also thatched) to show us. We must have spent about 2 hours there. We talked with them for ages, they were really nice people. They were actually going to travel to Australia and do some bird watching. They were well travelled and they told us many of their great stories. What was even better was that we could actually swap some!
We then got back into the car and headed to Avebury. Avebury is like Stonehenge but scale it up 50 times. Avebury is a town that is actually situated right in the middle of this stone structure, a huge circle of stones all the way around with the pub in the very centre!
Just before we got to Avebury, dad saw a white horse. First I thought you know, “wow a white horse” in an extremely sarcastically but then I did a double take and realised it was one of the white horses cut into the hills. The grass is cut out and reveals white soil underneath.
***
The next day we took a bus into the city of Bath and were instantly greeted by a large group of dancers, you know the ones that wear big bells on their feet and jump around with sticks, the sort of English folk dance.
We then went to the number one attraction of Bath, the Baths. When the Romans invaded England, they found the only hot spring in England. From this they built a whole bath system because the Romans were quite hygienic unlike the English. We spent about 4 hours in here, we got an audio guide and waked through countless rooms. The best part of the place was a stone mural they’d found. The very centre piece was a circle with the engraving of a man with swirly hair and beard. Imagine, the man version of Medusa. On one of the side stones, there’s a girls foot standing on what obviously a globe. So the from this we know that the Romans knew the world was a sphere aged before Columbus even set sail. That was probably the highlight for me out of the whole thing, even though it was all absolutely brilliant!
Afterwards we took a bus tour, the same we took in Cardiff, Glasgow and heaps of other places. On this bus tour you can hop on and off where ever you like, so we did one tour, then got onto another which went right up to the university. It was so convenient!
***
The day after the next day (because the day before that I spent all day doing homework) we went to a small town called Lacock. Some of Harry Potter has been filmed here and also the BBC TV series Cranbourne. We went into a little church and then went into the famous Lacock Abbey. It was an Abbey where often when men left to fight in wars, their wives would stay there. One of the windows was taken in the first photograph which was also invented here by some scientist.
When we went into the cloisters I went wild because I realised this was where Harry Potter was filmed and I was walking in the exact footsteps of the characters!!! Only the first two movies were filmed here, but it’s the corridors where Harry follows the wall hearing the basilisk.
On our way we went through Devises where there was a museum dad wanted to see. Lots of it was good, I enjoyed “The most tasteless collection.” 3 cabinets were filled with things about Stonehenge. There was a whole pink crockery set, like the whole shebang, cups, saucers, plates all Barbie pink with a photo of Stonehenge on it. Also a little porcelain green shoe with a picture of Stonehenge on it…. ??? why would anyone ever create these things!?!
***
The next day was more homework. The only thing we did, was at 8 o’clock at night. We drove into town and met up with a walking tour. This tour was not at all historical and was just a complete night of entertaining. It started just seeing the guide, a fat man in a purple jacket.
The whole tour was jokes and magic tricks. The best one was the man chained up a toy rabbit, put it in a bag with two heavy disks then threw it in the river. After 10 seconds the bunny floated back up. Unchained and out of the bag!
Cardiff
Cardiff 29/8/09-31/8/09
We started the morning early and walked up to the Royal Mile again with our big packs on to the train station. We spent the whole day on the train until about 5 at night. At our second last stop 5 guys got on, one was obviously either drunk or very excited about the night. They were going to the “Gay Parade” or something and his racism and homophobia really showed.
When we arrived in Cardiff I was super excited. The whole place was alive with rainbows and people dressing up I crazy things. It was fantastic. We walked about a km and went into our hostel. We had 3 sets of bunks in our room but we weren’t sharing with anyone.
We then went down into the main street to find some food.
***
The next morning we went to a museum. Inside we saw humpback skeleton, stuffed stoats and badgers, a huge photo exhibition, and some Picasso pottery. My favourite was the Photo exhibition. All the photos were really shocking, things like a “pincushion man” with pins all over him, a giant in his house with his tiny parents below him, men 100% covered in tattoos and a naked person who was a man on the top half and a woman on the lower half… that one was a little disturbing…
***
The next day was the day I’d been waiting for forever! We went to the Doctor Who museum! I saw heaps of costumes and characters that we’d seen on T.V. I also did a kids quiz and one a poster too :). I wont go into more detail because I can understand it would be down right boring for so many of you!
We then went out to the Millennium centre. Its huge! It’s ambery coloured with gold writing on it. In English it says “In these stones horizons sing.” There was more writing but it was in Welsh so sorry, but I don’t speak fluent Welsh and I can’t tell you what it means.
We then went into the house of welsh Parliament. It’s very new because Welsh Parliament is very new. It used to all be English. There was this huge wooden tubey thing coming from the top of the ceiling which expanded its diameter at the bottom to cover the equivalent of “The Green Room”. It had a spectator area above it, looking down into a circle of desks and computers though no one was there.
We then made the plan to get on one of the red tour buses we’ve done before like in Rome and Glasgow. Mum and I waited an hour for the bus to arrive. By half an hour, dad gave up, walked home to play violin. I then went round the corner to see if any buses were coming and I realised there was a bus stop just out of view from where we were sitting. Apparently some sort of bad traffic made them miss that stop… anyway, we had a good time with on the bus (except for the young boy behind me who kept pulling my hair) and we got off at the castle. Mum and I watched a quick introduction movie about a girl drawing pictures, and then we went into the grounds. In front of us was a lawn of velvet green, the only disturbance being the large mound which the castle was built upon.
There out skirting wall was actually a tunnel which we walked through to the other side of the field. We went up about 250 steps to the top of the castle and we could see the whole of Cardiff. We could almost see the sea from the south view.
After the ruined castle we went into the extra buildings. The first room we saw had a similar ceiling to ones we had seen all through Morocco; little bumpy bits generally climbing their way up to the top and intricately decorated. The main hall had little coats of arms all over the ceiling, the windows were huge and the security man guarding the hall gave us a mini tour. From this room we could see a little room that had a staircase in it with beautiful carvings and gold.
We then went through many other rooms of paintings and furniture but the library was the best. It was filled with books (obviously) and the wooden shelves gave a sort of old feeling that I felt in the huge library at Trinity College in Dublin. The security guard in here gave us a good little tour, and even though we were not meant to take photos, he let us take a quick snap :) he also showed us ringtail possums and platypus carved into the shelves. Apparently the owner of the place (as in the old owner who is now long dead) had a pet wombat and he loved animals of all sorts.
The guard was so kind that he let us go into the little room we saw from the Main hall with the staircase in it. It was like a small staircase that let you travel easily from the hall to the library without having to go all the way around through every other room like the tourist route. This room was of course shut off because it meant that tourists would take that shortcut and miss the rest of the building. So he let us in to that room that no one else goes into and let us take photos!
Mum and I caught the very last tour bus which ended up taking us home. We walked the last little bit and then went and found some dinner.
We started the morning early and walked up to the Royal Mile again with our big packs on to the train station. We spent the whole day on the train until about 5 at night. At our second last stop 5 guys got on, one was obviously either drunk or very excited about the night. They were going to the “Gay Parade” or something and his racism and homophobia really showed.
When we arrived in Cardiff I was super excited. The whole place was alive with rainbows and people dressing up I crazy things. It was fantastic. We walked about a km and went into our hostel. We had 3 sets of bunks in our room but we weren’t sharing with anyone.
We then went down into the main street to find some food.
***
The next morning we went to a museum. Inside we saw humpback skeleton, stuffed stoats and badgers, a huge photo exhibition, and some Picasso pottery. My favourite was the Photo exhibition. All the photos were really shocking, things like a “pincushion man” with pins all over him, a giant in his house with his tiny parents below him, men 100% covered in tattoos and a naked person who was a man on the top half and a woman on the lower half… that one was a little disturbing…
***
The next day was the day I’d been waiting for forever! We went to the Doctor Who museum! I saw heaps of costumes and characters that we’d seen on T.V. I also did a kids quiz and one a poster too :). I wont go into more detail because I can understand it would be down right boring for so many of you!
We then went out to the Millennium centre. Its huge! It’s ambery coloured with gold writing on it. In English it says “In these stones horizons sing.” There was more writing but it was in Welsh so sorry, but I don’t speak fluent Welsh and I can’t tell you what it means.
We then went into the house of welsh Parliament. It’s very new because Welsh Parliament is very new. It used to all be English. There was this huge wooden tubey thing coming from the top of the ceiling which expanded its diameter at the bottom to cover the equivalent of “The Green Room”. It had a spectator area above it, looking down into a circle of desks and computers though no one was there.
We then made the plan to get on one of the red tour buses we’ve done before like in Rome and Glasgow. Mum and I waited an hour for the bus to arrive. By half an hour, dad gave up, walked home to play violin. I then went round the corner to see if any buses were coming and I realised there was a bus stop just out of view from where we were sitting. Apparently some sort of bad traffic made them miss that stop… anyway, we had a good time with on the bus (except for the young boy behind me who kept pulling my hair) and we got off at the castle. Mum and I watched a quick introduction movie about a girl drawing pictures, and then we went into the grounds. In front of us was a lawn of velvet green, the only disturbance being the large mound which the castle was built upon.
There out skirting wall was actually a tunnel which we walked through to the other side of the field. We went up about 250 steps to the top of the castle and we could see the whole of Cardiff. We could almost see the sea from the south view.
After the ruined castle we went into the extra buildings. The first room we saw had a similar ceiling to ones we had seen all through Morocco; little bumpy bits generally climbing their way up to the top and intricately decorated. The main hall had little coats of arms all over the ceiling, the windows were huge and the security man guarding the hall gave us a mini tour. From this room we could see a little room that had a staircase in it with beautiful carvings and gold.
We then went through many other rooms of paintings and furniture but the library was the best. It was filled with books (obviously) and the wooden shelves gave a sort of old feeling that I felt in the huge library at Trinity College in Dublin. The security guard in here gave us a good little tour, and even though we were not meant to take photos, he let us take a quick snap :) he also showed us ringtail possums and platypus carved into the shelves. Apparently the owner of the place (as in the old owner who is now long dead) had a pet wombat and he loved animals of all sorts.
The guard was so kind that he let us go into the little room we saw from the Main hall with the staircase in it. It was like a small staircase that let you travel easily from the hall to the library without having to go all the way around through every other room like the tourist route. This room was of course shut off because it meant that tourists would take that shortcut and miss the rest of the building. So he let us in to that room that no one else goes into and let us take photos!
Mum and I caught the very last tour bus which ended up taking us home. We walked the last little bit and then went and found some dinner.
Edinburgh
Edinburgh 28/8/09
After a sleep in and a check on dads head, we headed out to get some food as we hadn’t eaten since lunch the previous day. So after a quick walk past the Castle we went up into the Royal Mile. Mum and dad found it very difficult to book accommodation in Edinburgh because there was a huge festival on. So as we walked down the Royal Mile we were absolutely swamped with people giving us free handouts promoting shows and shops. The place was mad!
So we started the walking tour and began in a courtyard where four stories surrounded us. The guide asked us how many stories did we think were on the building, ad of course you’d say four, but there are actually eleven stories because the building is built on the side of a hill which means all the way down one side of the hill was also part of it down another 5 stories!
We then went to a place where all the announcements were made. The guide used me as an example pretending I had just been crowned queen of Scotland. When a coronation had occurred a man would run to the top of this thing, which is sort of like a hexagonal block with a spire at the top, taller than me, and he’d yell out something like hail the new queen of Scotland.
Also at this spot, when someone was captured they would nail the criminals ear to the stone block for 24 hours. People could then come and jeer at them, kicking them, throwing food and what ever else they liked. But if the prisoner was a coward they would rip their own ear through the nail releasing them selves. But this left painful scars, so everyone would know that you were a coward and couldn’t face your punishment for the rest of your life.
We then went around the corner to the cathedral where a statue of King Charles II. He looks quite odd though. The original sculptor made the statue too small for Charles’s liking, so he scaled him up a bit. But the sculptor forgot one important element. The statue is of him riding a horse and the sculptor forgot to actually scale the horse up too, so now King Charles II looks pretty silly as it looks like he’s riding a donkey.
Just to make it even worse for Charles, the sculptor designed him in roman clothing and not on a saddle. So now it looks like King Charles is off to a fancy dress party riding a donkey.
But then more disaster struck, and the gold crown began to dig into the slightly softer metal head of King Charles, and in Scotland it rains a lot. So King Charles II and his horse began filling up with water as the statue is hollow. This made the whole statue tip to one side and made it look like Charles II was going to a fancy dress party on a drunk donkey.
So King Charles II ordered something be done about this and someone came up with the idea; Why not put a hole lower so that the water leaks out. No matter how good this idea was, it was ruined by the placing of the hole. The hole was drilled right between the legs of the horse. So now it looks like King Charles II is off to a fancy dress party, riding a drunk donkey taking a leak.
So the public began to think this was very funny and they began to see their King as a joke, not a powerful leader. So King Charles decided to throw a party so that people would love him. He made the big hexagonal thing that where I was crowned queen earlier, was to flow with wine for 24 hours. So the public came in huge numbers with glasses, buckets and baths collecting as much wine as they possibly could. But often the consequence of drinking too much alcohol is a splitting headache in the morning. So when the entire city woke up with a massive hangover, they of course blamed their King.
We walked down the Royal Mile a little further and stopped outside one of the oldest hotels in Edinburgh. There were 3 stories, the lower floor for the servants, the second for the upper class, and the top for the second class. And you wonder why, why is it that the second class get the penthouse? Well its because if a fire starts from the kitchens, the upper class people can jump out and maybe survive, but if the second class people get trapped by the fire, they have a much lower chance of surviving a three story drop as apposed to two for the upper class
We then went down a small alleyway and stood outside a building. The building was new but rebuilt from an older building. On the outside you could see where the old steps stood poking out onto the outside wall. Here is where we got introduced to the old security system; a thing called a “Trip Step.” So at night, when the resident is sleeping at night, if a burglar comes in, they’ll be “tripped.” The flight of stairs is made from stone, big blocks sitting on top of each other just like any other staircase, but on a particular step it’s a bigger block than all the others, a higher one. So if a burglar comes in, they start up the staircase and trip on the big step, fall down the stairs with a big boom and crash, you wake up and know there’s a burglar in your house. When this happens, you go down stairs with a bat to see whether the fall broke the burglar’s neck or not, if it did, you chuck his body on the street for the morning collection. If not, beat the life out of him, then throw him on the street for the morning collection.
Next stop we learnt about two body snatchers called William and William. William and William started up their own business by working in the old peoples home where one of the Williams’ girlfriend worked. They would ask an old man out for a drink until he was so drunk that he would accept anymore alcohol given to him. So graciously the old man would accept the offer of a bottle of whiskey in one of the Williams’ house. Then one William kneed him in the chest pushing all the air from his lungs, while the other William smothered his face with a pillow until he died of suffocation. This was a good way of doing it, because the people at the hospital weren’t suspicious when an old man dies of nothing much because that happens all the time.
But eventually the Williams ran out of people in the old home and instead went to prostitution places to pick up people no one would miss. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong prostitute, because as the doctor saw the dead body, he knew something was up. He said “I was with this woman last week on important business matters and nothing was wrong with her then and I don’t see any reason why she should be dead now.” So the Williams got busted and that’s the end off that story.
We then went back into one of the main streets. Near here was a pub called Maggie Dickson’s Pub. It was named that for the infamous Maggie Dickson who was hung at the gallows just outside where the pub now stands.
Maggie Dickson was married but her husband had left her and that was bad for a woman in those days, for one to be unmarried, but also to be at that age and alone. So she left town. She stayed at an inn one night, and down at dinner one night, she looked across the room and saw the Inn keeper’s son. From that moment she fell heavily in love, and soon after, she fell heavily pregnant. This was even worse for Maggie as she was unmarried and pregnant. So she had her child in secret. And after the child was born, she took it down to the river and drowned it. She then buried it near the river. Suddenly she was caught and sentenced to the gallows. Why? Not because she became pregnant to someone other than a husband, not because she drowned and buried her own child, but because she hid the fact she was pregnant, kept it secret, and that was a punishment worth death.
So she was taken to the gallows and hung until dead. After the daily hangings a man came and picked up the coffins to take them to a graveyard or something. But as he was driving he heard knocking coming from the back of his cart. He opened up Maggie Dickson’s coffin and there she was, very much alive. So he quickly nailed it shut, turned around and drove back to Edinburgh where she was to be re-hung. So for the second time, Maggie Dickson walked to the gallows. But someone in the crowd yelled “wait! Maggie Dickson has already been hung for her punishment. What’s she being punished for now?” so Maggie Dickson was set free for already serving her punishment of death.
But things got even better for Maggie. Her wedding vows stated “til death do us part” and now Maggie Dickson was officially dead, she went back to the Inn to marry the Inn keeper’s son. Afterwards when she was at Maggie Dickson’s Pub, she would duck her head out of the door and yell to the victims “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. It happened to me and I’m great!”
Our next stop was at the along a main street where we could see the back of “The elephant house” where J.K Rowling got most of her inspiration for the Harry Potter books. The building has an awful grey colour to it. Probably because it hadn’t been cleaned, but also the in the mortar is ash. And eventually, if you burn all the trees and wood, it’s gonna run out. So there was need for ash and fast. So they began burning witches. If you were accused as a witch you would go through trials to see whether you really were or not. First you were tied up and thrown into the river. If you floated, it means that heaven rejected you and you were a witch. If you sank you were innocent but it didn’t matter much because you’d have drowned by the time they realised you were innocent.
The next trial was of torture. They torture you so painfully trying to make you admit you’re a witch. If you crack and admit it you’re a witch, you were burnt at the stake. If you didn’t crack and admit it, it must mean you were a witch anyway and burnt at the stake.
We then went up to the Greyfriars graveyard. Here we saw a cage covering a grave to stop body snatchers. We then learnt about they kept criminals here in a field of small shelters without proper walls and Scottish winters are cold. At night, the guards would make everyone lie face down and if they moved, the guards would shoot wildly at them. if this happened, it often meant the death of all the people surrounding you. So to save all the others around the they stayed still all night. In winter, when there was snow on the ground, their breath often melted the snow and, not wanting to be responsible for their friends deaths, many often drowned in the melted snow.
We then went to the grave of a security man. I’m not sure what he did but he was kind of famous and he roamed around the streets. So, to accompany him in his walks, he bought himself a dog. But not a huge bulldog that you’d think for some sort of security man, instead he bought himself “a fluffy version of Paris Hilton’s dog” as described by the guide. So anyway, when this guy died the dog actually sat by his master’s grave for 8 years!!! And his grave is through the gates when you walk in the front gates. Here people have put sticks and toys for him to play with… which makes no sense seeing he’s dead, but meh.
There’s a little statue of him on the main street facing his master. But one morning, people woke up to the dog facing the other way, away from the graveyard. They quickly turned it back around but just the same, a few days later, people woke up to the dog facing the other way. Apparently what was happening was the pub that is situated in front of the statue was turning it around so when tourists take photos of the statues they would have the pub in the back ground giving free advertisements. Now it faces away from his master and the pub and we have a photo with the pub in the background.
Our final destination was the park, where we heard the story of a big limestone stone. Every Scottish King has been crowned on that stone. But of course, when the English conquered they took it for themselves. So one night, 4 men decided to go and get it back.
They drove down to England and went into the abbey (I think that’s where it was kept, but I’m not sure) and somehow got in there at night. So they tried to pick it up but they realised it was unbelievably heavy so they carried it about 10 metres before suddenly BOOM. They had dropped it on the stone floor and in the process a small part had actually split off. So one of the men takes off his jacket and lay it on the ground. They rolled the big bit on top and dragged it from there but first 3 of the men took the little piece into one of the two cars. Suddenly they were already driving off and the last man was stuck by himself. So he ran around the corner to get the other car until he realised the keys were in his jacket pocket. Dam! So he ran back, searched for his keys in his jacket, and couldn’t find them. not knowing what else to do he continue dragging the rock, until CRUNCH, he’d stepped on his keys. He quickly picked them up, ran outside, around the corner, got the car, found some great feat of strength in himself and picked the whole thing up and put it in his car and drove away.
The next morning when the English government realised that it had gone, they knew that it could have only been taken by someone from Scotland so they made a checkpoint for every single person that crossed the border into Scotland. But of course our man was smart and instead of driving north he drove south and buried it in a field somewhere. Then he drove north, passed the checkpoint and went to a Scottish rock scientist. He told him “look I’ve hidden our Scottish stone in a field in England what should I do?” and he said something like “You idiot! Go and get it now, the soil will slowly dissolve it because the limestone’s acidic!” so he drives back down to get the stone until he realises a caravan is parked on top of it. So he asks the man n the caravan if he can move is caravan and the man is so taken by the story he grabs a shovel and helps. Somehow he gets through the checkpoint and takes the stone up to the north and placed it in a church with a rug over it to disguise it but when the priest cam in in the morning and discovered he had the stone in his church he calls the authorities who take it back to England. Yay… that was like in 1970 or something and Scotland didn’t get its stone back until about 1998!
So that was the stories and things I learnt during the day in Edinburgh. When I write 5 pages on one day it means I reeeeeally enjoyed it!
After a sleep in and a check on dads head, we headed out to get some food as we hadn’t eaten since lunch the previous day. So after a quick walk past the Castle we went up into the Royal Mile. Mum and dad found it very difficult to book accommodation in Edinburgh because there was a huge festival on. So as we walked down the Royal Mile we were absolutely swamped with people giving us free handouts promoting shows and shops. The place was mad!
So we started the walking tour and began in a courtyard where four stories surrounded us. The guide asked us how many stories did we think were on the building, ad of course you’d say four, but there are actually eleven stories because the building is built on the side of a hill which means all the way down one side of the hill was also part of it down another 5 stories!
We then went to a place where all the announcements were made. The guide used me as an example pretending I had just been crowned queen of Scotland. When a coronation had occurred a man would run to the top of this thing, which is sort of like a hexagonal block with a spire at the top, taller than me, and he’d yell out something like hail the new queen of Scotland.
Also at this spot, when someone was captured they would nail the criminals ear to the stone block for 24 hours. People could then come and jeer at them, kicking them, throwing food and what ever else they liked. But if the prisoner was a coward they would rip their own ear through the nail releasing them selves. But this left painful scars, so everyone would know that you were a coward and couldn’t face your punishment for the rest of your life.
We then went around the corner to the cathedral where a statue of King Charles II. He looks quite odd though. The original sculptor made the statue too small for Charles’s liking, so he scaled him up a bit. But the sculptor forgot one important element. The statue is of him riding a horse and the sculptor forgot to actually scale the horse up too, so now King Charles II looks pretty silly as it looks like he’s riding a donkey.
Just to make it even worse for Charles, the sculptor designed him in roman clothing and not on a saddle. So now it looks like King Charles is off to a fancy dress party riding a donkey.
But then more disaster struck, and the gold crown began to dig into the slightly softer metal head of King Charles, and in Scotland it rains a lot. So King Charles II and his horse began filling up with water as the statue is hollow. This made the whole statue tip to one side and made it look like Charles II was going to a fancy dress party on a drunk donkey.
So King Charles II ordered something be done about this and someone came up with the idea; Why not put a hole lower so that the water leaks out. No matter how good this idea was, it was ruined by the placing of the hole. The hole was drilled right between the legs of the horse. So now it looks like King Charles II is off to a fancy dress party, riding a drunk donkey taking a leak.
So the public began to think this was very funny and they began to see their King as a joke, not a powerful leader. So King Charles decided to throw a party so that people would love him. He made the big hexagonal thing that where I was crowned queen earlier, was to flow with wine for 24 hours. So the public came in huge numbers with glasses, buckets and baths collecting as much wine as they possibly could. But often the consequence of drinking too much alcohol is a splitting headache in the morning. So when the entire city woke up with a massive hangover, they of course blamed their King.
We walked down the Royal Mile a little further and stopped outside one of the oldest hotels in Edinburgh. There were 3 stories, the lower floor for the servants, the second for the upper class, and the top for the second class. And you wonder why, why is it that the second class get the penthouse? Well its because if a fire starts from the kitchens, the upper class people can jump out and maybe survive, but if the second class people get trapped by the fire, they have a much lower chance of surviving a three story drop as apposed to two for the upper class
We then went down a small alleyway and stood outside a building. The building was new but rebuilt from an older building. On the outside you could see where the old steps stood poking out onto the outside wall. Here is where we got introduced to the old security system; a thing called a “Trip Step.” So at night, when the resident is sleeping at night, if a burglar comes in, they’ll be “tripped.” The flight of stairs is made from stone, big blocks sitting on top of each other just like any other staircase, but on a particular step it’s a bigger block than all the others, a higher one. So if a burglar comes in, they start up the staircase and trip on the big step, fall down the stairs with a big boom and crash, you wake up and know there’s a burglar in your house. When this happens, you go down stairs with a bat to see whether the fall broke the burglar’s neck or not, if it did, you chuck his body on the street for the morning collection. If not, beat the life out of him, then throw him on the street for the morning collection.
Next stop we learnt about two body snatchers called William and William. William and William started up their own business by working in the old peoples home where one of the Williams’ girlfriend worked. They would ask an old man out for a drink until he was so drunk that he would accept anymore alcohol given to him. So graciously the old man would accept the offer of a bottle of whiskey in one of the Williams’ house. Then one William kneed him in the chest pushing all the air from his lungs, while the other William smothered his face with a pillow until he died of suffocation. This was a good way of doing it, because the people at the hospital weren’t suspicious when an old man dies of nothing much because that happens all the time.
But eventually the Williams ran out of people in the old home and instead went to prostitution places to pick up people no one would miss. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong prostitute, because as the doctor saw the dead body, he knew something was up. He said “I was with this woman last week on important business matters and nothing was wrong with her then and I don’t see any reason why she should be dead now.” So the Williams got busted and that’s the end off that story.
We then went back into one of the main streets. Near here was a pub called Maggie Dickson’s Pub. It was named that for the infamous Maggie Dickson who was hung at the gallows just outside where the pub now stands.
Maggie Dickson was married but her husband had left her and that was bad for a woman in those days, for one to be unmarried, but also to be at that age and alone. So she left town. She stayed at an inn one night, and down at dinner one night, she looked across the room and saw the Inn keeper’s son. From that moment she fell heavily in love, and soon after, she fell heavily pregnant. This was even worse for Maggie as she was unmarried and pregnant. So she had her child in secret. And after the child was born, she took it down to the river and drowned it. She then buried it near the river. Suddenly she was caught and sentenced to the gallows. Why? Not because she became pregnant to someone other than a husband, not because she drowned and buried her own child, but because she hid the fact she was pregnant, kept it secret, and that was a punishment worth death.
So she was taken to the gallows and hung until dead. After the daily hangings a man came and picked up the coffins to take them to a graveyard or something. But as he was driving he heard knocking coming from the back of his cart. He opened up Maggie Dickson’s coffin and there she was, very much alive. So he quickly nailed it shut, turned around and drove back to Edinburgh where she was to be re-hung. So for the second time, Maggie Dickson walked to the gallows. But someone in the crowd yelled “wait! Maggie Dickson has already been hung for her punishment. What’s she being punished for now?” so Maggie Dickson was set free for already serving her punishment of death.
But things got even better for Maggie. Her wedding vows stated “til death do us part” and now Maggie Dickson was officially dead, she went back to the Inn to marry the Inn keeper’s son. Afterwards when she was at Maggie Dickson’s Pub, she would duck her head out of the door and yell to the victims “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. It happened to me and I’m great!”
Our next stop was at the along a main street where we could see the back of “The elephant house” where J.K Rowling got most of her inspiration for the Harry Potter books. The building has an awful grey colour to it. Probably because it hadn’t been cleaned, but also the in the mortar is ash. And eventually, if you burn all the trees and wood, it’s gonna run out. So there was need for ash and fast. So they began burning witches. If you were accused as a witch you would go through trials to see whether you really were or not. First you were tied up and thrown into the river. If you floated, it means that heaven rejected you and you were a witch. If you sank you were innocent but it didn’t matter much because you’d have drowned by the time they realised you were innocent.
The next trial was of torture. They torture you so painfully trying to make you admit you’re a witch. If you crack and admit it you’re a witch, you were burnt at the stake. If you didn’t crack and admit it, it must mean you were a witch anyway and burnt at the stake.
We then went up to the Greyfriars graveyard. Here we saw a cage covering a grave to stop body snatchers. We then learnt about they kept criminals here in a field of small shelters without proper walls and Scottish winters are cold. At night, the guards would make everyone lie face down and if they moved, the guards would shoot wildly at them. if this happened, it often meant the death of all the people surrounding you. So to save all the others around the they stayed still all night. In winter, when there was snow on the ground, their breath often melted the snow and, not wanting to be responsible for their friends deaths, many often drowned in the melted snow.
We then went to the grave of a security man. I’m not sure what he did but he was kind of famous and he roamed around the streets. So, to accompany him in his walks, he bought himself a dog. But not a huge bulldog that you’d think for some sort of security man, instead he bought himself “a fluffy version of Paris Hilton’s dog” as described by the guide. So anyway, when this guy died the dog actually sat by his master’s grave for 8 years!!! And his grave is through the gates when you walk in the front gates. Here people have put sticks and toys for him to play with… which makes no sense seeing he’s dead, but meh.
There’s a little statue of him on the main street facing his master. But one morning, people woke up to the dog facing the other way, away from the graveyard. They quickly turned it back around but just the same, a few days later, people woke up to the dog facing the other way. Apparently what was happening was the pub that is situated in front of the statue was turning it around so when tourists take photos of the statues they would have the pub in the back ground giving free advertisements. Now it faces away from his master and the pub and we have a photo with the pub in the background.
Our final destination was the park, where we heard the story of a big limestone stone. Every Scottish King has been crowned on that stone. But of course, when the English conquered they took it for themselves. So one night, 4 men decided to go and get it back.
They drove down to England and went into the abbey (I think that’s where it was kept, but I’m not sure) and somehow got in there at night. So they tried to pick it up but they realised it was unbelievably heavy so they carried it about 10 metres before suddenly BOOM. They had dropped it on the stone floor and in the process a small part had actually split off. So one of the men takes off his jacket and lay it on the ground. They rolled the big bit on top and dragged it from there but first 3 of the men took the little piece into one of the two cars. Suddenly they were already driving off and the last man was stuck by himself. So he ran around the corner to get the other car until he realised the keys were in his jacket pocket. Dam! So he ran back, searched for his keys in his jacket, and couldn’t find them. not knowing what else to do he continue dragging the rock, until CRUNCH, he’d stepped on his keys. He quickly picked them up, ran outside, around the corner, got the car, found some great feat of strength in himself and picked the whole thing up and put it in his car and drove away.
The next morning when the English government realised that it had gone, they knew that it could have only been taken by someone from Scotland so they made a checkpoint for every single person that crossed the border into Scotland. But of course our man was smart and instead of driving north he drove south and buried it in a field somewhere. Then he drove north, passed the checkpoint and went to a Scottish rock scientist. He told him “look I’ve hidden our Scottish stone in a field in England what should I do?” and he said something like “You idiot! Go and get it now, the soil will slowly dissolve it because the limestone’s acidic!” so he drives back down to get the stone until he realises a caravan is parked on top of it. So he asks the man n the caravan if he can move is caravan and the man is so taken by the story he grabs a shovel and helps. Somehow he gets through the checkpoint and takes the stone up to the north and placed it in a church with a rug over it to disguise it but when the priest cam in in the morning and discovered he had the stone in his church he calls the authorities who take it back to England. Yay… that was like in 1970 or something and Scotland didn’t get its stone back until about 1998!
So that was the stories and things I learnt during the day in Edinburgh. When I write 5 pages on one day it means I reeeeeally enjoyed it!
9/9/09
Scottish Tour
Scottish Tour 24/8/09-28/8/09:
The first morning of the tour was strenuous. We had to walk a few km with our packs up hills and dad taking us around in wrong directions. We arrived at the Glasgow hostel (not the one we were staying at) we sat there for over and hour. It was sunny but icy and I spent the hour reading my book.
The idea of this was to be picked up by a bus. We were going on a tour around Scotland for a couple of days. When the bus finally arrived we jumped aboard and headed for Oban. Along the way we were listening to many songs that I never want to hear again. Old songs about Glasgow and different places depending on where we were. Hamish, our driver/guide, had all his cassette tapes in a box at his feet that he had all set up ready for the next destination.
Our first stop was a small one; we stopped at Dumbarton where we had a great view of the harbour right next to a castle but there wasn’t enough time to go in. On this stop we introduced ourselves to Genevra, a woman from Sydney. And we also met the others on the bus. Linda and Suzi were two sisters from Florida who got oon at the same spot we did, Ros, a woman from West London, Jared, a Scottish man, and a family of four, Sara, Francois, and their two daughters Marian and Margot. Sara is Italian, and Francois is French but from African origin. They all live in Italy but Francois cannot speak Italian, so at home they speak French. Sara speaks Italian, French, English and German, and Marian and Margot were bi-lingual with French and Italian. Wow!
Our next stop was for lunch at Loch Lomond. Lunch was served on an old stationary boat, which was really nice because it was sunny and we got to look out over the whole Loch. A Loch is like a huge lake, for those who weren’t sure :P
We often went through teeny tiny towns that mum loved. Many of the houses had thatched roofing and small streets.
We drove up into the mountains and had a beautiful view over a large valley in the sun.
We then went to the town Inverarry where Inverarry castle stood. The castle was one of the main estates where the Campbell Family lived. The Campbells were one of the richest families in the 1600s and everyone hated them.
In the castle, there was a room completely filled with weapons. Heaps and heaps of guns organised into two circles radiating from a centre shields. Many daggers and swords in glass cabinets something called a “flesh hook” which was… well im sure you can imagine. *shudder*
Some of the other rooms were filled with portraits and very fine furniture. One small room was filled with Chinese Pottery. Personally I didn’t like it. I can’t understand the importance of the art on your plate that will soon be covered in food.
Upstairs was a bedroom with a four poster bed. The material around the top and under he bed clothes was of course the blue and green tartan of the Campbell clan. It looked very odd with the curtain rods also draped in the same tartan :P
After we left the castle we went back into the town Inverarry and then headed for a small castle ruin. It was a small walk to the castle and it was right on the shore of a small lake. Dad and I arrived first at the castle and I felt that feeling of when I was little and we arrived at a hotel. I always wanted to be the first to find every room. I was running up all the flights of stairs and made it to the first turret before anyone else had got to the castle. I absolutely loved it! This is when we first got properly introduced to Sara and her family. Sara and Francois both have a sight disability so mum often helped her around and we then became very good friends.
On our way to Oban we saw a flock of Red deer! They were grazing in a paddock and apparently, in the 1600s people wiped most of them out and hardly any of them run wild anymore. Later we passed a paddock of Highland Cattle. The Highland Cattle are the ones that have huge horns and a great hairstyle-the one with their fringe so long it covers their eyes and you wonder how they can see. In fact its quite similar to the current fashionable fringe!
We were then taken to a magnificent view of Oban. We were on top of a huge hill and overlooked out onto the harbour that Oban was based on. To the right, we could see the town, and near the horizon was a grey stone circular thing that was similar to the Colosseum. In fact, it was commissioned by someone rich who wanted to have their own colosseum but the money ran out half way so it only looks like the colosseum from the outside because there is no, and never was, an inside.
We then went for a small drive down to Oban castle but because it was late we didn’t go inside. Near the castle was a huge rock that we passed that was apparently special to the people who owned the castle and it seemed to have its own mini-garden growing on the top.
Mum, Dad and I then went out for dinner at a really nice restaurant and then headed back to the hostel for bed.
***
The next morning we went to Ben Nevis. On the way we passed a bridge and underneath there is some weird tides or something. I don’t really know what that’s about but we got photos of some random swirling water so I guessed it might be important to put in here. *shrugs* At Ben Nevis there’s a huge lake which I’m guessing is a Loch but I have no idea what the name of it is. Somewhere in the middle of the lake there is a tiny Island where there’s a castle ruin still standing on it!
We then arrived at Glencoe. We went through the thatched roofed town which again, mum loved, and then went to a small lake which was situated in front of a gorgeous mountain, but it was just beginning to rain at this point so the beauty was slightly diminished, just like most of the stuff we’ve seen because I don’t think we’ve had a day since Dublin that we’d had a day without rain. D=
We then went higher into the mountains and came to the three sisters; three HUGE mountainous peaks in line with each other, all covered with green and purple, the purple being heather. Around this area was where some of “The Prisoner of Azkaban” was shot, the third Harry Potter movie. Also Monty Python and the Holy Grail and also some bits of Braveheart too.
We stopped at a little waterfall and we think this is where “The bridge of Death” was shot from Monty Python. The waterfalls were beautiful and the heather really does brighten it all up even when its raining.
We then stopped again in Ben Nevis, had lunch and then headed to the Infamous Loch Ness. There heaps and heaps of Lochs in the area and many of them have sea monster myths and so do many around the whole world but none have quite made it to the fame that The Loch Ness monster has made.
Just as we arrived at the Loch, some swans and signets came out and swam by us, then a gorgeous rainbow, very low in the sky, came onto the horizon on the water filled valley.
At Loch Ness, something no one knows about it, is that it has castle ruins on its shore. This was really incredible, because we were in Scotland, at Loch Ness, with castle ruins in front of us, beautiful greenery around, a rainbow on the left and it was sunny!!! We must have been so lucky, because I can imagine how many thousand tourists have come to Loch Ness just to be drenched as if they’d been swimming in the Loch itself.
We then came to another water falls hgher into the mountain while listening to kids singing about Lochy Lochy Lochy Loch Ness monster. At that point I was happy to get out and have a peaceful walk, and what a place to have it! These waterfalls were something special. It’s hard to explain what a set of waterfalls look like so I’ll just assure you it was really beautiful :)
We then passed the Loch again but from a completely different spot. I think we were at the other end of it by this time. At this spot there were islands in the middle. At the end of this drive we went for a quick walk that took us up to a great look out. To our right was the Loch and all the green Islands in the middle. Above it was an amazing array of light splintering through the clouds casting spotlights on the water and islands. To the left was a stretch of heather leading to the other side of the Loch.
We then went to the “Million Dollar View.” Someone important said it to be that, I think it was Elizabeth I. Anyway, again we were high above looking out over another Loch and again, we were so lucky because we had sun casting over it. Personally I think it wasn’t a million dollar view. Absolutely gorgeous, yes, but how can you pick on view out of the so many beautiful ones we had seen only in the past 2 days!
The best part of this day, was our arrival at the hostel. Usually, if that’s the best part, it means it’s been an average day and I’m looking forward to a bed, but tonight was different. This hostel was previously a castle. We walked inside and we were gob smacked to see marble statues lining the main hall! And the banister up the stairway with such intricate carving. The Dining room where we had dinner was filled with portraits and the roof had small flowers painted on each corner of the squares that were made up from wood lining.
Upstairs there was a huge hall where bay windows let in light on to the newly placed ping-pong table. To the right was a large room with more priceless views out the window, it was so light and filled with fireplaces and couches so anyone can come in and relax.
***
This morning was not exactly how we planned. In fact the whole day was quite wobbly. It started with Genevra, Ros, Jared and Francois going to the whiskey distillery. Sara, Marian, Margot, Mum and I went for a small walk through the heather that Sara really loved, up to a small lookout.
We then packed our stuff up and got in the bus on the way to the Whiskey distillery to pick the others up. Unfortunately, Hamish accidentally took a wrong turn and we drove in the wrong direction for about 20 minutes. Then, just as we passed the turn off where we should have gone left, the gearbox blew up. Well not actually but it stopped working and we had broken down. I then got out the computer and started blogging.
After a few hours here we finally got going again into another bus with the others and we went to Dunrobin Castle. Inside we saw heaps of rooms some with Lion skins, some with Tiger skins and another with Cheetah skin rugs on the ground. We also saw some funny costumes of the people who used to live here. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the hats, they had like red straw mops on top of their helmets. Bahahaha gosh it was funny to imagine.
It was quite strange going through all the corridors because the carpet that was spread out over most of the castle stairways was more tartan. It honestly looks very odd. Outside we could see the garden which was in the shape of a huge circle, cut into blocks with a small fountain in the middle.
The woman who lived here’s name was Duchess Eileen which mum found interesting! She was, I think, the second wife of the Duke which meant his children didn’t like her very much. So when the Duke died, the children said, look, you can have your very own castle way over there while if you get out of this one. I’m sure it was put a bit more polite than that, but that was generally the gist of it. The castle that she got was the one we stayed in the previous night.
We then all went back into the bus and went to a large lake. There was a huge sinking here, there was a market or something and all the people wanted to get from one side to the other with all their stuff. The boat was really crowded and an unexpected tidal wave came, upturned the boat and 99 people drowned. I know it sounds odd to have a tidal wave on a lake, but a similar thing happened to us at the Red Sea when we were in Egypt. We were sitting outside and suddenly these waves just start picking up out of nothing in the middle of the sea and that was the tide!
We then went back to the castle hostel we stayed in last night. Margot and I went exploring and we found out a whole other part of the castle that we didn’t get to find out about the night before, so I’m kind of glad we broke down. We looked outside when we were moving all of our stuff back in, and saw the most amazing sunset. The sky was pink and purple with grey clouds over a reflecting lake and a surrounding forest.
***
Today was going to be a big day, we had to fit all the driving of yesterday and the driving we were meant t do today in one day. So our first stop was short but interesting. It was at a small cemetery where they were cutting the grass. There was one particular gravestone that was important. It had a Celtic cross on one side, but the opposite side it had relief engravings of men riding horses wearing what looked like roman helmets.
We then went passed another huge lake. Its unbelievable how much water Scotland has, but I guess it’s no wonder because it is so often that it rains, probably about 360 days a year they get a least a little rain! Anyway, in the middle of this lake, were seals! I could barley see them but we had binoculars so we could see some movement. There was a lone one sitting on the tiniest of islands, dancing to a slightly larger island where three seals were parked.
We then came to Inverness, a small town with a castle like lots of other places. We didn’t go into the castle but instead had a look around town. We went into a few shops, bought some essentials from the supermarket and headed back to the bus.
We then came to a small town where we had lunch and took lots of photos of everyone at a small bridge made by a rich man called Telford. Everywhere we went were all these bridges built by Telford. Anyway, it was really high but a flood pulled the top off it. It must have been a VERY high flood because the left over bridge was high but it must have had more on top of it! See Scotland gets way too much rain, why can’t Australia have any?
We then came to a mountain peak where a large Funicular was! We went right up the top and it was so steep! Usually it’s a ski run but, in the summer, when there’s no snow they turn it into an awareness area where they ask people to respect the animals that live here and their habitat. There was a very interesting exhibition bit at the beginning telling about the bog, the animals, the history and how climate change is affecting the area.
We then went into the shop and, as a gift, Sara and her family bought me the cutest Highland Cow stuffed toy ever! :D
We then came back down the Fenicular and went for a drive to a place where Marian and I had a great Hot chocolate. The building we were in was very interesting. It was like a cylinder and the toilets were on the lower floor and the upstairs you could look out to an almost 360 degree view of the forest around. On some days I’m sure it would be very beautiful, but as usual, it was raining…
We then came to a small town where we dropped Jared off (because he lived near here) and Genevra too.
Next stop was Glasgow again where we said goodbye to Linda and Suzi and then to Edinborough. We got off here and we said goodbye to Ros, Sara, Francois, Marian and Margot. As we were getting our things out of the back, Hamish accidentally slammed the door into Dad’s head. We were running late because the reception at where we were staying shuts at 10 and it was like 5 to. So dad was powering up the hill pack in hand, clutching his head, bleeding everywhere, me panicking, Hamish feeling awful, the girls getting worried and being told to get back in the bus and mum trying to say goodbye and keep everyone together.
That night wasn’t good. We were staying in Edinborough University because all the students were away, being summer holidays. Mum and dad quickly left to the hospital for stitches and left me alone. What I realised when they were gone that, seeing I had all the keys, it was impossible for them to get in because reception was closed, let alone find the rooms where we were staying in which was unbelievably complicated, especially being on floor -1. so I sat up til 1 am reading in the foyer with many people looking at me curiously as I was almost asleep.
Anyway, it wasn’t a pleasant night, but dad was fine it just felt terrible at the time ‘coz blood freaks me out. *sighs*…
The first morning of the tour was strenuous. We had to walk a few km with our packs up hills and dad taking us around in wrong directions. We arrived at the Glasgow hostel (not the one we were staying at) we sat there for over and hour. It was sunny but icy and I spent the hour reading my book.
The idea of this was to be picked up by a bus. We were going on a tour around Scotland for a couple of days. When the bus finally arrived we jumped aboard and headed for Oban. Along the way we were listening to many songs that I never want to hear again. Old songs about Glasgow and different places depending on where we were. Hamish, our driver/guide, had all his cassette tapes in a box at his feet that he had all set up ready for the next destination.
Our first stop was a small one; we stopped at Dumbarton where we had a great view of the harbour right next to a castle but there wasn’t enough time to go in. On this stop we introduced ourselves to Genevra, a woman from Sydney. And we also met the others on the bus. Linda and Suzi were two sisters from Florida who got oon at the same spot we did, Ros, a woman from West London, Jared, a Scottish man, and a family of four, Sara, Francois, and their two daughters Marian and Margot. Sara is Italian, and Francois is French but from African origin. They all live in Italy but Francois cannot speak Italian, so at home they speak French. Sara speaks Italian, French, English and German, and Marian and Margot were bi-lingual with French and Italian. Wow!
Our next stop was for lunch at Loch Lomond. Lunch was served on an old stationary boat, which was really nice because it was sunny and we got to look out over the whole Loch. A Loch is like a huge lake, for those who weren’t sure :P
We often went through teeny tiny towns that mum loved. Many of the houses had thatched roofing and small streets.
We drove up into the mountains and had a beautiful view over a large valley in the sun.
We then went to the town Inverarry where Inverarry castle stood. The castle was one of the main estates where the Campbell Family lived. The Campbells were one of the richest families in the 1600s and everyone hated them.
In the castle, there was a room completely filled with weapons. Heaps and heaps of guns organised into two circles radiating from a centre shields. Many daggers and swords in glass cabinets something called a “flesh hook” which was… well im sure you can imagine. *shudder*
Some of the other rooms were filled with portraits and very fine furniture. One small room was filled with Chinese Pottery. Personally I didn’t like it. I can’t understand the importance of the art on your plate that will soon be covered in food.
Upstairs was a bedroom with a four poster bed. The material around the top and under he bed clothes was of course the blue and green tartan of the Campbell clan. It looked very odd with the curtain rods also draped in the same tartan :P
After we left the castle we went back into the town Inverarry and then headed for a small castle ruin. It was a small walk to the castle and it was right on the shore of a small lake. Dad and I arrived first at the castle and I felt that feeling of when I was little and we arrived at a hotel. I always wanted to be the first to find every room. I was running up all the flights of stairs and made it to the first turret before anyone else had got to the castle. I absolutely loved it! This is when we first got properly introduced to Sara and her family. Sara and Francois both have a sight disability so mum often helped her around and we then became very good friends.
On our way to Oban we saw a flock of Red deer! They were grazing in a paddock and apparently, in the 1600s people wiped most of them out and hardly any of them run wild anymore. Later we passed a paddock of Highland Cattle. The Highland Cattle are the ones that have huge horns and a great hairstyle-the one with their fringe so long it covers their eyes and you wonder how they can see. In fact its quite similar to the current fashionable fringe!
We were then taken to a magnificent view of Oban. We were on top of a huge hill and overlooked out onto the harbour that Oban was based on. To the right, we could see the town, and near the horizon was a grey stone circular thing that was similar to the Colosseum. In fact, it was commissioned by someone rich who wanted to have their own colosseum but the money ran out half way so it only looks like the colosseum from the outside because there is no, and never was, an inside.
We then went for a small drive down to Oban castle but because it was late we didn’t go inside. Near the castle was a huge rock that we passed that was apparently special to the people who owned the castle and it seemed to have its own mini-garden growing on the top.
Mum, Dad and I then went out for dinner at a really nice restaurant and then headed back to the hostel for bed.
***
The next morning we went to Ben Nevis. On the way we passed a bridge and underneath there is some weird tides or something. I don’t really know what that’s about but we got photos of some random swirling water so I guessed it might be important to put in here. *shrugs* At Ben Nevis there’s a huge lake which I’m guessing is a Loch but I have no idea what the name of it is. Somewhere in the middle of the lake there is a tiny Island where there’s a castle ruin still standing on it!
We then arrived at Glencoe. We went through the thatched roofed town which again, mum loved, and then went to a small lake which was situated in front of a gorgeous mountain, but it was just beginning to rain at this point so the beauty was slightly diminished, just like most of the stuff we’ve seen because I don’t think we’ve had a day since Dublin that we’d had a day without rain. D=
We then went higher into the mountains and came to the three sisters; three HUGE mountainous peaks in line with each other, all covered with green and purple, the purple being heather. Around this area was where some of “The Prisoner of Azkaban” was shot, the third Harry Potter movie. Also Monty Python and the Holy Grail and also some bits of Braveheart too.
We stopped at a little waterfall and we think this is where “The bridge of Death” was shot from Monty Python. The waterfalls were beautiful and the heather really does brighten it all up even when its raining.
We then stopped again in Ben Nevis, had lunch and then headed to the Infamous Loch Ness. There heaps and heaps of Lochs in the area and many of them have sea monster myths and so do many around the whole world but none have quite made it to the fame that The Loch Ness monster has made.
Just as we arrived at the Loch, some swans and signets came out and swam by us, then a gorgeous rainbow, very low in the sky, came onto the horizon on the water filled valley.
At Loch Ness, something no one knows about it, is that it has castle ruins on its shore. This was really incredible, because we were in Scotland, at Loch Ness, with castle ruins in front of us, beautiful greenery around, a rainbow on the left and it was sunny!!! We must have been so lucky, because I can imagine how many thousand tourists have come to Loch Ness just to be drenched as if they’d been swimming in the Loch itself.
We then came to another water falls hgher into the mountain while listening to kids singing about Lochy Lochy Lochy Loch Ness monster. At that point I was happy to get out and have a peaceful walk, and what a place to have it! These waterfalls were something special. It’s hard to explain what a set of waterfalls look like so I’ll just assure you it was really beautiful :)
We then passed the Loch again but from a completely different spot. I think we were at the other end of it by this time. At this spot there were islands in the middle. At the end of this drive we went for a quick walk that took us up to a great look out. To our right was the Loch and all the green Islands in the middle. Above it was an amazing array of light splintering through the clouds casting spotlights on the water and islands. To the left was a stretch of heather leading to the other side of the Loch.
We then went to the “Million Dollar View.” Someone important said it to be that, I think it was Elizabeth I. Anyway, again we were high above looking out over another Loch and again, we were so lucky because we had sun casting over it. Personally I think it wasn’t a million dollar view. Absolutely gorgeous, yes, but how can you pick on view out of the so many beautiful ones we had seen only in the past 2 days!
The best part of this day, was our arrival at the hostel. Usually, if that’s the best part, it means it’s been an average day and I’m looking forward to a bed, but tonight was different. This hostel was previously a castle. We walked inside and we were gob smacked to see marble statues lining the main hall! And the banister up the stairway with such intricate carving. The Dining room where we had dinner was filled with portraits and the roof had small flowers painted on each corner of the squares that were made up from wood lining.
Upstairs there was a huge hall where bay windows let in light on to the newly placed ping-pong table. To the right was a large room with more priceless views out the window, it was so light and filled with fireplaces and couches so anyone can come in and relax.
***
This morning was not exactly how we planned. In fact the whole day was quite wobbly. It started with Genevra, Ros, Jared and Francois going to the whiskey distillery. Sara, Marian, Margot, Mum and I went for a small walk through the heather that Sara really loved, up to a small lookout.
We then packed our stuff up and got in the bus on the way to the Whiskey distillery to pick the others up. Unfortunately, Hamish accidentally took a wrong turn and we drove in the wrong direction for about 20 minutes. Then, just as we passed the turn off where we should have gone left, the gearbox blew up. Well not actually but it stopped working and we had broken down. I then got out the computer and started blogging.
After a few hours here we finally got going again into another bus with the others and we went to Dunrobin Castle. Inside we saw heaps of rooms some with Lion skins, some with Tiger skins and another with Cheetah skin rugs on the ground. We also saw some funny costumes of the people who used to live here. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the hats, they had like red straw mops on top of their helmets. Bahahaha gosh it was funny to imagine.
It was quite strange going through all the corridors because the carpet that was spread out over most of the castle stairways was more tartan. It honestly looks very odd. Outside we could see the garden which was in the shape of a huge circle, cut into blocks with a small fountain in the middle.
The woman who lived here’s name was Duchess Eileen which mum found interesting! She was, I think, the second wife of the Duke which meant his children didn’t like her very much. So when the Duke died, the children said, look, you can have your very own castle way over there while if you get out of this one. I’m sure it was put a bit more polite than that, but that was generally the gist of it. The castle that she got was the one we stayed in the previous night.
We then all went back into the bus and went to a large lake. There was a huge sinking here, there was a market or something and all the people wanted to get from one side to the other with all their stuff. The boat was really crowded and an unexpected tidal wave came, upturned the boat and 99 people drowned. I know it sounds odd to have a tidal wave on a lake, but a similar thing happened to us at the Red Sea when we were in Egypt. We were sitting outside and suddenly these waves just start picking up out of nothing in the middle of the sea and that was the tide!
We then went back to the castle hostel we stayed in last night. Margot and I went exploring and we found out a whole other part of the castle that we didn’t get to find out about the night before, so I’m kind of glad we broke down. We looked outside when we were moving all of our stuff back in, and saw the most amazing sunset. The sky was pink and purple with grey clouds over a reflecting lake and a surrounding forest.
***
Today was going to be a big day, we had to fit all the driving of yesterday and the driving we were meant t do today in one day. So our first stop was short but interesting. It was at a small cemetery where they were cutting the grass. There was one particular gravestone that was important. It had a Celtic cross on one side, but the opposite side it had relief engravings of men riding horses wearing what looked like roman helmets.
We then went passed another huge lake. Its unbelievable how much water Scotland has, but I guess it’s no wonder because it is so often that it rains, probably about 360 days a year they get a least a little rain! Anyway, in the middle of this lake, were seals! I could barley see them but we had binoculars so we could see some movement. There was a lone one sitting on the tiniest of islands, dancing to a slightly larger island where three seals were parked.
We then came to Inverness, a small town with a castle like lots of other places. We didn’t go into the castle but instead had a look around town. We went into a few shops, bought some essentials from the supermarket and headed back to the bus.
We then came to a small town where we had lunch and took lots of photos of everyone at a small bridge made by a rich man called Telford. Everywhere we went were all these bridges built by Telford. Anyway, it was really high but a flood pulled the top off it. It must have been a VERY high flood because the left over bridge was high but it must have had more on top of it! See Scotland gets way too much rain, why can’t Australia have any?
We then came to a mountain peak where a large Funicular was! We went right up the top and it was so steep! Usually it’s a ski run but, in the summer, when there’s no snow they turn it into an awareness area where they ask people to respect the animals that live here and their habitat. There was a very interesting exhibition bit at the beginning telling about the bog, the animals, the history and how climate change is affecting the area.
We then went into the shop and, as a gift, Sara and her family bought me the cutest Highland Cow stuffed toy ever! :D
We then came back down the Fenicular and went for a drive to a place where Marian and I had a great Hot chocolate. The building we were in was very interesting. It was like a cylinder and the toilets were on the lower floor and the upstairs you could look out to an almost 360 degree view of the forest around. On some days I’m sure it would be very beautiful, but as usual, it was raining…
We then came to a small town where we dropped Jared off (because he lived near here) and Genevra too.
Next stop was Glasgow again where we said goodbye to Linda and Suzi and then to Edinborough. We got off here and we said goodbye to Ros, Sara, Francois, Marian and Margot. As we were getting our things out of the back, Hamish accidentally slammed the door into Dad’s head. We were running late because the reception at where we were staying shuts at 10 and it was like 5 to. So dad was powering up the hill pack in hand, clutching his head, bleeding everywhere, me panicking, Hamish feeling awful, the girls getting worried and being told to get back in the bus and mum trying to say goodbye and keep everyone together.
That night wasn’t good. We were staying in Edinborough University because all the students were away, being summer holidays. Mum and dad quickly left to the hospital for stitches and left me alone. What I realised when they were gone that, seeing I had all the keys, it was impossible for them to get in because reception was closed, let alone find the rooms where we were staying in which was unbelievably complicated, especially being on floor -1. so I sat up til 1 am reading in the foyer with many people looking at me curiously as I was almost asleep.
Anyway, it wasn’t a pleasant night, but dad was fine it just felt terrible at the time ‘coz blood freaks me out. *sighs*…
8/29/09
Glasgow 22/8/09-23/8/09
Today we left the country and took a ferry to Scotland! On the boat we watched the movie Bolt about a superhero dog and mum fell in love with the hamster character. From the port where we were dropped off, we caught another bus to Glasgow. It was about a 3 hour drive and I enjoyed it, even though it was grey and raining a bit.
When we arrived in Glasgow we had to walk down the main street for about an hour with our packs on. When we were in Marrakech the city looked pink. In Glasgow the place looked a cross between grey and brown. It wasn’t bad, it was just something I noticed and want to remember.
Our room in the hostel was 9 floors up so we took the left and then afterwards, we went out to get some noodles, then back again for an early night before we pack Glasgow in in one day…
Ok, so Glasgow. We had a sleep in because the planned early night wasn’t. so we began the day with just walking around trying to find our way around. When we got to a church that said “Free guided tours” mum thought we were in the right spot. Unfortunately not. We were in a small chapely thing and no wonder the tours were free, the woman was awfully boring. Her content was good but really… what I did find interesting was 3 stain glass windows that were made from little squares with letters on them. One told about scientists and it had the double helix in there, a computer, the globe map in the segment pieces so the sphere is laid flat.
We then went and found the oldest house in Glasgow. It was for a priest I think, and Mary queen of Scots visited often a long with Henry the VII, but please don’t trust that. I’m not sure. I just came to that conclusion as there were original portraits of these characters a long with Mary Queen of Scots’ husband and their son Bonny Prince Charlie.
My favourite room was the top room with many sketches of street characters. They were really interesting. There was a man called “Jamie Blue” who danced and rhymed, his accomplice, “Blind Alick” who was a fiddler and also “Major” who danced too.
We then walked to the cathedral which mum wanted to go in. dad didn’t go in, as he limits himself, instead he went into the religion museum. Inside the cathedral was another stain glass window like the three we saw in the chapel by the same artist, and also the tomb of St Mungo.
I wanted to go into the religion museum too, so we then went in. what was special about this museum, is that it didn’t just show Christianity. It showed all about the 6 main religions; Christianity, Buddhism, Muslim, Judaism, Sikhism and Hindu. So first we looked into a room with many religious art pieces. I was very glad to see an aboriginal painting. Also there was some ancient Greek pottery, Egyptian headdresses, some South American shrines, a large Hindu sculpture, one of their females goddesses, and of course small sculptures of the crucifixion.
The next room had some cabinets in describing the stages in life for each religion; birth, coming of age, sex and marriage, death and the after life. To there was a christening dress in the first cabinet for Christianity, a poster of the smoke ritual for the Aboriginals and many other items that I can’t describe without some important information.
I found the coming of age the most disturbing. I’m not sure which religion but I think it’s Hindu, the woman’s clitoris is removed. This causes mutilation of the reproductive system and the woman or child often dies in child birth after this ritual has taken place. There was an a photo of the ritual taking place. All you could see was the man behind the woman, and the woman crying out in pain. Her face ripped me open. This is the reason I can’t understand some religions.
We then walked to Georges Square and took one of the red bus tours that we took in Rome. Being so tired from a not-so-good sleep, and there’s something about those buses that instantly put me to sleep! But we went around in a big circle and so I didn’t miss anything. We went in a big circle because we wanted to meet up with some people ay their house, but first we went and looked in a museum for half an hour before it closed.
Inside we saw the winners of animals… if that makes sense. I mean thy had stuffed animals of the largest, the tallest, the smallest, the deadliest, those sort of things. It was nice to see the Kangaroo took “the longest jumper” and the koala took “the fuzziest eater…” with a title like that I think they just wanted to put a koala in their collection but I have no objections, who wouldn’t!?!
We then went for a short walk to where we met up with Greta-Mary and Graham; my great aunt and uncle. Greta-Mary is Dad’s Dad’s cousin. They were both very welcoming and we had a great fun with them. we went out for dinner and then they walked us a little way before we continued back to the centre of town.
On the way we checked out a Kilt shop and we saw, that a whole outfit, cost about £650! And that’s just the day suit!
When we arrived in Glasgow we had to walk down the main street for about an hour with our packs on. When we were in Marrakech the city looked pink. In Glasgow the place looked a cross between grey and brown. It wasn’t bad, it was just something I noticed and want to remember.
Our room in the hostel was 9 floors up so we took the left and then afterwards, we went out to get some noodles, then back again for an early night before we pack Glasgow in in one day…
Ok, so Glasgow. We had a sleep in because the planned early night wasn’t. so we began the day with just walking around trying to find our way around. When we got to a church that said “Free guided tours” mum thought we were in the right spot. Unfortunately not. We were in a small chapely thing and no wonder the tours were free, the woman was awfully boring. Her content was good but really… what I did find interesting was 3 stain glass windows that were made from little squares with letters on them. One told about scientists and it had the double helix in there, a computer, the globe map in the segment pieces so the sphere is laid flat.
We then went and found the oldest house in Glasgow. It was for a priest I think, and Mary queen of Scots visited often a long with Henry the VII, but please don’t trust that. I’m not sure. I just came to that conclusion as there were original portraits of these characters a long with Mary Queen of Scots’ husband and their son Bonny Prince Charlie.
My favourite room was the top room with many sketches of street characters. They were really interesting. There was a man called “Jamie Blue” who danced and rhymed, his accomplice, “Blind Alick” who was a fiddler and also “Major” who danced too.
We then walked to the cathedral which mum wanted to go in. dad didn’t go in, as he limits himself, instead he went into the religion museum. Inside the cathedral was another stain glass window like the three we saw in the chapel by the same artist, and also the tomb of St Mungo.
I wanted to go into the religion museum too, so we then went in. what was special about this museum, is that it didn’t just show Christianity. It showed all about the 6 main religions; Christianity, Buddhism, Muslim, Judaism, Sikhism and Hindu. So first we looked into a room with many religious art pieces. I was very glad to see an aboriginal painting. Also there was some ancient Greek pottery, Egyptian headdresses, some South American shrines, a large Hindu sculpture, one of their females goddesses, and of course small sculptures of the crucifixion.
The next room had some cabinets in describing the stages in life for each religion; birth, coming of age, sex and marriage, death and the after life. To there was a christening dress in the first cabinet for Christianity, a poster of the smoke ritual for the Aboriginals and many other items that I can’t describe without some important information.
I found the coming of age the most disturbing. I’m not sure which religion but I think it’s Hindu, the woman’s clitoris is removed. This causes mutilation of the reproductive system and the woman or child often dies in child birth after this ritual has taken place. There was an a photo of the ritual taking place. All you could see was the man behind the woman, and the woman crying out in pain. Her face ripped me open. This is the reason I can’t understand some religions.
We then walked to Georges Square and took one of the red bus tours that we took in Rome. Being so tired from a not-so-good sleep, and there’s something about those buses that instantly put me to sleep! But we went around in a big circle and so I didn’t miss anything. We went in a big circle because we wanted to meet up with some people ay their house, but first we went and looked in a museum for half an hour before it closed.
Inside we saw the winners of animals… if that makes sense. I mean thy had stuffed animals of the largest, the tallest, the smallest, the deadliest, those sort of things. It was nice to see the Kangaroo took “the longest jumper” and the koala took “the fuzziest eater…” with a title like that I think they just wanted to put a koala in their collection but I have no objections, who wouldn’t!?!
We then went for a short walk to where we met up with Greta-Mary and Graham; my great aunt and uncle. Greta-Mary is Dad’s Dad’s cousin. They were both very welcoming and we had a great fun with them. we went out for dinner and then they walked us a little way before we continued back to the centre of town.
On the way we checked out a Kilt shop and we saw, that a whole outfit, cost about £650! And that’s just the day suit!
Belfast
On the 20th of August we left Ballycastle and started our way to Northern Ireland. On the way we stopped at Giants causeway. Apparently there was a man called Finn and he created this causeway to Scotland. But he saw a giant and ran back, frightened of the size of him. But the Giant came back, chasing him but when he arrived at Finns house he was surprised to find Finn was apparently not there. His wife was at his house and said “no, Finn is not here, only me and the baby.” But when the Giant saw the baby in the crib he ran back frightened. The baby was huge and he thought if that’s the size of the baby the Finn must be enormous!!!! When the giant left, Finn jumped out of the crib, pulled his bonnet off and jumped with glee.
So anyway, from that story, somehow this causeway was built. Its like all the hexagonal rock formations tessellating with each other. The rocks were huge columns that towered up, it was amazing. We were so lucky, we had beautiful sunshine while we were looking at it, but as we headed around to have a look at the rest of the place, suddenly the we had freezing rain pounding down at us and we were absolutely soaked through. We decided to get back to the car as quickly as possible :P
We then stopped at an eco sort of museum. It told us about pollution, evolution of power, and out the front were huge insects! There was a massive spider, caterpillar, fly on a bottle, ladybird, snail and dragonfly! I so would have been the one to climb all over it but it was still raining…
We then came into Crumlin where we met up with Johny Mackel. He and his two kids Liam (16) and Eoghan (13 and pronounced Owen) and their cousin Brendan who I think is also 16. They all met us in Crumlin, and then we followed them home.
Mum and Dad met Johny and Cath (his wife, she was away when we were there) 20 years ago in Ireland and have only seen them once since. We had good long chats and went too bed late.
When we were in Ennis, we met one of Miko’s clients/friends called Brendan, he plays brilliant wooden flute and he performed a few things for us which was lovely. When we told him we were going to Belfast he said we must do the black taxi tour. Well I had no idea what that was but we gave it a shot. Around lunch time, we took Eoghan into Belfast.
The first main street we came down was called Shinkle or something. Anyway, it was really odd to see all these Union jack flags around. They had those roped with mini flags on them strung all down the street, crossing over the road from lamp post to post. We also saw some of the murals we knew that we were to see more of. Straight away I had a feeling of intimidation.
After parking our car, we walked to the “Big Wheel,” like a Belfast eye, where we were to meet our taxi. So the idea of a black taxi tour is a taxi comes and gets you, takes you on a particular route and gives you information.
So we began the tour by going up the same street and then taking a turn off. We were parked in this little park area where young boys were playing golf with aluminium cans and golf balls. Around us were lots of buildings, and their walls facing us were covered in paintings. We were stopped in a place specially for the famous murals. They were all awful and scary, but one really intimidated Eoghan. Eoghan felt quite scared in this area, but one of the murals really impacted him, and me too. There was a mural with 3 pictures of men on it. 2 were copies of photographs of particular men representing U.R.A and I.R.A or some other form of initials. The man in the middle represented the army force , I think, but it was a man dressed in the camouflaged khaki holding a gun. The most intimidating aspect of him was his gun. The man was holding a gun, and no matter where you stood, it looked like the gun was always pointing straight at you, you were always looking down the barrel.
We then got back in the taxi and drove past the iron gates. There is actually a wall separating the protestant living area and the catholic. These gates are left open during the day but close at night. This curfew idea is to stop either side starting a violent riot with the other. As we continued down the “peace lane” where the gates are, it comes to a wall which stretches until the next set of gates. The wall is completely covered in graffiti on the protestant side and the taxi driver actually provided markers so we could right our names and nationalities on it with our own message. I wrote “Tegan Brownless, Australia ’09 PEACE” because I couldn’t think of anything smart to say other than that. What was really strange, was someone from America had written our school motto “Per Aspera Ad Astra” meaning “through hardship to the stars.”
We then went through the next set of gates into the catholic side. Instantly we could see a different scene. I can’t really tell you what the difference is, but I just know it was, a different feel, not better or worse, just different. On the opposite side of the wall there was no graffiti or road, but houses backed right up to it. On this side there were images, photographs of people and the house rubble. One of the stories of the houses, was some catholic men were inside creating a bomb to throw to the opposite side but it accidentally blew up before they had finished with it. The whole house was blown to the ground and the 4 men inside died.
There was another poster that was placed up against one of the houses next door. It was of the streets with burning houses. The Protestants came in and burned the Catholics out of their houses. Then in the bottom right hand corner, there was a black and white image of a boy. He signed up for the army at 15 and was the first to be killed by the Protestant’s actions.
We then went to a monastery/church where, when the Catholics were burned out of their houses, they came and sheltered here in the under-ground rooms. Then eventually this was attacked too during a funeral. Some young Protestant men attempted to burn it down but luckily its still standing.
When we had the conversation about Belfast with Brendan, he told us how they went to a bar on the Catholic side and inside were these huge men, extreme tattoos and baseball caps drinking many pints of Guiness. The same night they went to a bar on the Protestant side where there were other men exactly the same, huge with tats and caps, yet they believe they are so different. We experienced a similar thing when we arrived at the monastery. There were some young boys playing a form of golf. The only differences between the boys were one lot was catholic, the others were Protestant and they also had different sort of batts…
We then went and had a look at another mural about a man called Bobby someone. He was the first to die from a silent protest he participated in. A few men had decided to go on a hunger strike and he was the first to die from starvation from the group. One man’s parents couldn’t bare to watch their son dieing and asked doctors to actually force feed him through a tube. He lived and did finish his strike, but he was so affected from the strike that he died young anyway from the frailness he suffered from.
We then went to a wall that had been painted with many different types of political statements. One was a copy of a Picasso painting, one had been painted in the past 3 weeks and was stating how no one should live under racism.
That was it for the taxi tour, but ht night was far from over. After dinner, Johny and Dad packed the fiddles in the back of the car and the four of us headed to a pub. We left the three boys back at the house. They think its old peoples music and its really boring. The night sessioning went til about 1:30 am. It was great fun. We were in a small pub. Low ceilings, the main light was from the candles on the tables and the people were very welcoming. One of the sessioners was Brendan! So we were lucky enough to hear his magic flute playing again J
So anyway, from that story, somehow this causeway was built. Its like all the hexagonal rock formations tessellating with each other. The rocks were huge columns that towered up, it was amazing. We were so lucky, we had beautiful sunshine while we were looking at it, but as we headed around to have a look at the rest of the place, suddenly the we had freezing rain pounding down at us and we were absolutely soaked through. We decided to get back to the car as quickly as possible :P
We then stopped at an eco sort of museum. It told us about pollution, evolution of power, and out the front were huge insects! There was a massive spider, caterpillar, fly on a bottle, ladybird, snail and dragonfly! I so would have been the one to climb all over it but it was still raining…
We then came into Crumlin where we met up with Johny Mackel. He and his two kids Liam (16) and Eoghan (13 and pronounced Owen) and their cousin Brendan who I think is also 16. They all met us in Crumlin, and then we followed them home.
Mum and Dad met Johny and Cath (his wife, she was away when we were there) 20 years ago in Ireland and have only seen them once since. We had good long chats and went too bed late.
When we were in Ennis, we met one of Miko’s clients/friends called Brendan, he plays brilliant wooden flute and he performed a few things for us which was lovely. When we told him we were going to Belfast he said we must do the black taxi tour. Well I had no idea what that was but we gave it a shot. Around lunch time, we took Eoghan into Belfast.
The first main street we came down was called Shinkle or something. Anyway, it was really odd to see all these Union jack flags around. They had those roped with mini flags on them strung all down the street, crossing over the road from lamp post to post. We also saw some of the murals we knew that we were to see more of. Straight away I had a feeling of intimidation.
After parking our car, we walked to the “Big Wheel,” like a Belfast eye, where we were to meet our taxi. So the idea of a black taxi tour is a taxi comes and gets you, takes you on a particular route and gives you information.
So we began the tour by going up the same street and then taking a turn off. We were parked in this little park area where young boys were playing golf with aluminium cans and golf balls. Around us were lots of buildings, and their walls facing us were covered in paintings. We were stopped in a place specially for the famous murals. They were all awful and scary, but one really intimidated Eoghan. Eoghan felt quite scared in this area, but one of the murals really impacted him, and me too. There was a mural with 3 pictures of men on it. 2 were copies of photographs of particular men representing U.R.A and I.R.A or some other form of initials. The man in the middle represented the army force , I think, but it was a man dressed in the camouflaged khaki holding a gun. The most intimidating aspect of him was his gun. The man was holding a gun, and no matter where you stood, it looked like the gun was always pointing straight at you, you were always looking down the barrel.
We then got back in the taxi and drove past the iron gates. There is actually a wall separating the protestant living area and the catholic. These gates are left open during the day but close at night. This curfew idea is to stop either side starting a violent riot with the other. As we continued down the “peace lane” where the gates are, it comes to a wall which stretches until the next set of gates. The wall is completely covered in graffiti on the protestant side and the taxi driver actually provided markers so we could right our names and nationalities on it with our own message. I wrote “Tegan Brownless, Australia ’09 PEACE” because I couldn’t think of anything smart to say other than that. What was really strange, was someone from America had written our school motto “Per Aspera Ad Astra” meaning “through hardship to the stars.”
We then went through the next set of gates into the catholic side. Instantly we could see a different scene. I can’t really tell you what the difference is, but I just know it was, a different feel, not better or worse, just different. On the opposite side of the wall there was no graffiti or road, but houses backed right up to it. On this side there were images, photographs of people and the house rubble. One of the stories of the houses, was some catholic men were inside creating a bomb to throw to the opposite side but it accidentally blew up before they had finished with it. The whole house was blown to the ground and the 4 men inside died.
There was another poster that was placed up against one of the houses next door. It was of the streets with burning houses. The Protestants came in and burned the Catholics out of their houses. Then in the bottom right hand corner, there was a black and white image of a boy. He signed up for the army at 15 and was the first to be killed by the Protestant’s actions.
We then went to a monastery/church where, when the Catholics were burned out of their houses, they came and sheltered here in the under-ground rooms. Then eventually this was attacked too during a funeral. Some young Protestant men attempted to burn it down but luckily its still standing.
When we had the conversation about Belfast with Brendan, he told us how they went to a bar on the Catholic side and inside were these huge men, extreme tattoos and baseball caps drinking many pints of Guiness. The same night they went to a bar on the Protestant side where there were other men exactly the same, huge with tats and caps, yet they believe they are so different. We experienced a similar thing when we arrived at the monastery. There were some young boys playing a form of golf. The only differences between the boys were one lot was catholic, the others were Protestant and they also had different sort of batts…
We then went and had a look at another mural about a man called Bobby someone. He was the first to die from a silent protest he participated in. A few men had decided to go on a hunger strike and he was the first to die from starvation from the group. One man’s parents couldn’t bare to watch their son dieing and asked doctors to actually force feed him through a tube. He lived and did finish his strike, but he was so affected from the strike that he died young anyway from the frailness he suffered from.
We then went to a wall that had been painted with many different types of political statements. One was a copy of a Picasso painting, one had been painted in the past 3 weeks and was stating how no one should live under racism.
That was it for the taxi tour, but ht night was far from over. After dinner, Johny and Dad packed the fiddles in the back of the car and the four of us headed to a pub. We left the three boys back at the house. They think its old peoples music and its really boring. The night sessioning went til about 1:30 am. It was great fun. We were in a small pub. Low ceilings, the main light was from the candles on the tables and the people were very welcoming. One of the sessioners was Brendan! So we were lucky enough to hear his magic flute playing again J
19/8/09
Back in the car today and I don’t know why, but we arrived at a castle in Glenveigh. We went into the tourist information centre and watched a few videos. One, we realised, that out of the 6 national parks in Ireland, we had been to 5; Kilarney, Conemarra, The Burren, Wicklow and the one we were at. There was one in County Mayo which was the only one we hadn’t been to.
We bought tickets for a mini bus to the castle. The trip was only 10-15 minutes and suddenly, out of the blue, there’s a castle. The castle is built next to a lake, yet they still had their own swimming pool… ? all the tours were booked out for inside the castle so we just had a walk around.
We walked up a very steep hill that would continue up a mountain to look all over, but as it was getting late we decided not to do the whole climb. Instead we took a left turn into a small forest past the 67 stairs. Randomly, in the middle of the forest, there are 67 stone steps. Unfortunately it was all blocked off but personally I think the makers are mad. Who would ever want to haul stones up this steep hill to make 67 stairs when there’s already a path laid out???
We went for a walk through the veggie garden which dad enjoyed identifying all the plants. What dad didn’t enjoy was going through the rose garden, but mum, sympathetically, finished that walk early.
After the bus trip back we started going again, in the car and on to Ballycastle. At Ballycastle it was raining and grey. It’s located on the beach so I guess it would really suck for all the local kids who wanted a summer of buckets and spades… they have a beautiful cliff on the horizon too but we couldn’t see it because of all the rain and mist.
We bought tickets for a mini bus to the castle. The trip was only 10-15 minutes and suddenly, out of the blue, there’s a castle. The castle is built next to a lake, yet they still had their own swimming pool… ? all the tours were booked out for inside the castle so we just had a walk around.
We walked up a very steep hill that would continue up a mountain to look all over, but as it was getting late we decided not to do the whole climb. Instead we took a left turn into a small forest past the 67 stairs. Randomly, in the middle of the forest, there are 67 stone steps. Unfortunately it was all blocked off but personally I think the makers are mad. Who would ever want to haul stones up this steep hill to make 67 stairs when there’s already a path laid out???
We went for a walk through the veggie garden which dad enjoyed identifying all the plants. What dad didn’t enjoy was going through the rose garden, but mum, sympathetically, finished that walk early.
After the bus trip back we started going again, in the car and on to Ballycastle. At Ballycastle it was raining and grey. It’s located on the beach so I guess it would really suck for all the local kids who wanted a summer of buckets and spades… they have a beautiful cliff on the horizon too but we couldn’t see it because of all the rain and mist.
17/8/09-18/9/09
This morning I regret. I didn’t sleep well and so I was very tired in the morning. Mum believes that that morning was more beautiful than all of the cliffs in Ireland we had recently seen. I spent the morning sleeping in the car. When I finally woke up, the Conemarra national park had gone and most of the special beauty with it. But most of the country side in Ireland is beautiful anyway so I don’t think what I saw was bad, just not as beautiful as all the stuff we’d already seen.
We spent a long time in the car, we drove a long way north until we arrived in the town Donegal. We stopped and had dinner and reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally nice tiramisu :P
Our final stop was in a small town called Glen Colm Kille. We had a great stay there, we were to stay there two nights.
The next day we slept in, had breakfast and mum and dad went for a walk. I stayed home to do a bit of maths. When they came back, even though it was raining, we got in the car and headed for the highest cliffs in Europe.
They were beautiful, so high! Mum had to fight midges all the way up, they really love her! For some reason they don’t like me. *shrugs* when we got to the top after climbing several stairs to the top, the wind was so great that the midges disappeared. To our right we could see down into the ocean where the cliffs fall into the water. To our left we could see more mountain/cliffs in the distance and a huge lake that was caught into og this cliff we were standing at.
When we came home, I cooked macaroni cheese and finished my book :)
We spent a long time in the car, we drove a long way north until we arrived in the town Donegal. We stopped and had dinner and reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally nice tiramisu :P
Our final stop was in a small town called Glen Colm Kille. We had a great stay there, we were to stay there two nights.
The next day we slept in, had breakfast and mum and dad went for a walk. I stayed home to do a bit of maths. When they came back, even though it was raining, we got in the car and headed for the highest cliffs in Europe.
They were beautiful, so high! Mum had to fight midges all the way up, they really love her! For some reason they don’t like me. *shrugs* when we got to the top after climbing several stairs to the top, the wind was so great that the midges disappeared. To our right we could see down into the ocean where the cliffs fall into the water. To our left we could see more mountain/cliffs in the distance and a huge lake that was caught into og this cliff we were standing at.
When we came home, I cooked macaroni cheese and finished my book :)
Ennis and Letter Fraic 9/8/09-16/7/09
This morning we had a nice sleep in before going to the Dingle Aquarium, the only aquarium in all of Ireland. Inside were really colourful fish my favourite of which was the cow fish, piranhas, sharks, Molly the turtle and my favourite, the friendly rays. There was a touching pool which I must have spent 20 minutes there just patting these really friendly rays! They would come up, stick their nose out at you and you cn pat them! They were so friendly!
After the Aquarium, back in the car and on to Ennis. We were greeted by our old friend Miko there. Miko used to play in dad’s band with Helen his partner. He was very welcoming and we spent many nights at his place.
The first day was a school day and mum and dad went out to a free concert in a small community. Every night dad and Miko went out to play at sessions in pubs always til the wee hours.
On one of the days we decided to be awfully touristy and go to the cliffs of Moher. The cliffs were fantastic, beautiful and super duperly high. On top of one of the cliffs there’s a little castle fort that I’m not even sure if its a real one. They were seriously beautiful but places crowded with tourists always takes the edge off it. There were common signs around advertising life-lines trying to stop suicide jumping.
We then made a stop at the Burren where there were heaps of little rock formations. Tourists had created little towers of rocks and we saw a few in the making, and after that we went to the portal tomb. Its quite touristy but no one can barely find it and it was free so yippy! It was apparently made a really long time ago (forgotten te exact years) by the first occupants of Ireland, the Irish before the Vikings came.
One of the other days we went south to Kilkee. Dad took us on a road that was really thin and all through boring farm land. Often we got held up by tractors carrying turfs. Turfs are lumps of the Pete land that they burn for fuel. Almost all the trees in Ireland were cut down for housing materials and fuel so after they all went they decided to burn the land itself, which they still do today.
South west of Kilkee is a scenic loop that we believe rivals the cliffs of Moher any day. They were just as beautiful and perhaps more so. We didn’t need to pay for any parking tickets and the number of people was insignificant to the people at the Cliffs yesterday. In some places parts of the land have been completely worn away and it stands as a small plateau in the ocean. One still has a small ruin on it!
On the 15th of august we went on a look around the Burren. The Burren is an area of limestone rock that used to be covered in pine forests, but after the Irish cleared all the trees, the soil slid away leaving the rocks bare.
So we drove around and then walked along these lakes. Apparently these lakes don’t keep their water. The lakes fill up from the rain and the gradually seep out into underground rivers. And because its summer and it rains all the time anyway, the lakes were pretty full.
Miko took us up a different way to the original path because from one way you see one direction and along the path, you see the other. So we looked out over where we parked the car, and over the lakes and out to the horizon where the mountains peaked.
When we got to the top we were standing on what is called a Can. It’s sort of an ancient ritual site and its just made from a big pile of rocks that of course have stayed in its place.
On top of the Can we could see out over another five mountains. Being on top of one, we couldn’t really see it well, but looking out to the other ones we could see the amazing spiral like formation of the rocks. Was incredible!
As we looked out in the opposite direction to the other mountains, we could see farm land and a few houses. Covering them was an incredible ban of rain that we could see coming towards us. From the sun that we were receiving the rain clouds were glowing. It was beautiful! But because we didn’t want to get wet, we began the descent down the path.
From this side we could see Father Teds house. I haven’t seen the series but its about some priests living on island or something. Well we saw the house that it was filmed in. we drove there after we got down too.
Amazingly we somehow missed the rain, it didn’t go up the mountain and went along the side of it!
That night we went out and dad stayed late at the pub with Miko playing tunes again til the wee hours!
This day we packed up, said goodbye to Miko, and hit the road again. We drove to a plaice called Letter Fraic. The drive was beautiful we drove past lakes and green mountains covered in plantations of pines. On the way we saw the famous Kylemore Abbey. We didn’t go an visit it, we thought it was too expensive and apparently aprx 2500 tourist go there everyday or something!
We arrived at our hostel which was very cheap and not luxurious, but the feeling was good so we didn’t mind. We had parked our car outside this white building with a park around it. We didn’t know what it was until we went for a walk.
Strangely we didn’t just walk the 20 metres to it, we decided to go down the hill, go shopping to buy some essentials like tea and then walk about another km uphill on the national park road back to the white building…
After I got over my annoyance of walking so far to somewhere so not far, we went inside the building where we saw mini models of how the area would have looked before people came, then when they came and now what it is. the most interesting par to fit was a real tree that was on display. It had been dug up out of the tree less bog. The studies on the carbon showed that it was over 2000 years old! So now no trees grow but they did before men arrived.
Mum was really tired so she took the shopping back while dad and I decided to do a walk in the park. We were out for about an hour, walking on a gravel path that sometimes became a boardwalk as it was so boggy and wet it was impossible to put a pt through. On the way up we could see out over huge lakes in front of us. They were so big we’re not actually sure they were lakes, we were considering them to be the sea, but who knows. I can’t tell you, sorry.
That was all for that day, a good day to add the many :)
After the Aquarium, back in the car and on to Ennis. We were greeted by our old friend Miko there. Miko used to play in dad’s band with Helen his partner. He was very welcoming and we spent many nights at his place.
The first day was a school day and mum and dad went out to a free concert in a small community. Every night dad and Miko went out to play at sessions in pubs always til the wee hours.
On one of the days we decided to be awfully touristy and go to the cliffs of Moher. The cliffs were fantastic, beautiful and super duperly high. On top of one of the cliffs there’s a little castle fort that I’m not even sure if its a real one. They were seriously beautiful but places crowded with tourists always takes the edge off it. There were common signs around advertising life-lines trying to stop suicide jumping.
We then made a stop at the Burren where there were heaps of little rock formations. Tourists had created little towers of rocks and we saw a few in the making, and after that we went to the portal tomb. Its quite touristy but no one can barely find it and it was free so yippy! It was apparently made a really long time ago (forgotten te exact years) by the first occupants of Ireland, the Irish before the Vikings came.
One of the other days we went south to Kilkee. Dad took us on a road that was really thin and all through boring farm land. Often we got held up by tractors carrying turfs. Turfs are lumps of the Pete land that they burn for fuel. Almost all the trees in Ireland were cut down for housing materials and fuel so after they all went they decided to burn the land itself, which they still do today.
South west of Kilkee is a scenic loop that we believe rivals the cliffs of Moher any day. They were just as beautiful and perhaps more so. We didn’t need to pay for any parking tickets and the number of people was insignificant to the people at the Cliffs yesterday. In some places parts of the land have been completely worn away and it stands as a small plateau in the ocean. One still has a small ruin on it!
On the 15th of august we went on a look around the Burren. The Burren is an area of limestone rock that used to be covered in pine forests, but after the Irish cleared all the trees, the soil slid away leaving the rocks bare.
So we drove around and then walked along these lakes. Apparently these lakes don’t keep their water. The lakes fill up from the rain and the gradually seep out into underground rivers. And because its summer and it rains all the time anyway, the lakes were pretty full.
Miko took us up a different way to the original path because from one way you see one direction and along the path, you see the other. So we looked out over where we parked the car, and over the lakes and out to the horizon where the mountains peaked.
When we got to the top we were standing on what is called a Can. It’s sort of an ancient ritual site and its just made from a big pile of rocks that of course have stayed in its place.
On top of the Can we could see out over another five mountains. Being on top of one, we couldn’t really see it well, but looking out to the other ones we could see the amazing spiral like formation of the rocks. Was incredible!
As we looked out in the opposite direction to the other mountains, we could see farm land and a few houses. Covering them was an incredible ban of rain that we could see coming towards us. From the sun that we were receiving the rain clouds were glowing. It was beautiful! But because we didn’t want to get wet, we began the descent down the path.
From this side we could see Father Teds house. I haven’t seen the series but its about some priests living on island or something. Well we saw the house that it was filmed in. we drove there after we got down too.
Amazingly we somehow missed the rain, it didn’t go up the mountain and went along the side of it!
That night we went out and dad stayed late at the pub with Miko playing tunes again til the wee hours!
This day we packed up, said goodbye to Miko, and hit the road again. We drove to a plaice called Letter Fraic. The drive was beautiful we drove past lakes and green mountains covered in plantations of pines. On the way we saw the famous Kylemore Abbey. We didn’t go an visit it, we thought it was too expensive and apparently aprx 2500 tourist go there everyday or something!
We arrived at our hostel which was very cheap and not luxurious, but the feeling was good so we didn’t mind. We had parked our car outside this white building with a park around it. We didn’t know what it was until we went for a walk.
Strangely we didn’t just walk the 20 metres to it, we decided to go down the hill, go shopping to buy some essentials like tea and then walk about another km uphill on the national park road back to the white building…
After I got over my annoyance of walking so far to somewhere so not far, we went inside the building where we saw mini models of how the area would have looked before people came, then when they came and now what it is. the most interesting par to fit was a real tree that was on display. It had been dug up out of the tree less bog. The studies on the carbon showed that it was over 2000 years old! So now no trees grow but they did before men arrived.
Mum was really tired so she took the shopping back while dad and I decided to do a walk in the park. We were out for about an hour, walking on a gravel path that sometimes became a boardwalk as it was so boggy and wet it was impossible to put a pt through. On the way up we could see out over huge lakes in front of us. They were so big we’re not actually sure they were lakes, we were considering them to be the sea, but who knows. I can’t tell you, sorry.
That was all for that day, a good day to add the many :)
8/7/09
In the morning, after checking out, we went for a walk around the town before heading off. We walked up the road on the way to a ruin mum saw on the way in yesterday. On the way we saw some donkeys which were really cute and I felt very at home with :P. we stopped in at the post office to see how a parcel would go. we couldn’t get to the ruin, it seemed to be at the back of the estates area, but we took some good photos J
We then hot the road again and stopped at many good view opportunities. We stopped at a lovely stream where 2 intersected just before it went under the bridge.
I don’t know where the next place was but there was a really difficult turn to do, we were waiting and waiting so we went in all these detailed roads trying to find our way out if it until we came across a monument. A fair was on at the time so the background of the monument isn’t as nice as it would have been, but it was dedicated to Townsend Blennerhasset. Blennerhasset is my mother’s mother’s mother’s maiden name, or also known as my great grandmother on my mum’s side. It was pretty weird that this Townsend had also drowned in Castlemaine Bay after attempting to save a fellow creature. The monument didn’t say what sort of creature.
The nex stop I definitely remember the name. in fact the name of the town is exactly the reason wwhy we went there. Castlemaine was our next stop; “Birthplace of the Wild Colonial Boy.” In Gallic Castlemaine is spelt Cais. na Mainge. We decided to go to a bar/coffee shop where we got a beer for dad and a cup of tea for me and mum.
The people at the bar were very nice, especially when they found out we came from Castlemaine. The bar man said he was emailing a man from Castlemaine in Australia. Dad thinks he knows him but we’re not sure.
Mum then wanted to go to the post office and see if they had a box and the bar man happily took her there and introduced her as his new girl friend. After paying for the beer and tea dad and I caught up with her and joined in on the great conversation mum and the post master seemed to be having. He gave us his details and we’d really like to get something going between the two Castlemaines. The post master seemed to agree with this thought.
On our way to our final destination we had a quick look a the beach on the Dingle peninsula and watched in our jackets, mad people surfing and swimming in the freezing water.
Then we arrived in Dingle. We had booked a B&B and we drove back into town after a rest looking for dinner.
After dinner we went and had a look around. I ended up buying a hairclip for myself and a top too. We saw a weird sight of a bar when we were looking around. There was a bar called The Hardware Bar. During the day it was hardware shop and at night it became a bar, still dusty and filled with hanging tools.
Dad and I decided to walk back and dad picked lots of blackberries, getting the juice everywhere too :P
We then hot the road again and stopped at many good view opportunities. We stopped at a lovely stream where 2 intersected just before it went under the bridge.
I don’t know where the next place was but there was a really difficult turn to do, we were waiting and waiting so we went in all these detailed roads trying to find our way out if it until we came across a monument. A fair was on at the time so the background of the monument isn’t as nice as it would have been, but it was dedicated to Townsend Blennerhasset. Blennerhasset is my mother’s mother’s mother’s maiden name, or also known as my great grandmother on my mum’s side. It was pretty weird that this Townsend had also drowned in Castlemaine Bay after attempting to save a fellow creature. The monument didn’t say what sort of creature.
The nex stop I definitely remember the name. in fact the name of the town is exactly the reason wwhy we went there. Castlemaine was our next stop; “Birthplace of the Wild Colonial Boy.” In Gallic Castlemaine is spelt Cais. na Mainge. We decided to go to a bar/coffee shop where we got a beer for dad and a cup of tea for me and mum.
The people at the bar were very nice, especially when they found out we came from Castlemaine. The bar man said he was emailing a man from Castlemaine in Australia. Dad thinks he knows him but we’re not sure.
Mum then wanted to go to the post office and see if they had a box and the bar man happily took her there and introduced her as his new girl friend. After paying for the beer and tea dad and I caught up with her and joined in on the great conversation mum and the post master seemed to be having. He gave us his details and we’d really like to get something going between the two Castlemaines. The post master seemed to agree with this thought.
On our way to our final destination we had a quick look a the beach on the Dingle peninsula and watched in our jackets, mad people surfing and swimming in the freezing water.
Then we arrived in Dingle. We had booked a B&B and we drove back into town after a rest looking for dinner.
After dinner we went and had a look around. I ended up buying a hairclip for myself and a top too. We saw a weird sight of a bar when we were looking around. There was a bar called The Hardware Bar. During the day it was hardware shop and at night it became a bar, still dusty and filled with hanging tools.
Dad and I decided to walk back and dad picked lots of blackberries, getting the juice everywhere too :P
7/7/09
This day wasn’t so fun. The morning was great, a fantastic breakfast again with a few pressies then we jumped in the car and went around many bends and wiggles and bumps. Anyone with any knowledge of my childhood, they are likely to know I, very often got carsick. I’ve sort of grown out of it by this time but the bumps and bends were pretty rough, so the slightest queasiness came over me.
When we finally found out how to get down to our destination through a one way road of madness when a car came the opposite way, we boarded a small fishing boat. The journey, I don’t want to talk about. Lets just say that the queasiness came on pretty strong over the incredibly rough waves…
When we finally go here, and I was kissing the land, we went for a walk around the island. oh by the way, we were on an Island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The rock formation is on an extreme diagonal and the island is completely green and rocky. Its quite far from the mainland of island and for some reason these mad monks decided to sail out to them and build a monastery on it where only monks would live.
The monasteries are still there, in fact the whole town. They’re built in a sort of beehive fashion out of stones, going up in a spiral direction. At the entrance of each building, above the door, a cross is made by white rock above it. There were large holes under the stone path we were walking on where rain water is stored. Because it had been raining earlier that day, most of them were overflowing down the path.
The only contrasting thing to this tiny town, was one building. No one would notice unless you listened to the guide like us, who told us that this building must have been built after the original buildings were built. It was in a rectangular shape and built in a brick like fashion. Bits of the roof had fallen in so you can see then he beehive structure is way more stable.
Then the dreaded moment of getting back on the boat came. The firs part was goodish. We drove past the second Skelig Island. When we came in I thought the island was made from white rock but I wasn’t paying much attention to anything but my stomach and the forth coming waves. When we did this small detour I realised that all the white was actually all birds and bird poo. This is where gulls rest and breed and cover the entire island.
When we finally touched the mainland again, we had to do the awful drive up the one way street with many oncoming cars. We then arrived at our hostel called the sleepy camel. We asked about a good place to eat and headed for it.
We had a lovely meal and I knew that in a few weeks I would realise that the horrible boat trips would have been worth the loss of breakfast. The waiter was very nice and put a candle in the muffin I ordered for dessert.
When we finally found out how to get down to our destination through a one way road of madness when a car came the opposite way, we boarded a small fishing boat. The journey, I don’t want to talk about. Lets just say that the queasiness came on pretty strong over the incredibly rough waves…
When we finally go here, and I was kissing the land, we went for a walk around the island. oh by the way, we were on an Island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The rock formation is on an extreme diagonal and the island is completely green and rocky. Its quite far from the mainland of island and for some reason these mad monks decided to sail out to them and build a monastery on it where only monks would live.
The monasteries are still there, in fact the whole town. They’re built in a sort of beehive fashion out of stones, going up in a spiral direction. At the entrance of each building, above the door, a cross is made by white rock above it. There were large holes under the stone path we were walking on where rain water is stored. Because it had been raining earlier that day, most of them were overflowing down the path.
The only contrasting thing to this tiny town, was one building. No one would notice unless you listened to the guide like us, who told us that this building must have been built after the original buildings were built. It was in a rectangular shape and built in a brick like fashion. Bits of the roof had fallen in so you can see then he beehive structure is way more stable.
Then the dreaded moment of getting back on the boat came. The firs part was goodish. We drove past the second Skelig Island. When we came in I thought the island was made from white rock but I wasn’t paying much attention to anything but my stomach and the forth coming waves. When we did this small detour I realised that all the white was actually all birds and bird poo. This is where gulls rest and breed and cover the entire island.
When we finally touched the mainland again, we had to do the awful drive up the one way street with many oncoming cars. We then arrived at our hostel called the sleepy camel. We asked about a good place to eat and headed for it.
We had a lovely meal and I knew that in a few weeks I would realise that the horrible boat trips would have been worth the loss of breakfast. The waiter was very nice and put a candle in the muffin I ordered for dessert.
6/7/08
Through this day, after a beautiful cooked breakfast I stayed in bed and blogged, emailed and had an easy day of school J. In the morning we called home and said happy birthday to Grandpa and it was really nice to talk to everyone. Mum and dad went into the ational park close by, they said they went on a boat over the lake and looked very silly in huge fluro orange lifejackets, they went on a beautiful walk through very green and damp moss forests. Their day was much more interesting than mine but I enjoyed it all the same.
When they came home, we dressed up and went the 10 minute walk to the theatre. The doors didn’t open until a half hour after we arrived. So we went and had a drink before hand. Then we went inside.
We got fantastic seats but they were all really and the place wasn’t packed. The show was great, there were 3 main female singers, a violinist who didn’t impress mum, and an Irish dancer who would have been in the river-dance show we went to except she had this gig. There was a great pipest who played flute, pipes and many other woodwind things. He often looked like he was completely off his face but I think that was him just concentrating really hard. He never smiled.
Also dads god was there. Frankie Gavin, he is considered the best fiddle player ever, though after the show dad said he wasn’t quite as impressed with him as he’d hoped.
The night was beautiful and I really enjoyed the day.
When they came home, we dressed up and went the 10 minute walk to the theatre. The doors didn’t open until a half hour after we arrived. So we went and had a drink before hand. Then we went inside.
We got fantastic seats but they were all really and the place wasn’t packed. The show was great, there were 3 main female singers, a violinist who didn’t impress mum, and an Irish dancer who would have been in the river-dance show we went to except she had this gig. There was a great pipest who played flute, pipes and many other woodwind things. He often looked like he was completely off his face but I think that was him just concentrating really hard. He never smiled.
Also dads god was there. Frankie Gavin, he is considered the best fiddle player ever, though after the show dad said he wasn’t quite as impressed with him as he’d hoped.
The night was beautiful and I really enjoyed the day.
8/24/09
5/8/09
Next morning we were up early again. Checkout time was like 11 but we would have had to pay for a parking ticket otherwise so we left early.
We only drove a very short way before we made our first stop. When we were in Bayeux we saw a BBC news report on the germiest tourist places. San Marcos square was one of them because of all the pigeons but the number one spot was the Blarney stone in Ireland. After seeing that news report we couldn’t miss it when we were so close.
We began our blarney castle tour with a little walk crossing over many bridges of a small creek. Every bridge we crossed, people had turned it into a wishing area and thrown coins in.
We came up to the castle and we were towered over. Up to the entrance of the castle we passed an old lookout tower. The spiral staircase had fallen in but we could still see where the stairs would have been placed.
Up at the entrance were some long benches. The back of them had the words Blarney Castle written in it. We then entered the castle.
We went through numerous rooms, up and up through a spiral staircase. My favourite room was the very first we entered into. It was very large and the ceiling was very high. This room was used for cattle. But when I climbed the modern set of stairs to begin the original spiral stairs, I saw a decorated fireplace at my height, the foot of it level with my feet. I first couldn’t understand why cattle would need their own furnished fire place, secondly, why would it be so high up? Suddenly it clicked, the floor/ceiling had fallen through and there was a lounge area above the cattle room.
When we had finally reached the top, there were hardly any people there. Only 5 or 6 at eight o’clock in the morning. Dad and I proudly kissed the Blarney stone (after hearing the new report and the amount of swine flu around she decided against it), a rock that is part of the castle at the very top. There were no stones underneath us and we could see the people entering the castle beneath us. Mum got very good pictures of our stretched out fronts. :P
We then continued down through the castle to end up at the great hall at the centre. There should have been three stories above us but instead we could see the blue (I describe it this way as it is so rare) sky above us and the people waiting in line to make their kiss and be given the gift of Blarney.
Apparently there was a man called Blarney from Ireland and he was friends with Queen Elizabeth the first. Being Irish, he could talk and talk, just like the man our tour guide from Dublin. J One day Elizabeth said something like “its all Blarney to me” referring that she had no idea of the meaning behind the words, and a new word was born!
On our way out of the castle there were 3 girls busking in the cattle room playing trad Irish music. Just near where the girls were sitting was a small room with a trap door in it. It is plainly known as “The trapdoor room.” This is where archers or other people skilled with some form of weapon would shoot at the unwelcome guests entering the castle.
We then left the castle and went through a garden called “The rock cose.” We found a beautiful waterfall and passed another river, the bridge also presenting itself as another wishing place. It was very beautiful in there.
We then climbed the wishing stairs near the waterfall and looked over the water garden we had just passed through. Above it was much denser with trees and the light was much dimmer.
We found ourselves at a small cave called “the witch’s cave.” Later we came to the witch stone which is a stone with a peculiar shape, a hole in it and a elongated bit sticking out, making it look like a witch’s face. The story goes that when night falls the witch escapes from the rock, camps out in her cave and if you arrive early enough in the morning, you can sometimes see her coals finish burning. I don’t understand how anyone can light a fire in Ireland. The previous night it was pelting down and I think that witch would have got awfully wet. I would have rather stayed in the stone.
We then went on another little walk that passed more beautiful greenery until we got to a playground, where dad pushed me on a tyre swing until I was so dizzy I almost fell over. Nearby was a very weird tree. This tree’s branch had grown out in such an awkward way it became a horizontal bar between its two trunks!
Near the end of the path where we first came in were some dungeons. We had decided to leave them til later when we first found them; “head for the stone, then when everyone else is queuing for it, we’ll see everything else.” So inside the dungeons it was wet, slimy, dark and very, very small. Mum decided to miss on it as it was so tiny.
Next dad and I went into the badgers cave. It was even wetter, the puddles weren’t puddles any longer inside, they were pools. The cave went very far into the rock, it almost did a full circle but dad hit his head the roof being so low, so we quickly retreated.
We then walked a little path surrounded by thistles and other big “weeds” to dad, we then arrived at the Fern Garden. We had a chat with the gardeners who said they were mostly transported from Tasmania but a few from other areas in Australia. They said it was very expensive to import big ferns but it cost almost as much to get them from Dublin to the castle because they are so big and heavy, the transportation is very expensive too. The largest one they had was 17 feet!
We then went on a loop walk and ended up at the beginning of the fern garden path. We had passed a very nice house that the people who lived in the castle decided to move into in the winter when it was too cold. We also passed a lime kiln. I’m not sure if it’s called that because it is made of lime or it helps produce lime. *shrugs*
We then went for another drive which I slept for again. We then arrived at a little town which I don’t know the name of. We went on a small walk to see some seals! There were two seals, a mother, a father and a baby. Very cute. We couldn’t see them very well but thanks to our fantastic opera binocs we bought in Verona, we could see them quite well, resting and baking in the rare sun on a tiny Island.
We then went back, found something yummy to eat, and continues our journey.
We saw some of the most amazing views, looking over a valley with a large lake at the bottom. We went through very windy roads and often slowed for the local sheep inked up with red and blue…
We then arrived at our destination; Kilareny. we spent a very long time trying to find our hotel. The strangely decided to change the name without telling us. We went and found some Chinese takeway and booked tickets for the following night to a concert called “The women of Ireland with De Dannen and Frankie Gavin.” Dad found it very funny after the takeaway shop person asked dad where we came from, and then asked “oh great you can help me settle an argument with my wife, which is the capital of Australia, Melbourne or Sydney?”
Fireplace above cattle room
We only drove a very short way before we made our first stop. When we were in Bayeux we saw a BBC news report on the germiest tourist places. San Marcos square was one of them because of all the pigeons but the number one spot was the Blarney stone in Ireland. After seeing that news report we couldn’t miss it when we were so close.
We began our blarney castle tour with a little walk crossing over many bridges of a small creek. Every bridge we crossed, people had turned it into a wishing area and thrown coins in.
We came up to the castle and we were towered over. Up to the entrance of the castle we passed an old lookout tower. The spiral staircase had fallen in but we could still see where the stairs would have been placed.
Up at the entrance were some long benches. The back of them had the words Blarney Castle written in it. We then entered the castle.
We went through numerous rooms, up and up through a spiral staircase. My favourite room was the very first we entered into. It was very large and the ceiling was very high. This room was used for cattle. But when I climbed the modern set of stairs to begin the original spiral stairs, I saw a decorated fireplace at my height, the foot of it level with my feet. I first couldn’t understand why cattle would need their own furnished fire place, secondly, why would it be so high up? Suddenly it clicked, the floor/ceiling had fallen through and there was a lounge area above the cattle room.
When we had finally reached the top, there were hardly any people there. Only 5 or 6 at eight o’clock in the morning. Dad and I proudly kissed the Blarney stone (after hearing the new report and the amount of swine flu around she decided against it), a rock that is part of the castle at the very top. There were no stones underneath us and we could see the people entering the castle beneath us. Mum got very good pictures of our stretched out fronts. :P
We then continued down through the castle to end up at the great hall at the centre. There should have been three stories above us but instead we could see the blue (I describe it this way as it is so rare) sky above us and the people waiting in line to make their kiss and be given the gift of Blarney.
Apparently there was a man called Blarney from Ireland and he was friends with Queen Elizabeth the first. Being Irish, he could talk and talk, just like the man our tour guide from Dublin. J One day Elizabeth said something like “its all Blarney to me” referring that she had no idea of the meaning behind the words, and a new word was born!
On our way out of the castle there were 3 girls busking in the cattle room playing trad Irish music. Just near where the girls were sitting was a small room with a trap door in it. It is plainly known as “The trapdoor room.” This is where archers or other people skilled with some form of weapon would shoot at the unwelcome guests entering the castle.
We then left the castle and went through a garden called “The rock cose.” We found a beautiful waterfall and passed another river, the bridge also presenting itself as another wishing place. It was very beautiful in there.
We then climbed the wishing stairs near the waterfall and looked over the water garden we had just passed through. Above it was much denser with trees and the light was much dimmer.
We found ourselves at a small cave called “the witch’s cave.” Later we came to the witch stone which is a stone with a peculiar shape, a hole in it and a elongated bit sticking out, making it look like a witch’s face. The story goes that when night falls the witch escapes from the rock, camps out in her cave and if you arrive early enough in the morning, you can sometimes see her coals finish burning. I don’t understand how anyone can light a fire in Ireland. The previous night it was pelting down and I think that witch would have got awfully wet. I would have rather stayed in the stone.
We then went on another little walk that passed more beautiful greenery until we got to a playground, where dad pushed me on a tyre swing until I was so dizzy I almost fell over. Nearby was a very weird tree. This tree’s branch had grown out in such an awkward way it became a horizontal bar between its two trunks!
Near the end of the path where we first came in were some dungeons. We had decided to leave them til later when we first found them; “head for the stone, then when everyone else is queuing for it, we’ll see everything else.” So inside the dungeons it was wet, slimy, dark and very, very small. Mum decided to miss on it as it was so tiny.
Next dad and I went into the badgers cave. It was even wetter, the puddles weren’t puddles any longer inside, they were pools. The cave went very far into the rock, it almost did a full circle but dad hit his head the roof being so low, so we quickly retreated.
We then walked a little path surrounded by thistles and other big “weeds” to dad, we then arrived at the Fern Garden. We had a chat with the gardeners who said they were mostly transported from Tasmania but a few from other areas in Australia. They said it was very expensive to import big ferns but it cost almost as much to get them from Dublin to the castle because they are so big and heavy, the transportation is very expensive too. The largest one they had was 17 feet!
We then went on a loop walk and ended up at the beginning of the fern garden path. We had passed a very nice house that the people who lived in the castle decided to move into in the winter when it was too cold. We also passed a lime kiln. I’m not sure if it’s called that because it is made of lime or it helps produce lime. *shrugs*
We then went for another drive which I slept for again. We then arrived at a little town which I don’t know the name of. We went on a small walk to see some seals! There were two seals, a mother, a father and a baby. Very cute. We couldn’t see them very well but thanks to our fantastic opera binocs we bought in Verona, we could see them quite well, resting and baking in the rare sun on a tiny Island.
We then went back, found something yummy to eat, and continues our journey.
We saw some of the most amazing views, looking over a valley with a large lake at the bottom. We went through very windy roads and often slowed for the local sheep inked up with red and blue…
We then arrived at our destination; Kilareny. we spent a very long time trying to find our hotel. The strangely decided to change the name without telling us. We went and found some Chinese takeway and booked tickets for the following night to a concert called “The women of Ireland with De Dannen and Frankie Gavin.” Dad found it very funny after the takeaway shop person asked dad where we came from, and then asked “oh great you can help me settle an argument with my wife, which is the capital of Australia, Melbourne or Sydney?”
Fireplace above cattle room
Dad recieving the gift of Blarney
Me kissing
Trapdoor
Second half 4/8/09
Our next stop was at Glendalough monastery. There was a cemetery, a tall tower and the monastery. In its time the monastery was the largest stone building in Ireland. They were so impressed by the Romans and Greeks that they could build such magnificent things! The towers have no doors or windows so that when the monks were invaded they would run up the tower with the invaders left at the bottom with no way up. Too bad for the monks, the Vikings were just too smart for them, they brought straw, burnt a fire at the bottom and eventually smoked them out.
Then back into the car and to our hotel in Cork.
We had a little room with one of those triple bunks where the bottom one is a double bed. It was connected next to a bar so we figured this was one of those great places for young people who have no money.
We then looked through the guide book to see if there was somewhere good to eat. We went for a nice walk to this vegetarian restaurant. On the way we saw a man who was really good at fire twirling without fire.
We had a good dinner then went back to the bar. Mum and dad stayed in the bar because they had a video of Freddie Mercury playing but I went upstairs, read and slept.
Tower
Then back into the car and to our hotel in Cork.
We had a little room with one of those triple bunks where the bottom one is a double bed. It was connected next to a bar so we figured this was one of those great places for young people who have no money.
We then looked through the guide book to see if there was somewhere good to eat. We went for a nice walk to this vegetarian restaurant. On the way we saw a man who was really good at fire twirling without fire.
We had a good dinner then went back to the bar. Mum and dad stayed in the bar because they had a video of Freddie Mercury playing but I went upstairs, read and slept.
Tower
Monastery Ruin
Shrine in Cork
Guiness :)
First half 4/8/09
Glendalough and Cork… 4/8/09
So we left Dublin in our little silver car. We drove through lots of hills and saw lots of mini water falls. Often we had to give way to the sheep passing. I slept a lot of the way until I was woken up. Grrr, though I soon forgot that feeling.
We were at a place called Glendalough, where a man once decided to go and live in a cave and be isolated from everyone else in a beautiful spot. Soon many other people thought this was a great idea and eventually it was so crowded it wasn’t much of a hermit’s life anymore. We went on a short walk that would go right around the beautiful lake that was there but we stopped and turned around conscience of time.
We then decided to go to the other side of the lake. I can’t tell you which side it was with north or south because, being Ireland, it was cloudy and I don’t know where the sun was.
We did a tiny walk then up to see a larger waterfall than the roadside ones we’d been seeing on the way. It was crowded with ferns and greenery which looks so beautiful and different from home!
Mum and I then went back to the car to get lunch organised while dad went into the info centre where he said he saw a stuffed otter and badger!
Running streams
So we left Dublin in our little silver car. We drove through lots of hills and saw lots of mini water falls. Often we had to give way to the sheep passing. I slept a lot of the way until I was woken up. Grrr, though I soon forgot that feeling.
We were at a place called Glendalough, where a man once decided to go and live in a cave and be isolated from everyone else in a beautiful spot. Soon many other people thought this was a great idea and eventually it was so crowded it wasn’t much of a hermit’s life anymore. We went on a short walk that would go right around the beautiful lake that was there but we stopped and turned around conscience of time.
We then decided to go to the other side of the lake. I can’t tell you which side it was with north or south because, being Ireland, it was cloudy and I don’t know where the sun was.
We did a tiny walk then up to see a larger waterfall than the roadside ones we’d been seeing on the way. It was crowded with ferns and greenery which looks so beautiful and different from home!
Mum and I then went back to the car to get lunch organised while dad went into the info centre where he said he saw a stuffed otter and badger!
Running streams
Glendalough Lake
Hermits cave
Waterfall
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