Emma & Maneesh on the Big OE

Wined, Dined and Back in Time - The South of France

milko_rosie — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:45:00 GMT

Wednesday 22nd August

Christine had only landed in Ireland three days ago and we were already on the move. Today we were off to France. It was an early enough start. Anne, Em's boss, very kindly collected the three of us and dropped us to the bus stop where we caught a bus to Cork airport. We arrived down to the airport at about 10am after a slow trip down, which included getting caught in a long queue of traffic behind five trucks carrying massive silos.

After getting the bags checked in we had plenty of time to relax, so we had a coffee and sat chatting for a good while. After getting a roll for lunch we went through security to the other side. We were flying Ryan Air so wanted to be there in plenty of time (you don’t get allocated seats – so you queue at the departure gate).

Our flight took off at 1:20pm on time. It was one and a half hour flight. We left Ireland on a warmish, overcast day and touched down in Carcassonne where the sun was shining and it was 34°C! Brilliant. We landed just before 4pm French time, and after walking through what seemed to be a shed really, we were ready to pick up our car and hit the road.

Unfortunately even though the rental car was prebooked there was still a considerable wait, more than an hour, due to there only being one person at the desk and about 10 people waiting for cars. When we eventually got to the desk we had completed paper work and needed to have a Visa card that could be preapproved for €1000! Unfortunately mine declined this and we were told that we could not take the car, there was no alternative. We asked if we could try Christine's card, the only credit card in our possession between the three of us and we were told "No, only a named driver can do this. No exceptions". It was about 10 minutes later when we asked to add Christine as a named driver (miraculously, the answer was “Of course”), and thankfully from then on the process went quite smoothly.

By this stage we were very relieved, but also very hungry and thirsty. So we went about 2km until we spotted somewhere to get a drink, McDonalds. Yes we are ashamed to be eating McDonalds in France, but it was not a meal, just a quick stop to get our energy back. After a sundae and a drink we were on the road.

We were only on the road for about 5 minutes when we spotted Carcassonne from the motor way, and it’s magnificent castle. We pulled off into a rest stop to have a better look, it was spectacular, with massive walls around the perimeter. After enjoying the view we hit the road, destination Portiragnes Plage, which was a coastal town about 110km east of Carcassone. We had been very lucky to be offered the use of the Beckett's holiday house here which were were thrilled about.

Our next stop was the all important one, Carrefour supermarket. It was only a medium-sized one, but it was a goodie. We found lots of tasty cheese, bread, wine, meat, olives, and fruit and vege. We decided we would have a picnic for dinner and proceeded to over-buy a variety of foods for this.

It was about 8:30pm when we found our house, and after a little search for our carpark we parked up and unpacked the car. At about 9pm, all tired for quite a long day of travel, we sat down at the table for a very tasty picnic dinner. This was Christine's first taste of France and she was thrilled to be having a dinner like this. It was still pretty hot as well, so we were happy to be eating this kind of food, not trying to cook a dinner. By the time we got ourselves organised following dinner, it was after 11pm when we got to bed.

Thursday 23rd

Happy 30th birthday Em! It started off well, a sleep in until 9am which was a nice start to the holiday. Em had made a itinerary for Christine's 4 weeks trip while she was over and thankfully today was a bit of a quiet day really. Not that we had to follow the itinerary of course.

After having showers and a small breakfast Em opened up her presents that we had for her. Because we were away, she had had a present and card opening session the night before we left as well. She was appropriately spoilt with lots of great pressies and fantastic cards.

It was time to do the French thing and go for a coffee and croissant, so we wandered down to a pattisserie that the Becketts had recommended and that we had spotted on our way into the town.

Em and Christine both went for coffee and a croissant, I was tempted by the custard square (Mille feuille in French) to accompany my coffee. After enjoying those in the sun we picked up a loaf of bread for lunch and then headed down towards the beach to have a look. Em dipped her feet but reported it was not quite as warm as the sea in Spain. Along the beach front was a little market which mostly had wine. Christine was tempted by the olive oil soaps. After a bit more of a stroll we went back to the house and had our second picnic for Em's birthday lunch, using our fresh bread with the left overs from last nights dinner. It was just as tasty!

After lunch we headed off down to the beach which was only a 5 minute walk away. Along the way we came across some monster trucks, the ones with the massive wheels. Wow they were impressive. They were there for a show that night. So we spent a few minutes admiring those before continuing on to the beach.

The sun was out and we all had a swim then sat in the sun. It was a little rough and the water was quite cool, but that is just us being extra fussy after the bath-tub sea water in Spain. The beach was pretty busy, it was almost the last week of European summer holidays so I imagine there were still quite a lot of people making the most of it.
It was a novelty to go swimming on Em's birthday that is for sure given that it really is the middle of winter in New Zealand, more or less.

When we got back we got ourselves ready for an evening out, and then drove on some very narrow back roads to a town called Agda. We’d had a restaraunt recommended to us and we decided to go there for Em's birthday dinner. It was a beautiful evening, warm, sunny and blue sky. Agda was a pretty little town, with lots of medieval buildings. We parked up and walked along the river. This was Christine's first real French place in terms of buildings, with iron window frames and other things like that. It was very pretty.

After having a bit of a wander, our tummies got the better of us and we went to Mare Nostrum. We knew instantly why Claudia and Kate like it, the theme colour is Pink! Very fitting for Em’s birthday celebrations.

We were actually the first there as it was only 7pm. It was a barge on the river and was a very relaxing setting. We had a 3 course dinner and enjoyed some very tasty meals. My entree was the best I think, a leek fondue served in a light pasty case, it was delicious. For mains I had duck and both Em and Christine had bass which was nicely cooked. It was served with an aubergine cake, which seems like a plan muffin mixture with aubergine through it. It was very random and really quite tasteless. it sounded much more interesting than it was.
For dessert again Em and Christine got the same thing, chocolate fondant and rasberry sorbet which was delicious. I just went for a lemon meringue pie (tarte au citron meringuee). It was all quite tasty and topped off a lovely birthday day for Em.

After dinner we wandered around the streets for another half an hour. We had noticed a floating stage in the middle of the river earlier on. It seems that the show was starting at about 10pm as a crowd was gathering. We were pretty tired so did not stick around to find out what it was about.

We got stuck on another narrow road heading back home. When we got home we all felt pretty tired so called it a day.

Friday 24th

We had a big day planned, so got an early start, and were driving out of our block at 8:15am. The plan was to drive north east to Nimes.
We had been driving for about one and a half hours, and had planned to get a coffee somewhere so we stopped into Montpellier. We parked up right next to an amazing Roman aqueduct which still had a considerable length of it intact. Quite amazing to think that it was probably around 2000 years old. It was not the last one we would be seeing today either.

We wandered into the shopping area and after enjoying a bit of a browse we found a really nice little local cafe down an alleyway where we stopped for our morning coffee and croissant. Only chocolate ones left, how disappointing :-)

From here we got into a bit of shopping. The girls went to a shoe shop which was of little interest to me. I did find a kitchen shop which was filled with gadgets, much more fun. They came and found me there and we enjoyed making a couple of small purchases. They had herb scissors which is a pair of scissors, but they have about 5 blades. How efficient and very cool!

After spending probably another hour browsing shops it was lunch time. We picked up rolls and quiches and walked back to the car. After having our lunch we hit the road, as it was about 1pm and we still had lots of touristing ahead.

Our destination was the Pont du Gard, near Nimes. We got side tracked in a small town called Marguerite in search of ice cream. Unfortunately everyone was having their siesta, (yes they do seem to do that in the south of France, just like in Spain), so we missed out.

We arrived at the Pont du Gard at about 3pm. After finally getting an ice cream, we walked around to enjoy the view. This was a personal mission as I had studied this at school. It is a Roman Aqueduct bridge which crosses the Gardon River. It stands at almost 50m tall, with three levels of arches. It was built in the 1st century AD to carry water from Uzes to what is now Nimes. The whole aqueduct was about 50km long and across this distance it descends a height of only 17m. Across the bridge itself there is only a 2cm drop. Astonishing accuracy for 2000 years ago! The setting it was in was quite beautiful, very hilly and bushy, and the river was beautifully clean. It was a hot afternoon with the sun baking us. We considered a swim, but did not quite make it, and we only had the clothes we were wearing.

We had a good hour there wandering across it and trying to fathom out how they built something so massive without powered machinery.

Our next stop was a supermarket for a drink. We went in for water and came out with a whole lot more, including cheap wine and foodie treats. We only had about a 30km drive to Nimes city itself, and after not finding any street parking we came across a parking building so that was great. It was about 5:30pm, quite late to start touristing in a new city. Unfortunately we did not have a map either. We started to walk, and try to follow signs. Thankfully we were heading in roughly the right direction and we found an information centre, which was very close to the Maison Carree, another Roman structure. It is one of the best preserved temples in the whole of the Roman empire, built in 16BC. It really was quite amazing to see really, such a beautiful old building standing there largely untouched – tall and rectangular with pillars on all sides.

Now with a map in hand we were sorted. Our next stop was the ampitheatre, which is was built around 70AD, and it still used today for bull fights twice a year. It was very much still intact on the exterior, parts of the tiered seating was no longer inside though. And unfortunately because it is still used, there are ugly steel seating frames everywhere. It still has a seating capacity of 25000 people now though.

We were inside for almost an hour, and it was getting close to 8pm. We decided to walk back to the car and see if we could pick up something to eat along the way. We were not successful in finding anywhere to eat and then got back to the car park to find the doors down and locked! Oh no! There were signs, but in French. Thankfully we could work out it was a 24 hour carpark, and we pressed a buzzer. After asking the man on the other end if he spoke English, and him replying an emphatic “Non”, there was a long pause. Then he proceeded to ask us (in perfect English) if we were parked inside and wished to access our car, to which was gratefully said yes. Thankfully it seems the signs in French must have read something like 24 hour access, entry to carpark from 7am to 8pm. It would have been very disappointing to get locked in the carpark! We moved the car to a street park nearby and found a Kebab place for dinner. We were not super-hungry, but needed to get some food into us before the drive. It was about 9pm when we finally got on the road.
We made great progress and got very close at about 11pm. Then the GPS had a bit of a fit, and misbehaved. It tried to take us on these random back roads and then on a dirt road. Eventually we managed to find a more main road, and it helped us out again by giving us a route we could actually drive. We made it home at 11:30pm after a massive day of touristing. Em still managed the day quite well despite being in the next decade of her life!

Saturday 25th

After such a big day yesterday we allowed ourselves a small sleep in. We got away just after 9:30am and headed for Pezenas, a rural town where we had heard there fantastic local markets on. It did not disappoint. We arrived at about 10:30am and it was packed. We managed to park in French style (up on the footpath) and got our walking shoes on. We were pretty hungry by this stage so the first aim was either a crepe stall or a patisserie. We got to a patisserie that was very busy and the cabinet looked fantastic so we proceeded to each order 3 things. It was mad, the 3 of us walking out with a couple of bags and a box of treats. The market was pretty much stalls on every winding street you walked, selling lots of things from the normal Europe market rubbish (cheap jewellery and clothes) to shoes, fruit, vegies, seafood, and other crafts. After enjoying some of our treats we continued our browsing around, and decided it was coffee time. Christine went for another lovely French coffee while Em and I stuck to the cool drinks. It was another beautifully hot, sunny day.

After our refreshments we found our way into a very old part of the town. The laneways are used as roads, but are only wide enough for one car. The streets are cobbled and the buildings are stone and have stood for centuries. There were some great little shops around the area which we enjoyed browsing in and making a few small purchases. We eventually emerged back into the more main roads of the town and found that the markets were packing up, well a lot of the stalls. So we had a bit more of a browse around the place on our way back to the car. It was about 2:30pm when we were leaving. We headed back to the house but had a stop to in at the supermarket. We managed to find another one that we had not been to and enjoyed yet another supermarket exploration to pick up a few pieces of tasty food for another picnic dinner.

When we got back to the house it was about 5pm. We were planning to go for a swim but a lot of grey clouds rolled in, so we just had a drink before having dinner. After dinner we enjoyed a quiet evening and watched a DVD.

Sunday 26th

It was our last full day in the south of France. After breakfast we drove to a small town, Bessan, where another market was on. This was on a much smaller scale, but still nice to have a wander around. We started off with a coffee (of course!) in the sun before browsing the stalls. They were mostly food stalls so we picked up some food for dinner - a couple of chicken dishes already cooked that we could just take away and heat up later on. There was a great antique / junk shop that we also enjoyed poking around.

On our way back we stopped into Portiragnes, the town near where we were staying and suprise surprise, there were markets on there too. Em and Christine had a walk around those while I went and dropped off the food. Those markets were much the same and they were done pretty quickly there.

After that we had lunch back at the house as we were starving. We had a lazy afternoon on the beach in the sun. The water was cooler than earlier in the week, so the swims were pretty quick.

After we got back from the beach we had an early dinner and started the clean up as well.
We had one last small taster of France, a crepe in the evening for dessert, but it was the worst crepe we have ever had! Disappointing but that does not matter. That finished off our day really, we continued with the packing and reorganising when we got home.

Monday 27th

Well the final stages of the clean up went well and we were on the road at an early enough time. We had about a 3 hour trip to Toulouse where we were flying out of. The trip up was slow in places, but we had given ourselves enough time. After we had a small lunch, we dropped the rental car off and then got Em and Christine checked in. Soon after that we said our goodbyes as the girls were flying to Paris. They got away on time and I flew out a couple of hours later back to Dublin to return to work. The end ouf our Southern France experience. We were glad to get some nice weather, good markets, and tasty food. It satisfied our French cravings.

Photos: Wined, Dined and Back in Time - The South of France

milko_rosie — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:09:00 GMT

Turning Up The Heat In España

milko_rosie — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:40:00 GMT

Saturday 7th of July

We had arrived to our hotel in Dublin near the airport last night at 9pm. It was pouring rain and very miserable. Poor Em had hurt her back 3 days ago quite badly and was very limited in her movement, and in significant pain. She had been to the doctor for pain relief 2 days ago and had made a big improvement with her pain levels which was great. It was touch and go as to whether we would be going, but she is a tough one.

Today started at 3:15am. We caught the shuttle bus to the airport at 4am. After checking in we had breakfast and wasted the time until our 6:20am flight to Madrid.
We got away on time and boh of us had a nice sleep going over. After about 2 hours we were flying over Spain and were very happy to be greeted with blue skies and barren, parched brown scenery, just what we were hoping for.

We landed at 10am Spanish time. After having an easy run through the airport we started the slow walk to the metro. Poor Em was very sore and had to take it slowly with the walking. We caught the train easily enough and got off at the right stop. The next part was a little harder. We were a big intersection with about 6 roads off it. We eventually found the right bus stop, and thankfully there was a Spanish speaking girl heading to the campground we were heading to.

We followed her off at the right stop, and then had to walk another 10 minutes to get to the campground, but we made it, and Em made it which was brilliant. After checking in we walked around the campground to pick a spot to pitch our tent. It was a big campground, and there were plenty of trees which was great. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was starting to get hot.

We picked our spot and pitched our tent for the first time. It took us a while this time around, Em supervising and me doing. The ground was rather hard, so putting in the pegs with a piece of concrete was hard work, but we got it up okay. After managing to get our airbed inflated (with the help our some campground neighbours car cigarette lighter and our electric pump) we were good to go. We were starving by this stage and had some late lunch at the campground bar / restaraunt.

After our food we got a text from James and Julie to say they were on their way to Madrid and should arrive in about 1 hour. Our plan was that they would arrive tomorrow evening, so that was a very cool suprise.

They arrived pretty much on time with their van Dusty. They had had a long day driving from Pamplona and had been pretty busy with the running of the bulls over the past couple of days. While they got themselves settled in Em and I went for a swim at the campground swimming pool which was fantastic. This was our first swim outside for about 2 years!

After that we got into catching up. We had snacks and a few drinks and they told us all about their trip so far which started almost 3 weeks ago. They had been to the Rock Werchter music festival (Belgium), driven south through France and stopped in at Pamplona for a couple of days. They were already having a fantastic Van Trip so it was great to hear their tales.

Sunday 8th

We were up at 7:30am after a reasonably comfortable first nights’ sleep in the tent. After showers and breakfast we got our day plans organised and caught the 10am bus from the campground into Madrid city centre. Our first stop was some city markets which were supposed to be very popular. We managed to find them without too many difficulties and had a wander through them. There were some cool art stalls, otherwise it was the normal cheap clothing, hangbags, and jewellery that you get. We all got pretty hungry and had been told to have 'toast' at the markets. It was supposed to be fantastic. We only had one problem, we could not find it anywhere. We spotted an alternative morning tea, some sort of pastry, like a pastie, filled with various things like cheese and spinach or other savoury fillings. We ordered that and orange juice and to our disgust it was €14. To make matters worse it was not even real orange juice as we thought it was. We got touristed! This doesn’t happen to us very often.

After this initial disappointment our day got back on track. We were walking towards La Latina, the Tapas area of the city, where there were supposed to be lots of nice Tapas bars, and we came across some 'toast' in the window. It was like a grilled piece of baguette with various toppings including anchovies, chicken schnitzel, tomato, and something that looked like caviar. This was only €2.50, I got a schnitzel one and James got an anchovies one. They were a tasty snack.

We continued on our walking expedition and made it to La Latina, where our plan was to do a Tapas crawl. Unfortunately being a Sunday and the time of day we were there, quite a few places were closed. Still we found a nice place and each got 3 small servings of a variety of Tapas. They were tasty, but not extraordinary. James and Julie had amazing Tapas in San Sebastian and this was now the benchmark we were in search of.

From here we headed towards the Palace where we walked around the outside. The day was really starting to heat up, so we decided to keep this walk quite short and move on.

Further along our walk to various places around the city we came to Mercado San Miguel, a big (and expensive!) indoor market with delicious stalls of seafood, wine, fruit, vege, and other tasty treats. We enjoyed the walk around looking at it all.

We were now on a mission for ice cream. We managed to find a little ice cream palour and enjoyed eating our ice cream by a water fountain in the hot baking sun. James and Julie's camera had stopped working a couple of days ago, so that was also one job we had to get done. We managed to find a big department store and found them a camera. It was a very important item to have when they were at the start of a 5 month trip around Europe!

From here we continued towards Plaza Mayor, a big square, and then onto Parque Del Buen Retiro, a lovely big park and gardens area. Along the way we spotted some fantastic street performers, mainly 'statues'. We were not really sure how they managed to stay so still in all of their clothing on such a hot day. We also came across a few more cool art stalls which we enjoyed looking at, and even made a purchase of a painting of Don Quixote on his donkey (a Spanish folk tale).

When we got to the park it was nice to get away from the stone buildings and onto some cooler grassy areas. There was this big pond near the centre and it had lots of people in pedal boats going around on it. We enjoyed watching this and a few other street performers before finding ourselves a nice shady spot on the grass and sat down for a rest for about an hour.

It was such a novelty to be in such fantastic sunny weather. We had made a rule that we were not allowed to complain of the heat while we were here, and so far we were sticking by it.

From the park Team JJ went to the Plaza de Toros for an 8pm bullfight and we walked back towards a tube station. We had a nice walk back down some back streets. We found a fruit shop and picked up some watermelon, peaches, cherries, and a mango. I also got another ice cream at a shop.

That ended our day in Madrid city centre. It was a beautiful city to walk around in, with some amazing buildings. It was nice to get into the park and green areas with the trees, and we saw some great fountains. It was a city to walk around just to have a look, there was really no major attraction in particular to look at. We had enjoyed the day but felt like 1 day was enough for us.

Back at the bus stop we needed we bumped into an older Australian couple who had also been on the bus into the city with us this morning. We had a good chat with them, and it turned out they were in Europe in their campervan for a few months. They live in Australia, but had bought a camper. And it turned out that they had a VW Sven Hedin Westfalia! It was MUCH more modern than ours. They invited us over for a look at it back at the campground so after a small snack at the campground bar we went and had a drink with them and a tour of the van. It was similar enough to ours in layout, but with some big changes as well. They was no shower and it only had seats for 4, not 6. It was a fantastic camper though, with some many nice little touches. We had a good chat with them about their travels. It was about 10pm by the time we got back to the tent. We got ourselves ready for bed. Team JJ got back from the bullfight at 10:30pm, they had stayed for 3 bullfights. They were happy to have gone and experienced it. James felt like it was something that should be banned as it seems like a long drawn out process of killing the bull without giving the bull a real chance. In the 3rd fight they say the matador got taken out by the bull which they were happy to see. They went because it was a part of Spanish culture rather than because it was something they really wanted to see, and they were glad they had gone. Em and I were not interested in going at all and were glad we did not go.

Monday 9th

Today we decided to move on from Madrid. We had originally thought about having maybe 2 days here if required, but we felt like we could move on. We got on the road at about 10am and drove 65km south to Toledo. We were excited to go there just from hearing the name, it conjured up memories of Robin saying "Holy toledo batman".

It was a beautiful little town. We had a good walk around. Lots of very old buildings and cobbled streets and laneways, all spread over a hilltop. We enjoyed walking around for a couple of hours. James and I went and moved the van because of parking, and then had a long walk back into the town in the afternoon heat. We met up with Em and Julz and went for lunch. We chose a place which did an €8 set menu. For entrees Team JJ got paella, Em got gazpacho (a cold tomato soup) and I got hot chicken noodle soup with ham in it. They were all quite tasty, but Em's was my favourite. It was so refreshing, especially in this weather. We ordered drinks as well, which were included in the menu, and Julz and I ordered wine. The waiter brought out a whole bottle and just left it on the table! We were expecting a small glass each.

For mains, their were 4 choices so we each ordered one and that way we could try them all. There was chicken, fish, pork, and what we thought was lamb. It turns out that the word got lost in translation, and it was not lamb, but tripe. We did all try it, but none of us liked it, the texture was very slimy. We were glad we had decided to go for all 4 dishes, I am sure if we thought it was lamb we could have ended up with 2 or 3 servings of tripe, not 1!

After a small dessert, the boys had ice cream and the girls custard, we were done. All of that for €8 per person. We were re-energised and ready to keep on driving.

We travelled 150km further south towards Cordoba where we stopped in Santa Elena, a small sleepy litle town. Along that drive there was mainly vineyards and olive groves, not many other crops. The real novelty was that Em spotted a cloud, just one, but she spotted it. It was quite a slow drive because there was a lot of uphill driving.

We got the campsite set up, which did not include putting up the tent this time, the ground was like a rock, and even though James had a hammer in the van, there was no way the pegs were going into the ground. That was okay though, Dusty had sleeping room for 4. We just felt it would be more comfortable if we had a tent, just to give everyone a little more space, especially given the temperatures which we had experienced so far.

Out first stop after getitng the campsite set up was the pool for a swim. After cooling down we headed for a small walk around the town. It seemed like it was deserted. All the doors and window shutters were closed, there was no one on the streets, it was bizarre. But this is normal – it was siesta time! We found a small shop where we got an ice cream and had a chat to a random Spanish guy who claimed to play the guitar. We continued our small walk around and found the little Plaza de Toros (bullfighting ring) before heading back to the campground. The planned dinner was kofta, but the mince did not seem safe to eat, so we just went to the campground and had dinner at the bar.

After dinner we played cards in the van before calling it a day at about 11pm, the 4 of us sleeping quite comfortably in Dusty.

Tuesday 10th

We woke at 7am to a cool morning, probably 12-14°c, which was much cooler than Madrid. Probably because we were much higher here than we had been in Madrid.

We had breakfast and got the campsite packed up. We gave the mince to the campsite cats which was entertaining, and they seemed like very grateful recipients.

We got on the road at 8:45am, and had 150km to get to Cordoba. Along this stretch the countryside flattened out again and there was mainly only olive groves, not so many vineyards around this area.

We arrived into Cordoba at about 11am, and went to a campsite 'Camping de brilliance' where we checked in. This campsite ended up setting the record for most expensive campsite that we had in Spain, €48 for 1 night!

After getting the van set up and the tent pitched, which was easy here in the sandy ground we headed into town. The main reason we had come to Cordoba was because we had read there was a guitar festival on during the first 2 weeks of July, and we thought it could be an ideal place to get some flamenco guitar. On our walk into the city we spotted posters for the festival despite being told by the campground person that there was nothing on. When we got into the city we managed to find out some information and there were concerts on everynight, 3 tonight, but none were flamenco unfortunately.

The walk into Cordoba gave us an impression that it was a rich city. The tree lined streets, marble footpaths, fountains everywhere, and the buildings were highly decorated. It really was a beautiful city. We felt quite underdressed in our travelling clothes compared to the very fashionable people walking the streets.

Yet again our tummies got the better of us and we headed for a restaraunt after stopping at Plaza de las Tendillas. We choose 4 dishes here, the most interesting of which was a raw fish dish with oranges, onions and olive oil. It was quite tasty and probably the favourite out of all the ones we had ordered.

After lunch we continued our touristing, walking to Plaza Corredera and along some small back streets and coming out to the river. Here we headed towards the Puente Romano (Roman Bridge). We walked across the old bridge. In the middle there was a violinist busking. It was uncomfortable to walk past. Either his amp was bad or he was terrible.

We walked around the Mosque Cathedral area from here, decided not to go in. Buildings of religious nature started on this site at around 600AD with a Christian building. In the 700s it then became a mosque with a significant number of additions and remained this way for around 500 years when King Ferdinand III of Castile recaptured Cordoba and it was turned into a Catholic church.

By this stage most of the shops had closed for the afternoon, so we walked back to the campground. It was getting pretty hot by this stage, 36°c. It was 4pm when we got back to the campground. From the past couple of days it seemed like 4-5pm was the hottest time of the day. When we got back we headed straight for the campground swimming pool, and enjoyed a couple of nice swims here.

We were refreshed enough to go back out into the heat and walk to a nearby supermarket. It was a great experience. We all love supermarkets in foreign countries and this one was fantastic. We spent a good while wandering around enjoying looking at the range of produce. There were whole legs of ham, which started from €39, wine starting from €1.50 a bottle and fresh apricots and nectarines for €2/kg. We bought food for a van picnic for dinner and some refreshments as well as ice. It was tough walk back to the van. Team JJ and Em were starting to look quite pink and poor Em was starting to feel naeusous as well, probably due to heat stroke, or the beginnings of. Turns out the Tramadol pain relief for her back causes photosensitivity. When we got back to the campground Em lay down for a rest. We had some lemon sorbet which we had to eat before it melted, then we got into some fruit as well. At about 8pm we got out some cheese, salami, and pate to snack on while we played some yahtzee. Then at 10pm our eating continued, having burritos for dinner, not because we needed them, but because we had the food for them and it needed to be eaten. It was still in the high 20s, by far our hottest night yet.

It was after 11pm when we made it bed after cleaning up from dinner. It had been a great day, we all really enjoyed our time in Cordoba.

Wednesday 11th

We were up just before 8am and it took us until about 9:30am to get everything packed up and ourselves organised before we hit the road to drive further south, in the direction of Seville. The olive groves continued, but there were also lots of sunflower fields. The countryside was very dry and barren.

At about 11:30am we were driving along and spotted an amazing castle looking place on a hillside so managed to take the next exit and we ended up in Carmona.
We parked up and made our way into the small town. It is apparently a very popular tourist stop along this trip. We did not know this, we thought we had just done some amazing touristing, stopping in at a great find. Still we were happy we had stopped. We had a small snack, which included fish roe and a drink, which we thought was lemonade, but was actually red wine and lemonade. Our translation for the fish roe was egg, which was partly right I suppose. Although not what we’d exptected, it was quite nice.After our snack we wandered around the old town which was really nice. Again lots of narrow, cobbled streets, buildings not all square, all made from light brown stone. We made it to the castle building, but it is now a hotel, so did not go inside that. To add to our experience we spotted a great little fruit and vege shop and they were selling watermelons for €0.24/kg. This was not something we could turn down. We thought about getting a half, but went for a small whole one It turned out to still be 7kg! Hopefully it would be worth it.

After a very disappointing lunch which we made a bad restaraunt selection we got another snack. Thankfully our lunch was only small portions, not full size, so we did not have to eat much. When we got back to the van we had watermelon which we had left over from the previous day and it was delicious. We had to eat it so we could get into our new 7kg one.

We got back on the road at 3pm and changed our plans from going to Seville, to head further south for the coast. We had a good trip, passing through hundreds of acres of corn fields. This time we spent more time off the main motorways and just on two lane roads. This was not so good, there was some dodgy driving going on by some of the cars around us. We made it safely to a small town called Conil, which seemed like a tourist hot spot.

We went to the supermarket and got food for a van picnic for dinner including meat, cheese, and bread. James and I had started a new hunt, trying to find the cheapest beer and we found one for €0.24c a can, so we got a couple of try.

We made our way to Camping Los Eucaliptos, which as the name suggests was a campground with lots of Eucalyptus trees in it. We got all set up then had dinner and then cracked open our new watermelon for dessert. It was delicious, Em who does not even like watermelon said "That watermelon is nice". Team JJ went and skyped thier families as it had been a few weeks and Em and I cleaned up after dinner and did some planning for the next few days ahead.

Thursday 12th

We were up at 6am to allow oursevles enough time to pack up and get on the road early. We left just before 8am and had a pleasant journey before the sun really got going. We stopped into a small town, Tarifa as you could see Africa (Morocco) from here. James found a dead snake on the side of the road as well. Tarifa was a pretty run-down kind of place, we didn’t look around.

The view of Africa was amazing, it was only 10km away so there was no difficulties seeing it.

While we were there we saw adverts for boats for day trips to Morocco. We parked up in town and made some enqiries, but after doing some research we decided not to go.

We got some ingredients and made our own bocadillos (large ham and cheese sandwiches on flat chewy buns) for a snack. At about midday we got on the road and drove to La Linea, a spanish town near the border with Gibraltar.

We had about a 10 minute walk to the border and it was an official border. It was rather relaxed, but we did need our passports. The guy on the customs gate asked us where we were from, it turns out he was from Napier. He had married a Spanish girl and they had moved there from England. He asked us if we wanted a stamp in our passport which was a definite “yes”, so that was very cool.

From customs we walked towards the main part of Gibraltar, across the runway of the airport. To get in and out of Gibraltar there is one road and it goes across the airport runway! Team JJ had seen a documentary called “World’s Top Ten Most Dangerous Airports”, which featured Gibraltar.

Once we got into the city centre we were amazed at how British it was, more so than London! The currency in Gibraltar was the pound sterling as well. We had 'fish & chips' for lunch, Em and I had a burger. While we were eating lunch we heard two fighter jets take off on the runway, it was amazingly loud, we were gutted to not be able to see them.

After lunch we walked the streets to find the cable car. We took a rather roundabut route, up hills and stairs, only to end up walking back down hill to get to it. Eventually we found it and the queue was not too bad. At 2:30pm we caught the cable car up. It was a 6 minute journey to the top, and we hopped off at 412m above sea level on top of the Rock of Gibraltar. It’s an interesting outcrop – very high, surrounded by the very flat coastland around it.
We spent almost 2 hours up here watching the Barbary Macaques, the only primates in Europe. They were very tame and would come very close to you. We saw them climb on people and we had been warned do not leave zips free, they will open your bag and take your stuff. They were very entertaining to watch – babies, young ones, mothers, grand-daddies etc. We also spent lots of time watching the cloud. It was on one side of the rock and blowing up and over the top of it. It was like watching water moving in the sky, like an upside down waterfall. We managed to get some good views from up there too and saw a plane take off at the airport as well which we were happy about.

At about 4:30pm we caught the cable car down and walked back along the main street, browsing a few of the shops before walking back into Spanish territory. It was again very hot and ice cream time so that was our first stop. It was only a McDonalds sundae but it did the job nicely. Then we went to a supermarket to get food for dinner before driving to a campground near Marbella. We set up camp and pitched the tent, then had dinner at about 10pm, making it to bed at about 11:30pm. We all really enjoyed Gibraltar, the macaques were great to watch. We would definately recommend it to anyone who is passing by, a must see / experience.

Friday 13th

After the long day yesterday and late night we had a small sleep in until after 8am. After the normal campground pack up Em and I headed to the beach which was only a couple of minutes walk. Just before we were about to go a van pulled up in the campground selling delicious breads and sweets, so we bought a couple to have later on for morning tea.

When we got to the beach it was quite hazy, almost a sea fog which limited our visibility quite a lot. Still we were a little shocked as we walked along looking for a spot, when the beach transitioned from a standard beach to a nudist beach. Thankfully the sea fog blurred the details, however we may never forget seeing nude soccer being played!

We headed back to the campground and got chatting to our neighbours their who were Kiwis, Mark and Mandy. They had been driving around Spain for a while and gave us a good couple of recommendations and a map for later on in our trip at Cabo de Gata National Park which was great.

We had a cup of tea and our yummy treats before leaving the campground and heading back to the beach. The sea fog had mostly cleared and after showing James and Julie our morning findings (much to our recurrent amusement) we settled in at a conventional part of the beach and had a nice swim.

We got back on the road and drove east where we stopped at a supermarket near Malaga to pick up food for lunch and dinner. We had tasty rolls with the usual ingredients (cheese, salami/ham, avocado, tomato, etc). This was accomanied by tasty watermelon which we had to finish as we had no way of keeping it cool. It was a hot afternoon in Malaga but it would not prepare us for our next stop. We headed inland to Grenada and arrived after a couple of hours of lovely driving through undulating countryside. We got back into olive grove territory, we must have passed thousands of acres. There was also some natural vegetation around so it was an enjoyable drive. It was also the hottest trip yet. At 5pm it was around 40°c! Dusty did a fantastic job, as did James at the wheel. When we made it to Grenada the GPS had a melt down, not sure if it was related to the heat or just had some roads in it that really were only dirt tracks, but it tried taking us an impossible route. We found a supermarket along our travels and picked up a few supplies . We also found frozen fruit sorbet served in the actual fruit (i.e. hollowed out lemons and oranges, filled with sorbet, all frozen). I had orange and Em had lemon. It was super tasty and extra refreshing in the heat. You could also get ‘squash’ sorbet, but it didn’t really look appealing.

We managed to get to the campground at just before 7pm. We set up camp quickly and hit the pool. It was only us in it and it was the most welcomed swim of the trip. We had a quick dinner in the van and then at 8:30pm we got picked up on a bus from the campground and taken to a Flamenco show in Grenada itself. It was about 9pm when we arrived and we saw that it was still 36°c.

The flamenco show was touristy, but also very cool. The muscians were great and some of the dancers were fantastic. We’d wanted to see some flamenco, so it was well worth coming to. It went on for a little over an hour.

After the show we were taken on a small working tour around part of the old town, and taken to a great viewing point of the Alhambra (a wonderful palace and gardens on a hillside) which looked stunning at night time. We got dropped back to the campground by the bus. It was still 32°c, so it seemed we were in for a hot night. It was about 11:30pm when we got back.We pitched our tent which was quite easy despite being pitch black, as we had had good practise over the past few days. We eventually got to bed after midnight.

Saturday 14th

We were up at 6:30am and caught the 8am bus into the city. While we were waiting for the bus the police arrived to wake a guy up sleeping in the bus shelter. From what we could make out he had had a big night the night before and not quite made it home, sleeping there the night. I suppose no problems with hypothermia at that time of the year.

We got into the city easy enough, but then became a little lost walking to the Alhambra. We had not managed to get a map, but thankfully James had bought the GPS and it helped us get back on track, managing to get up the massive hill just before 9:30am and staying in the shade.
There are a limited number of tickets to the Alhambra each day so we wanted to make sure we did not miss out. We had no problems at all and headed on in.

We were lucky enough to remain in shade for the first hour as well which helped out a lot. It was a stunning place to visit, with amazing views of the city below, and fantastic gardens and grounds. There were brilliant fountains and water features. It was lovely to visit the gardens.
At 11:30am we had our ticket for the tour of the palace. In places it was amazingly decorated with intricate patterns on the walls and ceilings, in Islamic style.

After finishing in the palace we walked the last part that we had not yet seen by which time we had had enough. It was after 12 midday by this stage. We walked down a big hill into town. We were all pretty hungry by this stage. We eventually found a bar that served free tapas with a drink, so we had a drink there, but we needed more substantial food, so we found a meal to have. It was not brilliant but it satisfied the hunger.
It was again getting pretty hot by this stage and we were all pretty tired. We started our search for a bus stop. We walked for a good 45 minutes before we eventually found where we needed to go. It was about 4pm when we got onto the bus and 40°c. Thankfully there was a breeze which kept things a little cooler. I would say although none of us complained about the heat (we had a rule!) it was exhausting that day. We had had enough and wanted to get back to the pool to cool down. We were thankful to be on the bus.

When we got back we had a swim and it was lovely. After spending a good hour in the pool Em and I walked down to a nearby supermarket to top up our supplies for dinner.

When we got back we had a few drinks and snacks and played cards. When James and I went to pay for the campground we were chatting to the guy their who told us about the nearby Sierra Nevada (‘Snowy Mountains’) where you can ski in the winter time. During the winter in Grenada it got down to -12°c, quite amazing given the current heat. From the top of those mountains you can see Africa as well on a clear day.

We had another swim and then showers before having bread rolls and fruit for dinner. We played more cards before calling it a day at 10pm. It was cooler so we were looking forward to getting a good nights sleep. Unfortunately this was not the case, there were dogs barking all night long. Our tent walls didn't seem to block out that noise.

Sunday 15th

It was another early start this morning, getting up just after 6am to shower, have breakfast and pack up our campsite. We were on the road just before 7:30am and heading east for 230km to Cabo de Gata National Park, hoping to avoid driving in the peak heat of the day. This is the area Mark and Mandy had given us some recommendations, so we were very excited about the quiet beaches that we were heading towards. Cabo de Gata has a rich history for locations in cinema, none more so than films including 'The Rat Patrol', 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly', 'A Fistful of Dollars', and 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'.

Along the way in the mountains we spotted houses built into the hills, so the front of the house was level with the cliff face, it looked cool. It seemed like it must get very hot in this area in the summer and possibly also as cold in winter.

A good while into the trip we came across a single vehicle crash on the motorway. We were about 4th on the scene, and stopped, but thankfully the lady in the car seemed okay. After spending about 5 minutes there we were of little help really, given our lack of Spanish and the fact that the emergency services were on their way so we got back on the road. We contined on to Carboneras where we picked up some bread and a snack and then drove south to Playa de los Muertos (“Beach of the Dead”!), the beach recommended to us. We parked up and noticed this was probably different from the day Mark and Mandy were there, when they had the beach to themselves - there we cars everywhere. We parked up and had lunch, and then got our things together and walked the 500m walk down a rocky hill to the beach. It was starting to get pretty hot by this stage, and more and more people were arriving. We ended up walking down to the far end of the beach, but it was pretty packed. We found a spot and set up there. It was a nice beach alright, covered in small colourful pebbles which did not hurt your feet, but made walking hard work. Since it was the weekend the locals must have flocked to the beach because it seemed like almost everyone was Spanish.

We spent about 3 hours on the beach, lazing in the sun, and enjoying the swimming. It was a nice beach to swim at and the water was fantastically warm. By the time we were leaving it was pretty packed. We felt like we were starting to get sun burnt, so thought we had better finish there. The walk back up the hill to the van was made a little more pleasant by the wind.

We chose a campground on our map and had about a 40 minute drive to get there, picking up ice along the way. Once we arrived at Las Negras campground, which was right on the sea shore, but still had a swimming pool as well, we chose our campsite after careful consideration. We went through the usual campsite set up, plugging in power and setting up a washing line.

It then became apparent that we all had been in the sun a little too long today, we kept getting redder, no one more than Em. She was glowing fluorescent.

After playing some cards and having a snack we went swimming at the beach. The sun was much less intense and we felt safe enough. The water was cool, but it was a nice swim. On the way back we checked out the pool. We were a little cold from the sea, and when we felt the pool it was like a bath tub so we had a lovely swim in that as well before heading back to the van.

When we got back we had a few drinks and dinner at about 9:30pm. Em and I went to do the dishes after dinner, but do you think we could find the tap at the sinks. There was a sink with a water spout but no tap. About 5 minutes later someone else came along and showed us that the tap was a button on the ground you operated with your foot! It was dark by this stage so we did not feel like complete idiots, but pretty much. When we got back we put up our tent. It was operation stealth, which we had done in most campgrounds along the way. It seemed that in Spain that you paid per item on the site, not for a site which we thought was ridiculous, especially as the tent was only a 2 person tent and we used it for sleeping, so we did the cheeky thing and put it up under the cover of darkness. We were in bed by about 11pm.

Monday 16th

With a few later nights in a row we let ourselves have a bit of a sleep in. It was about 8:30am when we were up. We got on the road at about 10:30am and after taking a wrong turn (which was not helped by the GPS) we got ourselves back on track heading past Campohermoso, a town which seems to specialise in glass houses. There were literally 100s, probably 1000s of acres of glass houses. It was amazing to see. Not sure why they needed the glass houses, maybe to grow here during the winter as well, we really we not sure. There was definitely no need to intensify the summer heat.

We were now heading north towards Alicante. It was very deserty, barren land. We could now see why this area had been used in Westerns, it seemed like Clint Eastwood was going to come over the hill on a horse at any time. As we got further north the terrain became more mountainous again and we started to see big fields of stone fruits, melons, and olive groves.

We were all starting to get very hungry and after passing a few towns which seemed to have little to offer we exited in Fuente Alamo and spotted a place doing lunch. The Menu del dia (“menu of the day”) seemed good from what we could translate, with a large seasoning of hunger we were sure we could not be disappointed. Fuente Alamo seemed like a very small town, very untouristy. When we walked in we had a lovely waitress who did not have any English. We all ordered off the set menu and because we were so hungry and could see food there, we ordered 5 tapas from various dishes on the counter. They were delicious. Our set menu food was also pretty tasty. It was a very enjoyable lunch, eating with the locals. We saw a lot of workmen come in for their lunch while we were there, it really was just a local pub. Before we left our waitress gave us each a shot glass of ice cold lemonicello from the freezer which was very tasty and refreshing. We were sad to have finished our most enjoyable eating experience in España so far. The food was super tasty, cheap, and our waitress was very nice.

After lunch we continued north, stopped at Punta Brava to check out the lagoon after reading something interesting about it in the Lonely Planet, but it was not that impressive. In the distance we could make out the penninsula crawling with high-rise buildings.

As we were now quite coastal it was quite flat, but the melons and olive groves continued. We eventually came to Santa Pola where we spotted a large number of kite suffers. We parked up and went to the beach, passing one of the biggest piles of salt I have ever seen. We’re sure there is big demand here, given how much preserved meat there is.

The kite surfers were fun to watch for a while.

We found a campground not too far away. The guy in the office was very friendly, we had a bit of a chat to him and then he took us to our site. It was a huge campground with over 400 sites. It must have been at least 10 acres. He drove in a golf-buggy to show us the way. We got a good site and set up camp. We put our watermelon on ice and had a few drinks and snacks while we played some cards before having dinner, which was another van picnic. It was just too hot to eat a proper meal and we had eaten enough at lunch time!

When we were checking in the campground guy had told us of a festival on today and there would be fire works, so just before 11pm we headed for the beach. It was a good 30 minute walk but we found our way okay. From what we could work out it was a festival to do with children, as we saw lots of young girls aged about 8-10 years old dressed up in very fancy white dresses and some traditional dresses with aprons and puffed sleeves. It was a very fun family atmosphere. At 11:30pm the fireworks went off and we had a nice time watching those. After they were done we headed back to the campground and went to bed.

Tuesday 17th

We had a small sleep in before getting up, and getting ready for the day. From the campsite we headed to the beach nearby. It was another beautiful morning. We parked up and spotted a cheap $2 type shop. At previous beaches we had spotted lots of people playing a game like patter tennis with two plastic or wooden paddles and a rubber type ball. We found a set here and when we hit the beach we were into it! It was great fun. The beach was very shallow, which was good for this, but when we tried to go out deeper it was super weedy. We had a lovely time there before the sun really got cranking, as did the crowds. When we arrived there was 2 rows of people on the beach. When we left there must have been 5. People love the beach here! We noticed that there were wooden planks laid to make pathways all the way to the water for people in wheelchairs at many beaches. Today we saw a group of rest-home residents and their carers arrive at the beach, walking frames, wheelchairs and all. They set up the residents in deck chairs with their feet in the water – lovely!

When we had finished at the beach we went to an Aldi supermarket nearby and picked up some food for lunch. Emma and James got sucked in by an attractively presented bottle of olives which was quite expensive… and weren’t spectacular taste-wise. After lunch we had ice blocks from the supermarket then got on the road for the 220km drive to Valencia, our next stop. It was a nice drive, with hilly countryside. As we got closer to Valencia the oranges started, and they did not stop. They just kept on going as far as the eye could see. Interstingly near our campground we noticed the were rice paddies. We had read that Valencia was the home of paella and were looking forward to getting some here.

When we finally checked into our campground we found out that they cooked Paella at the campground restaraunt. We thought about it, then decided to go ahead and order one for 9pm.

Once we set up camp we got some washing on, then headed to the beach for a swim. It was a very popular place but we managed to find a nice place on the beach. Turns out this beach was a nudist beach as well, a pretty common occurence in Spain as we were finding out. Still we had a nice swim in the warm water with our togs on before heading back to the campground.

After getting washing hang up to make use of the nice hot weather we had a few drinks, some snacks and played some cards. James and Julie had bought a bottle of Moet so we decided this was the best opportunity to have it.

At 9pm we headed to the campground restaraunt and had our Paella with some Sangria. Both were delicious, althought the paella was slightly burnt on the bottom. We had a nice evening there before heading back to the van and off to bed.

Wednesday 18th

Today was our day in Valencia so we were up at 7:30am. It took us a while to get organised, and we just missed the 9:15am bus, meaning it was 9:45am before we were on the bus.

We were very impressed with what we saw of Valencia on our bus ride in and were looking forward to the day ahead. We hopped off the bus on a beautiful tree lined street with very well kept, beautifully decorated buildings. We set off on a bit of a walking tour taking in the sites of the city including the Mercado de Colon (indoor market space), Plaza de Toros (bullfighting ring), and just enjoying the streets. It was a beautiful city. There were nice squares with fountains, gardens and tree lined streets. We eventually found our way to the Mercado Central. This was a food market which was fantastic. They had meat, fish, fruit, vege, cheese, and lots of other delicious food. Whole salmon was €6/kg, the cherries and stone fruit looked delicious. We browsed and bought a few snacks with a plan to come back later in the day.

We continued our walking tour around the old town, stopping in at the Catedral where we saw a very random thing - the shrivelled up arm of Saint Vincent. The main attraction of this was the 'Holy Grail', the chalice the Jesus is holding in the last supper. It was very well protected obviously so we did not get a great view.

From here we walked to the river which is no longer a river. They turned it into a nice park, not sure where the water went, but it is not there anymore. We managed to find our way back to the Mercado Central after getting a little lost due to the map we were using, it was missing a lot of street names. We picked up a few more snacks and some fruit. We were going to have lunch there but there really was no lunch food, so we went across the road to a Tapas bar. We sat up at the bar and picked out a few nice looking dishes and enjoyed the lunch, but we were still a little hungry. We decided we had tried the main dishes that we wanted to and paid. Turns out it was €40! Oops. we were a little shocked.

By this time we had pretty much done most of our touristing, but there were a couple more sights to get to. So we set off on a walk, we were all pretty tired by this stage and it was getting hot as it was about 3pm. We walked along the beautiful tree lined street that we came along on the bus this morning. At the end in the 'river' park was a massive Gulliver (lying on his side on the ground) which was a playground, and it was empty. We did not go on it, it was way too hot, but it was cool to see. We had spotted it on some postcards, so wanted to check it out. From here we walked to some of coolest buildings we have ever seen, a group of 5 buildings including the Palau de les Arts (Palace of the Arts), Hemispheric, Science Museum, Aquarium and Agora.

We spent a long time wandering around and looking at these buildings which resemble something from outer space. We really enjoyed looking around at them.

It was about 5pm when the bus came and we headed back to the campground. We were all pretty wrecked by this stage, but wanted a swim, so we ordered a paella from the restaraunt to have later on, then headed to the beach for a swim and a relax. After a couple of hours the sun heat was fading so we headed back. After a delicious paella, much better than the night before, we had watermelon back at the van for dessert before going to bed at 10:30pm.

Thursday 19th

Our initial plan was to leave Valencia this morning, but we had some unfinished business, so we caught the 8:45am bus into the city, getting off outside the science museum. James and I wanted to go to the museum and Julie and Em wanted to go to shopping.

Unfortunately we had arrived too early, it did not open until 10am. We wasted time outside, including talking into a massive arch which carried your voice from one end to the other. It was very cool. Em and Julie had a successful shopping trip. When the museum opened up at 10am we only had an hour and we were told it was not worth going in, so we headed back to the campground.
Em and Julz came back to the campground and then we checked out and parked up the van at the beach carpark. We had lunch, then headed back into town again where James and I did finally go to the Science Museum and Em and Julz went to the America's Cup village. We had a fantastic time in the museum, it was by far the best science museum we had been to, lots of cool things to play on. We were there for about 3 hours before we met up with Em and Julz. They had a nice time at the beach, but the America's Cup village was non-existent, nothing like the viaduct in Auckland. They’d had a swim on the main beach, which had beautiful golden sand.

We were back at the van at 5:00pm and got on the road to head north for about 150km. The drive was amazing, it was literally oranges trees as far as the eye could see for at least the first 100km. Amazing to see so many. Along the way we picked up some groceries for dinner, and then managed to find a campground at Sant Carles de la Rapita, about 200km south of Barcelona. The guy there was very friendly and we got a great spot on the shore line.

We had lovely evening in the van enjoying the tasty food we had picked up and a few drinks while we played cards and just chatted. We had dinner at 10pm and we ended up talking until about 2am. This was going to be our last proper night together, before Barcelona tomorrow.

Friday 20th

The morning sun quickly heated up our tent and it was about 8am when we were up. Em and I went for a swim which was a little tricky because the rocks near the shore line were so slippery, but we managed anyway. After breakfast James and Julie went and used the internet to get a few odd jobs done and we packed up the tent, the last time it would be coming out on this trip. It did a great job, and the air bed was a very good thing to have, it was extremely comfortable.

The campground owner had told us that today was their festival day, similar to the one that was on in Santa Pola, 4 days ago. There were a few events on in town, so we left the campground and drove the short distance into town.

The was a parade on, it was pretty short though, we caught the tail end of it, but could see the start at the same time. There was only a small crowd there. Afterwards our tummies were rumbling, so we got an early lunch. We picked up an ice cream on the way back to Dusty and hit the road, next stop were flamingos, there were supposed to be plenty living nearby.

We managed to find the area okay with James doing some fantastic driving down single lane roads which were servicing traffic in both directions. We did manage to see a few flamingos in the salty marsh areas, but not a massive group of them. Some had parts that were incredibly pink.

We then had a drive of nearly 300km to Barcelona. Along the way we decided to recalculate to include tolls because the day was passing by. This cut off 80km, so it was a good decision. We had a nice trip over, with great scenery. It was very mountinous in areas, and plenty of rice paddies around as well. The sun was baking us all as it was about 35°c.

Em and I had booked a hotel in Barcelona and we were a little worried it was going to be some crazy driving for James. Thankfully it was a smooth run with no major roads and we arrived at just after 5pm, with no 5 o'clock rush evident.

After checking in we were going to check out our room to see if James and Julie could crash in it, but no way! The security was very good, you needed a swipe card to gain access (1 per person) and when we saw the room there was nowhere near enough room, so after we dropped our bags off, we got Dusty parked up in a nice street nearby and checked with the staff at the hotel if it was a safe neighbourhood, which they said it was. They had to pay for parking until 8pm and then no charges until Monday monring which was great.

We walked up a nearby road which was taking us directly towards the Sagrada Familia (“Holy Family” church). We stopped for dinner along the way, paella, and it was better than we were expecting.

We continued on to the Sagrada Familia and surprise suprise, there was a large amount of scaffolding on it. To be fair, I think it has had scaffolding on it for many years (it is still under construction), so Em and I were not too worried. It was massive, huge, collosal. It was an amazing building, but very random, and personally I thought it was ugly.

From here we tubed to the Magic Fountain. James and Julie had shown us a video of this when they were in Barcelona a couple of years ago and we were very much looking forward to seeing it.

We arrived at about 8pm and it was still light, the fountain started, ‘dancing’ to various songs. It was amazing, but when it went dark and they had coloured lights as well, which made it so much more of a spectacle. It was very cool to see, and entertaining to see crowds of people near to the fountain occassionally make a mad dash to avoid getting drenched.

It was about 10:30pm when we got back to the hotel. James and Julie hopped into Dusty and we headed up to our small room. We were exhausted.

Saturday 21st

We had an early enough start and a short 60km drive to Monserrat. It was a nice morning but a little cooler at the base of Montserrat. We were pretty early by the look of the carpark, there was hardly anyone else there. We got our things together and prepared for our last morning of touristing with Team JJ for probably a good while.

We caught the train up the mountain, which was a half hour journey. Unfortunately it was a little cloudy, but we were still welcomed at the top with some amazing views.

Montserrat is a Benedictine abbey, set in jagged mountains an hour from Barcelona, built in the 1400’s.

We spent a couple of hours having a good wander around the area, looking in and around the old buildings and enjoying watching the super steep funicular go up and down. We did a small walk further on which took us to this great rocky outcrop and gave us better views of the countryside but also a great view looking back at the monastery.

At the end of it, about 1:30pm we were relaxing waiting for the train and we spotted these tiny orange dots in multiple places on the rock faces. At first we thought that these were some sort of markers, and then we realised they were rock climbers. Wow, they were up an incredibly long way. The views must have been stunning from up that high.

We caught the train back down and relaxed for the 25 minute journey. When we got down to the bottom we went over the Dusty and said goodbye to James and Julie. It was sad that our trip had come to an end, but we were super excited for them about their coming months of exploration around Europe. We just wished we could join them.

When they left we had a small wait and then caught a train to the next station, where we had to hope off and change onto another train.

We got to the next station okay, and got off. We went to buy our tickets, and was going to use a €50 note, but the machine did not accept it. We let the person behind us go while we counted up all of our money including every coin we had, and we were 50c short! Thankfully the person in front of us kindly gave us 50c and we were on the train just in time. We were so thankful.

Along the way we just relaxed, enjoying the break after our morning of exploring. We were chatting away and thought we were getting closer and closer and were keeping an eye on station names. About 10 minutes later we saw the same name twice and realised we had turned around and were going back in the direction we’d just come from! We got off at the next stop and it was not a big mistake, we got on another train and were back to where we should have been in the first place.

We headed back to the part of Barcelona where we were the previous night, in the area around the Magic Fountain. Our first stop was food and a drink as we were pretty hungry and thirsty. With our bellies topped up we headed for the Olympic village and stadium. It was a good walk, but easy to find. When we arrived the stadium is open to the public so we went inside and walked around. It was so small by today’s standards, but we saw the olympic flame cauldron where the arrow was shot to ignite it. It was really the first Olympics that we both remembered, so we were extra excited to be there. We walked around the Olympic area for a while longer, then we set off for towards Las Ramblas (the main shopping and eating street in Barcelona), which was about 7km away.

We were going to catch the train, but were happy to be walking and along the way we came across a parade, similar to the ones we saw in Santa Pola and also in Sant Carlas de la Rapita. It was loud and lots of fun, so we followed that for a while. Then a bit further along we came across some street markets that had some delicious food stalls which we enjoyed sampling a few small bits and pieces from. We were thrilled to be having an afternoon like this because it really was something we had missed in Spain so far, getting genuine local food and culture.

From here we continued on walking and ended up at the column, at the bottom of La Ramblas, probably the most famous street of Barcelona. This is also one of the most famous pick pocket sites in the world, so we went into full lock down with our bags and pockets. As it was Saturday night we were sure it was going to be packed. It turned out it was busy, but not jam packed, so we felt a little more at ease, although we were still very vigilent. Where we started there were about 5 street performers dressed up in various costumes posing as 'statues' although some moved much more than others. Further along there were plenty of stalls including artists selling paintings as well as artists doing paintings such as portraits or caricatures. They are always entertaining to watch.

What amazed us most is all the eateries in the area were pretty packed, crazy (we always try and avoid eating in the main tourist areas – usually not great food, and usually a rip-off!). We walked up to the top and then decided we would start to wander back towards the hotel. We came across the Arc De Triumf, it seems many cities in Europe have one of these. It looked very cool as it was now after 9pm and dark, and was lit up impressively. We stopped in at a small shop near our hotel to pick up some yoghurt, cereal and juice and then made it back to our room at about 10pm. A long day with many kilometres walked, from the Olympic village it was about 10km back to our hotel! Em did amazingly well with her sore back and it is great she was able to do so much walking and touristing.

Sunday 22nd

After our long day touristing yesterday we were up at 8am. We got ready then tubed to the Picasso museum, stopping in at a nearby cafe for a small breakfast along the way. By the time we got there it was just opening time, and the queue was slow to move, but we made it in in good time and the queue was far longer by this stage which is always nice to see when you’re not in it any more. Em and I both love Picasso so we were very excited to be at this museum. We spent a little bit more than 2 hours here, which is roughly our limit for slow moving experiences (we get museum legs). It was great, it had hundreds of pieces of his work and had little pieces of information about his life. Wow he was prolific, and an amazing artist from such a young age (there were pictures of his from his early teen years, which were brilliant). After doing the main museum we found ourselves walking into another exhabition which was very random and quite boring. We were supposed to have paid for that as well, but nothing got checked. Thankfully it was rubbish so we did not miss out on anything at all. There was also another small exhibition of another abstract artist which was cool, only 5 minutes to look around, but cool to see.

After we were done at the museum we were happy to break out into the freedom of normal paced walking. We were on a hunt for a market, but as it was Sunday it seemed it was closed. We kept on walking and ended up back at the Arc de Triumf. After walking around the park for a while we spotted a potential eatery and we had a fantastic lunch there. It as exactly what we were after. It was probably our best food in Spain, lots of various Tapas dishes, all delicious.

After lunch we wandered around the park again, which is near the Zoo. We thought about going to the zoo but decided against it, instead tubing to Parc Guell (a people’s park, filled with the designs of Antoni Gaudi, a very creative architect). We went a stop or two further and ended up in a random residential area, this was on purpose as there was another park we wanted to check out. It was not any good, so we continued our walk up some very hilly streets and ended up in the back of Parc Guell. We eventually ended up in the right area and found ourselves at an amazing lookout over Barcelona, out to the sea. What was most impressive was the size of the Sagrada Familia, it dominated the skyline, dwarfing every other building in the city.

Parc Guell was packed. We wandered around and looked at the Gaudi houses from the outside. We started to go inside one of them but watched a video and decided not to go any further. Lazy touristing? Maybe, but it did not seem like it was worth putting up with the crowd given our level of excitement at what we saw.

We walked a good distance from Parc Guell to a tube station and tubed back to La Rambla with a plan to pick up a couple of art pieces. We ended up finding a few paintings, and also having caricatures done of us as well. I thought they turned out pretty well. It was weird being the ones that everyone stopped to watch being drawn.

It was about 7pm when we left here and wandered along the marina, looking at the boats, and people watching. We were getting a little hungry and managed to find some dinner, pizza actually, at a funky little place. It was quite enjoyable as they had various toppings on them, you paid per piece. After dinner we picked up an ice cream and then walked back to the hotel.

It was about 9pm by this stage. It had turned into a bigger day than we had expected and yet again we had covered a lot of ground, but it was good to have seen everything we wanted to get to. Tomorrow was a free day now.

Monday 23rd

Since we did not have any 'must dos' we had a small sleep in, ate breakfast, then walked in towards town. Along the way we found a supermarket. We stopped in and picked up a couple of things, not much though as we were leaving in less than 24 hours.

We ended up back in the area of Barcelona that we were in yesterday when we were at the Picasso museum. Em had shopping on her list of things to do in Spain and until now really had not had much of a chance, so that is what we spent the morning doing. It went so well that our final purchase had to be a suitcase. To be fair, Em did not do excessive shopping, it was just easier this way as we had come over with such little gear, having a suitcase to go back would make packing a much easier job for us. We must have shopped until about 1:30pm and then it was time to hunt out lunch. We walked for a good 20 minutes before finding a nice spot in a small square, and we had the set menu. We had a mixture of tasty food here and not so good food, which was a reflection on our food choices during our time in Spain unfortunately. Still we felt like we managed to try a range of foods which was great.

Today did not seem as hot which was a bit of a shame. We walked back to the hotel, got changed, and headed to the beach for a relaxing afternoon. We both went for a short swim, but the water was nowhere near as warm as it had been in Valencia.

We had dinner at a restaraunt nearby to our hotel. Initially we had sat down at another place, and given the menu. It was about 6:45pm. At just after 7pm we got the waiter to come over and he said 'Sorry the kitchen closed at 7pm". We were disgusted, it was crazy. So we went down the road and got a little bite to eat somewhere else.

When we got back to the hotel we packed our bags and had an earlyish night.

Tuesday 24th

Today was home day. Our lovely 17 day trip to Spain, the heat, sunshine, and holiday had come to an end. This was accentuated by landing back in Dublin.

We had a straight forward morning catch the train to the airport and our flight left on time, at 11am and we had a smooth flight back.

We landed at 12:30pm Irish time to a beautifully dull, cloudy, rainy Dublin day. Yep, we were definately back. Still we felt like it did not matter if there were no more sunny days this summer, we got a good dose of it. Thanks very much Spain – Viva España!

Photos: Turning Up The Heat In España

milko_rosie — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 17:40:00 GMT

Chasing the Northern Lights

milko_rosie — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:55:00 GMT

Friday 10th February

We started our holiday with a half day at work. At lunchtime I collected Em and after lunch we caught the bus out to Shannon airport. We flew across to London and arrived at 6:30pm, followed by a tube trip to James and Julie's house in Wimbledon Park. We had a lovely evening there, with a delicious dinner that Julz cooked and just spent the evening catching up and making plans for our four days ahead. James and Julie both had extra leave so decided to have Monday and Tuesday off as well with us, so we could do something extra or go somewhere new. We decided we would take their new campervan, Dusty, to Cambridge. They are heading away for four months in Dusty to Europe, and we are planning to meet up with them in Spain in July and spend 2 weeks with them touring around. They had only been away in Dusty for one night before this, so this was another test run for them and also a test run for the four of us in Dusty.

Saturday 11th

The four of us got away from the house by just after 9:30am. Our plan was to tube to Lords cricket ground to do a tour of the grounds at 11am. Unfortunately there was a problem on the tube line, so we had to catch the bus instead, and then the tube. Eventually we made it nearly to Lords, but it was 11:15am. It was a chilly morning, so we found a cafe and had a coffee in the warmth while we waited for 12 noon to come around for the next tour.

The tour started right on time. I was nervous, I was very keen myself to do it, being a cricketing nut, but neither Em, James, or Julie are big fans, but decided to come, which was nice of them. It was almost 2 hours long, we had a fantastic tour guide, and he really made the tour a great experience. We started in the museum where we saw the real 'Ashes'. They are deemed too delicate to travel now, so they stay there in the museum. From there we headed to 'The Long Room' and then up to the 'Home' dressing room, and then wandered around the ground itself. The field had a layer of snow on it which was slightly disappointing, but at the same time made it more of a unique experience. We went up into the famous media centre, which has a fantastic view of the ground, it must be a brilliant place to watch a match from. We finished off the tour in the indoor nets and checking out the No.2 ground.

By the time we were finished the tour we were all rather ravenous. We had planned to go to Dim Sum (Yum Cha) in China town. We were very hopeful we had not missed it, and when we got to Joy King Lau we were not disappointed. It was quiet enough that we went straight to a table and had a delicious feast of all of our favourite dishes.

After filling ourselves up we went to Fulham to go to a beer shop I had found online with foreign beers. We probably spent half and hour looking at them all and making our choices to sample. On the way back to James and Julie's flat we picked up a few groceries. Back at their house we had a raclette (grilled cheese, meats and vegies) for dinner, which was very tasty, and light enough for us after our late Dim Sum munch.

After dinner we went to the house warming of Kirk, one of the guys who was in Egypt with us.

Sunday 12th

Em and I were up at about 8:30am, and after breakfast we headed into the city. James and Julie had a few things they had to get done, so stayed around home for the day.

It was a cold, cloudy day. When we got into the city we walked up 'The Mall' where we went to the gates of Buckingham Palace. The Union jack was flying, indicating the Queen was not home, so we didn’t pop in for a cuppa. When she is home, the 'Royal Standard' is on the flag pole.

From here we ventured to Westminster Abbey. We thought we would as we had never been there before and since we were so close we would go and check it out. Unfortunately we could not get into it, as it was Sunday it was closed to 'tourists' – we could have gone to the service but didn’t want to be naughty and leave half way through. So we wandered around the outside, and then moved on from there. We had originally planned to meet Madeliene, Raj's sister-in-law, but dates were miscommunicated.

So we walked past Downing St and waved hello to the Prime Minister, and then went to the National Gallery, to get out of the cold, use a toilet, and of course check out some of the art rooms there. Em was particularly interested as they had works from a number of artists that she studied at high school. She could even remember interesting information about these, despite this being many years ago now. Outisde the gallery the fountains in Trafalgar Square had ice in them, proving what we already knew – it was VERY cold.

We went for lunch at a Vietnamese restaraunt which was warmed us up nicely. We still had some time to waste until the start of our musical, so went for a coffee just up the road from the Lyceum Theatre. The show started at 2:30pm, so soon before this we walked to the theatre. We had to take a round-about route due to some filming happening on one of the streets. We went to see The Lion King, which we were both very excited about. It did not disappoint, and we thoroughly enjoyed the show, especially the costumes. They were amazing. I did feel that there was one or two too many songs in there, but still it was brilliant.

After the show we met up James and Julie to go out to dinner with them to 'Maze' - a Gordon Ramsay restaraunt. We all chose the taster menu, where there was a list of 12 dishes (4 entree, 4 mains, and 4 desserts) and you could choose any four that you wanted. We all ended up choosing one entree, two mains and a dessert. Serving sizes on their own were small, but altogether it was a nice sized meal. My stand out dish was a fish and clams which was delicious. Em had an unsual dish, butternut soup which had a serving of smoked beef in the middle. The beef was intensely smokey and very tender. After topping ourselves up with this delicious dinner we caught the tube back to their house where we had an early night.

Monday 13th

We were up early and on the road with James and Julie in their camper, Dusty, by 9am heading to Cambridge. After successfully avoiding the 'low emission zone' in central london and going over Tower Bridge we made our way out of north east London, seeing a large number of Olympic 2012 venues along the way.
We made good time and were in Cambridge by 11am. Em and Julz booked us into a walking tour at 1pm. We had to park out of central Cambridge and walk in. After a very tasty lunch, we got on the walking tour. It was another cold day, so we were hoping we would get inside into places. Unfortunately as te tour started, so did the rain. However it was not too bad, and largely held off for us.

Our tour guide was good, taking us to a number of different attractions around Cambridge, including Kings College and also the Cavendish laboratory where Watson and Krick decoded DNA, Rutherford split the atom, and at one time or another had the works of 26 other nobel prize winning scientists completed in it.

After the walking tour we wandered back to the van, and headed out of Cambridge to a campsite in Ely.

We parked up in the snow at about 5pm. It was not really camping weather. However we had bought James and Julie's bar heater which did a great job of heating up the van. We had a good fun evening in the van having some tasty snacks, playing cards and sampling the beers we had bought on Saturday. Team JJ made tasty kofta for dinner, which we had with pita pockets, salad, and yoghurt. It was a very fancy van dinner.

After cleaning up we just relaxed until about 10pm when we set up the beds and went to sleep.

James and Julie seem to be doing very well. Their van skills are much better than ours, and everything seems to go quite smoothly which is great.

Tuesday 14th

It was a rough nights sleep. We had the heater on timer during the night, but at 1:00am Em and I both woke up stifling hot. It felt like we couldn’t breathe. So we turned off the heater and opened up the small windows, which really helped. Anyway we managed to sleep on and off through the rest of the night.

We were up at 8:30am, it was a cool, breezy morning. After packing up the beds, we had breakfast and then got everything together. We ended up not having showers as it was too cold.

We drove into Ely village and had a small look around. It was nothing special, but there was a massive catherdral it. We went to it, but it was £7 each to enter! So we quickly exited there. After a short time we felt we had seen enough, went back to the van, and drove back to London. We had a good trip back, getting there at 3pm. After getting unpacked, we had showers and some lunch and just chilled out for the afternoon. At about 6pm we said our goodbyes and caught the tube to Madeleine's house, Raj's sister-in-law.

Madeleine lives with her uncle in his lovely big home. She had made a fantastic dinner for us, mexican style. After that, and with little room to spare, we managed to squeeze in a chilli chocolate self-saucing pudding which we all had seconds of. It was lovely to see Madeleine and spend the evening with her.

Wednesday 15th

We had an early start, up at 5am, and leaving the house at just before 6am. Unfortunately about 1 minute after hopping on the tube, we stopped. 25 minutes later we managed to get into the next station, one stop up the line. There had been a signal failure! So we changed trains and took an alternative route to Victoria. We had made reasonable time, but still wanted to catch the express. Unfortunately we were waiting in line for tickets, and just like in the movies, the man in front of us had problems using his card to pay. More than 5 minutes later they managed to pay, and then we got our tickets, got through the barrier, only to watch the train pulling away. The frustration of it!

By the time we got to the airport, we felt a little more relaxed. We went straight through security, and it all went smoothly. They had revamped the airport and it was much nicer than last time we went through. It was also really fast. When we got through we picked up some food before heading to the plane.

Our plane left on time, at 0910, to fly to Oslo. Flying over the land near Oslo the sky cleared and it we were greeted with snowy peaked landscape as far as the eye could see. We saw frozen lakes, and frozen rivers. It was great to see. We had a couple of hours at the airport before catching the transfer flight onto Bergen. We arrived in Bergen at 3pm.

We caught the bus into town, then walked about 1km to the ferry. Bergen seemed like a very nice city, built on hills. The houses all seem to be made of wood, and all painted bright colours. It added some nice colour to the snowy landscape. It was 6°c, much warmer than we’d been expecting. It had been much colder there a couple of weeks before, so we were glad it had warmed up.

After checking in our our lovely boat, the Hurtigruten Polarlys, we sat around in the lounge. At 6pm we were allowed into our rooms, so we went and unpacked and relaxed until dinner. It was fantastic! It was a buffet meal, and I had a goal to try all of the foods that I wanted. Em and I both had a fantastic meal. In the dinner there was smoked salmon, baked salmon, smoked tuna, dog fish, reindeer, cured meats, pork, ham steaks, caviar, cured meats, salads, and breads. Then there was cheese and crackers as well as sweets for dessets, which included ice cream, custard, peanut chocolate caramel dessert, fruit salad, fresh fruit, and coffee mousse. It was a long dinner, we were there for almost 2 hours, but we had some very tasty food, the stand out being baked salmon.

After such a massive meal, we felt like we needed a small walk so we left the boat and went on the hunt for a supermarket to buy a few supplies to have in our room for snacks. We were not long walking and found a small supermarket, so went on in and bought some nuts, fruit, and juice and wandered back to the boat, feeling all the better for having the small walk to help our full tummies settle.

Back on the boat we settled into our room to read our books. At 9:30pm there was a talk for everyone aboard the boat, mainly safety things discussed so nothing exciting there. Once that was done we went back to our rooms. We left port in Bergen at 10pm to start our journey, and we were bed and asleep soon after this.

Thursday 16th

After a long day yesterday we enjoyed a sleep in until 9am which was great. We got up and went to breakfast as we sure did not want to miss that. We were greeted by a large range of foods, including yoghurts, cereal, toast, jams, omlette, boiled eggs, fish, pickles, salads, and cured meats. We stuck with the more traditional foods and had a large breakfast.

After breakfast we went back to our room and had showers and got ready for the day ahead.
We docked at Alesund at 12 midday, our first real stop where we could hop off the boat. We had 3 hours ashore. The weather was changable while we were there but we had a good wander around.
Alesund, like most of our stops, is a fishing village, of about 43,000 people.
There seemed to be quite a few art galleries in the town for some reason, and we enjoyed looking around them, but nothing really caught our eye, well nothing in our price range anyway. One nice shop was actually a souvenir shop, where we saw traditional dress which was nice.

Em had managed to already get close to finishing off her book she had bought to read on the trip, so when we saw a second hand shop we thought we would try our luck, and surely enough we managed to find some English books which was good.

We were back on the boat by about 2:30pm and we left at 3pm. Alesund was a lovely little town really, the parts we saw. Nice colourful buildings and a scenic fishing village.

We spent the afternoon playing cards near a window, watching the scenery. It was quite steep hills hugging the coast line, with a dusting of snow capping the hills. We were sure the scenery was going to get better, but thought we should watch it when we got the chance.

At 6:15pm we went to dinner, and met our dinner friends. We were seated at a particular table and dined at the same table for the whole time we were on the boat. We had 2 English couples, and they were both very nice. On couple was probably in their 70s, the other was probably around our parents age, or slightly younger (so pretty old :-).
The dinner was a little disappointing after the sensational buffet last night, but still enjoyable. After dinner the sea was starting to get rough, and Em started to get sea sick so we went back to our room where we stayed for the evening reading our books.

Friday 17th

We were up earlier today, 7:30am. We had docked into Trondheim at 6am and were there until midday, so tried to get the balance between sleep and leaving ourselves enough time to explore the town. After filling up at breakfast, (including taking a boiled egg back to our room for a snack later on), we left the boat just after 9am. It was snowy around the town, and about 2°c. We just enjoyed walking around the town, exploring the streets in the snow. In parts it was quite slushy, but there were piles of snow everywhere. We walked to the cathedral, and then after spending time looking there went to the mall where we had a look in a few shops. It had been snowing, and while we were inside the mall it got really really heavy. This eased off, and after getting a coffee, which was about $6NZ from a place like Star Mart. It did not take long to drink as it became cold pretty quickly when we got outside. Our on way back to the boat we passed a bar where there was a live brass band playing in the doorway and they were brilliant, so we stood and watched them for a while, in the light snow. We decided it was time to get back to the boat, and made it with 10 minutes to spare, we were 3rd to last to get back onboard the boat.

I went up on deck to watch us leave port, the snow had stopped so I had a nice view of the town. We were sailing in and around land really for the afternoon, reaching open ocean at about 5:30pm. We read our books in the afternoon, but noticed the scenary starting to get much whiter.

Unfortunately reaching open ocean meant dinner was rough and unenjoyable. Em did not actually make it as she was feeling too sea sick. I went, but only lasted for the entree before I too decided lying down would be better. The menu was not encouraging either, so we had quite a foodless evening. It was not looking good, our third day aboard the boat and getting quite sea sick, still 3 whole days to go. Still we were hopeful it would flatten out. So we spent the evening relaxing and reading our books. It definately was a different pace to our usual exploring holidays, but we were enjoying the down time.

Saturday 18th

We were awake at 7am, and went out on deck as we crossed Arctic circle at 7:17:32. We know this time exacly because there was a competition onboard to see who would guess closest. After watching the globe go by that marks the Arctic circle, we had showers and then went for breakfast. We had a nice view at breakfast, with high cloud, so got to admire the scenery. After reading for part of the morning, we went up on deck at 10:30am as there was an 'Arctic circle baptism' ceremony, but we were not impressed and went back to our room to read our books instead. They were pouring ice cold water down your back, not something that either of us were keen to do, even more so because we had a very limited range of clothes.

At 12:30pm we docked at Bodo, a small town of 40,000. There was lots of snow, more than we had ever seen in a town. It was amazing to see that life still seemed to go on as normal really. We did notice, and had noticed this earlier, that the car tyres and special little metal bits in them to help with the grip obviously in the ice and snow on the roads. We did not see much in the parts of town we wandered around, but came across a small park where the thick snow was untouched. We could not resist and went for a stomp around in it, I decided to make a snow ball. It was amazingly easy, it really was a 'snowball effect' once I started. The snow was perfect for it. We had a lot of fun with that. I attempted to make it into a snowman, but my second ball collapsed when I picked it up. The best thing was the snow did not melt, the air temperature was too cold, so we did not get wet at all.

After having this fun, we were a little peckish. We were looking for a small place to eat a snack, and checked out a few shops. Randomly we came across a sausage sizzle, outside, in the snow! So we decided this would be our snack, we lined up and we were wondering how much it would cost. When we got to the front of the queue, and as Em had suspected, they were free. It was the 10th birthday of a local media company, and they were doing this as well as giving away cake. So we stood in the snow, 1°c, and enjoyed our sausage, ketchup, fried onions and mustard in a bun. It was delicious.

After looking through a few more shops and admiring some Northern Lights postcards we headed back to the boat, which left at 3pm.

We spent the afternoon reading, and writing a couple of postcards. Unfortunately we had an open water crossing until 7pm. I went to dinner alone at 6:20pm and we had our entrees. When the mains started to be served I text Em in the room, and she came for that and dessert. By this time we had actually docked, so we enjoyed having some calm. After dinner we had a cup of tea with our table then went back to our room. Our next stop was Svolvaer at 9pm. It was only a short stop, but there was an ice sculpture place here, so we went there and enjoyed having a look around this. It was super cold inside there, and when we came out it almost felt warm outside, but not quite. We played cards at 11pm, then we went up on deck. The boat had stopped at the entrance of the Trollfjord and they turned on the massive boat spot lights and lite up the mountains around. It was really impressive. Unfortunately there was still no Northern Lights spotted, much too cloudy to see that.

Sunday 19^th – Excursion day!

We woke and went to breakfast at 8am. Unfortunately it was very cloudy and had been snowing, so visibility was pretty poor. It was nice though as there was little to no wind, so the snow was just floating down.

At 11:15am we docked at Finnsnes, and like the last village we hopped off at, there was more snow here than we had ever seen in a town. We did not get a chance to look around, we were straight onto a bus for a 90 minute trip north east. It was crazy, it did not stop snowing the whole journey, the roads were white with snow, but it seemed pretty amazing that the driver seemed to be driving at normal speed, with little caution, it was just another day. Along the way we had lovely white countryside, and passed over a number of rivers that were frozen solid. We saw foot prints on them and even one place that was used by vehicles to drive across.This river was about the size of the Waikato river, so they must have had a cold winter!

When we arrived we were taken to a room and given snow suits and boots to get changed into. There were 20 of us in our group, so we were broken in the 2 groups. Our group went reindeer sledding first. It was almost magical, we were in a snow filled valley, surrounded by high mountains. Snow was floating down, but there was no wind. It was 0°c, but so comfortable, probably because of the good gear they gave us.

The reindeer sledding was fun. There were two of us on a sled, so Em and I had one to ourselves. It was not exciting, we were led along by the Sami guy who owned the reindeer, and it was a slow paced, calm ride, which was only about 10 minutes long. Still we were happy we did it first, and were excited about the husky sledding next.

The dog sledding started about a half hour after we had finished. We were in pairs again and got a husky sled per pair. Each sled had 5 huskies, two at the front, one in the middle and two at the back. After being shown how to control the sled we were away. All up we were away for almost 1 hour, with a half hour each driving the sled. It was great fun driving. There was a big metal bar at the back of the sled which you had to jump on when going down hill to make sure you did not catch up with the huskies, not that we would have done this. Uphill we had to help a little, pushing the sled up the hill a small amount. It was great fun, we both loved it. It was especially good that we were able to drive it ourselves. The huskies were beautiful dogs. They were too hot as it was 0 degrees – they kept eating snow while they were running, and rolling in the snow when we stopped to cool themselves down.

After finishing the sledding we were taken down the road a small distance to a large sami style hut like a teepee, where we had delicious reindeer stew, coffee, and a sweet (which was made of tortilla style bread, sweet cheese, sugar, and cinnamon). The reindeer was similar to lamb, rather than New Zealand venison.

After the feast, we went back and changed back into our own gear, and were back on a bus, 90 minutes to Tromso. We got back at just after 6pm and the boat left port at 6:30pm. We were disappointed to not have had a chance to explore Tromso, which is nicknamed the Paris of the north, but would not have wanted to miss the sledding as it was brilliant.

We went straight to dinner and thankfully the sea was flat, so we both had a tasty three course dinner. After dinner we had tea and coffee with the older couple from our table, then went to our room and read. Unfortunately it was another cloudy day, so again no chance to see the lights. We went to sleep at about 11pm, starting to wonder if we were never going to catch the Aurora Borealis.

Monday 20th

Our last full day on board Hurtigruten Polarlys. We were up at 8:30am and had showers and breakfast. We relaxed in our room after breakfast, reading, but noticed the cloud starting to clear a small amount.

At 11:45am we docked at Honningsvag, and we were there until 3:15pm. It was just a small town of about 3000 people, but somehow got the title of being a city, and is arguably the northern-most city in the world. It was a beautiful little village on a hillside, with colourful houses breaking up the white slopes.

We walked around for about 2 hours, it was cold, but really nice. We stopped in at a cafe and had a hot chocolate, to get something warm, have a break from the walking and cold, and to also use the bathroom. There were not really any shops to browse, so we just wandered the streets, passing schools and churches. We re-boarded the boat at about 2:30pm. By this time the sky had cleared and there was hardly any cloud around. It was the clearest we had seen the sky in Norway and were very hopeful it would stay like that.

Once back onboard we went up on deck to take some photos. One of the Norwegian chefs from the boat was up there, so we had a good chat with him. He was very interesting to chat to.

At about 3pm the sun set, but there was a long twilight, with it not really getting dark until about 4:30pm. We read and played card in the afternoon, then went out on deck at about 5pm to have a look around. It was getting quite dark, and the sky looked clear, so we were hopeful we might actually get to see the Northern Lights. At 5:20pm an announcement came across to say they had been spotted! There was great excitement, we pulled on warm gear and went outside. We watched them until about 6pm when they faded away. It was brilliant. We were so happy to have seen them. They were not spectucular compared to photos we had seen, but were thrilled to have seen them and they were magical. The best displays are usually between 10pm and 2am so we were defintately not expecting to see them so early in the evening.

With all the excitement of that, we headed to dinner which was another lavish buffet dinner. It was fantastic, an ‘arctic seafood buffet’, which included prawns, fresh water crayfish, russian crab, Norwegian giant crab, salmon, trout, reindeer stew and salads, as well as ice cream and other desserts. The giant crabs were massive! Em was not feeling the best and only had a small dinner, so I did my best to eat her share. Three plate-fuls later I was definately done. It was delicious. I did manage to squeeze in some dessert though.

After dinner I got changed into warm gear and went outside to check if there were lights again, and it was pretty quiet on one side. I went to the other side of the boat and noticed the lights coming back and getting brighter quite quickly, so I rushed back in an grabbed Em. By the time we got outside they were in full force and dancing in slow waves in the sky. It was stunning. They only last for a few minutes before they seemed to vanish again, it was crazy.

This went on for the evening really, going in and out. It was pretty chilly outside, being so far North, especially with the strong wind, so we would only spend about 20 minutes outside and then have to head back in. By about 10:30pm we had seen three or four good shows. I went out for one last check. They were there, but quite pale and just in strips across the sky. We decided that we had seen a good show, and it was close to midnight, so we decided to finish our northern light spotting there. We were very lucky to manage to get to see them on our final night, especially given the cloudy skies that had dominated our trip. What a great evening; seafood and northern lights.

Tuesday 21st

Time to head home... We had an early enough morning, getting up and trying to squeeze our things back into the suitcases. We did pretty well. After showers we went to breakfast. We had to be out of our rooms by 8am as they had to get them cleaned for the next passenger pick up. We docked to Kirkiness at 9:30am. Kirkiness is right at the top of Norway and less than 10km to the Russian border. It was cold and windy, actually only -7°c, but three weeks previously it had been -30°c, so we were lucky! We disembarked from the boat and got onto a bus to the airport. There was a huge amount of snow, amazing to see how much really.

At the airport we were supposed to fly out at about midday, but were delayed by about 1 hour. Walking to the plane, we walked across ice to the plane. It was amazing that they could operate in such conditions, and these were probably good conditions on the winters day for them.

We flew to Tromso and then onto Oslo, before continuing onto Dublin. It was a long day with stop overs and changes and we did not get home to Limerick until after midnight. On our drive down from Dublin we were greeted with temperatures of 12 to 13°c. A big difference!

We were happy to be home, and happy to call our trip a success, we had great snow experiences, loved husky and reindeer sledding and were so happy to have managed to have one night with the lights! They were magical!

Photos: Chasing the Northern Lights

milko_rosie — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:50:00 GMT

Walk Like an Egyptian

milko_rosie — Sun, 1 Jan 2012 21:00:00 GMT

Friday 16th of December

We landed in Cairo at midnight and it was 18°c – very pleasant and a promising start for some warm weather! After arrival at the airport we were met by a representative from our tour company who helped us complete the neccessary forms and proceed through customs (a very haph-hazard affiar) and out to a waiting driver to transport us to our hotel.

We got a little lost in the carpark with the man who was taking us to our car, but eventually he found the car. It was a 20 minute journey into the city to our hotel, and it was crazy, but thankfully there was not too much traffic around. No set belts in the car, and he was going between 80 - 100kph in a 60kph area! There was a lot of light-flashing and horn-honking. Thankfully me made it safely to the hotel. After sorting out a disagreement about the price of our room we eventually made it up to our room in a very old fashioned, confidence-sapping lift. It was on the outside of the building, and there were doors on the inside of the lift that you were supposed to close. The porter did not, so we got so see everything in between the 1st floor and 16th flashing past the gaping door of the lift. We got to bed at about 2am, using our own sleeping bags on top of us as blankets because there were no blankets in our room.

Saturday 17th

We woke up at 8:30am and went upstairs to have breakfast, which was a couple of bread rolls, soft cheese, jam, and an omelette. A little small, but it nevertheless satisfied our needs. After having showers, we were relaxing in our room when James came to see us. James, Julie (our two New Zealand friends from London), James's brother David, Kirk and Eli (Kirk is a New Zealand friend of James and Julie's who also lives in London, and Eli is his girlfriend who is originally from Bulgaria) had all flown into Cairo, arriving at 5am. Soon after James arrived, Julz came in, so we started having a catch up with them. We gave them a small Christmas present each, T-Shirts (that we’d had screen-printed with a picture of Sven the van in front of the pyramids), and then David arrived, so we gave him his T-shirt as well. It was getting close to midday and we were getting hungry and thirsty. We had decided to follow the advice of not drinking tap water in Egypt, so we went out on our first mission to get bottled water. Only one minute into our journey we were successful, but also got talked into a papyrus painting shop, and received the full sales pitch there. We were there for about 20 minutes before leaving. We made it to a small food place called 'Taza' selling kebabs, which was a couple of hundred metres down the road from our hotel. We were sorted for lunch! I had a chicken shish and the others had a doner kebab. They were delicious. They ranged from 10 - 15E£ (Egyptian Pounds) (which is $2-3NZ). We noticed cats were everywhere, and most of them seemed to be Tom cats, so the street really did not smell too pleasant. The cars driving past were mostly much older, and often diesel, with plumes of black diesel coming out of the exhaust. This prompted us to check the petrol price, and it was 1.20-1.50E£ (around 20 or 30 NZ cents) for a litre!

Em got talking to an older man on the street about the protests amongst other things. Em and I went with him to his shop, while James, Julie, and David went to get money and go exploring further afield. The man we were with was very nice, he told us about the protests and the area of Cairo we were in. His shop was also a Papyrus shop. After looking and receiving another (much nicer and gentler) sales pitch, we did by a small one, with 'The Tree of Life' on it. We liked them, but did not want a 'very Egyptian' one for our own home at the same time, so this was a nice compromise we felt.

We came back to the hotel and met the others. James was waiting to hear from his cousin Aaron, who is with the New Zealand Air Aorce and is posted in Egypt on a 6 month tour. Em and I wanted a fresh fruit juice, and Julz and Eli also came along. We tried all sorts between us, each of us having two! One glass was just 5 Egyptian pounds. We tried Mango, Strawberry, Orange, Pomegranate, and a few mixed versions as well, which were all delicious, but a little sweet. When we got back James, David, Kirk, and Aaron were on the roof at the bar having a beer. It was a nice view over a small part of Cairo, looking down the river Nile, although the view was somewhat obscured by a thick smog. At about 4pm we all went out to go for a walk, finding a small park on the banks of the Nile. We were opposite Tahrir square and the noise we could hear (we were probably 600 - 800m away) was amazing. We had heard that 10 people had been killed there that day so were well aware of the dangers of getting too close. After staying there for a while we went back to the hotel. We were a little peckish so went back to our Taza kebab shop, and they seemed to taste even better this time around. Taza sure seemed popular, and was doing a roaring trade with locals.

We had a tour meeting at our hotel at 6pm, where we met our tour guide, Wael (pronounced Wah-ell), and the rest of our tour group. There were 18 in total, but 7 of those were only doing a 9 day tour. There were Americans, South Africans, Australians, and Canadians, so a pretty good mix.

After the (fairly uninspiring) meeting was over, we went for a walk to try and find some dinner. We found a great street where we got into pita pockets stuffed with falafel or fried eggplant, for only 1E£ each (20 NZ cents)! Sooo tasty. Further down the road were some local markets full of fruit and vege stalls, chicken shops with live chickens for sale, and live rabbits for sale which were up high on boxes eating the heads out of a couple of cauliflowers. It was a great experience and something we really enjoyed.

Back at the hotel, we relaxed for a while before going to bed at about 10:30pm. Our first day in Egypt was quiet enough but nevertheless quite enjoyable.

Sunday 18th

Today was our first day on the tour as such, given yesterday was a free day, so we were interested and hopeful that our tour group would be on time, which they were. It was us that were probably a little late!

We woke and met for breakfast at 8am. James told us that Julz had been sick all night long unfortunately. Poor thing to get struck down by Nile Belly (also know as the Cairo two step or mummy-tummy). She was feeling better by 9am, so decided to come with us as today was Pyramid Day! Our first stop was Sakkara, to see the step pyramid. The drive was 40 minutes, and this in itself was an eye opener. There were water canals everywhere, used to irrigate crops, but the banks of the canals were lined with heaps of rubbish, some piles on fire. Where there was a small dam, the surface of the water would be covered in plastic bottles and rubbish for at least 50m upstream. We saw one lady empty the house toilet bucket into the water, and we also saw a couple of dead horses on the banks, half in the water. Then just a little further along, we saw a small boat fishing with a net. It was sad to see, but also made us realise how important it is that New Zealand continues to try to become more and more environmentally friendly. Egypt certainly has a long, long way to go in terms of poverty and waste management.

The step pyramid was built around 2600BC by Imhotep. It stands at 62m high, with a base of 110m x 125m. It is the only pyramid that was built with a rectangular base, and one oldest still in existence. Under the pyramid is 6km of tunnels, which connect to a shaft which is 28m deep. In the store rooms there were more than 40,000 vases found!

It was a nice way to start our tour. We were suprised at how quiet the site was but were sure it was going to get busier.

Our next stop was an essential oil shop. This is one of the standard tourist stops in Egypt, along with a Papyrus shop, and usually an alabaster shop. At the oil shop we were given lunch, which was Koshari. It is an Egyptian pasta dish, covered with cooked onion, tomatoes, chili, brown lentils and cumin, and it was very tasty. The elderly man who owned the shop was quite entertaining. Our group were very quiet, but he managed to crack us and ended up making a few sales. He was impressive, you would ask him if they had a fragrance, and he would go to a bottle and get the oil, and surely enough that was the fragrance you wanted. Em and I bought a bottle each, as did James and Julie.

From here is was pyramid time. When we arrived we were blown away by them. We had heard some people were underwhelmed by their size, but we thought they were fantastic. We went to the great pyramid first (also known as the Pyramid of Khufu), which was originally 145m high, but is now 138m high as its top point fell off when the rest of the casing stones were removed. It's base is 230m square, and it is made of approximately 2.3 million blocks. The largest stones weigh between 25 - 80 tonnes, and are from Aswan, which is 800km south! This pyramid was the tallest man-made structure on the planet for nearly 4000 years, surpased by a church spire in the 1300s. It was built over around 20 years and was completed around 2500BC. After enjoying looking at it from close up we went to a photo spot where we could see the 3 large pyramids. Unfortunately we were a little rushed here, but enjoyed seeing them. We stopped at the base of the other two pyramids as well on our way to the Sphinx. We really liked the Pyramid of Khafre, the second largest pyramid in the area, which still has it's tip in place.It is 136m high and had a square base of 215m.

We then made the short journey to see the Sphinx. Again some people we had talked to before the trip were disappointed with it, we were not, we were impressed by the size and enjoyed seeing it up close. This was busier than the pyramids, with more salespeople as well, but we still enjoyed the visit. We were there until closing at around 4:15pm, and we went back to our hotel. We were not long back when we decided to go back to Taza for dinner, I had two chicken kebabs and Em had one. We also had a pita pocket each with felafels which was very tasty. It was a repeat of yesterday really, but still very much enjoyed.

We went back to the hotel and had showers and relaxed. We were not staying at the hotel, instead we left at about 9:30pm to go to the train station. We caught the 10pm train south to Aswan, a 13 hour overnight train journey. We were a little sceptical about what to expect from ‘first class’ train carriages, but were pleasantly suprised. It was roomy and the chairs were quite comfortable. They seemed similar to those in business class on a plane (not that we have ever sat in one of those before). It was quite a long journey, we both managed to get to sleep at about midnight. Em seemed to sleep on quite well, I had a broken sleep. I woke up at 4:00am and it was freezing cold. So we got one of our sleeping bags out as more clothes did not help. With a sleeping bag over us we were much more comfortable. Sunrise was at about 5:30am, and we were really in the desert for it so it was quite spectacular. We slept until about 8am, and still had 3 hours to go when we awoke. It had gone pretty well, but during the night the tea/coffee guys would walk through the carriage asking if we wanted tea or coffee and the train horn seemed to beep incessantly, there seemed to be three different pitched horns for some reason. It was more annoying when we were awake.

Being on the train we did get to see some very remote looking villages, that looked like they had not changed for 100 years, with mudbrick houses, and more donkeys and carts than cars. It was cool to see. The toilet on the train emptyied straight onto the tracks and was absolultely disgusting, no other way to sum it up really.

Monday 19th

We arrived into Aswan at 11:15am and it was noticeably warmer. We were lead through the train station by Wael and out to the front. Here our tour group split up into two groups; our group of 9 which were the people who were going sailing on the Nile on the Felucca, while the remaining 9 went to their cruise boat to go down the Nile on that. Wael went with them, while we had another tour leader, Remon, with us. We were taken to our hotel in Aswan. The nine of us were James, Julie, David, Kirk, Eli, Emma and I as well as two Canadian girls, Laura and Ainsley.

After checking into the hotel we all had showers, very much welcomed after the 13 hour train journey. The hotel sat above the river on a fairly high cliff, giving some great views of the water, the green belt, and out to the golden sand of the desert. We went and sat by the pool and ordered some lunch. It really was quite tranquil, sitting by the pool, which overlooked a much cleaner looking Nile river. It was a sunny day, and about 25°c. It was the hottest we had felt in more than half a year, fantastic. We had tasty charcoal grilled chicken pita pockets for lunch, before we got picked up by the rest of our tour group for an afternoon of touristing. Julz was not feeling so well, so decided to stay at the hotel and rest, it was not an essential afternoon.

Our first stop was at the 'Unfinished Obelisk'. We did not actually got in, it is part of an obelisk which had started to be quarried, but broke, so they did not use it. Not all that exciting.

From here we went to the High Dam, this was much more impressive. On the drive to it, we crossed the 'Low Dam', which was built in the early 1900s. At either end were check points, armed soldiers, and there were manned tanks every 200-300m (only about 5 in total), but it is something we are not used to seeing. There were similar security measures at the 'High Dam'. This was built during the 1960s, creating Lake Nasser. Before this the Nile would flood yearly in the rainy season, which was good as it brought nutrients to the flood plains, but if the floods were very big crops were wiped out and widespread devastation occurred. The dam is almost 4km wide, 1km thick at the base, and 40m at the top. It contains 43 million cubic metres of material. It is a hydro-electric dam, and at maximum capacity 11000 cubic metres of water can pass through it per second. When it was first built this generated 40% of Egypts electricty demands, now it is only 8%! Lake Nasser is 550km long, stretching well into Sudan, and holds 111 cubic kilometres of water, ensuring a water supply for Egypt. It had not rained in Aswan for a good few years, so a large water supply for Aswan and Egypt is very important. The numbers of the dam are just so impressive, it was great to see.

From here we went to the Temple of Philae. We had to catch a small boat out to it, as it sits on an island between to 'Low' and 'High' Dams. It had to be relocated to it's current location otherwise it would now be under water due to the construction of the Low Dam. The Temple of Philae was a temple where Isis was worshipped. The initial parts of the temple were built in the 4th centuary BC, and it was added to for 300 years. It had a very Roman feel to it with pillars throughout various parts of it. The size of the temple impressive, and all parts of the walls had stories carved with the use of pictures and heiroglyphics.
We left the temple at about 5pm, had our 5 minute boat journey back to the mainland, and were then whisked away to a Papyrus ‘factory’ by our tour guide. This was the third time we had heard to spiel in 4 days, so after the standard talk we went and sat on the bus, however other people in our tour group were interested in buying (very high prices here though!), so we were there for at least another half an hour.

We got dropped off in town, and we went to dinner with Remon, one of our guides. We were recommended a restaraunt and it was very tasty. It was our first 'sit down' meal, and we were in for a treat. We ordered our mains, which came with lentil soup, plates of salad, small sides like baba gounosh (eggplant dip), and bread, amongst other things.

After enjoying our dinner we went to a shop to get some supplies to take on board the felucca with us, the essentials like toilet paper and water.

From here we all caught taxis home, all of us split between three. It was crazy, the taxis were 1970s cars, and our one was in amazing condition, with a luxurious sheepskin on the dashboard. After calling to an ATM on the way to the hotel, we got to the hotel and found out the fare was 10E£ (About $2NZ). Crazy cheap.

When we got back to the hotel we went and chatted with James and Julie (who was feeling a bit better after a rest) for a short time before going to bed. We had a very early start ahead so were keen to get to bed.

Tuesday 20th

We were up at 3:30am and had a quick shower. We were down in the hotel foyer at 4am, and picked up our breakfast boxes from the hotel reception. Our bus arrived with some others on our tour group and the six of us hopped on; James, David, Kirk, Eli, Em and I. We went into the centre of Aswan where we met up with a number of other tour buses. Wael told us that it is standard practise that tour groups travel in conveys in this part of the country, we had heard this before we came to Egypt, but this was our first experience. The convoy was not really a convoy, it was a competition to see who would get there first, as no one stuck together, all the buses just all sped off.

We had a 3 hour journey south. We saw the sunrise at about 5:45am in the middle of the desert which was very impressive – a huge pinky-orange orb. We arrived to Abu Simbel, on the shores of Lake Nasser, at about 7:30am. Here we were only about 25km from the Sudan border – nearly at the bottom of Egypt.

Abu Simbel is two temples carved into the side of a cliff under the reign of Ramesses II in the 13th century BC, as a lasting monument to himself and his wife, Queen Nefetari. However the location we visited is not it's original, it was relocated in 1968 due to the construction of the High Dam in Aswan, making Lake Nasser, which would have put it underwater.

We were there until almost 10am, first being told about the history of it, and then looking through both temples. Seeing them was amazing, they were so detailed and just so massive. Then we thought about how they had been relocated, it just made them even more impressive.

While we were there we also saw a large bird migration, thousands of birds flying along the lake, heading south toward Africa. We were not sure what type of bird they were, but it was very cool to see. Unfortunately we were not lucky enough to see a Nile Crocodile. Our guide Wael had been a tour guide on the lake and only seen one in the years that he was working on it, so we were not so disappointed. Apparently all the crocodiles are now contained south of the High Dam.

At 10am we started the 285km journey back to Aswan. We got back to the hotel just after 1pm. We had showers, and packed our bags again and were picked up at 2:15pm and taken to our Felucca (the boat we were going sailing on along the Nile). Julz was feeling much more rested and happy to hop aboard the Felucca, everyone was in good health, which was great as there was no toilet for the next two days, just the river bank.

There were nine of us aboard the Felucca, the 7 of us, plus the two Canadian girls, Laura and Ainsley, as well as our tour guide, Remon. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, with not much wind about. After loading our bags on board, we met our crew, Captain Habi, Felix (the chef, as well as deck hand), and Mohammed, another assistant.

Our bags went below deck, while the 10 of us relaxed on deck. The deck, which was about 3.5m by 8m was covered in soft mattress and very comfortable. We had a canvas roof above us which could be removed if required. We had a lovely couple of hours sailing north, making a massive 10km! There was no motor, and the sails were handmade, needing to be replaced about every 1-2 years. Soon after we were on board we were treated to a lovely lunch which was pita, felafal, feta, cucumber, and bananas. It was about 5:30pm and getting pretty dark when we pulled into shore for the night. The crew put up the canvas sides, so we were enclosed in a nice looking 'tent'. It was very cosy.

Dinner was pasta, a courgette dish, and kofta (meat) balls. It was delicious. We were so impressed by what Felix could whip up on a small 2 burner gas stove aboard the felucca. For drinks there was a tab, and there was coke, water and beer available. The tab was just a sheet of paper, rigged up inside a plastic bottle hanging from the roof, and you added to it yourself. The whole experience was just so relaxing, and comfortable, so we were very much looking forward to a full day the next day on board.
After dinner the crew got out their drums and had a sing along and played the drums, it was good fun. We just sat around and chatted. Captain Habi also had a few games to play, involving matches and strings. We all turned in to bed at about 10am as we were pretty tired from the early start in the morning. It was a fantastic morning, seeing one of most popular toursit attractions in Egypt before an afternoon of relaxing aboard the felucca on the Nile.

Wednesday 21st

The nights sleep was pretty good. I woke at 4am to the sound of birds chirping, then managed to get back to sleep. The sunrise woke us up at about 5:30am, but again we got back to sleep and it was 8:30am before we woke up properly. A good sleep, which is just what we needed.

The sides were taken down and we packed away our sleeping bags. After freshening up we had breakfast which was omelette, pita, jam, and cream cheese.

After using the shore line sandy facilities we were back on the river. It was about 11am before we pushed off. There was more of a breeze today, so we made good progress, watching the palm trees and fields of crops float by. We played some cards and just relaxed. Cards was a little tricky with the breeze but we managed to not lose any overboard.

We sailed until about 1pm when we pulled up and had a nice swim. The river was coldish, but not too bad. It was crocodile free below the dam, so we were not worried about swimming. It was just cool to have gone swimming in the Nile.

While we were there, a few young boys appeared out of nowhere with bags of necklaces, they laid them out on sheets, and were into sales mode. It was impressive, and they seemed like much friendlier boys, who were far less pushy than anything we had experienced before, so the girls all bought something off them. Em bought a necklace made of alternate black and white circular discs. When she asked what it was made from, she learned it was camel bone, bleached by the sun or dyed with henna to make it dark coloured.

We were back sailing after the swim and had lunch served up to us. This time it was pita bread, a salad with tomato and capsicum, babaganoush, a potato dish and oranges. The food was one of the highlights of the felucca, it was so tasty and so impressive it was prepared in such confined quarters. The wind was a littler lower, so most of us had a turn at sailing the boat, a job which was much harder work than it looked!

It was another lovely afternoon aboard the felucca, just sitting and enjoying the sunshine. At about 5pm we pulled up to shore, along with a couple of other feluccas carrying people from other tour companies. We had a game of soccer, tourists vs crew. Tourists lost – the ‘away ground’ and sand meant we were pretty challenged. After soccer we had dinner, another culinary delight. After dinner the three boats came together up on the beach around a camp fire and the Nubian crew men began performing some drumming and songs. It was a nice clear evening, a little cool, but nothing to complain about. The guys on the drums were really good, it was another memorable experience that just added to our overall enjoyment of the felucca trip. It was about 10pm when we left the fire and went to bed. The busy day relaxing on the boat had really taken it out of us.

Thursday 22nd

We were awake at 7am, the sun was up and shining bright again. The crew had been up since 4am, and drifted us (no sails) down the river a few miles to our departure point. After packing up our gear and having a small breakfast we left the felucca at 8:30am for a busy day of touristing ahead.

We were picked up in a minivan and drove about a half hour through some small country villages. The traffic on the road was more donkey-and-cart than motor vehicles. We noticed there were local women in very long queues in each village with gas bottles. Further along we saw about 8 trucks loaded with gas bottles, hundreds of them – must have been delivery day.

When we arrived to our first stop, Kom Ombo temple we met our tour guide for the morning. Unfortunately he was not as good as Wael (he had very poor English, and he really hurried us through) and we did not have the most enjoyable experience. Kom Ombo temple was impressive, and we were shown the hyroglyphics for a fully functional calender which was very interesting. On our way out of the temple we were completly surrounded by salesman trying to sell us anything and everything. There must have been about 5 of them for each one of us. One of the guys sitting on the side of the walkway had 3 king cobras there. We were told their fangs were removed, they would want to be, because they were just sitting there and did not look overly happy. Em had a photo near them but declined having one around her neck.

From Kom Ombo we had almost another hour on board the mini van to our next stop, Edfu Temple. This was another impressively large temple, covered in hyroglyphics and carvings. It was built during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and dedicated to Falcon god Horus. We were almost the only tour group at the temple during our visit. It really was quite sad to go to many of Egypts most famous, brilliant sites, and be almost the only ones there. It was great for us, but we did feel sorry for the local people, so many of their businesses seem to be tourist dependent.

From Edfu we went to what looked like a local eatery. We had a tasty lunch there, but to me it seemed like the sort of place that could be giving us suspect food, food that would cause an upset tummy. It was tasty though and we tried to avoid the high-risk foods.

From lunch in Edfu we had a two hour trip to Luxor. Along the way there were many police check stops, and we were even escorted for about 10km. We had one small drama, the driver did not see a speed bump until the last minute, and we hit it at a good bit of spead with the brakes on. It was not too bad, but we were all lifted right out of our seats. Thankfully that was the most drama we had on the road in our entire time in Egypt.

We arrived in Luxor and went to the hotel we were staying at, arriving at about 4pm. The rest of our tour group who had done the Nile cruise on a cruise boat were already there. We had until 5:30pm to rest and freshen up. So we went to our rooms, and had showers and I went to the bank to get some more money as well.

At 5:30pm we all went to Luxor Temple, our third and final temple of the day. It was dark by now, and the temple was all lit up, it looked brilliant. As it was the third temple of the day, it was also really cool to see it in different light, it just had a different feeling to it.

Luxor temple was built over many centuries, by many different people, including Ramesses II, the same guy that built Abu Simbel. We had almost two hours looking around the temple and trying to take some goood night time photos. At the entrance used to stand two 23m Obelisks, now only one remains. The other we saw in Paris on the Place de la Conchorde. It was given to the French by the Egyptians in 1829.

When we’d had our fill of looking around the very impressive temple, the ‘felucca crew’ were keen to look around Luxor. We had some delicious felafels in pita pockets and then a really tasty chicken kebab as well. It was nice to have a walk around a less touristy area of a town. From there we went and wandered through some markets. The girls got a henna tattoes on their wrists and hands. We managed to successfully negotiate a taxi back to the hotel for a reasonable price. We were in bed by 9:30pm to try and get a good nights’ sleep after spending two nights aboard the felucca.

Friday 23rd

My day started in the middle of the night, unfortunately with an upset tummy..... maybe my suspicions during our lunch were correct. We never will know. We got up and had breakfast and were ready to leave the hotel by 8am. I had been to the shop to get some more water and a bottle of lemonade. Laura had picked up some bread rolls for me from the hotel breakfast, so I was stoked. It was a day not to be missed. Our first stop was the Valley of the Kings. Unfortunately all cameras are banned, so we did not get any photos. It was amazing. It seemed like a quarry really, limestone cliffs. But everywhere you looked were entrances to tombs. We went into the tombs of Ramesses III, Ramesses IX, and one other as well. It was amazing to go inside and see the tombs in real life. They were some amazingly constructed and decorated. The colours and decoration inside were brilliant – incredible to see detail and colour like that which was 3-5000 years old. We were amazed as how perfectly they had been carved out from the cliff, the whole thing is even more amazing the more you think about it, and when these tombs were made.

It was becoming a hot, sunny day. It was so nice to feel warm to the core, almost becoming uncomfortably warm.

From the Valley of the Kings we went to Hatshepsut Temple, just a short distance away. Hatshepsut was the Pharoh from around 1479BC - 1458BC, and was one of the most successful (and female!) Pharoahs. Under Hatshepsut (pronounced ‘a cheap suit’), Egypt intially had a number of very successful warfare campaigns and then became a very peaceful and prosperous country. The wealth enabled her to commision hundreds of construction projects through Egpyt, one of which was this temple. The temple is set at the base of limestone cliffs, and although the colour of the temple blends into the cliff the architecture means that the temple stands out grandly, with many pillars along the 3 levels of the front. It was very impressive, something we had seen in books and it was amazing to see in person. We were there until almost 1pm when we went to lunch via Memnon Temple, which is largely in ruins.

Lunch was going to be a buffet but there were a number of people that were keen for McDonalds, particularly two American girls on our tour. So our tour guide said they would drop the people off at McDonalds and the rest of us would go somewhere else. Unfortunately almost all of the bus emptied into McDonalds, so that was where lunch ended up. I went down the road to get plain bread rolls and came back and ate them with the others who got into their McDonalds. As far as it compares to everywhere else around the world, it was good according the everyone.

With everyones batteries recharged, we went to Karnak Temple, the largest Temple still standing in Egypt, and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It covers more than 250 acres! We entered along the avenue of Sphynxs which would have connected to the Luxor temple avenue of Sphynxs which was more than 2km away, lined with thousands of sphynxs. After going into the temple a small way we came to Hypostyle Hall in the precinct of Amun-Re, which is more than 50 000sq ft, with 134 massive pillars, including 12 central pillars which are 21m high. It was amazing.

Construction first began in the 16th century BC and it was added to until around the 3rd century BC.

This was yet another wonderous site that we had visited. There are no other words to describe seeing them than amazing. The history and particularly how they were built and the details of the hyroglyphics and scenes carved into them. It is just so cool to see them.

We left Karnak Temple at about 4pm and went back to our hotel. We had checked out of our rooms and left our baggage in a hold for the day. We were due to catch the train at 11:00pm from Luxor back to Cairo, just a 10 hour journey.

When we got back to the hotel a few went for a walk while the rest of us just relaxed in reception. We went for dinner at about 6pm, and went to a place where we could get some plain enough food which was nice of everyone to be so accomodating for me. When we arrived we sat at our table and asked if they had a DVD player to watch a DVD. They said they would arrange one. About 15 minutes later a man arrived with a DVD player, brand new, and hooked it up to the big TV. It was brilliant, so we sat and watched a DVD that we had made of our time with James and Julie in our campervan in 2009 while we ate dinner. After dinner we just relaxed in the hotel foyer until 10:15pm, when we were taken to the train station.

We train left at 11:15pm, we were on first class again and we prepared for the cold carriage. Our group was a little more broken up around the carriage but that did not matter. We both went to sleep straight away, waking up at 1am and 2am for sleeping bags for extra warmth, and sleeping through until 7:30am. Our busy day had helped to tire us out, and we really had quite a good sleep considering we were on a train!

Saturday 24th

We arrived into Giza at 9am, alighted the train, and went back to our hotel ‘El Tonsy’. We all checked in and had until 11am to get ourselves ready for another say of sight-seeing. We all had showers and then we wandered down the street where Em got a fruit juice and I got some more bread rolls. James and Julie went back to our favourite eatery, Taza, and got more kebabs.
Our first stop touristing was the Cairo Museum, on Tahrir Square, which is where all of the protests had been. They had calmed right down in recent days and there was no trouble so it was safe for us to be going into the area. There was a large building immediately next door to the museum which had been completely burnt out. We were told this was a ministry building of the Mubarak dictatorship. When the revolution occured in February 2011 the building was set on fire. A lot of people we spoke to hoped the building stayed there, untouched, almost as a monument to the revolution and to remind them of their life under a dictatorship.

Inside the museum our tour guide, Wael, took us around to the highlights of the museum. It was filled with thousands of artifacts found all over Egypt. The highlight without a doubt was the King Tutankhamun exhibit which had all of the artifacts found inside his tomb, which was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. We found out that King Tut is so famous now because his tomb was the only one to be found that had not been robbed (he was not a very powerful or important Pharoah, but the better tombs were all raided). The exhibit included his burial mask, which is made of 9kg of solid gold was intircately decorated with brightly coloured jewels. Also there was his gold coffin, the innner most coffin, which was found encased in 4 different layers of his sarcophagus. The gold coffin weighs 110kg, and is also made of solid gold. It was decorated with beautiful, colourful designs. The jewels on display as well as other items such as his gilded bed were amazing to see in the flesh given he died in 1323BC, aged 18.
King Tut became King at age 10, and was a child of incest. It is believed, but not confirmed that he had some genetic defects. This combined with a severally broken leg and a severe case of malaria is what is thought to have bought about King Tut's demise.

After we were finished at the museum we went to old Cairo, driving through some very impoverished parts of the city. Here was the Hanging Church, built on a site which is said to have been visited by Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. After exploring the church for a short time it was lunch time.

We did make it to a buffet this time, and not McDonalds. It was tasty enough and everyone filled themselves up as it was now quite a late lunch. It was a mixture of Egyptian and more western dishes, which we enjoyed.

We had one more stop for the day, Khan el-Khalili, the tourist Bazaar. It took a while to get to it because of a traffic jam. When we got there we were greeted by another man, who was our 'security guard’. We were wondering why he was with us, we thought it might be a pick-pocket hot spot. We found out later that in 2009 a bomb had been dropped by an Al Qaeda member, from a balcony above the markets killing one person and wounding twenty one. Our entrance into the Bazaar was crazy, we must have walked down the main alley and were swamped with sales people, the most aggresive and unrelenting we had encountered. It was not very enjoyable. “Hello! Where are you from? Ah, Kiwi, Kia Ora! Please look my shop, looking is free! You have lovely eyes. Ah, is this your wife? You a lucky man!” After the initial 20m it started to ease up and we were able to start to actually look at a few of the stalls. There was all sorts there, but nothing we had not seen elsewhere. Common Egpytian souvenirs include paintings on Papyrus (or what they tell us is Papyrus), stone copies of some scenes from various temples, metal lamp shades, Sheesha pipes, perfumed oils and little glass bottles, and alabaster items such as pyramids and bowls.

Amazingly we did not see any Egyptian cotton shops, which we were sure we would find. Apparently all the good Egyptian cotton is exported.

We all met back at the meeting point at 5:45pm for the bus to pick us up. Wael called our driver to come and pick us up. He was just up the road and it took 45 minutes for him to get to us because of traffic! It was a slow first couple of kilometres of the journey back to our hotel because of traffic but we took a different road and made good progress from there. On our drive we saw some massive markets, frequented by local people, which looked amazing.

We were all still so full from lunch that we did not have dinner. We had showers and got refreshed, then borrowed laptops to skype New Zealand and Australia as it was Christmas Day morning there. It was great to have a small chat with our families and join them for a short time on Christmas day. We had an early enough start for our Christmas Day, so went to bed by 10pm.

Sunday 25th, Christmas Day

It was a Christmas Day unlike any other we had experienced and hopefully one we will never have to relive again.

We were up at 6am and met everyone for breakfast at 6:30am. There were lots of "Merry Christmas'" exchanged. Breakfast was the standard El Tonsy special; a small omelette, half a sweet bread roll, jam, soft cheese, and a croissant. A long list, but a small meal.

We left the hotel at 7:15am. Our tour group was down to 11 now, the remaining 7 were on a shorter tour which finished in Cairo.

We had an 8 hour mini-bus trip to get to Dahab, on the Red Sea, east of Cairo. The first part of the trip was mostly through desert. We got to the Suez canal and went under this in a tunnel guarded by tanks, then carried on our journey across the Sinai area, which became more and more rocky and mountainous the closer we got to Dahab. We had a few stops along the way, but most of the places did not seem very clean and we were recommended not to buy food there. So we stuck with chips, chocolate, and bottled water for the day. What a great Christmas lunch! We felt revolting by the end of the trip.

When we did get to the Golf of Aqaba, part of the Red Sea, we saw how clean, aqua-blue, and amazing the water looked and were very excited at the prospect of getting into it over the next few days. Across the water was Saudi Arabia, just 14km away.

We finally made it to our hotel at 4pm, and it was windy, onshore wind, meaning the sea was rather rough. We checked in and went to our rooms, and had showers. Em and I watched 'Love Actually' on TV, the only half decent thing on, but it was in German language. We persisted, as it added a Christmassy feel to the day. We all met up later on and went out for dinner as a group.
We were taken to a restaraunt by our guide and were not very impressed. The meal was okay, some people had better meals than others. Mine was nice, a fillet of Red Snapper. Overall though it was disappointing, over-priced, and the low cushions we sat on smelled of cat-pee. However, it was a fairly good end to a Christmas Day that did not really have anything that we associate with Christmas. On our way back to the hotel we decided we would redesignate tomorrow as our Christmas Day, and give it the treatment it deserves.

We were all wrecked, so we went back to our rooms and we watched a small bit of TV before going to bed at 9:30pm.

Monday 26th

We started off our Second Christmas with a sleep in which was very welcomed, 11 hours of sleep was just what we needed after such a hectic first week in Egypt. For breakfast the hotel had a big range of things including salad, cheese, meat, boiled eggs, bread, rolls, jams, sweet buns, and omelettes. It was the best breakfast we had had so far, so we were very happy.

At 9:30am we met with a guy from the dive school at the hotel to talk about snorkling and scuba diving and to get wetsuits and snorkling gear.

We had a quiet enough morning, and then at midday met our the front of our hotel. Wael had arranged a 'taxi' for us to take us to a snorkling spot, the Blue Hole. The 'Taxi' was a ute, we were all up in the back of the ute, sitting on colourful mats, experiencing some local transport. There were seven of us plus Wael. It was a 15 minute trip, along the way we passed a few camel expeditions going along the beaches.

When we arrived we went to one of the cafes and dropped all of our gear off. At any snorkling areas there are cafes which have areas for you to sit, and you leave your gear there while you go and have a snorkle or a swim, then come back, have a snack or drink, and away you go again.

After getting our wetsuits on we headed up the beach a small amount to 'Bells', the entry point. James, Julie, David, Eli, and I were all up there and ready to go. Em stayed back near the cafe to teach snorkelling to another girl from our tour who had not been snorkling before.

At Bells we had to wait for about 15 scuba divers to get out of our way before we could enter the water. There is a small slit in the rock to enter, so we all went in and swam out to the open water. It was amazing, you go from a small rock pool through a slit in the rock to a huge drop off. We were to later find out that the sea is 850m deep here! We had about a 1 hour snorkle along the shelf which was coral reef, with visibility of about 30 - 40m and it was brilliant. There were thousands of fish everywhere you looked, and the closer you looked at the coral the more fish you noticed. It was brilliant, and easy snorkelling. The current pushed you along towards the Blue Hole and then you snorkled around the Blue Hole and hopped out. Inside the Blue Hole was not nearly as much life, probably due to its popularity, but the outside shelf was well worth snorkling. We had a small rest and then Emma, James and I went for another snorkle, repeating our earlier route and seeing more new fish, and noticing more colours in the coral. After we had finished this one Em went for another snorkle with James and Julie. They finished up at about 4pm and our taxi arrived to take us back to our hotel. We had heard about the Blue Hole a long time ago, this was one of our 'must dos' in Egypt, and it definately did not disappoint. While inside the hole itself was a little disappointing, the shelf on the outside of it, and the entry point were amazing. The sea was a little cool, 22°c, so we were glad we had full length wet suits on to help keep us a little warmer. There were hundreds of jelly fish in the water as well, so it also helped protect us from any possible stings.

When we got back to the hotel we all went off to have warm showers and get changed. We met up in the dining hall to play pool and sip champagne and beer which was good fun. Kirk had bought us Pascal New Zealand ‘party mix’ bags of lollies so we all tucked into those as well.

We played for a couple of hours before our tummies got the better of us and we went into town for dinner.

James had been to a barber in the morning to have his moustach shaved so his mask wouldn’t leak. The barber recommended a seafood restaurant called 'Sea Bride'. We followed his advice, and it was absolutely fantastic. There were seven of us, 3 got lobster (which was only $30NZ for a whole lobster), 2 of us had a whole Red Snapper, Julz had prawns, and Em had calamari. As well as these main meals, our table became filled with plates of different side dishes (fish soup, salads, hummus, dips, vegetables, bread etc). We actually did not have any room on our table when everything arrived. It was delicious, my snapper was fantastic. We were there until about 10pm when we went back to our hotel and to bed. So that was our 'Christmas Day', a much nicer day than yesterday.

Tuesday 27th

Day two in Dahab started with breakfast at 9am. Then we met at the pool to talk about going Scuba diving. James and Julie were definitely going as were David and Eli. Em and I decided we would also go. Em had already been once, in Rarotonga, but I had not been before. It was a guided scuba dive, which basically means you go diving with an instructor and they do everything for you - you do not do anything apart from breathe and look. It meant that we could go no deeper than 10m, but it was also a good way to find out what you thought.
So we left the hotel at 10am, all crammed into the back of a small Jeep, and headed down to the 'Three Pools'. One of our instructors was an Aussie girl, the other was her Egyptian boyfriend.

James and David went first, and they were down for about a half hour. Everything went smoothly, and they both really enjoyed it. Next was Em and Julz. Julz was unsure of what she would think of it, but again everything went smoothly and they both really enjoyed it as well.

I went with Eli last. It took about 20-30 minutes in between each group because of taking off and putting on the gear. All loaded up it was quite a weight to carry. Initially after practising the breathing and things, when we first went under I started to feel a little claustrophobic, something I have never felt before. I came up to the surface, managed to calm myself down and after that initial panic everything went smoothly. It was a fun experience, but the fish we saw were a little disappointing, there were not as many as we had seen the day before at the Blue Hole.

We finished the scuba diving at about 12:30pm. The wind was up and we were a little chilly. Em, James, and Shiny (another girl on our tour) went for a snorkle and saw some very cool stuff.

They got back at close to 3pm and we were taken back to the hotel at 3pm. Because of the nearby mountains and the position that we were in, we had actually lost the sun. We got it back when we were at the hotel.

After getting changed we had a couple of beers while playing some more Pool. For dinner we went to Wael's recommended restaraunt, King Chicken, and it was tasty. Most of us had a half chicken, which came with rice, salad, a potato dish which also had black eye beans in it, and it all cost about $6NZ! Em had a mixed kofta and chicken kebab which was also delicious. On our way back to the hotel we stopped off for a recommended dessert pizza, which we ordered with banana and chocolate on it. It was good to try, but it did not live up the expectation I had in my head.

Wednesday 28th

Another day of snorkling. We had an early enough breakfast and were away on our 'ute' taxi at 9:30am back to the spot we went to yesterday, 'Three Pools' to actually snorkle in them, and not around them. It was only Em, James, Julz, Eli, and I for the morning. Eli was having a day off snorkelling, so the four of us went for an hour long snorkle. Again it was good, but slightly disappointing as well. Em and James said the snorkelling had been better yesterday afternoon when the tide was lower. To say it was disappointing is a little harsh, it just was not quite as good as the coral ‘cliff’ outside the Blue Hole. One of our hopes was to sea a turtle during our time in Dahab, but we did not manage to achieve that.

After that snorkle we had a little relax in the sun, then James, Julie and Em went in again to try their luck. I did not as my feet were getting sore from the flippers.

Our taxi collected us earlier today, at 1:30pm. We went back to the hotel and then went downtown for a small lunch. It is quite funny, when you are walking along the road almost every person that passes you toots their horn, indicating that if you want a 'taxi' then they can be one for you. You just shake your head and keep walking. None of the cars looked like taxis, but then neither did our ute.

For lunch we had delicious pita pockets filled with felafels and mousakka which were delicous.

At 3:15pm we were all picked up to go to our Bedouin dinner. The Bedouin people have traditionally been nomadic people that lived throughout the Arabic countries. A large number these days are settled in towns.

We were taken to a place on the outskirts of town where there were camels waiting for us. We had a half hour camel ride up towards the mountains. It was good fun, but a little uncomfortable for us guys. It’s tricky enough staying on the saddle while they stand up – their legs are so long that you feel as though you will fall over their heads.

When we were up at the camp and hopping off the camels, I dismounted, and then my camel bit Em's camel. She was still sitting on it, but it stood up again, nearly tossing her off! The man pulled hers back down though and we could get on with our evening. We were first taken for a small walk through the mountain rock, which for some strange reason reminded me of the TV footage I had seen of soldiers in the mountains in Afghanistan.

After the small walk we went to the camp site and drank some hot Bedoiun Tea from small glasses. There was a camp fire going, with coloured mats and cushions spread around it, which was nice. The sun set at about 5:30pm, so the fire kept us warm and gave us some light. We ate our dinner at about 6pm and it was delicious. One of the best meals we had in Egypt. There was rice, tasty grilled chicken pieces, salad, and a potato & tomato dish, as well as fresh bread that we had watched them make. Most of us could not help but go for seconds. After dinner we just sat back and relaxed by the fire with our full bellies, watching the stars until the clouds rolled in. Then the Bedouins started playing some music and dancing, before we got picked up at about 8:30pm. This time we were transported in Jeeps, not on camels.

When we got back to the hotel we played pool and had a few drinks. Another fantastic day in Dahab.

Thursday 29th

Today was our last day in Dahab, but it was just as nice as the previous three. We left the hotel at 10am and walked down to the 'Lighthouse' snorkling area. When we arrived we found ourselves a table at one of the cafes and sat back and relaxed. James and Julie were doing another guided dive, this time going deeper, so they got stuck into getting ready for that. The rest of us (Em, David, Kirk, Eli and I) just sat back and relaxed for a while. After James and Julz went down with their dive instructors, the others all went for a snorkle.

James and Julz were down for about a half hour when they came back up. James had been down to 18m and Julz to 12m, so they were happy with that. They saw much more than they had on the last dive as well including a very big Napoleon Fish (also known as a Maori Wrasse) so that was cool. We ordered drinks, and soon after that the snorklers arrived back, having enjoyed a good snorkle as well, seeing lots of fish. No turtles though!

After everyone got out, dried and warm, we relaxed for a while before wandering back to the hotel at lunchtime. After having showers and getting dressed we wandered into town to get a snack for lunch, Em and I went for the tasty filled pita pockets again, which we took back to the hotel and ate in the sun. We relaxed until about 6pm when we all met up again and went back to our favourite restaraunt, Sea Bride for another delicious meal. Again it did not disappoint, and again our table was covered in food. This time around there were 9 of us, so we joined two tables together, and still we were struggling to find room on the table for all of the food.

After having dinner we went to a few shops, including the dairy, or their equivalent of one, and picked up some snacks for the night and day ahead, for tonight we were driving to, and climbing, Mt Sinai.

We were back at the hotel at about 8pm. We had until 11:30pm, so we just watched TV and had a small sleep as well. At 11:30pm our bus picked us up and we drove the 2 hours to Mt Sinai. Everyone slept for the trip.

Friday 30th

We arrived to the carpark where we would begin our walk at about 1:30am. After being introduced to our guide we started our hike up Mt Sinai. The air was cool, but not as cold as expected, so that was a good start. The walk up was pretty slow going, we had a couple of girls who were quite a bit slower than the rest of the group, so every half hour or so we would stop and wait for them to catch up to the group. They declined many offers to lead our walk, which was quite frustrating. Many people were taking camels to the bottom of the stone steps.

Along the way there were small stalls that were selling drinks, sweets and other small food items, but most of us had come prepared, so just took it as a small rest. We eventually made it up to the base of the summit, where there were a good number of shops. It was about 5am at this stage, and sunrise was not expected until 6:30am. So we sat down, got wrapped up with all of the clothes we could and got under our sleeping bags and tried to get some rest. I do not think anyone slept, but we kept just warm enough (although Em was starting to shiver). At about 6am the last two girls in our group made it up to where we were. We decided it was about time to start climbing to the top to watch the sunrise, up 700 rough steps. It was not too bad, but it took us a little while. On top it was very windy, there must have been a few hundred people up there.

It was a cloudy morning, and soon after 6:30am, when the sun was supposed to rise (and probably did, but behind the cover of thick cloud) our frustrated group started the descent. We had a deadline to be back in the bus and on the road at 9am. We had to get James back to Cairo airport (a 7 hour trip) for his flight.

We made good progress, but again we were slowed by the two girls. However after the steps everyone managed to keep better pass, and we made good progress going down. We were lucky in that the side of the mountain we were walking on was sheltered from the wind, and we started to feel the warmth of the sun breaking through, so we managed to enjoy the descent and the views around us. It was rather harsh, steep, brown rocky landscape, but it was unlike anywhere we had been before.

We made it back to the bus at abot 8:45am, and the two slower girls made it back by just before 9am. We were no sooner on the bus than we were driving. The driver had been given orders and had guaranteed he would get James to the airport in plenty of time.

We had breakfast boxes, so most of us tucked into those and then we tried to get some sleep to help pass the time. It remained a cloudy day.

We woke up next at about midday and had made excellent progress. Over the next hour or so most people started to wake up and everyone was in much better spirits again with a bit of sleep and knowing James would make it to the airport on time without any difficulties. Our driver was keeping his word, and had much excellent progress so that was great. We ended up dropping James off at the aiport at about 2:30pm, with plenty of time to spare. We said our goodbyes and he left, flying back to London to work the next day.

We continued on back to our hotel, El Tonsy. We were happy this would be the last time we would be coming back to this hotel – it was rubbish. When we got back we had showers and freshened up, we were very dusty from the Mt Sinai climb. It was about 3:30pm and we did not have to meet up until 6pm, so we put on the TV and managed to find 3 English channels, so we tried watching those, but they were less than entertaining. Julz came in and watched TV and chatted with us as well.

At 6pm we all met and had our last supper together as a tour group, we went down the road to GAD, an Egyptian fast food place which was pretty good. There was a huge range of food, so we were happy. Everyone found something that they wanted and we enjoyed the meal.

After dinner we had thought about going back to the markets as Julz, Em, and I wanted go and get a couple of things. Instead we were too tired and headed back to the hotel. We had a quick last meeting, and said our goodbyes to everyone including Wael, our tour guide, then headed to bed.

Saturday 31st

We met Julz, David, Kirk, and Eli at breakfast. Unfortunately I was starting to come down with some Nile belly again, but not too bad. Julz, Em and I did go to the market. We caught a taxi, with a meter and got a lift there. When we stopped outside the meter read '10'. He tried to charge us '10' each. It was a small amount, but we refused. He looked disgusted. In the end we gave him 20 and left, and he was quite cranky. When we did get back to the hotel, we asked at reception, and we should have only paid 10!

Anyway we had a good look around the market, with all intentions of purchasing a few particular things, but after a good couple of hours looking around we ended up leaving empty handed. We were not worried, satisfied that we did not want anything in the end.

We managed to negotiate a taxi back to the hotel, they started at 50, but we ended up getting 25. Over-priced but I was happy just to leave as I was starting to feel a little worse. We made it back at about 1pm. After sorting out our hotel room, and moving, Em and Julz went for lunch while I hung out in the room watching some TV and resting. They came back with water and lemonade for me. We all went up to the roof top and amazingly we could see the pyramids from our hotel roof. It was the least-smoggy day we had had in Cairo, and we could see them quite clearly. They were amazing, really standing out.

At 4pm the taxi came and Julz, David, Kirk, and Eli all left for the airport to fly back to London. Em and I were back to being on our own. We did not do anything exciting at all. We had a few small snacks in our room and watch TV, before going to bed at about 9:30pm.

Em woke up again just before midnight to the alarm she had set - we were told there would be fireworks off Cairo tower, which we had a great view of. I kept an eye open, but no such luck, no fireworks anywhere, so we got back to sleep.

Sunday 1st January, 2012.

Happy New Year! We were up just after 5am to have showers, and leave our hotel. The taxi picked us up at 6am and we got to the airport in about 20 minutes. After checking in we went through security. It was only about 7am by this stage and we had until 9am to waste. We just sat and watched the runway, ate our breakfast boxes that the hotel had given us and then lined up when it was time. Our flight left on time. We were happy to be leaving, because we felt like we had seen all that we wanted to see and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was just the right length of time and with a nice balance of relaxing and touristing. We were very disappointed by Cairo, and would have liked less time there, otherwise we loved everywhere else. The end of a great holiday with good friends.

Photos: Walk Like an Egyptian

milko_rosie — Sun, 1 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

A Few Weekends Away in 2011

milko_rosie — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:02:00 GMT

January

After our nice new years and exciting December with the freezing temperatures and snow, the first part of January was back to reality with normal wintry weather and work. However on January 21st we were off again and back to New Zealand. It was strange because it seemed like we were only there last week. We went back for Raj and Janey's wedding and had a fantastic time in the sun and warmth. Their wedding was on January the 28th in Hawkes Bay and we had a fantastic time there. It was a wonderful celebration at The Mission Estate Winery.

It was great to spend some time in the prime of a New Zealand summer. Come February 8th it was back on a plane and back to Ireland. We landed February 9th and were back at work the next day. Thankfully we only had 2 days of work to survive before a weekend to rest up and recover.

March

It was normal life really until mid-March when our friends James and Julie came over from London for the weekend to visit. The arrived Friday the 11th of March. On Saturday we headed down to Dingle and did a day of sight seeing there which was fantastic. It was chilly, but we left a rainy Limerick and it was quite clear down there which was nice. We took them to the Beehive huts which they enjoyed, before we had a picnic at Slea Head, probably our favourite place in Ireland. After lunch we spent about an hour on the beach making dams on a small stream there and enjoying being by the sea. We were wrapped up nice and warm. From here we headed back to Limerick and arrived back at about 6pm, got the fire going well, and sat there and had dinner while we chatted. After dinner we took JJ to the pub and had good fun listening to the band and chatting for the night.

Sunday with them was much more restful. We had sleep-ins and relaxed for the morning. We went out for a late lunch to the Curragower for seafood chowder which was very tasty then we came back home and watched a movie before we had dinner and went to bed. They left early Monday morning after another fun weekend with them.

March 17th, St Patrick's Day we had a restful morning before wandering into Limerick city to watch the parade for a while, then we came back home. It was a quiet enough day for us, but good to have a day off work.

April, May & June

We did not really have any significant trips or events really up until May 1st. We did have a number of lovely nights out at Ray and Jan's, friends of ours at Ballina, Co. Tipperary. I met Ray at my first job. They are our 'Irish Parents', but they are actually New Zealanders, from Nelson. So we always enjoy going out there for dinner and relaxing for the evening, chatting or watching a movie. We always feel like we are at home. It must be mentioned that April was a stunning month with weeks of sunshine and warmth, getting close to 20°c. It was actually the hottest and driest on record! We did have one nice outing on April 17th to the Adare manor for my birthday and Jan's birthday (which is the 16th of April). We had high tea and a lovely afternoon out there. After the afternoon tea we wandered around the grounds for about an hour which was so relaxing and peaceful.

May 1st arrived, so did Mum, and so did the cold rainy weather. She had come to visit and travel Europe for 6 weeks. We picked her up in Dublin at about 6pm and bought her back to Limerick. It was fantastic to have her over here with us. After dinner we stayed awake until about 10pm. On Monday May 2nd we went down to Dingle to show Mum around. We left at about 10am and had a nice trip down, including driving over the Conor Pass, which is a narrow mountain pass with a nice view. We were lucky and it was clear, but it was not as rough as we were expecting. We passed through Dingle town and stopped for lunch and had a picnic in the car as it started raining. Next, we went on to Slea Head beach and the Dun Quin pier. This is a famous place often featured on Irish calendars and we have always wanted to find it - we finally did which was great. We went on from there to the Gallarus Orotory, a place we had not been to before. We were staying down in Dingle for the night, so checked into our B&B and had some cheese and crackers and then went into the town for dinner. We were going to stay for trad music but were too tired so went back to the B&B and went to bed.

We left our B&B at about 9:30am and stopped at the Beehive huts to show Mum which was great. Then we drove to Killarney, another favourite place of ours. Unfortunately the mist covered the hills. Still we stopped in near one of the lakes and went for a walk and then went to Muckross House (near where we got engaged) and had a wander around the lovely gardens there. After that we went into town to have some nice warm soup to eat before coming back to Limerick. Later on after dinner, we took mum to some sights in Limerick on the way to the supermarket. Wednesday Mum went up to Belfast and we worked for the remainder of the week. We went up to Dublin on Saturday and met her up there. We took her to Dalkey to show her where Nan was from and then we went and checked into our hotel. We still had a few hours so we decided to go to Avoca, a town in Wicklow which became famous because this is where the TV series 'Ballykissangel' was filmed. Mum was a huge fan so she was delighted at having this unexpected outing included in her trip. We had a wander around the village before we headed back to Dublin to our hotel to get ready, and then went to Peg's for dinner. Peg is Mum's aunty (Nan's sister-in-law). This was the first relative outside immediate family that Mum had met in her living memory. We had a lovely evening there chatting and Mum had lots of questions to ask. On Sunday morning we went with Peg to church as this is where Nan and Poppa got married. After the service a gentleman took us out the back to see the church records and we found Nan and Poppa’s marriage record, which was fantastic. From here we went out to lunch. On the way Peg took us around to a few different houses where Nan lived growing up. After a nice lunch we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Peg. She was so kind to take us around, it was lovely. We wasted a small amount of time, before driving to our airport carpark to drop the car off and head to the airport to go to Turkey! (See separate Blog entry for this wonderful 10-day trip 

After Turkey Mum went to London for 5 days, and we came back to Ireland. She then went to Europe and did a wonderful 16 day bus tour of Germany, Poland and Austria before returning to Ireland on the Sunday 5th of June. On the Monday we drove up to Donegal (no rest for the wicked!). We went to see Jean, Mum's half-aunt (half-sister of Poppa). We got there mid-afternoon and after having a lovely afternoon there eating sandwiches and scones, we went to a few places around the area to show Mum where her Dad had grown up and lived. We even stopped in at a house where a 93 year old lady lived, and she had done all of her life. She had actually looked after Poppa when he was a little boy, amazing! Even more amazing – she remembered him! From there we headed back to Jean's and spent the evening with her until about 10:30pm when we returned to our B&B. Tuesday morning we looked around the township of Donegal before going out to Jean's. Her son, Robert was there, so we were there for a couple of hours before it was time to make the 4 hour journey back to Limerick.

I worked the remainder of the week, Em had to work Thursday. On Wednesday Em and Mum went to the Grange Stone circle and then went with Jan to the Adare Manor for lunch and then scones and tea which was great. They had a lovely day and thoroughly enjoyed it. On Wednesday evening we went to Bunratty castle to the medieval feast. It started at 8:30pm and we had a fantastic evening in the castle. It started with a mead reception with entertainment by the castle bairds, which was followed by a delicious 4 course dinner (including ribs). Guests are only given an ‘eating knife’ and no other utensils; soup is slurped straight from the bowl. During dinner there was music with live singers and musicians. It was a great night out. We were there until about 11pm when we headed home.

On Thursday Mum caught the bus into town, and explored Limerick, doing well to fill her day. Limerick is not the nicest of cities, but she was happy to see it for herself. On Thursday evening we went out to Ray and Jan's and had a lovely evening out there. Before dinner Ray took us for a great drive around a few local areas overlooking Lough Derg which was great. Ray and Mum actually lived at Waikeria at the same time, and although they cannot really remember each other they had great times reminiscing.

On Friday Mum and Em went to the Rock of Cashel and had a nice morning there, before going to Claudia and David's house for lunch. Em works with Claudia and she had invited them out so Mum could see their house, which was built in the 1700s. That evening we went to our pub, the Curragower, to listen to some trad music, but we were out of luck, they changed the night, so we went to another pub called Dolan’s, and managed to hear some so that was good.
Saturday the 11th of June was Mum's departure day. We went up to Dublin in the morning and went to Rush, where she’d had a beach holiday when she was younger, then onto Malahide Castle, where her Uncle Austin was the head gardener. We had a nice afternoon exploring around there before going to the airport at about 4:30pm. We got Mum checked in and stayed there until just after 5pm when it was time for our good-byes. It was sad to say goodbye, but it was fantastic that she was able to come and visit and that we could show her around a few of our favourite places.

On Tuesday the 21st of June we went to Cork to go and see Paul Simon in concert which was great. We came out at 10:30pm and it was still light. It was the longest day of the year and sunset was officially 10:02pm. It was light until after 11pm, with the skyline still light at midnight!

A friend from Univeristy, Adeline, came and visited on June 24th. We picked her up and relaxed for the evening. On Saturday morning, the 25th we went down to Dingle again. We did not leave until about midday. We did a similar trip to the one we did with Mum, going over the Conor pass and then passing through Dingle town out to the pennisula. It was much different though, with the fog so thick, you could not see further than 15m in front of you. Still Adeline enjoyed what she could see and at Slea Head it cleared a small amount which was good, and by 5pm when we were heading back towards Dingle it was clearer again which was nice. We came back to Limerick and got some Indian takeaways for dinner before going to the pub for a drink.

On Sunday we took Adeline out to the Grange Stone circle and Lough Gur. It was a much nicer day with the sun breaking through. We spent the afternoon outside as it was very warm and sunny, lovely. We had an early dinner and had home made ice cream which was great for the day, before we dropped her off at the bus station and she headed back to Dublin to fly across to London.

July

For a week from July 16th we were out at Ray and Jan's house in Ballina house and cat sitting which was good. Unfortunately the weather was pretty dire, but we were still able to relax and enjoy Ballina and the peaceful village. Unfortunately we still had to go to work for the week, but just being somewhere different still gave it a holiday feel.

August

For the first week of August, my work was closed, so Em also had the week off. We got on the road on Saturday the 30th of July and headed north to Donegal. We went to my great-aunt's house, Jean, and had lunch with her. She had told us of a local event that was happening, at the Leghowny community centre - sheep races! We had to check this out, and it was one of the reasons for the trip. It was great fun. We watched 5 races which were highly entertaining. There were 12 sheep in a race, and they all had saddles and numbers and teddy bears (the jockeys) stuck to their backs. It was a fundraising event, so you could bet on them. They ran around the track and had to jump hay bales in 3 places. It was great to see. In between races there were a few stalls and things around the place to check out as well and places to have a snack. While we were there we even met the Mayor of Donegal! It was all good fun and a nice community day. We got back on the road at about 5pm and headed through Ballybofey, Letterkenny, Burnfoot, Lisfannan and ended up at Buncrana. We drove through the town on the hunt for a B&B for the night. We found two but they were both full. We were directed to another one, and thankfully they had vacancies. It was run by a lovely family with four children, all with very nice Donegal accents. She gave us tea when we arrived and then we had a sandwich for dinner as we were still quite full from the food at the sheep races.

On Sunday the 31st we had breakfast at 8:30am. After breakfast we got our bits and pieces ready and then we chatted to the family about different things. It was after 10:30am before we left them and started our drive around the Inishowen Penninsula, called the Inishowen 100, as it is a 100 mile drive. Our first stop was just up the road at the Dunree fort. We then headed up towards Malin Head, stopping off at some old thatched cottages to take some photos and then passing through Malin town and up to the top of Malin head. It was quiet enough when we got there, but within 10 minutes there were loads of people there. It was windy, but quite pleasant. Malin head is the Northernmost point of the Irish main land. The drive to get there was slow, but the roads were not the worst we have been on in Ireland that is for sure. The landscape was very green, and quite hilly, speckled with lots of small stone cottages.

From there we headed down the east side of the peninsula before stopped at a small village near the water at a picnic table (a rare sight in Ireland!) to have our picnic lunch. After lunch, soon after we had started driving we passed through a village where there was a graveyard mass on, and wow, what a turn out. The graveyard was packed and cars were lining the street for more than a kilometre. There must have been at least 2000 or 3000 people. It was an unusual sight for us to see, but a common occurrence in this part of Ireland. We kept on driving and when we got to Muff, cut across back to Burnfoot and then on to Letterkenny. We decided to head towards Churchill. When we got there, it was just after 5pm so we decided to go and find out where Glebe Museum was. We had been recommended it. It turned out there was a tour leaving at 5:30pm so we decided to get on that. It was almost an hour long tour, shown around an artist’s old house. It was interesting but I was happy we did not pay more than 3 euro to get in. Once we were done we headed to the B&B. After unpacking our bits and pieces we decided we would go into Letterkenny to have dinner at the Indian restaurant where we ate last time we were up this way. It was a good move, we sat at the same table and had a 3 course meal which was delicious. Once we were done there we headed back to our B&B and watched TV before going to sleep.

On Monday the 1st of August, August bank holiday, we got up and had breakfast with 2 sisters who must have been in their late 60s / early 70s who were Irish but now lived in Scotland and Switzerland, and were back for a family reunion. It was a nice breakfast, and there were even homemade jams. Em managed to get the owner’s recipe for the delicious rhubarb ginger jam.

We left the B&B by just after 10am and headed to Glenveagh National Park which was only about a half hour drive away. It was already starting to get busy. When we parked the car and were getting ready we noticed hundreds of midgies everywhere which were very irritating. We went into the visitors centre for a look before walking the 4km to the castle. When we got there we bought some insect repellent wipes as the midgies were still quite thick and were making a meal of us. Then we walked around the castle gardens and went to the birds of prey show which included 2 beautiful owls. They were impressive to see so close, and Em had a turn holding the snowy owl on her hand with a thick leather glove. We next went on a 3km walk up to a waterfall and then turned around for the 7km walk back to the car. We were both quite hungry, so we drove a short distance to get away from the midgies. We stopped on the side of a bog road and ate our sandwiches for lunch. There was bog everywhere you looked and we had great fun further up the road. I stopped to take some photos then got Em to come onto the bog too. It was very bouncy, and when Em jumped up and down about 4m away I felt the vibrations like an earthquake. It was very cool.

From there we drove west and ended up in Dungloe. We managed to drive around the town and find a B&B. After we had unpacked our things we had a cup of tea we went 10 minutes up the road to Burtonport where we had read in the guide book about the Lobster Pot, a good seafood restaraunt. Unfortunately it did not live up to it reputation, we had 'The Titanic', a seafood platter. Well it was very disappointing. The smoked salmon, smoked mackerel and pickled herrings were nice, otherwise it was very disappointing.

On Tuesday after breakfast we got our things together and loaded up the car, then went for a small walk around the waterfront of Dungloe. The sun was out, and it was blue sky so we were very happy to get out and enjoy it while we had it. We got back to the car and were on our way at about 10:30am and drove across country to Ballybofey. It was a nice drive, it showed just how similar most of the Donegal landscape is really because there was a lot more bog on the drive. We had a busy day in Ballybofey / Stranorlar. The reason we came here was I was doing some family tree research and this was the area of the country where I wanted to be looking. The first stop was the church that we thought we should go to. It was a Presbyterian church in Stranorlar, but we could not get in or find the graveyard, so we left there and went for a drive. We then went in search of any more churches and came to the Church of Ireland which was the correct church. We managed to get in and have a look around the graveyard, but after searching for about 20 minutes looking over every headstone we found nothing. We decided it was time to go to the information centre, so across the river we went to Ballybofey and went to the information centre there. The lady there was very helpful and she directed us to a few townlands around the area that we wanted to go to and also to births, deaths and marriages. It was about 12:30pm, so we decided to try our luck at births, deaths and marriages… and were in luck! The lady was available, and was very helpful so I was able to buy some copies of records that they keep in a database, which was brilliant. We left there and went out to a church that could have been a local parish for both the McCleery's and the Elliott's (my Mum's paternal grandparents). But again there was no graveyard and no one answered the phone. So we went to the townland that we needed to get to, Em did some fantastic map reading. We came to the road and decided to find a house that looked old enough that it might be an old family house. We choose correctly, and the man living there was an older man, who had been there for 50 years. He knew of the Elliotts and was able to direct us to an elderly lady down the road who would know more. We went there, but unfortunately she was away on holidays. Still we saw where Elliott's shop would have been and spoke to the man who now owns the house and shed. We headed back into the town and went back to the information centre to check if there were any other graveyards in the town and were directed to one. Again we searched for about a half hour, and again the sun came out which was nice. No luck though, so we went to the hardware shop, some advice given to us by the information centre lady. When we got there we spoke to the older man who owned the shop, about 5th generation! He could not help us himself but told us of a couple of people who might know. His son was also there and spent about a half hour on line looking at different things for us as well which was very helpful. He had also done some family tree research, so that was good. We left there and went to the first of the two people he had recommended, but, he was away on holiday too! At the next house, the lady was home and very friendly. We had the correct person, but unfortunately, she must have had some dementia as she knew that she should know because she had grown up in the area, but could not tell us anything. She also asked us about 5 times in the space of 1 minute where we were from, to which we replied New Zealand, and were met with astonishment each time. After thanking her and heading on our way we went back in to town, none the wiser. By this time it was almost 6pm. We decided to get some dinner and then get on the road. We felt like a fish burger so went to the 'John Dory Diner', surely a good place to get fish. Well we never found out, they did not have fish burgers! So we went for chicken instead. It was a good proper burger with lots of salads and things, so we sat outside and ate that, then got on the road and headed for Clones, Co. Monaghan. We were only driving for about 5 minutes and we were across the border and drove through Co. Tyrone and Fermanagh to get into Co. Monaghan. It was about 1 hour 45 minute trip but unfortunately I took the wrong direction on a motorway and there were no exits for 15km, so that added time, then when we got to Clones we could not find a B&B. So we drove around for an hour, and eventually found one. By this stage we were both very much over it, and very happy to have somewhere to stay. The B&B was above a bar, but it was massive and very nice. There were about 20 rooms and I think we were the only ones there!

On Wednesday morning we slept in until 8:30am and then got up for breakfast, and went downstairs to the restaurant to have our breakfast at 9am. When we got down there we were the only ones in there and the lady was on the phone. She stopped chatting and came over to us and started chatting and got us orange juice. We told her how we were in the area looking for family for the townland of Radeerpark. She said that she was from this area, but she had moved away to America for 15 years, and so she would ring her brother and he might be able to help us. While she did all of this she made us a lovely breakfast. When we were ordering Em asked if there was potato bread and she said no. Well about 5 minutes after she brought us out our breakfast, she brought us out delicious potato bread and said to Em, “Once you are done there, you come into my kitchen and I will show you how to do it.” Anne was her name and she was lovely. So after breakfast Em went and had a lesson and learned the secrets of potato bread.

Anne told us her brother was coming into town at 10am and he will pop by for a chat, so we went up and got our things together and then packed the car. We were back just before 10am and Anne's brother Paddy arrived with another of Anne's sisters. We told him our story, and he told us that he remembered the family, because they grew up in the same area. He said to let him go and get his bread then he would take us to a few places. He was back in no time and we said our goodbyes to Anne and her sister, and headed on our way. Paddy was a brilliant and very lovely man. He was full of brilliant Irishisms such as ‘Bejesus’ or ‘Bygod’ at the end of every sentence, and changed these to 'Bejepus' when we went to visit a Reverend!

Our first stop was the spot of my great grandmothers (My maternal grandmother's mother) family home site. There used to be a shop, but both were burnt long after that family had left. We went across the road to see the Reverend who directed us to someone else just up the road, so we went there and it was an old farmer. He could remember the family and told us the name of another gentleman who might know more information, and also told us to go to the local Reverend for the Church of Ireland parish. We went to the Reverend’s house, but she was not home. We thought we may have been able to get access to the church records. We then headed to a church where Paddy thought we might find someone relevant in the graveyard, and we did which was good. He then took us to the local undertaker, the Presbyterian one, and he searched his records and found the information of the funeral of my grandmothers uncle, including the cost of the coffin! From there we went to another old graveyard, with people who died in the late 1700s and early 1800s onwards! We had a search around and had some luck, finding one relevant headstone which was nice. It was brilliant going around the graveyards with Paddy as he knew lots of people or had dug the grave, or knew the old stories that had been passed down to him from his mother. Then we headed about 5km up little lane-ways to a man who was 90 and lived in his family house with his sister. Wow, what a house! It was over 200 years old and not a lot had been done to it. The 90 year old man had been out for the morning on his tractor mowing the paddock! The floor in their lounge was amazingly uneven, it was a great experience as I am sure this house had really not changed for the last 100 years. He did not really remember the families, but it was still great just to see their house and meet them.

That was the end of our time with Paddy who had been a fantastic guide, he had been with us for more than 2 hours. We stopped near his house and said our goodbyes. He declined our offer to go for lunch or tea. We were so grateful to him. He lived alone, his Mum had been living with him until 2 years ago when she died at 90. She had been widowed with 8 children when the eldest was 10 years old and the youngest was just 4 weeks.

We left him and headed back into our B&B and had a cup of tea with Anne and told her of our busy morning, before we headed away and got on the road back to Limerick. We left Clones at 2:30pm and were back down into Limerick just before 6pm. We spent the evening unpacking and getting things sorted out. It had been a lovely 5 days away, and we were not too tired either. We went to bed early and read for a while before going to sleep.

We spent the remainder of our week of visiting different friends around Limerick.

August

Half way through August we went to a 'Barn Dance'. It was a fund raiser, where they had a band, at a barn and an evening of entertainment there. It was very well organised, with 600 people attending. They had a bar, and a huge dinner which was delicious. Thankfully the rain held off for most of the night. There was a mechanical bull which was good fun. We left there at 2am, and caught a bus back to Limerick. Unfortunately the bus broke down and we did not get home and into bed until 5am. Boy were we happy to see our pillows.

September

September was very quiet for us. We were busy at work as the schools start in September and we had a lot of teachers ringing about kids that are on our caseloads, so that kept us busy really. At the start of October we went out and stayed with Kate for the week. She is a friend of Em's, and has a beautiful little daughter Alexa. She is currently living at home while she studies, and wanted company for the week while her parents were away on holiday. We had a fun, busy week out there. Again it was a nice change, being away from our normal routine, and the week flew by.

October & November

At the end of October we moved out to Ray and Jan's in Ballina to house sit for 5 weeks. They headed back to NZ to visit family and for the arrival of their new grandson. So we were house and cat sitting once again. Unbelievably come November 1st the weather got warmer and sunnier, and to date November has been the warmest on record! We have had just 1 frost and that was on October the 31st. It is now just 4 weeks until we go to Egpyt for Christmas. We will have to wait and see what the weather brings, it was about the start of December that the snow started last year, so lets just wait and see. So there it is really, our year of 2011. The highlights obviously were out trip back to NZ in January for Raj and Jane's wedding and then my Mum's visit in May and June and our trip to Turkey with her. We started the year in London, and all going to plan we will see it out in Cairo.

Photos: A Few Weekends Away in 2011

milko_rosie — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:04:00 GMT

Turkey - Our Trip to the Old World

milko_rosie — Wed, 18 May 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Monday 9th May

It was an early start. The previous night we had flown from Dublin to London Luton, and arrived at the hotel at about 11:30pm. We’d gone straight to bed, but got up a few hours later (3.30am) to get back to the airport. We took a taxi to the airport and checked in. After breakfast at the airport our plane left on time at 6:30am on a clear London day. We had a brilliant view of London flying out which was nice. It was a 3 1/2 hour flight to Istanbul. Over Austria and Switzerland the skies were clear and we had a great view of the stunning snowy alps below.

We touched down in Istanbul at 12:15pm (GMT + 2hrs), and after no problems getting through immigration we went to collect the rental car. It was a small Hyandai Getz, but it was all we needed. So it was back to driving on the right hand side of the road again. We were only 45km from our hotel. The first 30km into Istanbul went well, then we hit the traffic and the crazy Istanbul drivers. It was certainly an introduction to Turkish drivers. Intersections and lane changes were like playing chicken, but you had to keep moving forward, otherwise you would be waiting all day to be ‘let in’. And the traffic lights: as soon as they turn orange (they turn orange again after red and before green) the cars behind you are on the horn telling you to go.

The only wrong turn we really made was sitting in a 20 minute queue for what we thought was our right-turn lane, but turned out to be the queue for a carpark, so after a bit of good Istanbul footpath driving, we got back on track. We eventually made it to our hotel at about 3pm. Em went in to check us in, only to be told there was a problem and that they had made a mistake. Em asked what the mistake was and she was told "the mistake was that we forgot to stop selling your room". They had a 'friend' with a nearby hotel so after going up to check that out we moved our car and checked us in to the new hotel. Once we dropped our bags off to our room we went up to the roof top to check out the view, which was quite brilliant. In one direction, we had the Blue Mosque, and in the other was the sparkling Sea of Mamara with 40 or 50 container ships anchored. It was a sunny afternoon, but a little windy, so still a little chilly, maybe 15°c.

Our first stop was for drinking water which was easily found (the tap water in Turkey isn’t very safe) then we needed to get lunch. After walking for about 20 or 30 minutes we found a nice area near where we were staying and came across a Turkish Bath (Hamam). We were taken in and shown around which was fantastic. They also recommended a local place for us to eat and it was great. Em and Mum got a stuffed egg plant and I had a Shwarma Kebab which was very tasty. From here we took a rather indirect path to the Grand Bazaar (our map wasn’t great). It was suprisingly quiet there which was nice. We spent a good 2 hours there wandering around and looking at the myriad of stalls (there are over 4000 stalls in the Grand Bazaar). It was a bit different from 2 years ago, the stall owners seemed much less pushy to make a sale which was good, maybe we were just better at handling them this time. It was starting to get quite chilly, as the sun was behind clouds and the wind was getting up so we walked back to our hotel. We got back at close to 8pm. Mum had a shower and was not hungry so stayed at the hotel while Em and I went up the road for some dinner. We had a very tasty dinner. Em watched a guy make the fresh flat round breads in the fire which was cool. Afterwards we went back to our hotel and got some apple tea and baklava, which we took up to our room for dessert. After having showers it was bedtime, and very much welcomed given it was 10pm and we had had a long, busy day, but a great start to our Turkey adventures.

Tuesday 10th

We slept in until 8am then after showers went and had breakfast. It was a normal, yummy Turkish breakfast, with cucumber, tomato, cold meat, boiled eggs, bread, olives, jams and soft cheese as well as Turkish Tea (which is slightly bitter, and served without milk in small, curvy glasses, with sugar cubes on the side). We got out of the hotel at about 9am and went to the Blue Mosque. It was another cloudy day, and there was a cool wind again. On our way to the Blue Mosque, which was only about 5 minutes walk away, we walked through the Hippodrome where the Romans used to hold chariot races. In the middle of the Hippodrome is the Serpent Column which was originally built the Greek Victory in the Battle of Plataea in 479BC. It was relocated to Constantinople in 324AD. The other feature of the Hippodrome is the Obelisk of Thutmose III. It was originally erected in Luxor during the reign of Thutmosis III in about 1490BC. In 357 Constantius II had it cut into 3 pieces and bought to Constantinople. Only the top third is there today, with no heads.

From here we went into the Blue Mosque and spent about 20 minutes inside looking around. Again we noticed that is was not as busy as the last time we were there. Our plan was to head to the Hagia (Haya) Sofia which is opposite the Blue Mosque but the line was extremely long, so we went to see the Cistern Basilica, which was built in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. It was a water filtration system for that area of Constatinople and was used until modern times. It is about 10,000 sqm, and is capable of holding 80 000 cubic metres of water. It was quite a spectacle with all of the columns and the water.

From here we headed to the Spice Bazaar. Along the way I got a lamb shish kebab which was very tasty and only TL4.50, compared to 10 or 12TL in other places. Then we decided to stop into a couple of banks to see if we could change some of our notes. We had some money left over from our last trip but the TL20 note had changed. Each bank kept on directing us to another, until eventually one of them told us we needed to go to the Central Bank, and we managed to get some rough directions for that. So we kept on heading to the Spice Bazaar. Along the way we all got a kebab for lunch which was very tasty, before we browsed through the Spice Bazaar. We spent about an hour wandering around there (and tasting yummy lokum / Turkish delight) before heading across a bridge which was lined with mostly men fishing for these small herring sized fish. They were having a good day too by the looks of it with most of them pulling them up. Once we got to the other side I went into a couple more banks before eventually getting to the Central Bank. After getting through tight security I was finally able to swap the old notes for new ones. From here we slowly walked back to the Hagia Sofia. We were getting much better at finding our way around this time and it did not take us long. When we got there we all decided we would not actually go in. Instead we thought we would go and sit down somewhere and have a cup of tea. On our way we got stopped for a chat by a salesman, and we ended up going into his carpet shop. We sat down and had tea while we were shown carpet after carpet after carpet. He also told us about his life. He was a Kurdish man, and had 2 wives, (he says Turkish law permits 4 wives). Between them he had 7 children. He was one of 22 children, and his father had four wives! Eventually he made a small sale, we bought a bed throw. From here we walked back to our hotel and relaxed. At about 6pm Em and Mum went back to the Turkish Bath we had found yesterday and had one there. A Turkish bath consists of sitting in a very warm communal marble-lined room, and rinsing yourself with hot water for about half an hour, until you are nice and sweaty and clean. Then the Hamam lady tells you to get onto a big warm marble slab in the middle of the room. She gives you a serious scrub with a very scratchy mit, which exfoliates your skin. You then rinse for a while longer. The next step is to get back on the slab, where the Hamam lady covers you in fluffy soap suds, and gives you a lovely massage with them. Finally you sit back down, wash your hair, and get yourself all rinsed off. Lots of fun, very relaxing, and squeaky clean results!

I relaxed in the hotel and then went to a nearby Bazaar for a wander around. The girls got back at about 7:30pm after an excellent Turkish Bath which they thoroughly enjoyed. We went for dinner, and ended up eating in a tiny shish kebab shop. They did not do 'eat in' but had 3 small stools so we sat there and we ate our kebabs which was nice. I ended up having 3! From there we went across the road to a 'bakery' and got some Turkish treats and a cup of tea for dessert. The sweets were delicious – we chose a variety of baklava and lokum (Turkish delight). I also had a chocolate mousse type thing whcih was very nice. We got back to our hotel at about 9:30pm and went up to the roof top before getting to bed. Again it was a great view of the Blue Mosque, this time all lit up, with the twinkling lights of the ships out on the Sea of Mamara.

Wednesday 11th

We were up at 5:30am and we were driving away from our hotel at 6:30am. We had an early start because we had a 762km drive ahead of us and we wanted to avoid the horrific Istanbul peak-hour traffic. Our plan worked well and we made good progress. It was a very big day of driving. We stopped at about 9am for breakfast which was not too exciting. We had a fuel stop later in the morning which was a little depressing. Fuel in Turkey is about TL4.20/Ltr (which is about $4NZ/ltr!). By about 2pm we were searching for somewhere to stop for lunch/ The first place we stopped at was on the shores of Lake Tuz which is a salt lake. For most of the year the lake is only about 0.4m deep. It has a salinity of 32.9%. The Dead Sea is 33.7% salinity. Unfortunately we did not eat at that place because if was very expensive and we did not go to touch the lake either. We continued on to a small town Sarayhan, and had a nice lunch here. We all had a lamb shish kebab. From here although the roads were wide, the surface was terrible and the driving was all about avoiding the pot holes. We made steady progress and got to Urgup, Cappadoccia just before 6pm. After getting directions from a local to our hotel we managed to find it, and check in. It was the Urgup Inn Cave Hotel. Cappadoccia is a famous area where people made caves in the sides of hills and used them as houses. Our hotel rooms were cave rooms. It was a cool experience, although I am sure you would not want to have claustrophobia as there we no windows in our room. There was one window in Mum's room. Once checked in we walked the few blocks into the small town centre, to meet with the owner of the hotel (Omer) who was very nice and helpful. He just wanted to point out a few things, and tell us about the area, which was good. From here we scrambled up the large hill in the town which had hundred of cave houses within it, and there were still a couple of houses in use (it was odd to see a cave dwelling with a satellite TV dish!). It was very cool to be able to wander around the houses and inside so freely. They are very impressive, amazing to see so many in such close proximity. We spent almost an hour up there (the only people up there, just on sunset) before going for dinner back in the town. It was a fantastic dinner. We had Turkish Ravioli, Sac Tava et, and Sofra. It was excellent, our best meal in Turkey ever! After dinner we poked around the shops, and found an amazing antique shop. It was jam-packed full with lots of different guns, bowls, pots, pestle and mortars, roman hair pins and hundreds of other things – the floor to ceiling shelves were groaning. It was fascinating to look around. From there we went to a carpet shop and spent a little time looking at carpets. The owner was very friendly and it was nice drinking tea and chatting to him. From here it was time to head to back to the hotel. We were in bed by about 11pm.

Thursday 12th

We had a great sleep although our heater was on in our room and it got really hot. Mum slept well also but woke up at 6am and could not get back to sleep. Today was our first really nice sunny, hot day and it was lovely. We had breakfast at 8am, and although it was cool we were able to eat outisde. Again it was a traditional Turkish breakfast. We were deciding whether we would do a tour or do the journey today ourselves. We decided a tour would be easier, and we were picked up at 9:30am by the tour company. It was nice and small with a total of 8 of us on our tour, from America, Costa Rica, and Dubai - a good mix of people. Our first stop was Mustafapasa, a small village about 10km from Urgup. This is an old Greek town and the houses are Greek style. Turkey has had a very turbulent history until recent years. In 1923 Greece and Turkey swapped citizens, so 1.5 millions Greeks living in Turkey were swapped for 1 million Turks living in Greece. This town was mainly inhabited by Greeks prior to the population swap.

From here we went to the Fairy Chimneys. These a very impressive: massive 'Staligmite' type structures where people used to carve out the inside and live in there. These and the cave houses are the main attraction of this area of Turkey and were one of the big reasons why we came to Cappadoccia so it was great to see them. The Fairy chimneys form naturally from erosion. A large part of the structure if formed from consolidated volcanic ash. On top is a big chunk of basalt which is more resistant to erosion. So over thousands of years the ground around this part if eroded and a fairy chimney is left.
From here we drove to Kaymakli, and underground city, one of the largest in the Cappadocia area. It was home to 5000 people! The underground cities were built in the 4th century and used by early Christians as hiding places before they became an accepted religion. It was amazing to go inside. We went as low as the 4th floor, but there are actually 12 floors. There is just a maze of tunnels connecting rooms, and there was plenty of space with most rooms being as big as a room in a normal house. The tunnels were a little tight in places though, but not too bad (Em found it a bit daunting in places). It was fascinating to see.

Next was a quick stop at a look out of Pigeon Valley. The people used to make homes in the sides of the cliffs for Pigeons to live in, so they could collect the pigeon droppings and use this as fertiliser for their crops. Our tour guide kept on saying "And now you will see a real pigeon", which was not really a novelty for us! After lunch we went to Rose Valley and walked several kilometres through this very pretty area, which was a lovely change of pace from the bus, seeing more cave houses and pigeon houses. Half way along, in true Turkish fashion, there was a stall selling tea and other drinks. At the end of the walk we came out at Cavusin Old Town which was a mixture of cave houses and Greek Style Houses. It looked so impressive. Then we were on the bus and went around the corner, and looking back at the hill the village is on, you would not know it is there. We did an Onyx factory tour which was a standard part of the tour and not very interesting but did not take long. Our tour finished at 5:30pm and we were dropped right back at our hotel which was great. It was a fantastic day, so amazing to see the cave city and Fairy Chimneys. After a cup of tea we walked into town. The evening cooled down a lot, so we were dashing from shop to shop. After some more shop browsing we went for dinner. We decided to try somewhere new and that was a mistake. It was a tasty dinner but not as good as the previous night. Still we tried some new dishes including a green bean dish which was nice, and the eggplant salad was also tasty. From there we went to a shop filled with drie fruit and nuts. It was impressive and we were offered lots of samples. We bought a few snacks there for the drive the next day, then went back to the Antique shop we were in yesterday and I bought a very heavy, bronze pestle and mortar which I was very happy about. We bought a couple of other knick knacks as well. It was about 10pm by the time we got back to our hotel, and we went straight to bed.

Friday 13th

We were up at 6:40am to get ready and pack our things up again. We ate breakfast at 7:30am on the dot and left Urgup at 8:15am. We had another long day of driving ahead, 645km to Pamukkale. Soon after we left Urgup we saw about 15 rainbow coloured hot air balloons up in the sky. Cappadoccia is one place that is supposed to be spectacular from a hot air balloon. After about an hour of driving Mum looked for her phone, and thought she had left it at the hotel. We rang the hotel and asked them to look. They said if they found it they would courier it on, so we continued to drive. Thankfully it was later discovered in one of her bags! Apart from a fuel stop, we drove until about 2pm. This drive was more enjoyable. The roads were quite good, and we were much more rural than our drive from Istanbul to Urgup. We were getting hungry so decided to stop in at a very small town called Cay (Pronounched Chai which is also the Turkish word for tea).

After we had parked up we walked towards the main part of town to try and find somewhere to eat. Friday is the day of worship. A lot of men were sitting outside sipping tea and chatting. We had a lot of people staring at us – this place was not used to tourists! One man was standing at a cart on the side of the road and spoke to us, gesturing, and Em picked up on one word, 'Borek'. This is a type of stuffed pastry, and surely enough on his cart under the covers were home-made Borek, still-warm, 3 different types. We decided we would get a spinach & cheese one, and a potato one each. That was 6 borek and it cost 3TL! I had one more, a lentil one as well, but that filled us up. The men became interested in us, and fetched us crates to sit on, and a glass of tea each and we sat there on the street eating our Borek while they watched. It was great. One man (a local school teacher) spoke a small amount of English, and we managed a conversation with a lot of charades. They were all very friendly, it was a lovely experience. Once we were nicely full, we said our goodbyes and thankyous, and we were back on the road. The rest of the trip was quite hilly, and we went through some good rain, but by the time we arrived in Pamukkale at 5:30pm it was just a little cloudy.

After checking in we went out and about for a nosey around the town. It is just a small town, and soon after our wanderings Mum spotted a camel and she HAD to have a ride. She and Em had a 20m (and TL20!) ride on the camel, much to my amusement. The camel’s attendant manhandled Em up into the saddle despite her protestations. After that excitement, we continued looking for a restaruant to eat at and browsing through the shops. We found two potential eateries, and decided to go with one that is listed in the Lonely Planet. From our Europe trip we found they were usually good recommendations, but this one was a bit disappointing. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

Saturday 14th

We were up just before 7am and at breakfast for the start of it at 7:30am. It was a great breakfast, very good size, with the usual ingredients – egg, feta, olives, tomato, cucumber, bread and jams. We left the hotel at 8:15am as we wanted to get up to the white travertine terraces nice and early. Pamukkale means “Cotton Castle”, and refers to the curved, ‘fluffy’ looking white terraces cascading down the hillside. We were at the entrance 8:30am and there were a suprisingly large number of people already there. Still we had a nice walk up. The travertine terraces form from Calcium Carbonate that is dissolved within the water. Initially it is jelly like, but hardens over time. Travertine is a form of limestone, and this process is not too different to the formation of stalagmites and stalactites. It is now a UNESCO World Hertitage site, but prior to this there was a road up the terraces and 5 hotels. They have done large amounts of work at directing water flow so the terraces are being regenerated and look spectacular.

When you get to them you have to take off your shoes and walk on them in your bare feet. During our walk up we followed another small group of people (who went the wrong way) and got off the track, which was not at all marked. Still this made for great photos which was good, before one of the security guards blew his whistle at us. This meant we were 'out of bounds'. We heard the whistle many times during the day, but this was the only time it was directed at us! It was quite hilarious watching the guards blow their little whistles and gesticulate madly to try and control the crowds.

When we got nearer to the top, we started to get into warm water pools which was nice. There were already a large number of tourists there. Still we got some nice photos, then moved off the terraces to have a look around the ruins at the top of the hill. Heirapolis was a Greco-Roman city, founded in the 2nd century BC – placed here for it’s fantastic location on a hilltop, with the hot springs being used as an ancient health-spa. The ruins have been largely damaged by significant earthquakes over the centuries and buried by limestone dust and general plant growth, but are slowly being excavated. We spent aboou 4 hours exploring the ruins. There is a huge necropolis (cemetery – necro=dead, polis=city) there with thousands of sarcophagi. Another highlight of the ruins is the theatre which has been largely restored with more of the detailed relief sculptures decorating the stage being restored currently. Seeing the water supply which ran overground throughout the city was another highlight, this is something that was not so evident in other ruins we had previously been to. Along the way we even spotted a tortoise in the long grass!

There is also a museum with a few of more precious and delicate items found, so we went in for a look. It took us just under an hour to see the exhibits: pottery, glass vases, jewellery, coins, sarcophagi and sculptures. By the time we were done there it was 2:30pm and time to head back down into the town of Pamukkale – we were very hungry for some lunch! When we were leaving a thunder storm threatened but went around us, but it made for some spectacular viewing as it moved out over the plain in the distance. After a few more photos we came down the hill and went to Yoruk Sofrasi Restaraunt. This was one of the possible restaraunts for dinner last night, so we thought we should try it out. We made the right choice, it was brilliant. They did not have a menu, they made only two things: Gozleme, which is a 'Turkish Pancake' and Shish (meat skewers grilled over charcoal). We each ordered Gozleme with different fillings, which included any combination of crumbly local cheese, meat, spinach, egg, and potato. We sat on the comfy cushions on the ground surrounding very low tables, and we even had to take off our shoes. It was great. The owners (an older Turkish couple) were so lovely. We watched the wife roll the Gozleme which was very impressive. She ended up with a circle with a diameter of about 50cm, only as thick as about 4 sheets of paper, and then filled them and folded it in half, before cooking them on a large domed cast iron hot plate. They were delicious. After this we had a Turkish coffee, which is another experience in itself. Their 23 year old son was there who spoke some English, so that meant we were able to chat to them a while, which was nice. After the lovely lunch we walked around the shops, then went back to the hotel and tried a couple of the Turkish beers while we relaxed for an hour or so. When dinner time came, we did not hesitate in going back to the same place. Mum and Em ordered Gozleme again, and I got a lamb shish. Em even helped make her own dinner. She is pretty good with a rolling pin but found rolling out the Gozleme quite difficult – she made some holes in it, but it turned out okay. After dinner we had tea and sat and chatted with the family. Their daughter came by as well with her husband and their new 3 month old son Mehmet (a happy, handsome little guy). The grandmother had sewn a sort of swinging crib for him, which was strung between two poles like a hammock. They draped blankets like a tent over him from another string. It was a great little cosy set-up, in a lovely warm spot near the pot-belly stove. This visit was the closest we got to a 'family' experience in Turkey, and I imagine it would not be uncommon for family life to revolve around the restauraunt or business that they have. Before we left they invited us back for tea in the morning which was very nice of them. By the time we left it was after 10pm so we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Sunday 15th

After having our breakfast at 8:30am outside in the morning sun, which was a novelty, we went back to the Yoruk Sofrasi Restaraunt to drink tea with the family. Their son was not there but we were still able to chat a small amount. They made us two gozleme for us to eat as well, but we were so full from breakfast. They put it in a paper packet for us to take with us. After saying our goodbyes we left and drove to Karahayit to go to the Red Springs. Well we did not see the sign posts, so stopped in at the town itself and had a look around the shops. It was not too busy, and was aimed more at local shoppers than tourists, which was nice. We ended up staying there until mid-day before getting on the road to complete the 245km to Selcuk (sell-chook), our final destination. It was a slow, hot, trip, but we only stopped for petrol and to buy some strawberries from a stall. The last part was a toll road so we swiped our card as we went through the start barrier to show where we had entered the toll way. At the other end where we had to pay, a loud alarm went off as we approached, then I tried to pay, but there was not enough credit on the toll card. So I had to reverse out of the toll lane, and Em went and topped up our card at a little office nearby. Thankfully there was no one behind us so getting out of the lane was easy. While we waited for Em to top up the card we watched about 10 other cars do the same thing! So we not just stupid tourists. After that we had a smooth run to Selcuk. When we arrived we could not get the address for the B&B in our GPS, so stopped in town and asked for directions. Again it was Em that went out. She asked a couple of guys, they were unsure so they got someone else. In the end there were about 5 guys there to help. This is very Turkish. If you ask them something and they do not know, they will take you to someone or get someone to help you. They are generally very hospitable, friendly, helpful people and this is something that makes Turkey so special.

We made our way to Kiwi Pension, our B&B, and arrived at 4:30pm. It was quite a let-down of a place, but it was only for sleeping in, after all! After checking in we drove a short way to visit Sirince (Sharinjay). This is another Turkish town that used to have Greeks living in it, but in the 1923 exchange, Turks were brought back from Greece and started living there instead. It used to be a town of 5000 people, but now only 500 people live there. The town now survives on tourism alone, and it must get thousands of tourists every year. The road up to Sirince is one of the dodgiest we encountered in Turkey: extremely narrow and the Turks do not drive with caution. Nevertheless we made it up there safely, about 10km up into the hills from Selcuk. We were looking in the second or third stall there and started chatting to a guy called Mustafa. After having a cup of tea with him he offered to show us around. He was born there and still lives there, so he was a great tour guide and we went into parts where the locals live, not just where the shops are with was nice. It is a beautiful little village, full of cobbled streets and whitewashed houses, nestled in a large valley. We had a lovely couple of hours up there including exploring some of the stalls. Sirince is famous for its fruit wines, and Em purchased a blackberry wine to try. We were in the village until about 7pm then came back down into Selcuk. The drive back down was much easier as we did not really meet anyone coming up the hill.

Once we dropped off the car at our hotel, we walked into town to find some dinner. It was a warmer evening and we had a delicious dinner outside. During dinner again we saw another common sight in Turkey: street cats. We must have seen about 10, but they look quite well kept, no too feral. We saw one of the waiters give them a bit of food, it looked like they dine in style! We had a lovely dinner and ate too much as per normal, but it was too nice not to. Tonight we sampled (among other things) zucchini fritters, eggplant moussaka, and a really tasty local natural yoghurt mixed with mint and garlic. By the time we were finished it was after 10pm so we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

Monday the 16th

We were up early. Our hotel breakfast started at 7:30am, but we left at 7:20am to go to Ephesus. We got there and were the first ones there which was great. We were hoping that the gates would open early, but unfortunately they did not, so we just stood in the sun for the half hour until the gates opened at 8am, so we could be first inside. We remembered how jam-packed the ruins were the last time we visited, and we wanted to have it to ourselves for a while! It was a beautifully sunny morning and it did not take too long to really warm up.

From 8am we had about half an hour of the Ephesus ruins to ourselves with about 10 other people, it was amazing. Ephesus was originally a Greek city, but later became a major Roman city – the capital of Roman Asia. During the 1st Century BC Ephesus had a population making it the 2nd largest city in the world, only to Rome. It was so rich, it had marble streets, all the buildings had marble facades, they had street lighting, and houses had flushing toilets, and hot and cold running water. Ephesus had a large sea-port / harbour, but this silted up from the river over a number of years, and the importance declined (the sea is now 30km from Ephesus!). The site that we explored today is only about 15% of the total city of Ephesus, it would be amazing to go back in 50 or 100 years to see what other gems are unearthed.

The half hour of quietness was brilliant and we used it to take some great photos and look at the ruins of the Library of Celsus, originally built in 125AD. Today's facade that is there has been reconstructed out of the original pieces. Come 8:30am, the tour buses and tour groups started pouring in. It was quite impressive to see, by 9am there must have been over 1000 people there with plenty more tours arriving.

We had a great morning wandering around the ruins. Mum was hugely impressed, and we were blown away even second time around. Wandering along the mable-paved roads next to structures that are 2000 years old, mind blowing really. We even spotted ourselves another tortoise in the long grass, just like at Heiropolis. A strange thing happened while we were looking around the ruins as well: we bumped into Bulent, our wondrful tour guide from when we were in Turkey in 2009. He was taking a tour around (unsurprisingly), so we had a quick chat to him and got his phone number.

At about 11am it was getting really hot. We had just about finished the ruins, and decided to go into an extra viewing area, the terraced houses, which was currently being excavated. They are completely covered now by a protective structure. Inside they were impressive. These are the houses of the rich and the important people of the city. The houses were enormous. Large parts of beautiful mosaic floors were still intact. Currently the archaeologists are piecing together coloured marble facades from the interior walls which were damaged during a number of earthquakes. We watched the men there matching together the marble pieces, over 100 000 pieces of it! The worlds largest and trickiest jigsaw. Inside the houses they even had things like dumb waiters, where the kitchen staff could lower the food down to the waiters, and underfloor heating! Hugely impressive to see. Although they were not complete structures, large parts are still intact. In places, houses were buried in between 5 and 10 metres of earth. We spent about an hour and a half wandering through these beautiful ancient homes, before heading back out into the sun and finishing off the ruins. It was midday by this stage and we were very hungry (after sacrificing breakfast in the name of good touristing), so we headed back to the car. A lot of double parking was happening, but thankfully there was a small gap we could squeeze through, so we made it back to the hotel. We dropped off the car, then wandered to a nearby restaraunt which had a good few locals eating at it and we decided to eat there. It was delicious, meatballs baked on fresh tomato and onion in clay bowls, with very fresh bread and yoghurt. Very tasty and very much welcomed into our hungry tummies.
After lunch we had a little walk around the town, before heading back to the car and driving to a ceramic factory. There we watched a young man throw a small vase on a potting wheel, and saw the painters hand painting the dishes, and then like any factory in Turkey, we were ushered into the shop. We spent quite a while there, browsing the brightly painted bowls and plates, and bought a few small things for home. From here we went to see the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. Unfortunately now all that stands is a column that he been reconstructed from left over pieces, sitting in the middle of a bog – not particularly exciting.

From there we moved on to a carpet making centre nearby, where we saw young women making the rugs by hand. Every single piece of wool or silk on the rug is hand knotted. It is amazing to see, and we all enjoyed watching them work. We also saw a demonstration of silk being spun from silkworm cocoons, which bobbed around in a tub of hot water. Each cocoon has a strand of silk about 1 kilometre long! Then of course we went into the show room to be shown rugs. It was an impressive display of rugs (lead by a main salesman with about 4 or 5 helpers, who laid out and rolled up rugs with impressive speed), but we were only there for about 40 minutes before saying we were not going to buy anything.

Once we got back to the hotel we dropped off our ceramics, then drove to Kusadasi as we had arranged with Bulent to meet him for dinner. We had a lovely evening catching up with him and we were reminded about how knowlegable he was and how lucky we were to have him as a guide when we were last in Turkey. We were trying to track him down for our trip this time, but had no luck, so it was great to catch up with him through serendipity!

We got back to the hotel at about midnight and were very happy to get to bed.

Tuesday 17th

We were in no hurry today so had a bit of a sleep in. After having our breakfast we went out to enjoy our last day in the lovely Turkish sun. The owner of the hotel kindly recommended a trip for us, however it was not the success we had planned for. We drove for an hour to a town and then we were supposed to take a mountain pass to a small town. However it was getting near lunch time so we went found a nice local eatery for lunch. After managing to ask to locals there how to get to where we wanted to we were told in no uncertain terms (i.e. gestures like cutting off your head, as they didn’t speak English) that we should not drive that road, it is far too dangerous. So that was the end of that plan. We decided to head back to Selcuk, where we had come from! We went back to the hotel to do a couple of things, and were told by the man there that the way we went was the wrong way, it was only 20km away and the opposite way to where we went! Very frustrating.

So we headed into the town there and had a look around the shops that we had not walked around. It was a quiet afternoon, but nice to be out in the sun and warmth. At about 5pm we got on the road to head to Izmir airport. After dropping off the car we checked in our bags, 2 more extra bags compared with what we bought to Turkey.

It was the end of a fantastic holiday. Very busy, and all 3 of us were tired, but loved it all. The food was great (as you can tell this was quite a big focus of our trip). The Turks are such friendly, hospitable people, and so helpful. It was so nice to travel with Mum as well, and hopefully prepare her for the rest of her Europe travels, as well as show her some of our favourite places in Turkey which was great.

We flew out at 10pm Turkish time and got into London Gatwick just after midnight. Em spent some of the flight showing Mum the London tube (underground rail) map to prepare her for her London adventures starting tomorrow. I spent the flight sleeping and missed out on some action. A man tried to or started to try to smoke a cigarette. Em said after the cabin crew realised they gave him two options, either to provide them with all of his details, or to have the police meet him at the airport. He opted for the former, so the rest of the flight was fairly event free.

Wednesday 18th

It was another early start at our hotel at London Gatwick and all 3 of us caught the shuttle bus to the airport at 7:45am. After Em and I checked in our bags we went with Mum to show her where she could get her train ticket for the train into London and where the platforms were. Unfortunately we could not wait any longer, so left her there and went through security. We flew out at 10am and landed in Dublin at 11:15am. We got a text from Mum saying she had successfully caught the train and then used the tube to get to Pram's house without incident which was great news. For those of you who have used the underground I am sure you can recall how daunting the tube can be the first time you use it, so we were very happy to hear that she had made it.

Back in Dublin, we were back to a cloudy day and only about 14°c. The only excitement really was the the Queen was visiting Ireland – the first time a British Monarch has visited the Republic of Ireland in 100 years. We drove back to Limerick - back into the real world and back into work.

Photos: Turkey - Our Trip to the Old World

milko_rosie — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:00:00 GMT

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

milko_rosie — Mon, 3 Jan 2011 19:00:00 GMT

DECEMBER 24TH

It was predicted that we would have 30 days of snow and 60 days of frosts this winter. Well December sure has proven that prediction correct so far, we have had frosts in Limerick every morning and snow is covering most parts of Ireland, including Newcastle West where I work. For the past 2 weeks now we have had sub-zero temperatures continuously, with highs during the day of -5 or -6°c, and overnight lows of around -10°c in Limerick city and yesterday when I got out to Newcastle West it was -13°c. My work mate had a bottle of water in here car yesterday and it froze solid during the day! It was a beautiful sunny day, it looked fairy tale like. The freezing fog has turned the trees into ice sculptures. Outside my work in the carpark the snow has been compacted, it is now 1 inch thick solid ice, lethal for driving on and walking on. Everyone has cancelled their appointments because it is too dangerous to come into see us, yet we still have to be there.

Em had Christmas Eve off, I went into work for the morning, and stopped off in Adare on the way to take photos of the river which was frozen. Amazing to see, and hear (it was constantly cracking and groaning). Shortly after leaving work at midday, I was 2 minutes down the road at an intersection and someone slid into the back of me. Thankfully it was all low speed and no one was hurt, but there was a good crack in my bumper and a dent in the boot. After exchanging details, I was on the road and into Limerick.

Once I got into Limerick Em was just starting to heat up our lunch, so we ate that then packed up the car and we were on the road by about 2pm. We headed up to Eva's parents house, who had kindly invited us up for Christmas to share it with their family. Eva was also on the road and along the way she caught us up. The trip up was beautiful, shortly after leaving Limerick the fog lifted and we got as hot as -3. We made good progress until we got to Athlone, where we started to get into more snow and the sun had set. But we just took it easy and made it up in about 4 hours which was not too bad. The last few kilometres to Eva's family house were country back roads and they were slippery, so it was a very slow last part of the drive. We arrived shortly after 6pm and it was -13°c, so pretty chilly.

After saying hello, we unpacked the car. The Gildea house looked very Christmassy with decorations everywhere including a holly wreath on the door and up the banister of the stairs.We had a tasty dinner, then relaxed for the evening. We rang Wongaburra, Kinloch and Te Kuiti to wish them a very Merry Christmas , and since we were on skype we showed them our snow and frost. After a good chat with them it was bed time.

DECEMBER 25TH

Merry Christmas! Last night got down to -17°c, which was one of the coldest nights they could remember. It was cold, but it was beautifully clear, we woke up to find a true winter wonderland, everything was white, the ground, the trees, the houses, everything. But the sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly.

Em and I were nearly the first ones up in the Gildea household. Eileen, Eva's Mum, made up a delicious fry for breakfast once everyone was up. There was Eileen, Michael (Eva's Dad), Donal (Eva's older brother), Eva, Sean (Eva's younger brother), and Aiden (Eva's other younger brother) as well as Em and I. Eva’s sister Aine was in Australia. After breakfast everyone left the kitchen and went into the lounge. We thought they were going to get ready for Christmas mass but they were going in for present opening. They had all of their presents laid out in different parts of the room, then everyone just got into the unwrapping, so it was a little hive of activity for a good few minutes. We even got a few pressies which was cool.

Once present opening was done we all got ready as we went off to Christmas mass. We left home at about 11:25am for an 11:30am mass. We were a little late but not too bad. It was about 15 minutes drive and the countryside was amazing. There were lakes that had ice on top of them. There is a traditional Christmas swim, and it still went ahead. They actually had to use sledge hammers to smash the ice because it was 6 inches thick! We went to mass in Drumod, which was a beautiful church. The holy water in the font was frozen solid. There was standing room only when we arrived. After about 40 minutes mass was over and were on the road back to the Gildea house, but as per their tradition we stopped in at the McQueeny's, family friends of theirs.

As soon as we walked in and introduced ourselves I was handed a whiskey and Em a brandy. It was just gone midday! They were a lovely family and we had a good couple of hours there chatting with them, and the families caught up with one another. We left there at about 2:30pm and headed home. We had no problems, until we got to the last hill of the drive, which was by far the steepest one. We did not manage to make it up with us in the car, so we got out and Aiden tried forwards and reverse, trying different speeds. After about 7 or 8 tries he managed to get it up the hill going forwards and 3 of us pushing to keep it going forwards as well, which was the winning formula.

When we got back to the house we had a pretty quiet afternoon. We just watched some telly and relaxed until it was time for Christmas dinner which was at about 6pm.There were entrees first, I had smoked salmon on brown bread, Em had a shrimp cocktail. After this for dinner we had turkey, ham, roast potatoes, mashed potato, brussel sprouts and stuffing. It was all delcious. Then there were the crackers of course before the dessert came, which was Christmas pudding, fruit salad, and a sherry trifle. So it was pretty similar, or the same really to what we would have at home for Christmas dinner. The brussel sprouts are compulsory here! (Em LOVES them).

After dinner we played cards with Michael, which was slightly confusing, he tried teaching us a game called 25, but there were so many rules, we did not quite get it (was it possible he was making some up as we went along??) At about 11pm one of the neighbours popped over for a Christmas drink, as would be normal, so we were up until about 1am chatting with them. All in all it was a great Christmas considering it was a Christmas away from home and away from family. Our only white Christmas that I imagine we will ever experience and it was fun to have one. A real fairy tale Christmas.

December 26^th

After a great sleep in we woke up to a rainy, gloomy day. Hard to believe it was such a stunning day the day before. The rain had already started melting the snow, and during the day the whiteness seemed to disappear before our eyes. It was a very quiet day. We stayed at home for most of the day really. In the afternoon we skyped our friends James and Julie to see how their Christmas was. At about 5pm Eva was going to go and do some visiting so we went along with her. She first took us to her parish at Mohill, which is their nearest town. From here we tried to do some visiting but they must have been out visiting because there was no one home, so we headed back home. At about 7pm they had a couple of visitors who popped in for a drink. They left and headed into town as did Eva and a couple of her brothers. Em and I decided to stay home and get an early night. We were in bed by about 11pm and it was very much welcomed.

December 27^th

We were up at just after 7am to have showers and get ourselves all packed up. When we got downstairs Eileen had already cooked a breakfast up for us. Once we’d feasted, we loaded up the car. Eva got up (after quite a late night) to wish us a good trip. We said our goodbyes and hit the road. We had an extra for the trip to Dublin, Oisin (oh-sheen), the son of the McQueeny's who we visited on Christmas day. We left by about 9am and were at his house on the outskirts of Dublin by 11am. The trip down was very good, the roads had completely thawed and it was easy driving. After wasting a bit of time browsing in a couple of shops we went to our carpark and dropped off the car and headed to the airport. We got there at about midday. I decided to recheck our flight info and it turned out we were very early, we did not fly until 4:10pm, I thought that was our landing time! So we wasted the time in the airport, a thing we are quite good at doing these days.

By the time it was boarding time we were more than happy to. It went well, we got good seats, and everyone was ready for an on time take off, then the captain came on the radio to say that there would be a delay, the baggage crew had knocked an antennae off the plane, so they were going to try and fix it. Unfortunately a little while later he came on to say that it was unsuccessful and we were going to have to change planes. By the time we waited for a plane to come and we changed, it was just after 6pm before we took off to fly to London. Once we got to Gatwick we caught a train and then a bus to James and Julie's house in Wimbledon. We ended up getting there at close to 9pm. Julie had dinner ready for us and we had a nice evening catching up.

December 28^th

After a small sleep in we were up and out the door to the Natural History Museum, which we were all excited about. We were planning to be there for opening at 10am but did not get there until 11am. There was a queue of about 30 or 40m, but it went fast enough, and once inside we went straight for the Dinosaurs. We ended up staying in there until after 2pm looking at different areas. It was good, but we did not think it was brilliant, we still prefer the Science Museum. We were disappointed initially at how late we were, but when we were leaving the queue for admission and to see the Dinosaurs was far longer, so we did not feel too bad. After being 'museumed out' for the day we wanted something to eat, and found a Turkish place for lunch which was great. After satisfying our appetites we went to Julie's sisters house to collect her before we went to the pub for a drink. From there we headed home for dinner and then relaxed for the evening.

December 29^th

We woke up at about 7am when James and Julie were up to go to work, but since we did not have to get up we went back to sleep and slept until 10:30am! After getting ready we went to Putney Bridge where we met Lisa and Andrew, friendly from London. They were just starting their 'OE' and had only arrived in London a few days before Christmas. We had a nice lunch out with them and had a good catch up. They had organised jobs before they arrived which was great for them and they had managed to find a house since they arrived so they had done very well.

We left them just after 5pm and squeezed into the tube, along with all of the other 'sardines' at that time of day, and went to Edgeware Rd, where we met my cousin Pram. This area had a large variety of restaurants, including lots of middle Eastern restaurants. We had a lovely dinner out with her. Every time we come to London we meet her for dinner or lunch and she always asks what we want, so we think of something and she takes us to a fantastic place to eat. She has lived in London for almost 10 years, so she has a good knowledge of the culinary delights of London. We were with here until about 9pm, when we tubed back to James and Julie's and had an early night.

December 30^th

We were up at a reasonable time and started our day of touristing by heading to the Portabello Markets at Nottinghill. The markets were not really on as such, but there are always shops there, so we had a nice time wandering along the street and browsing the shops. It threatened to rain most of the morning and came in small amounts, but it did not come to much thankfully. Once we were done there we caught the tube out east to Upton Park. We had been here once before and loved it, it is like travelling to another country, English would not be the first language here. We went for lunch at ‘Chai Wallah’ and had a Chai and some fantastic food. We ate too much but loved it all, it was so hard to stop. After lunch we wandered the shops and found a number of things we were tempted to buy but managed to resist on everything! We went to the markets there and picked up some limes and mint. We would have bought more but would not have eaten it. It was about 4pm so we thought we should start heading home. We had one stop along the way to go to a supermarket, before we got home and made dinner for James and Julie. I was noticing that my energy levels were getting quite low, like I was getting a bad cold and I was not wrong unfortunately. After dinner we just relaxed.

December 31^st

New Years eve, and we had a great day of touristing really. We were up at a decent time and caught the tube with Julie at about 7:30am. We hopped off at Notting Hill Gate. We were a little late for the bus we wanted to catch so went for a small walk to Hyde Park, then turned around and started to head back to the bus stop. But on our way back to the stop the bus went past which we thought we should be on. Unfortunately they did not stop, so we went to the bus stop to wait. A couple of minutes later I was looking across the road and thought that maybe we were on the wrong side of the road. Unfortunately a bus went by on that side. We were indeed on the wrong side. So we crossed over and waited for another 20 minutes until the next bus arrived. The bus ride up was good but we did not see anything overly exciting, just pretty English countryside. We arrived in Oxford just after 10:30am and after finding the information centre and a loo, we got on to a walking tour at 11am which went until just before 1pm. It was very interesting, although Em was skeptical about our tour guide – she thought he was making half of it up (he seemed a bit vague). We looked through the grounds of Trinity College and he explained that there are 38 colleges within the University, and each of the people within the college are taught at their college instead of going to lectures as such. It was very different to the university system we are used to, but basically they are taught by tutors within their college and most colleges offer most courses. The students do sit the same exams, set by the university though. Apart from the university landmarks he showed us the library which is one of the biggest in the world, the pub where Shakespeare used to drink and where Hamlet was first performed outside of London, as well as many other places and dropping names like Bill Clinton, and Tolkien. He also pointed out a few places where some of Harry Potter, and ‘Morse’ were filmed.

After the tour we went and had some lunch in 'The Crown Inn' where Shakespeare used to often drink, and had a nice lunch there. I was starting to get a little low on energy by this stage so it was nice to have a rest from the very cold day outside. After lunch we wandered around the cobbled streets some more, and went to the top of the big church in central Oxford to check out the view, which was pretty impressive across the old rooftops and spires, full of history. We decided we would go to the museum from here, but when we got there it was closed, so we wandered around the streets some more before we decided to head back to the bus stop and catch it back to London. When we got there we thought it had left, so went and got a cup of coffee in a cafe near by, only to see it pull up. We decided not to hurry and just catch the next one, but 10 minutes later it was still there so we finished off and got that one and headed back to London.

Oxford really was a cool place to visit, well worth the day outing. We would highly recommend it to anyone. Just the buildings alone we fantastic we thought. It would be even better if they were all open so you could visit inside (they just weren’t due to it being New Year’s).

We both had small sleeps on the way back, which was good, as it was dark by then. Once back in London we caught the tube back to James and Julie's house. Randomly two stops after we hopped on Julie hopped on to the carriage as well.

When we got home we helped rearrange their apartment as James' brother, Julie's sister and a couple of friends were coming over for New Years Eve. They arrived soon after 7pm, and after nibbles we had lasagne for dinner. Before dinner James and I opened up a bottle of Primator 24%. This is a beer we found in the Czech Republic when they joined us for two weeks in the van. We were only ever able to find 3 bottles, but Julie went to Prague in early December and found this one bottle. James saved it especially for our visit, so we thought that would be a good time to have it. It was still as tasty as ever.

It was a fun evening just sitting and chatting really. At midnight we put on the BBC to watch the countdown and the fireworks. We had debated about whether to go into central London for the fireworks but decided not to because of the huge crowds. We were pretty happy we made this decision. The fireworks were spectacular, but we had a good view of them on the TV.
Everyone left at about 1:30am, and after a clean up which did not take long we went to bed.

January 1^st, 2011

Happy New Year! It was a nice start to the new year with a sleep in until 11:30am. Julie made a cooked breakfast for us, then Em and I went into the west end with a plan of going to see the musical 'Wicked'. We got to the discount ticket places at 2:10pm and they did not have any and said we would have to go to the theatre so we rushed there, and got there at 2:25pm, got tickets and made it for the 2:30pm show so that was great. It was really, really good, and the two witches had incredible voices. We did not have the best seats (very high up and far from the stage) but still thoroughly enjoyed the show. It put a whole new slant on 'The Wizard of Oz' – it’s the story of how the Wicked Witch of the West became ‘Wicked’ (turns out she was actually really lovely :-)

After the show we headed back to James and Julies for dinner. After dinner we skyped Em's parents in Australia, then it was bed time. A pretty lazy start to the year, but we were happy with that.

Janaury 2^nd

We were up at a reasonable hour and after breakfast we went driving with James and Julie through Wimbledon, including going past the tennis centre which was cool to see. They took us to Richmond Park which was amazing. It was a huge park within London, 2360 acres! It used to be the Royal Hunting ground. We saw lots and lots of deer. It was so random to have something like this in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. We decided that if we lived in London this would definitely be a place we would be going to, especially on a nice day.

After dropping the car off we caught the tube into the city and all met up with Pram, Vani, and Jason at 1pm for Dim Sum. They took us to a place that they knew and it was brilliant. There was a bit of a wait, which is always a good sign. So we had a lovely time catching up with them and enjoying the delicious food that was on offer. Our London trips these days are never complete without Dim Sum (yum cha). After lunch we said our goodbyes and went to Abbey Rd, just to see what was there and what it was like. It was quite busy, and not that great either. We saw the studio and the crossing, but there was nothing much to see. Then we went for a walk and went past Lords cricket grounds, which left me wanting to go and see a test match there more than ever. We tried to go in but got stopped at the gate by a security guy so that was unsuccessful. It was starting to get quite late by this stage so we decided to catch the tube home, and have dinner. We just relaxed for the evening and enjoyed our last evening with our good friends before flying out in the morning.

January 3^rd

Em and I were up early and after saying goodbye we left by 7:10am. We had to catch a bus to the train station then that took us out to the airport. We made it without incident and with plenty of time to spare. Unlike our flight to London we departed on time and were back in Dublin just before 11am. After catching the bus to the car park we picked up the car and drove back to Limerick and back to the reality of work tomorrow. It was great to spend a week in London after having so many weekends there, we were able to get lots of things done that we had been putting off so that was good.

Photos: I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

milko_rosie — Mon, 3 Jan 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Berlin - The Race Is On!

milko_rosie — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Tuesday 21st September

The time to travel to Berlin had finally arrived. We worked the day as per normal. That night all we had to do was drive up to Dublin and stay the night there in the hotel where we were going to leave the car for the 5 days while we are away. We did not leave Limerick until 7:30pm but had a good trip up and got checked in to our hotel just after 10pm.

Wednesday 22nd

We were up at 7:30am and after a shower I went down the road to the petrol station and picked up some milk and a banana for our breakfast cereal. When I got back Em was ready and we had breakfast. Once we were done we dropped some extra stuff to the car boot, then we checked out of the hotel and caught the shuttle to the airport. We got there at 9am and after checking in, we went straight through security. This was painful as the line was long and there were only 2 counters open. We eventually got there. Once we were on the other side we had a quick look at duty free before wandering on down to our gate. We left Dublin at 10:45am and had a good flight over. We landed at 1:30pm German time (12:30pm Irish time).

After getting through customs without bother, we were out in the airport and at the info desk to get some tickets for the bus. We caught the bus to the nearest tube station and we caught the tube to Viktoria Louise Platz, the closest station to the apartment we were renting. When we arrived at Viktoria Louise Platz we were greated by a beautiful small park with a nice fountain in the middle. It was a beautiful neighbourhood, with tall, elegant terraced houses that reminded us of Paris. The whole neighbourhood had tress lining the streets. It was a beautiful afternoon which I am sure made it even more pleasant. We found our way to our apartment on Ansbacher Strasse and found the right button to press to talk tothe person we needed to contact to get the keys to our apartment. He also lived in an apartment in our block. He came out, and was a very friendly German man with pretty good English. He showed us our apartment which was very nice. We had a cool little door at the main entrance, then a small spiral staircase, up to our door. Inside the door was the kitchen / dining area which was small, but had everything we needed. Then there was a massive bathroom with a great big bath in it. Then there was our room, and at the end of the hall way was the lounge which had two fold out sofa beds in it. After we were settled in we thought we should make the most of the beautiful afternoon so got out and went for a walk around the neighbourhood. We found the small local supermarket, then wandered on down towards markets that we thought might be on. Unfortunately we were a little late, but that was okay. We had a look around some of the shops, bought some beautiful massive peaches, nectarines, and a pomegranate. On our way back towards our apartment we stopped in at liquor store and checked out the beer stocks which were brilliant. Then we went to the supermarket to get some supplies for the week. We got pasta, pasta sauce, and wurst (tasty German sausages) for our dinner, as well as green beans. The produce looked so good and was cheap in comparison to Ireland, and this was a little supermarket. We also got some delicious bread rolls. We got back and had some dinner, well lots of dinner. It was delicious! After dinner we had some fruit and planned what we wanted to do in Berlin and when we would do it. We felt like we had already been there for a long time, and not at work yesterday, so that was a good start to our holiday.

Thursday 23rd

We were up early, just after 6:15am so we could get an early start on our day ahead. After breakfast and showers we were out the door by just after 7:30am which was a good start. Again it was beautifully sunny, just a little crisp. We caught the tube into the station at Bradenburg Gate, and were greeted by the enormous stone arch when we walked up out of the station. Wow! Very impressive. And we were nice an early, so there were only 2 other people there, and no cars around, which was brilliant. We walked towards the Brandenburg Gate, and went to the Reichstagg, which is where Germany's parliament sits. It is a building full of history. We had heard there can be massive queues here so we got there early, and had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes, before going through security etc, but it was not bad at all. You get a lift up to the top storey where you pick up an audio guide and then go into the glass dome and walk around the roof. It was a brilliant view from up there, looking over the Teirgarten, which is massive! Tiergarten is a massive park in the middle of Berlin, about 1300 acres in size! It was a little hazy, but we could still see most things. The audio guide was good and explained different buildings on the sky line as you walked up the side of the glass dome along the spiralling ramp. After going to the top, and coming back down we went around the photos at the bottom, which included Eistein sitting in a gallery at Parliament one day, and then the burning of the building by Hitler which was one of the big events that lead to his dictatorship. After looking through those we felt like we had a better understanding of Germany's fight for freedom since WWII. We caught the lift back down and outside saw the queue was now about 30m long which would have meant about 1 to 1-1/2 hour wait. Crazy!

From here we decided it was time to get some morning tea and have a sit down before the start of the walking tour at 11am. We did not have much luck finding anything near so we went to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and both found a bite to eat there, before returning to Parisier Platz where the Brandenburg Gate is to sit on a bench seat and wait for the walking tour.

The walking tour was brilliant. It lasted for about 4 hours in total, including 20 minutes to stop for a snack and a drink. It started at the Brandenburg Gate, and then we went to the Reichstagg, and onto the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The tour then took us to the site of Hitler's Bunker, the Luftwaffe Headquarters, the Berlin Wall, the former SS Headquarters, Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt, Bebelplatz, The Book burning memorial, The Old Royal Boulevard, Neue Wache, the TV Tower, Museum Island, and finishing at the oberpfarr und domkirche zu berlin, the Berlin Cathedral. Here our guide told us about the fall of the Berlin wall and the events that took place in the days prior to this. It was a fantastic tour and we would highly recommend it to anyone. It really did illustrate the history of the city and how this is encorporated so much into todays current Berlin. These tours are "Free Walking Tours", and you can give a tip at the end to the guide, which everyone does. It's still a very cheap, very worthwhile experience.

By this stage we were starving, so we took some advice from our guide and walked for about half an hour to a nice Vietnamese restaurant which was very tasty. It was a hot day, probably about 25°c, so we were happy to get out of the sun for a while. Once we were done here we walked back via a few shops before going to the Pergamon Museum, which was free from 6pm. Wow, another massive museum. We both wanted to see this though, because we had been to the Greek ruins at Pergamon in Turkey. This had the massive steps and altar and a few other things from there, so it was cool to see. It was a little strange that it was indoors though. What was actually more impressive in this museum, was the stunning blue, yellow and red tiled, enormous gates of Babylon.

We were not done yet though, and caught the tube out to the hangars of the Berlin Templehof airport (a Hitler construction), which is very impressive, but no longer used as an airport. Just going to this was an experience in itself. The hangars were huge, and there were 5 of them filled with displays and shops where the marathon registration was. It took quite a while to get to the registration desk, just because of the distance you had to walk. I eventually completed all of this and after a small walk around we went back to the tube station and went back to our apartment. It was after 9pm when we got back, what a massive day! Out of the house for nearly 14 hours. We picked up some food from our local supermarket then went back, cooked and ate this up before relaxing for a while, then going to bed.

Friday the 24th

We were out of our apartment by just after 8am. We caught the tube to the East Side Gallery, which is a 1.3km stretch of the wall which is still standing. It has 110 paintings, and was painted in 1990. It was very cool to see and there were some great paintings. We were there for about an hour, then we tubed into the city. We wandered through some streets lined with shops and browsed through these for a while before going to have a look in a shopping centre near the Sony Centre. When we got out we noticed we had missed a call from Dirk and Tina, friends of ours who used to live in Ireland, but are German, and moved back to Germany in 2009. They are the friends we bought Sven, our campervan, from. They rang to let us know they had arrived with their two gorgeous boys Tom and Finn, so we tubed back to the apartment as quickly as we could. After getting their stuff in to the apartment we went for a walk and ended up walking to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church. On the way there we had stopped and had a wurst which was very tasty. The Kaiser Wilhelm church was completed in 1885. During WWII it was badly damaged, however it has not been repaired and now stands, with it's broken spire, as a memorial to the ravages of war.

From here we walked around the outside of the Zoo and into the Tiergarten park. At about 5pm we caught the tube back to our apartment. We stopped in at the supermarket and picked up a few bits, then the girls went and got Turkish takeaways for dinner. Wow, they did a great job. They went back to the area Em and I had wandered around during our first afternoon here and managed to find a Turkish takeaways with lots of people there, so went with that. It was fantastic! So filling. We all went to bed at around 10pm.

Saturday the 25th

We got up and had breakfast. It was an overcast day but it was not raining to start off with. We wandered to a nearby playground so Tom and Finn could have a play on some swings. Of course you have to play with them on the swings and seesaws, so we also had fun there. Then we walked back to the local market which we had not yet been to. It was so good, so much nice fresh fruit and veg, bread, cheese and so much nice food generally. We had a few small tasters. Once we were done here we tubed into the city and walked outside the Reichstagg. From here we wandered towards the Brandenburg Gate, as this is where the marathon start / finish line was. It was the inline skaters turn today, so there were quite a few around doing warm ups. While we were watching the rain started so we decided to head back to the apartment. Dirk, Tina and the kids hit the road at about 3:30pm. It was so great that they were able to come and visit and to catch up with them.

After they had left Em and I walked back to the markets, Em got some dinner, and I got some fresh orange juice. Em's dinner was delicious moussaka, so tasty! I had woken up this morning with a sore throat which is not what I wanted considering it is the marathon tomorrow, so was trying everything to get rid of it. We went to the supermarket and picked up stuff for my dinner and a few German beers (for after the marathon), then back to the apartment. When we got back I was quite cold so had a bath and relaxed for a while. At about 6pm I went for a 20 minute run, which was just to give the legs a little work before the last big meal before the race. After I came back we had dinner, then relaxed. We had an early night as it was going to be an early start in the morning.

Sunday the 26th

RACE DAY! I was up just after 6am, and finished breakfast by 6:30am. The morning was run to clockwork really, as I was trying to make sure I did everything at the right time before the race. We left the apartment about 7:15am and tubed into the city. This went okay. It was still quite dark, but it was generally an overcast, drizzly day.There was quite a few people around at the tube station with a general buzz around. As we got nearer to the Brandenberg gate, the crowd got bigger and bigger. It was about 8am when I said goodbye to Em and went into the runners area. I went and changed into my running gear and then did a small warm up before using the toilet (massive queues), then heading to the start line. This was about 2km away I think, so took a while to get to. I ended up doing a slow jog to make sure I made it on time. When I got to the start line I start the get a better idea of the size of the race. I was in the second group of people, so there were probably only 500 people in front of me. There were 40,000 runners. The start line was a 4 lane road and it was shoulder to shoulder, and went back about 1km from the start!

There was light drizzle when the race started, at 9am. The first 10km was hard work, because there were so many people around. The drinks stops were packed and dangerous with people stopping and tripping over, but I managed to get through them. By the half way mark I was going well and it was starting to get a little thinner so that was good. I had not seen Em. I eventually saw her at about the 25km mark, waving and cheering like a lunatic. I gave her a hi-five as I ran past. She had planned to get to a couple of places on the course, but after the start she had to do a long walk to get the tube station so only had time to get to one place. From there she went back to get a place near the finish line.

The rain came and went. It was nice conditions really, as it was quite cool. At about 35km I started to feel tired and the last couple of kilometres were especially hard work. I think it was mainly due to not being able to do as many long runs in my build up as I was hoping to (because I got so many colds during training). Just before the Brandenburg gate I saw Em in the crowd again. From here it was still about 400m, which was tough - it feld like a long 400m. I finished in 2:52:22, which I was happy with. It is strange, because I ran across the finish line, then you try and slow down slowly. I got slightly light headed but that passed, then it was hard work just to try and walk! After getting a plastic sheet to wrap around myself which was great to keep me warm, I went into the finishers area. Erdinger, a beer, was one of the sponsors. There was non-alcoholic beer there, which was really the last thing I wanted. After getting some water and fruit I slowly made my way to pick up my bag. It was good because it was still quiet in this area. After getting changed out of my soaking wet running gear into some dry clothes I made my way to meet Em. It was all quite hard work. She got me a hot chocolate and I had more water, then a wurst, then we watched for a little while. By about 1pm I think we decided to head home as I was wrecked, freezing and it was all hard work. We caught the tube home which was good apart from the steps down and up from the stations. When we got home we just relaxed, I had a bath, and relaxed. At about 6pm we went out for dinner to a traditional restaurant just around the corner from our apartment and had a fantastic dinner. It was so good. I had my first beer with dinner and very much enjoyed that as well as the tasty german food. After dinner we wandered back home and went to bed.

Monday the 27th

We were up earlish as we had to tidy up the apartment and get our things packed as it was time to head home. We left the apartment at 8:30am. Unfortunately it was raining, so the 500m walk to the tube station was not too good with all our bags. I was quite sore, but could walk. After the tube we had a small bus ride to the airport which all went smoothly. We left with plenty of time because we needed to factor in my slow walking. Once we checked in we went through to the other side. Here was quite entertaining as you could see a lot of people hobbling around the place and loooking in all sorts of discomfort because they had obviously also run the marathon yesterday. It was quite entertaining. We left a rainy Berlin and 2 hours later touched down into a sunnny Dublin! Amazing to come back to Ireland and see the sun when we left the rain. After getting a shuttle to our car park we picked up the car and headed back to Limerick.

It was a great experience to do a race like that, not sure if I will do another big marathon like that though, just so many people. Berlin was a great city, one of our favourites in Europe really. Well worth going to. Germany is generally one of our favourite countries, if we could speak the language I am sure we would fit in quite well there - great food, lovely people, nice relaxed culture, and very efficient!

Photos: Berlin - The Race Is On!

milko_rosie — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:30:00 GMT

Back into Irish Life

milko_rosie — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:42:00 GMT

It's hard to believe that it is coming up to six months since we arrived back in Ireland. We had a reasonably quick settling in period when we arrived. We landed on March 25^th, and after Em had a few troubles with the lady at customs (as she did not know anything about the Visa Em was coming to Ireland on), we were met by Eva and Shane. Eva is an Occupational Therapist that Em works with. We had arranged that we would live with them when we got back. It was so nice being met and knowing we had somewhere to go. I had a job interview the next morning, which went well enough as I was offered, and of course accepted, a physiotherapy job. It is the same as my last job here, working with kids with disabilities, but at a different centre, Newcastle West. It is only 30 minutes drive which is great. We had our car a couple of days later, and that had also been prearranged. It was a shock really to be back in the cold weather, especially as it rained a lot. Still we got used to that quickly.

I started work on the 12^th of April. It was nice to be back and working really. Em started a week and a half later, but on a volunteer basis as she was still waiting on her work Visa to be processed. Unfortunately the immigration department was on a "work to rule" strike, and there was a massive back log of applications. However she was lucky and got it approved quite quickly in the end.

I had a lovely birthday on April 17^th, especially as it was Saturday. We had bacon, bananas, and pancakes for breakfast. The night before we had been to a Ceili (Irish set dance) in Co. Clare, about 1 hours' drive away. It was amazing. A spectacle of 'river dancers' really, from age 5 to about 75. It was brilliant to watch, but not really something you could join in on. After the first bar of music everyone knew the tune and away they went. Still after a midnight supper, which were delicious sandwiches, Em got up and danced a set which was entertaining for Eva, Shane, and I, but she did well, and managed to get to the right place at the right time.

For my birthday we had a drive to Portumna, a small town about 1 ½ hours away. It was a nice sunny day, but with the Spring chill in the air. We had a walk around the town, then lunch out (a great seafood chowder) before going for a walk in the nature reserve there. We had picked up rack of lamb, so had those for dinner which was delicious.

At the start of May we had a long weekend and went up to Eva's parents house in Co. Leitrim. It was her sisters 21^st, and there were great celebrations planned. Eva's family live on a good Irish farm. Generally speaking Irish farms are on the small side of farms, compared to NZ anyway. They have bog on their land from which they cut turf to burn on the fire over the winter. It was a great weekend, and we were treated to Mammy (the Irish equivalent of Mum) Gildea's cooking. She taught Em how to make brown and white soda breads, which Em has been practising since then.

On May 19^th we went up to Dublin to see Mark Knopfler play which was brilliant. It was even a nice evening, so we had a nice wander around the river Liffey before going to the concert. He played a good mixture of Dire Straits and solo songs, including more recent songs which were very Irish sounding, using pipes and tin whistles. We really enjoyed it.

On Friday the 21^st our friends James and Julie who currently live in London came across from a weekend, and we were treated to spectacular weather. On the Friday night we picked them up and took them to the Curragower for a trad session and of course a Guiness for James. It was a good night. We left at close, which was about 1am, and came home. On Saturday the sun was shining brightly and we got into the mid 20s. We had a nice day up in Galway. We wandered around the water, then through the town. After fish and chips for lunch, (which were disappointing) we went further north for a short drive. It got us into some more rugged Irish countryside and we were able to show James and Julie a bog and the turf that they cut. After stopping to dip the feet in the Atlantic Ocean, which was freezing, we got in the car and headed back to Limerick. We were all pretty wrecked from the day, so did not stay up late.

Sunday took us to Co. Cork to the Blarney Stone. Again it was beautiful day, so we had a lovely morning walking around the grounds of the Blarney Castle, and of course kissing the Stone. Still no effect for either Em or I (we're supposed to now have the 'gift of the gab'). On our way back to Limerick we took a diversion and went to the Grange Stone circle, which is older than Stone Henge. When we got back home James was keen for one last Guiness in Ireland, so we walked down to the pub, and sat outside! It was a lovely afternoon, and the pub up the road was in the sun and had a band, so we stopped in the there for a drink as well on the way home. They left early Monday morning, but the great weather luckily did not go with them.

The following weekend we went north to Co. Mayo, to Castlebar. We arrived early afternoon and wandered around the town before we went to our B&B and had tea and biscuits, then went into town. We had come to Castlebar because Crowded House were playing that night. It was a little strange going to see a NZ band in Ireland, but it was a great concert. It was the loudest, most animated Irish crowd we have seen at any concert we have been to. People were up out of their seats dancing. They were given beers from the crowd. It was all going well until one guy bought up 4 Guiness' and was handing the tray to Neil Finn, but proceeded to spill them all over the mixing equipment, which called a small halt to the evening. Still once that was cleaned up it was fine.

The next day we drove to Westport, which is a lovely town, and usually a tourist hot spot. It was quiet being a Sunday morning, but nice to have a wander around in. From here we drove further west and then south. We drove past Croagh Patrick, which is a mountain named after St Patrick. Every year on St Patrick's day there is a pilgrimage up to the top of the mountain, and if you a really dedicated you do it in barefeet! We decided we should take a walk and climbed to the top. It was not high, nowhere in Ireland is. But the top third was tough going because it was all very loose gravel. It gave us a stunning view from the top, and we were happy we had taken advantage of the beautiful day that we had. After having lunch, we thought we should start to head toward Limerick. We had a beautiful drive through Connemara, surrounded by big hills and water along one side of us. We were back in rugged West Ireland countryside. It was nice driving. We ended up getting back to Limerick after 7pm.

The following weekend was another long weekend, June bank holiday weekend. Em and I were up early on Saturday morning, and out to the airport as we headed across to London. We landed over there just after 8am, and after managing to negotiate tube closures we made it to my cousins house near Great Portland St, about 3 blocks from Oxford St. After having tea with Pram and Vani, we went out for lunch, back to the fantastic Indian restaurant that Pram took us to last year. It was brilliant. After eating too much we had a wander through a few shops, before going back to their apartment. We said our goodbyes there and Em and I went about trying to get to my friend Cath's place in Whitechapel. We made it there and just stayed in for the evening.

On Sunday morning we headed into the city to do some shopping. We thought we were late, but being a Sunday we were in there before the shops even opened. After wasting some time we had a good look around the shops, before heading to China Town for Yum Cha, which was delicious. After a little more shopping we went to the musical 'Stomp' which was brilliant. It was a percussion musical where they used everyday things
(e.g. brooms, rubbish bins, basketballs, packets of matches) for a performance that lasted more than 1 hour. It was entertaining. We had dinner out as well, before heading back to Caf's for the evening. We left London early Monday morning and flew back to Shannon, and we had a day at home.

The beautiful sunny weather we had in May continued through June as well. It was sunny and hot almost every day. We planted a vege garden. Shane had seed potatoes, and sprouted Onions, and planted lettuce seeds, so we got those into the garden.

July and August have flown by really. Unfortunately the normal 'summer' set in and the rain started and was pretty consistent.

At the start of August we had the last of our summer bank holidays, so we decided to head to West Cork, a part of the country we had not been to before, but one that lots of Irish people love.

We had a early start on Saturday morning, the 7^th of August, we headed towards Cork, and then on to Kinsale from there. It was a busy little town. It is another tourist spot, and was nice, but we did not feel like it was anything special. From there we headed further west to Timoleague. We were now driving along the southern coast line of Ireland and it was very nice. We ended up getting to Timoleague late afternoon so we went to our B&B and checked in, and had a cup of tea, before heading to Clonakilty for dinner. Clonakilty is the home of black and white pudding, and it was a beautiful little town. We had a delicious dinner here. We were aiming to go to some trad music but we were both pretty tired, so went back to the B&B for some much needed sleep.

Sunday was a big day of driving. First of all we had a great breakfast. I had an 'All Irish' which is eggs, sausages, bacon, tomatoes, and black and white pudding. Since we were near the home of pudding I thought I should try it and it was suprisingly tasty. With a big meal to start the day we hit the road. We passed through Inchydoney, Leap (pronounced Lep) and onto Baltimore, which was at the end of a pennisula, but was not really much, which was a little disappointing. We continued further west from here and went to Mizen Head, the southern most point of the Irish mainland. Here there is a lighthouse that you can usually walk out to, but the bridge was being rebuilt so that was disappointing. When we arrived here it was quite foggy, but thankfully that blew over so we could admire the view. The rest of our day was spent driving, and we passed through Bantry, Glengariff, and down the Beara Pennisula to a B&B near the Dursey Island Cable car. This place was remote, really remote. Narrow roads, and not many people around, but it was such a refreshing place to be. We had to drive to Allihies for dinner, then went back to our B&B for the evening.

Monday was another big day of driving. It turns out our plans were a little ambitious in terms of covering so much ground over 3 days, but still it was a nice weekend away. We drove north from our B&B to Kenmare, where we had been before. They we drove further northeast, before going over a mountain pass that was literally like a narrow driveway. Single lane, grass up the middle. It was 25km over the mountains. It was great a great drive. The aim of our drive was to get to Gougane Barra, a national park, where there was a little church on the lakeside. It was recommended by someone at my work, so we went there. It was a very cool little place, although a little hard to find. In the end we made it, and had a nice walk and picnic lunch there. From there we drove home via some back roads in County Cork, and then on up to Limerick. The weekend was a good taster of West Cork, and there were definitely places to go back to.

August and September have been quiet enough. We have stayed home for most weekends. We have both been busy with work, and it feels like we have never left. I have been busy training for the Berlin Marathon, which is now just 2 weeks away, and Em has also been running almost every day. The rain has started, and the autumn colours are starting to creep across the trees. The days are much shorter as well, a sure sign that Winter is creeping up on us.

Photos: Back into Irish Life

milko_rosie — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:44:00 GMT

Sawa dee ka ..... from Bangkok

milko_rosie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Wednesday 17^th March

After having a good sleep in, as we did not get to our hotel until nearly 3am local time we got up, had showers, and had a coffee (powdered, with powdered ‘whitener’), then got things together before heading out and about. On our way out of our hotel we got a map from reception and asked about the protests that were going on in Bangkok by the 'Red Shirts'. Once we had this information (on where to avoid) we were prepared to hit the streets. Our first goal was to find food, as it was almost lunchtime. The temperature was in the mid 30's, so pretty hot, but the sun was not that strong as it was clouded by the pollution.

We walked for about 5 minutes before seeing office workers walking towards us with small bags of food, and crowds heading the same direction as us, so we went with the flow and found a great street market with lots of different food stalls, selling lunch for 20 – 30Thai Baht (about $1NZD). We had a delicious lunch here, then got back on the streets.

After a short walk we came across a group of the 'Red Shirts' who were protesting in Bangkok against the current government. We had been told by our hotel that they were safe, so we were not really alarmed. They created a party atmosphere, it was like a big parade. They were in cars, utes, motorbikes, with loud music playing, and people cheering. We spent about 15 minutes watching before getting back to our exploring.

From here we walked through Lumpini Park, and saw big (1-2metre) olive-green, slow-moving lizards on the edge of the river and in the river. Then from here we went into a more central part of Bangkok and explored the alleyways lined with stalls of everything you could possibly buy. It was a lot of fun. After having an ice cream sundae we caught the skytrain to Asok. This was the area of the city that we knew there were a lot of tailors around. I wanted to get a couple of suits made, and Em thought she may get some dresses made. We went into a couple of shops that we had read about on an internet forum. After learning a bit in these shops (mainly that we felt the ‘tailors’ were fairly dodgy, pushy salesmen) we kept on moving. After five shops we accidentally went into one which was really good. It was only small but they had great fabrics, were owned by a husband and wife who spoke great English, and they were very reasonably priced. After having a good look we left to think about it and make sure our judgment was not clouded as we were both getting quite tired.

So we walked back to the hotel, and then went down on to one of the street food stalls and had pork and noodles in broth which was very tasty. By the time we got back to the hotel it was after 9pm, so we had showers to wash off the grit and pollution before heading to bed.

Thursday 18^th March

We were out of the hotel just after 9am which was a good start. We went to the markets near our hotel and had an interesting breakfast which consisted of cooked banana in coconut milk and sticky rice cook with banana in it wrapped in a banana leaf, as well as fresh fruit juice. Once we had eaten we walked back to the last tailor we were at yesterday, as this was the one we had chosen. After choosing fabrics I got measured up for a couple of suits and shirts, and Em got measured up for a skirt. It was good fun, but a little nerve wracking. We would just have to wait and see if we had made a good choice of tailor.

Once we were finished we had some fresh fruit from a street stall. The fruit stalls were everywhere – a little cart with glass compartments filled with ice, and freshly cut tropical fruits, all covered by an umbrella. For about 50 cents, you got a big serving of pineapple, mango, pawpaw, or melon in a small plastic bag with a wooden skewer to eat it with. We thought it would be a good idea to go to the Bangkok Royal Palace, so we tried to catch a tuk-tuk (a 3-wheel motorbike taxi, with a little carriage on the back that you sit in) over to the palace, but we were unsuccessful. We got a taxi, and it took us to the gates. We were walking to buy our tickets to get in, but were told it was the monks day and it does not open to the public until 3pm. We were then asked if we wanted to go somewhere else, after a couple of minutes thought we got on a tuk-tuk, that was conviniently there to take us to where we wanted to go. It started off well, we had fun being on a tuk-tuk and going to see the standing buddha which was massive (covered in gold leaf and about 3 or 4 storeys tall). But that is as much as we got to see, because we were then taken to a tailor, a jewellery shop, another tailor, a craft shop, and one other I think. By this time we had had enough and told our driver to take us back, much to his disgust. The drivers get petrol vouchers for bringing tourists to certain shops. We really had fallen for a scam here, still it was not too bad, just frustrating. Anyway we got back to the palace, and tried to get a taxi, but none of them would take us anywhere without taking us to any shops as well. So we ended up walking for almost an hour and ended up walking through a massive fruit and vege market, and then into the 'Indian' part of the city. We had a wander around some of the stalls before stopping in at a food place to have a curry for a late lunch. After lunch we looked at more stalls, which ranged from cookware to towels to jewellery. We explored the shops until it was dark, then we caught a taxi back to our hotel. Neither of us were hungry, so we just had lovely fresh fruit for dinner and relaxed for the evening.

Friday 19^th March

Our day started the same today, stopping off at the markets for breakfast. This morning we had vegetarian samosas, chicken skewers, fresh juice, and fresh fruit which cost 60THB (less than $3NZD). After we had eaten we caught the skytrain to the snake farm, based at the Red Cross. It is here that they extract the venom from many different species of snakes, then dilute it and inject into horses to make anti venom to treat anyone that has a snake bite. We saw more than 50 different species including king cobras, vipers and pythons. While we were there we got to see a demonstration of extracting the snake venom which was cool to see.

From here we caught the subway and went to the Golden Buddha. It was quite spectacular. A buddha made out of 5tonnes of solid gold. Quite a sight. The temple that the buddha was housed in was amazing, with such intricately carved decoration all over the outside of the marble temple. Once we were finished there we caught the subway into the city centre, had lunch, then went and had a look around some stalls. We finished here mid afternoon and headed back to the hotel to have a break.

At 6:30pm we walked down to the end of our road and went to the night markets. These are permanent stalls set up over a large area, and have lots of different thing for sale. We had a look around for about an hour, then had dinner there – some yummy phad thai stir-fried noodles. After dinner we looked for another couple of hours, before calling it a night there. We had only really looked through half the market as well. We had purchased a few clothes and a small suitcase so that was fun. We walked back to the hotel with our purchases and went to bed.

Saturday 20^th March

We were up early and across to the markets. For breakfast we had coconut pancakes, deep fried banana and taro, and fruit. Not our best one, but it was okay. After breakfast we went to the tailors to have our first fittings. They looked to be coming together well. The shirts fitted well, and the jackets were coming together well. The sleeves were separate from the jacket body, and there were white chalk-marks and tacking stitches across the chest of the jacket. Em's skirt was also coming together nicely as well. We were finished after about half an hour, so we caught the skytrain out to the weekend markets. Seeing them from the train was impressive. They were massive, nothing like the night markets. There were over 9000 stalls there. We shopped for a couple of hours before having a lunch-stop mid afternoon. It was very, very hot and muggy, especially in the covered areas. After our noodles, we got back into the shopping again. Em had much more shopping energy than me. I was finished by late afternoon but Em was enjoying herself so we stuck around for a while longer. It was an amazing sight, so many stalls and a lot of people. We were told by one of the locals that more than half a million people can go through the markets in a weekend.We left the markets with our hands full. It was good fun with the bartering, but often hard work. Lucky we’d bought the extra suitcase the day before to fit all our extra clothes and gifts into.

We caught the skytrain back to our markets, where we bought ourselves dinner, and took it back to our hotel, where we ate and relaxed.

Sunday 21^st March

We were up early to go to the markets for breakfast, but they weren't there on Sunday so we went to a 7/11 and got a couple of horrible, mega-processed things there (e.g. sweet bread rolls in plastic wrappers which last for 3 months). At 9am we were picked up to be taken to our cooking class that we had booked at Baipai cooking school. The class was at a cooking school in a residential area. It looked very well set up so we were excited to be there. In our class there were eight people including us, and we had a chef and an assistant to take us for our class.

It was a busy four hours, we cooked chicken wrapped in leaves then marinated and deep-fried, which was a very tasty entrée. Next we made SomTum, which is green papaya salad, but has sweet and savoury ingredients – we left out the fish sauce and dried shrimps, and liked this much more than what we’d tried at the markets. We ate those two dishes, then moved onto cooking prawns which were nice. Our main was duck red curry which was easy and so tasty. The red curry paste we made from scratch in big mortar and pestles. We enjoyed the main with rice and a drink, and that concluded our class. We were then taken back to our hotel. It was a great cooking class. The chef and his assistant were very funny and extremely helpful. They really did make the class so enjoyable. It was a great experience.

On Sundays everything else is closed so we just relaxed in the hotel for the afternoon and watched movies. We went for a walk in the evening, and were going to go to a foodcourt, but found a supermarket so picked up a couple of things there for dinner.

Monday 22^nd March

We were awake at 6am to get ready for our day trip. We had breakfast in our room today, then were picked up at 7am by our tour bus. The trip was out to Ayathhaya to see the ancient city and a few other things out there.

We arrived at the ancient city at about 8:30am, which was good because it was a little cooler and there were not as many people there. Our guide told us the story of the city and how this used to be the Capital of Thailand. The ancient city is no longer really standing, there are just ruins everywhere. We spent about an hour there, then moved on to a temple where there was a large buddha. From here we went to the Summer Palace, a residence used by the Royal family of Thailand. It was beautiful gardens everywhere and grand buildings. There were amazing animal toparies around the grounds as well (e.g. elephants, cobras, rabbits). Thankfully that finished our exploring, it was lunchtime, and very hot. There was not a lot of smog around, which meant that out in the sun was extremely hot.

We left the Summer palace and had a 45 minute drive to a boat, where we were taken back to Bangkok during a 2 hour river cruise. We had lunch onboard the boat as well. The river was not nice at all, filthy, but it was nice to see the stilt houses on the edge of the river and other such things. Once we were back at the dock we were picked up and taken back to our hotel.

In the early evening we had another visit to the tailor for possibly the last visit. It went really well. The suits and shirts fitted me beautifully and I was really happy with the quality of them. Em's skirt also turned out really well. Once we were finished there, we took the clothes back to the hotel, then we caught the skytrain to the Paragon shopping centre. Our tour guide from today recommended the food court here, and it was spectacular. The choice was amazing, and it was reasonably priced as well. After eating too much we had a quick look around the mall, but were both pretty tired, so headed back to our hotel and called it a day.

Tuesday 23^rd March

Today was our last day in Bangkok really. Our day started the same as most of the others, we went across to our markets and got breakfast which was fresh fruit, chicken, rice, and fruit juice. Once we were done eating we caught the skytrain to the MBK shopping centre. Yes, more shopping! We spent about 4 hours here, and made a couple of purchases, before stopping for lunch. After lunch we skytrained to Asok, and went to a Thai massage day spa that had been recommended by a couple on our cooking class. It did not disappoint. We had 1 hour massages. It was slightly painful, but left us both feeling nice and relaxed. After doing trigger point type massage and stretches, they picked us up on their feet and rolled us backwards to stretch our backs. It was quite unexpected, especially given the size of the little ladies giving us the massage.

Once we were done there we slowly walked back towards our hotel. Before getting there we went to the markets and picked up some of our favourite foods for our last dinner. We took it back to the hotel and ate there, before getting into packing our bags. This was a little harder than coming to Bangkok given our purchases but we got there.

Wednesday 24^th March

We were up at 5:30am, and were picked up by our taxi at 6:15am to get out to Bangkok airport. We had breakfast at the airport, before catching our 9:30am flight to London via Dubai. That ended our time in Bangkok. We both loved it. Great food, lots to do, and we had fun with the shopping which seemed to dominate our stay. A little different from the travelling we have experienced in the past, but none the less very enjoyable!

Photos: Sawa dee ka ..... from Bangkok

milko_rosie — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT