dear all,
hello from ireland! ireland has been beautiful and we have had an ablsolute ball..theres so much to tell..
just quickly before we left manchester we went to the indoor snowboarding and skiing centre with elise..it was awesome, me and amy did the intro lesson and did 180's..standing still but still good and little jumps, dan did the big hill and fell over so many times he got a bruise..hehehehe.good fun.
we left manchester on wednesday morning and flew to dublin, ireland on the shortest EVER flight, it was even shorter then amsterdam to london.we left manchester at 2pm and arrived in dublin at 2.50pm, a 50 mintue flight which was ridiculous, we went up and then looked down at the sea and then went down again and then landed...was so fast i cant believe we actually paid for the flight, would have been cheaper to swim!
we were picked up by amys uncle, derek. he didnt recognise us but we picked him because he looks like a shorter version of fergal..felt like amys dad was driving us around again..in the pre-licence days. neways, fergals family have been so good to us, we were picked up and then taken to amys grandads house where we stayed for the last 5 nights. Amys grandad is nearly 90, almost blind, lives by himself and loves having visitors. The kitchen stocked, beds made and meals cooked all for us..and when i say the kitchen was stocked..it was STOCKED!there were sausages, eggs, toast, bacon, tomato and cereal and juice for brekkie and the kettle always just boiled, and a fridge full of sausage rolls, chicken curry, stews etc etc, luckily the diet dosnt start til we to scotland, because for the five days we were there we ate soo much food and there was enough left for another 2 weeks. Nearly even better then the food was the bath towels..the biggest fluffiest towels ever and after 2 months on travel towels, the towels were beautiful. Grandad loved a chat and each night we heard stories of his dislike of the i-talians, love of his lunch at the nunnery down the road, of fergals brother derek being a naughty little villain and throwing several pairs of shoes in a river or in the fire and then throwing a priests hat in the drain because the priest called him by his middle name mary...we heard some good stories..amys got all the goss!
Arrived in dublin on Wednesday...
Thursday: enjoyed a sleep in a very comfy bed and a huge brekkie. Then caught the bus into town, grandad gave us very precise details for catching the bus, we were amazed at the details we were given, street names and the lot. In the town, we did the first ever tourist hop on hop off bus tour of our trip because the weather was rainy and cold, very irish and we werent in the mood for walking around in the rain (and it didnt stop raining until we left dublin, lovely, ill try and send some of the rain home because we dont want it!). First stop we chose to get off at, well actually it was the 10th stop but we fastforwarded to it because we are impatient..the GUINESS STOREHOUSE!! Dan loved it. Its a really well done museum, we walked through huge displays of how they make guiness..hops (these weird little green pinecone looking things), yeast, barley and special dublin water. The barley is roasted to make guiness, but never try roasted barley...tastes really really bad. Arthur Guiness began guiness back in 1759 when he took out a lease on the james gate brewery for 45 pound a month for a period of 9000 years..thats a long lease. The brewery is right in the middle of town and occupies 64acres..its huge and the land would be worth millions.we enjoyed our free guiness at the gravity bar, 7 stories up surrounded with glass with a beautiful view of the city. Guiness was nice, well the first half was nice, the second half od mine and amys dan had.ive come to like beer but not that much because guiness has such a strong beer taste.
From the storehouse we ran through the rain onto the bus and then the rain kept coming in through the bus roof..great. From there we went to the kilmainham goal, which shut in 1924. The jail held and executed the 14 political leaders of the 1916 easter rising when the irish people revolted against british rule and burnt a large section of dublin. One of the leaders was injured in the easter rising was shot in the leg, so they took him from the hospital to the goal and then executed him in his chair.In its peak the jail held 9000 prisoners, all for ridiculous petty crimes, although there were only 123 cells, the walls were made of lime so everything was damp and the jail was originally made with no windows (thought to aid in “blowing” the disease away..good one). Th jail was freezing and we were there in the middle of summer. The jail has been in several movies..our tour guide said ‘in the name of the father’..which i kinda remember watching at school..not too sure though.
Our bus pass was a 24 hour pass so in between the goal and returning to dublin city we went back to grandads and ate a ridiculous amount of food, chatted, ate, slept, ate and came back to the middle of dublin..in the rain..Our second day on the bus we went to trinity college (university), inside is the book of kells, which is a beautifully decorated latin copy of the four gospels written around 561AD. The book pages are made of leather, but they look like paper they are so thin. From the book of kells we walked through the the main chamber of the library which houses 200,000 of the libraries oldest books in a gorgeous huge room and the oldest harp surviving in ireland..like the one on a guiness can. Rest of the day wandered around the city and went back and had dinner with grandad.
Saturday: in the morning amys cousins came to visit, darren, analeise and graeme, darren has a 2year old named alan who was a little sleepy and grumpy but eventually came around to us when dan bribed him with lollies. Saturday night we planned to go out, and emphasised to grandad to NOT wait up for us and go to bed. Trying to think of describing our night...mm...irish pubs are the BESTEST BEST pubs in the world. We went to the templa bar district which is great because all the pubs are walking distance, all the pubs had irish music playing and a mix of modern stuff, people were up dancing and being merry, the drinks are served in half litre glasses and everyone is merry, it was an awesome night. Surprisingly amy and i displayed our iron guts...dan let us down and threw up in the street behind the pub..weak.one too many guiness and ciders mixed together there. Though i cant really pay out too much on him because the next day i didnt get up til lunch time after spending the morning hugging my little tupperware bowl in bed..tupperware is great for EVERYTHING!! And even amy was a little quesy and green looking till later in the arvo.and guess who was sitting up in the chair waiting for us to get home...starts with g...ends with randad
Sunday: as above the morning was wasted. In the afternoon i dragged myself to dereks car and we were driven to visit pauline, grandads cousin, it was her birthday so we wished her happy birthday and then went on to dereks. Derek and his wife nula use to have a parrot and a dog and the parrot use to talk all the time, it use to ask for apple and what ever it wanted and said good morning and generally didnt stop talking, but the dog died 5 weeks ago and now the parrot dosnt talk anymore, at all. Its kinda sad because the parrot is so sad it dosnt talk anymore. Derek and nula took us to a beachside town, only 20 mins out of dublin called mulahide. We went to a really nice thai restuarant and had pad thai and massaman curry...all of our favourite things that we normally have at the lilydale thai restuarant and luckily we were all feeling alot better and were able to enjoy it. From there we admired the expensive yachts and then went back to dereks and watched the grand final of the euro soccer worldcup, in which germany played ridiculously shizenhouse and were beaten 1-0 by spain.all very exciting..not, i read a magazine and watched the last 5 mins.
Monday: Sadly we left grandad, and caught the 2.5hr bus to belfast. The irish countryside is beautiful, the hills and glades are all so green, theres a few sheep and a couple of randy cows. Was a very pretty drive to belfast. Belfast is in northern ireland, so its 6 provinces are still ‘owned’ by britain which means we swapped from the euro in republic of ireland in dublin back to the pound in belfast..confusing. esecially because ireland have their own special pound notes, but the coins are the same..but they still accept the english pound, but the english wont accept irish pound...aaarrgh.
Northern ireland is the centre of troubles between the irish catholics and the british protestants. We took a black taxi tour of the city and learnt ALOT about the past and the continuing troubles. The catholics and protestants HATE each other and there are strict lines around belfast that neither party cross, theres actually a 45foot wall separating the two groups because they were attacking each other so often. It use to be half the size but they were still throwing things over so they had to extend it to stop them getting at each other..but our taxi guide was a local and said just last week there was a heap of bricks chucked over. We saw all the murals on the protestant side, its all very political and took us a little while to understand but the guide was awesome. Turns out now, in the 21st century that 70percent of young people in belfast have not spoken to another person from the other side..crazy. There are memorials on both sides to each sides heroes. My parents remember the berlin wall coming down, maybe ill be able to tell my kids that i visited the belfast wall before it came down..or maybe not.
Belfast itself is safe, and we have walked around the city no problems.Hostel was ok, till the hugest man came in at midnight and snored the weirdest snore ever..amy and dan didnt sleep, surprisingly i did..must be cz im use to dans loud snoring...payback dan.
Tuesday: today we got on a bus tour that started in belfast and went to the carrick-a-rede rope bridge, a 20m rope bridge connecting a small island that use to be used for fishing. Luckily the weather was nice, so the fotos turned out awesome. A little scary crossing the bridge..i dont know if you would like it tina. But an awesome view of the atlantic..aparrently on really clear days you can see scotland?we didnt cz the rain was coming in...
Luckily before the rain we started we got to the giants causeway..a natural volcanic formation of these rock pillars along the cliffs from 60million years ago..gaelic legend says a giant put them there when he churned up the path between scotland and ireland. The photos are awesome. The sight is a aworld heritage sight and definately worth the visit.
Then the rain started and hasnt stopped.were in derry or londonderry depending if ur catholic or protestant.heading back soon on the bus.
Going to edinburgh tomorrow.
Love to all.
Love jess xoxxo
