Northern Ireland – Northern Shocker Tour

We were picked up early on Friday morning, on only our second bus tour of our trip, which is almost six months old! First stop was the Trim Castle, a twelfth century Anglo Norman fortress. This was nice, but just another big old castle that was falling down! Next up was Lough Crew which was a climb to a top of a hill in a muddy paddock. On top of the hill are prehistoric tombs, apparently older than the pyramids of Giza.
After a brief shopping stop in another nice town, Enniskillen, it was back on the road to our accommodation in Derry. We had to quickly organize our costumes for Halloween, before heading out on a walking tour of Derry. This was amazing, led by an old guy that is local to the area. We saw all of the sights including the cathedral, city wall and murals. The history here is amazing and some of it very recent, like the massacre on ‘bloody Sunday’. The group then headed to a pub for dinner and drinks in a nightclub in town.
Up early the next morning we were back on the bus, for a day of sightseeing along the Antrim Coast. First stop was at the Dunluce castle, another ruin, on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the water. The kitchen is no longer on the cliff however, its sitting in the water below.

We did a walk along the top of the cliffs and then down to the Giants Causeway. This place was rushed, but amazing. There are thousands of stone hexagonal columns, and was created by the legend of Finn McCool, an Irish Giant who built a bridge to Scotland so that he could fight a Scottish Giant. It was similar to the tessellated pavement in New Zealand in some ways, although busier and we didn’t have much time on the rocks after the walk down to them.

The last stop was the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, which luckily was open due to it being a sunny day. The bridge is a rope swing bridge above the ocean, standing about 80ft in the air. Of course Christine got in trouble for jumping on the bridge and making it sway too much “you have to respect the bridge!” exclaimed the staff member.
Tonight is Halloween which is the reason the tour stays in Derry. The whole town goes nuts for Halloween, everyone from kids to grandparents get dressed up, the town has a street parade and fireworks display. Everyone in the hostel spent an hour or so getting dressed up, everyone looked amazing, although Damien’s costume was a bit unimaginative, a mask and not much else!
Christine looked great on her broom stick dressed as a witch and there was also an awesome vampire, catwoman, policewoman, sailor and fairies. Once everyone was ready we headed down to the main street, had a few drinks in a nearby bar, again Damien’s full beer was knocked over by someone. It was then down to the parade and the fireworks before retiring to a small bar somewhere in town. The pub was awesome, packed and everyone in costume. Our favorites were batgirl, violet (from Charlie and the chocolate factory), the pope, Minnie mouse, beetle juice and a Transformer (who we met at the pizza shop). After a long day and big night we stumbled our way back to the hostel, seeing more crazy outfits in the streets.

The bus ride on Sunday morning was very quiet, at least it was when Karen the guide wasn’t on her microphone. We were headed to Belfast about a 2 hour drive. When we arrived we it was rainy and cloudy. We were doing a Black Cab tour which was great. Sitting in an old taxi, you get driven around both sides of Belfast, Catholic and Protestant, which are still divided by the ‘Peace Walls’. Again, it is all so current, hearing about the IRA and the fighting. There are many murals around town most of which are promoting peace and tributes to those killed. Others on the Protestant side were a bit more confronting, such as the portrait of one of the leaders, who is looked at as a hero because of the number of people he murdered.

After the tour we had lunch in Belfast looked at a couple of the old hotels and pubs including the Crown Bar before reboarding the bus and being driven back to Dublin.

Ireland - The South

Wednesday morning we packed up our belongings and headed down to the car hire company. After picking up our hire car and doing a few laps of central Dublin, we ended up on the right road, on our way out of the city. We have the car for 9 days and are planning on heading south and then up the west coast before dropping the car back in Dublin.
Driving through the country was amazing, everything over here is so green, the roads are so narrow and street signs impossible to find! Our first stop was at Glendalough and the Wicklow National Park. This was a very wet and very green valley and forest with some amazing old ruins in it including a church and tower. We also walked for a while to a waterfall, plenty of water. This was as far from the car as we intended to go, so of course this is when the rain became torrential. By the time we got back we were soaked. We couldn’t even run to the toilets from the car to get changed or we would have been drenched by the time we got back. A quick change in the car and we were back on the road.

Pretty hungry we stopped in a little town called Hollywood! There wasn’t much in this town, but there were two pubs! We sat in front of the fire, hung our wet clothes all around the place and had a hearty Irish Stew to warm up. After lunch we headed straight down to Kilkenny, the weather wasn’t great and we wanted to make it a fair way south so we would have time to make it to the Connemara before returning the car.
When we arrived in Kilkenny it was dark, wet and we didn’t have accommodation. It took quite a while to find somewhere to stay which was a bit annoying after a long day on the road. We finally found somewhere and a pub, only to be told they don’t serve Kilkenny, the local beer! Instead we had to settle for Guinness and Smithwicks.
Thursday we had another big day planned to make some inroads into Ireland, a small country which is deceptively big! We spent the morning looking around Kilkenny, a nice town with a rainbow, river and castle. We then hoped to head to Sheridans Pub for early lunch, but after an hour of driving around looking for it (we knew the address, just couldn’t find the street) and asking people where it was we had to give up. We made our way to the Kells Priory, an old castle ruins that is a bit off the main tourist route. Its free to visit and when we got there we had the place to ourselves, except for some council workers doing restorations and a flock of sheep. This was really cool to have the place to our self, although neither of us enjoyed it as much as we might have, on the short walk from the car we had to cross a wooden bridge. After Damien had crossed he said “be careful its slippery”, yeah yeah whatever!!! Sure enough as Christine was coming across the bridge she slipped and fell on her bum and elbow. Damien laughed at the irony, not Christine falling, but she couldn’t see the funny side to it!
Next we had to make the big decision, do we stop in Cork or do we keep going and try to get to Killarney. Cork is meant to be another lovely town and it has the famous castle and Blarney Stone. Neither of were too fussed about this, so we gave it a miss and made a beeline for Killarney. It was a long drive and again we arrived late into town. We knew where we wanted to stay, but they hadn’t been answering the phone. We decided just to show up, which meant driving about 15km out of town, 12km off the main highway and into the hills. We finally found it, Peacock Farm Hostel, although it was a bit dark looking. We knocked on the door and Owen answered the door, a guy in his mid eighties, were thought we must have been in the wrong place. Apparently the hostel is only open in the summer months as it gets too cold the rest of the year. Despite this he said for us to come in, they had one room with heating! It was freezing everywhere else, but we were the only ones to be staying there for 3 of the 4 nights, was nice to have so much space to ourselves for a change!
Friday morning we took it quite easy, just tried to stay warm in the hostel, slow breakfast and lots of coffee! The hostel is on the side of a hill overlooking the Muckross Lake. We then headed into town for a look around including the big St Mary’s Cathedral. After some more coffee and cakes we went for a drive over the Gap of Dunlow. Christine still has bit of a cold and the weather wasn’t too flash so this meant we could be mainly in the car and not needing to walk in the cold or wet. The drive was amazing, a tiny road only one car wide for most of the way. It drove along lakes and rivers in a valley between mountains on either side. It was very cloudy which made it extra “mystic and shit!” (good).
Saturday we did another drive, this time around the Ring of Kerry. This is the main attraction of the area and probably one of the main things Damien wanted to do while in Ireland. As with anything we have been looking forward to, when we woke up it was gray and cloudy. The first hour of the drive was through torrential rain. It was so bad that we didn’t stop until Waterville which is about the half way point on the drive, and this stop was for lunch in a pub. After lunch we backtracked a little bit and had a look on Valentia Island. This was quite nice with a small port and clocktower and nice cliffs and coastline roads. The main attraction down this way is the Skellig’s, which are some rock formations on Islands off the coast. Sadly the weather, which has improved slightly, wasn’t really conducive to a boat tour and there was a bit much fog to see them from the mainland. Back on the ring road, we got some nicer views of the coastline on the second half of the drive, as the weather continued to clear. Our last stop was at the Staigue Fort, which was all made of rocks in a circular pattern, and used to house a wealthy family and their servants and guards. It was then back on the road, we skipped some of the nice beaches in the area, way too wet and cold! The original plan for Sunday was to move on and start heading north. We changed our mind when we found out that there was a game of Gaelic Football in Killarney on Sunday afternoon. We went for a morning in the National Park. This was a circuit to Torc Waterfall, which was running quite fast after all the rain on the last few days. On the return side of the loop we took a wrong turn and ended up miles off the path and had to walk back along the highway instead of the walking track.
The family who own the hostel are going to the game also, so we followed them down. They were a lovely family, and in true friendly Irish style we had to make a stop on a country road to pick up one of the other local kids! The game was really good, and turned out to be a final with presentations, celebrations and speeches after the game. It was great to watch, a bit frustrating at times as there is no tackling, so there is no way to take the ball from the opponent it seems at times. We really enjoyed the game, which was played with the old mental hospital in the background! Christine also came up with quote of the week today with her comment that there are “so many rainbows!”, she is right, 10 a day, guaranteed. On the way home from the game we had a quick look at Ross Castle, which is another big medieval castle on a lake.
Monday morning we were up early, said our farewells to Owen and the Peacock Hostel and hit the road with a long day ahead of us. We were thinking of heading north and around the Dingle Peninsula, however our outing to the football has put us a day behind, so we just headed straight for the Connemara. From Killarney we headed to Glin where we were able to take the car on a ferry over the River Shannon. This meant we saved a couple of hours but also missed out on driving through Limerick.
The weather was poor, cloudy, rainy and windy. Not ideal conditions but we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher one of the more famous tourist areas in Ireland. The wind and the rain proved to be a real pain in the ass, causing havoc with the umbrella. The cliffs were nice despite the poor visibility, and of course there were rainbows everywhere.
Back on the road we continued along the coast line, which was more scenic but also a bit longer. After a few very brief stops at scenic points, we continued driving through the Burren and into Galway. We didn’t spend long in Galway, just enough time to find a nice little pub ‘Sheridans on the Docks’. We actually found it without a map which was quite a navigational achievement. After a Guinness and a Stew it had gotten dark, so we didn’t get to see much of what is supposed to be a lovely city. We considered staying the night so we could look around the following movie, but we kept going. The next hour of driving was through torrential rain on small, dark, bumpy roads. We were aiming to make it to Letterfrack, but called it a night once we reached the Connemara at the Ben Lettery hostel, which is in the middle of the wilderness.
Tuesday morning we weren’t too sure of our plan for the day, so we packed up our bags and took everything with us. The hostel was closed from 10am to 5pm, so we couldn’t come back for it until the night time otherwise. We ended up driving halfway back to Galway, just sightseeing, there were lakes and mountains we didn’t even see in the dark. We also found a country fair, where all the locals were meeting, in the middle of the highway, to buy and sell ponies and horses. Traffic Nightmare!
We then did another costal drive, in the rain! We stopped in Roundstone, a small coastal town, we were thinking of lunch here, but couldn’t find anything to tempt us. Instead we headed into Clifden for a pub meal.
Tonight we continued on to Letterfrack and the Hostel we had hoped to make it to last night, the Old Monastery Hostel. This place was old and a bit run down, but a great place to stay. Warm fireplace in the lounge, big kitchen and homemade bread and porridge for breakfast. The hostel wasn’t too busy but there were a few friendly French teachers, on school holidays. It is only a short walk from the Connemara National Park.
Wednesday we enjoyed our warm breakfast cooked for us by the owner of the hostel and then headed off up the mountain. From the hostel we could walk into the National Park and up the mountain which had 3 circuit walks up it. We did the longest and highest, which took about 3 hours. It had great views of the nearby hills, lakes, towns and coastline, although the higher we got the visibility decreased we headed into the clouds. At the top it also got very windy and quite cold.
After soup and a toasted sandwich at the hostel to warm up, we jumped in the car and spent the afternoon driving around some more of the green rolling hills in the area.
Thursday was our last day with the car, which we had to drop back in at Dublin. We drove via Westport on the east coast across Ireland to Dublin on the West coast. It took most of the day, with us taking bit of a scenic route via the Roscommon castle, an old ruined castle and a lunch stop in Athlone. Then when we did reach Dublin the traffic was terrible and we had to circle the city for a while searching for a petrol station, on a very empty tank. Once the car was returned we headed to the hostel for the night before being up early the following morning to walk to Kinlay House to be picked up for our 3 day Halloween Tour of Northern Ireland.

Dublin - Ireland

We flew into Dublin with our favourite air line, Ryanair, on Monday evening, after Christine had been in to see one of her teaching agencies. As we were sitting on the plane we got chatting to the old guy next to us. A lot of what he said we didn’t understand, our first encounter of the Irish accent, in the UK anyway.
What we did make out was kind of amusing. We found out he was from Ireland on his way home. He asked us if we knew “John and Edward”, we said no! He then asked if we watched the “X factor”, we said “whats that?”. He looked so disappointed. We later found out that X factor is a singing tv show, like Australia’s got talent. This guy turned out to be the father of the twins on the show, so he was proud as punch, he showed us a birthday card to the twins from Whitney Houston. Back in London we had to put up with this show on the communal tv, and the twins did well, made the top 8 or something. The poor old guy was shattered when he couldn’t talk about his sons all the way to Ireland, as probably everyone else on the plane would have!

Tuesday was our first full day in Dublin. When we woke up, it was cold and raining. Christine still has a cold from the flight to London, so instead of just wondering around town like we had hoped, we joined the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour. This is the first time we have done one of these since we left home in May, they are generally a bit expensive. It was good though, taking us past all of the popular tourist areas, including Trinity College (near where we are staying), St Stephens green, Temple Bar area, cathedral district, Guinness Factory, Pheonix Park and O’Connel St which is the main tourist area and still has bullet holes in statues and buildings from the massacres of the past.
We had a short stop in Pheonix park which is very big and very green. It has a Monument, very similar to the Washington Monument in USA. Unfortunately it was very cold and a bit wet so we headed back into town and had lunch on Grafton Street.

After lunch Christine headed back to the hostel for a few hours sleep, not feeling the best. Damien jumped back on the bus and headed to the Guinness factory. It was fun, more like a museum than factory tour, but was in a building shaped like a glass pint and about 7 levels with different themed displays. Above the building is a bar with 360 degree views where you can go to enjoy your free pint of Guinness. It was the first time I have ever finished a Guinness, and was quite enjoyable!

Damien returned to the hostel and found everyone else in our 6 bed dorm was having an afternoon nap! Lazy bastards! Of course I had to join them for a while. Our room is great, were in a hostel walking distance to most of the main areas in the city. The room is tiny but everyone is awesome, an aussie couple living in London, Italian guy and Lithuanian girl. We ended up heading to a local pub for some more Guinness and some Irish music with the Lithuanian and Italian.

Hong Kong

Our first morning in Hong Kong (Tuesday) we were up early with good intentions of heading up to the peak. When we looked out the window however it was a bit cloudy, and after the Great Wall, we weren’t too keen on heading up to another high place in cloudy weather. Instead we took it easy and lounged about the apartment. As it turns out it was probably a bad decision, as the rest of the week was even cloudier and we never made it to the peak.
About midday we jumped on a bus and headed down to Repulse Bay, where we had arranged to meet Chung Sze after she finished work. As bad as this bay sounds it was actually quite nice, after a walk along the beach and a quick visit to a temple it was time for lunch. We ate in a Thai restaurant in Stanley, on a balcony, in the sun, overlooking the beach.
Next came our first HK shopping experience. Stanley market, just by the water, very cheap and one of our favorites in Hong Kong. We ended up buying ties, travel patches, Chinese lanterns and chop sticks. Our afternoon in Stanley was finished with a swim in the beach at sunset, which we had practically to ourselves. Oh, did I mention it turned out to be a clear sunny day in the low 30’s!

We then caught another bus down to Times Square in the centre of Hong Kong before heading to Chung Sze’s fathers restaurant for dinner. More great food, traditional Hong Kong rice soup and garlic prawns. After dinner we went to the computer market, which was quite amazing. Like a 4 level shopping centre but only selling computers and electrical gadgets. After a mango pudding we headed home with all our shopping and feeling pretty tired.

Wednesday morning we were both feeling a bit tired and lazy, so we headed down the street and found Jaspas Café for breakfast. It wasn’t cheap, but it was good. Bacon eggs and hash browns, pancakes for Christine and nice coffee. After breakfast we continued walking, it was all downhill, so no problems there! We stumbled upon another food market with stalls lining both sides of a small street. At the bottom of the hill we jumped on a bus and headed back to Times Square, where we bought a brand new laptop!
Chung Sze finished work, met up with us and then took us over to Mong Kok, where we visited the shoe market and the ladies market. Nothing too exciting here although we did buy some carry-on luggage and Christine bought a hand bag. We then had to rush home and get changed in a hurry, as we were going out to a Salsa Ball. Chung Sze has been doing dance classes, so we got to go and watch her class perform, eat a buffet dinner, drink wine and also do a bit of dancing.

Thursday was very exciting, we rushed out of the apartment and headed down to the wharf and on to a ferry. After about an hour we arrived in Macau, another world famous casino city! We started by doing the cultural parts of town (unlike Vegas this place has history!). We walked through the old town, which looks so much like Portugal (being a Portuguese colony and all!). As we wondered through the old town we snacked on the free jerky and cake handouts all the shops have on offer, by chance we stumbled across some sort of Chinese parade (costumes and Chinese dragons) and ended up at the old church ruins.
Next it was time to get serious, we headed down to a few of the casinos! Starting with the Sands casino with its amazing 10 meter high crystal chandelier in the foyer. Some of them have the themes like in Vegas, we saw a volcano, Aztec temple, collesum and Swiss Tudor styles. Finally we ended up at the Venetian which is remarkably similar to the one in Vegas. Damien wanted to kick back, have a few beers and maybe a punt, but we decided against it, time is of the essence!

We had been recommended a restaurant called Fernando’s by no less than 4 people since we arrived in Hong Kong, so we wanted to head there for lunch. It is a traditional Portuguese restaurant down by the beach. From the outside it looked like a beach hut, and only slightly better on the inside, but the food was really nice. We had a few beers with our traditional chicken and suckling pork, salad, chips and fresh home baked bread. What really makes this place amazing (the whole city) is that it is so Portugese, but it is in China, so you have that influence.
On the way back to the ferry we grabbed some coffees and Portuguese tarts, which we really didn’t need. Back in Hong Kong we had to go from the Macau ferry terminal to another ferry terminal to meet Chung Sze. Rushing didn’t help but we ended up walking in circles and around a stupid shopping centre we couldn’t get out of for about half an hour, before finally finding the way. We were then back on the boat an over to the Tsim Sho Tsui area for a quick look around, it is a very exclusive and expensive shopping district. We then spent the evening wandering around a night market, where we bought quite a few things mainly cheap clothing etc. We also had dinner in a little outdoor café, but the food was really nice fresh Chinese prawns and fish. We then had to say sad farewells and a big thanks to Chung Sze for being such a great host. We have absolutely loved Hong Kong, partially the company, partially the city, partially the food, partially the markets and partially the weather I guess.

Friday morning we were up early, our last day in Hong Kong so we wanted to do as much as possible. We dropped off a huge bag of dirty clothes to the Laundromat for them to be washed for us! Headed back to Mong Kok for some more shopping but took a long time to find sports shoes that actually fit our big feet. We also had to spend a bit of time on the phone to the bank in Australia as our credit cards have had to be cancelled, bummer! We went to the post office to send a package home, all the crap that we have bought but can’t carry! All up we have spent over 2000AUD in four days (ouch), which includes 2 pairs of asic shoes and a laptop, but we have lived the life!

The last thing we had hoped to do was to head up to the Peak, but, sadly we ran out of time. We have heard it is very nice, we will have to come back! After a busy morning we had to rush home, get the washing and pack, before heading out to the airport to fly to London.