London, Dublin and Paddywagon Tour - London, United Kingdom
London, United Kingdom
April 25th:
After arriving in Heathrow about 1030am, it's fair to say I was a little tired, only managing about 2 hours sleep on the plane. Anyhow, I still had a while yet before I would meet up with Jay and Cam.
I first had to go through customs, and because I didn't have my work visa on me, they put me in detention for about 30 minutes, while they researched my file. Following that, they granted me six months stay in the UK, which is handy till I sort this bloody VISA out.
After that, I had to catch the tube for just over an hour to New Cross. Once I got there, it was a five minute walk to the hostel.
I'm probably the first person to ever say this, but I was happy to see the boys faces again, after my long flight. So once I moved into my room (which was different to the other boys) we headed out for lunch.
The area we are staying in is renowned for is chicken shops, as every second store seems to be one.
Following this, the two boys went out to see more sites in London, while I went to Australia House, to talk to them about my VISA.
Despite me yet again getting lost on my way to Australia House, I still got to saw some sights, such as the Strand and St Paul's Cathedral.
Upon arrival at Australia House, they were really helpful, and explained and gave me directions exactly on how to get to Home Office (which I would do tomorrow, as it it too late now).
So I headed back to our hostel, using the tube. Fortunately, I found the boys on the way home, and we all went home together.
By the time we got back, Jay pretty much had to go back out, as he was catching up with some mates. In the meantime, Cam and I showered and relaxed a little.
We then went out to dinner in Leicester Square. The ride on the tube only took about 20 minutes and it was worth it when we got there. The area was buzzing, and it was only a Thursday night. Everything was lit up, and there was a lot of street performances.
For dinner, Cam had tried this Italian restaurant the night before and recommended it, so we ate there. And he was right, the carbonara I had was delicious.
We were both extremely full after dinner, so we headed back. Due to the jet-lag and lack of sleep, I pretty much crashed as soon as we got home.
Despite the long trip, I was finally in Europe!
Things of Note:
- During my two nights stay in London, I only had girl roommates (in a four bedroom room), where as they boys had only males in there room. We came to the conclusion that they thought I was a girl (when I booked under the name Courtney) and as such, was put in a girls dorm.
April 26th:
I decided to get up earlier then the boys this morning and head to Home Office and try and get this VISA rolling. But a 10 minute train ride, took nearly an hour to get too, as I was yet again given dodgy advice.
Anyway, when I got into Croyden and found the offices, they told me what information I needed and what forms to print off. So I printed them off and headed home, to collect all the necessary documents (like my police report and passport photos).
On the way home, the boys messaged me and let me know they were on their way to Camden Markets. As such, I met them there.
After looking around for ages and eventually finding them, we grabbed a feed (Turkish bread very much like gosleme) and looked around the stalls. We didn't find too much there but the boys tricked me into getting my feet cleaned by the Garra Rufa Fish. In the end, the joke was on them, as it was like a foot massage, only better.
We then decided to head back, as Jay needed to head out and Cam and I had to organise our bag for Ireland.
As we were only heading to the land of Guinness for a week and the fact that bag check in was quite expensive, we decided to take one bag between the three of us (meaning we had to pack light). As such, a lot of clothes were left behind.
With Jay being out, Cam and I were entrusted in fitting it all in Cams bag. We considered packing only shorts for Jay and leaving all his jeans in England but thought that would only lead to him whinging more then me.
After fitting it all in, Cam and I headed into Piccadilly Circus for Indian. Despite a few little differences in flavours, Cam and I both thoroughly enjoyed the meals. To add to that, Piccadilly was buzzing on a Friday night, with street performances, stalls and restaurants everywhere.
We then headed back to New Cross, where I skyped Marty and grandparents for my Pa's Birthday. The other topic we discussed was my Dads 50th birthday present, which is a ticket to Europe in June, to spend three weeks with me. Nonni and I had be discussing this for a while, as one of Mums main dying wishes was that we do something extra special for Marty's 50th.
After talking for ages, I filled out my VISA forms and then headed to bed.
Things of Note:
- Not yet having organised a UK SIM card, relying on wifi to communicate with people is becoming quite difficult and annoying (especially as Jay and Cam have sims).
- I'll definitely be investing in some Garra Rufa fish later in life. One of the massages a day would be heaven!
- After two solid days there and experiencing other areas of London, it's fair to say New Cross is a ghetto, highlighted by how many cheap fried chicken places where around.
April 27th:
I yet again woke up early and caught a ten minute train (this time around) to Croydon. On arrival at Home Office, I noticed it was closed and quickly remembered it was a Saturday (it's so easy to lose track of what day it is over here).
After getting over the fact this is dragging out even longer then I had hoped, I headed back into London and walk down the London Bridge wharf. Along this I saw the highly unimpressive London Bridge, Tower Castle and Tower Bridge. It's a lovely area down there, being very peaceful and clean (something that is distinctly better then the US).
I then headed back to the hostel and met up with the boys (who were waitng for me, as per usual).
We then caught the Tube to the Chelsea district, where Jay and Cam have family friends. It's here we left Jay and my bag, had lunch and relaxed watching some AFL.
We then headed back into London to watch the stage play Wicked. The other two boys had already seen it in Oz (pun intended) and were raving about it.
Despite a slow start, with me nearly falling asleep at times, the whole performance itself was great (which is saying something, considering I don't like plays at all).
At its conclusion, we headed North to one of Jays mates house, where we were going to stay the night. Unfortunately for me, it was my turn to wheel the clothing bag around, which was a dead set pain in the **** through the middle of London.
We grabbed another underwhelming feed on the way and arrived at the place about 730pm. It was three stories and massive.
On arrival, we all got changed and had a couple of drinks and headed out, for what would be my first night out in England.
Things of Note:
- Kim and Grant provided us with what was probably the best meal we have had here. Homemade sandwiches might not sound great but they go a long way, when you're on the road like us.
- Despite there being about 20 beds in the house we stayed, Cam somehow ended up sleeping on the floor, spooning a towel.
April 28th:
It's fair to say, when you combine waking up at 7am and the thousand drinks we had night before, we were all a bit rusty this morning. But we had to bite the bullet and get on our 745am bus to Stensted Airport (for a 930 flight).
We quickly learnt why this flight was so cheap, with the plane dead-set being stuck together by glue and paper-mashay, and painted bright yellow for good measure.
Upon arrival into wee Dublin, we were all shocked that all the signs had both English and Gaelic writing on them. None of us realized that that many people spoke Gaelic anymore.
After we got into Dublin, by airport bus, we headed to our hostel. But unfortunately we were there before 2pm, meaning we couldn't check in. So we left our one bag in storage and went into Dublin looking for lunch.
We walked over the River Liffey and down the main street called O'Connell. The most noticeable thing on that street is the huge silver pole (or the metal phalic symbol) in the middle of it. We then headed through some shops before we foundation a tradition Irish pub, where we could watch the football (soccer) and enjoy a meal.
By then, it was after 2pm, so we headed back and checked in.
By that time, both the other two boys were wrecked, so they I went out "lone ranger" and did some washing. It was a mission to find the place, but once I did, I dumped my stuff and found the nearest pub to watch the Arsenal vs Man Utd game. There was only about 10 people in the pub, but the atmosphere in there was great, as everyone was really into it.
At the half, I headed back and collected my washing, on my way to the hostel. By that time, Jay was ready to head out and we went and watch the end of the match (which unfortunately ended 1-1).
We then went to the supermarket to buy some food for dinner (Cam and I had tortellini, while Matho had pizza). We cooked all this back in the hostel, when we for back (which was good to have a own cooked meal for once).
After relaxing after tea, we heard music outside and saw this massive 10km fun run was about to start. As anyone would do, we ran to to start and watched it all kick off. We thought there was only one start group (of over 1000) but evidently there was three groups of about the same size.
Following this, we all headed back and hit the hay, as an early start was upon as, with our Paddy-wagon tour starting tomorrow.
Things of Note:
- Since my return to the boys, I've somehow found my way to the bottom of all our waiver wires, such as bed priority, who is lugging the turtle bag around, and seating allocations.
- Ireland wasn't that cold during the day (or as cold as I assumed it would be), but once the sun set and the drizzle came, it was damn cold.
- On this particular flight, we had this thing called "non-priority seating", which is stupid and just causes more lines and chaos on the plane.
- I think Jay is considering a future as an Olympic walker. I say this because wherever we walk, Jay will walk ahead of Cam and I, and then wait for us to catchup. Then the process continues. Beats me why he does it...
- On the bus we were supposed to be on (but we got changed), it was filled by every Congo official (we assume) that there was. And as Cam got on last, we got to see his reaction, and lets just say his priceless face said "WTF?!?!"
April 29th
(Paddy-Wagon tour Day 1):
Early start for us all this morning, having to be at the Paddy Building at 8am.
The tour had about 15 people on it, and thankfully we were first on the bus that day, to secure the roomy back seat.
Our tour guide Mark, or Finn Mc Cool, as he introduced himself, seems like a really good bloke, with good humour.
Once the tour started, Finn first showed us around shown on the main sites in Dublin (most we had already seen yesterday), before we made our way to Belfast.
On the way, we stopped for morning tea in Drogheda, where we saw St Peters Cathedral. Inside this Cathedral, there is actually some small pieces of wood from the original holy cross.
For morning tea, I enjoyed a traditional Irish piece of caramel slice, to go with my hot chocolate (which I had to mix in myself, as shown by the photos of it with Cam).
Still on the way to Belfast, we stopped in Munster Cemetery, which was this random little cemetery, in the middle of the green countryside.
We arrived into Belfast about 1pm and jumped straight into these "Black Taxi Tours", which were going to show us and explain the war going on between the Protestants and Catholics.
We first saw the Protestants side, exploring their housing area (which was decorated by powerful murals), Shankill road and their side of the West Belfast (peace) Wall.
This side of the wall was painted with cool murals, and allowed people of sign it, like we all did (I wrote the simple "Make Peace, not War".
Contrastingly, the Catholic side of the wall was untouched and still plain green corrugated iron. Although there is one part of the wall, near Bombay Street, which has burn marks on the wall, from one of the wars between the two groups.
Following this hectic tour, we quickly grabbed some lunch and ate it in the peaceful Town Hall.
We then jumped back on the bus and headed out to the Titanic Museum. This museum talked about the history of Belfast, how the Titanic was built and then everyone knows what happens next. There was always the dry dock where the ship was built. No joke, you could tell the ship was huge, as the hole was as big as I have ever seen (check for yourselves in the photos).
Once we saw all that (which took two hours, but could have taken double that), we checked into our hostel. Jay, Cam and I roomed with Q-man, Emily and Sara (three Asians).
We then headed into town, as a group, for dinner. To keep with tradition and continue to try local food, I got the chicken boxty to eat (which is very much like an omlet). The meal was great, especially when it, along with a side and entree cost £10.
We all then headed to Fibba McGees, a traditional Irish pub, for a couple of drinks and live music. We stayed there for a couple of hours and headed home about 1am.
Things of Note:
- For those that don't know, the fights in Northern Ireland between the Catholics (also known as Republicans, want all of Ireland to merge), while Protestants (Loyalists, want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK). This dates back to 15th August, 1916.
- Belfast stayed true to its reputation, providing us with four seasons in one day. It honestly went from hailing to sunny in about 5 minutes. Despite this, Jay still maintains San Fran was colder (even though facts show otherwise).
- Our tour guide, Finn uses the word "craic" a lot. In Ireland it's means having a good time aka, tonight we are going to have some beers, some craic, so it should be good. You can understand why we were a little confused at first.
April 30th
(Paddy-Wagon tour day 2):
We had a chance to sleep in till 9am this morning (which was great), as the bus didn't leave till 930.
Once we got on the road, we headed to Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge. This bridge was originally here since the 1700's but only had one hand rail then and was very unsafe. It has been fixed in the past forty years but still is extremely scary (as you can see in the video).
But once I got to the other side, there was some magnificent views of the coastline and Scotland, in the distance. We stayed there for about an hour, but were once again waiting for the bloody brazilians (becoming a trend).
The bus then continued onto the famous "Giants Causeway". I didn't really know too much about it but it easily became the most impressive thing I have witnessed on this trip so far. The way the rocks have formed along the coastline is absolutely magnificent and something I doubt would be visible anywhere else on Earth. The photos are sick and I definitely could have spent a lot longer there but lunch was calling.
Finn took us to Bushmills Distillery for lunch, which just so happens to be the oldest Whisky distillery in the world, opening in 1608. Here I enjoyed a very Irish meal of steal and guinness pie, with a side of champ (Irish mash) potato. This was our last stop before we arrived in Derry.
As Derry (or Londonderry depending on who you ask) is also in Northern Ireland, there is major political struggles there too. Instead of a 50/50 ratio like Belfast, 80%25 of the population in Catholic.
We learnt all about this on our guided walk around the city, in which our guide Steve explained the history of the place and all the disagreements within it. This includes protestors spray painting town walls against the UK. In one particular instance, the local government tried to clean the writng off, but before they knew it, rebels approached them and said "stop there or we will blow your brains out", while holding a gun to their heads (and this is after their band have already been blown up too). So it's easy to see who actually runs that city. This is again shown by the massive fences around the cop shop and the fact no one wants to live near there, as car bombs are quite regular near there.
After we were thoroughly scared for our safety in this town, due to the stories, we continued our walk up along the 1km (in a square) butcher gate wall.
The whole walk went for just over an hour and on the way home, Cam and I bought some more tortellini to cook ourselves. We are both obsessed with it at the moment. Jay and a couple of other boys from the tour went out for dinner, but when they returned, we all went out to another Irish pub, to listen to the live music.
After staying there for a while, Cam and I headed home, while the party animal Jay stayed out.
Things of Note:
- Jays snoring has finally became too loud to bear. Cam and I are over not getting a good nights sleep and being woken up every night. As a result, we requested not to be in Jays room.
- Our walking guy explained that depending on who you asked (be it Catholics or Protestants), it would depend on what they called the city. The Protestants (or UK loving part of the town) call it Londonderry and the rest call it Derry. As the joke goes within the Catholics, Derry is the only town in the world with six silent letters in it.
- As Cam and I had been near inseparable at times, one of the Malaysian girls asked Jay if we were actually a gay couple. As such, she was really embarrassed and we have been making little jokes about it all tour.
- Everyone on the tour bus is really good fun, except the three Brazilians. They are so rude, inconsiderate and flat out suck. I don't think they have met a curfew yet and are always late. There is three of them, the most arwkard son of all time, the mum (who is a dead-ringer for Cruella De Vil) and then there's the grandma, who is my least favourite. She is slow useless and slow, she even was crying one morning at 8am saying "it's too early to be up, back home we are never up this early". Welcome to the real world mate!
May 1st
(Paddy-Wagon tour day 3):
We yet again had an early start, having to be on the bus around 8am and surprise surprise, the bloody brazilians were late. But once we were on the bus, we started on our way to Galway.
Our first stop was at a castle, which just so happened to be the death place of poet W.B. Yates (not that I know who that is). We also stopped at the largest catholic shrine in Ireland.
After traveling most of the day, we arrived into Galway at 3pm. Cam felt a little under the weather, so Jay and I went for a wall around town to explore. The town was quite small, but had cool buildings, side streets and canals running through the town.
Later that night, we all went out as a group to dinner and to watch Barcelona get destroyed by Bayern. After a couple quiet beers, the group went our again, as supposedly Galway was the party capital of Ireland. And to be honest, we all had a really good time, getting home in the early hours.
Things of Note:
- While we were out, I started stacking empty bottles and glasses. I quickly gathered a crowd and got the stack as high as I could possibly get it. Unfortunately for me, as soon as the bartender came and warned me for the fifth time to not do it, the tower fell and I had a lot of glass to clean up (but somehow was still allowed to stay in the pub).
May 2nd
(Paddy-Wagon day 4):
It's fair to say we all woke up feeling very ordinary this morning (very little sleep and a lot of Irish beer will do that to you). But we had to pack up early and get on the bus.
We stopped a couple of times in the morning, at a couple of different castles and ruins, including Dunguaire Castle. Being the climbers Cam and I are, we of course climbed to the top, anyway we could.
We even stopped at these impressive cliffs (or we thought they were), and got a couple of photos with the amazing landscape. But none of these would compare to our next stop.
Just before lunch, we pulled into the Cliffs of Moher and I didn't realise what I was about to experience. I thought they were going to be the same size cliffs as we just saw, but wrong I was.
These cliffs were bloody amazing. The whole way around the headland was sick and unlike in USA or Australia, there was no rails, meaning we could walk right up to the edge. As you can see in the photos, Cam would sit as close as humanly possible, while the rest of us would only get a meter from the edge, a it was way too high and windy.
We stayed there for over an hour and then enjoyed lunch in a place that resembled a hobbit hut.
That afternoon we stopped at Blarney Castle, where we climbed to the top of the castle and kissed the limestone. I didn't realise we had hang over the edge and kiss it. I don't know what it is, but over here it seems all the attractions involve serious heights, which isn't my thing. The castle was also surrounded by gardens, caves and castles, which were all interesting.
Killarney was the next stop, which was a little quiet town, with quite a large Gaelic influence.
That night, we all stayed in and cooked our own food, while watching the Europa league match between Basel and Chelsea. It was really cool all sitting there as a group and talking.
Following this, some people went down to a local pub with live music, but Cam and I were exhausted, so we headed to bed instead.
Things of Note:
- I think I am finally conquering my fear of heights (very slowly), as there are so many attractions/things to see involve bloody heights.
- Jays snoring hasn't improved and it was lucky I had two pillows to sleep with to cover my ears, otherwise, the sleep could of been worse then it was.
- Jay somehow set the fire alarm off cooking pizza in the oven. It was only in there for like 10 minutes but he manage to make the whole hostel kitchen full of smoke.
May 3rd
(Paddy-Wagon tour day 5):
This morning we had something different planned, with Finn organizing a horse and carriage ride for us all through the local national park named Killarney National Park. To explore this park, you have to either do it by horse and carriage or be a national park member, meaning we only had one option.
The park, which is the 2nd largest park in Ireland being over 25,000 hectares in area, consisted of more castles, including the Ross Castle, (which I've seen more of in the passed week, then I have in my whole life), lakes and quite a bit of history. We also sighted some red deer and the two highest mountains in Ireland
But the highlight was when our Asian friend Q-Man spotted a rare Irish red squirrel, who are being over taken by the damn English grey squirrels (who are stealing their nuts).
Following this cruisy morning and the Brazilians whinging that they missed out on the horse and carriage ride, because they turned up half an hour late, we headed to Dingle for lunch.
Supposedly Dingle is usually a very vibrant area but when we were there, it was bloody miserable. Luckily we found the Dingle donkey and dog, which as lame as it sounds, was the only good thing about the town.
To be honest, I was glad to get back on the bus and continue our journey.
This afternoon, we stopped quite a few times to see sites, including these honey huts, to see the sleeping giant and check out the coastline. But for sure, the best part was when Jay, Cam and I (the three best sheep herders in Ireland) tried to catch one of the little lambs at old McMagees farm. Unfortunately on both occasions the sheep had home ground advantage and used it to secure victory.
We finally arrived in Anascual and pretty much went next door to the pub for a feed, beers and pool. Before we knew it, it was like 11pm and the karaoke.
As you can see in the videos attached, we all killed our respective songs, with a special mention to James "Cameron" Blunt for driving all the way to Ireland for the night.
Once this all wrapped up, kickons happened in our room for a bit and then everyone crashed, for the last time on tour.
Things of Note:
- While chasing the damn sheep (which Finn convinced us that all Kiwi and Aussie tourists do (well played by him)), Jay stepped on a stinging netal and thought he stepped on the worlds biggest thorn.
- We all experienced the most awkward love triangle of all time and of course one of the stupid Brazilians was involved. He kept snaking our Italian mate Paulo's Swedish girl, and couldn't take a hint.
May 4th
(Paddy-Wagon day 6):
Today marked our last day of our tour and pretty much all we did was drive all the way to Dublin for our Guinness tour.
The main stop we had on the way there was Moneygal, a town pretty much known for housing the distant relatives (great-grandfather) of Barrack Obama. There's a little museum and photos of when he drank a Guinness there. Sounds like a pretty pointless town to me, which led to Cam asking "would this town even exist if Obama never became president?"
Supposedly the Guinness factory is this grand finale for the tour, and don't get me wrong, the place was cool, but it's not really any different to any other brewery. Add to this that Cam and I despise the stout beer, lets just say we left underwhelmed. There was levels explaining how they made the beer, how the beer had expanded over the years and advertising (including the Guinness book of records).
This was the last activity on the tour, so after this we headed back to our starting point. It was a bit sad to end our trip, especially meeting great fellas like Evan, Paulo and of course the Q-Man.
We the headed to our hostel for the night, but little did we that Jay had booked us into the Latino hostel in Dublin, with us being the only people that didn't speak Spanish.
None the less, the boys regrouped at the hostel, while I went out and watched the mighty gunners play QPR. Following their win, we all met up for dinner.
By that time, we all pretty wrecked and kicked back in our rooms before we fell asleep.
Things of Note:
- The coolest thing about the Guineas factory is the centre of it is shaped as a schooner, resulting in the worlds largest schooner glass.
- Some of the Irish accents were ridiculous, with them trying to annunciate the "TH" sound. The main example is 3.33pm, which is announced tree dirty tree.
- Ireland is definitely the best country I've been to yet. The landscape is amazing, and generally speaking, all the Irish locals were really welcoming. As a result, it jumps to the top of the power rankings, ahead of USA and UK.
May 5th:
Today is yet again another travel long travel day, with us having to catch the 9.30am shuttle to the Dublin Airport. We then had our 11.30 flight delayed and didn't leave till about 12.30pm, meaning we didn't get into England until 1pm.
It then took us another hour bus ride, tube ride and walk to finally get back to Grant and Kim's by 4.30pm.
By that time, we were all wrecked and just wanted to relax. So we helped Kim do our washing, had some food and chilled for a while.
Cam and I then went for a little run around Holland Park, which is this amazing botanic gardens area, with all these sports facilities.
Once we returned, we had dinner and watched the basketball, before heading to bed.
Things of Note:
-Today was a very slow day, with the highlight me buying my UKsimcard, so I can finally get in contact with people here (even though I still haven't set it up).
- Exercising for the first time in a over a month was tough and I could tell I've lost most of my fitness from home.
May 6th:
This morning was a slow morning for us all, as we all slept in and had the morning off. When we finally arose, Cam and I went for another run around Holland park.
Around lunch time, all three of us headed out and did out own thing, with me catching up with my mate from home Ray.
We met up in the middle of London and went to the coolest bar I've been I've been to while here, called the "Carlsberg" Sports bar. We both had a couple of beers and a bite to eat, while watching the League 1 qualifying games.
After staying there for about two hours, I left Ray behind (as 'ill be seeing a lot of him over the next couple of months), I went for a bit of site seeing.
I started off by walking through Green Park, where I honestly think that half of bloody London was there. This led to Buckingham Palace, where I had tea and biccys with the Queen (no big deal).
I then walked down the boulevard in front of the Palace, passing the Olympic venues for equestrian and beach volleyball, on the way to the London Eye.
As it was a public holiday, the whole waterfront was packed, so I didn't bother to line up for the Eye (as ill no doubt do it later on the trip). I then continued down past Big Ben (more like somewhat large Ben) towards South Bank.
The other half of London that wasn't in Green Park was on South Bank enjoying a drink, listening to live music or watching people in the skatepark.
By this time, it was about 6pm and I had to start making my way to our contiki meeting. This impressed the boys, that I managed to negotiate the whole way from Piccadilly to our contiki meeting spot (on foot), as my directions up till now have been ordinary, to say the least.
Both Bill and Cam didn't make it to the meeting, and Jay turned up ********d and late. All the meeting was, was a brief info night, before we all went across the road for a couple of schooners for a meet and greet.
We had to leave at 1030, one because Jay was retardedly drunk and two, we had to be back here to get on the bus as 6am tomorrow morning. So we headed home, had some dinner, I butchered my haircut and then we all went to bed. After meeting everyone, I'm pretty keen to get on the contiki tour!
Things of Note:
- Something I've noticed in London is that the traffic lights go orange before they go green, as well as before red. Not a bad idea in my opinion.
- After meeting the contiki group, there is a lot of Aussies, with people from Canada, South Africa, and around Europe. Also, there are three Courtney's on tour, and of course the other two are girls.