Update :)

Hello everyone!

I hear Brisbane has been having a bit of heat wave. How's everyone enjoying the warmth? The weather here has been really good, we had a clear day for the Stonehenge trip.

I am back in London, after a trip out to Bath (and a day trip to Stonehenge, Avebury and a couple of small villages). Bath was really cool (Photos are up). I liked the Roman Baths. The water tasted strange, though (not from the baths directly, they pump it out of the aquifer). The trip out to Stonehenge was ok. The tourguide was rather uninteresting after the others that we'd had. What he was saying seemed a little rehearsed, and he would trail off in the middle of a sentence and not come back to finish it. Stonehenge itself was interesting, but I think that the stone circles that you can walk right up to in Scotland were more interesting. Avebury was good too, but the stop there felt a little bit rushed.

Sarah and I went up Tower Bridge yesterday afternoon and even managed to catch it opening. I went to the Tower of London this afternoon. The Yeoman Warder tour was really good.

Hope everything is going well for everyone,

Alison

Re: Holiday Update

Hello all!

Sorry for the delay in updating. Internet connection has been difficult to get for long enough to type up an email. We've finished our Ireland tour and we're now in Edinburgh.

Ireland was really pretty and fascinating. We stayed in Belfast, Derry (both Northern Ireland), Galway, Annascaul, Kilarney and visited lots of little places in between.

• Drogheda - St Oliver Plunkett's relics, including his severed head...
• Monasterboice - an old monastery and graveyard
• Belfast - Taxi tour into the more "dangerous"  areas with a local explanation of events during the seventies and tensions that are still running high now. That was a real eye opener.
  
• Derry - Tour with a local around the city walls, looking at the history of the town. Also looked at the murals on the walls of the catholic area. On the way to Derry, we stopped at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and the Giants Causeway while it was raining. Some of the other people got reallly wet after being caught down at the bridge when the heaviest downpour hit. Giant's Causeway was fun - and slippery. We had a poke around the pools at the edge and saw a couple of little fish, as well as looking at the rocks.
• Galway -  Stopped at Knock on the way to Galway; a sight where there was an apparition of the Virgin Mary at some point and at the grave of WB Yeats. Stone ring, Strandhill
  
• Annascaul -  Castle with the curtain wall intact (look up name), stopped at a beach (water was cold, but refreshing), limestone exploration down the coast a little way - some interesting fossils. Stopped at Cliffs of Moher. The weather cleared up just as we were arriving, which meant some great photos.
  
• Killarney - Didn't have time to do much in town, as Kate and I took the opportunity to go horse riding! It was great fun. 
• Last day was back to Dublin via Blarney Castle (to kiss the Blarney Stone, and a bit of an exploration of the grounds. I went into the "dungeon" tunnel. It was wet and damp, but really fun. We also explored a cave that was in the rock under the castle.  One back in Dublin, we went for a tour of the Guinness Storehouse at St. James' Gate, and a pint of the black stuff.

We're in Edinburgh at the moment, and have spent most of the day wandering around. Spent three hours this morning looking at the Museum (yay for free entertainment), and wandering High Street, collecting brochures for comedy shows. The people here seem really friendly - there's a different air to the city than there was anywhere in Ireland. I wish I could spend more time here, I think, but I guess that I should see some other parts of the country while I'm here too... *sigh*. Sarah and I went into a tourist shop this morning and the manage pointed out a few things that we should see :).

We have another day in Edinburgh tomorrow. I'll probably do the free walking tour and go to some of the comedy shows, then its off on another tour (yay...?) on Tuesday.

I'll put some photos up tonight :)

Alla





- Cross posted to http://mytimefortravel.blogspot.com -

On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Alison Troup <alison.troup@gmail.com> wrote:

11/08/09

We've headed north from Belfast and stopped at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and Giant's Causeway, both are really beautiful and dramatically different coastlines despite being just around the corner. It rained for most of the morning, but once we got to the causeway it stopped, but it was still cloudy. 

Sent from my iPod

Begin forwarded message:

From: Alison Troup <alison.troup@gmail.com>
Date: 11 August 2009 9:06:20
To: Alison Troup <alison.troup@gmail.com>
Subject: Holiday Update

Hello all!

We've started on our paddywagon tour. Yesterday we left Dublin for Belfast, stopping at Drogheda (to see St. Oliver Plunkett's relics - including his head) and Monasterboice (an old monastery with two large Celtic crosses.

Belfast was interesting and eye opening. We went on a taxi tour of West Belfast with running commentary  from the driver and stopping in the catholic and prodestant areas to look at the murals commemorating people and events relating to the fighting. There is a wall with gates that close at night between two areas that are exclusively prodestant and catholic.

We went out for dinner with the rest of our tour group last night and then had a bit more of a look around town close to the hostel. The Uni's main building is amazing.

We're headed for Derry tonight via the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge and the Giants Causeway.

Alla

- Cross posted to http://mytimefortravel.blogspot.com -


Sent from my iPod

--
Alla

Bray Photos are up on face book

Hi Everyone,

Went down to Bray today and took some photos. They can be found on Facebook.

Am sitting around waiting for Kate and Sarah to show up. I hope they come soon - I'm hungry and want dinner...

Alla

I'm in Dublin!

Hi everyone,

I don't have any mobile connection in Dublin, so its going to be email updates. Have arrived, and checked in (well, I did that yesterday) and I had a bit of a poke around the shopping area of town. I'm going to walk down to the Temple Bar area to have a look at the markets this morning.

The best thing is, I'm not feeling tired :)

How is everyone down there?

Alla

Heathrow is rather boring...

Hello from Heathrow.

 

flight was delayed with engineerinng problems in dubai, but that seems to have been a blessing in disguise - there isn't that much to do this side of security, and  cann't go through til 1045...

 

any way net time is running out, so  have t go,

 

hope everything is good at your end.

 

Alla

Hello from Brunei Airport!

Hi everyone,

I've found a free computer at  Brunei Airport, so I thought I would send out an update, which isn't much, other than that I've arrived in Brunei. I have a four hour layover, with very little to do here... There is a thunderstorm looming here, hopefully it won't cause delays with the flight out. Inflight entertainment was good, once the screen started working.

Alla

Cross posted to http://mytimefortravel.blogspot.com

4 Sleeps until I leave... I'm a little bit nervous, but I guess that's natural. If anyone is reading this, feel free to invite others to read it too - I don't mind sharing my exploits with random people :)

So, I've been gathering gear for several years - you know all the little odds and ends kinda stuff, but my most recent purchases are a new pack and a new pair of walking shoes. I had trouble finding any lengthy reviews on either of these, so, at the end of the trip, I will be posting detailed reviews of each one here, plus any other 'major' gear items that I'm taking - I'll be looking into buying a good rain jacket before I leave here (I'm currently trying to find somewhere that stocks The North Face items nearby - I really like their Grace Jacket, but I want to try one on before I decide. There are another couple of jackets that I like too, but I'm going to wait until closer to the date, as I am going to try and lose some weight before I go.

Anyway, the pack that I have bought, is a Lowe Alpine Zanskar 65+15. It has all the features that I wanted in a pack - a hiking style design, with top, bottom and front access, comfortable, and around the 65L mark. Previously I had a travel pack that was between 45 and 50L, however I wanted a more comfortable harness, and a little bit more room than my old pack (when packed with 4 days worth of clothing, sleeping bag and other travel accessories, it becomes full, and I want space for souveniers, or just space to carry food in the pack!). 

First impressions have been good :) I purchased this from K2 Basecamp in Brisbane. There was one other pack that I was strongly considering (and it was very comfortable) - the Osprey Xenon - but I decided on the Zanskar because it was just as comfortable, and the people in K2 were much friendlier (and they did me a deal on the pack and shoes :)). So yeah, first impressions, on the pack is that its very comfortable, and the hood-converts-into-a-backpack-or-bumbag trick is very cool! I keep the updates going as I do more with it.

For shoes, I have purchased La Sportiva Sandstone walking shoes. I was tossing up between these ones and the mid-height Keen Targhee IIs, but decided on the Sandstones becasue of a little bit of extra width around the toes, and becasue they were the height that I was after. They have Gore-Tex lining (yay for waterproofing) and Vibram soles. They've been really good so far. I usually get blisters the first time I wear any new shoes, but I haven't with these ones. The soles are nice and grippy - they even grip on wet gravelled concrete! They have a nice flex in them, and are quite comfortable to sit around and walk around in all day. 

First post and introduction

Hello blogging world :)

I'm Alison, and I'm going on a EuroTrip later in the year - flights are booked and paid for, and saving and planning for stuff to do is underway :) 

I don't know how many people out there would want to be reading about what I'm doing, but I thought I would put it out there to a) get people's opinons and b) keep a list of all the stuff that I have done, just in case I lose my paper diary at some point.

I am going to be travelling with two of my girlfriends and my boyfriend. They will be referred to as A, K and S (since they're not as lax as I am about letting personal details float around the net). I'll post reviews of accomodation, gear and tours here, to let others know about stuff.

I look forward to hearing from people!