St Patricks Day in Dublin

Took a few days off work the other week to fly over to Ireland to celebrate St Patrick's Day. We caught a plane after work on Wednesday and somehow managed to fly back to London (late) for work on Monday morning. It was great craic! Dublin was in party mode, and we were there to party.

After our flight out was delayed for quite some time, we finally arrived in Dublin and caught the bus to our hostel just near Temple Bar (trendy area with lots of pubs). Trouble was, we'd arrived so late that the pubs weren't letting anyone in anymore, so first night in Dublin was a dry one. Which was alright as we'd planned (anyway) to get an early start to do some sightseeing and explore the city.

This is St Patrick's Cathedral. We've seen so many churches, cathedrals and chapels now that we don't even bother (paying the admission) and going in anymore. The ones in Rome kick arse over any others anyway.


This is Dublinia and Christ Church Cathedral with the connecting archway. Dublinia is a tourist attraction that simulates medieval and viking times. Like the Canterbury Tales, it's all puppetry now, and I guess we'll do it next time when we get around to it.


This is one part of Dublin Castle. It's one of the original bits that's survived the many fires and everything else. It's not in the photo, but it's one of the perimeters of the carpark. The rest of the castle looks like a couple of buildings joined together. The styles just don't match up (see next photo for other bits of the "castle"). It's hard to view it as a castle. We did the tour and the insides of it are more like a palace than a castle. But, as far as castle exteriors go, this bit here out in the carpark was the most impressive bit of it by far. The long rectangular bit is the Chapel Royal, and the round bit is the Record Tower.


Here is Castle Hall, with the statue of Justice on the right. This statue apparently pissed people off as Justice faces the palace (i.e. has her back to all the commoners).


As suggested by the picture, this is The Temple Bar. It's here we made the observation that Dublin doesn't seem to have many Irish people living there. We saw (i.e. heard) mainly Americans, Aussies, and French people around. There also seems to be lots of Chinese folk there too.




This is at Trinity College. And yes, SNOW! We came to check out the Book of Kells, but couldn't be bothered joining the long queue to go in. We were happy just to dance around in the fluffy snow.



Next up on the itinerary was the Guinness factory, which is where they make that creamy black stout with the bubbles that go down instead of up. Not my cup of tea really. Like porter it reminds me of soy sauce. But hey, each to their own. And I'll drink whatever's available anyway.





Molly Malone (of Cockles and Mussels fame), the 'tart with the cart'. A Dublin icon.


The St Patrick's Day parade. We took about a hundred photos, so we've only put up some of the more interesting ones. Other things in the parade were lots of American marching bands, horses, brides chasing grooms, VW punch buggies, motorbikes, chicks (freezing their arses off) in bikinis, a bubble machine, monsters, and even some kind of mini African parade which gate-crashed. Tam disagrees with me that we saw a leprechaun. He wasn't wearing trad green leprechaun attire, but I'm certain he was one. I have evidence to prove it, but Tam doesn't think so and won't let me put it up. However, of note in the first photo is the Dublin Spire (behind the traffic lights). It's the tallest structure in Dublin, and the locals apparently are amused that they've constructed this huge needle-like structure in any area where there has been some drug problems.













Custom House on the Liffey's north bank


The other main reason we visited Dublin was to catch up with my mate Lucy, from the days we worked in the call centre for MBF (utterly terrible and desperate times). Both being Lees, we decided that we were distantly-related cousins. So after the parade, we caught the DART up to Malahide (about half an hour north of Dublin) to see the Lucy and the Bannons.
Here are some of the nicest people in the world. Brian (who Lucy met when they were both backpacking around Australia at the same time we were both working at MBF), Lucy, Brian's mum Maureen, Pete and (Brian's sister) Orla, Brian's dad Eamon, and Pete's sister Mandy. A truly great bunch of people. We have to thank you for looking after us so well and letting us stay in your beautiful home. We had a fantastic time with you and hope to see you again soon.


Malahide Castle. Check out the shamrock-shaped windows!



We crashed one of their friend's 21st birthday parties (Ahhh - feel so old). Took about a hundred photos that night. Here are some of the ones that weren't too blurry or too embarrassing (like of us eating or dancing).




Here is the Irish 'Posh and Becks'. That's the birthday girl Louise with her boyfriend Ray. They have this tradition where if its your 21st birthday, they lined up 21 guys (if you're a girl) and they each give here a birthday kiss. Everyone laughed when I told them that in Australia, we give 21 birthday punches and explained that that was 21 punches from each person, not in total.


We had such a fun night. Great company, good food, good drinks, and good times. It ended off, with the DJ putting on the Irish National Anthem. We had such a blast in Ireland, we'll definitely have to go back again. With the great people, their lovely sounding accents, the St Patrick's Day festivities, and Ireland thumping England in the Six Nations Rugby, I almost wished I was Irish.

Weekend in London

Nope, we didn't have anywhere planned this weekend. So we pretty much decided to go out in the cold and do some further sightseeing of London. On Saturday, we caught a bus out to Notting Hill and then walked to our old stomping grounds, Portobello Road and the Portobello Market. Despite the grey clouds, it was surprisingly packed. All the way down Portobello Road was jam-packed with allsorts. It's amazing how many different accents and languages you can hear in one place. Even those loud annoying Americans. They're over here too.


We visited, for the first time, this small cake shop called the Hummingbird Bakery at the top of Portobello Road. We've walked past it before and were hypnotised by the cute and colourful cupcakes in the window display, but never ventured inside. We bought two cupcakes, a yellow vanilla sponge one with yellow vanilla buttercream icing and colourful pretty stars, and a chocolate sponge one with green vanilla buttercream icing and stars. (Tam would like to make a point that it was actually "frosting", not "icing" as they describe in their menu, as the 'frosting' was very thickly laid on).


After checking out the stalls in the Market and grabbing a falafel roll on the way, we headed back up to Notting Hill, then on to the Kensington Gardens (which is sort of part of Hyde Park, but separate). We spied these rowdy people in bunny suits. Dirty deviants no doubt.


This is the lovely Miss Tammy holding up the Albert Memorial. That's the Royal (Uncle) Albert Hall behind her. That's where we saw Jamie Cullum and some ballet.


This is the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain thing (in Hyde Park now), that sort of symbolises her life. Tammy says she understands it, but I just don't get it.





After some bird-watching and a few minutes of sleet, we kept on walking and headed down to Knightsbridge. Home of the posh Harrods department store, where we had a browse through of the expensive wares and spent some time ogling the food section. Afterwards, thoroughly 'walked out', we caught a bus home.


Sunday was another calm day of quiet sightseeing. We went out to Shoreditch for some Vietnamese pho noodles. Shoreditch is virtually Little Hanoi and you can find some decent pho and spring rolls around. Not being able to think of anything to do, we headed to Kings Cross to visit Hogwarts.


I then gave Tam a quick tour of UCL (where I'm currently working at). This is the Portico, which is our "main" building (aka Wilkins Building). This is a mini version of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, also designed by the same guy. Ours was actually the practice version he did to sell his idea to the National Gallery people.


The Shaftesbury Memorial (Statue of Eros) at Piccadilly Circus.

Tam and Des go to Canterbury

Caught the train to Canterbury yesterday for a day trip out of London. We had nice blue skies and it was so very sunny, yet so very cold. A cold day in the sun.
Canterbury's only about 1 hour and 40 minutes out from London Victoria Station and it wasn't very expensive either for a return ticket (like it is for some other places 1 or 2 hours out of London). Less than 10 pounds each (which is about $25). We're probably going to try and do some more cheapish day trips now and try and see more of England.

Canterbury is a nice little town. We enjoyed the more leisurely pace and vibe. London is a tad hectic and full of people. Mostly rude people. Why, even Tam was shocked and amazed when someone who bumped into me in Canterbury turned back and apologised. And then straight after, a car stopped for us to let us cross the road first. We were stunned. We've noticed that London, despite being the capital of one of the oldest civilised nations, lacks manners.

Canterbury still has some of its original wall still up. Think its Roman-style. We think walls are cool. Like in Lord of the Rings.


This is the main entrance to the Canterbury Cathedral, which is a World Heritage Site. Note the Starbucks next door on the right.


This it the stunning Canterbury Cathedral. It's too big so we couldn't fit it all into one shot. According to the Lonely Planet, this is the first major Gothic construction in England. It was nice to look at, but we've seen some more awe-inspiring churches and cathedrals already, so the wow-factor meter wasn't going berserk.



This is out the back in the Great Cloister


We were a bit too cheap to pay the 2 pound photography fee to shoot inside the Cathedral, but we found these two in the Great Cloisters.



This is the Thomas Beckett pub. He was the famous dude who was murdered in the Cathedral cos he kept disagreeing with the King. Quite a nice little pub with a real fireplace and dried hops adorning the ceiling.


This is the Canterbury Castle. Rated highly on the crap-o-meter. It wasn't even suggested in the Lonely Planet (and for good reason). There wasn't even a moat.


I tried to make it fun anyway.


Canterbury Canal


A very old house


Simple Simon's. The oldest pub in Canterbury. Another quaint pub.


A cool little building.


We liked Canterbury. Very different to the Canterbury back home, although they did have a couple of kebab shops and lots of young "chavvy" people about. But, it's the first British place we've found that has a bit of a coffee culture. There were so many coffee shops there. Not just the big chains either. Very impressive. Must be all the international students attending the local Uni. Nice place to visit. And still lots of stuff that we didn't manage to do. Like, we didn't see the Canterbury Tales show, but we did go to Chaucer's bookshop and I bought an old hardcover copy of Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles. But, there seems to be other interesting things to do down that way in Kent. So we'll probably go back again.