Megan arrived in Dundee Friday night fresh from her highland haggis adventures. Saturday morning we left early on a brilliantly clear day. Before leaving Dundee, I took Megan up the Law (hill) to show her the lie of the city. We travelled south via the forth road bridge. The forth road rail bridge really got Megan excited. Our first stop was in a place called Gretna Green, the last town in Scotland before England. We stopped for some average coffee and a pasty. We shook hands and had a photo with a Scotsman in full regalia. Carrying on into England we decided to drop into Blackpool. Blackpool is supposedly the ‘fun capital’ of the UK. The beachfront is lined with cheesy amusement shops / stalls and fast food joints, some of which look like they been around for 20 or 30 years. Dodging the ‘boat’ trams and horse drawn carts we had a look at the beach. The first thing I noticed was a guy walking around with a metal detector. Maybe he was looking for buried treasure? The piers had more rides and amusement stalls. The main prize at all of these stalls appeared to be a giant stuffed hung rat, was really weird. The guys at these stalls were real geezers as well. The highlight of Blackpool was probably the Blackpool tower, although at 14 pounds to go up it we decided to pass, opting instead to grab a sandwich and watch stag doos and hen parties walk around Blackpool. Pleased to be on road we made it down to Birmingham by 4pm. The weather closed in as well. We found the Backpackers in a run-down / industrial area of Birmingham. The backpackers itself was very colourful and homely, with a fire raging in the main entrance. We picked Crystal, Michelle and Anna from the train station, they had spent the day at Cadbury factory. We chilled out in our room and got ready for the concert. We took a taxi and arrived at 6ish ready to rock. We took a few photos in front of some B.E.P and had a few pre-concert drinks. Cheryl Cole (or Sharon Crowe as Megan liked to refer to her) was the warm up, she was ok, in her army outfit gears. The B.E.P’s kicked off ‘Lets get it started’ and ‘Rock that body’ The whole concert was the best I have experienced. The lightening, sound and performances were mind blowing. Couple of highlights were the ‘mobile speaker’ robots, Will I Am, Fergie, the extended stage and the futuristic motorbike which flew over the crowd and landed on stage. Everyone had a great time. Leaving the concert was a mission, couldn’t get a Taxi and I got very cold waiting for the train. Finally made it home about 1, was totally shattered.
Sunday, I woke up feeling very rough, I thought it was the beers at the concert, but it was much worse. I picked up some kind of flu-virus, my symptons for the next 3 days included. Hot and cold sweats, headaches, sore throat, phlegm and loss of appetite. I was not in good shape, The last thing I needed at the start of a holiday. We said our goodbyes to the girls in Birmingham and headed north. We stopped in Preston for Lunch (The Mystery Tea House - Soup (veg), a pot of Samurai Chai). We talked to Mum and Dad over lunch. Preston was a really quaint town, nice cobbled streets and cafes. It was 1 o’clock and we quickly realised we might be cutting it fine to make our ferry. We got lost trying to get out of Preston and I started feeling a bit stressed, So I drove like a madman up to Carlisle along the M6, we made exceptional time (let’s hope I didn’t get a speed camera ticket). Just after Gretna Green we pulled off the motorway and headed east to Stranraer, we ate up another 100 miles and we pulled in to Stranraer with 10 minutes before our required check in time of 4.30 p.m. As it turns out our Ferry had been pulled out of service for maintenance and we had been rebooked on the next available ferry, which was 8 p.m. All that rush for nothing! For our troubles the Stena Ferry line did upgrade our booking to premium class, so we enjoyed free drinks + nibbles and a meal on-board. We also had priority for boarding and disembarking the ferry. We reached Belfast under the cover of darkness about 10.30 p.m. We found the hostel, easily enough. Paddy’s Palace. A laid back Aussie, who was slurping on a can of Tennents was there to book us in. We had a two-bunk room to ourselves which was ideal. We checked out our emails and booked Megan a train from Dundee to London on Sunday.
Monday morning we checked out and helpful Laura recommended the black cab tours, so we walked into town. City hall marked the centre of the city, it was here where we started our Black cab tour. We were picked up by “Paddy” we were not sure if that was his real name. He took us in his grey “black cab” and explained some of the conflicts in Belfast. Most of these conflicts were centred in West Belfast. But first he explained a little about the history of Ireland. Ireland is made up of four provinces. Connacht (west), Leinster (east), Munster (south), and Ulster (north). From these four provinces come 32 counties, 6 of which are in Northern Ireland. There has been a struggle for an independent Ireland for century’s between Catholics and Protestants. These conflicts boiled over in West Belfast with segregation of Catholics and protestants with a 20ft wall separating the communities, still in use today. We visited murals and learnt about the taxi buses, the hunger strike, the dirty strike, various street scuffles and the influential Rev Paisley “Dr No”. We visited Bombay street where we stopped at a memorial for volunteer catholic fighters, and civilians. We stopped outside Sinn Fein headquarters (The political wing of the IRA). The two sides are at peace now even after a recent catholic bombing. The people are desperate for peace. We went over to protestant side and saw the amazing graffiti work on the wall. Back in Belfast city centre we stopped for a cup of coffee at the Linen Library then with the aid of Megans Ireland book we visited some of the highlights in Belfast, the docks, the slanting clock tower, St Anne’s Cathedral, the grand opera house, the plush crown saloon bar and we even went to the Entry’s for Lunch. I nibbled at a toastie and Megan had some chilli mince dish. We filled up with petrol and drove south to Dublin. It took a couple of hours because of the road works and detours. We stayed at Avalon house a large modern hostel. Overnight parking proved a bit of a headache, with parking costing us more because we used our card instead of taking a ticket. At the hostel all I felt like doing was sleeping. We had another couple of travellers in our bunk room but I managed to successfully negotiate a four bunk bed room for ourselves after I discovered that my bed had a bow worse than a banana. We went for a walk to try and find something for dinner. Dublin was a maze of cafe’s, bars and shops. We meandered down Grafton street and eventually stumbled into an Italian restaurant where we ordered Pizza. Again I could only manage a couple of bites. Back to hostel, we checked emails before hitting the bunks after beating Megan at a game of Yahtzee.
Tuesday morning, still feeling average... After breakfast we checked out and dragged our bags to the car, on a nice Dublin morning. The parking attendant sympathised with our parking stuff up and agreed to give us a few hours free parking. So we walked to O’Connell Street. We later discovered that a lot of the main streets in Ireland were named after Daniel O’Connell who was the Irish politician, He campaigned for Catholic Emancipation—the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, denied for over 100 years—and repeal of the Act of Union which combined Ireland and Great Britain. In my semi-conscious state we visited, the general post office, home of the famous Easter uprising of 1916, St Ann’s Cathedral, half penny bridge (the price to cross the pedestrian bridge for over a hundred years), Temple bar, Photos of famous musicians, the architecturally ugly Irish Bank, House of Lords, the impressive Trinity College, Parliament buildings and Grafton Street again. Following the tour I needed some serious recovery time so I went and lay down in the St Stephens Green park, while Megan went for a wander. Next we were off to the Guinness Factory. We got a wee bit lost trying to find it but eventually made it. The free car park was full so we had to park on the street. Because we had prepaid for our tickets on the internet, entry was straight forward. Firstly we were shown the 9000 year lease Arthur Guinness signed when he first leased the buildings 257 years ago. Then after a quick intro we proceeded on the self guided tour. Ingredients was the first section hops, roasted barley and they even had a water fall in the building. Next was process of turning these ingredients into beer through mashing, sparging, boiling and fermenting. The next part of the tour was the early advertising employed by Guinness, “Guinness is good for you”, “Genius”, “Guinness gives you strength” and others including surfing advertisements, Toucans. The early style bottles and cans were also on display, these were interesting as well. Finally we reached the gravity bar where we indulged in some complimentary Guinness. The gravity bar had views all over Dublin, it was a great site. Megan picked up a few things from the souveneir shop whilst I went and chilled in the car. Next Megan and I drove down to cork, Megan had to drive because I was running at about 10%. We made it to Cork by 6.30pm, Cork was a quite picturesque with the rivers and the rowers. We got lost trying to find the hostel, we knew that it was opposite the train station, but we couldn’t find the train station! In the end we found itafter driving round cork for another 20 minutes. We met the owner Tracey outside and she sorted us out, we were the only people staying in the hostel. I had a pre-dinner nap while Megan went out and got supplies for dinner. Tuna, tomato, pasta mix for dinner and I actually managed to eat most of it! Then I chilled out in the evening and watched a documentary about car-jacking!
Wednesday, May 12th. I am now officially 28, man I feel so old! Today marked the day I started feeling better, I was, I like to say ‘re-born’. We got going by 9 a.m. we drove through the centre of cork trying to find a chemist as we were leaving the CBD I narrowly missed a pedestrian who walked out right in front of me. There was a police officer standing right on the corner as well. At the chemist I picked up another cocktail of medicines and pills. All drugged up I was ready to roll. We reached the village of Blarney after only 10 minutes driving. It was a beautiful spring day, and we managed to get in early before the throngs of tourists. We went straight to the castle, which was surprisingly (the keep anyway) still intact. At the top of the keep was the stone which we had to queue a bit for, we got hurled backwards and under the rock, the stone was cold to kiss. But now we both had the gift of eloquence! We looked at some of the other rooms in the castle including the Kitchen and Family room. The swing stone was also interesting where unwelcome guests fell down a trap door at the entrance. The grounds around Blarney Castle were really nice as well, with lots of flowers in bloom and streams running through the gardens. We got lost again trying to leave blarney and find Killarney, we managed to locate coachford on the map and use that as our marker. Back on track we reached Killarney by about 1 ish. We stopped at the information centre where we sorted out our accommodation and things to do along the ring of Kerry. We picked up a hideously overpriced sandwich as well from a sandwich bar down the road. The first part of the ring of Kerry was quite boring, mainly paddocks, hedges and shockingly pot-holed roads. We stopped at a place called Carhirciveen where we bought mint chocolate icecreams. We wandered down the mainstreet to the church dedicated to Daniel O’Connell, in the entrance to the church we met a lovely old Irish lady, obviously a regular there at the church. Carrying on the ring we drove through Port Magee en-route to Valencia Island where supposedly according to Megan was a monks covenant. We walked up a large hill on the Island to what we thought was the monks home, but it turned out to be an abandoned farmers cottage overrun by sheep. The views of the cliffs and back into the harbour were nonetheless spectacular though. On the way down I did a bit of cattle herding, some of the cows were very reluctant to move. Further along the coastline was more interesting; we stopped at an unspoilt beach with golden sands. The rocks were very smooth and looked like large limpets. We even dabbled our feet and hands in the water... it was not tropical. Running low on petrol we stopped and chucked 20 euro in. With enough petrol to keep us going we next stopped at an ancient stone fort. The fort was 2500 years old, circular and 6 feet thick. Back in the car we sped to Kenmare, where we stopped for Dinner, I was fortunate enough to be shouted dinner (Indian) by Megan, We were the only diners in the restaurant and were treated well. Because it was my birthday, they even threw in a couple of free guinness’s. We drove to Muckcross under the cover of darkness and somehow managed to find the Peacock hostel, it was a mission. The owner was an Irish born londener, who was friendly enough. We were rooming with a couple of frenchy’s who came in late. We ate some of Michelle’s birthday cake which was nice. The end of a good birthday.
Thursday morning we snuck out of the backpackers early trying not to disturb the other backpackers. We headed down the road to the Killarney national park for a bit of a walk. The main gates were locked so we had to park on the main road and walk from there. The forests were lush with spring growth and spongy moss on the ground, We saw a red squirrel and a couple of deer and I thought I saw a bat fly out of a tree, but I’m not 100% sure. We walked past Muckross house which was very majestic, it looked like a scene out of a James Bond movie. We walked along Lough Leane, and then got a little bit lost, but managed to find our way back to the car. We carried on through Killarney and stopped just before Limerick in a small town called Adare. We had brunch, I had scrambled eggs and salmon and Megan had soup. We utilised the free internet at the library and carried on. Limerick next, home for the setting of Angela’s Ashes; We stopped next the river Shannon and wandered up and down the main road, Limerick was nothing to write home about. The showery weather continued as we drove up to the cliffs of moher. The cliffs rise 120 meters (394 ft) above the Atlantic Ocean at Hag's Head (Irish: Ceann na Cailleach), and reach their maximum height of 214 meters just north of O'Brien's Tower, eight kilometres away. There were tourists aplenty, but I think even they were outnumbered by the 30,000 or so sea birds. Initially the cliffs were shrouded in sea mist/cloud but this cleared later in the day to reveal the amazing cliffs. We paid our 8 Euro to get out of the carpark and carried on the Burren. The Burren (Irish: Boireann, meaning "great rock", Boirinn, the dative form, is the modern form used by the Ordnance Survey) is a karst-landscape region in northwest County Clare, in Ireland. It is one of the largest karst landscapes in Europe. The region measures approximately 250 square kilometres. We got stuck in rush hour traffic in Galway, but managed to push through to the hills of Connemara. The scenery reminded me a little bit of the Isle Skye. We stopped just out of Clifden and observed a strange plaque which read “On this site in 1897, nothing happened” – Random Irish! We wanted to find a campsite, but settled for a bed and breakfast in Clifden. The owner was a bit cuckcoo but friendly enough, Megan didn’t like the fact the lobby and room smelt of stale smoke. We chilled out for a while before heading out for a late dinner at E.J’s restaurant. The food was delicious, I had the Irish stew (good basic flavours – potato, carrot and beef in a kind of broth. Megan had the cod. We stayed out in town for a bit of Irish nightlife flavour at a couple of pubs. We say two trios playing a mix of traditional irish songs and a bit of stand-up comedy in between. Really enjoyed it, I even bought one of their CDs after they finished. Bed after midnight.
Slept in... Then went for a run up to the local lookout (D’arcy Memorial) and the port. Megan made friends with some Donkeys on the way. Showered and had some breakfast at the Lodge. Cereals, and toast with cheese. Left at 10 a.m. stopped by the Kyle More abbey, an impressive castle now run by Nun’s. It was really nice, relaxing by the lake, on a nice spring day. Was almost involved in a crash leaving the car park, a very very close shave. Stopped in Westport and the heavens opened, in between showers we dashed to a cafe “Gavin’s cafe” for a quick coffee. Bought an Irish patch and a sticker in a tourist shop so I could say I was there. We carried onto a place called Grange for a left-overs lunch from last nights doggy bags. We sat in the park on a picnic table and watched a wedding across the road. The hills surround Grange were dramatic as well, worth a photo anyway. Donegal was the next stop, just for a walk around the “triangle” we looked at the castle from the outside and Megan ripped her jeans properly just under her buttocks jumping onto a wall, it was quite funny! The weather looked promising this afternoon so we stopped in at a supermarket to get supplies for camping. We had travelled from one of the most southern most points in Ireland to the northern most. Apparently the Faraday peninsula had a camping spot somewhere there. We got lost because of signs pointing the wrong way but eventually after asking the locals we found a campsite right near a nice beach. Was stoked we got to camp at least one night. We had a couple of problems though the airbed didn’t fit in the tent and the cooker had the wrong connection for the gas bottle! Gutted! So we reverted to ‘plan b’ and we went to Sarah’s restaurant at Portsalon across the bay and ordered burgers and a couple of cans. We brought our food down to the beach and ate our burgers and drank our beers as the sun sank beneath the hills. We took a few jumpy photos and some sunset ones. We drove up the hill and watch some of the surfies negotiate the waves. It was a very nice spot, quiet and very like New Zealand. Back at the campsite we had a bit of a Kumbaiya, then went to bed.
It rained during the night and the tent leaked a ‘little bit’ Not too bad a sleep, really. Packed up showered and we were away. Drove to Londonderry or derry for breakfast (eggs toast and bacon) and a bit of a walk around. We were back in the UK again. The central part of Derry was surrounded by a wall with cannons sticking out the side of it. The locals of Derry were really friendly as well. We carried on to the Giants Causeway. We had a slight detour as there was a big motorcycle race on in the area that weekend. The cliffs and beaches in Northern Ireland were pretty spectacular, castles virtually merged into the cliffs. The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. We scrambled over the columns with the tourists taking photos and then got an aerial view from atop the cliffs. Next further along the coast was the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. Crossing the 24 metre chasm with the waves crashing below was a cool experience. With time against us we had to end our tour of Ireland there, We drove back to Belfast with the ferry departing at 5pm. We somehow managed to score priority boarding back as well, which was a bonus, although the ferry was fairly empty anyway. I somehow managed to lose at Quiddler again on the ferry, Megan just had lucky cards. It was a nice evening back in Scotland, The drive up the coast to Ayr was pretty cool. We stopped in Girvan for a pub meal and a Guinness. 2 and a bit hours later we were back in Dundee, very tired. The end of a great road trip, we covered just under 2000 miles!
