7/7 8/7 Vegemite, Fosters and Curry

7/7
Breakfast here is at a better time; stops at 10. I started exploring the local area at 11 which is quite good given my recent activities. The first stop was the supermarket. This is the first in London I have seen that is of decent size. In among other things, I finally found my vegemite! And it comes from Australia.
My walk consisted of local streets, the local grave yard and a park. The park had a small 9 hole golf course. It only cost 6.50 so I went for a round. My drives were improving over the holes, but my puts need work. I scored 36.
Night time was occupied by another pub crawl with 4 people from the hostel. 2 I met that night and a girl I met the night before. The most amazing thing were these horse stables that were converted into a large night club. We wouldn't have found it if it were not for the pub crawl tour. It was here I had my one and only Fosters. Turns out it is brewed by Budweiser in Scotland, so it was drinkable. This place had a room full of fosters stubbies! It is amazing that London drinks so much of the stuff. Turns out the US national drink, Budweiser, is also drunk IN the US! And they drink LIGHT!
We had a bizarre experience trying to get a taxi to get back to the hostel; the 1st taxi driver said "sorry, I am not going in your direction", then drove off. Huh? That's different!

8/7
The day started at midday again. I went on 2 walking tours, a London city tour followed by a "jack the ripper" tour. Where we learnt all about murders, beheadings, death and disease. The tour finished near Brick lane, which is full of Indian restraunts, all with people on the footpath trying to suck you in. Turns out, 10 pound will buy 2 courses and a glass of red wine!

9/7 Powerful London

I got power hungry today. First stop was the tower of London.I could have spent the day there. I didn't get to the crown jewels or the torture chamber because the lines were too long.

I then went to the Churchill war rooms. Amazing to see.

I walked briefly around the city to see the cathedral. In the process I found 2 public piano's in the street for anybody to play.

Some day I may write a bit more on this day.

London Again

6/7
I managed to get up and stay up at 9:00am today!  Incredible i know.  I also had to check out at 10.  I stayed in the movie room and watched "hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy" Who knows, the knowledge gained may help me here if the earth were to be suddenly blown up. For example i should never forget my towel. Hmmm, That advise would have been very useful on numerous occasions before.
I got to the airport with about 3 hours to spare. I dared to eat burger king (hungary jacks), and immediately regretted it. I recon they heated up my chicken burger in the microwave. I ordered oringe juice on the plane. It came in a can! That's different.
I got to my next lodging, Palmers Lodge at Willesden Green in London, at around about 8:00 pm. Once again, i am in the dungeon. Once again, it stinks. Well, not the "oh my god, i am going to die" type of stink, just the "this place could really do with some air" stink.  There is only about 3 windows on one side, and 2 of them are open. The place looks alright though. On the up side, this place has its own pub, Woohoo. Upon visiting the toilet, I discovered this place has backside cleaners! I must try that some time. I found out at 10:40 that they serve food until 10:30.  Bugger. Pizza hut it is then.

Kells

3/7
Slack day today. Saw the book of Kells and the library it is kept in at Trinity.  The library has a very unique way of organising books. It's not by Author, topic or title, but of book dimensions! Turns out, looks are more important than functionality.  I can't post a photo of the library or its contents, but they said nothing about a photo of the pamphlet! (pic below). The library was the model for the library in 'Harry Potter' and the Jedi library in 'Star Wars'. The other pics are of more images in the hostel.

Final days of Ireland

4/7
Today was a very relaxed day. Breakfast at 9:20. would have been later, but breakfast closes at 9:30, then back to bed until 12:30. After i finally did get out of the building, i walked around the Guinness brewery, then down around an old prison / military church, where the members of the 1917 uprising were buried (i just stumbled upon that), then toward the old Jamison distillery, the voyage of which i had a couple of rocks thrown at me from some local ignorant kids, (fortunately, their aim is terrible. I am guessing the street is a long way from the touristy area of Dublin. there were only a couple of locals around here. They probably do not like tourists). I found the distillery, and walked around it, then returned to the hostel. I chose not to go into the brewery or distillery as i have already spent more than the weeks budget. The clouds tried to rain, but they saw me and thaught "we will be kind" and stayed away.

5/7
I Finally hired a bike today, although at 12:20, as it took a while to get out of bed again. The bike was terrable. the frame and running gear was light and cheap, the handlebars were weird, girly and awkward, the back wheel was not bolted on tightly, the seat was too low and the chain kept comming off. All i needed was some streamers flowing out of the handle bars!  The riding style reminded me of "easy rider"  Despite this, i still managed to peddle up the coast to a fishing village called Howth; a distance of about 16 km. i had some fast food- fish and chips there, which at first sounds dodgy, but was actually very good. It was fast because there was a line up out the door, and they had a process that could process the orders very effectively. The end result was an otherwise normal fish and chip shop, that took only 5 minutes from line up to food. 
From here, i jumped back on girly rider and attempted to ride up the hill. it is importaqnt to note here, the bike had NO GEARS!  Awkward riding + rubbing back wheel + no gears + chain coming off = the bike riding me up the hill! Totally useless up anything steaper than 1 degree!  Fortunately, i found the short, steep side, so it was only a lot of effort for a short period of time to get girly rider to the top. The other side was long and almost windey, I even recorded a movie on the trip back down! I dropped off girly rider with 20 minutes to spare before he shut up shop and met up with 2 German backpackers at a pub somewhere. The rain was suppose to come today, but it saw me again and said "nah, we will still be kind" so it remained the nice Irish summer day of 18 degrees.  Any more like this, they will be calling it a heat wave, Maybe even a drought!
Night time for me consisted of "Star Trek" then "Moon", then bed.

On the Paddywagon tour of Northen Ireland

3/7
Today I boarded the Paddywagon tour bus for Northern Ireland.
The trip up was rather ordinary. This is because the bus left at 7:00 am and i slept until Belfast, as did most of the others.  The bus was suppose to leave at 6:50, but it was late.  I have since found out that in Ireland, buses are considered on time if they are + or - 10 minutes.  A bit different to London.  They offer apologies when they are delayed by 10 seconds! We only stopped in Belfast to pick up more people. The tour guide also boarded the bus here. This bloke proved to be a real character!
The first touristy stop was the rope bridge in Carrick-a-Rede. I wandered across the bridge with a Canadian girl 'Kate' whom had also caught the bus. I could look down without locking onto the rope for dear life, so i think i did alright. It was here that the only photos of me were taken!  However, they are on my camera, and not my phone, so they will not be posted on this blog.
The second stop was Giant Causeway. Some of these rocks have been stood on so many times, the tops are highly polished. Afterwards, we returned to the hotel there, and had a feed. I got the steak an Guinness pie, which was not so much a pie, but a stew on a plate with an oval of some over-puffy pastry resting on top. Kate got the burger. The burger actually had some bunny food on it, so maybe the Irish do slightly better burgers than London. Maybe it is still more of a 'venue' thing.
We viewed Dunluce castle from the bus. Due to insurance (short story, but i don't know much of it) and possably time, we were not able to get off and look. Bit of a shame. Would have been good to look at it. Knowing me, I would need an afternoon.
Slash city was next, otherwise known as Derry / Londonderry. Note the slash in the middle of the name. Prodistants only accept it being called Londonderry while Catholics call it Derry. Many signs have both names written with a slash between the names, hence the more neutral name, "Slash City". We took a walking tour, and learnt all about "bloody sunday" where the recent troubles started.
Back on the Paddywagon, and we drove back to Belfast. the second half of the journy is the only part of the bus trip where i did not sleep!  We dropped off the tempory Belfastians, had a final drink, and traveled onward to Dublin.  Turns out, this part of the trip is about 2.5 hours. I know that because i also did not sleep (much) on the return trip.

The luck of the Irish

30/6
This weekend i decided to do somthing completly different; I flew out to Ireland today.
The flight left at 6:45, and the trains started at 5:08. Great, i thaught. i will have plenty of time to get to the airport.  The first train was alright, but the second train did not start until 5:50. Hmmm, that is not good. Fortunately, 2 other girls were also trying to get to the airport, so we caught a cab together. it cost me £20, but much cheaper than any of the alternatives.
I was a bit supprised at how Dublin looks. Maybe i am just use to tall glass sky scrapers. None of that around here though. In fact, this place is closer to gelong in terms of the size of the buildings.
I got to the four courts hostel at 9:00 in the morning, checked in, then was given "Skanky Franky" to get me into the luggage room (pic below). This place has some fascinating murals on the walls. One is shown below.
Next,I helped myself to breakfast. It is supplied here free, but only available until 9:30. I recon that is some cruel trick of getting people out of bed. Doesnt always work though!
I walked around the city for a while. Wow, this place has soooooo many pubs. I finally settled on Christchurch cathedral. The crypt which it is built upon is aparantly the oldest structure in dublin.  They filmed part of the series "The Tutors" in the crypt and in the church.
I slept for 4 hours in the afternoon,  then got up in time for a "guided pub crawl". they got about 35 people here.

1/7
It was a bright sunny day today; one of the best. The temperature went all the way to 18 degrees! Silly me put my jumper in the wash.
I did a guided walking tour of Dublin today. They had a lot of info about the politics during the tour. I am amazed at the confused architecture here. Theres about 3 distinct styles, sometimes in the one building!
After the tour, I went shopping for a jumper. Incredibly enough, about 90% of all the jumpers have a hood on them!  the 10% that don't, are too expensive for my budjet. the only one without a hood, and in my budjet, is a Guinness jumper, made of cheap materials.  I wound up buying a green hoodie with "Ireland" printed on it and some fancy decorations on it.  I was nearly going to buy another hat, but didn't.
I went back to base, and caught the last 5 minutes of some harry potter movie that others were watching. Then they switched movies, and we watched "getting over ________" i cant remember the name.