Just writing a quick entry as we wait for our flight home to say that we are shocked at the lack of comments being left on our blog. Doesn't anyone miss us? Well anyway we will be home soon so we expected to be showered with love and attention then.. [View Full Entry]

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First off I will say it again that Ireland really is a beautiful country. After embarking on our 3 hour bus trip from Dublin we arrived in Waterford to spend a few days with the Taylors (Keith's family). And what a top family they are!! Mam & Dad (Agnes & Joe), Nial, Clifford, Anthony & Suzie, oh and Karl (not technically family but close enough) made sure we had an awesome time and I think we have come back 5 kilos heavier from all the food. We had such a great time and you couldn't meet a nicer family. Well being [View Full Entry]

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After a bloody appaling flight from Edinburgh (I really just don't want to talk about it), we landed in Dublin and started the Irish leg of our journey. The second day of our sojourn in Dublin (the first was a huge sleep) was very eventful. After a big Irish breakfast, Jacki and I decided to hit the Guinness Storehouse at St James' Gate. The storehouse itself was really cool and we spent hours in there, culminating in our visit to the training bar, where you get to pour your own pint of Guinness. I went first, and after pouring a really [View Full Entry]

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The Good: New Years Eve in Leeds was an absolute blast. We met up with Bridie's friend from camp Rich who had three spare tickets to a night club called Creation - destiny really. So off we went, looking damn fine considering we all did our hair and makeup on a moving train. Primping, straightening, curling, colouring - we did it all. Everyone thought we were mad. All's I'm going to say is, Virgin trains, thanks for having powerpoints. After being given free drinks (yay), free hats, and english flags, the clock counted on down. At the strike of twelve we [View Full Entry]

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So, after waving our cottage goodbye, we headed off on the last leg of our great Scottish roadtrip - up to Inverness to see Loch Ness and hopefully the monster...well...we hoped. The morning that we left the cottage we got to see our first smattering of snow. Aaron had bought some fake stuff on Christmas eve, and Bridie wandering aimlessly around the garden realised that the white flakes on the ground weren't fake! It was real snow, and it made our day. Inverness was a few hours drive away, right up the top of the country - well...kind of anyway. It'll [View Full Entry]

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After waving goodbye to Italy we boarded our plane - destination Scotland - home of the knickerless kilt wearers, haggis and Billy Conolly. Also the place where we were to meet up with Paula, Aaron and Bridie to stay in our cottage to celebrate the Christmas week. After meeting up with the guys our first task was to find the cottage.. With Aaron driving and lauren as our map girl it seemed easy enough as it was only 45 minutes out of Edinburgh. Well supposedly 45 minutes away. In actuality it was more like 2 1/2 hours and with 5 people [View Full Entry]

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After passing through Rome on two occasions already (see the Great Train Debacle) we finally had the chance to see more of the city than just the train station and I must say we were impressed. Well aside from the our hotel room which featured a lovely mould feature wall but I guess if the mould spores don't kill you they can only make you stronger.. Ha ha ha (cough) ha. I guess thats what happens when you put a shower in the middle of a bedroom? Hmmm... Well our first day in Rome we decided to go for a little [View Full Entry]

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Thusly, we were greeted by men in Florence (once we finally got there - see The Great Train Debacle for further clarification). We have absolutely no idea what they were trying to achieve by calling us 'Francesca', but it certainly didn't work. It was in Florence that we first came into contact with something that Italy should be known for - the street market seller. At first we thought we could handle it - being told that they'll 'Do a good price for friendly people' is laughable. It upped to another level though after lunch on our first day. Walking back [View Full Entry]

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Well if you remember our last blog entry was written while we waited for the damn train workers to get their asses off strike. If only that was the end of our problems.. After spending the day at the train station in Nice we were informed, after waiting in line for 2 hours (twice) and given a million different answers, that there was infact a train to Florence leaving at 9:00pm that night. We were relieved, as otherwise we would have had to face John Cleese and his hippy commune another night and it was almost too much to bear.. Well [View Full Entry]

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With a lovely day in Nice behind us, our new friend made, and boundless suggestions from John Cleese (whose real name we discovered is Ouf - mad! We made a rhyming song about him later) about what we could do, we decided to hit the road and visit Monaco. Since there was (and still is apparently) a train strike on, we had to catch the bus, but the bus ride was fantastic. The Mediterranean coastline is absolutely spectacular. The ocean is soooo blue and the cliffs are white and huge: I've never seen anything like it before in my life. About [View Full Entry]

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