A foggy day in London town...

Saturday, 23 October 2010

My Ireland Home: Day 1

At 4am on a very dark and cold Friday 15th October I crawled out of bed and got ready to leave for the airport. Destination: Dublin city, Ireland. I was heading to the Irish capital for a couple of days with 5 of the girls from Leeds: 2 Swedes, 2 Americans and a Dane (slash Bulgarian).

Some would say I am a lucky man...they clearly haven't gone travelling with a large group of girls!

I left on Friday morning with Martina and Maria, the Swedes. The flight was barely an hour...I don't think they even bothered to put the landing gear up! We arrived around 7am and spent the next 1.5 hours waiting for a bus as the one we needed drove off on us despite my furious waving at him. Needless to say, our first impressions of Ireland weren't too great. Eventually we caught our bus and arrived right outside the hostel's door. We set our things down and headed off to discover the city.

We ended up joining a walking tour of Dublin which kept us occupied for around 3 hours. The tour was guided by a nice guy who is a qualified Barrister, which one him points in my book, and a history buff. Most importantly the tour was FREE! The tour took us around some of the most notable destinations in Dublin such as the Dublin Castle, City Hall, Christchurch Cathedral, Temple Bar district and Leinster House (where parliament sits). The history of Ireland is quite an interesting one involving Vikings, Romans and, obviously, the English. Most importantly, every war/rebellion/revolution that Ireland has started...they have lost.

At the end of the tour we headed to a pub called O'Neills with the tour guide to grab a late lunch.

Given our shared interest in all things boring, ie. law, politics and the state of the Irish economy, Richard (our tour guide) recommended we check out the courthouse. So after lunch Martina, Maria and I headed to what is called the Four Courts to get a taste of the Irish judicial system. The building is very impressive and was built in the late 1700s. It is the sight where the Supreme Court of Ireland sits, the highest court within the Republic. We actually went into one of the court rooms which was hearing a personal injuries matter at the time. The accents slightly diminished the severity of the subject matter I think!

After explaining to the girls what we just watched we headed back to our hostel to check in to our rooms. After a much needed nap and a shower we headed out for our first night in Dublin. We ended up at a pub called Oliver St. John Gogarty which plays live Irish music every night. We sat or hours eating and enjoying the atmosphere. So much fun!

Afterwards we went for a walk along the River Liffey and took in the sights and sounds of the Dublin nightlife. By now our nap had worn off so it was back home for the night!

My first RYANAIR flight
and the first flight where I have boarded from the tarmac...I felt like a rock star!

Maria and Martina
Looking alert boarding the plane!

Dublin International Airport

Front of Trinity College

Brown Thomas
The Irish Harrods

The back of Dublin Castle

Christchurch Cathedral
Built 1030

Dublin Fusiliers Arch

The Four Courts
Ireland Courthouse

Oliver St. John Gogarty
The Irish pub where we had dinner

The band at the pub

The Ha'Penny Bridge
Built 1816

Looking downstream.
The Ferris Wheel and light are at the Port of Ireland.

A regular Martha Stewart...without the tax fraud...and not a woman!

During the week Kira, Diyana, Liz, Calum and I got into the routine of cooking for each other. The meals progressively became more elaborate and, naturally, I was the last one to cook.

Not one to bow down from raising the bar, I personally feel that I outdid myself.

The menu for the evening was roast pork which I prepared with lemon and herbs (turns out I'm pretty good at scoring a pig) served with a potato and sweet potato bake, fresh carrots and steamed beans. I spent hours in the kitchen slaving over the meal and hours longer waiting for it too cook. Eventually it was done and to the satisfaction of everyone who shared it.

Mum would be proud...I purchased my first Pyrex dish (as if we don't have enough at home already!)

I tried to get Kangaroo steaks for everyone but the only place that sells them is a farmhouse 30mins out of town. Next time!

Disclaimer: no one was ill, injured, harmed or endangered before, during and/or after the process. It was good!

My beautiful pig!

Diyana carving it up.

The spread...we don't have fancy serving dishes.

My plate!

Happy diners :)

Sunday in the park with...

On Sunday 10th I decided to break out of my room and enjoy the sunshine by heading across the road to Hyde Park (not THE Hyde Park, there is a Hyde Park in almost every English town).

It was here that I encountered my first European Autumn...

The falling leaves drift by my window,
The falling leaves of red and gold...

Saturday, 9 October 2010

Miserable Manchester

After getting home late Saturday night I dragged myself out of bed on Sunday morning. It was so dark that I thought my phone somehow got caught up in the daylight savings problems back home in Aus…but it was just pouring outside! I got ready and headed off to catch the bus to Manchester. Arriving was just as miserable as the weather continued to turn against us. After a hot breakfast and the purchase of some new umbrellas we headed to the Tourism Centre only to find the other half of our flat there. We hadn’t realised they were heading to Manchester for the weekend as well.

After grabbing as many maps and brochures as possible we caught the tram out to Old Trafford to visit the stadium, home to Manchester United. Pretty impressive stadium! I thought of the soccer crazy Adrian Demack whilst walking around there. I got you a gift as well mate!

Once back in the CBD we checked out the Art Gallery which houses some very impressive artworks. There was an Oktoberfest festival happening outside the town hall so we headed there for a bite to eat! The town hall is monstrously huge and, unfortunately, closed on weekends. It is so big that it looks kind of scary.

We then started walking towards the John Ryland Memorial Library, a historic building built in Gothic style and opened in 1900, when we came across a completely random statue of Abraham Lincoln. The girls from Philadelphia were impressed!

Other destinations we hit up were the Manchester Cathedral, Manchester’s version of the London Eye, the impressive Printworks building and the streets of the Northern Quarter (home of great fashion outlets and awesome record stores).

We finished our trip by going to see a live soap-opera being performed in a pub in the city. It was…interesting. The accents were quite Northern so I was constantly interpreting for the others.

We raced out of the pub once the performance was finished and took a cab to the bus interchange…where we sat for another hour and a half waiting for our very late running bus!

A miserable day with a miserable ending...Manchester certainly made an impression!

The Stadium at Old Trafford

The Town Hall

An accordion band playing at the Oktoberfest event

Manchester Cathedral

Manchester's Big Wheel

A real drink - even though I don't like the Bundaberg one!
I have been suffering from withdrawals over here...no one can make a lemon, lime and bitters!

A nightclub which sits in the middle of the street...safe for queuing!

Last Minute London!

At some point during the week commencing 26^th September a few of us in the flat decided to do a last minute dash to London for the night. What originally started out as a large group ended up just being two of us, the others realising how much study they had been putting off! We headed down Friday 1^st October around lunch time and headed back Saturday night about 8pm. We were short on time because we had booked a trip to Manchester for the Sunday!

During our brief stay we managed to see Legally Blonde: The Musical (great show), Platform 9 ¾, a lot of the Southbank area, Tate Modern, St Paul’s, Westminster, Covent Gardens, Harrods and Regents Park. A jam packed two days with very little sleep!