Aug 2008

Up for an early morning flight to Ireland and our super quick trip was underway. We had a few hours in Belfast before picking up our car and so we went for a walk around the city center.

Greeted straight away by the murals of loyalist’s

We needed some food and happened to stumble across St Georges market, really really nice food and produce

After picking up the car we headed around the Antrim coast stopping at the carrick-a-rede rope bridge and Giant’s Causeway.

A tad windy

The fist night was spent in the middle of nowhere (sorry Mary) 30 miles out of Sligo. After getting lost on some windy country lanes and asking some local farmers where our accommodation was we arrived at the best self catering hostel ever. Big ups Benwiskin Centre.

Went out to Mullaghmore, nice picturesque fishing village but alas we forgot the camera.

Next day was a drive down to Galway stopping at Carrick on Shannon for lunch and a vist to the Craft and Design Museum. We didn’t actually make it into Galway as our accommodation was about 20 miles further from the city than we thought, just past Spiddle. Still an ok hostel and more importantly just down the road from a proper pub and pint of Guinness.

A quick walk down to the coast and we were followed buy a very inquisitive pony, allo darling.

Still wondering what direction the prevailing wind blows?

Still don’t know if this is the correct way to operate this swing

Day 3 saw us up early and driving from Galway to Kilkenny via the Cliffs of Mohair. I wasn’t to sure if the Cliff’s were going to be worth the detour but they are pretty damn impressive.

It had become a trend that we stayed at least ½ hour out of the nearest city but at least we’d saved out best accommodation until last with a B&B 20 min out of Kilkenny. For a small place Kilkenny has more than it’s fair share of medieval buildings including the castle and grounds as well as numerous churches but more importantly another place where I could pick up a good Guinness.

Our last day started with an awesome breakfast at the B&B and the last 2hr drive to Dublin. Once in the city me and rach only had 8 hours before getting our flight back to Edinburgh. So to maximize the stay we got on the touist open top bus to get to all the sites we could.

Our pick of the bunch was easily the Kilmainham Gaol where the leaders of the Easter rising were kept and eventually executed. And not because it was only 5 euros to get in (althought it helped) but just a really interesting place.

Anyway that was our Ireland in 4 days, tons of driving and lots of looking.
Well recommended

So I’ve been a bit slack in updating trips so before we head into Ireland just a quick post from a 2 day trip to Gallipoli and the Troy ruins when we were in Turkey in June.

And a bit of troy

It was a bit of a mission getting to Istanbul from Naxos; 6hr ferry, 2 hours on Athens underground, 16 person rickety plane to Istanbul then another hour on the Istanbul metro’s.

Still, we got there in the end and after a sleep and our nine lax days in the Greek isalands we were keen for a bit of speed touristing. So out in the Turkish heat we went a had a peruse of the Blue Mosque, Agia Sophia, Basilica Cistern, Grand Bazzar as well as other random spot around the city.

Sitting in the Blue Mosque


Agia Sophia was easily our no.1 tourist attraction, and yet we seemed to have the place all to ourselves.




It use to be some sort of Christian church which the Muslims plastered over and put up all there own art. Now it’s uncovered and so weird to see Islamic art next to Christian Mosaics.


Basilica Cistern was a close second, big underground aqueduct right beneath the main city streets. We didn’t even know it was there just kinda stumbled in.


Grand Bazzar = manic

We then left Istanbul and went for a 2 day tour around Anzac cove and the Troy ruins (see next post), but then returned to Istanbul for another two days. We deiced to branch out from the Sultanahmet / old town area and explore how modern day turks live in the city.

So over the bosphous and went for a huge walk around modern Istanbul. Still lots of mosques and other buildings but otherwise it could be mistaken for a lot of other mainland Europe cities, highlight was the modern art museum (big thumbs up).

Oh little Turkish tea how I will miss you