Day 57 to 64

Day 57: Tuesday 16^th August

Off to Edinburgh

So Katherine and I caught the 9:15 train into London and arrived at Kings Cross at about 11 and then met up with Bridget (Katherine’s friend whom we spent the majority of London with) in a pub in Kings Cross. After a delicious lunch, the three of us caught a train at 2pm to Edinburgh.

What was amazing was that once we crossed the border from England to Scotland, we were engulfed into a curtain of fog and rain. Honestly, it was the most stereotypical thing and had us all in hysterics. When we got out at the main station it was absolutely bucketing down with rain. Luckily, I had my umbrella at easy reach but poor Bridget and Katherine had no umbrella! The three of us arrived at the hostel (which was in the centre) completely drenched. Frankly, it looked like Bridget and Katherine had had a shower in all their clothes and with their bags!

After checking in, the three of us dumped our stuff in our room which took 398583 minutes to find. The receptionist forgot to mention that there were two buildings and that only the 2^nd one had half floors – we were on floor 3M so after running around like headless chickens with huge backpacks we eventually found our room.

We spent the afternoon wondering around the old part of the city. The centre of Edinburgh has two parts – the old and the new. We stayed in the old centre which had cobble stone streets and stone buildings. The main street of the old part was completely bustling with people as the Edinburgh Festival was on! The Edinburgh Festival is a festival of up and coming dramatic acts, from comedy, to musicals, to plays and to cabaret shows. The main street has people from a lot of the acts handing out flyers advertising their acts. Some of the performances were free and the others range from really cheap to expensive.

Photo of the Main street

We finished the evening by hanging out in one of the local bars and with a bottle of Champagne!

Day 58: Wednesday 17^th August

We started the morning with our amazing buffet breakfast that was provided by the hostel. We all felt like slight old ladies as we smuggled bread into our bags so we could have vegemite sandwiches for lunch!

After breakfast, we did the free walking tour (once again!) which was fascinating. We learnt about a lot of Scotland’s history. For example, that originally Scotland was a combination of four tribes and that the name the “Scots” came from the Irish tribe!

Unfortunately, a lot of the photos are on Bridget’s camera and so I shall upload them when we have access!

We then had lunch in the main park of Edinburgh underneath Edinburgh Castle which was gorgeous and in true Scottish fashion, it started to rain on our walk home!

Bridget and I

That evening, we went and saw one of the free shows that were apart of the festival. We saw a cabaret show by a group called “The East End Cabaret”. The show was hilarious. They had a mixture of traditional cabaret, their own songs with well known modern songs (i.e. It’s getting hot here… so take off all your clothes!). At the end of the show, we ate dinner at the bar under the hostel and had delicious chicken fajitas before heading to a club known as The Hive.

The club was brilliant. It has two rooms, the first with current dance music and the second with hits from the 90s. We spent hours and hours dancing between the two rooms and meeting loads of people. Weirdest thing that did occur, was that we ran into Michaela Vaughan and Claudia Farrell whilst inside.

Day 59: Thursday 18^th August

This morning, we lined up for at least an hour to buy tickets for three shows we were to see over the next two days.

Once we had bought the tickets, we wondered over to the first venue where we bought traditional Scottish Shortbread to have whilst we watched the shows. The first show we watched was “Hitler the Musical”. To be honest, it was crap. The performances and the songs themselves were very well performed and the actors were very talented, however the story line was useless and not as amusing as it could have been.

We then had lunch at the local pie shop which was delicious before heading to another cabaret show. This show was done as well as the first. This cabaret was one lady acting as four different ladies with four different styles of cabaret. It was very, very well done. As well, it was in the coolest of venues. It was in a innovative modern venue that was built underneath some of the old bridges in the old town.

I’d show you all a photo, but…. As the rest of them… they are on Bridget’s camera!

During the night we were all exhausted from the night before, so we just hung in the bar at the hostel. There was a trivia night which we are proud to say we got the lowest score and one a rubber duck that lights up.

Day 60: Friday 19^th August

Today was our final full day in Edinburgh. We took a day trip out to a town on the coast known as North Berwick. It was stunning.

Bridget on the Coast

We caught the train out and it took about 30 minutes to get there. We wondered around the coast and on the beach for about an hour. It was such a cute town with green hills and for Scotland it was quite warm.

We eventually visited the tourist office, who informed us of a castle which was 35 minutes away by walking. We discovered that this was a lie. A huge lie. We took up this challenge of the uphill walk towards the castle. We passed fields, towns, caravan parks and houses on the walk that ended up being OVER AN HOUR.

The castle itself was so cool. It was set on the side of a cliff and we had to cross two bridges to get to it. Really… I can’t explain it well enough. So, take look at the photos below.

We got back to Edinburgh just before the last theatre production we were to attend. We saw Macbeth being put on by Cambridge students. It was truly amazing. We left the theatre absolutely speechless. The performance was incredibly in your face, meaning that they moved in and out of the audience and they used lighting and sound to increase any emotional reaction one would have. Honestly, it was the best Shakespeare performance I have ever seen.

That evening, we had dinner in the bar underneath the hostel before heading out to the clubs that lay on the cross road to our street. We started off at a reggae club.. which was fun but was a bit quiet, we then moved onto the Hive again. Which I thought was just as fun but Bridget and Katherine did not like the music as much. So we moved onto another club known as ‘Sin’ which was held in a place that was a church. It was the funniest experience I have had in a while. It was a rave club and so Bridget, Katherine and I just danced and danced and danced for the entire time we were in their. Finally, we moved back to the Hive, where we danced until 5am!

Us at the Hive

Day 61: Saturday 20^th August

Off to Dublin

So, after a wonderful sleep in…. okay, well after about 3 hours sleep, Katherine and Bridget got up to speak to their friend Alex at some ridiculous hour and then because we were off to Dublin today we also had to packed our bags and check out.

After completing those tasks, we had a fantastic breakfast and then Bridget headed to the train station to get a train back to London and Katherine and I got onto a shuttle bus to go to the airport.

The flight itself was really uninteresting – we fell asleep before it took off and woke up as it was landing!

When we finally checked into our accommodation in Dublin it was something like 4:30 so, we decided to have a little look around before sitting in the pub near where we were staying and got some early dinner before heading to be around 10ish.

Day 62: Sunday 21^st August

Today, Katherine and I did the free walking tour around Dublin. It was pretty interesting as we leant why the Irish hate the English and all about the revolutions and the wars that have occurred on their small island.

Did you know, that the main palace in Dublin was held by the British for nearly 700 years? And it used to hold the Irish parliament before the British decided that they had to sent representatives to Westminster Abbey (British Parliament) instead of having their own.

Dublin Palace

Like a lot of European cities, Dublin is situated around a river. It is a pretty city. I wouldn’t say it was gorgeous like some of the other cities, but it is still nice. They have tried to modernize the city with the new millennium (which kind of failed in most of the their eyes).

So, we saw a Cathedral, some bridges, a beautiful park and learnt about the important people within their society. We also learnt about the potato famine which killed nearly 2 million people within Ireland.

After the walking tour, Katherine and I went to various museums and saw some lovely exhibitions on Vikings, Egyptians and the medieval Irish.

That night, we did a pub crawl run by the some company who ran the free walking tour (different to the companies in most cities). It was fun… but definitely not as good as the other cities.

Day 63: Monday 22^nd August

We started relatively early today as we wanted to do a lot. We started by having a

Quick shop whereby Katherine bought a new handbag as hers was breaking. We then headed to the Leprechaun Museum!

Sign to the Leprechaun Museum 

It wasn’t really a Leprechaun Museum, it was more like a really cool place to learn about Irish mythology (where there is a lot). It was honestly so cool. We felt like big kids – not to mention we were probably one of the eldest there without kids!

It was designed very cleverly, as the museum told the stories of ancient mythology that was very important to the Irish people whilst at the same time entertaining for those within the museum. It had a “Big” room, whereby all the furniture was huge and we were meant to feel like leprechauns!

All in all, it was a very cool place!

We then walked to Kilmainham Gaol – which was the main gaol during all the revolutions within Ireland and it was one of the first reformist gaols within Europe.

Reformist gaol meant that it was one of the first gaols to separate male and female inmates and ideally have each person within the gaol in isolation; however the isolation did not occur during the main revolutions as the gaol became very over crowded.

The aim of this gaol (as of any gaol) was to reform these people to fit in with the rest of society as well as increase the safety of the inmates during their stay in the gaol, especially the safety of women.

A wing of the Gaol 

We finished the evening by having a meal in the pub before going to bed rather early as we had to be up at 3:30 the next morning!

Day 64: Tuesday 23^rd August

Off to Paris

So, we got up at 3:30 so we could get a bus to the airport at 4am as we had to be at the airport at 4:30am! We were flying with Ryanair and for those of you who don’t know… it’s a really cheap airline and they make you pay for everything separately. So, the taxes, the flight and checked in luggage all add up to make your ticket. With Ryanair you can pay for either 15kg of luggage each or 20kg but the 20kg is about 20 euro more expensive – so, with Katherine and I both being tight with our money… we chose the 15kg. Amazingly, we got our backpacks down to 14.1kg EACH!!! Although I do reckon that our handbags weighed probably about the same weight.

We got to Paris at about 9:30ish and then got a bus into the centre and finally got to our hotel. We checked in and dumped our luggage before walking around our area and then near the centre where we got to see Notre Dame. Before seeing Notre Dame we managed to find a cheap bakery just around the corner from us which we have used every day in Paris since.

Us in front of the Notre Dame

Eventually, we decided that we were too exhausted and at about 5ish we wondered back to our hotel where we got a baguette for dinner and went to bed after watching Pride and Prejudice.

Well… that’s it so far. I shall update with the rest of France soon!

Au Revoir!

Cait and Katherine xx