My Little Car Tour!

It´s Sunday night, and I´ve been in Ireland for just over a week now, but I feel like I´ve been here for ages, just because I have seen and done so much.

Last Tuesday morning, I picked up my little rental car and headed South out of Dublin. When I made my booking for my rental car, I made it for the economy-sized car, knowing that I´d only need a little car, being as it´s just me on my tour. I didn´t realise exactly how small my car would be! I realised pretty quickly when I opened the boot and realised that my backpack had absolutely no hope of fitting in, so it was dumped onto the back seat instead! My car is a new little dark grey Toyota Aygo.

So, heading south out of Dublin, my first stop was the little town of Enniskerry and Powerscourt Estate. This is an old, stately home, but the gardens are it´s main attraction. When I drove through the gates and got my first glimpse of the house, I thought that you must have been able to hire horses and go on a trail ride around the grounds, as there were a few people around on horses. Then I noticed all the cameras and film crew around, and noticed that the people on the horses were actually in period costume! It turns out that they were filming some scenes for The Tudors here! Actually, they film a lot of this television series in Ireland (I´m not sure if it´s been on in Australia yet, but it´s probably been on the ABC if it has).They were filming in several spots in the garden, but I was still able to walk around the garden. The Italian Garden was a highlight, but I would have to say that my favourite part was the Pet Cemetery. It was quite large, and there were even proper headstones and graves for Jersey cows!After having some morning tea at the café on the Estate, I then drove 6km down the road, to see the Powerscourt Waterfall, which is apparently the highest in Ireland. I didn´t spend much time here though, as it wasn´t exactly Niagara Falls!

The next spot I visited was Glendalough, an old Monastic site that was founded by Saint Kevin in the 800s. The buildings on this site are very well preserved and feature an archway, a round tower, a couple of chapels and a priests house.

On my way from Glendalough to Waterford, where I was spending the night, I stopped at Avoca which is famous for being where the TV series Ballykissangel was filmed, and which also has the oldest weaving mill in Ireland. I stopped at the weavers and watched the weavers do their work and then tried not to spend too much money in the gift shop.

When I arrived in Waterford that night, I drove past my hotel twice before finally spotting it! I had dinner that night in the pub on the ground floor of the hotel. There I chatted to a couple that were on holiday from Dublin.

The next day I saw the main sights of Waterford: The Treasures of Waterford Museum, Reginald´s Tower, and The Waterford Crystal Factory.

Late in the afternoon I headed to Cork,driving along the South coast of Ireland.
I stopped at Cobh on the way, a seaside port which was the Titanic´s last port of call before it set sail to America. I arrived in Cork at about 8pm, however I then spent about an hour driving around it trying to find my hostel! I got very frustrated and had to call the hostel in the end to ask for directions! I have decided that Birmingham is actually a piece of cake compared to driving in Irish cities! And I can understand now why visitors to Launceston get so frustrated with all our one-way streets!

Anyway, that is about all from me for now. Obviously, I´ve got a lot more to tell you and show you, but it´s getting late, and I´m quite tired now and I want to get an early start as I think I´ll have quite a long drive tomorrow. I´m thinking of and missing all of you. One of the great things about travelling on my own is that I can go wherever I want, whenever I want. However, sometimes it would be really nice to have some company in the car, or at least a navigator (especially in the cities where I´ve been having a hell of a time trying to find my way to my accommodation!).

Thanks for all your emails and comments. (Sorry I´ve been a bit slack replying to emails, but I do really appreciate them and will reply to them soon, I promise!).

Love,
Lis x.

Dublin

I arrived in Dublin last Saturday evening. After checking into my hostel, I headed into the city to see what I could see. The first thing I spotted was ¨The Spire¨, a huge stainless steel pointy thing sitting in the middle of the main street, O´Connell Street. If you´re a local, you might refer to it as ¨The Spike¨, or ¨The Stiffey by Liffey¨. I headed to the Italian Quarter and had some dinner and gelato, before heading back to the hostel for an early night (I was pretty tired after an early start).

The next morning, I joined another Hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the city. This took us around lots of the popular and historical sights of Dublin. The bus driver was the commentator, and he even sang to us! He burst into a few bars of ¨Molly Malone¨ whilst we drove past the statue of ¨The Tart with the Cart¨. These Dubliners, they have different names for everything!

My first stop on the tour was The Guinness Storehouse. Here, you take a self-guided tour through the old Store house at St James´Gate, before having a complimentary pint at the Gravity Bar on level seven, which offers panoramic views of the city. I can´t remember tasting Guinness before, but apparently it tastes better in Dublin. I can´t disagree with that as I have to say that I enjoyed my pint. After finishing off my pint, it was back to the ground floor and a quick look around the gift shop. I´m not sure if it´s the brainwashing that they do throughout the tour, or the pint that I had just drank, but I had a strong urge to buy LOTS of Guinness paraphernalia. The urge wore off though by the time I got to the checkouts, so I´m thinking it must have been the pint! By the way, I´m now an honorary Master Brewer´s Apprentice, so if anyone wants to visit the Storehouse, mention my name at the door and you´ll get a 10% discount on your entry fee!
Contrary to popular belief, the water used for Guinness has never been sourced from The Liffey, they have always used pure water from The Wicklow Mountains.
I hopped back on the next bus, and got off a few stops later at a pub called Ryan´s Victorian Bar. Here, I had a very nice lunch of Steak and Guinness Pie with mashed potatoes. This is Dublin´s oldest Victorian pub, and highly recommended for a pint and some food, and to check out the decor inside.

My last stop of the day was Kilmainham Gaol. Here, I was taken on a tour inside the jail, where they talked about some of the famous prisoners (the leaders of the Easter Monday Rising were imprisoned and executed here) and the different styles of cells inside the jail. There are Georgian and Victorian styles of cells. The Victorian side gives a feeling of light and space in the jail, whereas the Georgian style is very damp and dark and the passageways are very narrow.

After my tour, I got back on the bus. It was raining by this stage, but I still decided to sit out on top of the bus, and consequently got drenched! I got off at the Quay, and decided that before checking out Temple Bar, that I would have a cappuccino somewhere first. I chose a place called Chocolate Café, where you get a free chocolate with your cappuccino! I didn´t realise this though, so also ordered a slice of Banoffee pie!

I checked out Temple Bar, the "Cultural Centre" of Dublin, before heading back to my hostel.On Monday, I took a historical walking tour which started at Trinity College.
It was lead by an historical graduate of the College and his name was Thomas Graham. He took us to various locations throughout the city including; Trinity College, The Bank of Ireland (which used to be parliament house), Dublin Castle, City Hall and Temple Bar. During the tour, he covered all aspects of Ireland´s history, from the original Celtic Inhabitants, to the Viking invasions, the Anglo-Norman invasions, the Great Famine, The Revolution, the Civil war and up until current times.

We finished the tour at Temple Bar where I had lunch, then headed to the Georgian area of Dublin and to The National Gallery.

After checking out The Gallery, I headed back to Trinity College where I went to The Library and looked at The Book of Kells. By the time I left the library it was pouring with rain again, but I braved it to walk to The Famine Memorial. Here, the silhouettes of seven figures walk in procession along the Liffey, with Customs house behind them.

Birmingham

Hi Everyone!

I just thought I should post some photos of my last weekend in Birmingham. Last Sunday I decided that I should do a bit of sightseeing in Birmingham, being as I´d been working there for 4 months and had only managed to see The Bullring and The Jewellery Quarter in that time!

Birmingham actually has more to offer in the way of sightseeing than I had thought. Did you know Birmingham has canals? I didn´t until 2 weeks ago!

I again caught the train into the city, and walked around The Bullring, to The Mailbox- an old mailing centre which has been redeveloped into some swanky shops. Now, my aim of going into the city on Sunday was purely to do some sightseeing, but I did find myself sightseeing in quite a few shoe shops (well, the sales are on don´t you know?). Dragging myself out of the shoe shops empty handed, I had some lunch at a Gourmet Burger Kitchen at The Mailbox, before heading out into the rain to walk along the canals. I´m afraid that I timed my lunch break quite badly. The sun had been shining when I sat down to have my lunch, and it just clouded over as I left the restaurant. I walked down Gas Street, alongside the canals until I got to Brindley Place, where I crossed the canal and walked through Centernary square, past the war memorial, through Paradise Circus and Chamberlain Square; where a beach had been placed, through Victoria square and back to the shopping centre of the city. Back at the train station, there was an old steam train which runs between Stratford-Upon-Avon and Birmingham during the summer months. I did have to return 2 days later to buy a pair of shoes which I had seen on my travels!I finished work in West Bromwich on Friday and after packing and cleaning up the flat on Saturday morning, I headed to Birmingham International Airport and caught a plane to Dublin, which is where I am currently. I had a great time working in West Bromwich, and I´ll be heading back there in November, after I´ve finished my travels.

The Jewellery Quarter

On Saturday, I went to the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham. Birmingham has historically been an industrial city. It has been known as the City of one thousand and one industries. In fact, at one time there were over 5000 industries running in Birmingham. Obviously, the Jewellery Quarter is where Jewellery was (and still is) produced. Jewellery has been made here for over 200 years. Jewellery which is made in Birmingham has an anchor stamped into the back of it.

The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter is housed in a factory which in 1981, closed it´s doors. This factory was the home of Smith and Pepper and they had produced Jewellery from the 1890´s. Unfortunately, the 1980´s was a bad time for the industry, and so in 1981 the owners of the factory closed the doors and walked away. About 20 years later, the council took over the building and found everything left in exactly the same place as it had been in 1981. The tour of the Museum took us through the factory and upstairs office, talked about some of the people who had worked in the factory for years, and explained the jewellery making process.

It was one of the most interesting museums that I´ve been to. A very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon (and I didn´t even buy any of the lovely jewellery that was on display in the museum and in the shop windows lining the streets).

The Malvern Hills Revisited

The past 3 or 4 days here in the West Midlands have been absolutely beautiful! The sun has been shining, it has been really warm, and there hasn´t been any rain! I even wore my shorts to work on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It has been so nice that I´m really wishing that I had a barbeque and outdoor patio or something similar where I could sit outside in the evenings and chillout after work. Alas, I´ll have to make do with the oven-grill and sitting in the front room with the window open (and a glass of cold Sauvignon Blanc)!

On Sunday, I did some more walking in the Malvern Hills. Unfortunately, I had to buy an icecream at the icecream van so that I had some change for the parking meter before I left my car. I didn´t want to be wasteful, so then I had to eat the icecream.

Naturally, being a lovely weekend, there were lots of people out making most of the weather. I came across this guy Mountain Uni-biking down Worcester Beacon! I´m not sure if he´s clever or crazy. I would have liked to have seen him go UP the hill on it!

There was this guy, too, who was paragliding in the valley east of the hills.

Anyway, here are some pictures from my walk in the hills.These houses are situated in a valley called The Dingle!

Proof I walked to the top of Worcester Beacon

View from the top of Worcester Beacon

Looking back up to the top of Worcester Beacon

St Anne´s Well. The view from where I sat to eat my lunch

Looking at Worcester Beacon from the South. I think the hill in the foreground is where they used to hang the bodies of poachers from medieval gallows!

Anyway, that´s how I spent my Sunday.

Hopefully I´ll hear from you all soon.

Love,
Lis x.

Wales

Hi everyone!

Last Friday one of the vets I work with asked if she could swap weekends with me so that she worked last Saturday in exchange for me working this weekend. That suited me fine, as it meant that I could be on the road to Wales early on Saturday morning, rather than early Saturday afternoon as I´d planned. Well, when I say early in the morning, I actually mean ten o´clock, but I felt that was pretty early for a weekend off work.

The drive into Wales was pretty easy- I only had to drive on 3 roads! I met Elise in Betws-y-Coed at 1pm and after having a bit of lunch at one of the cafés in town, we then drove in convoy to the campsite that Elise had picked out.

We stayed at Llyn Gwynant Campsite in Snowdonia National Park. We set up Elise´s tent next to the river, then headed back to Betws-y-Coed to go for a walk around Llyn Elis. We had a hob-nob break halfway around the lake, then headed back to town, thinking of the icecream we had seen at lunchtime and planning on having a small snack before dinner. Unfortunately, by the time we got back, the icecream shop had closed! We were heartbroken.

We headed to a pub down the road for dinner, and met Lois and Mark, Elise´s friends from Sheffield. We had a couple of pints and some food. I had a steak with Welsh rarebit on the top. I never knew what rarebit was before (I must confess that I thought it may have been rabbit!), but it turns out it is a cheesy mixture which is usually served on toast. It was pretty nice, and I must say the nicest steak that I´ve had in the UK.

The next morning, we woke to the sound of rain on the roof of the tent.

We were a little disappointed as we had planned on walking up Mount Snowdon, but decided to wait it out a little and see if the weather got any better. Elise cooked us some porridge for breakfast and we looked through some of our travel guides, trying to decide what to do. In the end, Elise found a walk which was about a half hour drive from the campsite, and we thought that maybe the weather might be a bit better there.

So we hopped in the car and headed to Dolgellau, and found the carpark from where Precipice walk starts. This was a two and a half hour walk which took us up the side of a hill, among grazing sheep, and along a precipice which overlooked a pine forest and out towards Cardigan Bay. It then took us to a lake, where we stopped for a Hobnob break, before walking around the lake and back to the car. The weather held out for us luckily and we only had a couple of light sprinkles of rain whilst on our walk.



We drove back to Betws-y-Coed via Blaenau Ffestiniog, an old slate-mining town which is cradled by mountains of slag waste. It was an awesome sight, and while it was an overcast day, the sun was shining so it wasn´t as gloomy as it must be on really grey days. I imagine that the pharmacy in town is heavily stocked with antidepressants.

Back at Betws-y-Coed, we decided to have a late lunch at the same café we dined at the previous day. I decided to try Welsh Rarebit the traditional way- on toast. It was great, definitely comfort food. We managed to get our icecream too.

After picking up my car from the campsite, I then got back on the road and headed back to England. I got caught in a torrential downfall on the way home on the motorway, and could hardly see where I was going, but did manage to get back to my flat safe and sound. It was a great weekend away, great to get out of the city and spend some time outdoors. I haven´t been camping in a while, and it was a good reminder of how much fun it can be (when it´s only for one night and there are facilities available).

Overlooking the campsite which is in the patch of trees at the tip of the lake

That´s all for now, stay tuned for more news later!

Love,
Lis x.