Has it been a year already...

Merry Xmas

A quick Merry Xmas from London. Thanks for all those who (skim) read along this year. Looking forward to the adventures continuing in 2012.

The search for Nessie, seeing is believing

It was back up to Scotland this week to join my brother and his girlfriend on a short UK roadtrip. Starting point, Scotland; while in the land of the Scots, we embarked on a highlands tour, including a Loch Ness boat cruise. (For those reading along, fortunately my tin whistle was safe in London). After a good half an hour of scanning the water for any sign of movement, the closest thing to Nessie we came across was a stick in the water. Unperturbed by our lack of evidence so far and about to conclude Nessie a myth, we came across this…

Following footsteps

After a food filled morning at the Borough markets (London Bridge), I went for a planned walk to follow in the footsteps of my Great Grandma and Grandpa. On the list of locations to visit were the church in which they married and their addresses at the time of marriage.  All three locations were within a 30 minute walk of London Bridge, unfortunately the houses/abodes no longer existed but the church is till standing tall. And as was I at that moment.

AFL Grand Final

Being a stout supporter of Australian football and well anything Australian while over here, it was obligatory for me to rise before 4am on a surprisingly warm (?) October Saturday morning in London and head to the Australian pub, the Walkabout, for the blockbuster grand final between Geelong (woo) and Collingwood (boo).  Putting aside my side’s defeat last week at the hands of Geelong as expected, I was on the Geelong bandwagon. Let’s face it who would want Collingwood to win, back to back as well. To the untrained eye the people in the Walkabout seemed to be supporting about 14 different teams (there seemed to be no representation from Richmond, North Melbourne or the Gold Coast, even one brave fool was wearing a Port Guernsey. However to the trained eye there was only two groups of supporters there, those wearing Collingwood outfits and those wearing any other team who were supporting Geelong. It was a brilliant game with a brilliant result but you all knew that part. The best part about being at the Walkabout for the game with some 500 plus aussies, was the walk of shame everyone gave to the magpies supporters after the game. Almost felt sorry for them. On another less related and pointless topic, on the way at 4am I spotted four foxes heading home after a night’s hunting, doubling my London fox count.

Norway

Upon leaving Ireland, I spent a day recovering and re-stocking for my long weekend trip to Norway. Well Stavanger in Norway to be precise. Norway was one of those places you wanted to stay in but knew it would be detrimental to your wallet. With a main meal in a regular pub/restaurant costing anywhere between about £25-40 (A$35-$60), it was hot dogs and cheeseburgers with the local teenagers for us, a small price to pay to be able to visit the famous Pulpit rock atop one of Norway’s fjords.

The last day of the tour, Guinness all round

Yes, today we went to the Guinness factory, yes I had a Guinness, yes its true it tastes better there than anywhere else and yes I poured mine myself.

Gift of the Gab

Apparently I now have obtained the Irish gift of the gab after successfully kissing the Blarney Stone. Well only for seven years. According to the Irish it used to be for life, but because of the debt default they made it only seven years so you will come back and spend more money. Now to put my gift to use.

The Ring of Kerry, no loud Americans!

What a day today was. A morning stop at the Gap of Dunloe, Killareny National Park proving to be one of the most unexpected delights of the trip, finding a nice little café with the ingenious hand-made sign affixed to their front window stating ‘NO LOUD AMERICANS, please’, being photo-bombed five times by the same old man at the Charlie Chaplin statue (Don’t worry I sprinted around the back of the memorial to spoil his photo for him in the same fashion, albeit a little more obvious than his movements), meeting a crazy local (well extra crazy) who has been coming to a tourist carpark for 20 years with a bunch of baby animals to earn a living off tourist donations and lastly to one of my final moments of the day, accidently locking my keys, wallet with spare keys and mobile phone in my bag.

Galway ghouls

The night out in Galway certainly lived up to its reputation being one of the best of the trip so far. If you ever do go out at night there, be sure to get on one of those bike taxis on the way home and ask them to do a few laps of the city square. Great craic!

Oh, the ghoul bit. Are… there were some people dressed as zombies in Galway that night, must have been their zombie march night…yeah, that’s about it.

Tin Whistle

If I learnt anything from listening and watching Hamish and Andy (Australian comedians), it was that the best thing to purchase in Ireland whilst on a road trip is a tin whistle. Great entertainment for all those who possess it and annoying as shit to those who don’t. Thankfully mine didn’t end up in Loch Ness. Well not yet.

Northern Ireland

After three days in Northern Island seeing some wonderful sights like the giant’s causeway and some not so wonderful sights like the flash points between the Catholic and Protestant areas in Derry and Belfast, it was time to head back to Ireland, Ireland. But not before spending the night out in the very quiet Derry. We ventured into one of the only places we could find open for a few drinks. Unable to determine whether the pub was Catholic or Protestant, and afraid to ask the locals, we continued on our merry way. The next day we later found out it was an old IRA pub. I was thankful the days of trouble are more of a memory these days when I realised that while at the pub that night, I was wearing a Ben Sherman jumper with a union jack emblem. Whoops.

A preserved head and a candlestick

The start of my Irish tour started in somewhat of a more noticeable fashion than previous bus tours. The first stop was Drogheda and the church at the top of the hill that has on display the head of Saint Oliver Plunkett. Hung, drawn and quartered in England in 1681 for being a Roman Catholic Archbishop. Being the first stop on the tour when not many people knew each other and being in a place of quiet place of worship, the group lined up silently in respect to take turns viewing the head. It was a tough morning for me, operating on about 3 hours sleep after the final Dublin all night bash, I could be forgiven for being lethargic and uncoordinated. Just to the left of the Plunkett memorial was one of those usual church tables where you can purchase a little candle to place in the rack and light. Now after viewing the head, I turned around to move out of the way for the others, however I forgot that I was wearing a backpack (hadn’t worn one for several months). My backpack conveniently knocked a candle holder off its perch and its potential energy was released. Being lethargic my trusty reflexes were a little slow and off. The candle holder was therefore free to proceed on its journey to the ground, but on the way it decided it would be fun to make a bit of noise by hitting the table, step and floor on the way down before rolling along the church floor for several metres. Not hard to guess, that such a noise in a peaceful location would attract the attention of pretty much everyone including the line-up of people on my tour. Oh well, at least it made it easy to introduce myself to people on the trip later… ‘Hey, remember the guy that knocked the candle off at the church, well …’