Republic of Ireland and South Wales

It's all true. The music is good, the stout is good, the company at the pubs is good, and the whiskey is good. I'd say that my tourism time in Ireland has been split 50/50 between daytime and nighttime..... Daytime in Dingle, Kinsale and Waterford; Nighttime in Galway and Cork. Turns out that the majority of the Irish whiskey is distilled near Cork: in a small town called Middleton. It certainly measures up to the Whisky from Scotland. Distilled 3 times rather than 2, so it has quite a different flavour and is very smooth.

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes. My day was a good one. I spent the day in Kinsale (a small port town West of Cork) wandering through the streets. Back in Cork I met up with some people from the hostel and found a small pub with live music.

My last 4 days in the British Isles were spent in the South of Wales. I went to a pro rugby match at millenium stadium in Cardiff,
and did some hiking near Chepstow in the Wye Valey. Such an amazing place. I fly to Dubai in the morning! Can't wait!!

Dublin & Northern Ireland

Well, Like I Said - I headed to Dublin after Wales. Managed to hit most of the tourist traps including the Guinness Storehouse and a number of pubs in addition to grasping some of the local history. I was in Dublin for 2 days before setting out on a weekend-tour of Northern Ireland including both Derry and Belfast. In addition to having their own long histories, these towns are currently in the middle of a more recent history that is the conflict between the Irish Protestants and the Irish Catholics. What I did not know was that this conflict has nothing (if not very little) to do with religion at all. It is the continuation of a civil war and has to do with human rights and freedom on both sides. We were warned more than once not to breech the subject in public - I wouldn't dream of it.
In addition to Politics and History, we visited some old monasteries, which housed Celtic Crosses (I didn't know what these were until I saw one - I thought they were just a style of cross until seeing these massive stone sculpture with pictures carved into them - they were intended for those people who couldn't read in the early days of Christianity in order that they might learn the stories of the Bible).


We visited the Giant's Causeway in the North, which has hexagon-shaped rock formations that according to legend used to be part of a link to Scotland built by the giant Finn MacCool.
Spent time yesterday in the small town of Armah, where I have some ancestral links. For a small town, there certainly was a lot to see. This was where St. Patrick built his first stone church, and it is currently where the heads of both the Irish Roman Catholic Church and the Church Of Ireland are based. Little town with a lot of pull. To top it off, I woke up this morning to this view outside my window:
"Travel is Fatal to hatred, bigotry and prejudice....." Mark Twain

Northern Wales

My Hair Is Clean!!!
The water over here is different, and shampoo that is not bought in the British Isles won't actually have any of the cleaning effects that make-up the original purpose outlined on the packaging. I bought a bottle of shampoo in Wales, and squeek........ the sound of clean! Now you know - don't bring any cleaning products with you when you next come this way - You can't bring them on the plane anyways.

After England I headed to Northern Wales to see my friend Becca in St. Asaph for the weekend. Turns out Becca has a B&B and is an official North Wales tour guide, so we drove all over the North-West fo the country and she pointed out Castles, mountain ranges, historical buildings, and tacky towns - with notes about local history and correct Welsh pronounciations. Thanks Becca!


Monday I was in Beddgelert to do some walking in Snowdonia, and half-way through my hike I visited an old abandoned copper mine that has been re-opened for visitors.

I walked through the old shafts and was able to see the copper vein they were digging along with old caves full of stalagtites....... Pretty neat. Amazing that the only light source during the operation of the mine was from candles. At one point the lights are turned out except for one candle light, and you can hardly see your hand let alone where one should be digging or blasting.

Not going to be a career path I'll pursue - shaft mining.



Caught the ferry, and now I find myself in Dublin where the Guinness is beginning to flow (thanks Steve); Jameson ain't bad either.

Cheers my Friends.

England

After a full-day journey I arrived in England for my 3-day hike of Hadrian's Wall only to find that all accommodation had been booked out for months due to the Great North Run in Newcastle over an hour away. I guess there was a cancellation, and I was given the last vacant bed at the hostel.
I spent the next 3-days hiking along the remains of this Roman wall that used to span the entire width of the Island (80 MilesI spent the next 3-days hiking along the remains of this Roman wall that used to span the entire width of the Island (80 Miles or so). The wall that exists today is 1.5 meters tall and 1.5 meters wide at the most, though when built was 6.5 meters tall and 3 meters thick with forts (milecastles) every 2 kilometers. It was amazing to think that the stone from the wall was used to build all of the walls surrounding the farmers fields as well as many of the farm houses for miles around.

After the wall, I headed south along the Carlisle-Settle Railway to York.

The city of York is amazing with so much history. There was a group of Aussies staying where I was, and we spent the 3 nights together (the second of which was Tricia's birthday and 5 of us went out to celebrate). It was so nice to spend more than 1 night getting to know people, as is so often the case in hostel living when people are in-and-out so fast and all on different schedules.

I spent a day in Liverpool in the Albert Dock area before taking the bus to Wales on Friday to meet my friend Becca from Belvoir in 2002. More on that later.

Happy Thanksgiving to all at home; Have a great long weekend.