Six month mark

It’s official: as of Thursday I passed the six month mark of living here in London. And I am looking forward to the next six, and however many more there may be. It’s funny to think that at this point of my Bolivia experience I was heading back to Canada, and feeling fairly ready to be going home. I can’t say I’m feeling that way about London yet.

Looking back on my time in London so far I can say that it started out a bit rough, but the city has really grown on me. I think the biggest adjustment at first was learning to live downtown in a big city. Coming from my small neighbourhood in Victoria, Central London is a busy and fast-paced place and I live right in the middle of this. It was overwhelming at first, but the more I got to know the city I was able to find places outside of the central core where I could enjoy the city without quite so much of the noise of downtown. I have to say, though, that I wouldn’t trade where I live at this point. Being so central is a real bonus when it comes to getting around for work, and for enjoying the night life on the weekends.

I suppose there was a certain novelty at first to being able to say that I live in London, England, and still is to some extent. Living in any foreign and exotic locale is exciting. However, for the most part my life here has been just that, real life. Of course, weekend trips to Paris or Ireland and Christmas in Spain are definite perks to living in the UK. Most of the time, though, I spend my week working and my weekends relaxing and enjoying the city. Real life in London.

Well, here’s to the next six months!

Land of the Shamrocks

This week marks the first week back from the Easter break. I'm back at work now, but I thought I would share my travels from the break. During the first week of my holiday I spontaneously booked a trip to Ireland. I went on a three day tour of the south coast of Ireland with Shamrocker Tours (for anyone who is thinking about going to Ireland, I would definitely recommend Shamrocker). The tour covered Dubin, Killarney, Doolin and everything in between. I was somewhat sleep deprived for most of the trip, as I chose to travel to and from Dublin overnight on the train and ferry. It only took about ten hours getting up there, but it took over twelve hours getting back to London because of waiting times for connecting trains.

The weather was grey and cloudy when we started our tour last Friday morning, but by the afternoon the clouds were gone and we had sunny skies and warm weather for the rest of the weekend. I even got a sunburn while wandering around on the second day of the tour! Amazing weather for this part of the world!

On day one we started in Dublin and drove to the Rock of Cashel. The weather was still cloudy at this point, but we walked around and took some pictures of the castle. We then went to Blarney Castle, which you will see a picture of below, and kissed the Blarney Stone. They have quite a system set up to hang you upside-down so you can kiss the stone properly! It was an experience, for sure. Next, we went spelunking at the Mitchelstown Caves. The caves were huge and very impressive, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. By supper time we were moving on to Killarney to check into our hostel. A few of us bought food at a convenience store and had a picnic dinner in Killarney National Park. The weather was perfect for a picnic, but as the sun started to go down, the bugs started to come out. So we left and headed back to the hostel. Later that evening, our tour guide had arranged for us to see a local storyteller at a nearby pub. The storyteller was an interesting guy with a talent for drinking and talking. I think he downed about four pints of Guinness and two whiskeys during the hour long show. At the pub I had my first pint of Guinness in Ireland. I had tried Guinness at home before and wasn't entirely impressed, but I have to say it tasted a lot better in Ireland. I seemed to be the only beer drinker of the female variety on the tour, so I ended up finishing a few of the other girls' half pints as well. After the storyteller we went to a local disco where a live band was playing, before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Day two started at 8:30am, leaving the hostel and heading out for a day of amazing scenery. In the morning we drove along the Dingle peninsula. We stopped at a beach and hiked down to the sand to enjoy the sun for a bit before moving on the most westerly point of Europe. It was incredible looking out over the Atlantic Ocean with nothing between us and North America except a whole bunch of water. And again, the weather was spectacular for our day of scenery. On day two we stopped for lunch in the down of Dingle, where I tried a deep fried Mars bar at one of the local pubs. So good! Mmm, nutritious lunch! (just joking, I went to the grocery store and got my real lunch after) In the afternoon we took a ferry ride across the River Shannon and drove to the Cliffs of Moher. These impressive cliffs were also used to film the Cliffs of Insanity for The Princess Bride. As day two drew nearer to its end, we drove into the little town of Doolin. And I do mean 'little'. Doolin has one main road; our hostel was at one end of it, and the pubs were in the middle of it. The group of us went to a little pub called McGann's for dinner and stayed to listen to an Irish music group who played in the evening. On our way to the pub we met a friend. As we were walking along the road a very friendly dog, named Penny as her collar suggested, came along and laid down right in the middle of the road in front of us. We thought this was kind of odd. After we had coaxed her out of the middle of the road, she followed us along to the pub. Penny was very cute and made me miss my own dog like crazy!

By day number three I think we were all a little tired. We spent part of the morning driving through the Burren, which is a desolate rocky landscape in County Clare. It was quite cold and cloudy in the early morning, which added to the feeling of this vast grey landscape. In the early afternoon we came to the Clonmacnoise monastery along the River Shannon. The sun had come out again and it was a beautiful afternoon to wander around the grounds and look at the remaining buildings and tombs. Our final stop of the tour was at Locke's whiskey distillery for a tour and whiskey tasting.

Altogether, I had an amazing time in Ireland and I hope to go back again for a tour of the rest of Ireland soon.

Blarney Castle: at the top is the Blarney Stone which I kissed... not too sure if I've got the gift of the gab now.

Me at the most westerly point of Europe, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.

Me in front of the Cliffs of Moher (aka the Cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride).

This is Penny, a very friendly dog who followed us around Doolin on our way to the pub for dinner.

Looking up the road in Doolin. The building at the top of the hill is a church, which was built on the former site of the gallows in the town. It's no wonder Doolin is known as the most haunted town in Ireland.

At the Clonmacnoise monastery.