Brussels 27-28.6.09

This weekend i decided to go to Brussells. After work on the friday i got the eurostar and it only took a couple of hours. It feels strange catching a train to another country.

Brussels is such a beautiful little city. The city doesn't have many landmarks or main attractions, but its a great place to explore. There are loads of little allys with beatutiful cafe's and restaurants. The food was amazing. I ate so much bread! the steak was so good, as was the seafood. I'd recommend going there just for the food. But then there is also the beer. And the chocolate! they even have chocolate flavoured beer.

All the people were so lovely and polite. They speak French and German, i gave French a little try but usually didnt get far. Most people seemed to speak English, so i was fine.

I had a lovely relaxing weekend, and explored most of the city.

Wales 22-25.5.09

In Ireland I met Jaron. She's from the states studying in Dublin and we decided to go to Wales for the long weekend (no idea what the long weekend was for).

I met her on the saturday in Cardiff. I had such a great time. Although i loved the Ireland Tour, It was very rushed, but this weekend we were able to relax and take our time.

When we arrived in Cardiff, the 1st thing we did was go to the Cardiff castle, cos we didnt see enough castles in Ireland.
It was reall nice to just stroll around. We had a beautiul sunny day and we just sat around working on our tans. We had a welsh cider, and i am a big fan.

For Dinner we thought we would check out a vegitarian festival. But after finding our way there we realised that it was just a bunch of people standing around in a hall, rather than a festival. There was a really good violinist and we did have some really good food. However being the carnivours that we are we made our way to a really good Indian restaurant which was much more satisfying.

Neither of us new anything about cardiff, or wales in General and had no idea what to do or what to expect. So the man at the Touris centre sugested we head to Llantwit Major 24.5.09, which is about 40 minutes of Cardiff. Im so glad we went there,. It was so beautiful. We got there and walked down to the beach. Now its one of those beaches with rocks instead of sand, but was still really beautiful. We walked all along the cliffs and we had such a great day for it. The view was amazing. It was really sunny and Jaron even got burnt.

On Monday our lsat day, Jaron thought it would be a good idea to go cycling. Well im not the sporty type, but i actually really enjoyed it. We hired some bikes in Cardiff and took a really nice ride along the lake. We got a bit lost, but eventually found our way, and kept going until we came to another castle. We didnt bother going in. But we did walk around the grounds and even climbed a tree without brakeing any bones. When we came back to the bikes, my tire had gone down. We stopped at a pub where there were other cyclists and a lovely bloke helped change it, as i clearly had no idea what i was doing.

By the time we got back i was so exhausted! I then made my way back to London and Jaron headed back to Dublin. It was a great little trip

Ireland Tour Day 6 (9.5.09)

Today was the last day of the tour, and we did lots more driving.
The highlight of today was Blarney Castles. It is one of Irelands most famous castles. At the top there is a stone and legend states that if you kiss it you get 7 years good luck. Its quite a challange to kiss it as you have to lie down and hang your head over a cliff and try not to fall.

The grounds of the castle are beautiful, we had an hour there but i could have spent a lot longer exploring it.

We arrived back in Dublin about 6pm that night and some of us went to the Arlington Pub to watch some Irish Dancing which was lots of fun. We may have had a few to many. Didnt get in till late and i slept in the next morning and missed the shuttle bus, but still managed to make to the airport. Then it was back to reality the next day.
I had the best time. It was hard to really appreciate all teh places we went as we were there for such a short time, but now i know the places i wont to go back to. The best part about the tour is a met some really great people that i never would have met if i went on my own.

Ireland Tour Day 5 (8.5.09)

Today we made our way to Killarney, Stopping at Dingle, The Sleeping Giant and The Debug Fort.
The sleeping Giant is basically a big ireland that looks like a big sleeping giant. We were really lucky and got a beautiful day so we went and played on the beach. It was beautiful and we had a great time. Dingle seemed cool but we were only there for an hour, so basically just had lunch and by the time we got there it was raining again. I think i just liked the name, Dingle.,

When we arrived in Killarny we did a hourse and cart tour, which was a really good way to see the beautiful scenary. We had a quiet evening at the pub where we saw Maria Doyle Kennedy sing. She is in the Tudors and the was also in the movie, the commitments. She was amazing, i really enjoyed it.

Ireland Tour Day 4 (7.5.09)

Today was pretty full, stopping at a few places, but the highlight was definately to Cliffs of Moyer. They are absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately it was another shitty day and the view is supposed to be spectacular on a sunny day, but it was still great. I did think i was going to get blown away though.
Along the way we stopped at Adare and Corcomroe Abbey which is the ruins of a 12th century ruin.
We also stopped at Dunguaire castle and the fertility spring.
Tonight we stayed in Annascaul. This was a beautiful little village with 250 people, and 8 pubs. The tour group owns one of the pubs/hostels in this town so we all went out there. I may have had a few to many drinks. Oh and they made us all do kareoke. We all had a great night, a few others and i did Barbie Girl, which is really embarasing, but i only had one line to do over and over, so wasnt to bad.

Ireland Tour Day 3 6.5.09

Today We left Derry in the morning and had a very long day driving to Gallway. We drove mosdt of the day. We did have a couple of quick stops. Firstly stopping at WB Yeats's Grave. He was a famous Irish poetry. Im not into poetry, but if any of you guys, well Belinda and Claire, (since im pretty sure u 2 are the only ones that read this, Oh and thanks for leaving the comments, makes me feel very special!) if you have heard of him, it was in this really cute,tiny little place that we couldnt even call a village. Anyway we stopped there for about 20 min, so not worth rambling on about.

We then stopped at these seaweed baths. It sounds gross, and i hate seweed. But it was the most relaxing experience of my life. Everyone has there own room with a mini steamroom, and a bath. After sitting in the steamroom you can take a bath in salt water, with seaweed. Dont know what it it is but it is so relaxing. I dont normally like baths or seaweed, but if i lived there id go everyweek!

We then headed to Gallway. Unfortunately it was late by the time we got there, so we basically just had dinner, watched a bit of a band playing, but we all had an early night. Gallway seemed really cool and would like to go back and check it out properly

Ireland Tour Day 2 5.5.09

Today we made our waf from Belfast to Derry. First Stopping off at the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge. This bridge is about 3 years old, and was made for fisherman to cross to a small Island to catch salmon. It has been slightly modified, but cant have been to safe when it was 1st built. It gets pretty windy in the middle.

We then made our way to The giants Causeway. It is so named because legand has it that a giant built a bridge, to scotland, or walked to scotland, not really sure, the Irish have so many legends and tales its kinda hard to keep up. Anyway, its basically a really nice walk, around some cliffs. Would have been even better of we wernt being blown away by the wind. Still it is really quite beautiful.
Its such a small world, this is where i randomally rain into someone that i work with in london, who used to work at Auburn/Westmead hospital. Weird.

After the walking tour, went to a proper Irish Pub, Peadar O'Donnell's for some Irish music/dancing. We all had a great night and maybe had a few to many.