Alex & Danika's 2010 Adventures: The UK

We're still playing the catch-up blogging game :-) Right now I'm writing from Hong Kong, which we're leaving later today for Bangkok, and there's a lot in between that's been going on!

Nik's last blog finished as we were leaving Paris for Bonny Ireland. We flew into Dublin and had a relaxing afternoon, braving the cold weather for a quick walk around town to buy some food for dinner and a pint in a pub, listening to live traditional Irish music. The following day we started a 5 night 6 day “Paddywagon” all Ireland tour – if it sounds rushed, it was! When I was traveling with Adam in 2005 we did another tour with this company and enjoyed it, so thought we'd use them again. Perhaps I'm getting older, I don't think I'd review them quite so well this time around!

Regardless, Ireland is an amazingly beautiful place, with a rich history and culture, all things we thoroughly enjoyed. The itinerary took us to Belfast first, where we were confronted by the history of the last 40 years. It feels weird for such a modern, western country such as England to be having a civil war in its own back yard, within our lifetime. The following day was on to The Giant's Causeway (an amazing place, our photos probably don't do it justice), then Derry, also in Northern Ireland for more history delivered by a Derry local, allbeit on a walking tour in the dark (at 4pm) and rain. I found it a fascinating place, full of pretense.

We continued in our anti-clockwise route to Galway, on the west coast. Each day usually involves half a dozen stops at sites (churches, monasteries, castles, natural wonders etc), lunch at a pub (the only thing better than an Irish Pub is an English Pub) then dossing at a hostel, all the while being entertained and educated by our crazy tour guide/driver Joe. Galway had Christmas markets (most places seem to :-P) and Nik bought some 6 euro ugg boots, the answer to days of cold feet :-)

The cliffs of Moher (aka cliffs of Insanity?!), and a cave tour were highlights for day 4, where we had 3 hours on a different tour because our bus broke down (5 buses in 6 days!). We stayed in a tiny little town called Annascaul in County Kerry where Carly & Nik opened the evening's karaoke proceedings. Day 5 was more exploring of County Kerry and the Dingle peninsula – very pretty with beautiful beaches and rolling hills. Our last night on tour was in Killarney where the girls did a horse and carriage ride through the National Park.

The day back to Dublin included a visit to Blarney Castle where we each kissed the Blarney stone, then had a bit of a drive back to the Guinness factory in Dublin. It really does taste better in Ireland, although Danika still isn't a fan, Carly less so :-) Dublin was covered in snow when we arrived back, all slushy and icy. Over all we really loved Ireland; its people, stories, scenery, culture, music, dancers (we saw some from the Riverdance troupe) Another night in Dublin before an early morning trip to the airport to fly to Glasgow.

We'd arranged a hire car for 10 days (cheap!) which we collected at the airport. The snow quickly set in as we drove north, apparently Glasgow airport was shut later in the afternoon. We were heading for a loch and castle near Crianlarich, somewhere we'd had recommended to us, but after driving for hours at 10 or 20 miles an hour, then sitting stationary for prolonged periods of time, we turned around and headed east instead. We enjoyed the amazing scenery all around as we went, it'd been snowing for weeks up there, so there was plenty of snow on the ground. We stayed in a little B&B above the Thistle Pub in Milnathort, a tiny little village 45 min from Edinburgh. The next day was clear and sunny (still minus three or 4), which made for stunning driving; unblemished fields covered in snow, avenues of frosty trees, empty laneways to idle down. Edinburgh was darker, colder and wetter, and with parking at £19.50 overnight... we almost wondered why we came! We did meet up for a couple of beers with Jonno, a mate from our Middle East trip who's studying over here at the moment.

On again for a long drive day, through Newcastle and Durham to Sheffield. Nik had found a great little B&B on some website – we stayed in a houseboat right in the middle of the town! It was cosy (warm and small :-P) and we enjoyed a night in eating in and watching TV under a doona. The following morning as we left there was a good 30 to 40 cm of snow that had fallen overnight! The little canal port we were moored in was nearly all frozen over, and we trudged to the car park with snow up to our knees :-) We headed to Norwich to stay with Pippa and her family, also an overland trip friend (from Africa). Carly was feeling pretty sick again (once she arrived home she discovered it was sinusitis) and it was so lovely to be in a big family home, being looked after. There was less snow as we drove south and east, but still enough ice on the roads to make things hazardous and slower than normal. We stayed two nights with Pippa, and visited a bit of Norwich during the day, then met John & Elizabeth Rayner in Bungay who are family friends of Danika's mum & dad. Adam and I also stayed with them in 2005 when we were here, it was lovely and odd to catch up again!

On the 3^rd we drove down to London to drop Carly off, but not before meeting Brent and Elizabeth Weightman in Hammersmith for lunch. It really is a small world :-) We continued on that night to Bristol (yes, zig zagging our way across the UK) and stayed with Clara, an Italian friend from our Africa trip and her Welsh boyfriend Vinnie. They took us out to see a bit of Bristol the next day before we kept on for a brief visit the Motherland (sort of): South Wales. I know Armidale's been pretty wet these last few months, so we have at least that in common with our namesake; miserable, damp, windy. We checked out Barry, the setting of Gavin & Stacey, a UK/Welsh TV show we've taken to this year, then drove back through Cardiff (and became thoroughly lost, even the GPS had trouble getting us where we wanted to go).

We had three nights with George & Ruben, 2 Kiwi friends who are working on a dairy farm in Wilcot, about an hour East of Bath. We had a great time reminiscing and catching up each evening over dinner, as well as being educated on X-Factor and Coronation Street (it's its 50 year anniversary this week, there's stuff on about it everywhere – and it's still terrible!!!). Nik & I did a day trip to Bath, which is a very pretty little town with great Christmas markets, but the main reason for going was to meet up with Ben & Linzi, two friends from our South America tour. They were being sneaky though, and also brought 5 other friends from the same trip: Josh & Hayley, Becky & Ed and Tommy Gun – it was such a nice surprise and we spent a good afternoon together and playing PUNO. A South America reunion of sorts!

Another day trip took us to Oxford with George & Ruben, where it was bitterly cold. We wandered the streets admiring the cool architecture before going on a self tour of Christ Church (masquerading as law students :-|) before taking shelter in the Eagle and Child, a pub JRR Tolkien & CS Lewis (amongst other writers) used to frequent. There's a letter on the wall from them to the publican saying they have “drunk to his health” - how quaint.

We also enjoyed walking around the farm with George, along the frozen canal and through frosty fields. On our way to London we went via Stonehenge (smaller than we anticipated) for a cheeky photo over the fence, and Salisbury to see the cathedral. Then on to Heathrow to drop off the car, before spending 2 nights at Beth and Cam's again. It felt like only yesterday that we were there in July, and yet so much has passed so we swapped travel stories for hours on end. Also had dinner with Hannah & Nick (boyfriend, not brother :-P), it was good to finally meet :-)

Then a day of catching up: Ben from our Africa trip for coffee (at Monmouth in Convent Garden: they have the best coffee I have had anywhere in the world – sorry Goldfish Bowl!), Shiona from South America for lunch and a beer at the Ye Old Cheshire Cheese pub (an interesting rabbit warren of a place!), then dinner with Mel, Tony & Lette from the Middle East tour. We crashed at Mel & Tony's for our last night in Europe, then we go for a brief visit to South East Asia!

So the UK for us was busy, with lots of catching up with friends, old and new. I added them up and came to meeting 24 existing friends, which would be an effort at home let alone half way around the world, we're crazy! It was a really nice way to end our backpacking though, at the same time as seeing some of the UK's beautiful countryside, lots of snow and a bit of history.

We're nearly home, it feels very real now. On the same day a few weeks ago Danika and I independently had the revelation that we really were ready to stop traveling for a while, so I think we've done about the perfect time for us. Not to say we don't have a million new places on our lifelong itinerary, but we're ready for some time at home! Not long now, see you then!