To Scotland!

I pick up my blog posts as I leave Dublin for Belfast and the ferry ride to Scotland that would prove to test me in more ways that one. It's a normal night back in Adelaide; football on the television, "No Doubt" blasting, eating left-over Christmas Pudding and no partying to be done. And no, I'm not kidding. Christmas pudding. As such you can expect more quality musings on my time overseas. So, without further ado, I give you "Bonnie Scotland".

Brilliant.

I hadn't really planned how I was going to get to Scotland. I was taking the ferry that much was certain; however I hadn't booked anything and nothing was locked in. After looking up timetables the night before, I booked a bus that would get me to Belfast in time for the connecting bus to the Ferry, and I would go from there. The bus ride went without a hitch and two or so hours later I was in Belfast booking bus tickets that would take me all the way through to Glasgow central.

Before I got to Glasgow however I had to deal with the Ferry ride. Being completely honest as I am prone to doing on this blog, I will ask you to cast your eyes over my previous blog about Ireland, and take note of the way in which I was farewelled from Dublin. Even considering these celebrations I was feeling fine as I once again set out on my travels-or so I thought.

Token Museum Shot

Now I don't normally have any issues with Ferry rides. I've been on some nasty ferry rides (try the Backstairs Passage from Kangaroo Island to Cape Jervis at 9pm in winter...or don't) and some nice ones (Tangier to Algeciras at 9pm-positively blissful!) however I was pretty confident with my travelling ability over water.

More fool me. It turns out a that good old ferry ride can change your entire outlook on drinking, late nights, travels, hangovers and just life in general, and I spent most of the ferry ride regretting my large breakfast that morning and trying to reverse that dangerous woozy feeling that comes with being horribly hungover on a large boat that feels quite small compared the the waves you're in, in the MIDDLE of a freaking channel.

First stop on the Highland Tour-beautiful streams

Needless to say I did a small happy dance when the Ferry finally pulled into Cairnryan Ferry Port and my feet touched dry land, after the only other small highlight of spotting Newton Faulkner walking through the ship.
A few hours later and I was in Glasgow, complete with the small bus tour through the city to the bus terminal. Thanks to my Lonely Planet I had a map and a good idea of where I needed to go, and I quickly set off with my pack down the hill and through the city to my hostel complex. I say complex because this hostel was housed in an 10 floor building, taking up 8 floors with beds and dedicating the other 2 to a massive kitchen and a mezzanine with a laundry. I had the dorm almost completely to myself, and after a short walk to find the nearest Tesco and dinner, I returned to have a lovely evening with some other travellers whom I had just met.

SAS monument

I awoke the next morning for a late breakfast and a quick skype session with home. My youngest sister was about to leave for a school pilgrimage to Vietnam and Cambodia and I wanted to speak to her before she left (I am a model older sister), after which I set out for a different hostel. I was planning to meet with Miss Eliza (it's going to stick) for the night and we were staying at a different hostel on the other side of town due to it being cheaper over the weekend.

Bus Window Photos. Yeah...

      

Loch Ness

            I arrived at the hostel and checked us in before heading out with my broken but cute umbrella to meet Eliza at Central Station. Her train was late because, of all reasons, there was cattle on the track. For over an hour and a half. Only in Scotland. We quickly decided that the best way to see as much of Glasgow as possible was to shop as the main district is situated around the Shopping Mile (like Adelaide's Rundle Mall if it were on steroids), and set out to find Eliza some jeans and myself a new umbrella.

After a lovely afternoon shopping, we headed back to the hostel with dinner and planning to do. I managed to book the next few nights of accommodation and train travel to Edinburgh, whilst Eliza managed to drink most of the bottle of wine, before we headed out to see if we could find some nightlife to participate in for a while.

We ended up at Buddha, a really nice cocktail bar close to the action on Sauchiehall Street, one of the main and best "nightlife" areas. After discovering that the cocktail of the month was only £3.50 we quickly set about testing the bartenders as to whether they actually knew how to make it (some did, some didn't. We helped to rectify their mistake *giggles* ). After a few hours of talking and drinking and more talking and laughing and some more drinking, we headed back to the hostel and got some sleep. We were both travelling in the morning and after remembering how I travelled after my last night out, decided some semblance of a good night's sleep would be a good idea.

Me. Loch Ness. YES.

The next morning we awoke and after a quick breakfast, packed our bags and headed to Central Station for our train. I had managed to buy a ticket on the same train as Eliza, only she would then continue on to Durham whilst I disembarked at Edinburgh Waverly.

As I disembarked the train I was met with cold, grey weather that quickly turned to rain. I was fully prepared with my still broken umbrella (I'd given up on buying one in Glasgow)
and my removable rain-cover for my pack (that Eliza had found hilarious in light of my lack of personal rain-coat) and as such used the momentary downpour as an excuse to duck inside of tourist information to get a decent map of the city to find my accommodation.

Just a quick "stretch-your-legs" break on tour...

Half an hour, uphill-and then back downhill, in the rain walk later, I arrived at my accommodation, the lovely "Budget Backpackers Hostel". Situated at the bottom of Candlemakers Row, I had to walk down possibly the prettiest and most charming street in my entire trip to get there, W Bow. This is (apparently) the street upon which "Diagonally Alley" was based, and I could automatically see why.
Cobbled stone streets, beautiful little boutique shop fronts-it was absolutely beautiful.

After spending the afternoon wandering through Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile and it's...more alternative surrounds (and coming away with a small yet permanent reminder of my time overseas *gives Cheshire cat grin* ) I made my way to a Tesco and bought dinner, heading back to the hostel to cook and catch up on the daily news to the soundtrack of badly played flamenco guitar by the Spanish travellers in the corner of the kitchen. As I st and ate dinner, the kitchen filled up and I was lucky enough to meet Lindsay and Ben, a brother and sister travelling together who were originally from Melbourne. They invited me to a comedy night with them that night and my plans were set.

Glen Coe.Magnificent.

The comedy night was hilarious. We were "conned" into sitting in the front row (after sitting in the second row deliberately so we weren't front and centre) as the MC invited us to all moved forward, and we were promptly interviewed, asked our names ("Clementine? OOO I've never met a Clementine before!.... Why?") after which Ben took the mantle as the MC's victim of choice for the rest of the evening. There were some funny, not-so-funny and downright hilarious moments as Ben juggled the MC's numerous advances, different comedians tried their luck on the stage and I had and impromptu meet up with an old school colleague-proving just how small the world really is.


W Bow

The next day I spent on a tour of the Scottish highlands, taking in Loch Ness (for lunch, naturally), Glen Coe and other small towns and sights along the way. The absolutely incredible scenery accompanied by the interesting commentary from the driver (Highland Tours-highly recommended!) made sure that the day was well worth it and very enjoyable. I woke up just as the driver was putting Lady Gaga on the stereo (WHY!?!) and made my way back to the hostel where I was meeting Ben and Lindsay for the pub crawl.

The rest of the night passed in a blur of beer (or whatever-you-were-drinking) pong, cocktails and loud music, and woke up the next morning feeling less than brilliant, heading straight to "Mum's Diner" for some serious comfort food in the way of a bacon roll, before wandering the streets of Edinburgh and taking a tour of Mary King's Close, before going our separate ways in the evening, the last of my three nights in Edinburgh.

The Castle

The next morning we packed up and after discovering we were all going towards Central Station, caught a quick cab ride down the road and said our goodbyes. I was heading down to Durham for my final day with Eliza of my travels, before continuing down to Manchester for the night. It was the beginning of the end; the start of my final week overseas, and as such I will leave this blog here. London was packed full of amazing adventures, good people and fun times and was the best way to finish off five and a half months of travel that a girl could ask for. Therefore,

Until next time!

Love Love!

Clem xx

I do believe in Faeries! I do, I do, I do!

Today I write from a change of scenery. I won't lie, it had been coming up for a while so I should have been prepared for my re-entry into normality but it still feels weird to be back in my own bed after being away from Australia for so long. Yes, just over a week ago I boarded my final flight back to Australia from London Heathrow, ending my journey of five and a half months. I'm still not sleeping very well (jet lag is not only unfriendly it is an absolute bitch) and trying to get back into things is taking way longer than expected. Enrolling in uni (which I still haven't finished) and organising myself (photos, work, outstanding uni work, actually unpacking properly) takes up most of my time in between listening to "hipster" music loudly on speakers of  quality that I will admit I have missed dearly, watching the odd episode of Community, an outstanding comedy that anyone who's been in a study group will relate to (Arabic class I'm looking at you) and getting it into my head that I won't be travelling again properly for at least another year and a half. Sadness. So now as I sit in the warmth of my home at my desk, I play catch up with my blogs; the beginning of the end, the last of some of the best times of my life.

James, Andrea and I at Silent Disco.

As I sat on the train whizzing through the English country-side towards Durham (I'll get to that story soon!) I was still playing catch-up with my blogs. I’d had a few good train rides and suddenly I was almost back up to date. However, things happened and time moved way too quickly (it's true what they say about time flying when you have fun) and now I'm way out of date once again!

My journey continues as my flight landed in Dublin. As I looked out of the window I was greeted by rolling green hills, grey skies and a very damp atmosphere. I will admit I did think to myself (but only once) “why did I leave Nice and the nice weather again?” however after kicking myself strongly in the head as I walked out into the terminal and hearing the melodious accent of the Irish customs guard and the humorous way in which he stamped my passport (yay! More stamps!) all of those thoughts disintegrated as I remembered why I had wanted to visit Ireland so strongly.

McSwiggans Full Irish Breakfast. So good.

I made my way to the tourist information centre and found out where I needed to catch my bus to Galway and £16 later I was on my way to Galway. My heritage as a Joyce is actually located around Galway so I found it quite nice and a little sentimental that it was my first stop in Ireland.

I made it off the bus late in the evening and started walking in the direction that I though the hostel was in. The reason I say this is because there were actually no street signs that I could see, so I was relying on directions alone. However, I arrived safe and sound if a little damp (my umbrella was broken and I ended up ditching it two days later) at the Hostel to find James sitting in the kitchen surrounded by people. I walked up and met Andrea, his Irish friend whom he had originally met in Adelaide, Ian, a Canadian soldier from Afghanistan and a random German couple. We immediately set off to look for dinner and after a quick trip to Tesco we went back to the hostel, made ourselves dinner and then met up again with Andrea to go out.

The Spanish Arch.

The plan was to go and watch an open-mic night at the local pub. Andrea’s brother was helping to run the night with his friends, and we figured it would be nice to go and have a gander at the local talent. Apparently, according to James, this included us, and towards the end of the night Andrea and I were “asked” to perform (it didn’t matter what) a few bathroom practises of “Make you feel my love” and a couple of pints of Guinness later and we were ready. It went really well and we had the pub in silence which is something that doesn’t happen very often so we were pretty proud.

The night didn’t end after we finished performing; the group of us made our way down to the silent disco at a different pub and danced (or tried to) the night away to different music. I had never been to a silent disco before but can highly recommend them if you’re slightly uncoordinated (not a necessity, but the nature of the beast caters well for you) or just love a good time. You can loose yourself in your own little world and just forget for one moment that you're in a club and instead just laugh and have a good time as if you were dancing around your room at home at some good news.

Party on, Galway...

After the silent disco we retired back to the hostel where drama unfolded (not really, I was just about to scream at a french girl who stole my bed, no biggie) but after a nights sleep in another dorm I awoke somewhat refreshed and ready to greet the slightly overcast, grey Galway day.

After walking downstairs to greet James and Ian, we decided that we would have the first of many diet-destroying meals and headed out to the local pub McSwiggans for a full Irish breakfast, complete with giant lattes and black and white pudding. After some serious eating with a little bit of planning thrown in for effect, we set off on our day of discovery and exploration which included the Spanish Arch and Galway museum. We ended the day once again with pizza before heading out to catch up with Andrea at an arts show "5 ways to drown" which Andrea didn't end up attending. I did like the show (a modern dance and theatre show) however wasn't quite sure what I liked due to the obscure story-line and minimal explanation.

Irish Castle on the way to the Cliffs of Moher

Moving on.

The next day I decided to do a bit of sightseeing. I was in "Joyce Country" and being a bit proud of my roots I decided to take a tour of the Cliffs of Moher and Burren. I had a rather cold and bitterly windy but still lovely day seeing some of the best and most charming country that Ireland has to offer before heading back to the hostel to meet with James and Ian and once again heading out for Guinness, ending up at a nice pub and spending the night singing louder than the acoustic duo playing in the next room and adding a few of our own harmonies.

The Cliffs of Moher-still beautiful shrouded in fog

The next day (if my memory serves me correctly) Ally flew in and we spent the day once again exploring before deciding to spending the night at Andrea's house. We moved back to the hostel the next morning and spent the next few nights there whilst we did a day trip to Connemara and Cong with a group of hilarious American Exchange students. Apparently my status as "the single one" is hilarious and myself and the guy I was sitting next to, Andrew, quickly became the butt of the driver and James' jokes For the entire day. You can imagine my excitement at this prospect.

Connemara!

That night we moved accommodation for the evening after having no luck with a couchsurfer and then set out in search of dinner. We ended up at the same pub that we had frequented over the past few nights and had a lovely dinner before heading back to the hostel (not as glamorous or dramatic as our last hostel) for the evening, as in the morning we were to take a train to Dublin  for a night before heading off on a Paddywagon tour of Northern Ireland.

After a relatively interesting train ride (there were offers to buy myself and Ally from James by a random old man. I'm traumatised) we made our way to the Hostel, Ashfield House, and then set about exploring for the rest of the day, taking in the many sights and districts of Dublin, before retiring to our quarters for a lovely dinner of gourmet sandwiches and facebook.

First stop on the Paddywagon tour

We set off our our Paddywagon tour the next morning, refreshed and ready for the many adventures that the tour would inevitably bring. We set off on a bus comprising mostly of Aussies and before we knew it were headed North towards Drogheda and and Monasterboice before spending the night in Derry, doing a walking tour of the city walls with a local who lived through the civil conflict and of Bloody Sunday. The night was spent on a pub-crawl that was no Portuguese "get beyond the second pub" challenge but still provided many laughs. We spent the next day driving through the rolling Irish country-side on our way to the UNESCO World Heritage listed Giant's Causeway before hopping back on the bus to take us to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and on to Belfast. We spent the night in "Paddy's Palace" (don't stay there, it's not very nice) before going out for a tour meal and then heading to a local pub called "Filthy McNasty's". Yes, really.

From the Derry city walls

The next morning we took a Black Taxi Tour of the city taking in the peace walls and all four of the gates separating Protestant neighbourhoods and Catholic Neighbourhoods. These gates are still closed and locked every night from 6pm. After this we went back to the hostel and changed buses (the tour had split into the 3, 6 and 10 day tours) before heading into town for lunch. James and Ally went for the extra-cheap option of sandwiches whilst myself and the rest of the tour group found a nice pub meal with a couple of lunch time ciders before heading back onto the bus to take us to our afternoon activity of the Titanic museum. The museum was well worth the few hours we had providing a good mix of history, the actual sinking and the post-tragedy repercussions and I found some of the stories fascinating. This was the final stop on our tour, and we spent the next few hours on the Paddywagon bus heading back towards Dublin.

The Giant's Causeway

The next day James and Ally flew out, leaving me to my own devices in Dublin for the next day or so before I headed off to Scotland. My plans for the evening included dinner with Andrea, however dinner is never just "dinner". As I arrived at the restaurant where we were to have dinner, I received a text from Andrea saying that she had managed to get our names on the door for a private gig by a band called Kopek. Needless to say we spent the night partying away between the gig and another smaller gig by a band called Arrow in the Sky. The two bands couldn't be more different; Kopek, a rock band who were a mix between Mona, the Kings of Leon and The Foo Fighters (an awesome mix in my opinion-although you could add more band to that mix; check out my favourite song "Floridian") and Arrow in the Sky being a more mellow folk and blues band that I automatically fell in love with.

James and myself on one of our many tours...

The night proved to be a highlight of my time in Dublin and indeed Ireland, and all in all was an awesome send-off from Ireland as the next day I was to find my way once again to Belfast as a stop-over on the way to Bonnie Scotland, Glasgow being the next stop on my itinerary.


As this story ends so does my blog post. Ireland marked the beginning off the end of my time in Ireland, and some of the best and most memorable times of my entire "Post Morocco" Trip. As always,

Until next time,

Love Love!

Clem xx


**Special thanks to James Bird for some of these photos. All of those ones with that vintage-y filter? Yeah, James was experimenting with his "hipster side" and they were the result. Thanks JB!