After sitting around the apartment for a few days over Christmas, we took a 3 day holiday to Scotland on December 27 to check out Edinburgh (our first international trip since being in Europe!). Our 6:30am flight was a bit rough, but after a quick hour flight we were in Scotland and didn't even have to pass through customs (which was actually a bad thing as we wanted to get stamps to activate our UK visas just in case we want them later, but our visas should still be ok without them); we still don't really understand how you can fly into another country without seeing a single airport official, but I suppose we're used to strict American security policies! We took a bus into Edinburgh and the sun was just starting to rise, which looked gorgeous over the cityscape. We walked to our hostel which was slightly south of the city centre, through a large park called the Meadows and dropped off our bags. The women at the front desk was not nice or accommodating in anyway, but the hostel was a cozy house and proved to be a pretty decent place to stay in the end.
We all needed a boost of energy and therefore went to the closest coffee shop, which happened to be Starbucks; Edinburgh has a surprisingly large amount of Starbucks considering that it's a small city. After looking over some brochures, we decided to start the day with a 3 hour FREE walking tour of the city. Tips are encouraged if you enjoy the tour, but essentially it's a free way to see the city and learn all about the history behind the landmarks. Our tour guide was an energetic, witty Canadian and we learned tons of interesting facts and stories, and it was a beautiful, nearly cloudless day with sunshine- a rare treat in Edinburgh! We went by Edinburgh Castle, famous pubs, museums, a graveyard, parks, and weaved our way in and out of the city centre along the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is a street actually a bit over a mile and is Edinburgh's main thoroughfare. It starts at Holyroodhouse, the Queen's official palace in Scotland and has served as the principal residence of the kings and queens of Scotland since the 15th century. From there the Royal Mile continues uphill, ending at Edinburgh Castle at the top of Castle Rock. One interesting stop in the middle of the Royal Mile is the Heart of Midlothian, a heart-shaped mosaic built into the sidewalk. It represents the position of the 15th Century tollbooth which was the administrative centre of the town, prison and one of several sites of public execution. Today it is the only place in Edinburgh where you are legally allowed to spit, so naturally we felt inclined to take pictures of ourselves spitting on the heart (see Picasa photos).
After a quick lunch at Subway (hey, it’s cheap!), we climbed up a huge hill on the edge of the city called Arthur’s Seat. It was a steep incline and made us all heavily pant, but took only about 20 minutes to get to the top. It had incredible views of the city, including the castle and all the way out to an estuary called Firth of Fort. The sun was still shining, causing all of us to overheat in our big jackets and winter gear, but soon began to set and cast a gorgeous golden light over the cityscape. After our slow descent down the slippery slope, it was nearly dark (at 3:45!) and we decided that we definitely needed some coffee. We went to the Elephant House, the café where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter!!!!!!! Of course we were all immensely excited about this. We sat next to the window overlooking a cemetery and enormous school which inspired Hogwarts!! Very very cool.
That night we went on a ghost tour called “City of the Dead” which took us through the huge underground vault system under the city. In the 1700s the city was getting too crowded but people didn’t want to move outside the city walls, so they decided to build underneath the city. The vaults often flooded and were disgusting, full of sickly people, poor families, thieves, and waste. Many people died down there and until fairly recently the vaults were actually forgotten about. Today they claim that something called “The Entity” haunts the maze of vaults. Our tour guide believes that there was so much negative energy leftover from the people who used to live there that it built up and now attaches to other people with negative energy (i.e. those who are scared, depressed, etc). They have some pretty scary stories about people who have been caught down there and then come out with scratches all over their bodies yet those people don't feel anything at the time. The scratches always come in a set of 3 and are perfectly spaced apart, as if people are reaching out for help and attempting to grab whatever they can... pretty spooky! She also claimed that the energy can attach to you and follow you home, but luckily the three of us came out scratch free and didn’t experience anything creepy that night!
We started off Sunday with a trip to the castle! The castle overlooks the city and has some amazing views (see youtube videos). It took us over two hours to explore all the nooks and crannies of the castle, and we also went on a guided tour of the outside which was really interesting. The castle’s chapel is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh dating from the 1100s! There is also a prison where American prisoners of war from the American Revolution were taken, and we even saw etchings on a door of an American flag from way back then! The castle also houses the crown jewels of Scotland dating from the 15th Century (the second oldest in Europe) which consists of the crown, the scepter, and the sword of state. These were right next to the Stone of Destiny, the traditional coronation stone of Scottish Kings and Queens which is still a powerful symbol of Scottish independence. It was very neat to see but of course we weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the historical artifacts.
For lunch we went to a famous pub called The Last Drop. Apparently back in the days of hanging by gallows they used to take the sentenced men/women to The Last Drop for their last drink before they were hung! It was pretty neat to eat there and we figured this would be a good place to try haggis! It’s sheep organs (heart, liver, kidneys) that are ground up and cooked in the stomach lining from the sheep- yum yum! It’s often served with tatties (mashed potatoes) and neeps (mashed turmips) and everything was surprisingly tasty. The consistency of haggis was a bit funky, but the flavor was nice.
After lunch we strolled around the city. We all really wanted to buy a kilt because they’re pretty cute but unfortunately none of us could find any that we liked for a reasonable price. We bought a couple small souvenirs, and then went on the 'Scottish Whisky Experience' tour. We learned all about how Scottish whisky is made, about the different types of whisky, and even got to taste test two different blends! None of us are big whisky drinkers, but it was still really interesting and fun, and we got free whisky glasses! Afterwards we got an afternoon snack: deep fried Mars bars! The Scotts deep fry pretty much anything you can think of, and though the bars looked pretty gross coming out of the fryer they were, of course, extremely delicious. That night we decided to do our own mini pub-crawl and hit the famous pubs in the city. We started out at Deacon Brodie's, named after the man who inspired the story Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He was a locksmith who ran out of money so he began burglarizing all the rich people he made locks for. He was a reputable man so nobody ever considered him the culprit. Then he headed the search to find the 'thief' when really it was himself all along. The bartender was really nice (as were most people in Scotland) and let us sample 4 different Scottish beers, all pretty bland actually. After that we went to Maggie Dickson's. This story is crazy- essentially she was going to be hung for hiding the fact that she was pregnant. She was hung, put in the casket, and carried away. Suddenly noise started coming from the casket... she hadn’t died! But, she couldn’t be hung again because of double jeopardy, so she lived for another 40 years and opened a pub right next to The Last Drop. Brilliant! We really liked this pub because we could get mixed drinks for 1.95 pounds! That is waaay cheaper than Dublin. Actually, Edinburgh was a rather cheap city despite being on the pound (the exchange rate between the pound and euro right now is almost 1 to 1), which made us all very happy!
We decided to go on a tour of the Highlands in northern Scotland on our last day which lasted 12 hours. At the first stop on the trip we saw a highland cow! His name was Hamish and he was a very funny but cute looking animal. The whole Highland region was absolutely gorgeous, and it was actually sunny for most of it! The day was pretty perfect and we learned some interesting Scottish history as well. Around lunch time we went to Loch Ness! The lake has the largest volume of water in all of Scotland due to its great depths. It’s probably the most northern place any of us have ever been to, and my oh my was it cold! We took a one hour cruise on the lake and looked for the monster. Tales of Nessie have been around since the 6th century and were first recorded by a monk, but the frenzy didn’t really start until the 1930’s when the first photo of the alleged monster was published. Since then, Loch Ness has been a major site for tourism as people flock to try and catch a glimpse of the creature. Alas, Nessie eluded us, but we do believe! (At least, Erica and Sarah do; Erin is a little more hesitant). We decided to stay on the top part of the boat the whole time, so by the time we got off all three of us were numb.
On our drive back to the city we saw a magnificent sunset behind the tallest mountain in the UK called Ben Nevis! It was awesome. Because we had traveled pretty far north, it was going to take about 3 hours to drive back to the city. Our driver started playing Braveheart! We have wanted to watch that movie for a very long time because none of us have ever seen it so we were really excited. Halfway through, the movie stopped working! It was highly annoying because we still haven’t been able to find it at movie stores in Dublin and thus haven’t seen the end of the movie. Anyway, we got back to the city and then immediately headed off to the airport. It was a great trip and has made us all really exciting about traveling to other countries later this year!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Danger: Blowholes
We took a 4 day road trip before Christmas down to the Southeast of Ireland to celebrate the holidays and explore a few towns. Erica’s boyfriend Majid is visiting for Christmas and came on the trip with us, which was a lifesaver as we were supposed to get an automatic car but ended up getting a manual. None of the girls know how to drive a manual well enough, especially when you take left hand side driving into consideration, so if Majid hadn’t been there we have no idea what we would have done. The car was under Sarah’s name because she is the only 23 year old and technically was supposed to be the one and only driver. Of course, the car was parked directly in front of the office, so Sarah had to drive out of sight so that Majid could take over. A few stall outs later, Sarah managed to get going and turned down a side street, handing over the keys to Majid. He did quite well driving out of the city, especially considering that we didn’t have a map. After a quick breakfast in the small town called Kill, we were on our way to Kilkenny.
It only took a couple hours for us to get to Kilkenny, and our first stop was at the castle. We took a pleasant walk around the grounds and inside the large castle. Afterwards we explored a few craft shops and walked along the main streets of the medieval “city,” which were bustling with Christmas shoppers and even a hilarious dancing Santa. We stopped for lunch at a little place called Mug Shot Café and then continued our walking tour, stopping at a couple churches along the way including the Dominican Black Abbey and St. Canice’s Cathedral. By this time it was dark, so we went to the grocery store and made our way to our hostel about 10 minutes outside of town. After driving on extremely dark roads and missing our turn, we eventually made it to Foulksrath Castle, which is a renovated 15th Century Norman castle supposedly haunted by the original owner’s daughter who was killed in the castle. It was really cool to stay in an old castle, and we spent the night playing cards by candlelight, drinking wine and making delicious curry for dinner.
After a sound night without sleep disruptions from the ghost, we walked around the castle/hostel before heading to the nearby Dunmore caves. We were the only people there and it was quite nice to have a private tour of the limestone caves. After descending hundreds of stairs (supposedly around 700 stairs in total throughout the cave) into the wet darkness, we learned that the cave was a site of a Viking massacre back in 928 and thus many artifacts have been uncovered by archaeologists deep in the cave. It is also the home to eyeless shrimp and 6mm “straws”, which are mini stalactites the exact diameter of raindrops that hang from the ceilings. It also has the biggest stalagmite in all of Europe, which strangely happens to be in the shape of a hand holding a Guinness pint over the Irish flag.
A man working at the cave suggested that we check out the priory ruins in nearby Kells, about a 30 minute drive away through tiny, twisting country roads. Upon reaching some ruins that we thought were the priory, we discover that the entrance was locked and tried to decipher a map showing the way to the actual priory entrance. Erica wanted to walk down the hillside, but the rest of us overruled her and decided to try to follow the map via our car. A few minutes and u-turns later, we find a parking lot that says “Entrance to Priory” next to a run down old mill on the river. We take a stroll for a few minutes along the water, only to discover that we’re on a peninsula and reach a dead end. We now half-jokingly conclude that this priory must not exist, and head back to the car and decide to drive down the road just a bit further to see if we can find it. To get out of the parking lot in the direction we wanted, it was an awkward, sharp right turn on a hill. This proved very difficult for Majid as he stalled out at the top and each time he restarted the car and tried again we sank further and further down the incline towards a stonewall. This was definitely the scariest car moment of the entire trip as we thought we might have no alternative but to crash into the wall. However, with a turn of the wheel in the opposite direction, Majid managed to get out of the situation and onto level ground again. With relief, we decide to give up on the priory and now have a new mission: lunch.
There were 3 pubs to choose from in Kells, and we walk into the first one to find it empty during prime lunch time on a Saturday afternoon. We ask the bartender if they’re serving lunch and he responds, “Food isn’t served on the weekends.” We’re completely mystified as to why a town wouldn’t serve food on the weekends, and this plus the nonexistence of the priory made Kells pretty worthless, though it was pretty scenery. We continued on our journey to New Ross, where we stopped for lunch and devoured fries and sandwiches. Then we took a tour of the Dunbrody famine ship, a recreation of the original ship built in 1845 which transported people and cargo from Ireland to the New World during the potato famine. We again had a private tour of the ship, and it was fascinating to learn about the conditions that people endured for 50 days in hopes of surviving long enough to make it to the US. Interestingly, JFK’s great-grandfather left from New Ross to New York, and Jean Kennedy Smith came for the launch of the replica in 2001. After our educational afternoon, we drove to nearby Waterford where we stopped for a coffee before heading to our hostel in the seaside town of Tramore. The Beach Haven hostel was really nice and clean, and the main room had a fireplace. We were all excited about having a real fireplace to sit by, but despite attempts by Erin and Majid to get a fire going using coal and a phonebook, it took a real Irishman to show us what fire starters look like in this country (grey blobs which were, naturally, right next to the fireplace).
The next morning we explored sleepy Tramore, where it was quite obvious that the town thrives as a summer resort but has little going on the rest of the year. We went in search of the famous “metal man,” a metal statue set on top of one of three pillars on the coast and originally erected to warn sailors of shallow waters. However, we couldn’t find the statue for awhile and, after driving for at least 20 minutes and asking for directions, see three pillars off in the distance with a tiny man on top of one of them. We couldn’t get anywhere near the statue, and wondered how a town could advertise having a statue that you can’t even get close to. Confused, we head to the beach to take some pictures and a walk. We quickly abandoned the idea of the walk after we got out of the car and realized how windy and cold it was. We snapped a few photos, then decided that Tramore had little to offer us and we continued on to Waterford.
We were all looking forward to the tour of the Waterford Crystal factory because it’s a big tourist attraction and is supposed to be really interesting. Sarah had called a couple weeks ago to make sure that tours were still going on so close to Christmas, and they were supposed to be open. However, we arrived only to discover that the workers had been sent home early a few days ago and therefore no factory tours were possible. Slightly annoyed, we walked around the crystal retail store which had some very impressive pieces of crystal- a grandfather clock, chandeliers, and even a small version of Cinderella’s carriage complete with horses, yours for only 23,000 Euros! Now it wasn’t even lunchtime and we weren’t sure what to do with ourselves, so we went to a museum called the Museum of Treasures which had a few interesting artifacts but was pretty much a waste of money as it went into excessive detail about Waterford’s history. After a great lunch at Subway, we visited a couple churches and then had dessert and coffee at a really cute café. Finally we headed back to our hostel where we hung out for the rest of the night, watching tv, reading, and making dinner.
We woke up on our last morning and drove to Hook’s Head peninsula, taking a shortcut on a car ferry, much to Majid’s dismay. The peninsula was beautiful and we stopped at the lighthouse, which is the oldest working lighthouse in Europe (possibly even the world)! The existing tower dates to the 12th century, but some sort of beacon has been in place since the 5th century. The lighthouse was closed for Christmas, but we still had a lot of fun climbing on the seaside rocks and enjoying the scenery. We also saw a bunch of seals in the water right near the coast! Right near the lighthouse were haystacks, and as some of you may know Erica loves taking pictures on top of haystacks. We had trouble finding haystacks the entire trip because it was hard to find good places to pull off on the side of the road, but these were perfect and she was very happy. Our next stop was the coastal town of Wexford, a tiny place hard to maneuver by car. We didn’t have much time here because we needed to get back to Enterprise in Dublin that evening, so after a quick stroll through lively Main Street we had a delicious lunch at a café and were back on the road. A few hours later, after finding our way through rush hour and one-way streets in Dublin, we made it back just in time to return the car. It was a really fun few days!!
It only took a couple hours for us to get to Kilkenny, and our first stop was at the castle. We took a pleasant walk around the grounds and inside the large castle. Afterwards we explored a few craft shops and walked along the main streets of the medieval “city,” which were bustling with Christmas shoppers and even a hilarious dancing Santa. We stopped for lunch at a little place called Mug Shot Café and then continued our walking tour, stopping at a couple churches along the way including the Dominican Black Abbey and St. Canice’s Cathedral. By this time it was dark, so we went to the grocery store and made our way to our hostel about 10 minutes outside of town. After driving on extremely dark roads and missing our turn, we eventually made it to Foulksrath Castle, which is a renovated 15th Century Norman castle supposedly haunted by the original owner’s daughter who was killed in the castle. It was really cool to stay in an old castle, and we spent the night playing cards by candlelight, drinking wine and making delicious curry for dinner.
After a sound night without sleep disruptions from the ghost, we walked around the castle/hostel before heading to the nearby Dunmore caves. We were the only people there and it was quite nice to have a private tour of the limestone caves. After descending hundreds of stairs (supposedly around 700 stairs in total throughout the cave) into the wet darkness, we learned that the cave was a site of a Viking massacre back in 928 and thus many artifacts have been uncovered by archaeologists deep in the cave. It is also the home to eyeless shrimp and 6mm “straws”, which are mini stalactites the exact diameter of raindrops that hang from the ceilings. It also has the biggest stalagmite in all of Europe, which strangely happens to be in the shape of a hand holding a Guinness pint over the Irish flag.
A man working at the cave suggested that we check out the priory ruins in nearby Kells, about a 30 minute drive away through tiny, twisting country roads. Upon reaching some ruins that we thought were the priory, we discover that the entrance was locked and tried to decipher a map showing the way to the actual priory entrance. Erica wanted to walk down the hillside, but the rest of us overruled her and decided to try to follow the map via our car. A few minutes and u-turns later, we find a parking lot that says “Entrance to Priory” next to a run down old mill on the river. We take a stroll for a few minutes along the water, only to discover that we’re on a peninsula and reach a dead end. We now half-jokingly conclude that this priory must not exist, and head back to the car and decide to drive down the road just a bit further to see if we can find it. To get out of the parking lot in the direction we wanted, it was an awkward, sharp right turn on a hill. This proved very difficult for Majid as he stalled out at the top and each time he restarted the car and tried again we sank further and further down the incline towards a stonewall. This was definitely the scariest car moment of the entire trip as we thought we might have no alternative but to crash into the wall. However, with a turn of the wheel in the opposite direction, Majid managed to get out of the situation and onto level ground again. With relief, we decide to give up on the priory and now have a new mission: lunch.
There were 3 pubs to choose from in Kells, and we walk into the first one to find it empty during prime lunch time on a Saturday afternoon. We ask the bartender if they’re serving lunch and he responds, “Food isn’t served on the weekends.” We’re completely mystified as to why a town wouldn’t serve food on the weekends, and this plus the nonexistence of the priory made Kells pretty worthless, though it was pretty scenery. We continued on our journey to New Ross, where we stopped for lunch and devoured fries and sandwiches. Then we took a tour of the Dunbrody famine ship, a recreation of the original ship built in 1845 which transported people and cargo from Ireland to the New World during the potato famine. We again had a private tour of the ship, and it was fascinating to learn about the conditions that people endured for 50 days in hopes of surviving long enough to make it to the US. Interestingly, JFK’s great-grandfather left from New Ross to New York, and Jean Kennedy Smith came for the launch of the replica in 2001. After our educational afternoon, we drove to nearby Waterford where we stopped for a coffee before heading to our hostel in the seaside town of Tramore. The Beach Haven hostel was really nice and clean, and the main room had a fireplace. We were all excited about having a real fireplace to sit by, but despite attempts by Erin and Majid to get a fire going using coal and a phonebook, it took a real Irishman to show us what fire starters look like in this country (grey blobs which were, naturally, right next to the fireplace).
The next morning we explored sleepy Tramore, where it was quite obvious that the town thrives as a summer resort but has little going on the rest of the year. We went in search of the famous “metal man,” a metal statue set on top of one of three pillars on the coast and originally erected to warn sailors of shallow waters. However, we couldn’t find the statue for awhile and, after driving for at least 20 minutes and asking for directions, see three pillars off in the distance with a tiny man on top of one of them. We couldn’t get anywhere near the statue, and wondered how a town could advertise having a statue that you can’t even get close to. Confused, we head to the beach to take some pictures and a walk. We quickly abandoned the idea of the walk after we got out of the car and realized how windy and cold it was. We snapped a few photos, then decided that Tramore had little to offer us and we continued on to Waterford.
We were all looking forward to the tour of the Waterford Crystal factory because it’s a big tourist attraction and is supposed to be really interesting. Sarah had called a couple weeks ago to make sure that tours were still going on so close to Christmas, and they were supposed to be open. However, we arrived only to discover that the workers had been sent home early a few days ago and therefore no factory tours were possible. Slightly annoyed, we walked around the crystal retail store which had some very impressive pieces of crystal- a grandfather clock, chandeliers, and even a small version of Cinderella’s carriage complete with horses, yours for only 23,000 Euros! Now it wasn’t even lunchtime and we weren’t sure what to do with ourselves, so we went to a museum called the Museum of Treasures which had a few interesting artifacts but was pretty much a waste of money as it went into excessive detail about Waterford’s history. After a great lunch at Subway, we visited a couple churches and then had dessert and coffee at a really cute café. Finally we headed back to our hostel where we hung out for the rest of the night, watching tv, reading, and making dinner.
We woke up on our last morning and drove to Hook’s Head peninsula, taking a shortcut on a car ferry, much to Majid’s dismay. The peninsula was beautiful and we stopped at the lighthouse, which is the oldest working lighthouse in Europe (possibly even the world)! The existing tower dates to the 12th century, but some sort of beacon has been in place since the 5th century. The lighthouse was closed for Christmas, but we still had a lot of fun climbing on the seaside rocks and enjoying the scenery. We also saw a bunch of seals in the water right near the coast! Right near the lighthouse were haystacks, and as some of you may know Erica loves taking pictures on top of haystacks. We had trouble finding haystacks the entire trip because it was hard to find good places to pull off on the side of the road, but these were perfect and she was very happy. Our next stop was the coastal town of Wexford, a tiny place hard to maneuver by car. We didn’t have much time here because we needed to get back to Enterprise in Dublin that evening, so after a quick stroll through lively Main Street we had a delicious lunch at a café and were back on the road. A few hours later, after finding our way through rush hour and one-way streets in Dublin, we made it back just in time to return the car. It was a really fun few days!!
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