It has become a weekly tradition that after work on Tuesday Saira and I go on an adventure. Unlike last week, we decided to stay close to home this evening, and went to check out Burgess Park. It was a grey, rainy day, but the storm clouds gave an incredible sunset.
Belfast, Redux
I’m having a bit of a lazy evening in Barcelona, so I figured it’s a good time to blog!
Last Wednesday I made the long journey (12 hours!) from Venice to Belfast. I got up and ready at the horrific hour of 5am, walked through Venice to the Grand Canal to catch a boat bus to the bus terminal. I then spent half an hour wandering around the terminal trying to figure out how to get tickets (the office was closed) and where the bus was. I spent 2 hours on a bus to the airport where I learned my bag was too heavy, and I wan’t allowed to check in unless I paid 70 Euros. So, I threw anything I possibly could away. I figured, if I can replace it for under 70 Euros, than it’s worth it. I then went down to the worlds smallest terminal (1 tiny room that housed 4 gates. Ridiculous!) in which there were already 2 groups of passengers waiting on delayed flights. Granted, this is an airport entirely run by Ryanair, so, I shouldn’t have been surprised! I sat there for hours, until well after the plane was supposed to leave, never hearing a word (or even seeing) anyone who worked there. Eventually the plane showed up and we flew the two hours to Dublin. At the Dublin Airport I was stuck in immigration for an hour, thought I lost my passport at baggage claim, and got lost trying to find the bus terminal. After an hour of waiting at the bus terminal the bus for Belfast arrived! That took another 3 hours. But, I finally made it to Belfast! I walk about 15 minutes through the city centre to Orla’s apartment and wait in front of her door (she was at work still, and I was stealing her Internet from in the hall!). Her room mate arrived home, says hello to me, and then leaves me in the hallway. I don’t think she likes me very much! No worries though, Orla soon got home, we went inside, and I collapsed on her couch.
See, this is why I hate the travelling bit of travelling! Granted, I did have the worst possible experience 2 days ago upon arriving in Barcelona. Ugh.
Moving on… I had a wonderful time back in Belfast! On Wednesday night we went to see Iron & Wine in concert. The show was graet, but the people sitting around us were not. He also didn’t play Boy With A Coin, which upset me a little bit… ;)
After the concert we took in some of the sights on the way back to Orla’s apartment. Such as…
The big mosaic fish:
And the big iron lady holding a hula hoop:
On Thursday when Orla was at work I filled up my backpack with all my clothes, hopped on a train across town, and did some laundry. Exciting! It was actually a pretty good time. At one point this very strange man saw the Canada flag on my pack and started asking me questions like: “Is Canada that wee country by Australia?”, “Is Canada dear?”, “What is the current unemployment rate?” and “Does Facebook exist in Canada?” It was just like I was at work! As soon as he left the girl working there ran over to me and asked what he was saying. I told her and she started going on about all the crazy things he’s said to her in the past, and we had a good laugh. Apparently he has plans to take over the UK, build his own exclusive hospital, and produce his own line of rainbow fake eyelashes. After that a really nice girl from Texas came in and we started chatting. She got a job in Belfast and just arrived. I’m so jealous of her! It’s such an awesome city.
That night Orla and I went to dinner and then to see Modest Mouse in concert. What an amazing show! They are so great live!
Sadly, after, we had to walk home in the rain…
On Friday when Orla was at work I went into town. I needed some things, and then decided to do a bit of window shopping. Big mistake! It turns out when I haven’t been shopping in a month, it kind of builds up. I did tough it out though! But a few things, but not a lot. And only from H&M. Which it turns out I am totally in love with over here! I really don’t like the store in St. Catharines. It smells and is too expensive and rarely has anything I like. Here, totally different story!
Orla got off work a bit early, so we went to grab a late lunch, and that evening saw Wilco!
On Saturday Orla, one of her roomates (not the one who left me in the hall!): Lisa, and I did a hop on, hop off bus tour around Belfast. It was a pretty good tour. Went to the Titanic Quarter, lots of different historical places relating to The Troubles, Parliament, downtown. We saw quite a lot!
Storment Castle (on Parliament grounds) and Parliament:
One of that many, many murals located around Belfast that reference The Troubles:
Cave Hill (This was the inspiration for Gulliver’s Travels, as the mountain shape resembles a mans face):
I can’t quite remember what we did on Sunday. Not much, I guess! Orla made me an Irish breakfast called an Ulster Fry. It was delicious! I think we just went into town and looked for shoes, actually! And then we went for dinner. And I came back and packed, which took hours.
And then I left bright and early Monday morning and am now in Barcelona! Just to clear up, I am actually having a wonderful time here, despite the horrificness of Monday. I know not everyone knows what I’m talking about, but I’ll save that fun story for my next blog.
Thanks for reading!
This one time we went to Scotland and didn’t meet any Scottish people…
Okay, that’s not completely true. I think we met one, possibly two Scottish people. One was a tour guide who I’m not entirely sure was actually Scottish since was acting in character. But, anyway!
We just spent 4 awesome days in Edinburgh. We mostly wandered, seeing the sights, and in the evenings went to shows at the Fringe Festival. It was great. We saw two comedians, One Man Lord of the Rings, and an insane show put on by some drama students from Cambridge called When In Rome. We visited Edinburgh Castle and went on an underground tour. There was so much going on with the Fringe, it was almost overwhelming! Thousands of shows, street performances, and people everywhere. It was a great atmosphere. You could really spend weeks there during the festival and still not have seen nearly everything. We stayed at someone’s home, through Festival Beds, which was good. We were a little out of the way, but still walking distance which was great. Staying anywhere right in the city centre would be insane, price wise, this time of year. So, we were happy enough to walk!
The weather was lovely. We had rain a couple times, but overall it was great!
We’re in Belfast now. We’ll be spending the next few days exploring around Northern Ireland. I’m so excited! This is the first leg of the trip that’s new to me. Well, I did new things in London Edinburgh, but had been there before. Belfast is completely new! I’m looking forward to Giant’s Causeway and just driving around the coast.
Today we’re just taking it easy. We’re going to go to a local market and wander around some shops. I need sneakers from hiking tomorrow.
Better go get ready now though! Talk soon :)
~Spencer
And we’re off!
Ello, ello!
It’s our last few hours in London. So sad! But, we’ve had a fantastic time. We were able to fit in much more stuff than I was expecting, which is great. If anyone is visiting London I highly recommend The London Pass. It was so handy, and saved us a ton of money. Win, win!
On Monday we visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, Downing Street, Churchill’s War Rooms, Harrods, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament.
(If you click the photos you can see larger ones)
St. Paul’s Cathedral: We weren’t allowed to take photos inside, but it was gorgeous!
10 Downing Street: Orla’s unimpressed with David Cameron face
Inside Churchill’s War Rooms:
Westminster Abbey
Parliament
Shopping at Harrods
And, finally, the highlight of my day: Banoffee Pie! (Kidding, kind of. I’ve been waiting 5 years for this!)
I haven’t uploaded pictures from yesterday yet, but there isn’t much to see (didn’t take many pictures), so, no worries. We visited the British Museum (saw the Rosetta Stone, and some original columns and plaques from the Parthenon), the National Gallery (Renior, Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Picasso, general awesomeness!), I had more banoffee pie, and then we went to A Conversation with Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish BFI centre, which was great. Edgar Wright is a director (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and most recently, Scott Pilgram). The show was so funny. I’m really glad we went.
We leave in few hours for Edinburgh. The weather is gorgeous in London, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we have the same luck up there! It’s the Edinburgh International Festival, so there’s a lot happening in the city right now. Should be exciting! Maybe we’ll spot some celebrities. I think Angelina Jolie drove by us the other night as we were eating dinner. We were a few blocks away from the Salt premiere, and a car drove by with papparazzi chasing after it.
Anyway, I should get packing. My things are a mess at the moment.
We won’t have Internet, I don’t think, until Sunday. So, talk to you then!
~Spencer
London, Part 2
It has been a busy couple of days here in London! I’m pretty exhausted and I probably won’t be too detailed in this post. But, I have pictures!
Saturday, August 14th
We started the day out by walk to Trafalger Square, visiting an info centre there, and grabbing some breakfast:
We then took the tube up to Nothing Hill to visit the Portobello Market:
We then took the tube to Earl’s Court to visit one of the city’s few remaining Police Public Call Box’s (Because we’re enormous Doctor Who nerds. Don’t judge!):
After that we got on the tube again and went to Picadilly Circle and wandered around. We then strolled over to Buckingham Palace:
After that we wandered around some shops, got some dinner, and walked along the Thames at night:
Sunday, August 15th
This morning we walked to the Globe Theatre and took a tour:
After that we walked to the London Bridge to go through the London Bridge Experience and Tombs. It was terrifying! I didn’t get any pictures since they weren’t allowed.
We then walked down to Tower Bridge:
Followed by Tower of London:
And finally a 2.5 hour cruise down the River Thames. I took too many pictures and can not decide what to post! I did get a picture of the 500 year old pub where we had dinner:
We have another busy day tomorrow, so I really need to get to sleep. I’m so tired! But feeling great.
Hope everyone is doing well!
~Spencer
London Calling
Greetings from Londontown! After a long and somewhat painful journey, I finally made it! Exhasuted, cranky, and sore, but, still, here in one piece!
The trip did not start off well, unfortunately. My bags were too heavy and I was charged quite a lot to check them. Thankfully the guy working at the counter was very nice and lied about the weight to save my about $45. That made me feel a bit better, until my debit was declined when I went to pay for the baggage charges. Not what I want to hear when I’m about to board a trans Atlantic flight!
Can I also just mention how much I absolutely hate Toronto Pearson Airport? It’s ridiculous. I kept getting turned away at security lines because my gate wasn’t in that section. Fine, but there’s no signs telling you that you need to enter from certain ports for certain gates! And then, of course, I misread my gate as C23, instead of C32, and start to panic because C23 doesn’t appear to exist! Good news though, I used my debit to purchase a bottle of water and it worked. So, I was relieved about that.
I also forgot how much I hate trans Atlantic flights. Long, and cramped, and noisy, and just, ugh. Not fun. I had a window seat though! Not that you can see anything at night over the Atlantic, but, it meant I didn’t have to get up to let the people next to me up. Which made me happy enough.
My view this morning. I wasn’t able to sleep much, but the clouds were lovely to watch this morning. And then of course they start playing Two and a Half Men on the cabin televisions. That annoyed me more than it should have. But, I know a lot of you understand ;).
I had some more stress once getting to London, including getting on the wrong train (the ticket checker on board was very nice though! He didn’t fine me, and told me what to look out for next time.), and having my Visa not work at the hotel. I’m hoping it’s just their machines. I’ll try it out somewhere tomorrow. The last thing I need is to be here with a Visa card that doesn’t work!
I’m feeling much better now, I’m happy to report. I got the hotel, napped, showered, and wandered around for a bit. I just picked up some dinner, and am anxiously awaiting Orla’s arrival. If she ever makes it! Her flight was delayed, so I hope she isn’t stuck too long.
Anyway, I took a few pictures today on the Waterloo Bridge:
Today is pretty overcast and cool, but, since I can’t stand the heat and humidity at home, I’m loving it! I can’t wait to explore the city again. I can’t believe it’s been over 4 years since I was last here. I’ve missed it! Tomorrow Orla and I are going to Portobello Market and possibly starting a hop on, hop off tour. It’s funny, for all the time I’ve spent in London, I’ve never done most of the touristy things. I’m excited! So long as my Visa works…
I think that’s about everything from this end! Hope all is well with everyone!
Cheers, Spencer
Sloane Square | Being Alive 