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Published: August 22nd 2009
Dublin
First order of businessHello everyone!
We thought we would do something a little different this time. This is Brittany, Steph’s brother (Pat)’s girlfriend, writing. That sounds more complicated than it is! Anyway, Pat and I had the incredible opportunity to spend 3 weeks traveling with Steph and Alexis in Ireland and Scotland. We thought that we would write this blog and give you a glimpse into Steph and Alexis’ lives from an outsider’s perspective. Unfortunately we didn't manage to finish this before Steph and Alexis got back, and we recognize that many of you will already have seen them in person at this point. We nonetheless hope you will read this blog and enjoy it!
Let me start of by saying that Steph and Alexis seem to be doing incredibly well. They look great - fit, tanned and relaxed. They never seem to run out of things to say to each other, despite having been together 24/7 for the past 6 months! They honestly seem more in love and closer than ever!
We decided to rent a car and do a loop of the South of Ireland. Traveling by car in Ireland takes some getting used to... First there’s the obvious:
Dublin
PAT!!! the fact that they drive on the other side of the road. But we also discovered that Irish highways are full of twists and turns and EXTREMELY narrow, barely wide enough for two vehicles! Despite this, Irish drivers hurtle down these roads at speeds of over 100 km per hour. We would often come around bends and be surprised by large vehicles racing towards us on roads that were clearly not big enough for the two of us! We just kept hoping that that we would remember to swerve in the right direction (i.e. left, not right)!
Having the car allowed us to stop in places we may not have seen if we had been traveling by public transport. For example, we spent our first night in a castle in the country! The hostel was literally an old castle and to get up to our bedroom (which was at the top of the tower), you had to walk all the way up a set of winding stone stairs. The place was owned by an old man who lived there permanently. We suspect he inherited it. We thought it was pretty cool that he lived in a castle!
We
Dublin
Reunited and it feels so good... also spent one night at an organic pig farm B&B out in the countryside. This was Pat’s idea (he has been very interested in local organic good production lately), and although we teased him about it, I think we would all agree that it was one of the highlights of the trip! Two of the pigs had just had piglets. The piglets were adorable but their mothers were extremely protective and made dragon-like sounds whenever we went near the pen! Two more pigs were about to give birth (the owners thought that they might give birth that very night, but sadly they did not...). In the morning, we got up early to help feed the pigs. To get to the feeding area, we had to walk through the herd of hungry, shrieking pigs. This took some courage, but we all did it, even Alexis, who had originally said he was too much of a city boy to feed pigs! 😊 Our breakfast was made with stuff from the farm. It was delicious but it was hard not to see the little piggies’ faces in our bacon.
We also stopped in Kilkenny, home of the Kilkenny beer we all know
and love. We were looking forward to having a Kilkenny on the beer’s home turf. However, when we ordered it, the waitress looked surprised and said “nooo, we don’t serve Kilkenny here”. We discovered that Kilkenny is not nearly as popular and well-liked in Ireland as it is in Canada. We thought that was pretty strange!
The weather in Ireland and Scotland is extremely unpredictable. I can’t tell you how many times we stepped out for a 15-minute walk thinking “it’s beautiful and sunny, and we’ll only be gone for 15 minutes: there’s no WAY we need our rain jackets”. Well, sure enough, 9 times out of 10, it would be pouring rain within 5 minutes. And then it would be bright and sunny again by the time we made it back to the car. We quickly learned to bring our raincoats and umbrellas EVERYWHERE we went. The upside of the wonky weather was that it allowed us to see lots of rainbows!
We saw lots of amazing scenery, particularly along the Ring of Kerry, a driving loop that takes you along the country’s west coast. Because it rains so much, everything is bright green. When you see
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In front of the Kilkenny Castle how green Ireland is, you understand why most Irish symbols are green: four-leaf clovers, leprechauns and everything St. Patrick’s day-related. Also very Irish are the lovely stone walls that criss-cross the countryside. And, of course, no mental picture of Ireland is complete if it doesn’t include sheep scattered across the countryside in every direction. It’s really a gorgeous place!
Pat had to return to Canada before I did (to work), so Steph and Alexis and I continued on to Scotland for the second week. We found a 0$ Ryan Air flight from Dublin to Edinburgh (yes, you heard me, 0$), so we decided to take it to maximize visiting time. Of course, after taxes and hidden fees (you pay a fee to check your luggage and you pay a fee to use your credit card even if that's the only way to buy the ticket!), the flight ended up being about 50$ per person. But it was still a better deal than the ferry and allowed us to get from one city to the next in 45 minutes. If we had taken the ferry, we would have had to take the bus up to Belfast, catch the ferry to
Stranraer, and then take another bus to Edinburgh. So we opted to fly because it was both simpler and cheaper.
As soon as we set our eyes on Edinburgh, we were in love. It’s an absolutely beautiful city. There are majestic, castle-like buildings in every direction. The old city is built up on a hill, with steep cobblestone streets leading up to it. The Edinburgh castle is at the very top, looking down over the rest of the city. The sound of bagpipes fills the air, and although it is usually coming from tourist shops (not actual pipers), it gives the place a very Scottish feel. On our first day we were lucky enough to meet up with one of my friends and her Scottish boyfriend, who did a great job of showing us around and telling us all about Scotland.
As some of you may know, Edinburgh is the birthplace of Harry Potter. In fact, we had lunch in the very cafe (Elephant Cafe) that JK Rowling used to sit in while she wrote. We also saw the school that inspired her descriptions of Hogwarts. It’s a beautiful school, and is apparently one of the most expensive
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The castle hostel we stayed in! schools in the UK (about 15 000 dollars per year for primary students). Now that JK Rowling has made it big, she sends her own kids there.
Edinburgh is said to be one of the most haunted cities in Europe. There are countless haunted tours running at any given time. Edinburgh also has an extensive network of underground streets! These streets were not always under the ground. People lived normal lives there until the 1700s, when authorities decided to build new buildings on top of them. The houses at the top of the old streets were knocked down and the lower sections were kept and used as the foundations for the new buildings, leaving dark and mysterious passageways underneath. We went on a tour of one of these underground neighborhoods and really enjoyed it. We didn’t find it particularly scary (although one woman in our group did faint!). But it was pretty cool to think that people once lived along these narrow walkways. The old streets were so narrow and sanitary conditions so bad at the time, that diseases like the plague spread very quickly. Apparently doctors used to think that the plague was spread through foul odors, so
they would come visit their sick patients wearing huge strap-on beaks filled with aromatic spices. This was their way of avoiding the foul odors that they believed would give them the plague. In reality, it just made them look funny (like big ducks). And in fact, that is the origin of the expression “quack”, used to describe untrained people who dispense medical advice!
After a few days in Edinburgh we went on a 3-day tour of the Scottish highlands. The scenery in the north of Scotland is very dramatic, with huge mountains, lakes and cliffs. The tour took us up to the Isle of Skye and then back down to Edinburgh through Loch Ness (home of the Loch Ness Monster). The bus was strangely sleep-inducing; every single person on it seemed to have trouble staying awake. We felt terrible because the tour guide often told really interesting stories while we were driving, but we literally couldn’t keep our eyes open!
We spent one final night in Edinburgh upon our return from the highlands. This time, we ended up in a 16 bed co-ed dorm! Let me tell you, it is quite an experience to sleep in the same
room as 16 strangers. People came in and out of that room all night long. One person (probably drunk), even flicked the light on at 4 am! A lot of our dormmates fit the “dirty backpacker” stereotype (ie. body odour, dirty clothes, smelly shoes, etc), so sleeping next to them was an exercise in nose-plugging and breath-holding. Steph and Alexis have done an amazing job of NOT becoming dirty backpackers, despite having been on the road for 6 months!! I’m sure you would agree that they look amazing, better than ever, in all the pictures they’ve taken on this trip. They have proved that it’s possible to be a backpacker AND stay clean. We talked about the “dirty backpacker” thing a lot and wondered if some backpackers adopt the dirty backpacker persona because they think it’s “cool”, not because they have to... Who knows, just a thought!
Anyways, I hope that you have all had the chance to catch up with Steph and Alexis and hear their amazing stories. I’m sure that you, as I, admire the courage they had to embark on such a huge trip together. And I’m sure that you, as I, are delighted to see
that this trip has brought them even closer to together and has become a formative part of the wonderful couple that they are!
Brittany
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Steph and Alexis
6 months - 4 continents - 18 countries
Thanks to Britt!
Wow, great entry Britt. Sounds like you had a great time! Haha. Seriously though, thanks for the entry and all the kind words (you check is in the mail). We had SO much fun with you and Pat and it definitely wouldn't have been the same without you guys. We hope that you and Pat had just as much fun as we did and also that you know how much it meant to us that you two came to meet us. You are both incredible. Can't wait to see you guys soon!! Love, Steph and Alexis