United Kingdom

Our first stop on our little trip to the South of England wasn't even in England but in Wales. Evan and Sarah, friends form Auckland, moved over to Cardiff around the same time we came to Scotland so we stayed with them for a few days.

On our 1st day we went for a walk around Cardiff city, which it was ok. There is a Castle in the middle of the city, where I found lots of animal statues, which I seem to take pictures of where ever we go.

We took a quick boat ride from the city around to the 'viaducty' harbor area of Cardiff, where the welsh MELLENIUM centre is, the one with the big copper roof.

and then Evan got pooed on by a bird

We were told there was a pretty cool castle and village a quick train ride from the city, so we headed out with there with Evan and a few others. The carphilly castle was one of the coolest castle we've seen so far. It had a big moat around it and some of the turrets were crumbling and falling over but still intact. We ended up having dinner and drinks at a pub over looking the castle.

Then the main reasons we came to the Diff (as Evan got us calling it) was to go out on the town to sample the local night life. Every Friday and Saturday night the city closes off the streets to traffic in it's main clubbing area so the night life can sprawl onto the main streets. It's like New Years at the Mount. One thing to note was the length, or lack of, the girls skirts pretty much non existent. Not that I was looking.
We were also introduced to chips and curry sauce in chippy lane, a small alley lined with heaps of hot chip shops selling chips in as many different ways as possible.

The next day was a bit of recovery day. We had planned to hang out at Evan and Sarahs recuperating from the night before, but after a quick trip to Sainsbury’s Supermarket we returned to realise Sarah had forgotten the house keys (really Sarah I'm not angry with you). So we headed out to where Evan was playing cricket (to get his keys) and watched for abit. It was pretty cool seeing a real English (sorry welsh) cricket ground with little white picket fence for the boundary and all.

Anyway that was Cardiff, cool castles, mad night life, little skirts and chips with curry sauce.

Me and Rach just got back from a week trip around the UK's South coast and for only a week we packed in lots of stuff. So rather that make you read through a whole lot that ya don't want to know here's a short blow by blow of what we did.

First stop Cardiff, Stayed with Evan ad Sarah (I worked with Ev at FnP and Rach did running events with Sarah), walked around Cardiff city and out to their version of the AK viaduct, train ride out to carphilly castle and dinner at a pub, sampled the 'insane' Cardiff night life and watched Ev play cricket (cause sarah locked us out of the house).

Bath, Jamie arrives in bath and waits for Rach who had an unforeseen 'Delay/got stuck on the train', visit the old Roman baths, walk around the city then dinner and a comedy walk (he threw a rabbit into the river in a bag!!!).

Exeter, Stayed with Tracey (from uni days) and pretty much did the only thing Exeter has to offer the exeter cathedral, impressive none the less

Brockenhurst, Hung out with the locals (horses just wandering the streets), Big day bike ride in the forest, dinner of chips and wild blackberries.

Brighton, Brighton Pier and Brighton City, loads of second-handy/hippie/cool shops, local food festival, back to the pier and some bumper cars, Rachel’s birthday and a movie.

all topped of with a good patting down at Gatwick Airport

The embellished stories, with pictures will follow.

P.S. just got tickets to the AB's vs Scotty next week, woop woop!

Just a quick email to say nah nah nah-nah nah...... we were in edinburgh august 2007 and you wern't.

It was maddness with the international fest, fringe fest, film fest and book fest all on at the same time. With some 20,000 performers and 200,000 tourists flooding the city for the month.
It turned the 50 min trip to work into a 1 1/2 hour mission but it also meant there was something to do every single moment of every day.

We went to heaps of shows (mostly good but some......not so much), saw heaps of street performance, went out almost every night of the month and generally had an awsome time! Bring on Edinburgh fests 2008.

oh yeah and there was a big purple tent in the shape of a upturned cow.

It's been getting a bit monotonous lately, getting up - working - pub - sleeping blah blah blah. So we took a long weekend off from work, got a rental car and went to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

First night was at a place called Kinlochleven, 20 min drive from Fort William. On the way we stopped in at Sterling to see the old town and the castle (which is supposed to rival Edinburgh for Scotland’s best castle), and it was ok but we didn't go through the whole thing so it's a bit hard to compare.

Got to Kinlochleven in the afternoon, small town Scotland right by a loch. We stayed at the local backpackers and went for a few walks to some local waterfalls. They were ok and the veiws of the loch and valley were pretty cool.

2nd day was in Fort William, the UK's version of Queenstown/Wanaka. It's a little below NZ standards veiw and mountain wise, Ben Nevisis the highest at around 1300m. But the town itself is good. There were heaps of people around because of the local Highland games on that afternoon, which we decided to check out. They were kind of like a small town athletic events with 100m sprinting mixed with hammer throws and caber tossing. They also had a reenactment group doing some sword fighting shows and some highland dancing troupes.

We got bored of the games pretty quickly and headed of to the Ben Nevis Gondola. It was raining and visibility was pretty poor by the time we got there, couldn't even see the top of the gondola but we decided to go up anyway.
Bad Idea, as at the top the visibility was even poorer the rain was harder and it was pretty damn cold. We tried to go on one of the walks to see some views but it really started packing in so we headed back to the gondola restaurant and warmed up with some hot soup.

So after the disappointing gondola trip we headed to the small town of Kyle of Locash, right next to the Isle of Skye.
The next morning was spent and the Eilean Donan Castle still on the mainland, apparently Scotland most photographed castle. It wasn't very big but it wasn't your standard castle as it was done up inside like a English country house.
The bagpiper outside was really good but every time he blew into his pipes his neck popped out like a bullfrog.

After the castle we headed over the Skye bridge to the Isle of Skye and go for a walk to go a see some otters. Well no otters but some ok scenery.
We then went onto a glass bottom boat apparently to see the local marine life. It was kinda lame as the only life was a few seals sunbathing on a rock but nothing under the water, just a guy talking about what 'could be' or 'once was' under the water .

Our last day was spent taking the long way home around Loch Ness and back down to Edinburgh through the center of Scotland.

We stopped at a few places along the east back of Loch Ness and saw some old castles. There's bleeding castles everywhere here, but no nessie.

Our main reason for taking the long way home was to go to 'Landmark' which is a high wire course / kids theme park. It was pretty cool there if a bit kiddy, especially since it was English and Scottish school holidays and it seemed every kid in the country was there. Still we had a good time and got to see a different type of squirrel (the red squirrel).

And that was our little trip done, back home to Edinburgh and our little place on Brandon terrace.

So a few weeks ago now me and Rach got a real cultural Scottish experience and a bit of a knees up. Which they call a ceilidh, pronounced kay-leigh (i don't get it either). It was a fund raiser of some sort but I was mainly there to get some proper haggis. Mmmmmm mmm random meat minced up and cooked in a sheep’s stomach, yum!!

Bit of a surprise when we got there, as it was in a church hall and you had to start dancing straight away. Not even the robot or anything cool like that but folk dancing??!!!?!?!? So while the Gay Gordon’s was playing we warmed up with some £1 pints and wines.

Eventually after and bit of false confidence and jeering we got up and joined the rest of them on the floor.

Half way through the dinner was served, Paper plates and Mush. Well Haggis, Neeps (mashed parsnip) and tatties (mashed potatoes). It might not have looked very appetizing but tasted really good (I’ve even had it a few times since). Rach had the lighter veggie haggis, a bit nutty but still good. We'd Highly recommend you get some.

But the dinner was not to last as it was time to get our dancing shoes back on and see out the night. Of course everyone was getting a bit merry by this time and most of the dances were turning into a bit of a mess, especially the Flying Scotsman which was a mix between bull rush and river dance.

Then right at the end everyone held hands it a big circle and sang 'Auld Lang Syne' and in the chorus the two sides of the hall ran at each other, these Scottish are as nuts as their haggis.

But these things are not to last as at a bit past 12 we had to clean up the place and put away the tables for Sunday school the next morning.