We made it to Heathrow. A little more difficult than normal as part of the Piccadilly line track was closed, but there were replacement buses, and it only took us 2 hours to get from the hostel to here. Soph put her baggage in storage at the hostel and we've checked into the yotel. It's cool. Very happy to be spending our last night here, although we're getting up at 5.30 to shower and have coffee before we check out at 6.30 and I check in for my flight at 6.40. I can't believe I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm looking forward to going home, but I'm very sad about leaving Sophie. We've spent most of our waking time together over the last 9 weeks, and we still like each other. After tomorrow we wont see each other for 6 or 7 months!
But back to the yotel. It's space age man. It has a little set of buttons beside the bed for lights. The bed itself can be moved up and down with buttons no the little table to the side. There is also a tv. So we're cutting into sleep time by enjoying tv, from the comfort of a bed. A comfortable clean bed. It's a good farewell. Plus a good shower, so at least Sophie will get that for her trip to Heathrow. I'm so glad she came, but it is a bit of a mission here and back.
Today we started with the British museum. It was great, and it was free. It was my favourite museum so far. We only saw a tiny bit of it, its so big. I can't believe the stuff they have on display there for free, egyptian mummies, and Qing dynasty crowns, and a crystal skull, though not a real one admittedly.
After wandering around there for a couple of hours we went shopping on Oxford street. I forgot it was a Saturday. Oh wow was it hectic. Lines for changing rooms and tills. I got a couple of things, including a great pair of shoes and a great clutch. And I still have money left over, amazing I know.
So that brings us to the end.
I'm coming home. I'm going to cry with saddness leaving Sophie tomorrow, and cry with relief when I get into Auckland airport.
Don't know what else to say. I'll see many of you soon. Thanks for reading, I hope you got some entertainment out of it.
Saturday, 9 July 2011
Woke up in London yesterday.
I started to sing that line yesterday and then realised I woke up in Dublin the day before - the life of a traveller. We made it here, amd can I say, if you are ever flying out of Ireland and have a choice between Aer Lingus and Ryanair, choose Aer Lingus. They're a proper airline its so nice, but still cheap flights. We flew into Gatwick airport rather than Heathrow, which was a bit of a lack of forward thinking on my part because we saved around 5 euros on the flights, but ended up paying more than that to get from Gatwick to the centre of the city. It was a bit of a mission getting from Gatwick to the hostel, took around 2 hours. We caught a train into town, and then got on the underground out to the hostel, which is quite a way out of town. The underground station in town was Victoria, one of the big ones, and it got a bit confusing because they had some sort of emergency so we were got sent through another entrance and through a long loop to get round to our line, which was packed with people.
Yesterday I woke with a migraine, I think in large part due to the bad sleep the night before. The problem about an 18 bed dorm is that it can take a long time for the light to go off, and people can 'forget' that there are people sleeping. Also we're in bunk beds three high and so when one person moves, the whole thing shakes. Anyway I ended up going back to bed for an hour, which effectively killed the migraine. So eventually we managed to get out to actually see some of London. We started with the tower of London. Thank you Tina for telling me I had to go. With so many free things to do in London I might have skipped it, as it costs 20 pounds. However we went anyway, as I'd been told to, and we thought we may as well see it once at least, and that time could be now. We ended up spending three hours there. We ran into one of the Yeoman tours as we entered, so we joined it. We got to see the crown jewels, the ultimate in trinkety stuff. Amazing but also amazingly over the top. We also jumped into the army (or whatever the correct name is) museum to get out of the rain. It was a bit rainy, and very windy and coldd yesterday. We also went through the walls and tours, the torture museum, which was a bit dissapointing, and saw the royal armoury in the white tour.
After having a very english lunch, I had a steak and ale pie with mash and gravey, we headed off to see the parliament building and Buckingham palace to finish our day. The parliament building was particularly impressive, for me at least. No guards to pose for photos with outside Buckingham palace, but the flag was up so the Queen was home. Somewhere in that massive building.
So the final day today. We'll go sort out some visa thing for Sophie, see the British museum, and most importantly do some shopping. Then its time to pack and head off to heathrow for the night. I'm feeling a little sad about going home, which is crazy considering how much I've been looking forward to it recently and how anxious I've been to go home. I am really looking forward to getting home, and sleeping, and seeing people. However I'm getting sad about leaving Sophie, and I could spend so much longer in London, I'm seeing so little of it.
Anyway, in around 24 hours I'll be getting ready to board my flight!
Yesterday I woke with a migraine, I think in large part due to the bad sleep the night before. The problem about an 18 bed dorm is that it can take a long time for the light to go off, and people can 'forget' that there are people sleeping. Also we're in bunk beds three high and so when one person moves, the whole thing shakes. Anyway I ended up going back to bed for an hour, which effectively killed the migraine. So eventually we managed to get out to actually see some of London. We started with the tower of London. Thank you Tina for telling me I had to go. With so many free things to do in London I might have skipped it, as it costs 20 pounds. However we went anyway, as I'd been told to, and we thought we may as well see it once at least, and that time could be now. We ended up spending three hours there. We ran into one of the Yeoman tours as we entered, so we joined it. We got to see the crown jewels, the ultimate in trinkety stuff. Amazing but also amazingly over the top. We also jumped into the army (or whatever the correct name is) museum to get out of the rain. It was a bit rainy, and very windy and coldd yesterday. We also went through the walls and tours, the torture museum, which was a bit dissapointing, and saw the royal armoury in the white tour.
After having a very english lunch, I had a steak and ale pie with mash and gravey, we headed off to see the parliament building and Buckingham palace to finish our day. The parliament building was particularly impressive, for me at least. No guards to pose for photos with outside Buckingham palace, but the flag was up so the Queen was home. Somewhere in that massive building.
So the final day today. We'll go sort out some visa thing for Sophie, see the British museum, and most importantly do some shopping. Then its time to pack and head off to heathrow for the night. I'm feeling a little sad about going home, which is crazy considering how much I've been looking forward to it recently and how anxious I've been to go home. I am really looking forward to getting home, and sleeping, and seeing people. However I'm getting sad about leaving Sophie, and I could spend so much longer in London, I'm seeing so little of it.
Anyway, in around 24 hours I'll be getting ready to board my flight!
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Final day in Dublin.
We've just been set upon by a group thats giving me busabout flashbacks. Unfortunately our room is fairly empty so I expect we'll end up with a bunch of them up with us (not all, its a very big group). So don't think I'll be catching up on much of the sleep I'm currently lacking tonight.
They're still not the worst of the people we've come across in this hostel. That honour goes to the guy that sits in the kitchen. Everyday (he's been here since we passed through last week) he sits in the same bar stool, almost all day, and stares at people coming in and out of the kitchen. It's very creepy. He just sits there with his shaved head, his tattoos, and his vaguely vacant yet still creepy look on his face, staring. All day, everyday.
For our final day in Dublin we managed to only visit free attractions. Dublin has a lot for free which is very nice. We started with the city gallery, or the Hugh Lane gallery. It was great, I liked a lot of the work, though not all. One 'artwork' was basically just an empty room. Not really what I consider art. There was a lot of good stuff though, and in one section particularly the description beside the paintings talked about the painters and the people they had painted which I found very interesting. We walked back past the GPO where the easter rising rebellion occured, which is still being used as post office. We stopped for a much needed coffee and I ordered a snickers muffin. Yeup thats right a snickers muffin. It wasn't quite as interesting as it sounds, it was basically a chocolate muffin with a couple of peanuts in it.
After lunch we waltzed off to the gallery of photography and the national museum. The national museum was good, I recommend going if you're ever in Dublin, particularly because it's free. They had an impressive collection of 1200-1000 BC golden objects. As well as viking stuff, a little Roman, and a couple of bog people. The gift shop was also very tempting, but I managed to slide through without buying any more trinkets or books.
That brings us to now. We're killing time relaxing inside where its warm. The plan is to head out for dinner, and then a guinness and Irish music around the corner. Tomorrow its on to London. A bit of a long day, the longest part being the time it will take to get from Gatwick airport to our hostel. I'll look forward to that being over. Then the only move I've got left to do is to heathrow airport to spend the night and then fly out!
They're still not the worst of the people we've come across in this hostel. That honour goes to the guy that sits in the kitchen. Everyday (he's been here since we passed through last week) he sits in the same bar stool, almost all day, and stares at people coming in and out of the kitchen. It's very creepy. He just sits there with his shaved head, his tattoos, and his vaguely vacant yet still creepy look on his face, staring. All day, everyday.
For our final day in Dublin we managed to only visit free attractions. Dublin has a lot for free which is very nice. We started with the city gallery, or the Hugh Lane gallery. It was great, I liked a lot of the work, though not all. One 'artwork' was basically just an empty room. Not really what I consider art. There was a lot of good stuff though, and in one section particularly the description beside the paintings talked about the painters and the people they had painted which I found very interesting. We walked back past the GPO where the easter rising rebellion occured, which is still being used as post office. We stopped for a much needed coffee and I ordered a snickers muffin. Yeup thats right a snickers muffin. It wasn't quite as interesting as it sounds, it was basically a chocolate muffin with a couple of peanuts in it.
After lunch we waltzed off to the gallery of photography and the national museum. The national museum was good, I recommend going if you're ever in Dublin, particularly because it's free. They had an impressive collection of 1200-1000 BC golden objects. As well as viking stuff, a little Roman, and a couple of bog people. The gift shop was also very tempting, but I managed to slide through without buying any more trinkets or books.
That brings us to now. We're killing time relaxing inside where its warm. The plan is to head out for dinner, and then a guinness and Irish music around the corner. Tomorrow its on to London. A bit of a long day, the longest part being the time it will take to get from Gatwick airport to our hostel. I'll look forward to that being over. Then the only move I've got left to do is to heathrow airport to spend the night and then fly out!
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Today I went to Hollywood.
Yep thats right. However not the Hollywood you are all probably thinking of. The one from the Cheiftans song, the one in Wicklow county. Ok I haven't written for a couple of days so I have a little to catch up on. My only excuse is that I forgot yesterday. So I'll back track a little. We caught the bus across from Galway ok, this time managing to pick up lunch on the way to the bus stop so it was a lot less painful a trip this time. Also this time we're in the section of the building behind the red door, which is great because it means that instead of having to ask reception to open the door (like the black door) you just push the buzzer and they can ping it open from inside. The first night in there we had a chatty Dutch man who talked very fondly of NZ, having lived there back in the 80s. He was a wandering soul type. He told a story about driving a cab around Amsterdam and one day just getting tired of it and ringing his old boss in NZ and asking if he had a job going and 2 weeks later he was in NZ. Nice for some, not the life for me I think.
Yesterday we again made the fatal mistake of forgetting days of the week. So we arrived on Sunday and went to do washing but the place was closed. We rearranged our tour to do today so we could do our laundry yesterday (the most expensive laundry place so far unfortunately, almost twice what we've ever paid before). After handing in our dirty clothes and told we could get them back clean at 3 we came back to decide what to do with the day. The national museum and national gallery were both free and right next to each other so we started there. Again the days of the week tripped us up, the national museum was closed. The national gallery wasn't, though only had a couple of rooms open because of renovations. It was still quite good though, saw another Picasso and another Monet, and a few Irish artists, and a French artist that was in the Irish section that I quite liked (we'd seen him before in Vienna).
Since we had the whole afternoon free we headed off to Kilmainham gaol which I really wanted to see. We caught the tram, which they call the Laos here, and which we discovered didn't stop as close to the gaol as the map implied. But we got there, and did the tour. It was a very good tour, they took you all through the gaol, the 200 year old section and the more modern section, and told you a decent amount of history about it, including the easter rising stuff. You also got taken outside to the yard where the easter rising leaders were executed - and told the story of how James Connolly was dying from blood poisioning and a few other things, but they still strechered him in, and when he couldn't stand tied him to a chair to execute him. The story of course stirred up a bit of bad feeling. Nice work British.
We survived the day of feeling a bit over tired and pissy with the world, and the nights sleep seemed to help us both, and today we went on the tour of Wicklow and Kilkenny. It was a good tour, though we ended up with 2 and a half hours in Kilkenny with no idea what to do. We wasted and hour having a pub lunch, and I got a chance to try a Kilkenny beer, quite a good beer actually. The castle up there was pretty impressive, though our bus driver advised us not to bother doing the tour because he said all the stuff inside was replicas.
On the way up to Kilkenny we stopped in a couple of places for photo stops, and one longer stop for just over an hour at a place called Glendalough. It was beautiful. We got dropped down by the lakes and wandered around the paths there for a little while coming upon an old church, and then walked back up to the hotel to the bus again, going through the Monastic city which was very cool. The churches and castles in Ireland seem to be a lot older than any others we've come across so far. We made it back to the hotel in time to get coffee (yay) and a very good muffin/scone.
I should also tell you about our busdriver/tour guide Mike. I loved him, very funny, very Irish. As we drove out of Dublin he displayed his scorn for; the English, the rich; and the Irish politicians. The rich were 'the hooty tooty, heads up there arses' folks. The politicians were the money wasters building useless spikes (he gave it a bunch of brilliant names non of which I can remember). The jokes continued throughout the trip, I'm when I get home and start remembering more you'll hear them.
One last day in Dublin tomorrow, then the long mission to get to London, the longest bit being the trip from the airport to the hostel. Then its just a couple of days till I leave!
Yesterday we again made the fatal mistake of forgetting days of the week. So we arrived on Sunday and went to do washing but the place was closed. We rearranged our tour to do today so we could do our laundry yesterday (the most expensive laundry place so far unfortunately, almost twice what we've ever paid before). After handing in our dirty clothes and told we could get them back clean at 3 we came back to decide what to do with the day. The national museum and national gallery were both free and right next to each other so we started there. Again the days of the week tripped us up, the national museum was closed. The national gallery wasn't, though only had a couple of rooms open because of renovations. It was still quite good though, saw another Picasso and another Monet, and a few Irish artists, and a French artist that was in the Irish section that I quite liked (we'd seen him before in Vienna).
Since we had the whole afternoon free we headed off to Kilmainham gaol which I really wanted to see. We caught the tram, which they call the Laos here, and which we discovered didn't stop as close to the gaol as the map implied. But we got there, and did the tour. It was a very good tour, they took you all through the gaol, the 200 year old section and the more modern section, and told you a decent amount of history about it, including the easter rising stuff. You also got taken outside to the yard where the easter rising leaders were executed - and told the story of how James Connolly was dying from blood poisioning and a few other things, but they still strechered him in, and when he couldn't stand tied him to a chair to execute him. The story of course stirred up a bit of bad feeling. Nice work British.
We survived the day of feeling a bit over tired and pissy with the world, and the nights sleep seemed to help us both, and today we went on the tour of Wicklow and Kilkenny. It was a good tour, though we ended up with 2 and a half hours in Kilkenny with no idea what to do. We wasted and hour having a pub lunch, and I got a chance to try a Kilkenny beer, quite a good beer actually. The castle up there was pretty impressive, though our bus driver advised us not to bother doing the tour because he said all the stuff inside was replicas.
On the way up to Kilkenny we stopped in a couple of places for photo stops, and one longer stop for just over an hour at a place called Glendalough. It was beautiful. We got dropped down by the lakes and wandered around the paths there for a little while coming upon an old church, and then walked back up to the hotel to the bus again, going through the Monastic city which was very cool. The churches and castles in Ireland seem to be a lot older than any others we've come across so far. We made it back to the hotel in time to get coffee (yay) and a very good muffin/scone.
I should also tell you about our busdriver/tour guide Mike. I loved him, very funny, very Irish. As we drove out of Dublin he displayed his scorn for; the English, the rich; and the Irish politicians. The rich were 'the hooty tooty, heads up there arses' folks. The politicians were the money wasters building useless spikes (he gave it a bunch of brilliant names non of which I can remember). The jokes continued throughout the trip, I'm when I get home and start remembering more you'll hear them.
One last day in Dublin tomorrow, then the long mission to get to London, the longest bit being the trip from the airport to the hostel. Then its just a couple of days till I leave!
Saturday, 2 July 2011
The farming Bernard.
No blog yesterday as I didn't do anything yesterday except feel hungover and sleep pretty much. Except for buying a bright yellow handbag, which I then shoved in its black cover bag because it was too bright. We got back to our room after going for a walk on Thursday night and found it full of drinking Irish ex students. They had gone to Galway university and were back for a reunion after finishing up a month ago. So we sat and talked to them for a while and they told us we should join them. So we did. However we left the hostel completely sober. Never a good idea to play catch up with drinking, as exemplified by the hungover I had to live through yesterday.
Anyway because of said condition we did the tour to the cliffs today instead od yesterday. It was a good day out, we were incredibly lucky and had beautiful weather for most of the day, just a bit of cloud. My favourite part wasn't actually the cliffs, though they were amazing. It was the walking tour we did of a farm in the Burren region. You know how I had a plan to move to Galway? Well now I want to move to the Burren. It was the most peaceful I've felt this whole trip. Despite the guide - our farming Bernard. That's a Black Books reference for those that haven't picked it up yet. Our guide was so maniac, and very funny, in a very Irish way. As we walked down the hill again he frolicked, I swear to god frolicked down the field, and seemed to wonder why we didn't join him. He also asked around the group at the start and found out where we were from, so from then on Sophie and I were nicknamed New Zealand. Same as the other night out with the Irish engineers. Same as with the bouncer back in Maastricht. A very popular nickname in this part of the world. Did I tell you that before? That the ex-students we went out with were engineers? Yea I know, double whammy.
The walking tour was the first thing we did. We also stopped for an hour at the cliffs, which was just enough time to walk one way down them and back. I'll put up photos at some point - it'll show you the cliffs much better than I could ever describe them. We also made a couple of photo stops on the way back up from Doolin where we had lunch. A pub lunch. A hot meal with two kinds of potatoes - thats the Irish for you. The coast road was very gorgeous. Very narrow roads though. They barely fit the bus let alone it and traffic going the other way.
The bus driver was incredibly knowledgable about the area. He obviously drives the route a lot. So he filled us in on all the castle and church remains in the country side around us, and there were a lot. He was also able to point out the fields wit rabbits, foals, and even donkey foals, which he would stop alongside to let us all 'aw' at. Baby donkies are very cute. We got back fairly late, partly due to traffic because theres a hurling match on tonight between this county and the next. I would put it on the tv at the hostel but I don't know how into it the other guests would be.
So tomorrow is back to Dublin. And tomorrow is also a week till I fly out. Time is getting short.
Anyway because of said condition we did the tour to the cliffs today instead od yesterday. It was a good day out, we were incredibly lucky and had beautiful weather for most of the day, just a bit of cloud. My favourite part wasn't actually the cliffs, though they were amazing. It was the walking tour we did of a farm in the Burren region. You know how I had a plan to move to Galway? Well now I want to move to the Burren. It was the most peaceful I've felt this whole trip. Despite the guide - our farming Bernard. That's a Black Books reference for those that haven't picked it up yet. Our guide was so maniac, and very funny, in a very Irish way. As we walked down the hill again he frolicked, I swear to god frolicked down the field, and seemed to wonder why we didn't join him. He also asked around the group at the start and found out where we were from, so from then on Sophie and I were nicknamed New Zealand. Same as the other night out with the Irish engineers. Same as with the bouncer back in Maastricht. A very popular nickname in this part of the world. Did I tell you that before? That the ex-students we went out with were engineers? Yea I know, double whammy.
The walking tour was the first thing we did. We also stopped for an hour at the cliffs, which was just enough time to walk one way down them and back. I'll put up photos at some point - it'll show you the cliffs much better than I could ever describe them. We also made a couple of photo stops on the way back up from Doolin where we had lunch. A pub lunch. A hot meal with two kinds of potatoes - thats the Irish for you. The coast road was very gorgeous. Very narrow roads though. They barely fit the bus let alone it and traffic going the other way.
The bus driver was incredibly knowledgable about the area. He obviously drives the route a lot. So he filled us in on all the castle and church remains in the country side around us, and there were a lot. He was also able to point out the fields wit rabbits, foals, and even donkey foals, which he would stop alongside to let us all 'aw' at. Baby donkies are very cute. We got back fairly late, partly due to traffic because theres a hurling match on tonight between this county and the next. I would put it on the tv at the hostel but I don't know how into it the other guests would be.
So tomorrow is back to Dublin. And tomorrow is also a week till I fly out. Time is getting short.
Thursday, 30 June 2011
I have a plan.
That plan is that in a couple of years, once I've found a job of some substantive nature, I will move to Galway for a couple of years. I really like Galway. It's exactly what you'd picture a small Irish coastal city to be. It's colours are almost completely grey and green (except for the shop fronts of course) but they suit the place so well. There is a fantastic rippling river running through the city. I also love its size. It is small, but there are plenty of people about, to give it a good atmosphere. Walking down the main shopping street, which we did many times today, is great fun because there are buskers all up and down it. Some better than others. One today was particularly brilliant and I managed to get a cd. Which I then realised I can't listen to until I get home, but that doesn't matter. Books are also incredibly cheap here. We whiled away a good hour in a little new and second hand book store and I could have bought so many books. I managed to keep myself to three - I'm going to have very full carry on luggage on the flight home.
We didn't get up to much today, just perusing shops. There are tons of fantastic trinket shops around here, I've picked up one necklace and could have gotten so many more. There was one gold one I particularly loved, but 180 euros did seem a bit of an excessive spend, oh and these gorgeous little egg shaped pendants, 169 euros. It's a dangerous place. I still have Dublins shops to search through though as well of course.
The weather was mostly fairly bleak today, the occassional ray of sunshine, but it seems very irish to be chilly and grey. Hopefully tomorrow there will be a little more sun though, and a little less rain, as we're off to do a day tour to the cliffs of Moher. Looking forward to that a lot.
Just a short one today, not much else to say about this place really. I'll show you photos instead. Though you kind of have to be here.
We didn't get up to much today, just perusing shops. There are tons of fantastic trinket shops around here, I've picked up one necklace and could have gotten so many more. There was one gold one I particularly loved, but 180 euros did seem a bit of an excessive spend, oh and these gorgeous little egg shaped pendants, 169 euros. It's a dangerous place. I still have Dublins shops to search through though as well of course.
The weather was mostly fairly bleak today, the occassional ray of sunshine, but it seems very irish to be chilly and grey. Hopefully tomorrow there will be a little more sun though, and a little less rain, as we're off to do a day tour to the cliffs of Moher. Looking forward to that a lot.
Just a short one today, not much else to say about this place really. I'll show you photos instead. Though you kind of have to be here.
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
In the land of Irish accents.
As you can probably all guess, I'm loving being surrounded by people with Irish accents. Although almost all the hostel workers we've come across so far seem to be French. Go figure.
We managed to get through the Ryanair flight. I was not a fan of the whole Beauvais airport thing. We spent an hour on the metro, to spend an hour and a half on the bus to the airport. We made it however, and got our baggage checked in. Thank god I paid for the 20 kilo baggage allowance. Sophies bag weighed in at a crazy light 8 kilos. Mine was 19. No wonder I've been struggling to get it on my back recently. This could be a bit of a problem when leaving London with the shopping I plan to do. I'm going to have to get brutal with throwing things out.
After eating a quick lunch we jumped in the security queue. Oh dear. It was another stinking hot day in Paris, and the air conditioning in the airport was, well, non existant. Just as we got to the front of the line I noticed one of the border police leave the little checking box and wander over to a bag. Unattended baggage, oh yay. So we waited. And waited. The growing line of hot time pressured people not allowed to pass through the border check. Eventually, after far too long a time, some guy came back through security to collect it. The other people in line clapped him, I was frustrated I had no fruit (of the rotten variety) to throw at him. That all cleared up we got through and practically straight on the plane. Time for another delay, because of various hold ups we had to wait for clearance to take off, so left the airport 25 mins late.
At least it was a short flight. Just another delay in getting our baggage, and a long wait for the paddy wagon and we made it to the hostel. Our hostel in Dublin has the fantastic service of free airport transfers. So brilliant. We'll be back there in a couple of days to see Dublin and to do one of the day tours. For now though we're in Galway, which was a simple transfer between cities. We just had a lesiurely get up, checked out and wandered the 100ms to the bus station, and caught the 10am express to Galway. I have to point out, the nonstop express to Galway only means that there were no bathroom breaks, it didn't mean the bus didn't stop. It did. In four different towns, and two stops in two them. However it didn't take to long, and an easy walk to the hostel from the station.
We went out for dinner tonight and wandered down the main shopping street in Galway, and I'm at risk of spending quite a bit of money here. Theres a celtic jewellery store I'm particularly keen to check out.
We managed to get through the Ryanair flight. I was not a fan of the whole Beauvais airport thing. We spent an hour on the metro, to spend an hour and a half on the bus to the airport. We made it however, and got our baggage checked in. Thank god I paid for the 20 kilo baggage allowance. Sophies bag weighed in at a crazy light 8 kilos. Mine was 19. No wonder I've been struggling to get it on my back recently. This could be a bit of a problem when leaving London with the shopping I plan to do. I'm going to have to get brutal with throwing things out.
After eating a quick lunch we jumped in the security queue. Oh dear. It was another stinking hot day in Paris, and the air conditioning in the airport was, well, non existant. Just as we got to the front of the line I noticed one of the border police leave the little checking box and wander over to a bag. Unattended baggage, oh yay. So we waited. And waited. The growing line of hot time pressured people not allowed to pass through the border check. Eventually, after far too long a time, some guy came back through security to collect it. The other people in line clapped him, I was frustrated I had no fruit (of the rotten variety) to throw at him. That all cleared up we got through and practically straight on the plane. Time for another delay, because of various hold ups we had to wait for clearance to take off, so left the airport 25 mins late.
At least it was a short flight. Just another delay in getting our baggage, and a long wait for the paddy wagon and we made it to the hostel. Our hostel in Dublin has the fantastic service of free airport transfers. So brilliant. We'll be back there in a couple of days to see Dublin and to do one of the day tours. For now though we're in Galway, which was a simple transfer between cities. We just had a lesiurely get up, checked out and wandered the 100ms to the bus station, and caught the 10am express to Galway. I have to point out, the nonstop express to Galway only means that there were no bathroom breaks, it didn't mean the bus didn't stop. It did. In four different towns, and two stops in two them. However it didn't take to long, and an easy walk to the hostel from the station.
We went out for dinner tonight and wandered down the main shopping street in Galway, and I'm at risk of spending quite a bit of money here. Theres a celtic jewellery store I'm particularly keen to check out.
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