DAY 62-63 - Dublin

The drive from Belfast to Dublin was a trip of changes, we made it across the border which wasn't a problem at all. In doing so we went from miles to kilometres and pounds to euro which was to be a little bit of a problem further down the road. Our first incounter with a road toll was a bit of an experience, especially when we realised that we had no Euro. We then made the amateur mistake of going into the cash only line, luckily the truck that had been in such a rush to pass us had problems with the toll booth which gave Kath the prime opportunity to run across to a manned booth and get some pound changed into Euro. With the toll paid and us all a little wiser about toll roads we made our way to Dublin.
After being told what ATMs were best to use to avoid being cornered by drug addicts wanting money and the areas of town not to go to, we set off to see what Dublin had to offer. We wrestled our way through some crowded streets to a "safe" ATM. With our pockets refilled with Euros we ventured back out onto the busy streets and found an exhibition called Small World. This contained detailed wax models set up in 6 everyday scenes. These were individually enclosed with windows and gaps so as you walked around the dark gallery you caught glimpses of the scenes. The detail and realism of the scene incaptured the imagination and made the story unfold.




We went into the Trinity College. This holds the Book of Kells, which is widely said to be one of Ireland's national treasures. Although we decided against paying to see this treasure we did sit on some steps within the college square and soaked up a little vitamin D.
The day couldn't pass quick enough as the "real" Irish treasure was still to come. Due to some high ratings the main reason for our stop at Dublin was to stay at Globetrotters Hostel to experience the full Irish Breakfast. This breakfast was good, but much to Kath's disappointment her stomach had shrunk and she could not get the most out of the experience... this was both a blessing and a curse.

Day 60-61 - Belfast

(Northern Ireland has a lot of murals around...)




Although we were a little sad leaving Scotland, we were all looking forward to see what Ireland had to offer. We had only stepped out of the Ferry terminal before we got our first. A taxi driver offered us a ride into our accomodation (Paddy's Palace). Now that we are quite used to waiting and knowing that a bus was going to be a cheaper option, we had the taxi driver work for his money. He thought we were crazy as the price came down to a difference of 50 Pence each (NZ$1) and he was shocked when we said we were quite prepared to walk 1.5 hours as a last resort. Eventually both parties compromised (him more than us), and we got a taxi ride for 2.5 pound each. Yes, the power of bargaining!!



After cold showers we decided to explore the city. We were a little cautious after watching the news in Glasgow and seeing clips of riots that had been taking place. This caution soon disapated as the day wore on. We checked out the St Georges market. Once we got passed the pungent fish stalls and massive ladies underwear the market was diverse and interesting. The food stalls ranged from the general meat and vege to stalls specialising in fancy cheese, chocolate and pesto. There was also a button jewellery stall which was good, but the quality of workmanship didn't quite match that of the Serendipity jewellery from home. (For more information on the Serendipity product range please leave a comment and email address and Abby will be sure to reply).

The question for the day was what does a tourist look like? This came to mind as we were continually stopped by bus companies trying to sell us tickets to go on a guided topless bus tour around the city. Once again we had the joy of bargaining, and playing one company off for the other. Jeff (tall, dark and pretty good looking) put up a good argument but unfortuately didn't match the verbal charm and price beating of Alan. This and the stubborness of Jess the bargainer we got a 1 hour and 45 minute tour for less than half the original stated cost. The bus was definitely a good way to see what once was a very divided city. Murals of power military groups were displayed on shop walls. As like most cities, Belfast has been a city of change, from being one of the fastest growing and wealthiest cities during the industrial revolution to anger, violence and hostility due to political and religous reasons. With all this aside it is now stated to be one of the safest cities in the world and the friendliest city in the European Union.

(meant to symbolize peace as an unbroken circle, however the seriousness is lost since the irish have nicknamed her the 'thing with a ring')


(Balfast had the biggest ship building yard in the world for a very long time, this is the biggest hoist in the world! this big one is named Goliath and there is a Samson too)

While in Belfast we picked up the Silver Bullet. A 2.0 litre diesel VW Golf. With only 7000 miles on the clock it runs like a dream. This will be our transport for the next 10 days as we explore the island of Ireland.

DAY 56-59 - Kelso to Belfast

From Kelso we did go, on a bumpy bus to Glasgow.
We passed though Edinburgh one last time, our memories of it were very fine.

Poor Abby she still dislikes the bus, her ankles make the biggest fuss.
Swelling is the thing they do, so the bus she does rue.

Glasgow was a bit of a flop so we decided that it was going to be a short stop.
The hostel lifts were very lame, so Abby had time to work her game.
We didn't sleep very well at night as the trains close by were noisy and bright.

While walking, a toy shop caught our eyes, so it was not a surprise,
We took some time to have a look and pried Whitey away from her freaking book.
Much fun was had by all, and we all left with at least something small.

We took a Scotish train to Ayr, the smell of rain was in the air.
We waited so long to get the coach, maybe walking to SAC (Scottish Agricultural College) would have been a better appoach.

The heavens opened and the rain fell down, like a bucket all over town.
A quick purchase of an umbrella, from the 2nd hand clothes seller.

We left Ayr bright and early, the prompt taxi driver meant we were not surley.
The train took us to the ferry, we left Scotland a wee bit teary.

Two bought sandwiches for lunch, and talked so lot about their munch,
they were told off for being callous as the other two were getting very jealous.

Although the crossing wasn't rough, not being on land was a little tough.
Then onto Ireland we did alight, seeing Belfast was a great sight.

With the last few days being quite boring, our expectations of Ireland were truely soaring.
The accent, the city, the rolling green hills, we were all prepared for Irish thrills.

...This whole rhyming thing is is hurting my head, so that is all that needs to be said!

DAY 52-55 - Kelso

Kelso so far has been the holy grail of backpackers… staying with hospitable people, which was the lovely Norman & June Allington!!!! Oh how we loved it! We were spoilt – packed lunches everyday, fantastic food at every meal, the use of their car (a little Ford KA, which we named ‘wee dot’),



loads of Backgammon games, watching the soccer, watching Jane Austen movies, and most importantly of all that Norman & June were a wealth of knowledge on Travelling, the area, and history… Fantastic and Norman successfully out talked us all (well done to him beating four girls at talking!). We stayed four nights at their cosy house in Kelso.
On Friday we headed out in the little car to Norththumbria, we crossed the Scotland/England boarder at Corn Hill, over the Tweed river. There was a marriage house at the Scottish end, which the English used to use for ‘quickie’ & ‘young’ weddings since the scots were allowed to marry at 16yrs of age, and the English system was complicated with the social classes so people used to nip over to avoid these complications.



We eventually made our way to Flodden field. This was the battlefield that used to have boggy ground in the middle valley, which evidently lead to the Scottish defeat against the English. The Scots (fighting for King James IV), fought with long sticks called ‘pikes’. These worked best when used in tight formation. Unfortunately when they got into the boggy ground their formation went wayward. The English (lead by Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey) were advantaged with their lighter guns, and had better close combat weapons. They made quick use of taking out the Scots, and on that day (9th September 1513), 4000 English solders were killed and 10,000 Scots were killed. This was the largest battle between the two nations, with many notable men being killed.



Next we continued South, and on a paddock overlooking Alnwick Castle, we stopped and had the tasty lunch June had lovingly packed for us. The food was great, the view was good, and since we were too cheap to pay to get into the Alnwick Castle & grounds, from there we continued driving along the coast road.
On our way to Bamburgh Castle, the road was rough and ‘wee dot’ bounced happily along. We got to the castle, and just went around the beach to take photos of it, and had fun at the beach.



Really we were taking our time before going to ‘Holy Island’, which had a causeway access, thus we couldn’t cross until low tide at 4:30pm. So while wasting time at the beach Whitey left a message written in the sand that attracted some attention, it read…
“+64(whitey’s number)
Call me if you are male, Christian, hot, rich & keen.
From YT”
So please comment if you feel you fit the aforementioned criteria ☺.



Hmmm now so onto the best part of the day – Holy Island! We crossed the causeway, and walked around the island, unfortunately it was too late to go into the castle there but it was a beautiful island to visit.



SATURDAY.
Today we went to Abby’s castle - Ferniehirst Castle (through her Kerr ancestry), which is nestled in the Jedbrugh forest. We asked for a tour, and much to the guides delight since Abby was a Kerr she got special attention and therefore we all got the “Kerr tour”. Which turned out to be 2 hours long, over a distance of 100 metres. Abby had the guide constantly at her side, while trying to seducing her with his vast knowledge of Kerr’s history. A most incredible 2 hours indeed. It was interesting and extensive, which the castle was very nice and we encouraged Abby to try get some claim on it.



It turns out a lot of Kerr’s are left handed which they often used to their advantage while fighting. So any building that they built would contain at least one left-handed staircase. Thus the left hand nickname ‘kack-handed’ originated from being ‘Kerr handed’ since their family was known for its left-handedness. The Kerr’s were an influential clan in Scotland, and still are to this day especially in politics.
Next we went to Hadrian’s wall. Which was an hour south and over the boarder again.



The wall was impressive since the Romans had made it that far, and the structures they built really set them up well for supporting an army. We wandered around the house-stead site, which was the remains of a roman fortress. It included a hospital & living quarters for family’s, and was one of many forts. The wall runs for Carlyle on the east coast to New Castle on the west.



When we got back to the house June has made a delicious dinner for us, and we finished off the night by watching Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. Beautiful.

SUNDAY.
We went to Church in the morning with Norman & June. It was held in a Café and we enjoyed the service and the coffee afterwards. Today was a relaxed day, after lunch Norman & June took us to Floors Castle where we looked around the grounds and enjoyed the lovely gardens & café there, followed by a short tour of central Kelso.



We had promised June & Norman that we’d cook tea tonight, so after a mighty big cook-up and feed, lots of competitive backgammon games (Kath pretty much was unbeatable) we watched Sense & Sensibility with June, while Norman watched the soccer. We caught the end of the soccer game and it was a most pleasant night. And actually our most late night up… with two retired people!

DAY 49-51 Edinburgh...the sequel!

We headed back to Edinburgh and decided to go for a stroll up Arthur's seat, a hill overlooking the city. The view was pretty good and it was a nice walk.

We then waved a fond farwell to our faithful friend 'The Dentist' and checked into our very centrally located hostel - already it was streaks ahead of Belford hostel our previous Edinburgh accommadation. After a series of average beds and interesting living conditions we had finally hit the jackpot, the penthouse suite of hostel accommadation... a room with
1. walls AND a ceiling
2.enough room to spread out our bags, sit on some chairs and swing a cat
3.amazingly comfortable, clean beds that were described as like lying on clouds of buttery wedges by a member of the pack (read onward to understand this statement!).
In short The Caledonian backpackers are getting a big tick of recommendation from The Pack, oh and breakfast was included - nice one Caledonian!

Due to our nice walk earlier we found the allure of testing out the comfortable beds too much of a temptation so some 'resting of the eyes' ended up in us heading out to find tea at rather a late hour. Wedges were served at 10pm after an hour of attempting to boil and then put them in the oven for a further hour and a bit. After this epic amount of cooking they were to taste nothing but AMAZING...kind of like lying on a super comfy bed (read backward to understand! ha)
We thought it would be rude not to catch up with our new Finnish friends so sent them a text but we were well in bed when they repiled at 2am saying they had made it to Edinburgh but had to head to the airport...this was the finish of our Finnish friends!

Tuesday we headed back to the Royal mile to visit some of the sights that were pointed out to us on our walking tour with Seth. First was St Gile's Cathedral which is the home of the Thistle chapel. When we entered it would seem that our great timing had struck again with a visiting Icelandic female choir putting on a free lunchtime concert. We love how many of the best things in Scotland are free! As we strolled around the Cathedral the spine tingling harmonies enhanced the beauty around us, St Gile's would have to be one of the most nicest churches we have been in so far.



In the corner of the Cathedral resides the carpenter's masterpiece - the Thistle Chapel. This is where you are welcomed into the Order of the Thistle. The Order of the Thistle is Scotland's great order of chivalry and membership is considered to be one of the country's highest honours. The Order is traditionally given to Scots or people of Scottish ancestory, who have given distinguished service. The Order consists of the Sovereign and 16 Knights and Ladies, as well as certain 'extra' knights (members of the British Royal family and foreign monarchs). The Sovereign alone grants membership of the Order, he or she is not advised by the Government , as occurs with most other orders. (Thanks Wikipaedia for refreshing our memory on these details!). The chapel itself is a rather small room with only enough seats for the members of the Order and has the most amazing detailed wood panelling including 2 carvings depicting angels playing bagpipes! There is only one other carving of an angel playing the bagpipes in the world and we can't quite remember where Seth said it was.

We carried on up the Royal mile to the the top of the hill and Edinburgh castle. To our disappoinment the good looking young man was not pipiing by the staute today, so certain member's of The Pack couldn't throw their number into his open case and are just left with a photo as a momento...sigh!

Edinburgh castle blew the budget for the day at approx $30 (NZ) each! But thanks to a nice American couple who handed us their Audio guide as they were heading out we were able to get the most out of our experience. We learnt about the one o'clock gun, this has fired everyday since 1861 except on Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day and for periods during the two World Wars. It was established as a time signal for ships in the Firth of Forth and although the gun is no longer required for this purpose, the ceremony has become a tourist attraction. The most amusing bit is the reason the gun is fired at one o'clock rather than midday which is purely because of the Scottish nature - why fire off 12 rounds when you can just fire 1 by doing the signal at one o'clock!

We also went past the Governor's house where the Governor of Edinburgh resided, which back in the day was a Kerr ancestor...Abby is pretty much royalty in these parts so it is only fitting that from here on in we refer to her not as our 'non-agricultural correspondent' but instead 'Lady Abigail'. While we're mentioning it, Kath has assumed the title of Her Majesty Kathryn The Great Roy...but you may call her Kath for short! :)

Edinburgh castle has many interesting exhibitions including a couple of Military museums on the Scottish regiment that still operates from the castle. Here are a couple of stories...

Ensign Kennedy, was mortally wounded and fell carrying the Colour in front of the regiment at Waterloo. A Sergeant tried to take it from him, but was unable to remove the staff from his grasp. The Sergeant hoisted the young man still gripping the Colour over his shoulder, which so impressed the French that they held fire until the 2 soldiers had returned to the ranks of the regiment.



It was at Malpalquet that a soldier's wife who had been in winter quarters decided to return home to Scotland, she handed her infant son to his father - Private McBain, who was on parade. Having no where else to put the infant he fought the battle with the child in his knapsack.

The oldest building in the castle and in Edinburgh is the small St Margaret's chapel which dates back to the reign of King David (1124-1153) who built it as a private chapel for the royal family and dedicated it to his mother St Margaret of Scotland who died of a broken heart in 1093. The chapel has also been used as a gunpowder store in the 16th cenutry until it was restored back to its former glory in 1852. If you are a member of the Scottish regiment or serving in Scotland you are able to get married or have your children christened in the chapel still today. Though there is only room for approximately 25 people.

We also looked through the war memorial and finshed with a peep at the crown jewels of Scotland where we finally got to see THE STONE OF DESTINY...dun-dun-duh-dah!! (refer back to our last Edinburgh blog for the story about this infamous piece of rock)

After such a busy day we treated ourselves to a little D.I.Y pampering.
The next day we set ourselves a mission of trying to do as many free things as possible so we trotted off to the National museum of Scotland which has free admission! This was no B-grade free museum, there were people to greet you at the door and plenty of staff on hand to help you find your way around the very informative museum. Highlights of our time there included...
- Dress up stations...
























- Seats available to borrow (for free of course) to rest your tired legs as you wandered around the museum

















Now onto some of the actual highlights...
- The Lewis Chessman - this was the first time the entire collection has been together since they were found in 1831 with half of the pieces usually kept in the London museum. There are 78 chess pieces most of which are carved in walrus ivory. They were discovered on the Isle of Lewis (hence their name), but are thought to be from Norway in the 12th century. There is alot of mystery surrounding these chess pieces.



- Dolly the sheep, the world's first successful clone, is stuffed and has her own carousel to display her in all her woolly glory


- Interactive displays, including one that tested the amount of electricity you can generate by hand and if it was enough to make a TV go
...and other generally intruiging Scottish history

Once again the Amber Rose provided us with another sweet round of deals for our evening meal (approx $7 NZ each for a filling feed!)

Finally it was time to say a final farewell to Edinburgh. To celebrate this sad occasion we managed to hunt down a cafe that promised Abby a real Flat White, which so far on our trip had proved elusive and Abby was becoming rather distressed, disillusioned and down right depressed by the many sub-standard latte's and false Flat White's she had, had to endure. Enter Wellington Cafe, staffed by Australians which in this case was a positive, they managed to satisfy Abby's heartfelt desire of the perfect Flat White.



We could now head merrily south to Kelso.

DAY 47-48 - Stirling

After much fuss over finding accommodation we finally booked into a 18-bed-mixed dorm room, which turned out to be fine, not too many smelly boys.

The biggest highlight and lowlight all in one was going up to the William Wallace Monument, where the view was great and the monument awesome except that for ages they’d had a statue there of “William Wallace” (which looked like Mel Gibson), tragically it had been taken back to the stone mason so we missed out on pictures with the manly Mel/Wallace.

Other points of interest in Stirling was that at Church they were sending a young guy Roger off from the parish to do medical work with making artificial limbs and prosthetics in Nepal. Abby was shocked at how it was a small world because that same guy had been in NZ a few years ago and stayed for a bit in the flat with Jo and her in Gore!

Also in the hostel we played a dice game with some Finish (Finland) guys (the dice game was kind of like Yahtzee). It was competitive but Finland won, and Abby managed to get their numbers so perhaps NZ had a small victory in it as wellJ

DAY 44-46 – Fort William and the Luss Highland Games

We enjoyed the scenic drive in and out of Fort William, the town itself was a bit of a non-event – it’s reputed to be The Outdoor Adventure Capital of Britain. We were unaware of this reputation so were a little baffled at being asked often...where we came from today and where were we hiking to tomorrow! We felt a little lazy admitting we drove today and planned to drive again tomorrow to the lovely older ladies we were sharing accommodation with that night.

Finally we had stumbled across the type of weather Scotland is known for with Fort William being our first proper rain day. Unfortunately the intermittent torrential downpours squashed our well meaning plans of going for a ‘nice hike’, so instead we seeked out another form of amusement. Not surprisingly it was Whitey who discovered Treasures of the Earth – a museum dedicated to precious gems and fossils, including ‘real’ Dinosaur poo and with her fellow magpies in tow we had an afternoon of discovery.

3 facts that surprised us

• Bismouth- technically not a fact ...check out the picture, it’s simply mind boggling
• 
  

• Corundum is more commonly known as Ruby or Sapphire, depending on its colour. Red Corundum is always known as Ruby whereas Sapphire can be any colour – white, pink, yellow, green or orange.
• Diamonds have been known for over 3000 years and are even mentioned in Exodus 28. More diamonds are now manufactured rather than mined. 80% of the world’s diamonds are not suitable for jewellery. In 1994 the world’s smallest diamond was cut; it was 50x smaller than the head of a ball point pen. The easiest way to spot the difference between a Diamond and Cubic Zirconia is to weigh it. In Victorian times you could only cut a diamond with another diamond, now cutting can be done with lasers. The largest faceted diamond in the world is the ‘Golden Jubilee’ at 545.7 carats and is a yellow/brown colour. The largest gem quality diamond ever found was the Cullinan which weighed 3,106 carats. The rough stone was cut to produce many diamonds including the ‘Great star of Africa’ and the ‘Lesser star of Africa’ were used in the British Crown Jewels.

The next day we headed South and on our travels we passed Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain at 1344m which ‘looms’ over the town, with enthusiasts coming from far and near to climb ‘Ben’. We wound through the green mountains shrouded in grey mist and filled with fit day walkers putting our driving to shame yet again. Down from the highlands to Loch Lomond where resides Luss and our next adventure.... The Luss Highland Games !!!! An afternoon filled with crazy kilt wearing, caber tossing, hill running Scots and fun for the whole family. As we arrived the heavy weight events were well underway. [Please note a reliable source of knowledge (a souvenir t shirt),states “it’s a kilt, if I was wearing underwear it would be a skirt” ...think about it].

Now we return to the heavy weight kilt wearing Scots in the arena throwing a 16lb weight attached to a long stick similar to an athletics hammer. The winner of this (Super Scotsman, check out photo above) broke the Luss record with a throw of 121 feet.

Next came the famed caber toss. The caber can vary from 5-7 meters in length. There is a real technique with the throw but the hardest part is getting the caber off the ground. Cameras at the ready we watched many men fail at the lift but fortunately there were a couple of experts who lifted and completed the throw with comparative ease, waiting for the judge to assess how straight the caber was tossed.

What could be next but throwing a sheaf of branches over a suspended horizontal bar with a pitch fork. The events continued to amuse us particularly with the commentator not taking anything too seriously either.

In between the heavyweight events we wandered over to watch the mesmerising sword dancers that were competing – the length of time these girls could hop around a sword was tiring just to watch!

Our favourite event for the day was the obstacle race. Four men lined up facing backwards, anticipation and concentration etched upon their faces, the gun goes off. They turn and run towards the belly crawl net, bottoms wiggling frantically in the air as they scrambled through and towards the greasy board. The board had been liberally covered in motor oil with a fast sprint combined with a leap being the only chance to get over. Then of course the celebrated sack race, tyre over the body, which was a bit too complex for one young man who ran for a while with it around his middle. However the best was yet to come with final obstacle. A rope climb over the pole and sprint to the finish. A seemingly simple task but not so in reality and very hilarious to watch the attempts as the competitors strained and continually failed at making it up and over the pole.

Eventually they began to help each other with some of the caber-tossing heavyweights wandering over to lend a hand as well. The young boy who was in last place for the whole race was boosted over first and without a backward glance or thought of helping his fellow competitors he sprinted off to win the race!

Meanwhile one of the officials at the caber-toss decided the remaining competitors needed a hurry along and grabbed the pitchfork used for the Sheath toss and started lining up the helpless competitors dangling from their ropes much to the crowds amusement!

A kilted dash completed the day for us with competitors having to wear a kilt (or something that resembled a kilt - tartan sash, tartan rug etc) and dash down the home straight.

Another Scottish ‘must-see’ done and dusted with the bonus of our first taste of Haggis in Scotland. Thank you Luss we very much enjoyed our day.