Day 125:
What to spend your last English pounds on at the air port?.......an awesome serve of scrambled eggs, bacon, grilled tomato and spinach sounds pretty good!!! We then went to the convenience store in Heathrow and bought some reading material and snacks for the flight. During a particular intense process of deciding wether or not to buy a Sudoku book or a cross word book, I very intelligently exclaimed (rather more loudly than anticipated) “Well, I don’t fucking get it (Sudoku) anyway, so lets get the other one” the store cleaner overheard and absolutely wet himself laughing, he seemed to agree with that statement lol. Awkward! Guess you had to be there.
From there we made our way to our terminal and we were boarding our flight to Tokyo. As far as all our plane rides have been concerned, we would have to say that this one was probably one of the most hassle free. No stinky people, no screaming children, just a normal flight. Ahhh. Sleepy time!
Day 126:
Miho had informed us that she had organised for us to climb Mt. Fuji tomorrow. Once we dumped our baggage at the hostel, we decided to go exploring and prepare ourselves for our climbing adventure. We went out to explore Ueno and Shibuya. In Ueno, which we aptly named "Uno", we got lost in an area that looked suspiciously like the porn district lol. We tried to look as innocent as possible and find the quickest way out of there :p We found a man with a hat stall and bought a beanie each - success, we would at least have warm heads. Our luck was running out however, it didn't look like this place had anything that would keep us warm enough to climb the mountain. We caught the metro to Shibuya and ended up in a ridiculously large department store. We eventually found the appropriate section of the building and each bought a jacket that would hopefully keep up warm enough for the hike.
By this stage we were well pooped and hungry. We made our way back to the hostel, dropped off our shopping and stepped out to try and find something to eat........we walked for a while trying to find this Thai place that the hostel recommended, but the only thing that happened was that we couldn't seem to find it. We took a random turn down some street that looked promising and ended up at a little Italian place that made fresh wood fired pizzas. SOLD! it took a grand total of ten minutes. We were so hungry we didn't even make it back to the hostel, we literally demolished it - ate it under an awning on the street in about three minutes flat. We are two classy ladies! Once we got back to the hostel we packed our small back packs, showered and turned in for the night. It was going to be a FML early start to the day!!
Day 127/8:
Two jetlagged travellers with burning, puffy, bloodshot eyes is what a 4am start looks like! It’s attractive! We dressed with extra layers in anticipation for the hike, with our new jackets and beanies – rather exciting! Totti topped off our very fashionable attire by tucking her pants into a pair of long socks I let her borrow – it really is a good look LOL! We collected our small backpacks and walked the deserted Tokyo streets to the metro station in the semi darkness. The skies looked clear to far, so we kept our fingers and toes crossed for some clear weather over the next couple of days.
Once at the metro station we caught the train to Shinjuku and met up with two friends of Miho’s – Shim and Steph. They would be coming on the hike with us (thank god, as it was all Japanese speaking people with the exception of ourselves and two ladies from America. Shim and Steph, you save lives! Lol). From the station we headed to our bus and commenced our journey to Mt. Fuji. The Japanese scenery is absolutely awesome, we spent most of the bus ride looking out the window. We would say the coolest thing, besides the actual mountain was the fact that there was a theme park at the base of it. We were tempted to forego climbing just to ride that rollercoaster, it was pretty friggan awesome! Somewhere along the way, Totti passed out; at times like these priceless photographic opportunities present themselves, and because I am such a good friend, I just couldn’t bare the thought of not documenting such a sight. Wide open mouth with slight drooling symptoms makes a pretty amusing photo :p
When we got to 5th station we had some lunch before setting off on the first leg of the hike. The terrain wasn’t too bad, so we were optimistic that with any luck, the rest of the climb would be similar... Not so much. We climbed for two hrs before stopping at 6th station, by this stage the tracks had already started getting steeper and rougher. As there was no loo, our only option was to “pop a squat” (very eloquently put, isn’t it?) – so we had to try and find the most concealed area behind a random water tank and enjoy the serenity while going to the loo al fresco.
It was still a nice day by about 3.30/4pm but the wind was getting colder and the dirt tracks started to turn into rocks. The incline was getting worse and the climb between 5th and 6th station was by far the longest, it was literally like rock climbing, it didn’t even feel like we were walking any more. The oxygen began to get thinner and all you could hear was everyone panting. Our tour guide stopped regularly and shared some of his breathing techniques with us, we all looked pretty funny stretching our arms out as if giving someone a hug and then breathing deeply in and out about 6 times. It did however help!
By this stage the sun had begun to set and long shadows were cast over the giant mountain; quite a sight to behold, the mountain itself cast a giant shadow over the cities below. Very fatigued, sore and hungry by this stage, the climb became still more challenging. Besides being physically exhausted, it became harder and harder to stay positive and to encourage ourselves on a mental level. All we wanted was somewhere warm, something to eat, to sit down, and go to sleep. 7th station was a welcome relief, as it meant we were only about an hour away from taking a well earned rest!
By the time we reached 8th station, night had fallen and it was starting to get COLD!!! Grateful for a place to sit down and thaw out, we watched the last of the setting sun and inhaled our curry rice. Still starving we bought a cup of noodles and a cup of hot chocolate – yumo! While at dinner Shim was sitting with his legs crossed, like when people meditate. We attempted it and failed, we acheived balance for about thirty seconds and then sort of rolled over onto our sides. Totti stated “Shim, I don’t know how you can sit like that!”, the funny thing was, Shim looked completely shocked and responded with “Oh, sorry!!!” and immediately uncrossed his legs. We absolutely wet ourselves laughing, Totti was like “No no!! That’s not what I meant, I just mean I don’t know how you can sit like that ‘cause it’s really uncomfortable!”. Bless. So funny! Soon after eating and just sitting around in the warmth, our tiredness had caught up with us and we were keen to get to bed as soon as possible. The prospect of being woken up at 2.30am and setting out into the freezing cold was going to be a killer!
Our sleeping quarters were just one big room with three levels in it. On each level there were about 20 sleeping bags on matts, so we all spent a rather cosy evening sleeping with 40 complete strangers. It wasn’t hard to fall asleep, we were so exhausted and sore that we literally just passed out.
2:30am came around all too quickly; getting out of the toasty sleeping bags was definitely a struggle. We put on all our extra layers, tucked our pants into our socks, bought two pairs of gloves each and rugged up, ready to brave the cold outside. Cold is an understatement. It. Was. FREEZING. We began our ascent to the summit, when the wind picked up our faces became frost bitten and numb, as did all our extremities. Despite our tiredness we were very much awake, the cold made sure of that. The climb was much the same as the previous leg – the incline was so steep and it was like rock climbing again. As we crept higher and higher the greenish tinge on the horizon slowly grew redder and redder. The sun still hadn’t risen but it was getting closer. This went on for a good two hours before we FINALLY made it to the top. Crossing that final threshold was the most enormous sense of relief I think we have ever felt. We made it. Take that, Mt. Fuji! Did we mention it was freeeeeezzzzzzinnngg! It didn’t take long for the sun to start rising now, there is nothing we can say to possibly describe this view, in this case we just have to let the images speak for themselves. Despite the amazing view, our body temperatures were falling fast and the wind was not helping!!! Totti started to feel unwell and almost passed out – don’t you just love altitude sickness! It was definitely a sign that it was time to go, so we began our descent. On the way down the sun was still rising, we stopped along the way to take one final action shot, definitely in the top 5 for the entire trip. As we got lower the sun continued to rise and proceeded to thaw us out nicely. It was a rather entertaining few hrs, we witnessed some first class stacks, where instead of helping people back up, we opted to point and laugh instead. Mature. This however came back to bite us in the arse, as we then proceeded to fall flat on our bums several times each.
The feeling we got when we finally made it off the mountain was almost as good as making it to the top. Because we like to talk about our feelings, we felt that climbing Mt. Fuji was a rather symbolic way to end our trip. It was now time to head to the Japanese hot springs. We were told that everyone was to bathe naked. I was hesitant but Totti was keen, so once we got there, I passed out in the lobby and Totti went off to get naked. When she returned squeaky clean it was time to go and eat!
It had been such a long couple of days that we were keen to get to our hostel and just get a solid, uninterrupted sleep. Once we got back into Tokyo we went back to our first hostel and collected our bags. The thought of having to drag all of our luggage and ourselves back through the metro was a no go. We opted for a cab instead *praises lord*. Such a relief! We checked into the Ace Inn, and went up to our dorm. Our beds were really cool, they were like little rectangular caves in the walls with mattresses, a shelf and a lamp inside them and a curtain for a door. Totti got the top bunk and I was happy that I could simply just roll into my bed lol. So after a hot shower, for the first time on our trip we didn't even think about eating, we relished the fact that there would be no alarm to wake us up the next morning, and we were asleep as soon as we hit the pillow.
ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZ!!!!!
Day 129:
Sooooooooooooo sleepy!!! We slept in till 11.FML, excruciating physical pain. Mt fuji had dominated. Stiff and sore, we complained all the way down to the showers where we just stood under the hot water without actually doing anything lol. We decided that we needed to do something fun that didn’t really require much thinking or effort, so we thought that spending the day at Tokyo Dome City would be the perfect remedy. The Dome is just a stadium and home to the Giants, the baseball team, but what we were interested in was the giant theme park that the Dome city lived in. It was time for rollercoaster domination! We were already overwhelmed by all the options, but the second thing we noticed was that all the people there were dressed as cartoon characters of some kind and were taking photos of each other. We found this strange yet amusing at the same time. Boys dressed as girls, girls dressed as boys, other's you couldn't really tell apart lol. Some outrageous costumes! The colour of their hair, the hairstyles, different coloured contact lenses. It was insane! Wow, we just used a crap load of exclamation points! - A thankyou :p We later found out that this thing that they do is called Cos Play; in a nutshell they do it to escape the codes and conventions of normal everyday life. We spotted a group of girls dressed as soccer players so we approached them and asked for a photograph. We burst out laughing when all of them lifted their hands and made peace signs, it was so very Asian lol. Naturally we joined in :p When in Rome!
From here on the hardest choices we had to make were which ride to go on first!! They all had names like “Thunder Dolphin” and “Death Drop”, definitely a ride we wanted to go on! The first one was like a rollercoaster/waterslide, it was A-Mazing. First the ride takes you along a small length of river, then it goes onto the rollercoaster bit and for the grand finale there’s like a 50m drop down into the pool and there’s lots of splashing/screaming and raised hands. Yaaaaayyyy! From there it was all about spinning, rotating rides full of craziness. But the best ride we went on was by far the Thunder Dolphin. It was the biggest rollercoaster we have ever seen. It went through a ferris wheel, went upside down, twirled around all at 130 km per hr. The best part about it was the beginning. You are pulled up an almost vertical incline of about 70m and then it stops at the top of this HUGE drop. It lingers and lingers and all of a sudden it feels like you’re falling without being attached to anything. Crazy! So with our guts still back on the platform and the gale force winds in our hair, we threw up our hands and screamed like little girls as we were thrown up, down, around and everything in between. Seriously awesome fun! We did it twice :p We even bought a copy of the automatic photos they take of you; one is taken at the start, we are looking super confident and excited, as if this was going to be a walk in the park. The other is taken at the beginning of a huge drop, our facial expressions change to pure terror lol. HILARIOUS!
We had a super action packed day and were hoping to go to one of the nice spa’s located, conveniently enough, inside the Dome City mall. It was super fancy and looked absolutely awesome. It would have worked a treat as we were so sore!! Unfortunately though, in Japan, tattoos are frowned upon and we were refused entry into the spa. Fail! The reason for this is that in Japan, only the Mafia used to get tattoos, so for this reason, they are seen as a sign of disrespect and they basically think you’re a criminal :p So with that, we decided to call it a day and headed back to our hostel for another good night’s rest. Tomorrow it was time to dominate Tokyo Disney Sea, yeah-yuh!!!
Day 130:
We have come to the realisation that we are in fact a pair of theme park whores. First Disney Land and Universal studios, now Tokyo Dome and Tokyo Disney Sea. It really is like stepping into a Disney film. Tokyo Disney Sea definitely delivers. On the way in we saw the Monsters Inc life size factory and the Peter Pan tree. Once we got into the gates of the theme park we had to catch the resort train line into Disney Sea. The train windows were in the shape of Mickey Mouse faces and the seats inside were big squishy couch type things. Anyway, as we got closer, the more excited we were. This place is definitely awesome – the bay in the middle is constructed to look like a combination of Venice/Florence and in the background you can see a giant volcano with a rollercoaster going through it, the city of Agrabah from Aladdin and the Temple of Doom where the Indiana Jones ride is. Among other cool things to see, there was a giant Haunted house and the Tower of Terror. It was going to be a good day :p
We quickly noticed that people were enjoying icy poles in the shapes of Mickey/Mini mouse faces. Naturally we hunted down the nearest ice cream stall and opted for the apple juice flavour! Yumo!
There isn’t really much more to say except for the fact that we were probably more excited about being here than the 5 year old children :p We did most of the rides and tried to do some of the activities – at one stage we were given little palm computers which had sub titles on them, we were the token tourists once again, but we thought we looked really cool :p
Overall it was an awesome day and well worth it. We might have to pay Dreamworld a visit this summer to avoid getting any theme park withdrawal :p
Day 131:
Did someone say Sumo? YUP! We had finally arrived in a country at the right time! We missed Shaggy and Snoop Dog in Vegas by one day, we missed the grand opening of the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando by ONE DAY, we missed the August festival in Italy by ONE DAY, we missed the Tomato throwing and the bullfights in Spain by ONE DAY! But today, we finally caught a break – we were in Japan at the RIGHT TIME.
Ela: Dude!! I’m really excited about seeing the Sumo’s!!!!
Totti: Yeah me too!! I just wanna hear them slap together!!!
Clearly we’ve both got our priorities right lol. We took photos of each other pinching the Sumo’s nipples on the mural outside the stadium and made our way inside. Just a little background info – a Sumo makes a base salary of roughly 100,000k annually. This is without the 4 bonuses they receive from the government per annum. I think becoming Sumo’s is probably the wisest career moves for both of us – all we have been doing is eating! Even if we lose, we still make 100 grand a year and we get to eat our little hearts out. Lol. As soon as we saw the first Sumo lumber out of the change rooms we instantly just recalled all the Fat Bastard quotes we could remember. These guys are MASSIVE! Their Sumo undies literally look like g-bangers because their butt cheeks and muffin tops overwhelm them. It looks like they just have massive wedgies! Besides that, and what boggled out minds even more, was the fact that they could lift their legs higher than their heads......WTF!!!! We can’t even do that and we are1/4 of the size of these blokes. Life is hard. Wah.
Watching them hit each other just looked like two semi trailers crashing. It was pretty intense even though each fight only lasted 45 seconds maximum. Still harping on about their ridiculous salaries, conversations such as the following crop up:
Ela: Dude....every other professional athlete can actually enjoy their winnings....these guys couldn’t even buy a Ferrari if they wanted, cause they wouldn’t be able to fit in it!!! I bet they have really hot girlfriends too. Vomit.
Totti (laughing) : Nar, they probably have their Grand Jeep Cherokee waiting in the car park. And gross – how would they have sex?! Wait! Don’t answer that!
And so you get the idea :p Once we’d had enough of half naked/ morbidly obese men slapping against each other, it was time to head to Miho’s house for our home stay!! We were really excited about this because we would finally get to try some traditional Japanese home cooking! Miho and her father picked us up from the train station and took us to their kick ass house in the burbs. We sat down to a delicious dinner which had raw fish (yes, we ate it!!) a beef and potato salad, egg salad and sushi. It was YUMMY!! Miho’s parents were so kind and very cute – they took photos of us all together as a family – awwwww. And while discussing random topics at the table, Miho’s dad would whip out his translator on the occasion just to make sure he had the right word. Too cute! We exchanged a high five over the fact that his favourite actress is Angelina Jolie. It was so nice to be able to sit down at a real dinner table with a family and just talk about our day. Quote of the evening - Miho "I hate Sydney, there's too many Asians!" LOL! It's funny.......cause she's Asian :p A-Thankyou!
After dinner we were heading to one of our most anticipated activities yet – yes, that’s right, Karaoke in Japan!!! WOO!. We have now seriously considered opening our own business. This place was AWESOME! It’s sort of like a miniature hotel, there are about 4 floors and each room is a private booth with a huge plasma screen, couches, a table and an awesome sound system. You have a phone in there to place your drink orders and basically just sing the night away. On the way up to our room we collected maracas and a tambourine – heaven help the people in the lobby, we were about to sing up a storm. We spent two hours singing and dancing around with Miho and her boyfriend – the song selection was incredible, you could choose from a book that was about the size of our yellow pages!! The endless possibilities!!
A night of great food, good company and fun times!
Day 132:
It was nice to ease into the day. We woke up to a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and fresh fruit. Bless you Mrs Tabata, you’re a legend! It was delicious! Today we were heading in to Harajuku, one of Tokyo’s more well known cultural hubs. Everything from high end fashion to alternative markets and your usual H&M type stuff. We enjoyed a huge crepe each and began our journey into this crazy, busy place. One of the more amusing streets we walked down was probably the highlight of the day. It was called “Takeshita Street” – how we laughed. It has been photographically documented for proof lol. We were also thoroughly amused by a sign outside the barber shop. It had a price list for cuts, colour, etc. It also had the price for an “Aflo” LOL!!!! Yes, Miho, it is actually pronounced Af- RO!!! Priceless!
We headed back to Shinjuku for some dinner – yes we know we get excited about food, but tonight was going to be extra exciting, as we would get to cook it ourselves! We went to a restaurant where you have your own little grill as a table. Your order the ingredients fresh and you cook your own meal on the spot! We had fun imitating the tepenyaki chefs, flipping the food and throwing it up in the air for each other to catch. We enjoy interactive cooking lol.
After dinner we headed to a gig; Miho’s friend was performing and we had been invited as VIP guests – woo! He sang mostly soul, but it was cool as it was all sung in Japanese. Of course we were right up the front of the stage, dancing like complete idiots. The entire bar was giving us strange looks – we were the only ones cheering him on and clapping. No, for once we weren’t the strange ones! The crowd just wouldn’t get into it. Either way, we still had fun, and performed all our best dance moves in order to keep the party alive. At least Miho and Steph thought we were funny!
Day 133:
What to do on your last day overseas?......Buy new external hard drives in electric city. YUP. Buy new Asics sneakers. YUP. Get caught in a torrential down pour. YUP. Go and eat lunch at the same place as the night before. YUP! Once we’d shopped and eaten we made our way back to the hostel to collect our bags and headed to the air port one last time. It was an odd feeling, to think that our huge adventure was finally coming to a close. The positives being that we would no longer have to lug our lives around with us on our backs any more, sleeping in our own beds, eating normal food again, normal showers. The prospect of returning to reality was sobering yet exciting at the same time.
And so we caught the train to the air port and checked in our baggage. It felt like our last couple of hours in Tokyo had just melted away and we were buckling our seatbelts, preparing for take-off. We watched the flight attendants do their safety demonstration, something we had become so accustomed to. The turbines flared up and the plane streaked down the runway; we began to ascend and Japan became a grid of street lights and cars, thousands of feet below. We were finally heading home.
The wait in Sydney airport was an agitated one – we were so close now! The first thing we did once in the terminal was switch on our phones and ring everyone we could think of to let them know we were back. Hearing familiar voices made us more keen than ever to hop on our little plane back into Canberra. After a two hour wait, it was finally time to make the last leg of our trip. We walked out onto the tarmac with all the other passengers and took our seats at the rear of the plane. To commemorate the occasion, Totti farted one last time, in that small confined space, and prompted me to smell it. Something that I will and won’t miss equally! As the familiar surroundings started to come into view, we were keen to get off the plane and finally, after four and a half incredible months, say hi to our Mums and Dads.
*
89 Microsoft Word pages later and we have come to the bittersweet ending of Ela & Kate’s AMAZING adventure of 2010. We’d like to say a huge “thankyou” to everyone for being a faithful Flogger and Bogger for the past 5 or so months, and to all of the new followers we have collected along the way. You have read about the endless fart jokes and that in itself is an achievement – now you’re going to have to deal with the real thing :p An even bigger “thankyou” to all the amazing people we have crossed paths with – none of this would have been half as memorable if we didn’t have you to experience it with. You have created some unforgettable memories with us and we will be looking back on these with smiles on our faces for many years to come. The added bonus being that you now give us more reasons to leave The Berra and come for road trips ; yeah-yuh!!!
There isn’t one word to possibly be able to describe this entire experience, so here are a select few to try and encompass it; Smiles, laughs, farts, food, new friends, super cool activities, dancing (only like we know how, it’s a sight to see), poo, more laughs, locating Jamaican Princes, Totti acheived her long luscious hairs, we dominated with our soccer skills with the little amigos in mexico, more food, too many cocktails & rum+coke, roller-coasters, farts, and just total global domination; take that, Ellen DeGeneres!
It’s with a heavy heart that, for the last time, we sign off with “Say hi to your dad for us”. We have had an absolute ball and we can truly say that we did indeed “Fuck shit up!”.
Much love, farts, and everything in between!!
Sayonara!
Ela & Kate x x x
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Ela & Kate do London...
Day 116: Dublin to England
We woke up relatively early to get to the ferry in time for 8am departure. Ireland being Ireland, gloomy grey skies coupled with pissing rain waited for us outside, so naturally our emotions gave in to the weather and we agreed today was going to be a shit travel day.
So when we bought the ferry tickets – we chose London...we swear we did! Anyways, 4hrs later on the ferry we arrive at a port called Holyhead – we jump off the ferry and head towards the train station looking for the Euston, London train. Upon looking at the departure screen, we both noticed the unusual spelling of some of the destinations. For example....Euston, London was spelt Euston, Londain. We soon figured out that we were actually in Wales and what we were reading was Welsh! Fail. So we can say we went to Wales...yup, the town of Holyhead. Woo!
Another 4hrs on the train and a quick switch to the metro and we were in the big old smoke of London. We were greeted by smiley Steve (Redder’s housemate) and as we walked along Old Street...ding-a-ling ding-a-ling...the one and only Redman caught up to us on his push bike. Bless.
We made ourselves presentable and agreed we would explore Brick Lane for dinner as it was only a short stroll from Red’s house. Brick lane was definitely an experience. It is home to a predominantly Indian community and as a result of this, the entire street is lined with restaurants dedicated to delicious Indian food. Each of the restaurants had an Indian man standing out front, shouting to potential customers as they passed by. They all try and top each others’ offers – they guy who offered us a free bottle of wine, a beer for Red and a foot massage for Totti got our vote, so in we went.
2 glorious hours later and we rolled out of the restaurant with full tummies. The guy suspiciously forgot about his offer to give Totti a foot massage, but we were well satisfied none the less. So we made our way back to Red’s house and turned in for the night.
Day 117:
We decided we’d earned ourselves a sleep in; so as we each opened one bleary eye and took a tentative peek out the window, we were greeted by blue skies – success! Just as a side note – the loo had been having some issues flushing. As I returned to our room, Totti was eagerly awaiting her turn to use the bathroom. I say eagerly because I returned to the nice lingering stench she kindly leaves hanging around. With a flare of her nostrils she looked at me and grinned. I told her to reconsider her choice of deposit in the loo, as the flush wasn’t working. The look on her face may have suggested that Christmas had been cancelled. No poo = no joy. Lol. I had to learn the hard way and had to beg Totti to re-attempt to flush my nugs down! Stupid toilet.
We headed into central London in search of the much talked about Top Shop in the hope to shop up a storm. Well we found it....please don’t hate us, but we didn’t think it was that great. But still, we went there :p After that we wondered up and down Oxford street for a while and came across a ticket vendor. 400 pounds later and we walked out with tickets to the Chelsea vs Westham game and tickets to see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of The Opera, called Love Never Dies. It was going to be a busy week!
Once we were all shopped out, we decided to take advantage of the bus tours once again. So we jumped on and explored London on big red open roof bus. We were happy as we received free ponchos on entry – for any unexpected rainfall. Because rain was so rare in England. A thankyou! Once we’d seen all the must see’s, we hopped off right in front of Hamely’s Toy Store – the oldest toy shop in the world. We felt rather special, as the doorman (who was dressed as a pirate, yes, a pirate) told us that Jude Law himself had been in there about an hour ago, purchasing a chess set.
After out action packed day, it was time to reunite with Michael and Paulina in Soho for dinner and drinks. It was nice to see them again, the new Mr & Mrs Walker looking happier than ever. We had a good night just catching up and enjoying a couple of drinks together. Before we knew it, it had gotten pretty late, so we said see you soon (as we’d see Paulina the following day and Michael again at the theatre) and headed home for some shut eye :)
Day 118:
Today it was time to visit the home of Anna Scott and William Thacker – yes, if you’ve seen Notting Hill then you know who we’re talking about :p We headed to Portobello Road with Paulina to visit the famous Portobello Markets. Ooooooo eerrrrrrr, shwanky. It was clearly an upper class area of London, very nice indeed. We had a great day strolling up and down the street, in and out of the shops – so many interesting little places, some of which we forced ourselves to leave, as we would have spent all our money in them. A successful shopping day all round though, we all left with something, yay for new stuff!
Shopping is rather tiresome, and it definitely works up an appetite, so we stopped in a little cafe and ordered a late lunch – Paulina and I got burgers and Totti decided to go traditional, and got bangers and mash. After lunch we headed back onto Oxford street and decided to do a little more shopping – we couldn’t possibly go to the theatre the next night without something new to wear. We realised that we only had two hours left before we had to be at the Ricky Gervais show, eep! So we said a quick goodbye to Paulina, rushed home, didn’t even have time to shower (gross, we know) did a quick hair and makeup job and were back out the door and into a cab towards the Appolo theatre in Hammersmith. Perhaps not the best day to select riding in the traditional Black Cab – it cost us 30 pounds as Hammersmith is a little far from central London. Travel fail! But never mind – it was worth it and it was a pretty nice drive.
Once inside we realised we were starving – surprise! We quickly located a hotdog vendor and before we knew it, were happily wolfing down two delicious, but over priced theatre hot dogs and went in search for Red and his lady friend. Bless their little cotton socks – they had two glasses of wine waiting for us :) We went to locate our seats and got ready to laugh. And laugh we did – the support act was pretty funny, he covered the usual topics such as masturbation and farts/poo. Everyone loves a good fart/poo joke. Well we do anyway – as soon as he ripped the first one out (a thankyou, see what we did there) we just turned to each other and absolutely LOST it. Apparently everyone missed the memo – for all our fellow boggers, you know why we’d find this funny – I pretty much have a portable symphony orchestra travelling with me lol.
Then on came Ricky – he was well worth the wait. His show was titled ‘Science’....it turned out it had nothing at all to do with science...haha. Basically he just talked about Noah’s Ark, and fat people the whole time. We did enjoy a good fat joke – Totti could hardly breathe, bent double with laughter, when he said that fat people used their rolls as shelves to hold their beverages, and high heels to retrieve packaged cakes from the frozen section fridge in the supermarket, because their stomachs obstructed their reach too much. A solid two hours of laughs. Money very well spent – thanks Red!
After the show we headed to a pub nearby for some drinks. A fellow Greek Island Hopper came to join us – Andee!! It was so good to see her again! After the pub we all headed closer into town to find somewhere to dance. We stopped at a club that looked like it was filled with 15 year olds – mostly because we needed to pee! We made a quick exit – which sucked, as they were playing really good music, but didn’t feel much like being back at our highschool social, so we left to find somewhere “older”. We ended up at some random place that wasn’t too busy which was nice. They played a few good tunes, which gave us the chance to showcase our awesome dance skills again :p But we soon got bored, and tired, and decided to leave Red and his Lady to boogie down some more.
A big shout out to Andee for coming to hang out with us xxx
Day 119:
Today we decided it was time to go and see how good Queeny really does have it; destination, Buckingham Palace. We met up with our Shamrocker buddies Jo & Clare, and prepared to take the grand tour of the State Rooms, which are open to the public during the summer months, as her royal highness is off at her other palace, for her vacation. Oooo errr.
At the entrance, we all immediately fell silent – it was the type of quiet that silences you before you set foot in a library, now on our best Palace touring behaviour, in we went. Call it opulent, extravagant, lavish, vast, spacious, any word, really, is an understatement; this place is truly amazing. We almost felt bad for treading on the same red carpet that the Queen probably drifts around on in her royal socks while wearing our converse smattered in mud and sub way soot. We saw the Throne Room, the Board Room, the Dining Room, the Room made for just sitting in when you have guests Room, the Room that has a table given as a gift by Napoleon Room, the Room overlooking the private gardens Room, the Room with paintings of all the Kings and Queens Room....you get the idea, many Rooms. Ok, we’ll stop saying Room.
The tour ended in the private garden – a pretty awesome backyard if you ask us; lots of room (ha, room) on the soft green grass for activities. Totti and I immediately identified it as the ideal place for some good grass to roll around on and some serious soccer playing. We couldn’t leave without a) doing an action shot off the palace steps b) dining in the garden cafe, but most importantly, C. What is ‘C’ you ask? Well by this stage, all sense of propriety and good behaviour went out the window – we had, after all, just gone two hrs of being super good...and quiet! It was time to unleash our usual selves back into the world. I pulled Totti aside, and pointed out the very serious business that if she did not, in fact, drop it like it’s hot, INSIDE Buckingham Palace, that it would be like sacrilege. I also informed her that it would be her greatest, most monumental fart achievement to date, if she were to leave a little sample of her airborne poo particles within the walls of the Queens house. I don’t think I have ever seen someone accept a mission so resolutely. So in true Totti fashion, with a wiggle and a jiggle of the belly region ( because according to fart-ologists such as herself “you know, it helps to get things moving”) she turned on her heel and marched back into the Palace. I waited with baited breath....wondering which poor soul would catch the first whiff of triumph. She emerged from the Palace doors with fists raised and a very satisfied smile indeed. “How was it?” I asked, returning the smile and beginning to laugh. With a giggle I was promptly informed that “it was good.....except I think someone heard”. Mission accomplished!
So with A and C complete, it was time for B – tea and scones. We all sat together, and had what is probably one of the most entertaining conversations of our entire trip, and it is one we will remember for a very long time. What do you talk about, over tea, scones and strawberries while sitting in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, you ask? Well, we’ll tell you. You wonder out loud what items the Queen has in her handbag. Clare wisely suspected that she carries a pair of glasses that look like fake open eyes, like the kind that Homer Simpson uses while he’s on Jury Duty – “well, if I were the Queen, I know I’d carry some” – the first of MANY belly laughs to come. We were interrupted by a killer bee who had taken a liking to our table, so after much girly screaming and frantic arm flapping, we captured it under a plastic cup and proceeded to tap the glass in a very mature and adult fashion, just to see what the bee would do. Then we would all scream as it buzzed angrily at us from the inside of the cup. Mature. After that minor interruption, we also wondered where Queeny’s bedroom was, as we would very much like to jump on her bed. We wondered if she owned any sneakers, if she wears socks around the house and drifts around her polished floors, if she cooks for herself, if she farts underneath her big Queeny robe. We wondered what kind of music she listens to on her i-pod, it’s totally Snoop Dog! We also exchanged fart stories from the Shamrocker tour, Clare, your “It was me” confession was friggan priceless, we are still laughing about it!!! By this stage we were in absolute hysterics – when Jo pulled out her ‘fart in the office’ story. Oh lord, we laugh cried. Bless you guys, funniest tea time EVER!!!!
It seemed we had attracted a lot of attention to ourselves – we don’t think that the words “fart” and “poo” had ever been so much as whispered within the walls of Buckingham Palace. Well, we had certainly changed that for the better. And now I can say that my mate let one rip at the Queens house. Gold.
We went into the gift store and bought some royal, commercialised merchandise and waited for the torrential downpour to end. With only a light drizzle left outside, we busted out our free ponchos (thankyou, big bus co.) and strolled very fashionably outside looking like two oversize bin liners. We ended up at a little pub and ordered a jug of Pimms and Lemonade and some lunch; homemade meat pies and a couple of serves of roast – yumo! We spent the afternoon reminiscing about our Royal Conversation - such a great day. Sadly we said goodbye to the girls and headed home to shower and get ready to go and see Love Never Dies
The show was pretty amazing – the set and costume designs were outstanding and we could not have acted out the play better ourselves. Definitely an experience, so a big shout out to Mummy Walker for the suggestion – seriously good stuff :)
Day 120:
Today it was time to go and see “the stones, you know the ones that stand in a circle, and have other stones lying flat on top of them. They don’t know how they got there, which is why they’re so cool” – A very astute description there by Ela. So with Stonehenge on the To Do list for the day, we hopped on our tour bus and set off. Our driver was a rather entertaining character – a kindly Indian man whom had even more descriptive prowess than I did while describing Stonehenge. “Ah, yiiuuu see, I don’t actualeee kno much aboot de Stones....I just leesten to de audio guide. Yes.” What was even more amusing than this, was when he told us to keep an eye out for some ancient burial mounds. “If you look over dere to de right you wheel see some....but there are more on de left dere.....oohh yiiiss, but look on de right. But dere are more on de left” You get the idea. We just looked at eachother and burst out laughing!!! So all in all these stones are aptly located at a place called Stonehenge. They are in actual fact, really cool, and the mysterious history surrounding them is really interesting, so we enjoyed our time attempting to look intelligent and pensive while surveying these mammoth stones in the blustery wind. Once we’d finished looking at the stones we headed back to the little gift shop and bought a poster each, then enjoyed a sausage roll and a cup of hot tea before hopping back on the bus to London.
This afternoon we would be making our way to Michelle and Ed’s house – we were looking forward to catching up with Shell, having a place to chill out and enjoy some home life for a couple of days. We arrived in Epsom to a big cuddle from Shelly (which was so long over due, we love cuddles) and made our way to casa di Shelly and Ed. We were greeted by Shelly and Ed’s loveable and energetic pooch, Leia. Cutest dog ever – in the end we deduced she was really a lesbian, as she tried to make out with Totti and I several times over the course of the weekend. We had a great time relaxing on the couch with big mugs of tea and sharing our stories from the last few months. We also enjoyed what we liked to call “family time” – over the course of the weekend we sat down to watch the U.K version of the X-Factor and enjoyed laughing at all the members of the general public who’s poor parents had lied to them and told them that they could actually sing. It had been a huge day, so we were well pooped and were grateful for the huge, squishy blow up bed waiting for us in our room. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Day 121:
Today was going to be an exciting day. With a sleep in under our belts, and vegemite on toast in our bellies, we prepared ourselves for the Chelsea vs Westham match. We made our way into London at around 11.30ish and met up with Shelly and Ed’s friend Simon (who would be our escort to the match, as Shelly and Ed were going to go and watch another match). We stopped at a pub for a pre match bevvy and then went our separate ways once back on the tube – “Take care of our little Hobbits, Simon”. And so we were off. It turned out We managed to score seats right in the Chelsea stand. Chelsea were the away team, so they had been dedicated one section of the stadium. What a great day – the most entertaining part of the match wasn’t even the players or the goals – it was the constant flow of abusive chanting the Chelsea fans were singing to the Westham supporters. One particularly amusing moment was when a small boy whom had an uncanny resemblance to Harry Potter tried his luck at yelling something to the Chelsea supporters. Bad move mate – all of a sudden the entire stand erupted into song, all pointing their fingers at this poor Westham fan “There’s only one Harry Potter, there’s only one Harry Potter” – poor bugger. He remained quiet for the remainder of the match :p His mother was definitely one to remember – at one point she decided to pipe up and yell things like “come on, ya wankers, lets see what ya got” (in her finest English Bogan voice) bad move. Again, in unison, the crowd erupted “does she take it up the bum? Does she take it up the bum”. Oh dear. Other such crowd favourites included “The wheels on the house go ‘round and ‘round”, “Chelsea Champions” and “Acton Park take your shoes off, Acton park take your shoes off”. In the end Chelsea beat Westham 3-1.
On the way out of the stadium the police had barricaded angry soccer hooligans from starting a riot, so once we’d made it back to the main road, we met up with Simon and his buddies and went to find a pub. By this stage they were well drunk, and consequently even hungrier. So instead of going to meet up with Shelly and Ed, we ended up at some Indian restaurant where we were entertained for the next three hours by Simon and his friends taking the piss out of each other, and the restaurant staff. With the typical dry English humour and the right amount of political incorrectness, they had us in hysterics for the duration of the dinner.
The poor cab driver copped it on the way back into London. Simon “To Waterloo station, please”...Simon’s friend who was also called Simon ”what do you want to go there for, you idiot. To Victoria Station, please sir”..Simon ”yeah, you’re right, Victoria Station”. Cab Driver “ok, Victoria it is” Simon “what the bloody hell do you want to go there for! Straight to Waterloo”....Simon’s Friend ”Oh for fuck sake Simon, we’re going to Victoria!!!” Simon “Ok, good idea”... LOL and so it went for the next half an hr. Poor cabbie. In the end, we did eventually make it home – one of the most random yet entertaining evenings on record!
Day 122:
Today we all slept in and enjoyed lounging around in the morning before heading into Shelly’s old home town of Dorking. We went into Simon’s pub (yes, the Simon from the night before) and enjoyed the most delicious roast lamb, followed by an equally yummy apple crumble. We had a really nice afternoon just sitting by the pub window in the sunshine in very good company :) On the way home we stocked up on some snacks, it was time for a movie night :)
Even though we had a really slack day, it was nice to just be able to relax and wind down before preparing for our last couple of jam packed days in London. We’d like to say another HUGE thankyou to Ed and Shelly for having us stay, we had an awesome time with you guys and Leia, and we love that you let us fart on your couch, and drink your tea. Much much love, and we can’t wait to see you soon! xxxxx
Day 123:
We’d said our goodbyes to Shelly and Ed the previous night – as they had to leave for work early the next morning, they left us to sleep in, and had gone by the time we woke up. We did intend to get an early start to the day, but that didn’t really happen. We ended up watching a movie and eating some two minute noodles before we even thought about walking out the door. Easing into the day, we call it :) So we finally left the warm and cosy house we had come to love, and caught our train back into London.
Tonight we decided to do the Jack the Ripper walking tour with Michael and Paulina – it was pretty cool to have the story told to us while going to all the places that the murders took place. Olden day London was definitely not a nice place to live! After the tour we went to a nice Thai restaurant and had a few laughs over the correct pronunciation of “fly lie” (fried rice). LOL. Overall a good night. Once back at our hostel we were keen to get some shut eye. We would like to thank the absolute imbecile who decided it would be a spectacular idea to get up at 1am in the morning and RE PACK HER ENTIRE SUITCASE, WITH ALL THE LIGHTS ON, MAKING AS MUCH NOISE AS POSSIBLE, SCRUNCHING PLASTIC BAGS, THEN STOPPING TO TAKE UNNECESSARILY LOUD GULPS OF WATER (as if she wasn’t already making enough noise). Totti and I just looked at each other from our bunk beds with gamma rays of hate shooting out of our eyes. We wanted that girl, whom ever she was, to die a slow and painful death. I sincerely wished Totti would let one rip, that it would linger in the air for an unpleasant amount of time, so that the girl would just GO AWAY. But we don’t think anything could have stopped her. This went on for an hour and a half before she FINALLY took her stupid face and left the room silent once more.
Day 124:
The next morning Paulina was shocked to find us looking so tired. We recounted the events of the previous night and thanked the stupid idiot girl for our lack of sleep. With that out of the way, we were looking forward to going on our tour of the London dungeon. It was so much fun! We recommend everyone go on it – they have actors dressed as all kinds of different characters such as Jack the Ripper, Sweeny Todd and so forth. They take you through what olden day London was like, how they executed people, what methods of torture were used. There are rides and mirror mazes and everything. Even though you know it’s not real, the atmosphere is really intense and there were a few moments where a little bit of wee may have come out. At one point Totti was so startled that I automatically followed her and we both ended up crashing headfirst into our reflections in the mirror maze. Yes, we screamed like little girls, thankyou :p The tour ended at the gallows, it was pretty cool, you all sit on a row of chairs that ascend to the hanging platform. There are nooses in front of each person, they keep you suspended there for a while and then all of a sudden the executioner pulls the lever and the seats all suddenly drop about 5 metres. The expressions on everyone’s face in the photos they take are hilarious. Definitely bang for your buck!
From there we went and rode on the London eye – spectacular 360 views of London while trying to photo bomb the people in the next pod definitely makes for a very productive afternoon indeed. After that we were feeling rather peckish and decided that we’d do something traditional, so we headed to the Mariott ( oooooo errrr) – it was time to have some high-tea. Yeah, not for 25 pounds a head it didn’t. Fail. We decided that we’d have our own version of High Tea, it consists of a cheese burger from Maccas and a Nutella and Banana/ Strawberry Crepe from the dude on the street. Take that, Mariott hotel!
Happy with our efforts for the day, we went back to Paulina’s to wait for Michael to come home from work. We did initially start watching Twilight, but fell asleep and woke up to the credits rolling. Fail. Totti then You-Tubed some of her favourite clips to keep us entertained for the remainder of the time we waited for Michael.
YAY – finally Michael had made it home; we had fun listening to the story he’d written as a child. Stupid dad and his stupid vegetables. 30 cents pocket money, what a rip off!!! LOL – funniest story ever. After that we went to a little Indian restaurant and enjoyed a nice quiet dinner before saying our final goodbye’s to Mike and Paulina. Thanks for a great couple of days guys, it was awesome to see you, and we can’t wait to have you home soon! Xxx
We have had a fabulous time in merry old England and we would like to thank all of those who helped make our time here so much fun. We can’t believe we are only two weeks from being home – we have come so far, but have so much left to do!! Next we conquer Japan – bring on Mt Fuji, Sumo fights, Sushi and all the rollercoasters!!!!
Say hi to your dad for us! Cheerio darlings, cheerio!
Love Kate & Ela xxxx
We woke up relatively early to get to the ferry in time for 8am departure. Ireland being Ireland, gloomy grey skies coupled with pissing rain waited for us outside, so naturally our emotions gave in to the weather and we agreed today was going to be a shit travel day.
So when we bought the ferry tickets – we chose London...we swear we did! Anyways, 4hrs later on the ferry we arrive at a port called Holyhead – we jump off the ferry and head towards the train station looking for the Euston, London train. Upon looking at the departure screen, we both noticed the unusual spelling of some of the destinations. For example....Euston, London was spelt Euston, Londain. We soon figured out that we were actually in Wales and what we were reading was Welsh! Fail. So we can say we went to Wales...yup, the town of Holyhead. Woo!
Another 4hrs on the train and a quick switch to the metro and we were in the big old smoke of London. We were greeted by smiley Steve (Redder’s housemate) and as we walked along Old Street...ding-a-ling ding-a-ling...the one and only Redman caught up to us on his push bike. Bless.
We made ourselves presentable and agreed we would explore Brick Lane for dinner as it was only a short stroll from Red’s house. Brick lane was definitely an experience. It is home to a predominantly Indian community and as a result of this, the entire street is lined with restaurants dedicated to delicious Indian food. Each of the restaurants had an Indian man standing out front, shouting to potential customers as they passed by. They all try and top each others’ offers – they guy who offered us a free bottle of wine, a beer for Red and a foot massage for Totti got our vote, so in we went.
2 glorious hours later and we rolled out of the restaurant with full tummies. The guy suspiciously forgot about his offer to give Totti a foot massage, but we were well satisfied none the less. So we made our way back to Red’s house and turned in for the night.
Day 117:
We decided we’d earned ourselves a sleep in; so as we each opened one bleary eye and took a tentative peek out the window, we were greeted by blue skies – success! Just as a side note – the loo had been having some issues flushing. As I returned to our room, Totti was eagerly awaiting her turn to use the bathroom. I say eagerly because I returned to the nice lingering stench she kindly leaves hanging around. With a flare of her nostrils she looked at me and grinned. I told her to reconsider her choice of deposit in the loo, as the flush wasn’t working. The look on her face may have suggested that Christmas had been cancelled. No poo = no joy. Lol. I had to learn the hard way and had to beg Totti to re-attempt to flush my nugs down! Stupid toilet.
We headed into central London in search of the much talked about Top Shop in the hope to shop up a storm. Well we found it....please don’t hate us, but we didn’t think it was that great. But still, we went there :p After that we wondered up and down Oxford street for a while and came across a ticket vendor. 400 pounds later and we walked out with tickets to the Chelsea vs Westham game and tickets to see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of The Opera, called Love Never Dies. It was going to be a busy week!
Once we were all shopped out, we decided to take advantage of the bus tours once again. So we jumped on and explored London on big red open roof bus. We were happy as we received free ponchos on entry – for any unexpected rainfall. Because rain was so rare in England. A thankyou! Once we’d seen all the must see’s, we hopped off right in front of Hamely’s Toy Store – the oldest toy shop in the world. We felt rather special, as the doorman (who was dressed as a pirate, yes, a pirate) told us that Jude Law himself had been in there about an hour ago, purchasing a chess set.
After out action packed day, it was time to reunite with Michael and Paulina in Soho for dinner and drinks. It was nice to see them again, the new Mr & Mrs Walker looking happier than ever. We had a good night just catching up and enjoying a couple of drinks together. Before we knew it, it had gotten pretty late, so we said see you soon (as we’d see Paulina the following day and Michael again at the theatre) and headed home for some shut eye :)
Day 118:
Today it was time to visit the home of Anna Scott and William Thacker – yes, if you’ve seen Notting Hill then you know who we’re talking about :p We headed to Portobello Road with Paulina to visit the famous Portobello Markets. Ooooooo eerrrrrrr, shwanky. It was clearly an upper class area of London, very nice indeed. We had a great day strolling up and down the street, in and out of the shops – so many interesting little places, some of which we forced ourselves to leave, as we would have spent all our money in them. A successful shopping day all round though, we all left with something, yay for new stuff!
Shopping is rather tiresome, and it definitely works up an appetite, so we stopped in a little cafe and ordered a late lunch – Paulina and I got burgers and Totti decided to go traditional, and got bangers and mash. After lunch we headed back onto Oxford street and decided to do a little more shopping – we couldn’t possibly go to the theatre the next night without something new to wear. We realised that we only had two hours left before we had to be at the Ricky Gervais show, eep! So we said a quick goodbye to Paulina, rushed home, didn’t even have time to shower (gross, we know) did a quick hair and makeup job and were back out the door and into a cab towards the Appolo theatre in Hammersmith. Perhaps not the best day to select riding in the traditional Black Cab – it cost us 30 pounds as Hammersmith is a little far from central London. Travel fail! But never mind – it was worth it and it was a pretty nice drive.
Once inside we realised we were starving – surprise! We quickly located a hotdog vendor and before we knew it, were happily wolfing down two delicious, but over priced theatre hot dogs and went in search for Red and his lady friend. Bless their little cotton socks – they had two glasses of wine waiting for us :) We went to locate our seats and got ready to laugh. And laugh we did – the support act was pretty funny, he covered the usual topics such as masturbation and farts/poo. Everyone loves a good fart/poo joke. Well we do anyway – as soon as he ripped the first one out (a thankyou, see what we did there) we just turned to each other and absolutely LOST it. Apparently everyone missed the memo – for all our fellow boggers, you know why we’d find this funny – I pretty much have a portable symphony orchestra travelling with me lol.
Then on came Ricky – he was well worth the wait. His show was titled ‘Science’....it turned out it had nothing at all to do with science...haha. Basically he just talked about Noah’s Ark, and fat people the whole time. We did enjoy a good fat joke – Totti could hardly breathe, bent double with laughter, when he said that fat people used their rolls as shelves to hold their beverages, and high heels to retrieve packaged cakes from the frozen section fridge in the supermarket, because their stomachs obstructed their reach too much. A solid two hours of laughs. Money very well spent – thanks Red!
After the show we headed to a pub nearby for some drinks. A fellow Greek Island Hopper came to join us – Andee!! It was so good to see her again! After the pub we all headed closer into town to find somewhere to dance. We stopped at a club that looked like it was filled with 15 year olds – mostly because we needed to pee! We made a quick exit – which sucked, as they were playing really good music, but didn’t feel much like being back at our highschool social, so we left to find somewhere “older”. We ended up at some random place that wasn’t too busy which was nice. They played a few good tunes, which gave us the chance to showcase our awesome dance skills again :p But we soon got bored, and tired, and decided to leave Red and his Lady to boogie down some more.
A big shout out to Andee for coming to hang out with us xxx
Day 119:
Today we decided it was time to go and see how good Queeny really does have it; destination, Buckingham Palace. We met up with our Shamrocker buddies Jo & Clare, and prepared to take the grand tour of the State Rooms, which are open to the public during the summer months, as her royal highness is off at her other palace, for her vacation. Oooo errr.
At the entrance, we all immediately fell silent – it was the type of quiet that silences you before you set foot in a library, now on our best Palace touring behaviour, in we went. Call it opulent, extravagant, lavish, vast, spacious, any word, really, is an understatement; this place is truly amazing. We almost felt bad for treading on the same red carpet that the Queen probably drifts around on in her royal socks while wearing our converse smattered in mud and sub way soot. We saw the Throne Room, the Board Room, the Dining Room, the Room made for just sitting in when you have guests Room, the Room that has a table given as a gift by Napoleon Room, the Room overlooking the private gardens Room, the Room with paintings of all the Kings and Queens Room....you get the idea, many Rooms. Ok, we’ll stop saying Room.
The tour ended in the private garden – a pretty awesome backyard if you ask us; lots of room (ha, room) on the soft green grass for activities. Totti and I immediately identified it as the ideal place for some good grass to roll around on and some serious soccer playing. We couldn’t leave without a) doing an action shot off the palace steps b) dining in the garden cafe, but most importantly, C. What is ‘C’ you ask? Well by this stage, all sense of propriety and good behaviour went out the window – we had, after all, just gone two hrs of being super good...and quiet! It was time to unleash our usual selves back into the world. I pulled Totti aside, and pointed out the very serious business that if she did not, in fact, drop it like it’s hot, INSIDE Buckingham Palace, that it would be like sacrilege. I also informed her that it would be her greatest, most monumental fart achievement to date, if she were to leave a little sample of her airborne poo particles within the walls of the Queens house. I don’t think I have ever seen someone accept a mission so resolutely. So in true Totti fashion, with a wiggle and a jiggle of the belly region ( because according to fart-ologists such as herself “you know, it helps to get things moving”) she turned on her heel and marched back into the Palace. I waited with baited breath....wondering which poor soul would catch the first whiff of triumph. She emerged from the Palace doors with fists raised and a very satisfied smile indeed. “How was it?” I asked, returning the smile and beginning to laugh. With a giggle I was promptly informed that “it was good.....except I think someone heard”. Mission accomplished!
So with A and C complete, it was time for B – tea and scones. We all sat together, and had what is probably one of the most entertaining conversations of our entire trip, and it is one we will remember for a very long time. What do you talk about, over tea, scones and strawberries while sitting in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, you ask? Well, we’ll tell you. You wonder out loud what items the Queen has in her handbag. Clare wisely suspected that she carries a pair of glasses that look like fake open eyes, like the kind that Homer Simpson uses while he’s on Jury Duty – “well, if I were the Queen, I know I’d carry some” – the first of MANY belly laughs to come. We were interrupted by a killer bee who had taken a liking to our table, so after much girly screaming and frantic arm flapping, we captured it under a plastic cup and proceeded to tap the glass in a very mature and adult fashion, just to see what the bee would do. Then we would all scream as it buzzed angrily at us from the inside of the cup. Mature. After that minor interruption, we also wondered where Queeny’s bedroom was, as we would very much like to jump on her bed. We wondered if she owned any sneakers, if she wears socks around the house and drifts around her polished floors, if she cooks for herself, if she farts underneath her big Queeny robe. We wondered what kind of music she listens to on her i-pod, it’s totally Snoop Dog! We also exchanged fart stories from the Shamrocker tour, Clare, your “It was me” confession was friggan priceless, we are still laughing about it!!! By this stage we were in absolute hysterics – when Jo pulled out her ‘fart in the office’ story. Oh lord, we laugh cried. Bless you guys, funniest tea time EVER!!!!
It seemed we had attracted a lot of attention to ourselves – we don’t think that the words “fart” and “poo” had ever been so much as whispered within the walls of Buckingham Palace. Well, we had certainly changed that for the better. And now I can say that my mate let one rip at the Queens house. Gold.
We went into the gift store and bought some royal, commercialised merchandise and waited for the torrential downpour to end. With only a light drizzle left outside, we busted out our free ponchos (thankyou, big bus co.) and strolled very fashionably outside looking like two oversize bin liners. We ended up at a little pub and ordered a jug of Pimms and Lemonade and some lunch; homemade meat pies and a couple of serves of roast – yumo! We spent the afternoon reminiscing about our Royal Conversation - such a great day. Sadly we said goodbye to the girls and headed home to shower and get ready to go and see Love Never Dies
The show was pretty amazing – the set and costume designs were outstanding and we could not have acted out the play better ourselves. Definitely an experience, so a big shout out to Mummy Walker for the suggestion – seriously good stuff :)
Day 120:
Today it was time to go and see “the stones, you know the ones that stand in a circle, and have other stones lying flat on top of them. They don’t know how they got there, which is why they’re so cool” – A very astute description there by Ela. So with Stonehenge on the To Do list for the day, we hopped on our tour bus and set off. Our driver was a rather entertaining character – a kindly Indian man whom had even more descriptive prowess than I did while describing Stonehenge. “Ah, yiiuuu see, I don’t actualeee kno much aboot de Stones....I just leesten to de audio guide. Yes.” What was even more amusing than this, was when he told us to keep an eye out for some ancient burial mounds. “If you look over dere to de right you wheel see some....but there are more on de left dere.....oohh yiiiss, but look on de right. But dere are more on de left” You get the idea. We just looked at eachother and burst out laughing!!! So all in all these stones are aptly located at a place called Stonehenge. They are in actual fact, really cool, and the mysterious history surrounding them is really interesting, so we enjoyed our time attempting to look intelligent and pensive while surveying these mammoth stones in the blustery wind. Once we’d finished looking at the stones we headed back to the little gift shop and bought a poster each, then enjoyed a sausage roll and a cup of hot tea before hopping back on the bus to London.
This afternoon we would be making our way to Michelle and Ed’s house – we were looking forward to catching up with Shell, having a place to chill out and enjoy some home life for a couple of days. We arrived in Epsom to a big cuddle from Shelly (which was so long over due, we love cuddles) and made our way to casa di Shelly and Ed. We were greeted by Shelly and Ed’s loveable and energetic pooch, Leia. Cutest dog ever – in the end we deduced she was really a lesbian, as she tried to make out with Totti and I several times over the course of the weekend. We had a great time relaxing on the couch with big mugs of tea and sharing our stories from the last few months. We also enjoyed what we liked to call “family time” – over the course of the weekend we sat down to watch the U.K version of the X-Factor and enjoyed laughing at all the members of the general public who’s poor parents had lied to them and told them that they could actually sing. It had been a huge day, so we were well pooped and were grateful for the huge, squishy blow up bed waiting for us in our room. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Day 121:
Today was going to be an exciting day. With a sleep in under our belts, and vegemite on toast in our bellies, we prepared ourselves for the Chelsea vs Westham match. We made our way into London at around 11.30ish and met up with Shelly and Ed’s friend Simon (who would be our escort to the match, as Shelly and Ed were going to go and watch another match). We stopped at a pub for a pre match bevvy and then went our separate ways once back on the tube – “Take care of our little Hobbits, Simon”. And so we were off. It turned out We managed to score seats right in the Chelsea stand. Chelsea were the away team, so they had been dedicated one section of the stadium. What a great day – the most entertaining part of the match wasn’t even the players or the goals – it was the constant flow of abusive chanting the Chelsea fans were singing to the Westham supporters. One particularly amusing moment was when a small boy whom had an uncanny resemblance to Harry Potter tried his luck at yelling something to the Chelsea supporters. Bad move mate – all of a sudden the entire stand erupted into song, all pointing their fingers at this poor Westham fan “There’s only one Harry Potter, there’s only one Harry Potter” – poor bugger. He remained quiet for the remainder of the match :p His mother was definitely one to remember – at one point she decided to pipe up and yell things like “come on, ya wankers, lets see what ya got” (in her finest English Bogan voice) bad move. Again, in unison, the crowd erupted “does she take it up the bum? Does she take it up the bum”. Oh dear. Other such crowd favourites included “The wheels on the house go ‘round and ‘round”, “Chelsea Champions” and “Acton Park take your shoes off, Acton park take your shoes off”. In the end Chelsea beat Westham 3-1.
On the way out of the stadium the police had barricaded angry soccer hooligans from starting a riot, so once we’d made it back to the main road, we met up with Simon and his buddies and went to find a pub. By this stage they were well drunk, and consequently even hungrier. So instead of going to meet up with Shelly and Ed, we ended up at some Indian restaurant where we were entertained for the next three hours by Simon and his friends taking the piss out of each other, and the restaurant staff. With the typical dry English humour and the right amount of political incorrectness, they had us in hysterics for the duration of the dinner.
The poor cab driver copped it on the way back into London. Simon “To Waterloo station, please”...Simon’s friend who was also called Simon ”what do you want to go there for, you idiot. To Victoria Station, please sir”..Simon ”yeah, you’re right, Victoria Station”. Cab Driver “ok, Victoria it is” Simon “what the bloody hell do you want to go there for! Straight to Waterloo”....Simon’s Friend ”Oh for fuck sake Simon, we’re going to Victoria!!!” Simon “Ok, good idea”... LOL and so it went for the next half an hr. Poor cabbie. In the end, we did eventually make it home – one of the most random yet entertaining evenings on record!
Day 122:
Today we all slept in and enjoyed lounging around in the morning before heading into Shelly’s old home town of Dorking. We went into Simon’s pub (yes, the Simon from the night before) and enjoyed the most delicious roast lamb, followed by an equally yummy apple crumble. We had a really nice afternoon just sitting by the pub window in the sunshine in very good company :) On the way home we stocked up on some snacks, it was time for a movie night :)
Even though we had a really slack day, it was nice to just be able to relax and wind down before preparing for our last couple of jam packed days in London. We’d like to say another HUGE thankyou to Ed and Shelly for having us stay, we had an awesome time with you guys and Leia, and we love that you let us fart on your couch, and drink your tea. Much much love, and we can’t wait to see you soon! xxxxx
Day 123:
We’d said our goodbyes to Shelly and Ed the previous night – as they had to leave for work early the next morning, they left us to sleep in, and had gone by the time we woke up. We did intend to get an early start to the day, but that didn’t really happen. We ended up watching a movie and eating some two minute noodles before we even thought about walking out the door. Easing into the day, we call it :) So we finally left the warm and cosy house we had come to love, and caught our train back into London.
Tonight we decided to do the Jack the Ripper walking tour with Michael and Paulina – it was pretty cool to have the story told to us while going to all the places that the murders took place. Olden day London was definitely not a nice place to live! After the tour we went to a nice Thai restaurant and had a few laughs over the correct pronunciation of “fly lie” (fried rice). LOL. Overall a good night. Once back at our hostel we were keen to get some shut eye. We would like to thank the absolute imbecile who decided it would be a spectacular idea to get up at 1am in the morning and RE PACK HER ENTIRE SUITCASE, WITH ALL THE LIGHTS ON, MAKING AS MUCH NOISE AS POSSIBLE, SCRUNCHING PLASTIC BAGS, THEN STOPPING TO TAKE UNNECESSARILY LOUD GULPS OF WATER (as if she wasn’t already making enough noise). Totti and I just looked at each other from our bunk beds with gamma rays of hate shooting out of our eyes. We wanted that girl, whom ever she was, to die a slow and painful death. I sincerely wished Totti would let one rip, that it would linger in the air for an unpleasant amount of time, so that the girl would just GO AWAY. But we don’t think anything could have stopped her. This went on for an hour and a half before she FINALLY took her stupid face and left the room silent once more.
Day 124:
The next morning Paulina was shocked to find us looking so tired. We recounted the events of the previous night and thanked the stupid idiot girl for our lack of sleep. With that out of the way, we were looking forward to going on our tour of the London dungeon. It was so much fun! We recommend everyone go on it – they have actors dressed as all kinds of different characters such as Jack the Ripper, Sweeny Todd and so forth. They take you through what olden day London was like, how they executed people, what methods of torture were used. There are rides and mirror mazes and everything. Even though you know it’s not real, the atmosphere is really intense and there were a few moments where a little bit of wee may have come out. At one point Totti was so startled that I automatically followed her and we both ended up crashing headfirst into our reflections in the mirror maze. Yes, we screamed like little girls, thankyou :p The tour ended at the gallows, it was pretty cool, you all sit on a row of chairs that ascend to the hanging platform. There are nooses in front of each person, they keep you suspended there for a while and then all of a sudden the executioner pulls the lever and the seats all suddenly drop about 5 metres. The expressions on everyone’s face in the photos they take are hilarious. Definitely bang for your buck!
From there we went and rode on the London eye – spectacular 360 views of London while trying to photo bomb the people in the next pod definitely makes for a very productive afternoon indeed. After that we were feeling rather peckish and decided that we’d do something traditional, so we headed to the Mariott ( oooooo errrr) – it was time to have some high-tea. Yeah, not for 25 pounds a head it didn’t. Fail. We decided that we’d have our own version of High Tea, it consists of a cheese burger from Maccas and a Nutella and Banana/ Strawberry Crepe from the dude on the street. Take that, Mariott hotel!
Happy with our efforts for the day, we went back to Paulina’s to wait for Michael to come home from work. We did initially start watching Twilight, but fell asleep and woke up to the credits rolling. Fail. Totti then You-Tubed some of her favourite clips to keep us entertained for the remainder of the time we waited for Michael.
YAY – finally Michael had made it home; we had fun listening to the story he’d written as a child. Stupid dad and his stupid vegetables. 30 cents pocket money, what a rip off!!! LOL – funniest story ever. After that we went to a little Indian restaurant and enjoyed a nice quiet dinner before saying our final goodbye’s to Mike and Paulina. Thanks for a great couple of days guys, it was awesome to see you, and we can’t wait to have you home soon! Xxx
We have had a fabulous time in merry old England and we would like to thank all of those who helped make our time here so much fun. We can’t believe we are only two weeks from being home – we have come so far, but have so much left to do!! Next we conquer Japan – bring on Mt Fuji, Sumo fights, Sushi and all the rollercoasters!!!!
Say hi to your dad for us! Cheerio darlings, cheerio!
Love Kate & Ela xxxx
Monday, September 6, 2010
Leprachauns, Shamrocks and Potatoes! Feckin' great craic!
Day 107: Ireland via Munich
Our last bus about leg from Lauterbrunnen to Munich via Lucerne – quite sad really. Bus About has been great to us – awesome road crew and we’ve met some really awesome people. Tear.
It was a miserable day when we left Switzerland so we didn’t feel like we were missing out on much considering the down pour that followed us all the way to Germany.
We stopped briefly in Lucerne – only one hour from Lauterbrunnen. Our bus driver Paul (a kiwi) had gotten us really excited about these sausage rolls which he usually gets when he stops in Lucerne. We hurried off the bus and eagerly followed him down the street – Totti has been craving a sausage rolls for ages and always says the first thing she is going to eat when she gets back is a sausage roll and meat pie from the Erindale Bakery! Anyways, back to Lucerne and the sausage rolls. We enter the bakery and try to spot the SR (yes, we’ve abbreviated sausage rolls)...no deal. Totti asks the lady “Can we please have 2 sausage rolls? Danke...”......”Ah....ve have no tuday. Only ve has de rolls on Monday to Vriday.” FML. We were starving too. FML FML FML. Totti’s enthusiasm for the day died instantly – no more happy Totti. We were determined to find some sort of food on this cold, wet day. We finally found another bakery and got ourselves a ham like roll and a vego pastry thing which the sweet lady heated up for us. Needless to say we were not happy with Paul when we got back.
We drove for a few more hours and finally hit a little town called Neuschwanstein. This town is famous for its fairytale like design. A huge castle looks over the town – we are told that the Disney castle was based upon this castle. Nice. Well it was still raining so we had a quick stop and a opportunity to photograph the castle before stopping for lunch.
We arrived in Munich at about 6pm and settled ourselves into the hostel. We decided to go for a little wander to see what Munich had to offer. What did we find, you ask? Mmmm....lots of drunk people, lots of Lauderhosen (leather pants), lots of traditional german clothes and plenty of beer gardens and halls. We amused ourselves by going into the traditional german clothes shops and laughing at their outfits – Totti really wanted to buy one but they don’t come cheap...200 euro for a dress. Pass.
We got some pizza and walked back to our hostel where we agreed that the best way to give this city a fair chance would be to do the walking tour in the morning.
Day 108:
We got up reasonably early, showered and checked out of the Wombats. The free tour ran from the hostel daily from 11am so we sat around and waited with other like minded tourists.
Our tour guide was a black man named Aussie – he was full of knowledge and history about Munich and provided us with what we think was the best tour we have done so far. What we got out of it? Well....the world’s history could have changed completely had Hitler not been informed of a meeting between a party of Bavarian officials to discuss Bavaria’s separation from Germany. It probably doesn’t make sense however....Munich is the capital of the Bavarian country which is where the Nazi movement began. Anyways....if ever in Munich, definitely take this tour. It was well worth it.
The tour went for 3hrs and we finished with lunch and beer in the Hofbrauhaus – a traditional beer hall. We shared a mixed plate of all different kind of sausages...delicious. We also tried a regular Vice beer (a local Munich beer) which was really quite nice. Not bitter at all yet it was 8% alcohol. The Bavarians drink this beer for breakfast so it tends to be lighter than the other beers.
We made our way back to the hostel at about 4pm, got our luggage and jumped on the train to the airport...destination: Dublin, Ireland.
God bless Aer Lingus, we say! We waited with baited breath as the lady at the check in counter weighed our luggage - our 2 backpacks weighing in at about 20kg each, PLUS our suitcase which is now weighing in at 17kg. We got away with checking in all our luggage and paid ZERO in excess baggage fees. Yeyah! Off to a great first impression Ireland.
We arrived in Dublin at 11pm and went straight to bed.
Day 109: Dublin to Killarney
Day 1 of our 7 day All Ireland Shamrocker tour. We met our guide, Murf – hilarious and probably the best example of a typical Irish stereotype. Cheeky, wicked funny, drinks Guinness for breakfast lunch and tea and an all round nice guy. Again our tour was pretty much all Aussie apart from two American guys and a girl from Switzerland.
Our bus driver, Brenda is apparently the “most rootinest, tootinest bus driver in all of Ireland”, and so with everyone on the bus we headed for Kilarney. Murf introduced us to some local Irish lingo; Feck (polite version of the obvious), Gobsheit (an idiot/wanker) andCraic – generally you ask someone “What’s the Craic?”, which is like, what’s happening? What’s news? It is also a way to rate a night out, or a special occasion. You would respond with one of the following: Good Craic, Grand Craic, Mighty Craic and Lethal Craic depending on how good it was.
We passed the River Liffey on the way to Cashel. We stopped at a supermarket at stocked up on some lunch treats before heading to the amazing Mitchelstown Caves. The caves were quite impressive – they said that they believe the caves are pre-ice age. We saw some cool rock formations and the biggest column (when the stalagmites and stalactites meet) in Europe.
We drove past the army barracks, not entirely interesting, except we were told that the war scene in Braveheart where all the soldiers moon the British was filmed there, which is cool. Apparently Scotland doesn’t look like Scotland on film. LOL.
We then headed through the Golden Vale to Blarney in the rebel county of Cork and then continued through to Kilarney where we stayed the night. On the way we stopped at the Blarney Castle where the famous Blarney stone is. There’s a whole history there, but basically it has become famous because it supposedly gives you the gift of the gab. So now it is a popular tourist attraction where you get lowered backwards and you have to kiss the stone. Very famous people such as Winston Churchill have kissed the stone, and more modern celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have given it a good smooch. Yay, we made out with Brad Pitt! And probably contracted some foul strand of lip herpes from the other hundreds of mouths who have pashed the stone. Yummy. From there it was back on the bus and onto Kilarney.
A quick shower and it was time to explore the Kilarney nightlife. It’s a small little town with about 5 pubs. Tonight we were going to watch some Tea Theatre performed by Pa. Lots of Irish poems and songs and then the main story was of a man whose pub was closing down and he was reminiscing about all the people that use to drink there. Pa was a very interesting character – we have never seen anyone drink like this man. He literally hoovered through at least 6 pints of Guinness and 2 shots of Jameson’s whiskey in the space of his performance, which lasted a grand total of one hour. Instead of taking an occasional sip, it was as if he just sucked the drink down in one huge breathless gulp. He would then casually sip the remaining dregs. He gave skulling a whole new meaning. Any ordinary person would have been in hospital getting their stomach pumped. This guy was still standing upright.
We all headed back to the hostel reflecting on Pa’s drinking abilities, and called it a night.
Day 110: Killarney to Ennis
Ireland has an amazing landscape; it’s rugged and fierce, cliffs, sea, rock formations everywhere. But it is also very beautiful and green, with lots of old elm trees and oak trees, rolling hills and pastures, castle ruins etc. You get the picture – but it is absolutely stunning and it is very well worth a visit. And so today was all about breathtaking scenery and adventure. We spent the day exploring the dramatic Dingle Peninsula. We walked to the top of the most West Point in Ireland – where in true Shamrocker tradition, all the boys took their tops off and we all took photos. Our guide, Murf, entertained us with a story about the sleeping giant – a huge rock formation in the middle of the sea that looks like...you guess it, a sleeping giant (go figure!).
We stopped in Dingle for lunch where we had a home style cooked meal in the local pub, and then tried some of the famous dingle ice cream. They had this flavour called “brown bread”, which literally had brown bread in it. We cringed at the initial thought, but it ended up tasting really good! On the way to the bus, with ice cream in hand, we were happily admiring the colourful buildings when a little dog ran out into the traffic and caused all the cars to beep loudly and slam on their breaks. The thing was going nuts and had no idea which direction to turn. Of course, being dog lovers, Totti and I were scared for the poor bugger. I guess you had to be there for this to be funny, but all of a sudden Totti starts yelling at the top of her lungs “OI OH MY GOD, ITS A DOG, ITS A DOG, ITS A DOG!!! AARRRGGGHHH”, actually, that’s probably what she tried to say – what came out was just a long winded, incoherent yelling sound with lots of frantic hand gestures. I absolutely wet myself laughing, and informed her that yelling frantically and waving her arms in the air was definitely a very gallant rescue method and would without a doubt successfully stop the dog from being run over. Then we both laughed, the yelling seemed to attract the attention of the entire street :p We then caught the ferry over the mighty Shannon river to County Clare and spent the night in Ennis.
Day 111: Ennis to Galway
Today we visited the awesome Cliffs of Moher – very impressive but very windy. Now that we both have a wild mane of hair, we spent most of the time admiring the cliffs through our fringes. After lunch we explored the weird and magical world of the Burren – Ireland’s lunar landscape and home to ancient tombs, fairies and leprechauns! We visited what is known as a Fairy Ring; legend has it that when Oak trees form in a perfect circle it means that Fairies reside there. You are only allowed to walk clockwise around the Fairy Ring, you aren’t allowed to swear there and you aren’t allowed to enter the centre of the ring. You are also meant to make a wish, then thank the Fairies in the Gaelic language once you exit the ring. If you break any of these rules, your wish will not be granted and the Fairies will get their revenge by making something bad happen to you. Murf was not a superstitious bloke, but he said that he had some stupid Gobsheit’s on his previous tours who decided to break the rules and their bus broke down. We all obliged the Fairies that day, and thankfully nothing bad happened. We are still waiting for our wishes to come true though :p
We arrived in Galway mid afternoon and went off to explore Shop Street. Galway is Ireland’s cultural capital and festival city. We had a chilled out night, cooked ourselves dinner at the hostel and just relaxed, as the next night we would all go out as a group and enjoy the nightlife.
Day 112: Inis Mór (Aran Islands)
Today we caught the ferry over to Inis Mor. We hired bikes and rode around – pretty much the most exciting part of the ride was when we had to stop because my bike chain broke and I had to fix it, leaving me with blackened, greasy hands for the rest of the day. We stopped at the “seal colony” mind you, one single seal frolicking in the sea is hardly a fecking colony. Fail! We then stopped along side some random paddocks and patted some random Donkeys. We were very much amused when the Donkeys responded to us calling “Hey Donkey” original, we know! We were sick of riding so we decided to return our bikes to the hire place and then went into a little shop to have a look around. We still had a couple of hours to kill before the ferry headed back to the mainland. Everyone on our tour was singing this song “Lisdonvarna” of which we all only knew the chorus “oooohhh, Lisdonnvarna, a Lisdon Lisdon Lisdon Varna”. Totti busted out into song just as we were on our wait out the door and the shopkeeper cursed her, as he would now have that “flamin’ song stoock in me head for the rest of the deeyyy!”. He convinced us to stay and have a cup of tea with him and it turned out that we whiled away the afternoon in his little souvenir shop listening to his stories about his travels. He had some interesting stories, it turned out his ex wife was an Italian woman, and he told us a story of when he was out to dinner with the family one night. He said a waitress approached him to ask him if he’d like some wine, and he thought he would try to impress mum and dad by showing off his Italian skills. So when the waitress asked him if he’d like some wine, he confidently responded “Un Bocchina” – now, he had intended to say “Poccino” which means “a little bit” but unfortunately for him, and much to the horror of the entire restaurant, he had in fact responded with “Bocchina”, which means “blow job” in Italian. Well.... The mother basically died. The father bought him a shot of Grappa. Bless. Too funny. We then went on you tube and watched the clip to Lisdonvarna, because he couldn’t get it out of his head. An afternoon well spent!
Once back on the main land, Merf ordered the group 20 pizzas before we all got ready to go out. We went to this pub called The Quays and Totti and I found ourselves a spot behind the band. A lovely group of middle aged Irish men adopted us, and we offered our back up dancer skills to them. We were band groupies, much to the amusement of our fellow Shamrockers – we put on quite a dance show featuring a dance routine we have spent this entire vacation putting together. It’s pretty impressive! After The Quays, we went to this bar/club called Coyotes. It had a mechanical bull and a small stage and played all the current top 40 songs, as well as the classic 90’s pop. We continued to put on our dance performance, we did the running man, ghosted some people and started a game of limbo; we were the limbo bar, we held our arms out and let everyone pass underneath. Initially we were just taking the piss out of everyone, but then people just started doing the limbo, good times! We couldn’t pass up a go on the mechanical bull – definitely one of the funniest things we have done. The video footage is priceless, we’re sure you’ll enjoy it once we show you :)
So overall it was a really great night out and we were looking forward to dominating our next group dance session :)
Day 113: Galway to Derry
As we moved up into Northern Ireland, it was time to prepare ourselves for some of the country’s more sombre historic moments. We were about to enter the city where the Bloody Sunday murders happened. Merf briefed us on the bus ride into Derry; he gave us a background and a really great insight into the history surrounding the issue. Without going into too much detail, there was a lot more to it than just Catholic v Protestant. Once we arrived in Derry we were given a walking tour by a local elderly man. He was one of the most lovely people we have had the pleasure of meeting throughout our travels and gave the most touching account of the Troubles I think we will ever hear. He had known people who died in the Bloody Sunday murders and had personally met the Reverend who held the white flag in the famous photographs of the Bloody Sunday shooting. He held the entire group’s attention from start to finish, you could tell he had lived through it and he cried while telling us the story. His attachment to all the victims that lost their lives and for the suffering of the families who were still mourning their losses was very overwhelming. It was only in June of this year that all the Bloody Sunday victims were proven innocent. He said that the people rejoiced – finally, the longest inquiry in history had been laid to rest.
We got to see all the famous murals and got to walk along the famous walls before heading back to the hostel for some dinner and early night.
Day 114: Derry to Belfast
First stop of today: the battlements of Dunluce Castle. It seemed that our good weather had finally come to an end, the clouds began to roll in and a bitter wind had picked up. We hoped that the rain would hold out, at least for a little while. Dunluce Castle was pretty cool – probably the most interesting thing that happened there was that the entire kitchen fell away into the sea one night when the occupants of the castle were holding a banquet in the great hall. By this stage it had started spitting so we all clambered back onto the bus to thaw out, and headed down the road to the eighth natural wonder of the world – The Giant’s Causeway. It’s a pretty impressive sight to see – basically when the lava cooled in the ocean, because it cooled down gradually, it formed these perfect hexagonal columns which extend out into the sea. It’s pretty cool, so we enjoyed the awesome view and climbed up and down the causeway for a while. By this stage it had started raining steadily, the hike back to the bus was not fun, and we were all soaked through to the bone and freezing. Our 3 euro umbrella from Madrid finally packed it in, and the dream was over!
We all stepped onto the bus looking like drowned rats and drove to our final destination before stopping in Belfast for the night - the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. This bridge extends about 25 metres and connects to a small island standing roughly 30m above sea level. The bridge use to be used by the fishermen – they used it to bring up nets of Salmon from the ocean. The most entertaining part of crossing the bridge was making it rock up and down, much to the distaste of most people, we however found it pretty amusing. Totti kangaroo hopped all the way across, and lined up immediately in the line to come back, so she could bound across for round 2. The rain had eased up, but it was still drizzling steadily – by this stage we were all more than happy to get out of the wind and the rain and head to the hostel for a nice hot shower!
Tonight we were gearing up to see what Belfast had to offer. We started off at a pub called The Crown – it had ornately carved wooden panelling in the ceiling and floors, it was a very cool place indeed. I decided to try my luck at steak and gunnies pie (YUMO!) and Totti inhaled a steak. From there we headed to a place called “Filthy McNasty’s” yes, it was really called that, so we had no choice but to go in, just because it was the coolest name for a pub, EVER! While we were out the front, the group was graced by the company of two lovely ladies at a hen’s night (we have no idea where the rest of them were) but these two were sporting lovely inflatable penises for an accessory. Needless to say it was absolutely hilarious, these two were as bogan as they come, and they were off their chops drunk. One of the girls on our tour borrowed the inflatable penis, strapped it on, and proceeded to “have a cock fight with a cock” A thankyou. Too funny!!! So after this lovely little encounter, we moved onto a place similar to say..... the bottom level of Uni Pub mixed in with King O’Malley’s. It was pretty cool, but we got bored fairly quickly as the music was average. The most entertaining thing about this place was that there were shots entitled “deep throats” and that Merf can do an Austin power’s dance to a tee. Hilarious! We moved on to a place called The Botanical – more commercial top 40 music, but the place was crawling with Gobsheit’s so we didn’t really stay long. Overall we thought we’d done well, the usual ghosting and dance routines we displayed and so we decided to call it a night :)
Day 115: Belfast to Dublin
This morning we took a Black Cab tour of Belfast city. We visited the Loyalist and Republican heartlands of the city where we learned more about the Troubles and the Peace Wall. We saw more political murals and explored the city in our taxi with a real Belfast local at the wheel. That only took a couple of hours, so after that we hung around at the hostel for a while, as it was cold and rainy again today. For lunch we returned to The Crown and enjoyed one last meal of Irish stew and another steak and Guinness pie. We left the politics behind and headed back towards to Dublin. En route we stopped off to see a ruined monastery with High Celtic Crosses; these things are massive and very impressive. The crosses depict the story of Jesus and are intricately carved. It was a relatively cruisey day and we arrived back in Dublin at about 4.30pm. We said goodbye to our Shamrocker buddies and went to suss out some dinner: fresh fish and chips, yes please! It was slightly ironic eating our dinner while watching the film Shark Tale...lol.. But none the less, it tasted delicious :p After dinner we decided to get one last taste of Irish culture, and went to see some Irish dancing. It was pretty impressive, and we have now decided to add this to our list of potential professions once we return home :p
After a nice hot shower, it was time to turn in for the night, as we would be catching an early ferry over to merry old England the next morning. Time for some tea and scones, innit!
A big shout out to the Shamrocker group, thanks for a great week. Ireland has been seriously Grand Craic and we had a blast!
Wishin’ you all top o the mornin’. Fiddley dee, potatoes!
Say hi to your dad for us,
Love Kate & Ela xxxx
Our last bus about leg from Lauterbrunnen to Munich via Lucerne – quite sad really. Bus About has been great to us – awesome road crew and we’ve met some really awesome people. Tear.
It was a miserable day when we left Switzerland so we didn’t feel like we were missing out on much considering the down pour that followed us all the way to Germany.
We stopped briefly in Lucerne – only one hour from Lauterbrunnen. Our bus driver Paul (a kiwi) had gotten us really excited about these sausage rolls which he usually gets when he stops in Lucerne. We hurried off the bus and eagerly followed him down the street – Totti has been craving a sausage rolls for ages and always says the first thing she is going to eat when she gets back is a sausage roll and meat pie from the Erindale Bakery! Anyways, back to Lucerne and the sausage rolls. We enter the bakery and try to spot the SR (yes, we’ve abbreviated sausage rolls)...no deal. Totti asks the lady “Can we please have 2 sausage rolls? Danke...”......”Ah....ve have no tuday. Only ve has de rolls on Monday to Vriday.” FML. We were starving too. FML FML FML. Totti’s enthusiasm for the day died instantly – no more happy Totti. We were determined to find some sort of food on this cold, wet day. We finally found another bakery and got ourselves a ham like roll and a vego pastry thing which the sweet lady heated up for us. Needless to say we were not happy with Paul when we got back.
We drove for a few more hours and finally hit a little town called Neuschwanstein. This town is famous for its fairytale like design. A huge castle looks over the town – we are told that the Disney castle was based upon this castle. Nice. Well it was still raining so we had a quick stop and a opportunity to photograph the castle before stopping for lunch.
We arrived in Munich at about 6pm and settled ourselves into the hostel. We decided to go for a little wander to see what Munich had to offer. What did we find, you ask? Mmmm....lots of drunk people, lots of Lauderhosen (leather pants), lots of traditional german clothes and plenty of beer gardens and halls. We amused ourselves by going into the traditional german clothes shops and laughing at their outfits – Totti really wanted to buy one but they don’t come cheap...200 euro for a dress. Pass.
We got some pizza and walked back to our hostel where we agreed that the best way to give this city a fair chance would be to do the walking tour in the morning.
Day 108:
We got up reasonably early, showered and checked out of the Wombats. The free tour ran from the hostel daily from 11am so we sat around and waited with other like minded tourists.
Our tour guide was a black man named Aussie – he was full of knowledge and history about Munich and provided us with what we think was the best tour we have done so far. What we got out of it? Well....the world’s history could have changed completely had Hitler not been informed of a meeting between a party of Bavarian officials to discuss Bavaria’s separation from Germany. It probably doesn’t make sense however....Munich is the capital of the Bavarian country which is where the Nazi movement began. Anyways....if ever in Munich, definitely take this tour. It was well worth it.
The tour went for 3hrs and we finished with lunch and beer in the Hofbrauhaus – a traditional beer hall. We shared a mixed plate of all different kind of sausages...delicious. We also tried a regular Vice beer (a local Munich beer) which was really quite nice. Not bitter at all yet it was 8% alcohol. The Bavarians drink this beer for breakfast so it tends to be lighter than the other beers.
We made our way back to the hostel at about 4pm, got our luggage and jumped on the train to the airport...destination: Dublin, Ireland.
God bless Aer Lingus, we say! We waited with baited breath as the lady at the check in counter weighed our luggage - our 2 backpacks weighing in at about 20kg each, PLUS our suitcase which is now weighing in at 17kg. We got away with checking in all our luggage and paid ZERO in excess baggage fees. Yeyah! Off to a great first impression Ireland.
We arrived in Dublin at 11pm and went straight to bed.
Day 109: Dublin to Killarney
Day 1 of our 7 day All Ireland Shamrocker tour. We met our guide, Murf – hilarious and probably the best example of a typical Irish stereotype. Cheeky, wicked funny, drinks Guinness for breakfast lunch and tea and an all round nice guy. Again our tour was pretty much all Aussie apart from two American guys and a girl from Switzerland.
Our bus driver, Brenda is apparently the “most rootinest, tootinest bus driver in all of Ireland”, and so with everyone on the bus we headed for Kilarney. Murf introduced us to some local Irish lingo; Feck (polite version of the obvious), Gobsheit (an idiot/wanker) andCraic – generally you ask someone “What’s the Craic?”, which is like, what’s happening? What’s news? It is also a way to rate a night out, or a special occasion. You would respond with one of the following: Good Craic, Grand Craic, Mighty Craic and Lethal Craic depending on how good it was.
We passed the River Liffey on the way to Cashel. We stopped at a supermarket at stocked up on some lunch treats before heading to the amazing Mitchelstown Caves. The caves were quite impressive – they said that they believe the caves are pre-ice age. We saw some cool rock formations and the biggest column (when the stalagmites and stalactites meet) in Europe.
We drove past the army barracks, not entirely interesting, except we were told that the war scene in Braveheart where all the soldiers moon the British was filmed there, which is cool. Apparently Scotland doesn’t look like Scotland on film. LOL.
We then headed through the Golden Vale to Blarney in the rebel county of Cork and then continued through to Kilarney where we stayed the night. On the way we stopped at the Blarney Castle where the famous Blarney stone is. There’s a whole history there, but basically it has become famous because it supposedly gives you the gift of the gab. So now it is a popular tourist attraction where you get lowered backwards and you have to kiss the stone. Very famous people such as Winston Churchill have kissed the stone, and more modern celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have given it a good smooch. Yay, we made out with Brad Pitt! And probably contracted some foul strand of lip herpes from the other hundreds of mouths who have pashed the stone. Yummy. From there it was back on the bus and onto Kilarney.
A quick shower and it was time to explore the Kilarney nightlife. It’s a small little town with about 5 pubs. Tonight we were going to watch some Tea Theatre performed by Pa. Lots of Irish poems and songs and then the main story was of a man whose pub was closing down and he was reminiscing about all the people that use to drink there. Pa was a very interesting character – we have never seen anyone drink like this man. He literally hoovered through at least 6 pints of Guinness and 2 shots of Jameson’s whiskey in the space of his performance, which lasted a grand total of one hour. Instead of taking an occasional sip, it was as if he just sucked the drink down in one huge breathless gulp. He would then casually sip the remaining dregs. He gave skulling a whole new meaning. Any ordinary person would have been in hospital getting their stomach pumped. This guy was still standing upright.
We all headed back to the hostel reflecting on Pa’s drinking abilities, and called it a night.
Day 110: Killarney to Ennis
Ireland has an amazing landscape; it’s rugged and fierce, cliffs, sea, rock formations everywhere. But it is also very beautiful and green, with lots of old elm trees and oak trees, rolling hills and pastures, castle ruins etc. You get the picture – but it is absolutely stunning and it is very well worth a visit. And so today was all about breathtaking scenery and adventure. We spent the day exploring the dramatic Dingle Peninsula. We walked to the top of the most West Point in Ireland – where in true Shamrocker tradition, all the boys took their tops off and we all took photos. Our guide, Murf, entertained us with a story about the sleeping giant – a huge rock formation in the middle of the sea that looks like...you guess it, a sleeping giant (go figure!).
We stopped in Dingle for lunch where we had a home style cooked meal in the local pub, and then tried some of the famous dingle ice cream. They had this flavour called “brown bread”, which literally had brown bread in it. We cringed at the initial thought, but it ended up tasting really good! On the way to the bus, with ice cream in hand, we were happily admiring the colourful buildings when a little dog ran out into the traffic and caused all the cars to beep loudly and slam on their breaks. The thing was going nuts and had no idea which direction to turn. Of course, being dog lovers, Totti and I were scared for the poor bugger. I guess you had to be there for this to be funny, but all of a sudden Totti starts yelling at the top of her lungs “OI OH MY GOD, ITS A DOG, ITS A DOG, ITS A DOG!!! AARRRGGGHHH”, actually, that’s probably what she tried to say – what came out was just a long winded, incoherent yelling sound with lots of frantic hand gestures. I absolutely wet myself laughing, and informed her that yelling frantically and waving her arms in the air was definitely a very gallant rescue method and would without a doubt successfully stop the dog from being run over. Then we both laughed, the yelling seemed to attract the attention of the entire street :p We then caught the ferry over the mighty Shannon river to County Clare and spent the night in Ennis.
Day 111: Ennis to Galway
Today we visited the awesome Cliffs of Moher – very impressive but very windy. Now that we both have a wild mane of hair, we spent most of the time admiring the cliffs through our fringes. After lunch we explored the weird and magical world of the Burren – Ireland’s lunar landscape and home to ancient tombs, fairies and leprechauns! We visited what is known as a Fairy Ring; legend has it that when Oak trees form in a perfect circle it means that Fairies reside there. You are only allowed to walk clockwise around the Fairy Ring, you aren’t allowed to swear there and you aren’t allowed to enter the centre of the ring. You are also meant to make a wish, then thank the Fairies in the Gaelic language once you exit the ring. If you break any of these rules, your wish will not be granted and the Fairies will get their revenge by making something bad happen to you. Murf was not a superstitious bloke, but he said that he had some stupid Gobsheit’s on his previous tours who decided to break the rules and their bus broke down. We all obliged the Fairies that day, and thankfully nothing bad happened. We are still waiting for our wishes to come true though :p
We arrived in Galway mid afternoon and went off to explore Shop Street. Galway is Ireland’s cultural capital and festival city. We had a chilled out night, cooked ourselves dinner at the hostel and just relaxed, as the next night we would all go out as a group and enjoy the nightlife.
Day 112: Inis Mór (Aran Islands)
Today we caught the ferry over to Inis Mor. We hired bikes and rode around – pretty much the most exciting part of the ride was when we had to stop because my bike chain broke and I had to fix it, leaving me with blackened, greasy hands for the rest of the day. We stopped at the “seal colony” mind you, one single seal frolicking in the sea is hardly a fecking colony. Fail! We then stopped along side some random paddocks and patted some random Donkeys. We were very much amused when the Donkeys responded to us calling “Hey Donkey” original, we know! We were sick of riding so we decided to return our bikes to the hire place and then went into a little shop to have a look around. We still had a couple of hours to kill before the ferry headed back to the mainland. Everyone on our tour was singing this song “Lisdonvarna” of which we all only knew the chorus “oooohhh, Lisdonnvarna, a Lisdon Lisdon Lisdon Varna”. Totti busted out into song just as we were on our wait out the door and the shopkeeper cursed her, as he would now have that “flamin’ song stoock in me head for the rest of the deeyyy!”. He convinced us to stay and have a cup of tea with him and it turned out that we whiled away the afternoon in his little souvenir shop listening to his stories about his travels. He had some interesting stories, it turned out his ex wife was an Italian woman, and he told us a story of when he was out to dinner with the family one night. He said a waitress approached him to ask him if he’d like some wine, and he thought he would try to impress mum and dad by showing off his Italian skills. So when the waitress asked him if he’d like some wine, he confidently responded “Un Bocchina” – now, he had intended to say “Poccino” which means “a little bit” but unfortunately for him, and much to the horror of the entire restaurant, he had in fact responded with “Bocchina”, which means “blow job” in Italian. Well.... The mother basically died. The father bought him a shot of Grappa. Bless. Too funny. We then went on you tube and watched the clip to Lisdonvarna, because he couldn’t get it out of his head. An afternoon well spent!
Once back on the main land, Merf ordered the group 20 pizzas before we all got ready to go out. We went to this pub called The Quays and Totti and I found ourselves a spot behind the band. A lovely group of middle aged Irish men adopted us, and we offered our back up dancer skills to them. We were band groupies, much to the amusement of our fellow Shamrockers – we put on quite a dance show featuring a dance routine we have spent this entire vacation putting together. It’s pretty impressive! After The Quays, we went to this bar/club called Coyotes. It had a mechanical bull and a small stage and played all the current top 40 songs, as well as the classic 90’s pop. We continued to put on our dance performance, we did the running man, ghosted some people and started a game of limbo; we were the limbo bar, we held our arms out and let everyone pass underneath. Initially we were just taking the piss out of everyone, but then people just started doing the limbo, good times! We couldn’t pass up a go on the mechanical bull – definitely one of the funniest things we have done. The video footage is priceless, we’re sure you’ll enjoy it once we show you :)
So overall it was a really great night out and we were looking forward to dominating our next group dance session :)
Day 113: Galway to Derry
As we moved up into Northern Ireland, it was time to prepare ourselves for some of the country’s more sombre historic moments. We were about to enter the city where the Bloody Sunday murders happened. Merf briefed us on the bus ride into Derry; he gave us a background and a really great insight into the history surrounding the issue. Without going into too much detail, there was a lot more to it than just Catholic v Protestant. Once we arrived in Derry we were given a walking tour by a local elderly man. He was one of the most lovely people we have had the pleasure of meeting throughout our travels and gave the most touching account of the Troubles I think we will ever hear. He had known people who died in the Bloody Sunday murders and had personally met the Reverend who held the white flag in the famous photographs of the Bloody Sunday shooting. He held the entire group’s attention from start to finish, you could tell he had lived through it and he cried while telling us the story. His attachment to all the victims that lost their lives and for the suffering of the families who were still mourning their losses was very overwhelming. It was only in June of this year that all the Bloody Sunday victims were proven innocent. He said that the people rejoiced – finally, the longest inquiry in history had been laid to rest.
We got to see all the famous murals and got to walk along the famous walls before heading back to the hostel for some dinner and early night.
Day 114: Derry to Belfast
First stop of today: the battlements of Dunluce Castle. It seemed that our good weather had finally come to an end, the clouds began to roll in and a bitter wind had picked up. We hoped that the rain would hold out, at least for a little while. Dunluce Castle was pretty cool – probably the most interesting thing that happened there was that the entire kitchen fell away into the sea one night when the occupants of the castle were holding a banquet in the great hall. By this stage it had started spitting so we all clambered back onto the bus to thaw out, and headed down the road to the eighth natural wonder of the world – The Giant’s Causeway. It’s a pretty impressive sight to see – basically when the lava cooled in the ocean, because it cooled down gradually, it formed these perfect hexagonal columns which extend out into the sea. It’s pretty cool, so we enjoyed the awesome view and climbed up and down the causeway for a while. By this stage it had started raining steadily, the hike back to the bus was not fun, and we were all soaked through to the bone and freezing. Our 3 euro umbrella from Madrid finally packed it in, and the dream was over!
We all stepped onto the bus looking like drowned rats and drove to our final destination before stopping in Belfast for the night - the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. This bridge extends about 25 metres and connects to a small island standing roughly 30m above sea level. The bridge use to be used by the fishermen – they used it to bring up nets of Salmon from the ocean. The most entertaining part of crossing the bridge was making it rock up and down, much to the distaste of most people, we however found it pretty amusing. Totti kangaroo hopped all the way across, and lined up immediately in the line to come back, so she could bound across for round 2. The rain had eased up, but it was still drizzling steadily – by this stage we were all more than happy to get out of the wind and the rain and head to the hostel for a nice hot shower!
Tonight we were gearing up to see what Belfast had to offer. We started off at a pub called The Crown – it had ornately carved wooden panelling in the ceiling and floors, it was a very cool place indeed. I decided to try my luck at steak and gunnies pie (YUMO!) and Totti inhaled a steak. From there we headed to a place called “Filthy McNasty’s” yes, it was really called that, so we had no choice but to go in, just because it was the coolest name for a pub, EVER! While we were out the front, the group was graced by the company of two lovely ladies at a hen’s night (we have no idea where the rest of them were) but these two were sporting lovely inflatable penises for an accessory. Needless to say it was absolutely hilarious, these two were as bogan as they come, and they were off their chops drunk. One of the girls on our tour borrowed the inflatable penis, strapped it on, and proceeded to “have a cock fight with a cock” A thankyou. Too funny!!! So after this lovely little encounter, we moved onto a place similar to say..... the bottom level of Uni Pub mixed in with King O’Malley’s. It was pretty cool, but we got bored fairly quickly as the music was average. The most entertaining thing about this place was that there were shots entitled “deep throats” and that Merf can do an Austin power’s dance to a tee. Hilarious! We moved on to a place called The Botanical – more commercial top 40 music, but the place was crawling with Gobsheit’s so we didn’t really stay long. Overall we thought we’d done well, the usual ghosting and dance routines we displayed and so we decided to call it a night :)
Day 115: Belfast to Dublin
This morning we took a Black Cab tour of Belfast city. We visited the Loyalist and Republican heartlands of the city where we learned more about the Troubles and the Peace Wall. We saw more political murals and explored the city in our taxi with a real Belfast local at the wheel. That only took a couple of hours, so after that we hung around at the hostel for a while, as it was cold and rainy again today. For lunch we returned to The Crown and enjoyed one last meal of Irish stew and another steak and Guinness pie. We left the politics behind and headed back towards to Dublin. En route we stopped off to see a ruined monastery with High Celtic Crosses; these things are massive and very impressive. The crosses depict the story of Jesus and are intricately carved. It was a relatively cruisey day and we arrived back in Dublin at about 4.30pm. We said goodbye to our Shamrocker buddies and went to suss out some dinner: fresh fish and chips, yes please! It was slightly ironic eating our dinner while watching the film Shark Tale...lol.. But none the less, it tasted delicious :p After dinner we decided to get one last taste of Irish culture, and went to see some Irish dancing. It was pretty impressive, and we have now decided to add this to our list of potential professions once we return home :p
After a nice hot shower, it was time to turn in for the night, as we would be catching an early ferry over to merry old England the next morning. Time for some tea and scones, innit!
A big shout out to the Shamrocker group, thanks for a great week. Ireland has been seriously Grand Craic and we had a blast!
Wishin’ you all top o the mornin’. Fiddley dee, potatoes!
Say hi to your dad for us,
Love Kate & Ela xxxx
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