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Published: June 14th 2006
Edinburgh
Mel and I in the "Grass Market" area of the old town in Edinburgh.With our backpacks mounted we trekked our way up to the train station excitedly to catch the train into London to arrive at Heathrow for our 1:50pm flight to Edinburgh, Scotland. It all went off without a gliche, apart from the fact I sat alone on the flight as my seat was seperate to Mel's and Luke's. Unfortunately I couldn't see anything while flying as there were clouds everywhere.
We landed at Edinburgh airport and pretty much walked straight out on to a bus that took us into the city. It was quite a nice drive as we passed through the city and were dropped off in the centre. The directions given to us to get to the hostel were a little sketchy, and after about 15 minutes wandering around in kind of the right area we bumped in to another equally lost Australian backpacker who seemed to know the right way to go. So we trudged up the street behind him to our hostel called "Castle Rock Hostel" that was opposite Edinburgh Castle!!!
The hostel was pretty cool and there were many foreigners coming and going. The rooms were all themed. We were in the "Currency" room and my bed
Edinburgh
Mel and I with a barrel of Australian Chardonney! Just down the road from our hostel. was the "dollars" bed.
We decided to take a wander right away down some old stairs to an area called the Grass Market where there were cafes, pubs, and a few shops. We had some dinner at a restaurant close by then headed back to the hostel to "doll" ourselves up for a night out on the town.
OUr first stop was "The Jazz Bar." We arrived at about 9pm and were lucky that not many people were there yet, as when it filled up people were trying to steal our seats and table! The band was cool and we drank while relaxing and soaking up the atmosphere. From there we headed off to another pub that seemed to be part of a hostel. It was full of young people and played really cool music. We took some happy snaps of the bar men and headed off once again. Unfortunately the next stop was at a packed bar with an outdoor area and indoor night club, and Mel and I got lost from Luke. We didn't see him again until later. Mel and I wandered into some more clubs but all were equally dodgy. It was more entertaining just walking
Edinburgh
Mel and I in "The Jazz Bar" around the streets with other tourists. We even bumped into some French guys and ended up playing pool for the rest of the night, trying to translate Australian slang with them.
Not much site seeing for me the next day apart from dragging my lazy butt up to the castle to have a look. It was quite pretty and the view was nice. We didn't go inside the castle unfortunately. Later we headed to a few pubs but set ourselves a curfew as the tour would begin in the morning.
Bright and early we stood waiting out the front of the hostel for our tour bus to turn up. There ended up being eight of us on the tour that would begin in Ireland. Mel, Luke and I, plus another Aussie from Melbourne and her South African Boyfriend, another South African guy and a married lesbian couple from California!
We headed off out of Edinburgh to get the ferry across to Ireland so we could make our way to the first stop in ferry to Belfast for a city tour, of both the political side, the wall murals which portray its turbulent past and its castle overlooking the city on
Edinburgh
Edinburgh Castle. Cave Hill. On our drive from Belfast we experienced the beautiful Antrim Glens & the spectacular Causeway Coast including Murlough Bay & the Giant's Causeway before our overnight stop in the seaside town of Portstewart (Home town of Jimeoin!!! and the guy who wrote "Teddy Bears Picnic"!!).
We stayed in quite a pleasant little independent hostel in Pt Stewart right by the sea. We headed out for dinner at a pub and then a few drinks at a local bar, then back to sleep with the sound of the waves crashing.
In the morning it was another early start as we headed to the cliff edge Musendon Temple home of the Bishop of Derry. It was a lovely peaceful place where we had some afternoon tea before heading to Derry its self to have lunch and walk the walls of one of Britain best preserved walled city. After lunch, we crossed the border into Donegal in the Republic of Ireland and, and we went on a trek up a to a beautiful hidden waterfall, before heading to our overnight stop in Donegal town. This hostel was really lovely with its own resident dog, Scooby. Luke and I even went across
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Belfast Castle gardens. The one with all the cats! (unfortunately not real ones) the road to watch a few minutes of a Gaelic Football match before heading back to have a BBQ with our tour group. We then retired to the common room and answered quiz questions and had a few drinks before heading off to bed.
In the morning we headed south through the Irish Lake lands visiting 'St. Patrick's purgatory' at Lough Derg and learnt about Ireland's patron Saint. Then we went to the Marble Arch Caves, Ireland's largest cave network, where we road in a boat in the caves!!! It was so cool. We then traveled to the Boyne Valley, before we arrived in Dublin to stay in the dodgiest hostel so far, the Guiness Factory Hostel. And man was it a dump!!! We couldn't even flush the toilet in our room!
The night we spent in Dublin was a little disappointing. We were taken to a cool Irish pub to start with, but then the tour guide took us to two old fogie pubs. The only good thing about them was watching the oldies do some Irish dancing, and watching Mel trying to do a jig when she was drunk! Other than that, Mel and I attempted to head
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Belfast political murals. out on the town, but she was too drunk and I ended up babysitting her back home.
The next day we were to head back to Edinburgh via a stop at Monasterboice, home of Ireland's largest Celtic Cross.
It was good to be back in Edinburgh, and that night we went out with the majority of our tour group (minus the weird ass South African guy!) to a bar called Frankensteins! The bar was really cool with waiters that were dressed as evil doctors who carried around syringes full of shots of alcohol. Quite cool. We then caught up with our tour leader in a pub then headed back to the hostel again for an early night as we were off on our tour of the Isle of Skye that would begin in the morning.
This part of our trip was with a much larger tour group, about 25 people, and the tour guide was a lot more fun. Our first stop was at Birnham Wood (yay Macbeth!) where our tour guide tried to freak us all out with his story of a faery girl he met there. The story was unbelievable, but the scenery was awesome. Really pretty.
We
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Coastline in Northern Ireland. then headed through the mountains and eventually reached Loch Ness. What a sight!!! And, no, I don't mean the monster. The Loch Ness Monster was a definate no show, but the size of the Loch was breathe taking, as was the site of Luke and another Aussie bloke, Grant, who went swimming in the 5 degree water in just their jocks!!! Crazy buggers!
We continued to drive through the green hills until they suddenly turned quite grey and rugged looking. Truly a spectacular site to see!!! These huge mountains still topped with a tiny slithering of snow. It was awesome! Then we arrived at our little Loch side town in Skye, at a hostel where we found that we had been placed in a dumpy out the back shack/caravan that stunk of moss and was Star Trek themed. I was in the "Scotty" bed, for interests sake!
That night we headed to the pub and danced the night away, it was great fun and the locals, I am sure were amused.
The next day was a full day exploring the wonderful Isle. We trekked up a peak known as the Old Man of Storr and experienced some fantastic views before
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Giants Causeway. jumping back in the bus and journeying further in to the heart of the spectacular isle where we took a walk through the enchanted Faery Glen. We walked through the spiral rock formation in which you were to walk to the centre thinking about all the negative things about yourself, and then on your way walking out you were to think about all the positive things about yourself. We were also warned against singing or whistling while walking around the Faery Glen as Faeries are attracted to music, and if the faeries got you, they would take you to their world. Silly me started whislting without thinking as soon as we began walking around. Thank God I wasn't taken by the Faeries!
We headed back to the hostel and celebrated the birthday of one of the French girls on our tour by playing some crazy drinking games and then went out again to the pub where everyone was in full dancing mode!! Even the locals got in on our crazy antics, where about 20 of us formed an archway while couples galloped through everyones linked arms. It was crazy, but hilarious and a lot of fun.
The next morning an
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Me on the Giants Causeway. early start again and we stopped at Eilean Donan Castle, Loch Garry, looked at the five sisters and a strolled in Glen Coe.
Finally, before getting back to the EdinBurgh, we stopped off in Stirling to hear the real story of William Wallace and Braveheart, and saw a really ugly, huge cow!!!!
So, as you can see our Scotland and Ireland tour was a fast-paced and fun packed holiday!!! A lot of shennanigans with new friends. Had such a great time that I am convinced that I should move to Scotland, marry a Scottish man who wears a kilt, and I now believe that faeires exist!!! I've been there, I know they do!
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Amanda Price
non-member comment
Hello
Hi there! Looks like you are having a ball!! Your blogs are always very entertaining! Just wondering if anyone got in contact with you to let you know Sal and Chris had a little boy - Axel Lenard Russel Parsons. He is very cute and was quite happy to be passed around to all his surrogate Aunties and Uncles in the staff room. Clint and Elle get married July 8 - pnly a few weeks away. David and I are doing a 4 week European trip for our honeymoon, departing Aust on Boxing Day! So Im keeping notes on where to visit from your blogs. Any how, take care, Hi to Luke and I look forward to your next blog xxxx