A foggy day in London town...

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Remember, remember the fifth of November
The gunpowder treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

November 5th is Bonfire night or Guy Fawkes night. It's the night where England remembers the "Gunpowder Plot" of 1605 where Guy Fawkes was caught guarding a pile of explosives underneath the House of Lords. The whole country is lit up with fireworks and bonfires on the night and often the celebrations continue throughout the month.

Here in Leeds the celebrations took place in Hyde Park, which conveniently is across the road. We missed the lighting of the bonfire, because the girls were taking too long to get ready, but us boys were able to watch it from our kitchen window. We managed to get over to the park in time for the fireworks though. Given that it had been raining only a few days before and the fact that there were several thousand people in the park, it got very muddy. At one stage my shoe stayed in the mud and my foot came completely out of it.

I am proud to say though...Bonfire Night has nothing on Riverfire! The lack of F111s flying over was certainly notable, although I read that that will be the case from now on in Brisbane also.

The Lake District

On Saturday 23rd October Maria, Martina (my two Swedes) and I headed off on a day trip to the Lake District organised through the Student Union. There were about 6 or 7 coach loads of students...so a big group!

We headed off around 9ish and arrived at Lake Windermere by about 11am...just in time for a cream tea! The weather was overcast and very cold so we needed the tea and scones to start our day. We hit the water first with a boat cruise around the islands in the middle of the lake. Hopping onto our boat I spotted 2 of the other QUT girls sitting on the boat opposite waiting to cast off. We barely see each other on campus but we end up on the same dock by a giant lake 2 hours from Leeds!

Our cruise was around 45 mins taking us past some very nice houses that sit along the banks. After this we headed into the Windermere town centre where we discovered the Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and Friends store. It reminded me of the Peter Rabbit china sitting at home in the dining room that us 3 boys were given when we were little. Considering there are no babies in the family I didn't feel the need to purchase anything.

After checking out some of the little shops in Windermere we decided to make the trek up to Orrest Head, a lookout on top of the hills surrounding Lake Windermere. The views from the top were amazing! The photos speak for themselves. Naturally I ran into some Aussies who asked me to take a photo of them. Turns out one of them was in one of my classes here in Leeds...I thought I remembered her. We shared a moment in class where we both said Schapelle Corby to a question about victimisation and media branding. It was fate thereafter!

By now it was freezing, around 3 or 4 degrees, so we headed back down and found a very warm pub for a quick lunch and a very late one considering it was about 3.30/4pm. We stopped into a few more shops on our way back to the buses...and gave a second cream tea service some very serious thought! Alas, the buses were ready to go and we didn't want to get left behind.

Thankfully England isn't experiencing any shortages of tea or scones...

The lovely weather on the lake

Out on the very cold lake

Barge crossing over to one of the small islands housing a conference centre/hotel

Almost like Manly!

This is the smallest island on the lake...it is just a tree fallen over.

Looking up the valley

The streets of Windermere

Walking through the forest

Climbing up Orrest Head

View from the top

Promo shot!

Weather clearing up just as we were leaving.

Saturday, 23 October 2010

My Ireland Home: Day 3

On Sunday the Swedes headed home at lunch time so it was just me, 2 girls from Philadelphia and a ethnically confused Dane/Bulgarian. I managed to escape from the girls for a bit while they did the walking tour which I had done on Friday. While they were discovering the secrets to my previously unprompted knowledge of Irish history, I was exploring along the River Liffey and headed down towards the Port at the mouth. I came across some of Ireland's most interesting and most recent architectural ventures with some very modern buildings sitting on the river bank. Outside the port is a large Ferris wheel similar to that of the Wheel of Brisbane. There were some great market stalls in this area and a really good funk/soul band entertaining the crowds.

Some more exploring took me to the Grand Canal Theatre, the main performance venue in Dublin which is very modern and very abstractly designed. This led on to the discovery of the home of Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish writer, which was a modest townhouse in a street of identical doorways. I then headed for the National Museum and looked at the various Viking and Egyptian exhibits on display showing parts of Ireland's quite interesting history.

After leaving the museum I dropped into a tiny little pub called O'Donoghues Bar which is a revolving door of Irish music, both rock songs and very traditional ballads. It was nice to sit and listen briefly to a quartet playing some very traditional Gaelic ballads.

I then headed back to the hostel, hoping to get to Christchurch Cathedral in time for the Evensong service. It turns out I have difficulties reading 24 hour time. I interpreted 15.30 as 5.30pm...so I was 2 hours late for the service at Christchurch. I was really disappointed by this as I was very eager to go inside and experience the 980 year old Cathedral properly. Behind the Cathedral is the sight of the old Dublin Musick Hall which was the venue where Handel gave the world premier of "The Messiah" in 1742.

Down the road from Christchurch is St. Patrick's Cathedral which was built in 1192 on the site believed to hold the spring where St. Patrick carried out baptisms in the 5th Century. The Cathedral and surrounding gardens are beautiful and a definite highlight of the trip.

On my way back to the hostel I stopped in to do some souvenir shopping. My options were either Guinness merchandise or leprechaun merchandise. What diversity! It made it difficult when getting things for Matthew and Andrew considering they aren't too keen on either of the options!

Back at the hostel we all got ready and headed out to a quiet place to eat dinner and listen to more of the addictive live Irish music.

I was awake before the sun was up on Monday, jumping on to the bus again to take me back to Dublin Airport for my flight home to Leeds. I met a girl from Tasmania who has been living and working over in London for a few years now at the O2 Arena and who seems to go backpacking whenever she wants...this has given me some scary ideas!

Unfortunately customs weren't impressed with my jar of Guinness Wholegrain Mustard which I was carrying in my bag and it was put in the bin. Sorry Andrew Benfer...no Irish memento for you :(

I boarded the 0740 flight to Leeds-Bradford and waved goodbye to Dublin and to the 3 crazy days of Irish fun! I'm still devastated that I didn't run into the Corrs though.

Customs House
Built 1791

Sean O'Casey Bridge

Jeanie Johnston Famine Ship

Samuel Beckett Bridge

Dublin Convention Centre

The Point Markets

Looking out to sea

The Aviva Stadium

Grand Canal Theatre

Leinster House

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Goodnight Dublin...

My Ireland Home: Day 2

At about 1am on Saturday morning the other three girls arrived from Leeds: Kira, Liz and Diyana, who all had classes on Friday so took the late flight.

At around 9am they were somewhat awake at the breakfast table and we started planning our day. We decided to head to the General Post Office (which is a hugely impressive building built in the early 1800s) then to Penney's (the Irish equivalent of Primark) and then off to the Kilmainham Gaol (Dublin's old jail built in 1796) followed by a tour of the Guinness Storehouse.

The three late-comers still needed to get ready so Martina, Maria and I headed off by ourselves again to see the Post Office before meeting up with the others on our way to the jail. The building is quite spectacular and is in the centre of town. Inside is still the same since it was built, picture the bank from Mary Poppins.

Outside the Post Office is the Dublin Spire, a giant needle like tower pointing 121.2m into the air. It is located on the same spot which once housed a statue of Admiral Nelson, who was a British naval hero, similar to the one of Admiral Nelson which stands in the middle of Trafalgar Square in London. The statue was bombed by the IRA, although it was barely damaged, as a sign of the Irish not wanting to have any association with England or English history. So instead they commissioned a new monument, The Spire, which was designed by an English architect, at an English firm in London and used English steel for its construction. The intellect of the Irish is something to be seen!

Eventually all of us met up at the markets being held in Temple Bar. Temple Bar is basically a small suburb whose name is self explanatory. Whilst there is no shortage of pubs and bars across Dublin, Temple Bar is an area of about 20 blocks which are packed full of Irish pubs, bars and clubs and is the home to much of Dublin's nightlife.

After stopping at the markets we headed to the Kilmainham Gaol where we toured the facility that has held most of Ireland's most famous revolutionaries and political figures throughout its history. It is a large place with plenty of very cold stone hallways. Numerous films have been shot there including the original Italian Job and one of U2's video clips.

The Guinness Storehouse was the final major destination for the day and, thankfully, was just around the corner from the jail. The tour took us through what used to be one of the factories, explaining the different processes as we went along. The tour ends in the "Gravity Bar" which is the highest point in Dublin with 360⁰ views of the city, out to sea and the mountains. This is where you sit and relax with your complimentary glass of Guinness. Needless to say I enjoyed my Coca-Cola. To put it all into context, you are offered almost 3 FREE pints of Guinness whilst on the tour. Although it is probably all included in the ticket price, so in theory I was wasting my money!

Nanna and Poppa Scott should be proud!

We came across Ireland's oldest inn for dinner, a place called the Brazen Head Inn established in 1198. You would think that after 812 years of trading they would have their customer service perfected...guess again! The only Irish person working was the old man behind the bar, who was probably the original owner. Everyone else was Eastern European and not the friendliest of people. The food was pretty average as well. I walked by the kitchen and noticed our "Fresh basket of home-made Irish Brown Soda Bread" sitting in the plastic packet which it arrived in from the factory which mass produces them. For those travelling to Dublin in the future avoid this pub!

In order to lighten our mood after such a dismal dining experience we hit up a few pubs and clubs in the Temple Bar district and danced the night away. I faintly recall climbing into bed when most normal people would be starting their day...