Witchcraft ad Wizardry

Hello hello!

Wherever did I leave you hanging last time?? Let's see... ah yes. Lying Irishmen (and woman).

Right, so after Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher, we went to Galway, which was our last town in Ireland. It's a lovely city with a big park right in the city centre and a river to one side. There are a couple of islands to visit just off the coast as well, but we were feeling kind of tired, so we chose to skip them. All in all, we didn't get too much accomplished in Galway, except to have a nice pizza dinner in a park. It was pleasant. We left Galway on Thursday, and finished our day in London, where we are now.

Today, we wandered the streets of downtown London for a while. It's friggin huge, and everything is ridiculously spaced out, but thankfully the "tube" system is quite good, so it's easy to get from one thing to the next. We started our day on Baker Street, where Heather took us to a Beatles shop. I think she may have been in heaven. Then we saw a Beatles museume thing (more like one room filled with Beatles stuff) and had a nice cooling drink at Starbuck's. Oh Starbucks... so English.

After that, we were supposed to meet Heather's parents at Big Ben at 3. They got a little lost on the way, but turned up at four, so it's all good. Together, we saw Big Ben, the Parliament Buildings and Westminster Abbey. Big Ben is not actually as big as one might think, but, as far as clocks go, it's a pretty good size. The most amazing thing about it, actually, is the detail that went into the building... oh my! The Abbey is also quite impressive... and it takes a lot for me to say that, because we all know how I feel about staring at churches...

After that we had a nice dinner, in a pub, naturally. Then we left Glenn and Juanita, headed down to Trafalgar Square (quite pretty, but nothing special) and then back to the hostel. But tomorrow is when the good stuff should happen....

And by good stuff, I mean POTTER STUFF!!!!! Oh yeah! Tomorrow, we are going down to King's Cross Train station, where they have put a sign between platforms 9 and 10, which reads Platform 9 3/4. Just like the book! They also have a trolley pushed half way through the wall! I am sooooo excited. I may or may not have time to post again before coming home, but if I dont, you better believe you're going to get an earful about Platform 9 3/4. Tomorrow, I will be a witch ... and Heather too... and Ray a wizard. Oh the times we'll have...

I dunno what else we're doing tomorrow, but if we see nothing but the Platform, I'll still be happy!

See you all in 3 days!

Steph :)

Maybe THEY lie, not us...

Hello again!

So, remember how I said the Blarney Stone was supposed to make you lie for seven years? Well, it doesn't seem to be working. If anything, it seems to be making everyone around us lie... but not us.

On Saturday, we hopped on a bus out of Cork and made our way to Killarney. There, our hostel was actually a revamped manor... pretty hot! It was out in the middle of nowhere, but as the only thing we really wanted to see in Killarney was the national park, this didnt bother us too much. So once we had dropped off our bags in our room, we went down to the pub and got some lunch. We didnt know where the National Park was and the signpost said 10 km, so we asked out waitress where the nearest entrance was and she said "One mile down the road". That's not too bad, right? So Ray and I headed off in the direction she had pointed us (Heather was very tired, so she went back to the hostel) and tried to keep track of how far we'd walked. When we thought a mile was up, we still couldnt see anything... so we kept walking. Eventually, after passing next to 2 golf courses and a hotel, we came to the entrance of the National Park. This entrance, however, was not the one she had told us of, Oh No!, it was, in fact, the one that was ten kilometres away, in the city centre. So that was quite a walk. By the time we actually found the entrance to the park, we couldn't be bothered to go in, we just wanted some ice cream to cool off (it's been surprisingly hot!). So all that walking led us absolutely nowhere!!!!

Anywho, the next day, we took yet another bus and hauled our butts to Doolin, a tiny little village of 200 people. When Heather reserved our hostel here, their website told her that it was 300 yards away from the Cliff of Moher, the main reason anyone actually stops here. Sounds good... but the Cliffs of Moher are actually about 8 km away. This time, there is a bus to get there, but it was a lie nonetheless. So yesterday, we wandered around our little village and found it to be quite quaint. We saw a little path running down toward the water and a little secluded rock beach that looked really pretty, but it was blocked of by a locked gate. Did that stop us? No. We hopped it, and walked through a bunch of cow patties (as Ray likes to call them) to get there. It was well worth the effort. We got a pretty decent view of the Cliffs, though not at their highest point, from a completely tourist free zone. Pretty hot. Heather and I took some Top Model pictures. The only pitfall to our little trespassing adventure was that, on the way back Heather got a small electric shocks in her crotch. Ouch! We had to hop over some barbed wire to get there (and back!) and, well, she didnt make it so easily the second time. Shes ok, though, so its all good!

Today, we went to see the Cliffs from the touristy area, which was equally pretty, possibly a little more. We took some pretty freakin awesome pictures, including a complete re-enactment of my Macchu Picchu picture. It's really hot again, so the hike up the 203 metre Cliff was quite demanding, but again, well worth the effort. Youll understand when you see pictures.

The rest of our day will probably be spend just chilling... its too hot to do anything else...

Tomorrow, Galway... no idea what we're doing there, but I shall find out soon enough!

Steph :)

Liar, Liar pants on fire!

Hello hello!

So, we have once again changed cities. We are noe in Cork, a town that reminds me a whole heck of a lot of downtown Montreal. It's all shops and depanneurs and tourist gift shops... you know the type I mean. But it's real appeal lies beyond the city limits.

First,let me tell you of our hostel adventures. Heather, being somewhat of a nerd (not unlike myself...) went ahead and booked all of our hostels for Ireland ahead of time. The only problem is, she forgot there were 31 days in May. So we showed up at our hostel in Cork and told thelady at the reception desk that we had a reservation and she kinda looked at us like we were idiots and said "Ok, I've found it... it's for tomorrow"... so we had a little bit of a freak out session, but she fixed it all up for us. And not only that, she fixed us up with a private room (with a sink...so exciting!) for three nights (instead of the original two) at no extra charge. Well, we had to pay for the third night, clearly, but the private room was not charged more than the dormitory would have been. So that's hot... Heather should forget days more often.

Anyway, today we hopped on a bus and went to visit the small town of Blarney, about 30 minutes away from Cork. In Blarney, there are about three shops, a tourist office and maybe 4 restaurants and thats about it. Except, of course, for the rather exceptional castle. This castle is quite different from the other castles I have visited so far on this trip. The others were fully restored castles with some of the original decorations and furnishings. This one, on the other hand, is completely decrepit and ruined. The walls are falling apart, there's moss growing all over it and some of the stairs are slighty tatty, but this all adds to its romantic appeal. So, in this castle, the main attraction is the Blarney Stone. The Blarney Stone, when kissed, is said to give the kisser the "gift of the gab", or, as Queen Victoria the 1st so aptly put it, "the ability to tell lies" for seven years. Needless to say, we all wanted a piece of the action (we tried to overlook the fact that millions and millions of people have kissed this rock before us...)

To get to the stone, you have toclimb to the very top of the tower. Up and up and up some more, along a very steep, very old, and very narrow staircase you go until you finally reach the top of the tower, where, at certain intervals along the edge, there are gaping holes in the floor, covered only by some steel poles, probably spaced out enough for you to fall through anyways. The Blarney Stone, as it were, is placed in one of these holes. To get to it, you have to lie on your back with your head in the hole, bend over backwards and kiss the wall... all this hanging over some more of these ominous metal poles. Naturally, there is an attendant there grasping your jacket, but still... a bit creepy.

Tomorrow, I believe we are going to Mizon Head, a crazy cool bay at the tip of the ocean. Should be awesome... then again, I could be lying, as a kissed a probably herpes infected rock today which will undoubtedly make every word I utter for the next seven years a lie... so I'll have to get back to you on that one!!

Cheers!

Steph :)

Princess for a night! Or two...

Hello lads and lassies,

It's official - I have slept in a castle.

We left Dublin on Monday, after having visit the rather extraordinary zoo. They had all kinds of cool stuff, and by stuff I mean animals... like Zebras and Giraffes and Puppies. The puppies were not so fantastic, what with I live with three, but still the rest was cool. And the zoo itself is HUGE!!

But onto more important things. On monday, we got on a bus and came to Kilkenny, a rather small town about two hours away from Dublin. Before heading off to our hostel (or castle, whichever you wanna call it) we stopped by a pub for some lunch. It was fabulous! Bangers and mash, baby... and by bangers I mean sausages and mash, well, mashed potatoes. Irish food will be my undoing. So, we were just sitting around eating our meal, when this man, Joe, comes up to our table and starts talking to us. As it were, Joe was slightly inebriated (to borrow his words) and started telling us that Ray had "landed the salmon" because he was travelling with two girls. He also asked who was the queen here (I took that title, thank you very much!) and then told me I had Huskie's eyes. Right... I think he just told me I look like a dog... with light eyes. He was nuts. He finally left us alone, to go back to the bar, naturally. He tried ordering more drinks, but the bartender refused him, saying that he was too drunk. Now, the combination of drunkenness and Irish accents made it quite difficult to understand what was really going on, but after a few minutes, it became apparent that we were gonna witness a good old fashioned Irish barfight. Unfortunately, this scenario seems much too common for the bartender and he did a very good job calming everyone down and expelling the drunkards, thus avoiding a fight. Oh well, there's still time, more pubs to come...

Anyways, here in Kilkenny, we are living in a castle!!! And not only that, but the castle is haunted!!!! Oh yes, our haunted castle, which is about 8 miles outside the city centre and close to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (except a yard which houses roosters, horsies that eat out of our hands and reindeer), is absolutely gorgeous and said to be haunted by 3 ghosts... a little girl (we'll cal her Myrtle), a guard, and a third one, which everyone seems reluctant to tell us about. Must be scary. Anywho, we hung around the castle most of the evening, and at chinese food in a dungeon (quite an experience!) then we went to bed. And thats when the weird stuff started happening. First of all, let me just say that Ray is sleeping in the ladies' dormitories, thats not weird, but funny. When we were all sleeping, Ray swears he was woken up by "a ghost" throwing rocks at the castle. Heather and I choose to believe, cuz we want ghosts! So tonight, hopefully, we will be attacked by said rock-throwing ghost and then Ill write about that!

Today, we went to another castle, this one in the city center and actually used to house royal families, or something like that. We took a guided tour of the inside and were guided by a rather snooty Irish lady, but it's ok, cuz it was an interesting tour. We've spent the rest of the day walking along the gardens of the castle (castle always have the best gardens) and the streets of the city.

Tomorrow, it's off to Cork, where Im not sure what well see, but surely it'll be good! And after that, we'll go wherever the wid blows us... and by that I mean, wherever Heather decides...

Cheers!!

Steph :)

Uh Oh! Beer Again!

Hello again!

Ok, so lots has happened since the last time we spoke... or i wrote, you read, whatever.

First off, i capped off my stay in Paris with a visit to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Actually, not the top top. It was closed because of the extremely windy day, but we went to the second platform anyway. It was amazing! The views from up there are awesome, it feels like you can see all of France. Clearly, you can't, but it feels like thats what you are seeing. i took pictures, so you can judge for yourselves.

I also went into the Louvre. Naturally, it was packed... so i took a picture of the Mona Lisa (by stealth - it says "Absolutely no pictures" - but no one saw me) and got the hell out of there. I wouldnt have appreciated any of the rest of it anyway, being cramped in there like a sardine. I did, however, run into someone i knew on my way out. It was quite odd...

Then my Torontonian friend and I went on a Seine river cruise at night. It was pretty, but it started to rain pretty hard during our ride, so we had to sit inside, which made it somewhat less pleasant. But it was cool nonetheless... i got to see the Eiffel Tower when it was sparkling, which is really what I wanted, so it's all good.

The next day, i headed off to Annecy, where Natalie from work is staying on her school exchange, or whatever it is shes doing. It's a really pretty little town, bordered by lakes and mountains. We didn't actyally get much done... walked some, shopped some, ate the best ice cream of all time... but then again, there isnt much to do in Annecy, so I suppose we did well.

After all that French stuff, I took an underwater train to London, where I refused to eat of drink or anything like that, because I hate British Pounds... so expensive. But it's ok, because I was only there for one night... The next morning, I flew out to Dublin, where, after a few delays, I met up woth Heather, Ray and Alexis. Alexis is only hanging out with us in Dublin, but Heather and Ray will be part of the "we" I will use from now on.

Yesterday, we went to the Guinness breweries, where we saw how they make beer, what ingredients they use and so forth and so on. At the end of the tour, they give you a free pint. But of course, as i had only had a bowl of cornflakes, I was slightly tipsy by the end of it. Tipsy and it was only two o'clock in the afternoon. Not my finest hour. We capped off the evening with a nice irish meal... mmmm potatoes.

Today, we saw some sights... cathedrals, parks and such, but also Dublinia. It's an interactive medieval historical museum type dealie. It was pretty cool, but most of all, a hell of a good excuse to take some stupid ass pictures. Funny. And there was a whole big section on Vikings, so I felt at home... and took pictures of Viking stuff to teach JL how to properly act like a Viking. We also went to the Natural History Museum, which displays all sorts of animals and their skeletons from all over the world. SO COOL! I now absolutely need to go to Africa to see some cool ass animals.

I suppose thats about it, in a nutshell. We are also acting like fools a lot, but thats to be expected when me and Heather and Ray get together.

Let's hope we dont get too drunk in the afternoons anymore...

See you soon!

Steph :)

I need a boyfriend for this city...

Will you be my boyfriend? Ok, so most of you will know where thats from... those of you who don't, too bad. So, two posts in two days - how's that for not falling off the face of the earth - but if I dont write about today now, then I'll probably not have as good a post for you guys.

First of all, and most importantly, I got up this morning and did laundry. I had no clean socks and no clean underwear left and all my stuff (literally ALL of it) smelled like crap, so it was really time. Now I smell nice.

Afterwards, my new buddy Jody and I went on a walk around Paris. And I mean ALL around Paris. We started by walking from our hostel to the Louvre. We did not go in, because she has already seen it (I'll go another day), but we got some pretty cool shot of the outside and, naturally, the glass pyramid in front. It's such a bloddy big museum. I was in shock. I knew it was big, but this is unreal. I feel that if anyone was really into art and wanted to see the whole thing, it would take them at least three full days. Thankfully, I am not really into art and only plan to go in, take a picture of the Mona Lisa, and leave. Thank goodness.

Next, we moseyed on over to the Arc de Triomphe via the Champs Elysees. It was cool, because our weather was sorta moody, so I got to see the Champs Elysees "au soleil" and "sous la pluie". Not too shabby. Naturally I sang all the way down (or hummed, whatever). We finally got to the Arc de Triomphe, which is a pretty damn long walk from the Louvre, but it was well worth the effort. The thing is friggin huge! You can climb to the top of it, but as neither of us is that fond of heights, and we agreed we would do the eiffel tower, we skipped it.

From there, we crossed over to the Trocadero, which, aside from being a fantastic place to view the Eiffel Tower from, I'm not too sure what it is. It's a building, and its pretty. So there. Then it was off to the Tower itself. Pretty hot. Actually, it's kind of ugly, but it's impressive nonetheless. It's sooooooooo big. Like, so big. I can't even explain how big it is. I tried to get some pictures which could possibly convey it's size, but I'm not too sure I succeeded. We'll see. Jody and I didnt actually go up the Eiffel Tower today, because the line-ups were so long and we decided we should do it at night, to make it that much more impressive. So, I'll have to get back to you on that one.

After that, we strolled along the Champ de Mars. It's quite amazing how many parks and fields and all that kind of stuff you can actually find in downtown Paris. Not at all like Montreal, where the only park is about 5 metres wide and smells a whole lot like weed. Oh well...

We also saw the Hotel des Invalides. I can't exactly remember the history behind it (something about invalids, no doubt) but it has a nice golden roof top. So thats cool.

After that exhausting day, we started the journey home. We didnt realize how far we had actually walked until we headed out. Oh my! It took us a good 2 hours to get back to the hostel at which point we thought we would pass out from fatigue. We didn't, but we thought we would. All in all, our walk around Paris took us about 5-6 hours. Not bad at all... though I really think I need a nap now...

And so I leave you, friends. Next time you hear from me, I will have been flea market shopping, seen some catacombs, been to visit LSG Natalie at Annec and will probably be in Dublin. So don't expect a new post too too soon!

Ciao!

Steph :)

Calm the hell down...

Bonjour tout le monde!

Ok, so I have on good authority that some of you (who shall, for now, remain nameless) think that I am dead because I have not written a new blog in a couple of days. And so I say to all of you - CALM THE HELL DOWN! I am, in fact, still alive, but I have been busy and have had quite a hard time finding a place to use the internet for less than 7 euro/hour, which, for those of you who dont want to do the math, is about 12 dollars/hour. In other words, it's a bit, or a lot, excessive.

So, since I left Cologne and the chocolate museum, I have moved to France, where I started my travels in Bayeux, a very small town very close to the D-Day Landing Beaches. The town itself is pretty crap... I went to the Tapestry Museum, which boasts the only record of William the Conqueror's conquest, but it was pretty boring. The thing is, you walk in and right at the entrance is a very long written history of the tapestry. Then you get to watch a movie - 14 of the most boring minutes of my life - telling you story again. Then you actually get to see the tapestry, which is pretty amazing if you stop to consider the work that went into it, but you dont really do that, cuz you are listening to an audio-guide telling you the story AGAIN! By the time I got to step three, I was really just looking for the exit of the museum... I was pretty over it.

Anywho, the next day I went down to the beaches. In the morning, I joined a guided tour of the Canadian sector - Juno beach, the Canadian war cemetary and the Canadian war memorial museum. It was all pretty cool. The cemetary was especially cool, cuz they had maple trees, which made me feel like I was standing in my own front yard. It was shocking to see how many graves were there, though... I knew lots of people lost their lives here, but oh dear! Then in the afternoon, I wandered over to the american sector with Ange and Dan, a Canadian couple I met at the hostel. It was cool, too. The beach was very similar to Juno (sand and water - shocking!) but the American cemetary is soooo much bigger. It's not quite as nice though... more crosses, but not so many trees and flowers and stuff. But impressive nonetheless.

After that, it was off to Paris, and let me tell you, Paris at night is EVERYTHING it's cracked up to be! It's soooooo pretty... and I havent even seen it all yet! On my first day here, I couldnt get into my room till 5 so I wandered pretty aimlessly... I stumbled upon the Moulin Rouge, but it was day time, so I will have to go back and get a proper look at it. I met a Canadian girl at the hostel (bloody Canadians, they're everywhere!) and we've been hanging out for the past couple of days. Last night, we were looking for food, and we just happened to find the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. Pretty hot.

Today, I went to the Versailles Castle with another Canadian... oh my!... It was HUGE! I thought my first castle was big, but it was nothing compared to this one. The Castle itself is enormous (Louis XIV lived here as well as his entire court of 6000 people), and then the gardens! Holy! They just go on and on and on... We walked through them for about an hour, and we still didnt get to the end... There was more. But here, we found "The Queens Appartments" (and by appartment, she means mini-castle). She actually had these appartments built because when she walked through the gardens during the day, she was too tired to come back at night, so she would sleep there and come back the next day. It's nice to be rich.

Anyways, so those are the basics of my adventures for the past couple of days... tomorrow, I am doing the really touristy stuff with my new Canadian buddy, ie. the Champs Elysees, Champ de Mars, Arc de Triomphe and that large metal phallic shaped tower that goes by the name of Eiffel. Should be a good day!!

See you later!

Steph :)