Thursday, September 27, 2012

Ireland!

Oh dear, sweet Ireland. So many great things to say about this place. We flew into Dublin and had the hugest grins on our faces. We really, really recommend people who love beautiful things, to go to this country! We also recommend the hostel called The Generator. Actually, hotel is more like it! We were shocked at how huge and modern it was, complete with a bar, food and best of all, mirrors and plug-in's actually in our room! Yay! We were especially excited to meet up with our new friend Bri, whom we had met in Liverpool. She's simply fantastic. Us girls had a few drinks at the hostel bar, then hit the town. We went down to Temple Bar area and hit up a few places along the bustling Dublin streets that come to life when the sun goes down.
The next day, we found ourselves at The Guinness Storehouse! It was a very neat tour, learning every step of the process that goes into perfecting a Guinness. The view from the top, as well as a free pint was the perfect cherry on top of it all!
We knew that if we were to be in Ireland, there was no way we weren't going to take in some Irish countryside. One girl we met recommended a tour that she did, and loved, so we booked a 2 day tour of the best of Ireland! We were up early and ready to hit the road, so into the tour bus we climbed. This was the true Ireland people dream about. Driving down skinny roads lined with grazing sheep and rolling hills, with the sea in the distance. Truly so beautiful! Very fortunate for us, we had nothing but beautiful weather. Locals said it was some of the most gorgeous September weather they have had in years! We are all about soaking up any vitamin D we can get, but not really when on a bus full of people and no A/C. Molly experienced a weird heat flash on the bus and had to fan herself with our Guinness Factory flyer for about an hour. Her words to Bailey at one point were "If this is what menopause feels like, no freaking thank you!" Yea, not fun. The roads in Ireland are incredibly winding and we ended up somewhat hating life for a solid hour because of being extremely car sick. Not fun! We luckily made a few pitstops to grab a bite to eat, check out the scenery, and see some castles and abbeys. We ended up getting to our destination Galway, around supper time. (Listen to Steve Earle's song, and you'll get a hint of our incredulous joy). Bailey helped convince our new 60 year old friend Lin to come out on the Galway Pub Crawl with us, with about 50 people. It was a grand time. We sadly left the next morning, and headed to our new destination Cliffs of Moher. We got nicely acquainted with the Irish Sea, and it is like a breath of fresh air! So peaceful and breathtaking. The Cliffs are a MUST see if you're ever in that neck of the woods. Huge, kind of scary, but downright awesome.

We're super in love with Ireland and will probably buy a farm there to raise sheep. Who's in?

M & B

Edinburgh

Scotland! What a beautiful place. Among all the green, rolling hills stand so many castles. Very cool place indeed! You can just feel the freshness and purity of the land and the air surrounding you. Edinburgh is an awesome city. Right in the heart of Scotland, it's got lots to offer. Including men in kilts and cable-knit sweaters everywhere you look.
We spent most of our days here checking out the areas our hostels were located in, and just admiring the architecture and the scenery. We met an Australian girl and a French girl from our hostel, who were both super lovely! Us four decided to trek our way up a giant hill to get the full view of the city and surrounding landscape. It was quite tiring, but because of our crazed addiction to pad Thai, we just kept accepting the burn! It was a clear day, allowing us to see for miles and miles.
Our last night in Edinburgh led us to a place called "Sneaky Pete's" which was something we probably wouldn't exactly recommend to anyone, but it was fun! And we ended up each eating a whole pizza later on, which was even funner. (And regrettable the next morning).
Now, anyone reading this.. Unless your traveling somewhere and don't have access to one, we want you all to go and hug the crap out of your washing machine and dryer. We will never take clean laundry for granted again, ever! Most European hostels have washing machines, but very few have dryers. Yea, we could hang our clothes to dry but that's just really annoying when you have no hangers, or much space for that matter. So! We gathered all our very best smelling articles of clothing and headed to the nearest laundromat. It was a beautiful feeling walking home with bags full of freshness. We rewarded ourselves with Pad Thai... :)

Be thankful for your irons too! We have to use our straighteners!
M & B


Liverpool & Manchester

Let us just make it known now, we are HUGE Beatles fans. Both of us have been fortunate enough to have been grown on their music. Thanks rents, you guys rule. So, of course we had to go to the centre of all things Beatle related; Liverpool!
When we first arrived in Liverpool it was quite windy and cold and rainy. (locals say that hardly ever changes). Our first vibe of it was very "hard"...if that makes sense? It's just not a delicate/pretty city. More of a rocker vibe. We got to our hostel called The Embassie, which was so homey and lovely. We quite enjoyed our stay there! Going into a place and having tea and bread offered to you, is a check mark for us!
Highlight of our time in Liverpool was FOR SURE our Beatles night. We got to go with the owner of the hostel on a free walking tour of the city and got lots of information pointed out to all of us, including the hospital John Lennon was born in, a home he lived in, and even got to sit over beers in his favorite pub! There were about 15 of us youngins on the tour, and I can probably speak for all of us when I say what came next was truly a dream come true! We ended up at The Cavern Club. Yes, THE Cavern Club, made famous of course by who other than the Fab 4. Liverpool's best Beatles tribute band rocked the evening away with all the greatest hits. If you're ever in Liverpool, you simply NEED to go here. And if you do, look super hard and you just might find our names Sharpied on those famous walls.
We acquainted ourselves with some great new friends that night! After The Cavern, we all roamed Liverpool looking for a place to keep the party rolling. Oh, did we ever find a place! Pop World is the name, 90's music is the game! Fun night full of dancing, laughing and cheap Jag bombs!
On our last day, we kept our "Beatles-high" alive and well, by going to The Beatles Museum. It was brilliantly fun and interesting. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! We walked along the sea-port and referenced to a lot of Across The Universe scenes. All too soon it was time to bid farewell, so we packed up our bags and were off to Manchester!
So, the deal with Manchester is we don't really have a lot to say about it. We had some difficulty with trains and buses, etc so we didn't end up getting there till pretty late. But! We were welcomed with warmth and food and good company by our couchsurfing family. The couple and their adorable daughter were a lovely form of "home" that was kind of needed.

P.S-We go to Scotland in the next post! Yay!

M & B

London-Take 2!

We where in London for a good couple of days, so that led to lots of things to see and do! After figuring out the transit system (not before getting completely lost a few times), we frolicked around the city day and night! We will sum up all the fun adventures London had to offer!
Also, big shout out to our friend Steph Debray who kicked it with us during our stay and provided us with a place to crash. Not to mention, introducing us to European ciders. Mmm.

We knew that while we were here we had to go on The London Eye! As recommended, we went on it at night. So beautiful! The view of the city at night was worth the 20 pounds for sure. There was a small carnival happening near the Eye so we decided to spend a couple pounds on a ride. Molly pursuaded Bailey to go on giant, spinning swings. Let's just say it was really high, really cold, really windy and really quite terrifying.

Lucky for us, Steph lives in Camden, a really awesome area of London. Even more awesome, the fact that she lives a 10 minute walk to Abbey Road. We were blessed with Beatles goodness being able to walk it, sign the wall and see the studio. All in all, it made us super happy!

London is quite the posh place and you can feel the royal buzz almost everywhere you go. The folks there truly LOVE the Queen! (we're more so obsessed with Prince Harry, and of course Kate Middletons latest fashion choices). We all put on our fancy pants and went on a tour of Buckingham Palace. It is pretty darn cool to say you've been on the Queenys stomping grounds. Keeping up with the classyness we accumulated at the palace, we santered over to a local pub and enjoyed some veggie burgers and a pitcher of Pimm's!

Our last day in London started off with getting lost and winding up at a little breakfast nook that we think, was meant to be! We sent our tastebuds to a party of love with veggie breakfast wraps, yogurt granola and fruit, latte's and smoothies being on the menu. (you would probably give up your first born child for this meal, it was huge and wonderful). Thank goodness we had that highlight of our day, because what followed wasn't quite as pleasant. We ended up being super late trying to catch our train to Liverpool, so it resulted in lots of running, some swearing, and ending up having to buy new tickets. Bummer. But, we made it to Liverpool safe and sound. All in all, it was fun!

M and B.

London!


Our first blog entry! Technically we aren't talking to anyone but ourselves right now, but due to family and friends either not having Facebook (Grans) or just wanting to follow our struggles of not having a laundry machine, we hope you enjoy!

After a sleepless flight from Canada to the U.K. we arrived in London tired, hungry and knowing us..not yet having planned a way out of the airport. Thank goodness our friend Steph gave us directions on where to catch our bus too. Let us just point it out now, backpacks are kind of annoying. You try fitting your life into just one bag! Anyways, after exhaustion, time changes, dirty pay phones, and realizing the pound is so expensive and we are so poor...we arrived at our friends flat, taking total advantage of her bed for about 3 hours.

So, as awesome as London is...it's expensive. Like, really expensive. Us girls have been trying our best to be the darling cheap gals we are, and do things that are as close to free as possible. Sad, but our conversation the other day consisted of something like this.. "Let's just go lay in a park, because it's free. And let's walk there, because that's also free." Get the picture? London is a beautiful, bustling (Paralympics are happening) city so we've roamed the streets, went to bars and took in some main attractions. We acquainted ourselves with Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and hung out a lot in central London. We have 2 more days left here and have lots to fit into our schedule, so expect another London post in the near future!

Weather is warm, people are friendly and we are good at getting on the wrong bus.

Cheers!
M & B