Farewell London

We are about to move on to the final step of our trip - Japan. We fly out of London on wednesday morning, have a stop over in Zurich for a few hours, and then a long haul flight to Tokyo...effectivly losing 1.5 days in transit. But hey, we save on one nights accomodation!

London has been our base for the last week and a half. It has been excellent staying here. We have used this time to do a bit of sightseeing, recovery and rest time from our adventures, and most importantly we have had some good quality time with Rod and Allanah. They have looked after us during our time here and we wish we could do more to repay them. Thank you Rod :)

We were treated to the Lord of the Rings stage show last week. Fantastic! The sets, costumes, actors and actresses were all amazing. During the intermission the Orcs crawled and bounded around the crowd, grunting and scaring people..it was great! The black riders were amazing. The whole production was really entertaning and very well done. It was a very worthwhile and memorable experience.

We have been on the London Eye, seen Parlament House, Big Ben (its just a clock), strolled through Hyde Park and saw heaps of squirrels!!, and we also had a drink in the oldest pub in England.

We had a night out on the town with a couple of great aussie blokes too, Scott and Adam. We met up with a South African bloke Bruce and his lovely Irish missus Inez, Rod and Allanah, Scott and Adam. We went to a Turkish place for dinner and ate so much we all had stomach pains for the rest of the night, then we went to a South African pub which was great, and then we stumbled to Belushi's until kickout time - 2am. Which is stupid..because at 2am the streets were chaotic with drunks and cops and no cabs and full busses..but we already knew there was something wrong with the English. So that was an interesting night and we had a heap of fun, thanks Adam and Scott!

Also worthy of a mention, is that the 23rd of August (this Thursday) is Kerries, Rods, and also Adams birthday! (I guess Xmas is just a romantic time of year??) We will be on our flight to Tokyo..so Kez will be waking up and singing 'Happy Birthday To Me' in the bathroom by herself, but we both hope Rod and Adam have a big one and celebrate for us. Happy Birthday Boys! Have a drink or 20 for us :)

We will leave you with a few pics of our time here.

So long London!

1. Houses of Parlament, with Big Ben on the right..quite impressive. This is the view from the London Eye.

2. View from the top deck of a double decker bus.

3. Father and Son and the city of London.

4. On the London Eye. It was quite cool, lots of pods circling round. The wheel never stops, but it's going so slowly that you can just walk on and off at the bottom easily. The trip takes about half an hour.

5. On the train....you have to watch out that you don't sit on half a person here in London, apparently they are everywhere. You also have to vacate this seat if you see a man with damaged dignity...only half a man..often happens after cricket games with the Aussies.

6. The oldest pub in England - The Bell.

7. SQUIRREL!!!!!


8. THIS ONE IS EATING A NUT!!! AWWWW!!

Updated Photos

Hi Kids,

This is just a short post to let you know that we have now updated the photos on the Scotland post, so have a looky if you are interested...and as if you wouldn't be.

Also we both wanted to thank everyone who has been posting comments. It is for you that we spend hours for, labouring to update the blog and picking the best photoes to post (which is hard...we have something like 1000 - 2000 photos already from out trip!). But it is all worth it because we are really touched that you are even the slightest bit interested in our travels.

Thank you lovely people! You know who you are..if you have commented, then hug yourselves for us, and look forward to a drink with us when we get back, for there will be a party!! Whoooo! And this time...no one is getting sick ;)

Peace out yall!

Ireland

Hello again!

Our apologies for being a bit slow updating this..there has just been so much to do!

Now, after we left Edinburgh we headed off to Ireland for 4 nights. The first day we spent wandering around Dublin seeing its limited sights and pushing through the emormous crowds in the main shopping district. Basically we were pretty dissapointed with Dublin..it was a bit of a dump from what we saw. Dublin Castle is among a dodgy office area, smack bang in the middle of a carpark. We saw a big church, and 'the wall of dublin'..which was ok..not great, but nice enough. The nightlife seemed to be going off but we never made it out to experience it.

The second day we jumped on a train tour which was quite expensive for what we got. We sat on a train for about 2 hours, then changed trains for another half hour..then got on a bus driven by an old man who had a voice like a softly running motor, easing us into sleep every 20 minutes. He felt we all wanted to know about who lived in what house over the last 50 years, and what tennis courts he had never seen anyone playing on...rather than telling us history or anything else more interesting. We were taken to the Ring of Kerry which is meant to be one of the best scenic routes in Ireland. We were unimpressed. Lots of shrubs, rocks, mud, fog, and uninteresting landscapes. The best thing we came across that day was an Irish Coffee - delicious.

The third day we did another train tour which again was too expensive for what we got, however this one was almost worth it because it was much better than the day before. We jumped on a train for about 2 hours, then a bus. However this time we had a proper tour guide talking to us on the bus, and not just the driver. We were taken to a castle and given a tour which was really good - we were told all about the history and who owned it and so on. We went to the Cliffs of Moher, which are meant to be magnificent...fog permitting. Fog was not permitting. We walked to the edge of the cliff...looked out..and saw nothing but a wall of white fog 2 inches from our nose, and could hear waves crashing 2-300 metres below. So that was a bit dissapointing, but a giant icecream we bought at the gift shop made us feel better :)

We were told lots of history including stuff about the famines. Basically there used to be about 8 million people in Ireland, and the famines killed so many, only this year the population has reached its highest since then - 4 million. So you can imagine it was pretty shocking times. We were told about the English trying to kill them all, like they did the Scottish (bloody English). The English decided to give the starving a bowl of soup to help them out...but only if they worked for it. They realised that starving diseased people couldn't do work of any value, so they made them build dodgy rock walls that did nothing and lead to nowhere, simply so they wern't getting food for free. Obviously a lot of them died doing that pointless bit of work.

After this long trip, we decided to go to the airport that night rather than pay for another night accomodation somewhere (we are master budgeters now). At about 1:30am we headed through crowds of drunk Irish and tourists, caught a bus to the airport....and upon arrival we really expected to be the only idiots trying this tactic..however the place was a sea of bodies. Families, couples, singles, all camping on the floors, steps, cafe seats..we were flat out finding a free piece of carpet to set up our TP. After a scuffle with some rouge children running amok while thier parents slept and considerably pi$$ed us off, we went and camped next to the escalators. We managed 2 or 3 hours sleep, and had to get up cause the place was just so busy and noisy. It was only about 4:30 at this point. You can imagine how we were feeling. However we were still in high spirits as we were very much looking forward to arriving back in London..back to a room of our own, a double bed (we slept in dorms in Dublin..you almost get used to having no privacy), and friendly family faces.

So here we are in London..but that's another post.

Here are some pics for you:

1. Dublin Castle..note Ize is standing in a car park, and the dodgy brick building attached seamlessly to the back of it.

2. The side of Dublin Castle...don't the new add on's blend in??

3. The castle we visited on our second rail trip.

4. Irish landscape

5. We would like everyone to add a caption for this pic..we think its a classic. The winner will get a prize. "Hey man, welcome to the party" or "Can I borrow a cup of brown sugar?"

6. The Cliffs of Moher.....mmm white.

7. Limestone..Ireland seems to be made of it.

The Highlands in Scotia

Afternoon everyone!

We did an awesome tour with Macbackpackers last week. Basically we bought a ticket that was valid for a year, to use the jump-on jump-off bus service which drives over all the best parts of the Highlands of Scotland. The tour guides were a lot of fun and gave us heaps of info on Scottish history (we are now experts) and gave us a bottle of whisky to drink on the bus, and one of our guides even stripped her gear off and went for a dip in the freezing cold Loch Ness for us - how cool is that?

We made friends with a few different groups of Aussies (most of our tour seemed full of aussies...) and met lots of people who had the same ticket as us but had stopped off on the way to work a few months. We would have loved to have done that, but, well we couldn't..certian selfish people are getting married and uni awaits for some back home ;p

Firstly - Highland Coos. Possibly the best part of Scotland. Apart from the whisky. They are those big yak looking things with hair all over thier faces..they are the hippies of the cow world. The baby ones look like little grizzly bears and you just wanna chase em and hug em till you have blisters.

Second - Whisky. The blood of the scots. We liked it. Very much. mmmm warming

Thirdly - Glen Coe. Simply amazing. We would love to see it when its snowing. After learning the history of the place though, we don't wish to associate with anyone with the last name Campbell. If you know anyone by that last name, push them over. Down some steps preferably.

Edinburgh festival was in full swing when we left for Dublin and we were quite dissapointed to be missing it all. Our favourite live aussie band, True Live, was playing next week too! Performers lined the streets - singing, street theatre, comedy, bagpipers, bands, all combined to make the place alive. We stoped to watch a band of older guys in highland dress (like braveheart) bash on big drums really loudly, and they sounded awesome, and then the cops came and stopped them because they weren't in a designated perfoming area. They only got through the first 3 or so minutes of one song and the crowd surged forwards and bought thier CD! That included us..so we are looking forward to listening to it and seeing if we got ripped off.

I think we will be coming back here next year :)

Other random funny things that have happend to us -

1. Ize bus surfing (on the tour on a really bumpy windy part of road, Ize and others stood up in the isle of our bus, to the tune of 'Surfing USA', and without touching anything they had to see how long they could stay on thier feet for. Loads of fun for the family!)

2. Hearing stories of Tequila Stunt man (a couple of aussie blokes shafted some dumb american who reckoned he could out drink anyone at any drinking game. So they played 'stuntman' and he didn't make it through a drink)

3. Drinking a bottle of whisky straight on the bus (part of our tour included a bottle of whisky for everyone onboard. It was passed around until it was finished..only took us less than an hour!)

4. Eating the best sandwiches we have every had whilst in Pitlochery at a local deli.

5. The seagulls in Inverness are as large as Nikkie. Perhaps larger...we were frightened. One of them is a master thief who has made it in the local papers. Apparently this bird had worked out how the automatic doors worked on a newsagent, walked in, grabbed some chips, and then walked out and ate em.

6. Learnt all about how non factual Braveheart is...like the fact he was never married, didn't wear tartan, was very tall, and that welsh princess he got it on with was really only about 3 years old..so that didn't happen either.

The pics are in!

1. Hairy Coos!!! The cutest things ever...they are actually cows. Our tour guide said they are the hippies of the cow world, because they have long hair all over thier face, and if you brush it out of thier eyes, they always look really suprised.

2. This is Hamish, Scotlands largest Hairy Coo. You could by a bag of feed to feed him with if you wanted.

3. Kez and Hamish

4. Edinburgh Castle

5. A band of Scottish street performers we passed on the way to the airport, we bought thier CD.

6. Ize treaking through mud to get to the ruins of a castle on the Isle of Skye. (castle to the left)

7. Ize Otter hunting. Aparently this river thing had them...but we didn't spot any. We were quite upset, especially Ize.

8. The castle in the movie Highlander...can't remember what it's called though.

9. Glen Coe. This place is simply stunning. This is a must see before you die.

10. Ize chugging some whisky from the bottle on the bus. Mmmm. free whisky.

11. A fort...can't remember its name..but it was cool. It was built by the English as one of many bases, in thier attempts to control the land and the Scots.

12. Us at Lock Ness. Didn't see as many monsters as we wanted though...but the Loch was beautiful. And huge.

13. Our tour guide with her gear off heading into Loch Ness.


14. Part of the Distillery at Pitlochery.

15. More distillery

16. More Distillery

17. More Distillery

18. The main street of Pitlochery.


19. Cute Thistle

20. Us at Edinburgh after a few brewski's

21. Our dorm in Edinburgh

22. A lake running through a beautiful forest we went for a stroll in.

In Scotland

Giday all!

We are in Scotland at the moment in our hostel. Tomorrow we go off on a tour round the yak filled highlands, but we will tell you about that when it happens.

We've spent the last week just in London not seeing many sights (the last two days have been spent planning Scotland and Ireland), but we have seen a few things. Worthy of note is a great Thai place we went to for dinner last night. Really really delicious Thai. mmmm. Served in a pub, no less (yes we thought that was a bit strange too).

Scotland is awesome. Our hostel is only a few streets from Edinburgh Castle, and we are right in the main mall (Old Town) filled with pubs and street performers. It is Edinburgh festival time this month, which means the place is filled with musicians and performers all doing thier thing on every corner and in every pub. Its a great atmosphere.

There are old style buildings, churches and cottages everywhere. We have seen several people in kilts so far today, and one live bagpipe performance! There are a few choice wisky specialist stores across the street we plan on studying further.

So its a bit rushed at the moment. We just arrived and have got a few drinks into us, and tomorrow morning we are wisked away on a bus for 6 nights, and then we are back here for another night before leaving for Ireland. We have 4 nights in Dublin and during that time we are doing a rail/bus tour of the main sights. We are very much looking forward to that...will keep you posted.

Our next entry might not be for a while as we are hitting the road again soon...but we are thinking of you all and miss you.

We promise to have some piccies and more detail within the next week.

Love yas all