Half Way Through

Well it's official, I have now gone past the half way mark for my stay here in the UK. On Saturday I had a wee celebration with Zaira and Ben who also have roughly around the same arrival date as myself; my stepping off the plane date being the 11th May 2010. Today (25th is my visa stamp date) I have exactly 11 months remaining of my 24 month adventure. It's a rather surreal feeling when it comes to thinking about everything I have achieved since I've been here and that I will soon have to prepare myself for the homeward bound journey.

I find it really hard thinking about heading home and having to leave behind everything here, but I have to tell myself that at the end of the day I came over here to see the world and travel as much as I can and that I did in fact come over knowing that I would have to make my way back home, thinking this makes it slightly better, though don't get me wrong the thought of leaving it all behind is extremely sad.

On a brighter note I am really feeling like I'm starting to get some decent travelling in now and really getting to explore the UK and Europe. Apart from the going home in 11 months I am happier now than ever! I'm living in an amazing place that I never want to get sick off, and I still get excited when I walk down a street that is on a monopoly board, I am so close to Europe and have such easy access to some amazingly beautiful places. I have the greatest friends here and would be completely lost without them. I am having the time of my life.

So for the next few months I'll be living it up here as much as possible and will try and get on with my UK life as if I've just got off the plane (which does feel like yesterday), though I know time will fly and before I know it I will need to get my A into G and get planning on the heading back home (providing the earthquakes actually stop by then), to Christchurch or wherever...

All in all I'm extremely happy being here and also extremely sad that I am now on the downhill slide towards the end of my Northern Hemisphere Experience.

Myself, Ben and Zaira at our 1 Year in London Party.

Russia Part 2: Moscow

After an almost sleepless night, thanks to the not so comfortable overnight sleeper train, I'd arrived in Moscow around 6.30am, so I was in for an extremely long as day. Our new tour guide met us at the train station and helped us find our way out in one piece, though our first impression of her wasn't as good as Natasha in St Petersburg, I can pretty much say for all of us on the tour that we were all happy to be off the train. We all piled into our van and headed off on our Moscow adventure. Olga was our new tour guide so she would be helping us out and showing us around for the next few days. The first stop for the morning was Red Square, though before we turned into real tourists we stopped for breakfast at McDonald's, which turns out to be very hard to order when you're in Russia especially when the menu is all in Russian, which is not the alphabet you and I know. So we all had to resort to one of those picture menus which they keep behind the counter and point to what we wanted for breakfast. So after the ordering Maccas ordeal we went through what the plan of attack would be for the next couple of days then headed off to see the sights of Moscow.

Red Square is lovely there is the National Museum there, the walls of the Kremlin, and of course St Basil's Cathedral (another ice cream topped church). I went a tad snap happy here and took far too many photos, but that's what digital camera's are for right? It was a quick stop here as we would be coming back, and had plenty of other sites to see. So off we went to view all the sites of Moscow. Unfortunately due to the fact that I pretty much had no sleep the night before, and the warm comforts of the van we were in, I did sleep through a bit of the information that Olga told us, so I found myself getting out of the van and looking at some rather pretty things and having no clue what I was actually looking at! Though I did see the lake that inspired the music behind Swan Lake, so that was rather exciting. The rest of the afternoon wasn't too eventful, mainly due to the fact that myself and everyone else on the tour was ready to pass out due to sleep deprivation, so we got checked into our hotel, freshened up a bit and grabbed some lunch. I was really tired, but wanted to make the most of the day... how often are you in Moscow? So myself and a few others managed to drag ourselves out and get back into the city centre where we went for a bit of a walk around and grabbed a much needed coffee. The rest of the evening was rather relaxed with just finding a restaurant somewhere, and getting back to the hotel for an early night.

St Basil's Cathedral

Moscow day two was far more exciting, a solid sleep did help very much. So Olga collected us from the hotel lobby and we were far more enthusiastic about today's sight seeing. The first stop was the Kremlin. So we had a good look around here, I got to see the building where the Prime Minister works, the worlds largest canon which has never been fired along with the worlds largest bell which has never been rung. I also saw the Cathedral where all the Tsars attend, which was lovely inside, though no mosaics like the Church of Spilt Blood, it was covered in the most colourful of paintings. After seeing what we needed to see it was off to Red Square to visit Lenin, who has been preserved so you can see him lying there in a glass... I'm not sure whether to say tomb, coffin, case.... but you can see him and it's kinda strange. And for those who don't know Lenin started the Soviet Union in Russia, so he's a big part of Russian history (note why they preserved him). After Lenin we were all dropped back to the hotel, so we had free rein on what we wanted to do for the afternoon. So a small bunch of us, including myself went out to explore the Russian underground, as we'd heard that it is meant to be amazing, which it was. The underground is very spectacular, with sculptures, paintings, carvings, mosaics and chandeliers in most of the stops. It certainly gives the London underground with all its commercial advertising a run for its money.

Red Square

For our last evening in Russia we had booked to see the Circus, and it was safe to say we were all very excited about it. I'm pretty sure I've been to a circus before, though I must have been really young because I don't remember much about what it was like, so I was feeling like a bit of a kid again. We turned up and as you can imagine there were children everywhere, there was lots to see before you even headed into the main arena, you could have your photo taken with rabbits or snakes or a fox among many other animals. We found our seats and got comfortable and waited for the show to begin. During the wait we did read in the Russia Lonely Planet that "Russia doesn't have a western side to when it comes to animal training and some people may find the circus upsetting", good to see this right before the show started, not!
The circus wasn't as bad as I had thought, though we couldn't understand a word that was said as everything was in Russian. They did have monkeys, dogs and a seal which were great to see, the seal was the best one, though I do think he should be out in the ocean and not performing every night, but what can you do. The only 'upsetting' part was the seven lions that they had at the end, now there are animals that you can train and there are animals that you should just leave be, lions should not be trained, and it was very obvious that these lions were very unhappy with their life. So unfortunately I left this circus with a rather negative view, though the kids around us seemed to be happy with the show.

The lake that inspired Swan Lake

Russia was coming to an end, and we all spend the remainder of the last evening in a bar at the hotel over a much needed drink or a hot chocolate on my part.... nana I know!
The next morning we said our goodbyes and then I slowly made my way to the airport with two others from the tour, before catching my flight back to London.
Russia as a whole was great, I'm so pleased I managed to get there and really see what it was like, I definitely preferred St Petersburg to Moscow, however Moscow was still lovely with amazing sights and things to do. So now I can tick off the country that's at the top of the 'Places To Get To List'.

Group shot



Russia Part 1: St Petersburg

I don't know what started my fascination with Russia, but for some reason I'd always wanted to go there, perhaps I've seen too many movies based around Russia or maybe read and watched Dr Zhivago one too many times. So when I moved to the UK at the top of my list of countries to get to was Russia and Egypt, one of those I can now tick off the list. I left for Heathrow airport on Saturday morning, at some crazy early hour of the morning; it should be illegal to be awake that early. The flight was about three and a half hours long, not including the short stop over I had in Germany, so I arrived at St Petersburg around 3.30pm with the tour guide ready and waiting at the airport. Myself and two others that were also on the tour were collected from the airport and taken to our hotel in St Petersburg. One of the first things I noticed about St Petersburg was how flat it is, there are no hills or mountains, I didn't quite imagine it to be so flat then again Russia is a big place and I guess all the mountains are out in the middle of the country where no one actually lives. 

The evening was spent meeting the others that were on the tour with me, there was eight of us including myself and we were all Kiwi's, which made for a rather big change and all of us were really buzzed out by how we ended up on a tour with just Kiwi's as there aren't many of us and it's not often we end up together like that. So over a few beers and a vodka shot we spent the night at a pub just down from the hotel all getting to know each other.

The next morning we all meet in the lobby at 9am and our tour guide Natasha briefed us on the plan for our first day in St Petersburg. We only had half a day of driving around exploring the city, so we were shown all the main sites and taken to the Hermitage to finish it off. The Hermitage it so big and has so many items in it that if you looked at each item for 30 seconds it would take you five and a half years to see everything, so as you can imagine, Natasha just showed us all the main exhibits. After our morning tour we had some free time, so myself and a couple of others headed for some lunch and then a wee bit of exploring. The first stop was the Church of Spilt Blood; one of those crazy Russian buildings that looks like it has colourful ice cream cones on the top, now this church is already amazing when you see it from the outside, but when you go in it's a whole different level of amazing! The entire inside is covered in the most beautiful mosaics, it's so colourful, all the walls and the ceilings every inch of it, nothing like any other church I've seen in Europe. So after being wowed by the Church of Spilt Blood, it was off for a bit more walking around until it felt like my feet would drop off, then back to the hotel to freshen up and head out for dinner with the gang.

Last day in St Petersburg and it was another action packed day, to start it off we all made our way outside of St Petersburg to see the Summer Palace, were the Catherine the Great among other Tsar's spent their summer. So it was a bit of walking around this great big massive palace and some of the grounds. It did make me wish that I lived in a Palace and could have everything done for me so that I could just put my feet up and enjoy living in a spectacular house, made the got to go back to work after this holiday feeling be even more dreadful. Then back in St Petersburg after the Summer Palace we went to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, this is where all the Tsar's are buried, so we got to see all the tombs of the Tsar's from Peter the Great onwards.

After we'd done the whole touristy looking around we moved on to the whole touristy shopping, so we were dropped off and given time to look around all the souvenir shops and pick up what we needed before heading to our farewell Russian dinner with everyone on tour and our guide Natasha. Dinner was fantastic; we had traditional Beef Stroganoff and a glass of champagne to celebrate our amazing time in St Petersburg. Then it was off to board the overnight sleeper train to Moscow, where my Russian adventure would continue.

A Day In Bruges

What do I love about living in London? Having Europe so close, there are all these amazing places right at your fingertips. On Sunday I'd booked onto a day trip through Brit Bound headed for Bruges, with Zaira and her friend Arpen. So we met up early Sunday morning and got on our little minibus bound for Belgium. I was a wee bit shocked to find out for once I wasn't on a bus full of Australians, but mostly full off Kiwi's and there was even a guy next to me from Ashburton (a small town about an hour south of Christchurch). We departed central London at 8.30am with a three hour drive ahead of us, along with the crazy experience of crossing the English Channel via the Euro Tunnel. Going through is tunnel is very strange, you drive into this container thing, which is on a train, which goes through a tube like tunnel under the ocean, one of those things you have to do to see how bizarre it actually is.

The other side of the tunnel is France, so from France there was a small drive before we crossed the border and were in Belgium. I crossed a land boarder, for the first time in my life; I did something that I thought would be awesome, but turned out to be the biggest anti climax ever. I didn't get a stamp in my passport, nor was there any security or police or anything, it was just driving down a motorway and passing a sign that said Belgium. Woo! Thrilling stuff. It was an hour and a half drive between getting out of the tunnel and arriving in Bruges and though a short drive, by the time we'd arrived we were itching to get exploring. Our driver had given us maps and his own little write up of where was good to see, eat and of course where to find good chocolate.

Maps in hand Zaira, Apren and I headed off for a bit of a look around, we soon realised that Bruges is in fact extremely small after walking about half of the map in 10mins. We'd walked past countless chocolate shops and cafes/restaurants, found a few canals which were lovely with the cutest wee ducklings. We found the sculpture of Michelangelo's Madonna and Child in a lovely church then decided it was time to stop for some lunch and plan the day out a bit more.
For lunch we got French Hamburgers which was basically a baguette filled with chips, meat and sauce, there seemed to be nothing French about it at all apart from maybe the baguette. Since we were in Belgium I thought I'd try some of the beers, so I had a bottle of Kriek, a cherry flavoured beer. I do love most things cherry including cherry coke, I thought I'd really enjoy a cherry beer, turns out it was one of the most disgusting drinks I've possibly ever tried.

After lunch we set off on our afternoon adventure, we had a few hours to go, but that was plenty of time for us to get through Bruges and see the sights. The first stop was the Belfrey Tower, we figured since we possibly just ate the world's fattiest burger we'd may as well walk up the 366 steps of the tower to get to the top. I didn't get too tired from doing this, mainly because the fear of falling down the tiny steps had taken over my mind. It was worth the climb though the view from the top was great, you could see all of Bruges and I'm sure half of Belgium (well it felt like you could). We made the scary decent back down the narrow stairs again trying our hardest not to fall, and hoping that there wasn't too much oncoming traffic. After the tower we did more walking around Bruges, hoping to see the Chocolate Museum amongst other things, but being late Sunday afternoon everything had closed for the day. Though on our travels we did come across what seemed like was going to be a great windmill, turned out to pretty much be a fancy looking box, though it was my first European windmill so I can't compare it to those in the likes of Holland. We made a stop at The Chocolate Line, which I must say is the most amazing chocolate shop ever! They had everything chocolate, even chocolate dog poo and also chocolate massage oil (that's eatable), though I'm not sure who would want a massage with chocolate?

There was only an hour left of the trip, and since we'd bought all the chocolate we needed we thought we'd find somewhere nice to eat and have a beer, so we found a cosy little restaurant right by where the bus would collected us from. Waffles were what we ordered; of course we were in Belgium after all, so how could we leave without having waffles? I'd ordered myself an apple flavoured beer, which unlike the cherry, was extremely tasty and I could go back to Belgium just to drink this beer again. Zaira and I also ordered a waffle each, these came out covered in cream, ice cream and chocolate sauce, I was starting to wonder if after I'd finished it whether I should go climb the Belfrey Tower again. The beer and the waffle didn't exactly go together too well, but they were both very yum.

We did a lot in the day, I think we pretty much had Bruges covered by the end of it, though I'd love to maybe go back for a weekend and do it on a more relaxed pace and really have the chance to sit down and enjoy a peaceful weekend, though it was a great way to spend a sunny Sunday out of London.

Dublin, Kilkenny and The Worlds

The Paddywagon tour was over, but there were still many days ahead for Ireland and I. After arriving back from the tour, it was off to Sam's house, just outside of Dublin for an early night in.
So this would be the week were I would get in some Dublin adventures, and what is in Dublin? Well the Guinness Factory of course. So the next morning I was up early and off to the train station to head into Dublin and meet up with some of the guys from Paddywagon before starting our day at the Guinness Factory. Finding the actual factory was no problem, but trying to find the part/entrance to the main tour part that's open to the public was a whole different story. We did spend a good while walking around trying to work out where we were meant to be, we then gave up and asked for directions only to find out that the Guinness Factory is spread out over a few blocks and we were walking around the wrong one. Eventually making it there we did a bit of a sneaky and got in as students by using the automatic machines to purchase the tickets instead of going through the tills, every little bit counts when you're travelling! So with our student tickets and hoping like hell we wouldn't be asked for student I.D's we were in and the looking around would begin. Now I can't speak for everyone but there is only so much you can find out about how they make Guinness before your attention span seems to become extremely short, so I was definitely looking forward to the 'pour your own pint' challenge. So we lined up and were given instructions on how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness then one at a time we all went up and poured our pints. I was rather thrilled with mine, I personally think I did an excellent job considering I thought I would be absolute rubbish and somehow end up with Guinness everywhere but no, my pint looked rather tasty! Guinness isn't exactly my favourite beverage around, but I was at the Guinness factory and just poured my own pint, so I thought I may as well sit down and try to enjoy it. Well let's just say a pint of Guinness on an empty stomach for me who never drinks the stuff after about half way through my pint I did start to get the giggles a wee bit. So we finished our drinks headed up to the top of the factory where you can look over Dublin, then it was off to grab some lunch in Temple Bar. A relaxing afternoon was in store after lunch, so we headed to St Stephens Green for a bit of a stroll around then went and did a bit of touristy shopping. That evening we wanted to go out for somewhat of a shindig, so we all met up again in Temple Bar and got a few drinks and listened to some live Irish music, it was a good night out. It was Good Friday the next day so everything was closing up at midnight, so I was home in bed within a reasonable hour.

The World Irish Dancing Championships were running all week from the 17th to the 23rd April, but Good Friday was the day that I would go along to watch. So Sam and I drove out to City West Hotel where they were being held, I was super excited, I had never been to the worlds before and I was looking forward to really seeing what they were like and also watching all the dancing. My friend Lucy was competing in today's competition and I also wanted to be there to see her dance and luckily for me we walked in and sat down just before she came on for her Set Dance. We watched some more dancing, including some of the teams, but because we'd arrived in the mid afternoon it was mainly set dances that were on. I managed to track down Lucy, so I had a bit of a catch up with her and her Mum, both who I haven't seen since I left Nelson in 2007. Results time rolled around fast and I was sitting there with my programme in hand ready to see who was who and get down all the places. Lucy's set dance was really good and I was dying to see how she would place, if you get in the top 15 of your age group you automatically qualify for the Worlds next year, so we all had our fingers crossed tightly. Lucy was placed at 13th which is so great! Everyone was so happy and I was so happy for Lucy, it was a well deserved placed, especially after I was told how much hard work and effort went into her dancing over the year. So congratulations Lucy! The worlds where absolutely great and I'd love to go to another worlds and watch them again.

After a great day at the worlds, Sam and I were back home and I needed to work out what I would do for the next day, Sam was working and I still felt like I had more of Ireland to see, I was also still on a high from the day and also the Paddywagon tour earlier in the week. So I thought to myself that since I'd enjoyed my Payywagon so much, why not do another one? So I booked a one day tour on another Paddywagon.

Another early morning rise to get ready for my second Paddywagon for this Ireland trip and again I was super excited. There was a completely different group of people on this bus though, mainly a lot older and in bigger groups, so at the start I was pretty sure I was the only person travelling by myself on this trip, however I was wrong, a middle aged man sat next to me, mainly cos I had the best seats on the bus, at the front. Turns out he was from Australia (is anyone not from Aussie? Seriously), anyway he was good fun, on a wee holiday between jobs, and Ireland was his 49th country he'd been to, he was aiming for 50 countries by the end of 50, after Ireland he was headed for Iceland, which would make 50 countries! So you can imagine he was great fun to talk to, lots of stories. The first stop on the trip was Glendalough a beautiful place with amazing ruins and history as well as very peaceful lake and also the home to the some of the sets of PS I Love You and Braveheart. Now every time I watch PS I Love You, I have right right to yell out "oh look I've been there!". We had a good hour or so to look around here, and then we were back in the bus and on our way to Kilkenny. Now an Irish dancer will get this, but every time I hear Kilkenny, I automatically think oh the Kilkenny Races (for those who don't Irish dance, this is the name of a set dance, I won't explain, it'll be a long story), so yip I was in Kilkenny and all I could think about was the set dance. It's a lovely wee town though, the main road is extremely narrow and I did have concerns about the bus getting down there without causing any scratches. So to start off in the town I went and had a pint of Kilkenny, so now I can say I've had a pint of Kilkenny in Kilkenny. I'm not big fan of ale, but it was actually rather nice and I could easily have one again. Then it was off for a bit of a walk around and a cheap picnic lunch on the grounds of Kilkenny Castle. There is so much history in Kilkenny and I could ramble on for hours with all the stories about the place, but I'll let you all do a tour through Ireland and find out for yourselves. So after a good couple of hours walking around Kilkenny we were back on the bus and headed for Brownhill Dolmen, an ancient pre-Celtic burial edifice. The history here is amazing and to think that this tomb was build between 3000 and 4000BC and has not been excavated for fear of damage. This was the last stop for the day and now I was headed back to Dublin for the last two days of my trip.

My last two days in Ireland would be relaxing ones. There wasn't anything that Sam and I had planned to do apart from go out on the Sunday night, Sam's brother was having a leaving party as he was moving to Australia to live for a year. So Sunday we had a bit of a sleep in then spend the day relaxing in the sun, before getting ready and heading out for a nice meal and then a few, well more than a few drinks. It was good to get out for the night and have a bit of a laugh and meet new people. The next day wasn't as much of a write off I thought it would be, though we did stay in bed until about midday, before venturing out to get some McDonalds.
Sadly though it was time for me to pack up my bags, and make my way to the airport. I'd had so much fun in Ireland I was sad to leave, but at the same time pleased to be heading home. I'd love to go back again one day for another trip, especially to get to see some of the north and Northern Ireland, but we'll see. For now though Ireland most definitely stands at one of my favourite countries. And thanks to my new Paddywagon friend I have a new challenge for myself, 30 countries by 30! We'll see how that goes....

A Paddywagon Through Ireland

Dublin wasn't how I imagined it to be, but then again I never really could picture it properly in my mind. I arrived rather late on Saturday night and spent the night socialising and having a good ol gasbag with Sam, my Irish friend whom I worked with in Brisbane. My first real day we both went into Dublin, checked myself into the Paddywagon backpackers for the night, then we were off to have a good explore around and hit up the Jameson Distillery, which was heaps of fun! But before I knew it the day had drawn to a close and I was relaxing in the hostel, getting all ready for the departure of my three day Paddywagon tour the following day.

It was an early rise for the Paddywagon that was departing at 8am, but I was so excited I didn't notice.  Barry or Bazza as the Aussies called him was our bus driver for the three days; he's from Cork and is a typical Irish guy, funny! He introduced himself and his pet sheep, Seamus who is a toy, and we were instructed to make sure we took him out and got photos with him. It was a mixed bag of people on the bus, but it was mainly full of Australians, so when Barry called out "who's from Australia?" there was a great big cheer, then he asked "and who's from New Zealand?" and I yelled out thinking I'd have some support, but no, it was just me, the one and only kiwi on a bus mainly full of Aussies... There was a mixed bunch of people though; we had a South African guy, a couple of girls from Denmark and Germany, a few from America and a Canadian.
The first main destination for our Paddywagon bus was Galway but not before we went off the beaten track and Barry took the massive bus through narrow windy roads to show us some real Irish country side. Our first Main stop was Cong, where the film The Quiet Man was mostly filmed. It is a quaint little town in Country Mayo and has two Loughs (which means Lake) either side with a river running through the town and joining the two loughs. So lunch and a nice walk around the old Cong Abbey was a lovely way to spend the first stop in Ireland, and already I could tell this would be a super trip, I was seeing amazing country side and meeting some great people.

Lough Corrib, the largest lake in the Republic of Ireland and the second largest lake in Ireland, was stop number two for the first day of the tour. It was only a 15 minute stop but was lovely to get out and get a good look at some beautiful views. Then we were onto Killary, we made it there after a few more narrow windy roads, and I was starting to feel like I was back in New Zealand, though NZ doesn't have the ruined churches and castles. Killary is where the film The Field was made, though I have not seen this movie, nor had I seen the one that was filmed in Cong, but it was still pretty so I got some good pictures. Killary also has a sheep and wool museum, which I found rather funny so I took a photo of that as well. After Killary we drove past a large amount of bog land, I did keep my eyes peeled for a bog 'man', but I think that they can only be found in the British Museum. Mid afternoon and we had arrived at Kylemore Abbey, it's so pretty there! A great castle-like abbey that over looks a small lake surrounded by gardens, by now I'm really starting to fall in love with Ireland.
We drove past a few more bogs and ended up in a tiny town called Connemara, we were driving along when Barry told us we had to get out and check out what the statue of the giant meant, as every tour group he tells don't believe him, we all looked a bit confused wondering what could it be that we wouldn't believe Barry? So out we hoped and walked over to the giant where underneath him it said "This is Connemara (Con son of the sea), built in 1999, for no apparent reason". Behind the giant was a monument and on this monument it said "On this site in  1897 nothing happened", oh don't you just love the Irish? I don't think you'd find anything else like that anywhere in the world!

Galway Girl soon became the song for the trip and it all started with Barry singing it for us, of course we all sung along in the parts we knew to help him out, we must have looked mad all singing in this great big bus. So after the singing of Galway girl we, well Barry with our permission picked up a hitchhiker, who was so drunk he stunk the bus out with the smell of alcohol, but it was a bit of a laugh to see the look on Barry's face when he realised he'd invited a drunken/singing/smelly hitchhiker onto his bus, we were all thoroughly amused. After getting the hitchhiker out of the bus as soon as Barry could, we were in Galway.
Galway is amazing, the atmosphere as soon as you arrive just lets you know that this is a place full of history and character and Galway soon became one of my favourite places I have been and definitely my favourite place in Ireland. We quickly got settled into our backpackers then went out to have a walk around. Galway is small so we pretty much managed to see most of it in about an hour. Barry was still a bit of a tour guide here, and he took us to a place were we all got a good meal then we all headed onto a typical Irish pub. Now I always thought I knew what and Irish pub was like, after dancing for so many years and spending close to every St Patricks Day of my life in one, I really truly thought I had the Irish pub scene down pat, but no, I was far off. I soon found out the Irish pubs in Ireland are the real deal, they have the band, the beer, the music, the laughter, the everything, no pub will ever be the same, and these are so much fun! We'd spent a good part of our night here and I'd managed to drink half a pint of Guinness, which I don't think is too bad considering I don't even like the stuff, but because of where I was I thought I'd get into the spirit of things. The night had potential to be a big night out, but since we all had to be up early to get on the bus, we thought we'd be sensible and head back at a semi reasonable hour. Though it was only a Monday night, it was obvious that Galway would be a big night out any day of the week.

Paddywagon day two and we were destined for the tiny town of Annascaul on the south west coast of Ireland, it was also another day of seeing amazing places and some beautiful Irish countryside. We stopped at Dunguaire Castle, Corcomroe Abbey, then we stopped at The Burren which is this rocky land, full of limestone which goes for miles and miles and in the middle of it all is Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, which is pretty much two massive rocks with one rock placed on the top, and just like Stonehenge you wonder 'did they do it?'. Then it was onto the Cliffs of Moher, which are just stunning and it was so lovely to walk around the edge of them, though I can't say I liked the very sharp drop that was right there, but it was a great stop and a wonderful experience to walk around this area. Though the Cliffs of Moher has a serious bug problem which needs to be dealt with, these small black flying insets were everywhere and I mean everywhere! You couldn't open your mouth without one deciding to investigate, and by the time we made it back to the bus, the little creepy crawlies where in our hair and our clothes, it was insane.
Day two was a pretty intense day, we'd all seen a lot and we're all feeling rather tired, but we'd arrived at our backpackers for our last night of the trip and we were all going to make it a good night. The backpackers was well set up for a very small town, with its very own pub called The Randy Leprechaun, so we had some dinner here then tried out a few Irish drinks and I'm not talking about Guinness or Jameson, I'm talking about Car Bombs and Green Frogs. What are those I hear you ask, well a Car Bomb has the same concept as a Jager Bomb, but instead of Jager and Redbull it's Baileys and Stout (like Guinness) and Irish whiskey, sound absolutely awful, but they are in fact rather nice. A Green Frog is blue Wicked, Smirnoff red and an orange Bacardi Breezer, and this makes for a drink that is far too tasty and extremely easy to drink. So after sampling a few of these drinks we were onto karaoke for the evening and a lot of laughing and carrying on!

Paggywagon day three, the last day of the tour had come around super fast and I was not ready for it to end, I was having far too much fun, but there was still a long plentiful day ahead with lots of places to go and see. Killarney was our first stop and we would start here with a lovely horse and cart ride through killarney National Park. The driver of our horse and cart was great, he was telling us stories about Leprechauns and where we could find them, telling us that the troth over in the field was a leprechauns Olympic swimming pool and the small concrete square sticking up in the road was a leprechauns gravestone. He even told us that "if you drink a good few pints of Guinness you can see leprechauns and that if you drink too much Guinness you may even fall over one", this I found extremely funny. After the horse and cart ride, we thought we'd head off to a pub to find an Irish Coffee, since none of us had tried one and we'd thought it was a good way to start the last day of the tour. Finding an Irish Coffee in Ireland was harder than we expected, but that was mainly due to the fact that it was only 10am and most pubs were shut, believe it or not! My first Irish Coffee was amazing and I think I'll most likely be having a few more of them in the future because they are super yum. The next stop after Killarney was Blarney where we would see Blarney Castle and Kiss the Blarney stone. Now kissing the Blarney Stone isn't the most comfortable of situations, I'm not scared of heights, but I don't particularly like them and to kiss this stone you have to go up to the top of the Blarney Castle where then you hang backwards over the edge with someone hanging onto you, you then move over the edge more and hang down more it's then that you kiss this stone and are pulled back up by the person hanging onto you. A very interesting experience indeed, but very worth it as now I can say I've kissed the Blarney Stone I am now meant to have lots of good luck; we'll see how long the good luck will last.

On our way back to Dublin now and we made one last stop at The Rock of Dunamase, a very ruined old castle surrounded by green fields that seemed to go on forever. It was so peaceful and beautiful here that I don't think the last stop on the tour would've been any better than this. Here is what you really imagine Ireland to be like, it was so scenic. The castle was built in the 12th Century and there is very little of it left now, that Barry said to make the most of it as he doesn't think it'll be much longer before it becomes nothing but a few rocks in the ground. Ireland must have been so amazing hundreds of years ago.

The tour ended and I said my goodbye's to my new friends, I'd had so much fun the past three days, but I was ready for bed. Anyone that ever goes to Ireland I'd recommend you do a Paddywagon Tour, they are a lot of fun and you see so much that's off the beaten track you really get a chance to see Ireland as it is. Ireland was everything I imagined it to be and so far stands as the best country I've seen so far, it lived up to all my expectations and more.
I love Ireland!