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 :)