Europe 2010

Check out the photos page for lots of updates!!

Well, Jen here signing on as the quickest typist and the least inebriated tonight. Go and get a coffee as this is another really long one!

We’re in Liverpool tonight, getting ready for the soccer game tomorrow night. Okay, the “football” game tomorrow night between Liverpool and West Ham here at Anfield stadium. Hansen has wet his pants a little bit as we came in to town, and again when we got to the stadium this afternoon so he could spend up on merchandise. He came out of it with a jacket, scarf, mug and keyring with his name on it, dog collar for Moe, mini ball, fluffy dice and a program for tomorrow’s game. Saying he is ready for the game is an understatement!! We have spent the evening cooking ourselves dinner and writing a few postcards. The boys are hitting more Guinness under the guise that “it’s good for you Jen!!”. Which brings me to my update for the past little while…

It has been a busy few days. Ah who am I kidding, we’ve spent the last few days recharging our batteries.

The last update was in Belfast, the night before we took a black taxis tour of the city. I can safely say that all four of us have decided that Belfast is the scariest city we will probably (hopefully) ever go to in our lives. The black taxi tour was epic to say the least. The taxi driver collected us from the hostel and we went out to check out the local area and for him to explain the history of the city and all of the uprisings. I for one was completely unprepared and got fairly well spooked. He let us out of the cab in the protestant area and I swear that it couldn’t have been more desolate and at the same time freaky. The murals on the walls are impressive and the artists that painted them have serious commitment and passion for the cause. He then took us around through some of the internal suburb gates. Yep, they are separated by gates which if you look on a map you can still drive around if you come in to town so the areas aren’t really separated but it was that intense at the time!! The gates are still closed between 7pm and 7am every night like the Berlin wall!! Through the catholic areas and we looked at some of their memorials. We decided that the driver had to be catholic as he was much more passionate in his delivery and they way in which he spoke of the individuals. We were driving around and you just got the feeling that all the locals eyes were on you. Not very relaxing!! The taxi driver kept asking if we had any questions but none of us were prepared to ask as we weren’t sure how he would take them. We stuck to artists or people in the imagery.

After he dropped us off in town and it was a straight beeline for the pub!! It took quite a few beers for us to unwind and even on the walk in to the pub Al stepped on a metal plate in the path and it made enough of a clank for me to jump two feet in the air. Not a pleasant state of mind really when you hear of how much these people have injured themselves and their communities for the cause. A glorified turf war if you ask me. When religion is involved I guess it doesn’t matter… I’d be out of town quicker than you can say volunteer!!

The next day we were up and at it. Got the laptop back from a repair place and the verdict is in that the motherboard has fried itself. It will end up in the parcel of scotch we’re sending home from London in a few days. Dead weight that will get a warranty repair once we’re home. So we’re stuck to kiosks and internet cafes now. It sucks but we’ll get there.

We bailed from Belfast really quick and pit stopped just outside of a city called Drogheda in Ireland (forget the North part!). We stopped to check out some Neolithic burial mounds that are 500 years older than the pyramids. Pretty cool for grass covered mounds outside in the rolling hills. 3 acres of soil, dirt and huge granite boulders forming passageways underneath them. Think of a giant smooth hill with a tunnel in it. One of them was built so sturdy that when the Normans took over in the 12^th century they built a fort, houses and more tunnels in them.

One of the mounds called Newgrange has a tunnel in it that captures the winter solstice sunlight for 15 minutes that lights up the chamber inside. This is through a passage way that is on a 2 metre slope and that is curved. Just awesome!

On to Dublin where things got a bit posh. We bunked down at the Australian Amabassador to Ireland’s pad just south of the city centre. Al’s uncle Bruce is the current Ambassador. Sweet!!

We spent three nights recharging. He is shacked up in a rough house. Refurbished in 1909, the place has six bedrooms, four bathrooms including a formal washroom for ladies and gentlemen downstairs and a grand piano for Pixie to tinkle on. Combined with gorgeous vistas out the windows to the immaculate grounds and the ocean in the distance. It was hard work. We all would have preferred the dorms (not!!).

Bruce was a lovely host. He seemed like he was a bit starved of good Aussie conversation so we obliged by making him fire up the bbq outside for a cook up and he returned the favour by taking us out to the highest pub in Ireland. Dublin itself was gorgeous. We did another free walking tour and again we lapped up the history and architecture (this time it was an architecture student not a history buff!). Stunning.

On a serious note, we did take in the Jameson distillery (Evo I’m packin some goodies!) and forced ourselves to wander through the Guinness brewery that is rebuilt to look like a giant 7 level pint glass inside. Very cool. They throw in a free pint at the top once you wander through the galleries and fact finding areas (including an awesome interactive tv ad display!!). The top of the pint glass is a 360 degree bar overlooking the city. Just gorgeous!

Dublin was hard to leave but we jumped on the ferry and made our way to Conwy last night for another rough night sleep in a local B & B. Travel is hard work with the awesome welsh brekkie they served up this morning!!

The morning was spent exploring the extensive town (haha, extensive = 2km square!) and wandering through the ancient castle grounds. Al remembered it from his time here as a kid – we almost started playing hide and seek but Pixie kept disappearing which was entertainment enough.

Tomorrow will be checking in on the Beatles and then the big game where it’ll be the best or the worst depending on the outcome. Fingers crossed!!