Advertisement
Published: January 17th 2016
Edit Blog Post
- Dublin 12th - 13th December 2015
My first trip across to Europe was just a wee flight to Ireland to explore the city of Dublin. We arrived in the pouring rain, and it didn’t stop the whole time we were there – a very realistic representation of Ireland apparently. Dublin is a cute, quaint city on the East coast with a river running down the centre dividing the city. The architecture around the city is very Georgian, and particular landmarks stand out from the rest such as the Dublin castle, Parliament and St Patricks Cathedral, all quite significant to the city. Inside St Patricks Cathedral is truly remarkable, the stained glass and the history of the building is so intriguing. The bridges crossing the river are quite picturesque too and add to the character of the city.
We hiked across town with our tiny umbrellas to go to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour of the 7 storey brewery. We were shown the process of making Guinness, with the four ingredients barley, wheat, water and hops as well as learning about the history of Guinness in Ireland. We ended the tour at the Gravity Bar on
the 7th floor to experience the largest and best pint of Guinness that we would ever try.. Matt said it was by far the best Guinness he’d tried, and it definitely was for me as it was my first! Ol' Arthur Guinness did a pretty good job I must say.
We bussed across town to the Christmas vintage markets which were filled with so many cool vintage stalls! We found a stall which had a box full of old cameras so I looked through them and found a really old, chunky Polaroid camera, which still worked! It was only 12 Euro, and on Amazon they are usually around 100 Euro - the film cost more than the camera! One of my best purchases yet I’d have to say!
We also visited the former prison Kilmainham Gaol, which is now a museum which holds tours explaining the history which changed Ireland forever. The tour was incredibly insightful and eye-opening, especially because of how recent these events happened. The prison held men, women and children as young as 7, all in cells together, for crimes such as petty theft of bread to survive. There were many Irish revolutionaries held who
were executed, which are said to have changed the history of Ireland in the fight for independence.
Our Dublin trip was quite short but it was a lovely introduction to our travels of Europe.
Christmas was going to be very different for us compared to usual, as we are on the other side of the world, without family, and in the midst of winter. Realising this was most likely going to be the only time we would be just the two of us and able to do whatever we wanted on Christmas, we decided to rent a secluded wee cottage up north in Scotland, surrounded by lochs (lakes) and snowy mountains for a few days. Our drive up north was lovely in terms of scenery but a bit drizzly in terms of weather. Once we got off the main highways the scenery was breath-taking as we were driving around the bottom of the mountains on the edge of large lochs and rivers, and the weather changed from rain into snow! We had our hopes up we would have a white Christmas but the snow wasn’t quite heavy enough for that!
Our cottage up on
Loch Etive, in Taynult was rather dreamy. It was super cosy, and just perfect for the two of us for Christmas. On Christmas Eve we skyped family and friends in New Zealand to wish them a happy day, and we prepared our tiny tree! On our Christmas day we made a delicious big breakfast, and opened presents together which was very exciting. We went for a lovely walk down around the lake which was slightly misty and very cold and the mountains were becoming extremely snowy! The rest of the afternoon we played chess and nibbled on our cheese and meats board and drunk mulled wine, and for dinner had a delicious roast beef – it was very relaxing and special.
On Boxing Day we wanted to get outside and see a dam at the top of a near mountain. The weather wasn’t great but we thought we would be fine if we dressed for it! We parked at the bottom of the mountain and started our 5km journey up the mountain. As we got to about half way it started raining quite hard and was very cold, so considered going back, but we were so keen just to
see the dam. So we kept saying we would only go around one more corner, and then before we knew it we were up the top of the mountain, in the snow, with the dam on one side and the valley on the other. The climb through the rain was so worth it, it was such an incredible thing to see the white mountains surrounding the lake and the views down to the river at the bottom of the mountain. When the wind started to become frighteningly strong and loud, we decided to jog the 5km back down the hill to get back to our cosy cabin for a hot chocolate.
For our trip home, we decided to take a long way to see more of the beautiful countryside in Scotland, and it was a perfectly clear day for it. We travelled alongside lakes, where we would go around a corner and have an incredible view to our right, and then around another corner introducing another breath-taking view to the left. We stopped at an abandoned castle which was almost in the middle of a lake which was really cool – we love how many castles there are around
the UK and how much history there is behind them, each have such a different story. We then made our way to a wee town called Kenmore where Loch Tay drains into River Tay. Just before reaching Kenmore we drove up a mountain which led to another dam up the top, and this mountain was fully covered in snow! It was so magical being at the top of this mountain on such a stunner of a day, and we were able to capture it on our Polaroid camera, which will be kept safe in my new scrapbook from Matt for Christmas!
We stopped and had a lovely lunch in Kenmore, and then started to follow the fastest route via Google Maps home. Making our way up another mountain on a very narrow road (which would cut out about 40 minutes of our journey), the car was starting to struggling when nearing the peak, so we thought we better try turn around. We were struggling to turn when another car came up behind us, so we decided to keep on going and that at least we have someone here if anything happens.. We were about 80m from the peak, where
we would then just be cruising down the other side, when the car literally could not go any further - it was too low as it was scraping on the snow pile up in the middle of the road. So we had to back up and try turn around and go back down the mountain and go the long way home. But the plus side was, the view from the top of the mountain was really stunning!!
The countryside in Scotland is some of the most beautiful landscape we have ever seen, it was such a nice trip up north! I can’t wait to explore more of Scotland.
New Year’s Eve, or ‘Hogmanay’ in Scotland, was the next big and new event for us. It was unusual going to a festival for NYE when its minus 2 degrees! But Hogmanay was amazing to experience, with all of Princes Street filled with people, and three large stages playing music. We went with a group of friends (mainly kiwis) and celebrated the New Year together to remarkable fireworks which were in time with the main stage music – such a great start to the New Year.
We are so
excited for this year and to see more of the fascinating world! Next trip is Paris, after that maybe Switzerland for skiing??
Advertisement
Tot: 0.111s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 12; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0449s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb