Spring Break in Ireland

Belfast- 6/4/11

Our bus to the airport on the morning of the 6^th was at 3.20am and we arrived at the empty bus stop at 3.27. That was just how our morning started. A very tired pair called a taxi and 67 pounds later we were at Stansted airport. Our flight wasn’t until 7.30 so we napped and read the paper before getting on the plane and passing out before even taking off. We found our hostel easy enough and thankfully they let us check in early so we took an official nap before heading out into the city at about 11. Our first destination was to find the murals. Shankill Rd was near to us and it wasn’t long before we could see murals covering the sides of houses. We were standing looking around and deciding where to go when a local noticed us, “Do y’ want to see the murals? Come with me, I’ll show ya.” He introduced himself as Sam, just back from 3 years in Australia and told us about the area, including the bombings he had experienced. He told us about a time when he was in the street when it happened. “I saw a body, lyin naked. Y’ know how all the clothes come off with a force like that? And she was face down, with cuts covering her body from the shrapnel. I thought it was my ma an I ran over to cover her with my jumper. But when I went to turn her face toward me my fingers went straight through her skull, shattered it was, and she was dead. It wasn’t my ma but the horror was still there. But y’ know what haunts me more? What comes back to me at night? It’s the screamin, all those children screaming, for their mothers and their fathers and cryin at the sight of the ruins”

The murals

Claire studying the murals

Sam didn’t stay with us for too long, but he was a good introduction to the area. There are so many different political parties that Claire and I are unsure exactly who was who but we resolved to look into it. The peace wall was nearby and it was the least peaceful looking wall I’ve ever seen. It was about the height of a 3 story house with barbed wire and political graffiti covering it, it still has gates which get shut at night to keep the areas separated.

The Peace Wall

 I should mention that the weather was lovely, blue skies and sunshine helped to beautify what was otherwise a very dero part of town. Wandering back into the city we found out that it was the 100^th anniversary of the Titanic and the City Hall’s lawns were set about with a photographic exhibition of the great ship. Inside the hall we were given a tour of the Victorian rooms and a brief history of the town.

City Hall

Inside the hall

Sitting in the Mayor's seat

The main foyer

The streets of Belfast

 At this late stage of the day we picked up some food and went back to the hostel for our second nap of the day (Win!) We had an aim for the evening; the hostel had recommended Fibber Mgee’s, a pub down the road, for its live music every night. We headed down to this very atmospheric pub and ordered our pints of cider. The pub was very quickly full and the musicians played keyboard, accordion, harmonica and guitar and played mostly Irish folk music but also some newer stuff. They had us swaying and tapping our feet, laughing at the old guys dancing and even after our long day we had to drag ourselves away at midnight knowing that if we didn’t, we wouldn’t wake up the next morning!

7/4/11

On our second day we managed to wake up early enough because we had a plan. Claire and I like to collect ‘essential experiences’ and one of those experiences is to find a national or clichéd food to eat. In Ireland (apart from the potato) that food was a full Irish breakfast. We strolled into the first greasy diner that we could find and ordered the Ulster fry with tea and coffee. Sooooo greasy. We had beans, mushrooms, egg, bacon, sausage, fried bread and something else bready that we couldn’t identify. No black or white pudding yet L It all got finished but I can’t say that either of us felt great about it afterwards.

Claire and her Ulster Fry

 Still we unclogged our arteries with the hot drinks and for some reason got on a bus. The idea was that we were catching a bus to the botanic gardens, but for some reason we thought that the first bus we saw was going there so we just got on. Turns out we got a nice scenic ride out to the outskirts of the city and then back in again. Once we got back in we made an effort to read the bus timetables and found the bus that would take us to the botanic gardens. It was again a gorgeous day and the gardens were teaming with people, sitting on benches amongst the flowers, playing soccer, lying on the grass and eating ice-cream. It was beautiful to see in what had so far been a fairly rough city. Most of the flower beds were in full bloom and we visited a few conservatories, one called the tropical ravine was so warm and moist that the air was thick to breath.

In the gardens was the Ulster Museum. It was a very impressive museum, this sounds so sensible, but everything was just very well set out. We found out a lot more about The Troubles and about how it is still ongoing (Just last week a policeman was shot on the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland over political disputes). We had what was probably an inappropriate amount of fun for people of our age in the children’s interactive area where we got to dress up in corsets and hoop skirts. The attendant in the area commented on us being big kids :D

Being a big kid

Painting

 We also enjoyed the art interactive area where we got to paint in water colours, so many reasons to love museums! It did close eventually though and we hopped on another bus which we thought was going to the beach (we had been told this by the guy at the hostel) but when it got to the end of the line the driver turned to us to ask where we had been wanting to go, and when we said the beach he gave us a very puzzled look. Back into the city it was, and we aimed for a glass dome visible over the other buildings. It was a shopping centre set about a spidery tower of stairs, elevators and escalators. We took the elevator to the top where a platform was suspended in the middle of the huge dome and we could see a 360 view of the city.

The Dome 

We had our fun there and in the shops until we headed home for dinner and made our way back to Fibber Mgee where there were new singers (same old creepy guys), just as good, and we spent an even longer night singing along! 

City Hall

Breakfast with Queen V.

Early mornings are not our strong point.

The gardens on Prince's St

The Spire

In a pub

Our street

Freaky statue

Holyrood Palace

Monument on Calton Hill

The graveyard

Chillin on the hill

Graveyard looking over to the mountains

Freaky gravestones

Salisbury Crags and Arthurs seat

On the monument

Jumping!

From Calton Hill looking down Prince's St

Claire on the edge of the world

The biggest monument on the hill

Looking over the city

ELD

Climbing the mountain

ELD

Looking over to Edinburgh castle

ELDx3

Looking up to Arthurs Seat

ELD

The back of Salisbury Crags

Climbing

The city

Not sure what this was keeping in- or out

The goat path

On top of the mountain

Surveying the land

Peaceful on top of the world

The abbey ruins

The Loch

Ben and Claire

In front of Holyrood house palace

The toilet made into a shrine

Ben and I with our hero

Edinburgh Castle

Looking back at the city

Inside the first wall of the castle

Our guide

Stained glass

The spire from the castle

Buskers in the street

Edinburgh

 Thursday 3rd March

We had an early night on Wednesday in preparation for an early rise… No wait, that’s a lie. We had planned for an early night but I got caught up in the excitement of planning my mum’s trip to England (and surrounds) and it was amazing – colour coded and everything!  However it meant that Gemma, who had gone to bed at a reasonable time, was kept awake for about 2 more hours before I finally tuned out the light. Our alarm was set to 5:30am and we got up leisurely until we realised we had about 10 minutes until we were meeting for the bus at the campus security box. A quick scrambled ensued to get the rest of our stuff together and we shot out the door to meet the others meeting us from Collage lane campus. We had a 15min walk to get to the Galleria where the bus to the airport was waiting. Gemma and I again shot ahead as we were keen not to miss it. No worries however, the bus had a list to tick us off from and wasn’t going to leave without us (at least not straight away).

Getting through the airport was pretty straight forward; we were promptly checked in and got onto the plane. Once there most of us just slept. I however, was more interested in watching the cloud and land below. Once we were higher than the cloud above England it was SUNNY! (I should have worked on my tan though the window) It was strange to see that the grey clouds we had gotten used to were actually a blinding white on top… and went as far as the eye could see.

 Following landing at Preswick airport we caught a train to Glasgow where we grabbed second breakfast and a coffee before getting on a final train to Edinburgh. We met Ben in Edinburgh; he had caught a different flight about 10 minutes earlier than ours and went straight to Edinburgh, so he had a few hours to check out the city before we got there.

Interesting note, the area where Edinburgh is happens to be the thinnest part of Britain and we landed at Preswick on the western side and a 2 hour train took us to Edinburgh on the Eastern coast.

When we went to check into our hostel we were able to get most of our rooms together. Gem and I were in a room with Ben and Shannon (2 other Australians also from UWS); Monica, Cristin and Jordan were already together and the crowd of 8 arriving the next day had a whole room to themselves.

Once checked in we went out to explore the city, we wandered down to Princes st which was the main shopping strip and looks across a park. Some of the others climbed the spire there but we just sat and soaked up the atmosphere.

The hostel we were staying with had a free Pub crawl organised for the Thursday night, so we joined in on that. It included about 5 pubs and 1 cub to finish off the night. Some of these pubs were a themed Frankenstein bar, an Australian Bar called Oz bar where my team won snooker 2 times in a row, and we were part way through our third game when we had to leave to go to the next bar. I think for sure, if we had of continued, I would have hit the winning shot 3 times in a row – guess it’s better to quit while ahead.  Most of us made it to pubs 4 and 5 but Cristin and Jordan were able to trek on to the club – sin and I think continued from there.

Friday 4th March

This morning we had plans for climbing Calton hill and a historic pub, so we started by taking our first walk along the Royal Mile. The centre of Edinburgh is this street. It runs along a ridge from Edinburgh castle at the top to Holyrood palace at the bottom, hence the royal mile. We turned left at the bottom on our way to Calton Hill and we came across a graveyard which looked pretty cool so we wondered through that for a little bit, reading a few headstones about how people passed away. Gemma was quite excited by it as she loves the history and interesting stories you can find in a grave yard.

 Calton Hill was a little odd, Gemma has since described it as Edinburgh’s mantelpiece – as this is where they have decided to place a bunch of monuments with no apparent correlation, but they do look good! We spent a bit of time up here reading there various tourist information boards, exploring the monuments and then climbing all over them. Check out the fun pictures of us jumping and posing; especially the ELD Pictures.

(Questions about ELD have been asked so here is a brief description.  ELD stands for Extreme Lying Down. It’s a game, kind of competition where someone will yell “ELD” and you all drop and lay where you are and have a picture taken… we have since adapted this to selecting the strangest/fun places to ELD) 

Once exhausting the wonders of Calton Hill we decided that lunch was needed and we were determined to have it in one of the oldest pubs in Edinburgh, The Golf Tavern. It was on the other side of town and took a bit of finding but once we were there it was nice. We ordered our first plate of Haggis. This Haggis dish came with 6 deep fried haggis balls. Perfect amount for the group of us. I tend to be eager to eat most foods so I was rather excited. And when I did try it – I liked it. I’d eat it again.

Soon after getting back to the Hostel with ingredients for dinner, the rest of our group arrived in Edinburgh and we quickly fed the 15 of us (It felt like being back on a class trip), before getting ready for a night on the town. We started the night with a ‘free’ Ghost tour which was advertised outside of the pub up the street. It was worth every advertised cent and at the end the guide cornered the group into a dark a corner and suggested that a donation might be nice if we had enjoyed the tour. I get that he makes his money this way but I just thought that he went about it all wrong and we begrudgingly handed over a few pounds. Back at the hostel predrinks before going out felt just like a school camp… except with alcohol, all of us perched on bunks, throwing shoes and having laughing fits on the floor.

We made it round to a few to a few bars but it was a fairly quite night, there sure are alot of pubs in Edinburgh though! Of course, in the early hours of the morning, all you want on the way home is something fried, and that is another thing they have a lot of, chippy’s! Hot chips were on order, but so were deep fried mars bars. An amazing delicacy that I had planned on trying before we left, and it was worth it.

Saturday 5th March

This morning much of our group had planned to travel to St Andrews but Claire and I preferred to stick around Edinburgh, we had our eyes on climbing Arthur’s seat! We 4 Australians were keen and there were a few of the other girls interested too but they weren’t totally sure what we were talking about. When we walked to the end of the Royal Mile and pointed out the mountain that we planned to conquer they changed their minds and headed in the other direction. No problem for us, and we started up. First we had to walk around Salisbury Crags then the full glory of the mountain rose above us, and that’s when Shannon decided that she had had her share of climbing for the day and waved us goodbye as we continued up. It wasn’t really that long, perhaps an hour, but the climb was steep and we hadn’t brought any climbing shoes! Still the sun kept poking out from behind the clouds and the view was spectacular. At the top the wind was whistling and the rocky peak was crowded with climbers taking pictures or just sitting in silence. We watched the sun ripple over the city for a bit, wishing we had brought a picnic with us. The way down was a different route that brought us past a ruined abbey overlooking a Loch speckled with swans, it was truly a sight to behold! Coming off that mountain Claire, Ben and I felt empowered and satisfied.

Our lunch stop had already been planned that morning. Ben and I are die hard Harry Potter fans, and Claire, well she puts up with it. This was the reason we went to the Elephant Cafe. It is the cafe that J. K. Rowling wrote HP in. It was a lovely cafe, elephants everywhere, and just a photo frame to recognise J. K. Rowling. However, then we went into the bathrooms which we found HP fans had turned into a shrine with quotes from the books, messages to JK and lists of the members of Dumbledore’s Army. It was fantastic and Claire provided Ben and I with pens to add our own tribute.

We went back to the hostel to find Shannon and we wandered with not a lot on our minds. We stumbled upon an outdoor exhibition of sea creature photos which was a bit strange in the middle of chilly Edinburgh! We eventually made our way over to the other side of town where Greyfriar’s Kirk is. I had found directions to this graveyard in the bathrooms at the Elephant Cafe, it was supposed to hold the grave of a certain Tom Riddell.... It was dusk as we went in and remembering what the directions were we followed the walls, peering at the worn headstones in the quickly disappearing light. Finally at the very back we came across the large double grave where Tom Riddell and his son, Tom Riddell are buried. It was dark enough that we needed a torch to really see it and as we stood there another couple joined us, also following the directions from the cafe. Oh, and the grave next to it? Belonged to a Mr Trotter, funny that.

Dinner was another group cooking job and we had more ‘Giggle time’ in the big room. Our plan was to find some clubs that night, we did alright but pubs are really where it is at in Edinburgh.

Sunday 6th March

This was an early start as we had things to achieve before catching our train to get home. Bagel breakfasts were had and we made our way up to the castle. We got a nice deal for being in a group and when we were in there we joined the guided tour. Our guide (in a kilt of course) told a wonderful, long, bloody but also romantic history of the castle.  When left to wander I found the crown jewels not as spectacular as the English ones, but extremely well presented. (Always thinking like a tourism student!) I joined a throng in the great hall for a re-enactment of treacherous plan to kill two young boys that happened in the castle. The national war monument was very similar to the one in Canberra (which was strange I thought) but underneath a chest holding the names of all those who have died in the name of Scotland the rocks of the hill it is on have been allowed to poke through, twisting around and securing the chest to the earth. It sets a sombre mood. Down in the bowels of the castle were the dungeons and strongholds which we could visit as well.  I could have stayed all day but we had planes and trains to Catch.

We rushed to our train, and rushed further again once we got to Glasgow, running through the streets in a desperate attempt to make our next train which we did, just. It was lucky we rushed as well seeing as we only waited an hour and a half once we got to the airport. Oh well. It ended up being a longish night as once we were at Stansted airport we again had another long wait for our bus, thank goodness for good company.

What else can I say about Edinburgh? GO THERE GO THERE GO THERE !!!