Sexy Edinburgh feat. Hamish the hairy coo
Monday, 10 December 2007
4.30pm Thursday night - we arrive in Edinburgh, Scotland and it’s pitch black and freezing. With a vague idea of where we’re staying we march along the streets and attempt to find a cab. No such luck. We ask a petrol stations for directions and find out we’re only 150m away! A friendly cab driver overhears this and offers to give us a free lift up the road – all good! Once settled in, we wander down to Princess street, where all the bright lights are, including the ‘Giant Wheel’! At the start of our exploration, our breath is taken away by the magnificent Edinburgh Castle atop of the hill and we stop for a kodak moment. Even the creepy old cemetry we walk through looks stunning at nighttime. Eventually we’re met by the German Christmas markets in the city centre and have a wander around - looking at the nic nacs and inhaling the delicious aroma of waffles, crepes and brewing coffee. We have a wee ride on the Giant Wheel to get a good view of the city, before ending the night walking along the Royal Mile, past the breathtaking castle, and to our hotel to spend some quality time playing 'Deal or no deal’!
Friday – the day of the Castle. We wrap up warm, arm ourselves with the brolly and head towards the great fortress. It was built directly on a great mountain of rock and isn't hard to imagine how difficult it would have been back in the day to scale the rockface in order to attack the Castle.
The upside: It was St Andrews Day so we got in for free – stoked!
The downside: It was Friday which meant there were loads of school kids wandering around looking decidedly disinterested in the Castle and it’s history.
All in all the Castle is amazing and still in great condition (considering how old it was) and it gave the best views of the city. We learned that the reason why the castle was never bombed during the war was because it was Hitler's plan to make the Castle his place of residence after his reign of terror.
To escape the rain we ran into the nearest pub, and planned our next adventure the Edinburgh Dungeons . . . unfortunately rather than scary and spinechilling, the tour was very cheesy!!
Saturday – the day of meandering . Saturday we walked through the well-preserved old part of the city, down to Holyrood palace. We took some pics, had a look at some shops and then settled into a cosy pub to watch the rugby. There was a bit of controversy as we asked for the tv to be changed from the footy to the Allblacks, but no real dramas there. That night we went on the supernatural tour of the Real Mary’s Close. Basically it was part of the city that was overcome by the plague and new buildings were built over top – so it’s currently all underground. It was kind of creepy (and not for those who get claustrophobic), but a very interesting tour.
Sunday – the Highland Explorer. Our last full day we decided to explore the highlands of Scotland. Our guide was a brilliant and entertaining storyteller who repeatedly described everything we saw as “sexy” from the lochs to the glens, to the 3 sisters – for the accent, think 'Fat Bastard’ from ‘Austin Powers’. Highlights of the tour included:
- The scenery - it was absolutely stunning and even reminded us a
bit of home. - Meeting the special guest – Hamish the hairy coo! He was very impressive with a great personality (for a coo’!!) and seemed to appreciate all us passengers feeding him!
- Loch ness was pretty surreal and although we were semi-promised we would see the Loch ness monster, he never appeared.
- The 3-sister rock formations, which have been around longer than the Pyramids in Egypt.
All and all Edinburgh was an amazing place, one of our favourites. We’d love to live there for a while, but we think it would be way, way to cold for us kiwis!
posted by Em @ 1:42 pm,
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Cork Jazz Festival
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
OK, so the festival was actually on the 26-28 October, but it would be fair to say that we have been a tad slack with our updates of late. The plethora of websites to update nowadays is insane!
Anyhou, so the team made the mission down to Cork for the Guinness Jazz festival. It was good to get out of Dublin for the weekend and see another part of Ireland. Cork is a cool place, and like Wellers, you can walk everywhere.
From the moment we left the train station it was not long before we meet a friendly local, our taxi driver. Despite the man thinking we were from Poland, he proved to be a laugh (he knew we weren't from Poland)and told us some pubs to check out.
With this advice in hand, we dumped our kit at the hotel and made the mission into the township. The town was still in set-up mode so there were not too many folk around so we were able to get a good lay of the land. As standard, a beer was the reward for our exploration.
The next day the rest of the team arrived. Our numbers had multiplied and we were all amping for a weekend of food, drink and of course, jazz. No matter where you went, you didn't have to look hard to find music, or us from a bar.
The next few days became a bit of a blur as we soaked up the atmosphere, but at the end of the day it was a great weekend away with friends.
posted by Tim @ 2:32 pm,
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