on the way to somewhere
..you're only lost if you know where you're going..
14 hours in Dublin
2After a pleasant journey via train and ferry we had made our way to Dublin. We arrived around 5pm and were quite tired from the late nights and early mornings we had on our short stay with friends in London. But weary eyes and sore feet were not going to get in our way, we only had 14 hours in Dublin (including sleeping time) and we were going to make the most of it.
We dumped our things at Abigail’s Hostel, grabbed a free map and headed towards the Temple Bar district. We hadn’t done much reading on Dublin but what little literature we had looked over, Temple Bar had been mentioned. It was a 2 minute walk from the hostel to the area and since it was filled with pubs and restaurants we thought we would save it to the end of our evening’s tour.
Using the landmarked sites on the free map as our guide, we walked around the nearby streets to see whatever we could in the dwindling daylight. We passed some beautiful old churches and buildings, generally made out of stone. Dublin was a surprisingly quaint, clean and nice looking city but I couldn’t help feel its residents were the poorer, dumber, drunker cousins of big city Londoners. Perhaps it was all the crazy drunk homeless people we saw that gave me that impression, or maybe it was the guy that walked past us with blood seeping out the cut on his forehead. Regardless, the locals were a colourful bunch – although they surprisingly didn’t make me feel too unsafe.
As the sunlight diminished and our tummies rumbled we realised it was nearing 10pm so we headed back to the Temple Bar area for dinner. Day time travelling often means no real meals and today was no exception, so we were quite hungry and looking for a good feed. Luckily many of the pubs were offering 3 course menus at “early bird” prices and the pub we settled one came with some great food choices. Soup, bruschetta and delicious burgers filled us up, but then we were privledged to yummy icecream and Baileys flavoured cheesecake. Bellies full we headed back to the hostel, satisfied with the what we had seen in the little time we had in Dublin.
While our stay in Dublin was the shortest of our European trip, it was a great stopover and I really enjoyed my time there. As much as I’m sure there is more to do in the city, I think I would be more likely to return to Ireland to explore some of the Emerald Isle’s gorgeous countryside.
Friends in London
0Prologue: this blog entry is well overdue and my apologies to our loyal followers for its delay (hello family!) but as you can imagine there has been far more pressing issues to organise since our arrival in Whistler. Anyway…
Our stay in London was postponed by a week thanks to Eyjafjallajokul the Icelandic volcano, which meant our original 9 day stay was transformed into a whirlwind 2 day stopover. Understandably I was quite disappointed about this as time with friends was now drastically reduced, but such is life and we just had to make the most out of the little time we had.
We arrived at London Stansted airport late Monday evening. Note to travellers; airports don’t seem to operate customs during the evening so if you want to bring in half a kilo of Swiss honey rather than eat it every day for 2 weeks at your previous destination, you best travel at night. We walked through the non-EU gate, only to see it lead to the same place with no staff as the other gates, and made our way to the bus terminal. Kindly our friend Greg had volunteered to pick us up from Liverpool Street Station in the early hours of the morning and after a catch up with him we called it a night.
The next day we saw all the sights of London with Greg. It was an interesting city and one we will definitely have to revisit to explore further. The city put on some beautiful weather for our short stay, which was wonderful as it only made the gardens and parks we walked through look that much more amazing. We had some traditional English food for lunch (meat, potatoes and peas), shared some drinks and saw all the cliché British icons; black cabs, red double decker buses and the queen’s guards.
That afternoon Jase and I went our separate ways as we had different evening plans. Jase stayed in London with Greg, experiencing more of the London city culture, while I caught the train to spend the night with my friend Jess and her boyfriend Glenn at her place in Wadhurst. I had to laugh as I got on the train and looked at my fellow passengers. Prior to boarding Jason, being the good husband that he is, told me to hold on to my bag and stay safe. Somehow I don’t think the white, 50-somethings in their suits that would be worth more than everything I was carrying and wearing were going to mug me!
My arrival at Wadhurst brought on a wave of emotions. I was so happy to see Jess as for a while I didn’t think we would get to see each other at all. That evening we spent catching up over another traditional English meal at the pub and I was introduced to her lovely boyfriend and toured around her beautiful little cottage house.
The next morning Jase caught the train up from London and Jess took the two of us to an old English castle, very typical of the historic sites around her area of England. It was really enjoyable to wander the beautiful gardens while chatting to Jess. The scenery was just like you would imagine, something from a water colour painting with willow trees, lakes and greenery for as far as the eye can see.
The afternoon was spent with Jess and Nicholas, the little boy whom she cares for as a nanny. Nicholas was really cute and it was fun to hang out at the playground with them and another mum and son, just chatting away in the sunshine as the kids played on the awesome pirate themed playground. After a nice dinner at Jess’ we said our goodbyes and headed back to the train station to go back to Greg’s.
The next morning we were up early to catch the underground so we could get to the train station that would be the starting point for our trip to Dublin. While our stay in London was only very short we were lucky to see both the busy city and gorgeous countryside during our visit. Thanks to both of our wonderful friends for being such fabulous hosts and guides… we hope to see you either in the UK or Australia again soon.
Exploring Udine
0Our return visit to Udine was intended as a surprise. We enjoyed our first visit so much, and we felt as though there was some unfinished business there, so we planned our return while we were staying in Rome. I’m not sure how many of them knew we were coming, but either way they looked happy to see us.
Last time we visited, everyone knew we were coming. Many of them were able to take time off of work and as a result we were always in the company of someone – being taken on day trips to see the greater Friuli. This time, we were often on our own, much to their concern.
While our visit was a great rest, we made a point of being a bit more independant and heading out more on our own. Between having a kick of the soccer ball at the local grounds, handball and table tennis games, riding along the river down Passeggiata delle Rogge, and walking down to Rizollo and through the nearby crops, Jess and I really got to know the village and nearby villages in a lot more detail than we did on the first visit. It was a great time to catch up again – not having to think too much about our upcoming travels.
With that said we were still treated to many special occasions and the time with family was great – the goodbyes were just as tough as last time. It was just a completely different visit to the last.
Jess and I both feel as though we will be back before long. Not too sure when, but I’m sure whenever it is we will be welcome.
Volcanic Ash and Us!
1Just a quick update.
For those of you wondering where we are, we’re still in Udine, Italy.
We had a flight booked for April 20th that was cancelled due to the volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajokull, the currently active volcano in Iceland.
After reading news stories and social media websites we decided that our best option was to stay put here in Udine, and wait for the next available flight – on the 26th of April. It’s not ideal but we have read stories of people who have spent loads of money and experienced some very uncomfortable situations just to get to their destination. Since the average time to get from Rome to Paris was sounding like 3 days worth of frustrating and expensive travel, we decided to wait the 6 days for our next flight.
What does this mean for us? Well, we get more time to spend with family in Italy, but less time with friends in the UK. It was a tough call because I know how excited Jess has been to see people in the UK but unfortunately it is out of our control. Chances are it would have taken us 5 or so days to make it to London from Udine anyway, and it wouldn’t have been without some uncomfortable and frustrating times.
Planes seem to be flying today, and with any luck things should be relatively normal by the 26th. If the volcano starts spewing ash again and our flight is cancelled, we will consider heading towards Spain to escape Europe and get to Canada late April/early May as we intended.
Anyway, enough time on the computer. We are safe and happy, so no need to worry about us!
A rough night in Milan
1The cheapest destination to head out of Switzerland and back to Udine was via train to Milan. We had made the decision some time ago that we wanted to stay with my Italian family one last time before we left Europe so it was just a matter of finding a cheap and relatively hassel free means of transport back. Milan provided us with the opportunity to see another Italian city and break up our travel, whilst still taking us in the direction of Udine.
Our 5:45am train trip wasn’t the greatest of starts to the day but it was a cheap ride out of a country that has generally very expensive train travel so we were happy to deal with the lack of sleep. The early start also allowed us to spend nearly a full day sightseeing, sleep the night and then make another early (but not so early) start the next day to catch the train to Udine.
We had heard mixed things about Milan so we didn’t know what to expect. We were apprehensive upon our arrival but pleasantly surprised by the grand central station that greeted us. Since we aren’t keen shoppers there were not many items on our ‘things to do in Milan’ list. After catching the metro to our accommodation to drop off our bags we headed out to see the Duomo, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and the Castello Sforzesco. It was for the best that we didn’t want to see a lot as Jase’s heel became really sore. After a sit down in the park we headed back to our hostel and called it a day.
We headed out for dinner and awesome gelati but the real adventure of the night didn’t begin until our apparently successful business man of a roommate returned to the hostel drunk. Thankfully I slept through this first part but Jase informs me that the man came in at about 11pm and then proceeded to drink, take tablets, listen to the same song repeatedly and cry – yes, cry. You can imagine Jase’s concern that this guy was going to kill himself, or worse, kill us then himself, so he went to tell the owners. They weren’t too interested in the matter and assured Jase that the man was a happy and successful banker who practically runs the banks. Like any hotshot banker spends his business trips sharing a room with backpackers in a one star hostel! Jase returned to the room, got his earplugs and saw a brief glimpse of sleep long after the drunk did.
Then it was my turn. One in the morning rolled around and I was awoken by the sound of choking and moaning. I think with our time in hostels we’ve become fairly tolerant of snoring, but this guy took snoring to a whole other level. For around an hour I lay in bed with the pillow over my head, wishing to go and smother it over the man’s face. Thankfully the earplugs were working for Jase, and I eventually got back to sleep. And in case you were wondering, Jase contemplated waking me up to give me earplugs too but thought it better to let me sleep… he is always looking out for me.
When it eventually came the time for us to get up we were pretty tired, but the image of my beautiful cousin Serena waiting at the train station kept us going.
The Lonely Planet guide says that you either love or hate Milan but I disagree. Sure, we hated our night’s sleep however perhaps because we didn’t fully explore all that Milan has to offer I’ve left the city feeling fairly indifferent to it all.
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