To Be Sure, To Be Sure

So, my time in Ireland is almost done sadly, and I've had a lovely time here in the land of the green. I don't want to leave! Two and a half weeks is not enough here, just a piece of advice!

So my time started out with a few days in Dublin, staying with Conor that I met in New Zealand, and meeting his friends and having a good old time. He took me on an excellent walking tour of the city, and all the sights, including enjoying the view from the top of the Guinness storehouse with a fresh pint of the dark stuff. Delicious. We went out to their favourite pub for some drinks, and I had a night out on the town, local's style. It was great craic! (Means fun)



One day he also took me out sightseeing to places around Dublin. We went to Newgrange, which is this old tomb that pre-dates the pyramids in Egypt. It's over 5000 years old, and it's very special because it's built so that every year on the Winter Solstice, at dawn when the sun rises over the horizon, it travels through this small passage in the stone to the center of the tomb, and illuminates the small burial chamber in there for about 15 minutes, before it moves on and leaves the tomb in darkness again. We got to go in and see a stimulation of that with lights, but the real thing must be absolutely amazing to see.


Newgrange

Next we went out to a small town called Trim to see an old castle, and one of the best preserved ones in Ireland. It still had a lot of the outer defense wall, and the actual castle had been well restored. We wandered around there for a while before heading back to Dublin.


Trim Castle

From there I left Dublin to head up to Belfast in Northern Ireland. I had plans to do some cool sightseeing, as that is where the Titanic was built, and there's lots to see regarding that in the town. But that's where I finally hit true Ireland, and it absolutely poured rain the entire time I was there, so I was holed up in the hostel in the evenings mostly. But I did a day trip bus tour up to the North Coast, and had lovely weather for that which was excellent.

On the tour we went north to visit a famous rope bridge that connects to a small island so fisherman can get out there to have better access to migrating salmon routes. It was a bit scary, but much smaller than the Cap Suspension Bridge in Vancouver! After that we went to the Giant's Causeway, which is a stunning naturally formed landmark of Northern Ireland. It's a small peninsula of thousands of hexagonal basalt columns that rise out of the earth at varying heights. It was formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago, or you can believe the Irish tale, that a Giant tore up a stone bridge that used to connect Scotland and Ireland so that another giant couldn't come and attack him, since he wouldn't be able to cross the water. Whichever tale you choose to believe is up to you...


Northern Ireland coastline near the rope bridge

Giant's Causeway

Close up of a section of the basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway.

Next we went to the historical town of Derry, where on Bloody Sunday, British soldiers fired into a crowd of peaceful protesters and killed 13 people. It's only been very recently that the troubles between Ireland and Northern Ireland and Britain have finally come to peaceful terms and agreements. The U2 song "Bloody Sunday" is about this event. In the town there are a bunch of large political murals painted on buildings, and there are memorials to the people that died that day.


Political mural in Derry.

After Belfast I headed back into Ireland and over to the West Coast to Galway. That's such a cool city. It's right on the water and has lovely public access to the beach and ocean, and cute little multicoloured painted houses. The city center is around a nice park, and there are loads of awesome pubs!


Galway

From there I headed south to the tiny town of Doolin. All that the town consists of is B&B's, a deli, a few souvenir shops, and 4 pubs. I had the best time here, and it's probably been my favourite stop in Ireland. I went out to the pubs both nights I was there, and had a great time meeting people and listening to the traditional Irish music. It was so neat because people would just show up with their instruments and form a group and break out some wicked tunes. Such awesome music too. There was a bit of a break in the rain on one afternoon and I went out and had a nice little walk around and explored the area around the town. That is what I always pictured Ireland to be like. Small little roads lined with rock walls, houses interspersed amongst fields of wheat and cattle, rolling green hills and beautiful ocean views. Perfection!




Doolin is a great stop because it's only 10 minutes away from the famous Cliffs of Moher, 200 meter straight cliff faces that drop into the Atlantic Ocean. I went out there and had about 15 minutes of nice weather before it turned sour and started to rain. It was so windy up on the cliffs that it was actually blowing me over, and it was nearly impossible to walk into the wind. Crazy!


Cliffs of Moher

From Doolin I went further south to the town of Dingle on the Dingle peninsula. Not much happening there, but it was a cute little town to stay in for one night, and the weather was lovely in the afternoon so I went for a walk along the coast. There was a tiny castle in ruins, and a lot of sheep. Lovely walk.




After Doolin I went to Killarney, which is a good base town to do the famous driving route called the Ring of Kerry. It is a day trip to do around the Iveragh peninsula in Southwest Ireland, and I had a beautiful day when I did my bus trip. We stopped at a few towns around the ring, and saw some lovely scenery.


View of Killarney National Park from the Ladies' View Lookout

Next up was Cork, and I have had a great time here. I've stayed with some friends that I met in New Zealand when I was staying with my friend Evie, and they even came out and did touristy stuff with me this weekend! On Saturday we went out to Blarney and went to the castle. Of course I had to kiss the Blarney stone, although I haven't noticed an improvement in the eloquence of my language since then. Maybe the gift of gab from the stone only applies once you leave Ireland.. Hmm... I'll choose to believe that.


Dusk in Cork City.


Blarney castle and kissing the Blarney stone. In case you don't know, you have to hang upside down on your back over the wall of the castle to kiss the stone. Totally awkward and pretty scary! But I loved it.

Yesterday we went to the wildlife park nearby, and then out to the tiny town of Cobh, (pronounced Cove) which was the last stop of the Titanic before it headed out to cross the Atlantic. It's also where we figure my great great grandfather left Ireland to come to Canada from. There must be a rule in the town that states that no two houses on the same street maybe be the same colour though. It was pretty cool.

So, my time in Ireland is ending, and so is my trip! I head back to Dublin today and then fly back to London tomorrow. I have another few nights there and then I come home on Thursday. It's hard to believe my trip is over, since it feels like this has almost become a way of life for me now. But I'm eager to be home and see all my friends and family again, and to have a semi-normal life again for a change.

I hope that you'll all get in touch with me so that we can meet up! I miss you all!
See you soon!

Crepes and Haggis!

I know you all have been eagerly awaiting another blog entry...(harhar) so here you go. All about my adventures in Paris and Scotland!

I had a full week to spend in Paris and absolutely loved every minute of it. I had been a little worried since I had heard mixed reviews of the city from many traveller's I've met along the way, but I ended up having nothing to worry about.

On my first day I took a walking tour of the city and saw most of the big sites. Although they are very spread out so I didn't get to see most of them from up close, and I had to go back to most of them later on anyway. But some of the information on the tour was great, and I got a few inside tips on things to do in the city.

I took advantage of the free Friday nights at the Louvre, and headed there the next day after spending that day updating my blog (last time) and walking around the Luxembourg gardens. I thought that the four hours wasn't going to be enough, but I had seen enough after about three. The place is freakin huge, but I didn't look at the Egyptian stuff since that doesn't interest me, and I blew past tons of paintings that just aren't my style. In fact, most of the stuff in the Louvre isn't my kind of art. But the sculpture gardens and galleries were amazing, and I really enjoyed those.



Of course I went and found the big things like the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Those were cool to see if only just because they are super famous. The Mona Lisa was actually BIGGER than I expected, because of always hearing that it is smaller, I expected it to be the size of a piece of paper or something, but it was about the size of a poster I guess, if you include the frame. Not that small really. I don't really see the big deal about it to be honest. Sure, she's got a bit of a smirk on her face, but it's really only so famous because for some reason Da Vinci called it his greatest work and carried it around everywhere with him for a long time. Weird. The Venus de Milo was very cool though, and I didn't realise that actually had legs! For some reason I thought it stopped about the thighs or something. I don't know.



Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo

I spent the next day fulfilling another of my life dreams, having a picnic on the lawn in front of the Eiffel tower. I spent about 4 hours there just taking it in, people watching and relaxing, and reading my book. I didn't want to leave, but the weather had started to take a turn so I did. Even after travelling for this long it still almost feels like it's not real sometimes, and it's all a dream. That was one of those times. It was hard to believe I was actually in Paris. I didn't really feel like I was until I was there at the tower. I had a great day there.



The next day was the first Sunday of the month, and lucky me, that means that all the museums in Paris were free that day. I took full advantage of that and went to the Musee D'Orsay, which is so much more my type of place than the Louvre. It was full of Monets, Manets, Signac, Picasso, Degas, van Goghs and so much more. I spent so long in there and looked at every single thing they had! Absolutely stunning pieces of art. Next I walked to another museum near the Louvre that holds all of Monet's Water Lily series. Those completely surprised me because I had no clue that those were all massive, long murals. I guess you only ever see bits of them in books and stuff, so to see them being 20-35 feet long was a surprise. Breathtaking pieces though, and really interesting to look at, because close up they don't look like much at all, kind of a mess really. But standing back to take in the whole thing is when they take shape. Amazing.


Sample section of one of the Water Lily series by Monet

I spent a day doing the church circuit, and went up Notre Dame. Unfortunately it started raining while I was waiting, so my pictures from up there are kind of gloomy. A common misconception about Notre Dame is that the creatures at the top are called gargoyles, when in fact the gargoyles are the gutter heads, used to drain water. The carved creatures at the top are mythical creatures called chimeras. I thought they were great and took loads of pictures of them. There were some stunning views from the top as well, a full 360 view of Paris.




Chimeras at the top of Notre Dame

Did you know that if you get in an accident inside the roundabout that goes around the Arch de Triomphe, the insurance company won't cover it? That's how insane you'd have to be to drive in that thing. I stood there for a while just watching the cars because it was like a gory car wreck scene where you just can't look away. It was pure madness!!! Wide enough for 6 or 7 cars side by side, but no lanes or markings on the road. Just one giant free for all, with about 8 different streets entering into it. Luckily there are underground walkways to give a safe passage to the island in the middle where the Arch is. Too bad Napoleon didn't live to see it finished, because it really is pretty nice.



And of course, I dedicated one of my days in Paris to visit the ultimate place to feed your inner child. Disneyland!! I mean really, how often are you only one hour away from a Disneyland? I had a great time, although it was smaller than the one in LA and not as many attractions. Some of the rides were different too, but most of my favourites were still there. The weather was kind of overcast and cloudy, but that meant that the park wasn't overflowing with people, so the lines for the rides were very very short. Perfect! I had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to get my picture with Mickey, but I stumbled upon Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Baloo, Chip & Dale, and Woody around the park and had no trouble getting to see them. I took my journal with me and they all signed it too. I'm such a kid! I think I might finally be outgrowing Disneyland though, since I did get a bit bored of it by the end of the day. I think I would have had more fun if I wasn't alone, but I still enjoyed myself.





The next day I said goodbye to Paris and hopped on my plane to Glasgow, Scotland. Welcome to the land of bagpipes and Haggis! And a whole bunch of rain...

Actually, it poured the first night I got there, but after that I had some pretty excellent weather, especially for Scotland! I actually liked Haggis (it tastes like spicy meatloaf), but was disappointed that I couldn't find deep fried pizza anywhere. I know it exists, I swear! I went Nessie hunting on Loch Ness, but had no luck finding her. I explored a few castles, and did some hiking around the Highlands. I went on a ghost tour in Edinburgh and learned about it's creepy past, but found no ghosts myself unfortunately. I found the cafe where JK Rowling brought Harry Potter to life, and was amused to find a sign advertising that they now serve draught beer...

I loved Scotland! It's a beautiful country, and and awesome accent! Everywhere you go there's people in kilts and some sort of shop playing celtic music. I wish Canada had such a cool heritage we could flaunt everywhere. I would love to come back someday and spend more time in the Highlands.


Some building in Glasgow


Two pictures of the Scottish Highlands

Urqhart Castle overlooking Loch Ness

Haha


Bagpiper and Edinburgh Castle.

So, I'm almost a week into Ireland now and I'm having a great time! But I'll save that for my next (and possibly last!) blog entry in a few weeks. I'm almost home! Ireland is my last stop. I'm definitely ending my trip on a high note, and I can't wait to get home. I hope it hasn't changed to much, cause I'm really missing it! And I can't wait to see everyone again too of course. I'm home the first week of July, so get in touch and we can meet up!

Talk to you all soon!
Julie