Mallorca II and back to Glasgow
I typed the blog up, but then I accidentally deleted it… so bit annoyed really.
We went to Palma by train from Inca. Trains were nice, saw some great scenery from the train. In Palma we walked around the streets and looked at some nice shops and market stalls. We bought some nice pictures from one shop. We then walked up to the cathedral and the architecture was brilliant. We saw the Spanish changing of the guard outside the Palace and the Cathedral. We were going to go into the Cathedral but saw they were charging 4 euros to see inside… we walked around the back streets behind the cathedral and found the banys arabs which are historic arab bath houses. It was amazing how they were standing between two apartment blocks, but still had a peaceful feel about it. We walked back to the cathedral and paid the 4 euros each to see the inside of the church. The stained glass windows and the ceiling was amazing… you weren’t allowed to take photos but I took some sneaky shots because I saw everyone else taking photos.
We then walked around Palma for awhile and looked at stalls and shops. Everything closes from about 1-4 so we decided to just go home when things started to close.
On Sunday we had a great sunday roast at a little cafe in Port de Pollenca. Maxine and Grandpa had Roast Beef – we had the chicken. It was delicious. We had a yummy dessert as well. We all spent the afternoon at my aunts place and then we drove my Grandpa home.
We drove to the Caves of Drach and it was very impressive, they also had a little music show like the Cave of Arta but they actually played the music in boats so it was a bit cooler then the Caves of Arta but it just went on and on. The actual stalagmites and tites were really amazing and they had all these lakes within the caves… the water looked so clear. We weren’t allowed to take photos – one guy got yelled at so we didnt even try.
After the caves we drove to Palma in search for the Castell (castle).. It was too hard to find and the traffic was busy and scary drivers that we just kept going and had a nice drive to Port Andratx on the way back we had one more attempt at the Castell but didnt get much closer. Palma has some scary streets. There was this one street that had 3 lanes and merged into 1 without any warning and being in the middle lane with cars on both trying to merge on top of the car.
Tuesday we went for a nice drive off the motorway through the middle of Mallorca – we were looking for a walk but couldn’t find the start so we kept driving and ended up at Port Soller again where Cindy got a cool shot glass. We then drove through the scary windy cliff drive back to Pollenca. Later in the Afternoon we drove to this small little beach where we hung out for awhile before going home.
Wednesday we took the car back and hung out, Tommy arrived back from work today so we finally met him. He’s great – we hung out for a few hours then went back to the apartment where I made some great chicken burgers… if i do say so myself. Thursday was a horrible wet and windy day so we stayed in and watched movies.
Friday we borrowed my Aunts Alfa Romeo and went to visit my Grandpa to say goodbye. We hung out there for the morning before a quick stop at the supermarket. We went over to Maxines and Tommys place in the afternoon and had a few drinks.
Saturday, Jan a family friend drove us to the Airport. The flight ended up leaving half an hour early – which we thought was kinda crazy. No wonder Ryanair is always early. We flew over the pyrenees mountains which were covered in snow so that was an amazing site from the plane.
Ellen kindly picked us up from the airport at prestwick. We hung out for the afternoon and we all went to the movies to see 2012… which was a laugh, you just couldn’t take it seriously but it was fun to watch.
So yeah… Santa fun run next sunday – I’m number 640 and Cindy is 645. We are also going to a Pantomine on Saturday which should be good fun.
Until next time.. Adios.
Add comment December 6, 2009
The Last Week
The last week has been a pretty quiet week.. We head off to Majorca tomorrow, at a ridiculously early time!
On Monday we headed down to the local shopping centre to get some stuff for our innovations. I also got a new shirt…which I have worn nearly every day this week.. haha. We decided not to wear out waterproof jackets out because the weather looked nice, then at the end of our shopping it was pouring, so we got wet walking from the bus stop.
On Tuesday, we started Day 1 of innovating. I made little pockets (all done by hand stitching) and then sewed on velcro into our sleeping sheets. This effectively made a detachable pocket on our sleeping sheets… And why would we need this you ask?? Because I am sick of sleeping on my ipod and phone in hostels.. this was it is right next to you, and not under you!! I’m looking forward to testing it out.
On Wednesday we headed over to Kath’s grandpa’s house to give him a hand to tidy up some leaves before he heads to Majorca. Then he had a tea and we had some water and we chatted. That was about all we did on Wednesday.
Thursday was Day 2 of innovations. This time I sewed material into singlets, so when we are Egypt we can have our passport in a secret pocket and not have to worry about getting our passports stolen… Kath also started to get a cold on Thursday..
Today (Friday), we went to see New Moon. It was good. The end is really stupid and “Edward’s” acting is awful, but the other main characters are good.. I won’t say too much more incase anyone is going to watch it..
Tomorrow we head off to Majorca, so this afternoon we will be packing (and Kath resting). Tomorrow is also my mum’s birthday – Happy Birthday MUM!!..
Well we will have better stories next week, after being in Majorca for a few days..
Hope everyone is well
Take Care
Cindy and Kath
Add comment November 20, 2009
London and Tegan and Sara
We headed out on Thursday morning to get the bus down to London, a short 10 hour bus trip. The bus trip seemed very quick, well the first 8 hours, the last 2 just dragged on. We didn’t get a stop the entire time. So sitting for 10 hours is a bit much.
When we finally arrived in London, we found an underground and got a ticket. It is quite confusing because there is an underground and an overground. So we found a ticket booth and bought a ticket and asked for directions to the platform. People say boarding a RyanAir plane is like being hearded like sheep… Well I would just like to say, walking through the underground is far worse. People everywhere and when a train arrives everyone just gets pushed in the door together. Luckily, I only had to wait one stop before getting a seat, Kath was in the middle of the carrige, we got separated on the way into the train.
We got off the underground, and found our way outside. For the first time ever, our hostel was directly in front of us, and the supermarket was in the train station.
We made our way into the hostel and hiked up to the 4th floor (which was actually 8 sets of stairs), we were glad we only had little bags for the weekend. We made our beds then headed out to get some dinner. We strolled down the street and the first place we looked at was a Weatherspoons, so we went in there for dinner. It was a very busy one (made because it was curry night). We both had a curry for dinner, it was great.
We then headed back to the hostel and met an Australian girl in our dorm. As more and more people turned up, we discovered that the majority of girls on the floor were all Aussies. Our room the first night had 2 Americans, 1 Italian and 5 Australians (including us). All of the girls were really nice. The room next door had another 2 Australians. We thought it was funny that we head to another country and all we meet are Aussies. We stayed up until 2am chatting.
The next morning we got up and went to do the Free Walking Tour. We mastered the underground that morning and got to the starting point and hour early, so we decided to go for a wander down the road to Buckingham Palace. The Queen was home on Friday!! We walked around there and then went back to the starting point. By the time the groups were split up and we were on our way it was 11.30. We first saw the Iron Dukes House and a monument. Then we walked really quickly down to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards Ceremony. We didnt see much because there were so many people around the gates. I have to say I was quite disappointed with Buckingham Palace (well the guards), I thought you would actually be able to walk up to them, and that there was more of them. There were 4 guards, they didn’t wear the funny hats (well the guards before the change don’t) and you can’t go near them. (So I just have to say, sorry Bryce we couldn’t try and make them move!!!).
We then saw the residence of Prince Charles, Camilla and William and Harry. (None of them were home ). We then saw the Queens second house, there were guards out the front of them, and you could approach them and have a picture with them. However, if you were annoying to them they had loaded rifles and were allowed by law to shoot you. So most people didnt get too close when having a photo.
We then wandered down the road, but it was pouring with rain and we didn’t have our waterproof pants on so we headed back to the hostel to dry our jeans for the concert in the evening.
We headed out to our concert at 5pm, the doors weren’t due to open until 7pm. The que was quite large. We lined up for an hour, before being told by security that we were in the wrong line. We ended up being one of the first people into our floor for seats, so we got the best seats. Kath had a spare seat next to her, and funnily enough an Aussie girl came and sat down next to her. Kath and her had a bit of a chat. The concert was really good. They had an awful support, he was meant to be a rapper but just spent the entire time yelling at you. Some people booed him. He had never performed infront of more then 8 people before. We still can’t work out why he was chosen as the support act. We had a great time at the concert. We didn’t buy any merchandise because we didn’t really like the shirts (they were really well priced). After the concert we headed back to the hostel and chatted to some of the girls again.
On Saturday morning, we headed to the Coach Station to come back up to Glasgow. The bus ride back was very very long!!. At one stage we were 25mins behind schedule. The driver we had was nice and gave us a 25 minute break, so we could get something for dinner. Nothing was open so we settled for chips. The rest of the drive back was pretty horrible because there were 5 men who had been drinking and were whistling and yelling and being annoying. So our diet on Saturday consisted of cornflakes and toast for brekky, Cheese Balls, apple and strawberries for lunch, and 2 packets of chips for dinner! Haha. When we arrived in Glasgow, Ellen and Tom met us at the Bus Station and took us home.
This morning we went for a walk with Ellen to a country park. We saw great views over Glasgow and then we went to a man-made Loch and walked around it.
We had a great time in London and are looking forward to going back next year.
Hope everyone is going well.
Love Cindy and Kath
Add comment November 15, 2009
Glasgow and Edinburgh
So Bon-Fire night was amazing, then the next night at Ellens and Toms was a big gathering for an actual bon-fire (which tom had built) and fireworks. You should have seen the size of the fire – It was MASSIVE. Before the party started, Cindy and I helped Tom bring some of the wood from one place to the fire so we could put more on it. It was sooo muddy and cold and a little drizzly – we got quite filthy but it was quite fun to be sloshing around… Wish we had brought our wellies from home though – then it would have been awesome haha
So many people were there and the small fireworks were fun to watch – some were very good – other attempts weren’t as good. My Grandpa had a great time chucking wood onto the fire… Beer in hand – haha.
The next day Ellen and Tom took us to Calderglen park which has its own little miniature zoo and we saw some pretty cool animals. Some of which were from Australia. Then we went for a nice walk around the park and the little river that ran through it. We then went into the inside warm bit of the zoo – that had all different plant species from around the world and it had fish, snakes, ugly bug things, monkeys, turtles- very cool.
On the Sunday, Cindy and I went to the Burrell collection and Pollok house (and the park). The Burrell collection is quite impressive (one rich man can collect ALOT of artifacts/stuff from anywhere in the world) It was cool some of it – others was a little weird. Pollock House is an impressive house with some artifacts of olden day things… and it showed you where the lady of the house would sit in the morning, then at lunch, then in the afternoon and then at night. They had alot of sitting rooms – haha. The gardens were very pretty.
On the monday we then went to Edinburgh to do some stuff… we went to meet up with our tour guide Danny from our Skye trip and I had quite a bit to drink…. he ended up passing out after a lot to drink so we walked back to our hostel and I went straight to bed.. haha. The next day we had a look around the shops on the royal mile and went into the childrens museum – which had so many toys from back around WW1/2 and from there to now. Really good… Today we went to Edinburgh castle again to get a stamp in our book – but she didnt stamp it very good – so a little disappointed. It was rememberance day today and they had a big thing up in the castle and alot of different troops were there from different ranks, areas, and so on were there in there scottish garb – it was great to see them all there.
We’re back in Glasgow tonight and tomorrow morning we bus down to London (10 whole hours) for our Tegan and Sara concert on Friday night.
Well anyways thats the update – we may put some photos up tonight of Belfast, Bon-Fire night and Edinburgh…
Love to all,
Kath and Cindy
1 comment November 11, 2009
Dublin, Belfast and back again to Glasgow..
Our last few days in Dublin were very wet, we didn’t do much touristy stuff – except for tourist shops, the weather was quite depressing so we went to the movies and saw the cirque du freak – the vampire assistant. It was a book I read when I was younger (gran won it for me).
We went back up to Belfast for the last few days before we flew out, we stayed at the same hostel we stayed in when we arrived in Ireland. We shared the room that night with a New Zealand girl who was really nice – she was there for a night and was flying back to Bristol where she was working as a teacher till January. The next morning we got up nice and early and we decided to go on the Belfast Bus Tour, we got student rates (hehe) and jumped on the bus, It was really good – the tour guide was okay and we saw the ‘big fish’ which is a giant salmon next to the waters edge that was awesome! ahah – on each scale held a different part of history of Belfast. We then saw the massive odyssey arena which has a massive cinema, Ice Skating Rink, Concert hall etc. We then went through the titanic quarter. For those who don’t know Belfast was the city who built the Titanic and were back in the day the largest ship building city around. They were currently building a Titanic display/museum and wasn’t meant to be finished until 2012. We then drove to Stormont Estate which is a massive gardens and the parliament house. It’s such a massive complex is 365 metres long and has 365 windows for every day in the year. The bus then continued back into the city and we past quite a few churches (one had the largest Celtic cross on the building). We then headed into the trouble area, this is where a lot of fighting happened between the protestants and Catholics / British vs Irish. They had many many murals painted on the side of buildings to remember soldiers, political prisoners, the wars in general. We also saw the large walls that had been erected to try minimize the fighting (if they couldn’t see each other – they couldn’t fight each other).
The tour was really good that we did it a total of 3 times, we’ve found the lady tour guides have always been better, with stories, history and more enjoyable to listen too. They had a really cheap cinema in belfast – so we saw 9 and fantastic mr fox. We went into the Stormont Estate one day and spent a couple of hours in the estate and in the parliament house.
I really enjoyed Belfast and preferred it to Dublin – Belfast wasn’t overridden with Tourists and was quite relaxing and friendly, Dublin was just soo busy and loud ( I did love watching the buskers though).
So we caught the ryanair flight back on the Wednesday for our 20 minute flight back to Prestwick airport. The flight was quite bumpy as the weather hasn’t improved.
Last night (5th November) was bon-fire night which is a massive UK tradition (If you’ve seen V for the Vendetta (the movie) its about that). With Guy Faux’s attempt at blowing up Parliament. Ellen took us and Ross into the city to watch the cities fireworks. We had dinner in a nice restaurant that was under an old church – quite cool. Then we walked around to the park to watch the fireworks – They were awesome. The amount of people there, it was like river fire! Haha
As fireworks aren’t illegal to buy here, driving home we saw so so MANY fireworks just going off and hearing the popping noise they make… It was quite cool to watch.
Tonight we’re having a bon-fire party. Tom has been building this massive bon fire in the back yard which looks amazing!! The boys have invited all their friends around so its going to quite a good night, if they can get the fire to actually start with the rain – but they’ve done it in the past. So I can’t wait for tonight.
Cindy and I went to the shops earlier to get some boooooze. Cindy has started to get into Cider because wine is so variable. So cindy got 4 bottles of Cider, and I got 4 different beers (3 I haven’t tried before) So I hope I like them.
Cindy’s favourite Cider is Magners Pear Cider (whereas I like Bulmers Pear Cider better). Tonight I will be drinking a Cobra, a tiger, a Innis & Gunn and Duvel.
Cindy is putting up a Cindy’s Cider Page to match my Kath’s beer page so have a look and see the types of cider Cindy’s tried.
Anyways… Up next in our journey is a short trip to Edinburgh (again), our London trip for Tegan and Sara, a trip up to Oban, and then our trip to Mallorca.
Take Care,
Love – Kath and Cindy
btw – new photos are up in Ireland
Add comment November 6, 2009
Scotland Map
For those who don’t really know Scotland, we have put together a map with the routes that we have traveled since we arrived in September.
The RED Line indicates the route and the GREEN Dots indicates the places we have stayed in.
We will do up a new map for Ireland/Northern Ireland, once we have finished our travels here. And also a map of England (when we travel there).
Add comment October 31, 2009
Limerick, Cork and Back to Dublin…
We arrived in Limerick an hour late on Tuesday evening. Tom greeted us at the train station and he took us to his apartment in Annacotty. He showed us a few of the sights along the trip to his place. He has a very nice 2 bedroom apartment. We headed over the road to an Asian/Indian Restaurant called Copper and Spice. We had some Indian and it was very delicious (bit spicy and I got mild).
We then headed back to his apartment and watched a movie on TV (there are only 4 analogue channels in Ireland and one is in Irish).
In the morning, after Tom had gone to work, we attempted to ring a taxi company to take us into the city centre). It took us 40mins to get a hold of them (due to our missing a number to dial an Irish number). When we finally arrived in the city we headed to the Hunt Museum. That was really expensive so we didn’t go in there. We then walked past a few chuches/cathedrals and up to the Sir John’s Castle.
We got in there at student rates haha. The castle had 2 movies. One was boring and the other was ok. They both showed different parts of Limerick’s history. We then explored around the castle grounds. They had an archeological site under the main entrance which was excavations of 18th century houses and a counter-mine. It was very interesting.
We then went from the castle to the Museum next door. It was quite small (and a little bit boring). They did have cool bottles though. One bottle which we saw in the galway museum was a clear bottle that had a bottle stopper inside the top of the neck which was like a little glass marble, and when you tipped the bottle to get a drink the marble would come out and you’d get a drink. It was really cool – apparently they’re quite rare because kids always used to smash the bottles to collect the marble. They also had some stuff on display which they collected when they excavated a river off the Shannon.
We then had a nice walk along the river front, we saw the Treaty Stone and lots of birds. We walked around the shops and got some lunch. There is only ONE tourist store in Limerick (and that is the Tourist Information shop). Crazy!! We then had a bit of time to kill before meeting up with Tom, so we did what we are good at doing… We headed off to a pub. This was a fancy pub though, we got some peanuts out of a peanut machine. They were delicious and expensive. But nonetheless they hit the peanut spot!
We met up with Tom at a restaurant called Freddy’s Bistro. We had a 3 course meal – Kath and I got the same thing.. We had Caeser Salad for Entree, Cabonara and Garlic Bread for our Main, and Nutty Pancakes filled with Icecream, topped with chocolate and peanuts. The meal was delicious. We also had a bottle of wine (between the 3 of us), called Tin Roof (an Australian Wine, from SA).
After our meal we went around the corner to a pub called the Whitehouse. It was meant to have Irish music and Poetry (and free finger food). Kath and Tom had beers. There was no Irish music and the poetry started late and half of it was just tape recordings, so a little bit disappointing. We did however get free food, not as though we were hungry after dinner. But you can’t say no to free food. We got little sausages, chips and a chicken strip. The chips had chicken salt on them (one thing Kath and I are really missing – a good shake of chicken salt).We headed home shortly after we finished the food.
The next morning Tom gave us a lift into the city to catch our bus to Cork. We went to the Art Gallery and a park. Kath really enjoyed the Art Gallery (upstairs was really weird), but downstairs was good. They had a life-size van made out of cardboard boxes. It was pretty cool. For the rest of the morning we just hung around the city until the bus was due.
Our bus trip to Cork was pretty good. We had free Wi-Fi.
When we arrived in Cork it was drizzling. We found our hostel and checked in. Our room was very crampy. It was a 6-bed Dorm and it should have only really held 4 beds. The only free space was really just a path to get to the door and ensuite. We went for a wander around the town to find some lunch. We found a nice pub. Their meals were cheap.. shame they were small… We then wandered back to the hostel to plan the next day.
We had really good internet in our room, it was really fast.
There was a trick to using the toilets in our ensuite. You had to turn on the sink taps to allow the toilet to fill up to flush. It was really annoying.
We checked out this morning, and were planning to head up to the Cork City Gaol. It was pouring rain, and the hostel didn’t really offer good Luggage Storage, so we decided to plastic-bag all of our clothes and take our bags with us. After an hour and a bit long hike in the pouring rain, we found the gaol. Turns out they have a Cash-Only policy on their entrance. We didn’t have enough euro’s to get in. The woman said she would take pounds, but it was at a ridiculous rate, so we told her to forget it. We sat undercover for a little while to have a rest before our long walk back to town. Our walk back was much quicker (helps when you know where you are going), but it was also very rainy on the way back. The walk down had nice views of the city and the river that ran through the city. We decided to catch the earlier bus to Dublin.
Luckily we arrived when we did, as the line was very long and we were one of the last people allowed on the bus, (I wouldn’t have wanted to be one of the people left behind).
It rained the entire 5 and a bit hour journey into Dublin. When we arrived it poured again and we walked again through the rain to find Tesco’s and our hostel. We are in a 10 bed dorm (the largest we have been in yet), it is very spacious. We have hung out all of our wet stuff, hopefully it dries tonight so we have some dry jackets for tomorrow (fingers crossed it doesn’t rain again).
Two girls just came in to our hostel room and are very loud and listening to something very loudly/rudely on their laptop. Very annoying since we are about to watch a movie (with head phones!!). Hopefully they quieten down soon.
We hope everyone is well and enjoying their October 31st.
Happy Halloween to all.
Love Cindy and Kath
Add comment October 30, 2009
Galway….
We arrived in Galway yesterday after a 3.5 hour bus trip from Dublin… It wasn’t the nicest bus trip… however the bus had free wi-fi which was awesome. We got to Galway and walked from the bus to a pub (which we had lunch and a drink at)… we then walked around for awhile trying to find our hostel… (they like to hide you see…) We found it and was a really really really nice hostel… Cindy chose well. We were in a 4 bed female dorm and our beds were really 3 beds… Cindy was lucky enough to walk in and see her bed was actually a double bed… and I got the single bed… haha. We were in with 2 german girls (mother and daughter). We didnt really go out for the afternoon but got some dinner from Lidl and booked our way back from Cork to Dublin.
Today, we checked out and went for a walk around Galway… turns out Galway is really small and doesn’t have toooo much to do. So we walked down the main street looking at shops and then went to the spanish arch. We then went into the small museum and had a look (they had some interesting things)… We then continued to walk around and then decided to hit the pub to kill some time before our bus leg to Limerick.
We are now on the bus to Limerick (free wi-fi again). We’ve put photos of our time in Dublin up… and will put some photos of Galway up when we empty the camera.
Take care,
Kath and Cindy
Add comment October 27, 2009
kathcatch
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