Our night at the airport wasn't as uncomfortable as we had thought, and we definitely weren't alone. It seems like quite a popular thing to do with people catching early flights. Our sleeping bags that zip together were pretty handy too, and it made it a little more comfortable. We ended up getting around five hours sleep, which was just as well because we had some issues at check-in. Our bags had managed to put on about five kilos each during the last three weeks, as we had redistributed books into them, we each had some leftover alcohol from New Years, and just generally moved things around. This meant we were faced with a £120 overweight fee or to repack. Naturally we chose to repack. This crisis averted, we went through security where a more serious travesty occurred. Our Vegemite, used for only a couple of slices of toast, was seized. I was very distraught, and the tiredness probably didn't help. We had been very careful about keeping liquids and our cutlery out of our daypacks but the Vegemite had escaped our attention. The plane trip was a short one, although I managed to steal a few more precious minutes of sleep, and we arrived in Dublin ahead of schedule. This did not, however, make us feel any better about our fifty-minute wait at passport control. On the upside, we got into the city for a very cheap €1.90 each, were dropped off almost right outside our hostel (Avalon House) and logged on for some much needed internet time to ensure our families knew we weren't dead. Dublin is nice, it doesn't have the charm of Edinburgh, but it feels like it has a really nice mix of contemporary culture and history. I think we'll appreciate it more after we do our walking tour tomorrow after a good night's sleep.
We didn't really do much else, just wandered around and did some shopping. In fact, the highlight of the day was probably Keeley's "epic nachos", a truly magnificent creation of bolognaise sauce, cheese, corn chips and sour cream. Best of all the leftover sauce should feed us for the next couple of days. Find your ideal job with SEEK Time for change?
Our last two hostels had advertised free wireless internet, but they were "broken" and not on offer respectively, so I haven't updated in a couple of days. Sitting in the hostel in Dublin, will update again tonight hopefully.
DAY 21 – LONDON08/01/2009
After stumbling upon a 25% discount to the London Bridge Experience and London Tombs, we thought we'd head there and check it out, It turned out to be one of the more interesting and exciting things we'd done, although I'm not sure it will come out that well in words. We were first led through a short 'interactive' immersive exhibit where we were tasked to 'go back in time' and learnt about the history of the various bridges that have spanned the Thames at that spot (each replacing the former and all called the London Bridge). It was pretty well done, the actors were all very good and the props were impressive. There has been a bridge on that site since forty-something AD, and interestingly the wooden buildings on the stone bridge burnt down only a couple of years before the great Fire of London in 1666, and this ended up providing a barrier that prevented the fire from spreading south of the river. Following our 'experience' we went down into the not-historically-accurate frightfest that was the Tombs. It was really good, not truly terrifying but suspenseful enough shuffling through pitch-black rooms with only strobe lights to guide us and lots of people jumping out at us etc.
Our night ended with the long-awaited pub-crawl. It was very enjoyable, and we met a lot of really nice people and got really good value from our tickets, with free shots and cheap drink deals. We met a lot of Americans, who were really good fun, and although they may not be lifelong friends, they did make the night a lot easier with their shenanigans. One guy, Mike from Virginia, practically skulled a bottle of red wine that we bought on the way from one pub to another. The pubs were a good mix, with one terrible 'American-themed' one (which had really nice Long Island Iced Teas), a grungy Belushi's franchise arrangement, a no-music 'traditional British pub', a funky contemporary modern one with a cool upstairs balcony overlooking everyone, and an electro-club style one that we ended at. All of today was very much recommended for anyone coming to London, that's for sure.
DAY 22 – LONDON09/01/2009
We dragged ourselves out of bed for breakfast, but our post-2am bedtime got the better of us and we went back to bed for a bit. This hostel (one of an apparently new 'Smart' franchise, in Russell Square) is really good for that – each bed has its own little set of curtains so you can block out the light and sleep whenever you want. There's also a cool little RF keycard system, although it and the Oyster card sometimes get confused so you have to keep them separate. Brekky was good; it was much like everywhere else but with one crucial difference – the jar of Vegemite I bought in the supermarket yesterday. It was hidden on the bottom shelf, but the yellow jar and lid was unmistakable. I didn't realise how much I'd missed it, and from now on breakfasts will be that much better.
We headed to Greenwich today, in London's southeast. The train ride was interesting – the docklands has its own dedicated light rail line, similar I guess to a tram, and it snaked its way through the modern, skyscraper part of London. After spending so much time at ground level amongst old buildings, it was cool to see the contemporary part of London. Also, the train was remotely controlled by an attendant roaming the carriages, and didn't have a driver per se, or even a driver's compartment, so that was different. Once in Greenwich we were disappointed to find the Cutty Sark, an old sailing ship, was covered in scaffolding and tarps, under repair, so we went to the Old Naval College (now Greenwich University I think), saw some paintings in Inigo Jones' Queen's House (one of the first Renaissance buildings in all of the UK), and wandered through the Painted Hall and the Chapel. Both of these buildings were immaculately decorated, and the Painted Hall in particular was, unsurprisingly, painted on every surface. For example, there were regular old round columns with very lifelike flutes painted onto them, a giant mural on the ceiling, and details more delicate than some of the framed paintings we've seen. It was set up as a dining hall, and I have no doubt that it would make an incredibly impressive, and expensive, function venue. After the College, we climbed the hill in Greenwich gardens to get to the Royal Observatory, where the prime meridian of the earth is located. It's a bar in the pavement with a cool sculpture at the end, nothing particularly special, although there was a pretty interesting museum of clocks and timekeeping there. One chronometer that was designed to be taken on ships to sea took 19 years to design and had over 700 precisely engineered components. We leave London to head west to Salisbury tomorrow afternoon, so we have to finish all our sightseeing pretty quickly and make the most of the day.
DAY 23 – LONDON AND SALISBURY10/01/2009
Our last day in London… We were keen to get a couple of photos of sights we hadn't really got around to, but it turned out to be a day of surprises. First we went in search of St Paul's cathedral, a truly spectacular and massive church. Alas, to our dismay there was a very steep entry charge (£8.50 for the chapel proper and £11 for the crypt) so we decided against exploring the inside too much and contented ourselves with photos of the outside. Unfortunately, one side was also covered in scaffolding for refurbishment so that limited even external photo opportunities. We went over the Millennium Bridge, which is a little underwhelming, in search of my obsession for the week – the Clink Prison museum. I have been convinced that I visited it with the family when we came in '99 and loved it, but it has proved very elusive. It turned out to be another disappointment: it isn't open over winter. Let down, we headed toward the Borough Market (sort of accidentally) and ran into the most unlikely of people – Tom Molyneux from hockey in Geelong. Of all the people in all the places… he was apparently on holiday to France and was just in London for a week to visit his aunt, and happened to be on the same stretch of footpath as us at that moment. Bizarre. The market itself was a very pleasant experience – there were all sorts of tastings: yoghurt, cheese (lots of it!), olives, pestos, bread, sweets, fruit, meat, everything. When Jamie Oliver talks of going down 'to the local market', this is what he's talking about. It was great, exclusive-tasting food from independent producers, and it wasn't really that expensive. We picked up some really good yoghurt for fifty pence a tub, including some unusual flavours like lemon (surprisingly nice) and Keeley's favourite, a fruit called damson. It's really good, and we're looking forward to eating it on our bike ride to Stonehenge tomorrow. That's the plan, anyway. We also finally got around to catching a double-decker red bus, where we lurched from stop to stop hoping we were headed in the right direction (fortunately, we were!).
Salisbury is a cute little town, with lots of one-way streets, some nice little shops, some canals, and not much else. Except for the massive Sainsburys (a supermarket chain here) with all sorts of things in an Aldi style – TVs and toasters to food and clothing. Alas, however, it was beaten out for our affections for the smaller Tesco store across the canal where we purchased a toffee pavlova. We were impressed, to say the least, even if we did eat it half-frozen. The hostel is a country house type of arrangement, which is a welcome change from our urban hostels, and is pretty well equipped and clean, which is nice. There are no mixed dorms though, and it is rather quiet, so Keeley gets a whole 8-bed dorm to herself. Privacy is nice, but we think she'll be a bit lonely.
DAY 24 – SALISBURY11/01/2009
With our minds set on riding bikes the short 8 miles to Stonehenge, we set off this morning in search of places to hire bikes. Alas, the place that the lady at the hostel sent us to doesn't seem to exist, but a very nice girl in Costa (think Gloria Jeans) helped us out. We discovered that, unsurprisingly, everything is closed on Sundays. A little dejected, we got on the bus and headed to the famous rocks. The trip was okay, the prerecorded commentary was interesting enough, but the countryside was nothing special. There were a few burial mounds of great historic and spiritual significance along the way, but they looked like, well, mounds. Stonehenge itself was much more magnificent, rooted in a big sort of hill, looking over an otherwise pretty barren landscape. I have to admit though, the stones weren't quite a big as I had expected. Don't get me wrong, though, they weigh an average of 65 tonnes and it is suitably impressive to behold. Our £14.50 bus ticket got us fast-tracked entry into the Stonehenge area, skipping the rather modest line. As the afternoon wore on there were more and more people coming, so I can imagine it would get pretty hectic during summer. We braved the wind to listen to the complementary audio guide talk about the history of the stones, with some pretty interesting bits about its construction. It was made using carpentry methods like tongue-in-groove and mortice joints, the stones have, on average, one third of their mass below the ground, and some of the stones were transported around 240 miles, probably along the Avon river. Apparently some people tried to recreate that journey in 2002 and failed, showing how impressive a feat that was over five thousand years ago. The price probably wasn't really good value, but I'm really glad we did it. It was one of those things I'm glad I experienced in person rather than just through pictures on the net.
Faced with a lot of time to kill in Salisbury, we wandered the streets, looking in shops and the like. We also visited the Salisbury cathedral, a disproportionately large church for the size of the town, and it is really something special. It has been really well maintained, the space makes you feel tiny, there is a brilliant fountain at the front entry and a chapter house and cloister garden at the back. The chapter house annexe at the back is important because it houses one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta, an agreement between the people of Britain and King John which granted them specific rights. It was the first codified human rights agreement in history, and the building is a bit of a shrine to it. The guide who spoke to us about it was a bit old and doddery, and seemed to confuse herself and forget what she had already told us. It was pretty funny really.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, just sitting on buses on our way to Stansted airport. We stopped for a stunning, cheap meal at Yates' pub in Southampton, and are now settling down to a no doubt uncomfortable night on the airport tiles. We fly out early tomorrow morning and unfortunately we wouldn't be able to get here in time if relying on public transport.
After briefly visiting the Science and Natural History museums on our first day in London, we knew it was going to be a whole-day effort to try and see it all. That effort was today. We went to the Natural History museum first, and that was suitably interesting, with lots of skeletons and stuffed animals (not of the cute and cuddly kind). You forget just how big some of these animals can get – life-size models of blue whales and dinosaurs made us feel very small. There was an interesting little section on herd animals such as elephants, deer, hogs, horses, etc that was kind of cool, and the models and skeletons of the really deep sea fish were the most captivating of the animal exhibits. There was also a room upstairs devoted to rocks, minerals and crystals, which I could have probably spent hours in. The sheer number of specimens was indescribable.
The Science Museum was predictably more colourful, noisy and hands-on. We spent a fair bit of time in the energy section, where we learnt (revised?) lots of stuff about renewable energy, electricity, etc etc. Keeley played a game that cast you as the minister for energy in the government, and you had to choose the location and type of power station to provide enough energy to the community while keeping the people on side. Predictably, she failed miserably, although we think it may have been because it was an unbeatable scenario. There was an exhibit on post-WW2 Britain and the technological advances of the time – my personal favourite was the alarm clock from the 50s or 60s that boiled a pot of tea for you after you woke up. Upstairs we saw a small setup about medical science, including an iron lung, various life support machines, x-rays, CT scanners, DNA testing machines (all that chem and biology came flooding back…), the works. As we were leaving, we noticed a surprisingly large exhibition on the history of mathematics, complete with graphing machines the size of couches, and a lot of 3D models of surfaces, Klein bottles, etc. It was all really interesting, and I could have easily spent several hours in that section alone (as it was also coupled with the history of computers). One particular 'machine' was a model of the financial system, where water is used to simulate the flow of money in a closed financial environment. Various valves were adjusted to show the flow-on effect of, say, a tax cut and how it would theoretically affect consumer spending and saving habits, in turn affecting investments, so on and so forth. I could almost hear Pat telling me how it has so many inaccuracies, but it was a very cool concept and would have been fun to play around with. Alas, by this time we had spent several solid hours in the two museums and it was time to move on. We did a few tidy-ups like getting Keeley an England badge to add to her collection and a bit of research about skiing, had a really nice Italian dinner and watched a movie on the laptop. We leave for our next hostel in the morning, so we had to pack a bit today although it wasn't as bad as in Scotland (thank God). We're thinking we overpacked (surprise, surprise) so one of our families could be receiving a package soon, if we get the guts to choose which of our 'essential' items to send home.
Our last day in the Scottish capital was a surprisingly busy day. The time we spent packing yesterday was well spent, and we were quickly out of our room and looking for something to do. We decided to attempt the walk to the top of Arthur's Seat, the 251-metre high volcanic mountain overlooking the city. On the way down the Royal Mile, we ducked in and out of shops looking for a pin for Keeley to add to her collection as a memento. Although this was fruitless, we did stumble upon a very cool children's toy museum with all sorts of exhibits of dolls, bears, clothing, collectables (eg tins), and other assorted ads and knick-knacks. It was surprisingly big and well laid out for a free museum with a tiny shopfront. We wandered past Hollyroodhouse, the Queen's official residence, and some very modern buildings such as the Scottish Parliament, and went up the mountain. Owing to Scottish law about free land, there wasn't really a defined path to take and we quickly discovered that you could walk any way you want to the summit. It was so cold the ground was frozen, which actually helped us out because it would have been very slippery in the mud otherwise. The view was stunning from the top, and visibility was very clear (unlike my trek to Calton's Hill the other day).
Beginning to get hungry, we made our way back to the Grassmarket and revisited Maggie Dickson's for the special student deal (two meals for £7.95). My bangers and mash was nothing special but Keeley's chilli con carne was pretty impressive. The search for the souvenir pin continued, and it turned out the perfect one was right under our noses near the castle the whole time – we must have walked past that shop a dozen times but never gone in. Keeley also finally found a Scottish hat that she not only liked but fits her, and we followed an Israeli anti-war protest to our now-regular haunt, the Brass Monkey.
Following a movie there we went to Jimmy Chung's all-you-can-eat buffet to fill up for our long bus ride to London overnight. The food was actually pretty good, and some of us filled up perhaps a little too much. After five plates of hot food and six bowls of dessert, Keeley was not feeling so well and removed a little food from her system. You can't say she didn't get her £12 though. We picked up our bags and went to the bus station, the Scottish part of our adventure over and keen to see the rest Europe.
DAY 17 – LONDON04/01/2009
A very long and disrupted bus ride got us into London ahead of schedule, and when we called our hostel they had apparently lost our booking. Fortunately the email confirmation I had saved on my laptop came to the rescue and we had a bit of a nanna-nap for the rest of the morning. The dorm is nothing special – just a four-bed mixed dorm with a very ordinary looking toilet, basic shower and fridge in the room. The kitchen is reasonably stocked, but the microwave doesn't work. The area is nice enough and there's lots of shops and stuff around. We bought a week-long Oyster card (their equivalent to MyKi) which is brilliant. So easy to hop on and hop off to all the underground stations. The stations are pretty big and have multiple exits so that most points of the city are only a block away from one tube station or another. Sometimes you accidentally end up at a different station to what you were headed to, but it doesn't matter because the network is so well connected here.
The major excitement of the day was going to Harrod's. This redefines what you think of when you say 'department store'. Our analogy was this – if you were a well-off person with a good insurance policy and your house burnt down, you would only have to go to Harrod's to fit out your new house. There was clothing, food (ready to eat and raw), homewares, furniture, toys, music, games, bikes, horseriding gear, ski and snow gear, shoes, bedding, and more helpful staff than you could poke a stick at. It was a truly eye-opening experience as to what shopping could become. It was like a shopping centre with rooms instead of tenancies. Amazing.
Our roommates for the night were Brazilians who slept at all sorts of funny times, meaning we were always interrupting each other when we came in and out. That was a bit annoying, as was the cold of the room (the heater didn't work) and the fact I kept hitting my head on the kitchen ceiling and doorframe. Our discomfort is growing by the minute, and I for one can't wait to get out of this place.
DAY 18 – LONDON05/01/2009
Breakfast at the Central Hostel was nothing special – toast, jam and stale cornflakes. The TV room/dining room/reception is comfy enough, but the dimly lit, low ceiling-ed kitchen will probably be what I remember. That and the cold. It was cold last night, but it's all okay because we moved out and on to bigger and better things, kind of. In my haste to get away from the other place, I had looked at a number of hostels on the internet, and the prices of this one I particularly liked were going up in front of our eyes – the managers obviously decided it was time to step it up. Keen to get the cheap dorm, we booked it. The hostel, Christopher's Inn in Hammersmith, is a big step up from the last place. For a start, it is warm. Secondly, I can see the Hammersmith underground station as I write this from my bed, so the location is perfect for us. There is a nice looking public bar on the ground floor, and the staff are friendly and didn't lose our booking. Unfortunately, there is no kitchen. Not even a microwave. This has slowed our good record of being grossly under-budget, and Keeley was very unimpressed. I don't think it was the hostel really, because it is quite nice, but rather that she's getting sick of the museums and especially galleries that we've been to. This puts us in a bit of a bother, because these are the sorts of things that are free and get us in from the cold.
Speaking of cold, it finally happened. Perhaps a week or two too late, but it snowed today. It wasn't enough to cover the ground or even take a good photo, but it was magic. Maybe it was just because we wanted it so bad, but it was very satisfying for the couple of minutes that it lasted. It's a bit ironic it happened in the middle of London and not for the entire time we were in Scotland though.
Our activities today were mainly moving, wandering the streets, and visiting Somerset House. The amazing courtyard had some ice-skating on, but we went into the Courtauld Gallery (strangely, free admission on Mondays) and saw some very nice impressionist works and watercolours. We also went to nearby Covent Garden Markets, which was a little uninspiring. Our dinner was perhaps the most impressive adventure of the day – 'Ultimate' burgers at Edward's, a small pub on the corner of Hammersmith Broadway, which we got a two-for-one deal on. They were massive, and Keeley struggled to finish hers. We also bought a giant frozen chocolate cake from a discount supermarket nearby and ate some of that, which was very satisfying.
I'm getting to that point where I'm worrying about how long we're spending here and in Dublin. It's quickly coming to the fore that we're going to get very sick of museums and buildings if we continue to spend days at a time in cities. When we get to the continent I think we'll stick to one or two days in a place, get a feel for it, do the major attractions and move on. Otherwise this is going to turn into a grind rather than a holiday. Keeley is keen to make sure we take our time, but she's also getting bored with the lack of excitement. Hopefully our planned pub-crawl in the coming days will take the edge off that.
DAY 19 - LONDON 06/01/2009
Keen to do something "fun" today, we headed to perhaps the biggest tourist attraction in London – the Tower of London. The admission wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and we got a lot more for our money than we did at Edinburgh Castle. We arrived just in time to join a tour of the grounds with a bona-fide 'Beefeater', an older bloke whose time in the military then as a glorified tour guide had obviously made him a little insane. He certainly kept the tour interesting though and worked the rather large group pretty well. We learnt a lot about the terrible history of the Tower and grounds, particularly about its history as a makeshift prison. The Tower itself was constructed in 1066, and it's incredible to think that a single building can last in such a brilliant condition for so long (until you see the huge amount of scaffolding around it for maintenance works). There is a cool little chapel on the grounds, and when they replaced the floor a couple of hundred years ago they found the remains of around 1500 people buried beneath it. It also houses the remains of three of Henry VIII's wives and three other 'traitors' underneath the altar. We saw a long, protracted and rather confusing procession of rooms leading to the Crown Jewels, which was okay I suppose, but I liked the setup at Edinburgh better. We also wandered around the grounds and into the Tower itself, which had a large collection of armour, swords, handguns, and the history of minting and coinage spread out over its floors. It was interesting, but a little dry. The better rooms were around the outer wall, such as the Bloody Tower where the two heirs to the throne (aged 9 and 12) mysteriously disappeared after their uncle (next in line) saw them alone. Their bodies were found in another part of the castle hundreds of years later behind a false wall. There was a little tower devoted to the medieval residences of the monarchs, which was well set out, and a couple of relatively entertaining rooms about diamonds, Queen Adelaide's crown (she wasn't happy with her coronation crown so made a new one) and what it would have been like to be a soldier in the Tower.
We were very hungry, and went away for some food. Keeley is convinced the cold is fuelling her appetite, and cold it is. Today was the most spectacular day, with completely clear blue skies and no wind, but the air temp is pretty low. They’re expecting snow tomorrow morning, so we’ll see how that eventuates. We ended up at the Tate Modern for some culture, but quickly realised how much we hate modern art. After just over an hour we couldn’t take it any more so went back to the hostel to do some planning for the coming days.
We started the arduous task of packing up our room today, which had started to look like a war zone/Keeley’s bedroom over the last two weeks. Surprisingly, it didn’t take long to get everything back into our bags. As our reward we wandered down to the end of Princes Street to the French market that had been set up. It was uninspiring, but we did discover yet another discount shop, PoundLand. We had previously experienced the wonders of £-Stretcher, but this was something else. There was all kinds of BRAND NAME stuff, and unlike the Two-Dollar-Shop, everything was actually £1. We also went to Camera Obscura, on Dad’s recommendation, and weren’t disappointed. Some of the stuff in there was really cool, the holograms were so good that you felt like you could touch them, there was a computer program that could distort your face to look like a monkey or baby, a wall that could ‘capture’ your shadow, a ‘neverending’ ladder to Australia, plasma balls and lightning tubes, kaleidoscopes, the camera obscura itself with its 360° reflected view of the city… heaps of cool stuff. It was really enjoyable. Dinner was an okay tikka misala with slightly undercooked dumplings in it (my fault), and now we’re about to head to bed for our last night in this hostel. I’m excited to get moving again, and we just hope our next hostels will be as good as this one.
Really quiet day today, rest and relax before we head off to London in a couple of days. Truth be told it's probably more that we don't really have much else to do. We've probably spent a few days more here than we needed to, and both of us are getting anxious to move on (me moreso than Keeley I think, or at least longer). The shine the hostel had last week has faded because all the friends we made are hiding upstairs in the permanent section and the tour group is either here talking with each other or gone on some excursion. So bored was I that I even went for a run today. It wasn't as cold as I had expected, but my lungs hurt a bit at the end from the cold air (or is that just lack of fitness?). It'll be good to get going again, to become travellers again.
With the thousands of new people staying at the hostel, all presumably throwing money at the tour they are on, breakfast stepped up a notch. In addition to the regular cereal and bread, we had yoghurt, fruit, three different types of marmalade, three different types of jam, the works. Other than that, we had a low-key preparation for Hogmanay, just organising drinks, buying Keeley some amazing orange gloves, and walking around trying to find a post box to send some postcards – all of the post boxes had been boarded up for the day so that people couldn't put drinks or anything in them.
We picked up an evening meal at The Grosvenor hotel around the corner, which offered two meals and two pints for £10. Unfortunately, we weren't the only people with the same idea and it took us over an hour to get our food. The pub seemed to run out of food completely by 7pm so they obviously didn't anticipate so many people. The food was pretty good though and you can't knock the value.
The Hogmanay street party was a little more laid back than I was expecting – it's not illegal to drink on the street here so you were not only allowed, but encouraged, to bring alcohol in. Getting in was easy – flash the wristband and walk in, no queues, and it's just as well. Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the streets: it was incredible. It was kind of like a giant, open-air nightclub, except there were children as young as eight or so, up to old-age pensioners. The atmosphere was, in a word, busy. You never really felt uncomfortable like at Torquay beach or anything though – everyone seemed to genuinely be there for a good time and not to start anything. There were four open stages, two with DJs, one with a traditional Scottish band and one with rock groups like the headline Glasvegas. There was also a ticket-only stage in the park with Groove Armada, but our wristbands didn't get us into that area. Every hour before midnight they would fire a dozen warm-up fireworks, but they were nothing compared to the finale. It was neverending – normally in fireworks there are natural pauses while they reload, but this was just explosion after explosion seemingly ad infinitum. It was amazing. To round it off, everyone linked arms and sang 'Old Lang Syne' and The Proclaimers' '500 Miles'. The actual countdown and fireworks was great, but we couldn't help feeling strangely alone in the sea of people; it's definitely the sort of thing you want to come to in a group, especially because we've always spent New Year's with friends. It was also kind of strange getting New Year text messages at 1pm from Australia.
