A swallow carrying a coconut?

"It's a simple question of weight ratios; A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut... It could be carried by an African swallow!"

That's right, we went there.. We watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail and decided to go find Doune Castle for ourselves - turns out it's only half an hour away from Stirling.

We got on our fake horses and galloped all the way there!

The huge fireplace in the kitchen >

Because The Holy Grail was such a high budget film... Doune Castle is the only castle used in the whole movie - so the many different places seen are just Doune being shot from different angles - brilliant! It was neat to see all the rooms and put the whole movie together while quoting King Arthur all day.

 This is the room in the swamp castle from the Holy Grail (with the goofy guards).  The prince falls out this window! ^ 

Team Canada makes it to the top.

I'll tag on a few pictures of Glasgow from earlier in the week.  We got up-close and personal with some 'Heeland Coos' and enjoyed the sound of bagpipes and drums filling the streets in the city center:

 

This weekend I've locked myself in my room to write a history essay, woohoo!  As you can tell, I've been working very hard on it. Making endless cups of tea, editing pictures, cleaning my room, going on facebook, and updating this blog has convinced me that I'm being productive.  But, I've run out of things to do which tells me I should stop procrastinating and get to it... after I do some laundry. 

Talk to you again soon. Cheers!

Costumes, campfires, and castles.. oh my!

I have a few things to update you on from the past 2 weeks so let's get started:

We begin with good ol' Halloween - Originally I wanted to dress up as something Canadian, but my options were either: a moose, an RCMP officer, or a maple leaf.. and I'm sure you will agree that none of these options are flattering.. or easy to pull off.  Anyway, I saw a polka-dotted skirt in the mall one day that was on sale, and one thing led to another:

I was hoping to run into Mickey Mouse at some point in the evening.. but it never happened :(

Moving on - History Lesson: Guy Fawkes was some guy who tried to blow up the King and the Parliament  in 1605, but failed - yay!  Since then, November 5th has been known as Bonfire night:

Remember, remember the 5th of November

The Gunpowder Treason and plot;

I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes 'twas his intent

To blow up the King and the Parliament.

...

And so, once a year, children make a stuffed dummy, refered to as 'The Guy', and he is placed on top of a bonfire pile and burned... morbid much?  It's then followed by an impressive fireworks display:

"oooh.. ahhhhh!"

It was a little weird.. but it made for a nice night. (^ Note the Olympic mitts being proudly worn by my English friend who went on an exchange to Canada last year!) 

And lastly I bring you to St. Andrew's - a beautiful town on the coast that has definitely made it on the list of my favourite places.  

 

As soon as we got off the bus, we made a B-line for the beach.  Why hello, North Sea!

Surfing in Scotland... why not?

Wandering around the ruins of the Cathedral and the beautiful castle by the water.  

 University of St Andrews - oldest one in Scotland.

So to recap: beaches, castle and cathedral ruins, cute downtown area, old university - what more could you ask for in a little town? Such a lovely place :)

I hope you are all keeping warm back home.  Less than 2 months until I join you again. 

Talk to you again soon, cheers!

The Emerald Isle (sequel)

Dublin checklist:

• Spending a late night at an Irish pub - check.
• Leprechaun sighting - check.
• Downtown wandering (Castle, Spire, gardens etc.) - check
• Pretending to be a Trinity College student - check.
• Enjoying a pint at the Guinness Brewery - 

 

And yet another reason why I love being Canadian   >

(They probably only make the English pay, lol)

Learning what Guinness is made from: water, barley, hops, and yeast.  

 ^ We tried some roasted barley.

"Each Copper holds 172,800 pints"

And now up to the the Gravity Bar on the 7th floor to try one! I'm not a huge beer drinker, but it was actually pretty good.  I've never tried a Guinness in Canada before but I've heard it is much better in Ireland - I'll have to do some comparing once I get back home.

We enjoyed our pints overlooking Dublin as the sun set.

Not to worry mom and dad:

We were all smiles on the train after our pints - on our way to Kilkenny! 

We arrived pretty late and after wandering around in the dark, we managed to find our hostel.  We had a number of early mornings and late nights in a row, so we enjoyed sleeping in before we started day 3:

Good morning/afternoon Kilkenny!

Pronunciation lesson: It's kilKENny, not KILkinny as we discovered. The number of times random Irish people corrected us is amazing.  

First stop: Kilkenny Castle.  

We weren't supposed to take pictures... so we did.  This was in the gallery of the castle - taken just as the lady at the other end of the room had her back turned..

^ After a lovely walk around the castle grounds, the next stop was St. Canice's Cathedral. v

This is quite possibly on the list of the best food I have ever eaten (along side my Nonna's beans and my mother's chili... and dad's BBQ :)

Clonakilty Chicken: Chicken stuffed with black pudding, wrapped in bacon + mashed potatoes and roasted veggies.  I think I gained a few pounds that night..

But save room for dessert back at the hostel!  No oven for baking = fried chocolate chip cookies, mmmmm...

We shared our 'water closet' with Leprechauns at the hostel. I never saw them though so they  must have been hiding the whole time.. sneaky.

Another early morning called and we had a sleepy train ride back to Dublin to begin day 4. 

We hopped on a bus headed for Newgrange.  

We had a very *interesting* tour guide named Mary.  She went around the bus asking where everyone was from and she had been to every place it seemed.  "So, where are you from?? Tjindzinchkdlen. Oh yeah.. I use to be a guide there." It was incredible.  

Once she got started with the history of Ireland, she didn't stop until the bus did.  All of us definitely fell asleep - good thing we sat at the back.

IMAGINING the Hills of Tara like Mary told us.  Amazing. ^

In all seriousness though, it was a pretty cool view.  The Hills of Tara are home to ancient monuments and seats of kings dating back to the 6th century.   Also a very spiritual place where rituals and festivals were held.

We made it to Newgrange itself - an Irish passage tomb that's 1000 years older than the Great Pyramids and Stonehenge. It has a cross-shaped chamber inside with only one entrance. It was built so that the midwinter sunlight enters in through the Roof Box (the hole above our heads ^) and casts a beam of light inside for only a few minutes everyday... pretty cool.  

Walking down the passage inside the tomb...

One of the 97 stones that surrounds to tomb. ^

When we got off the bus, Mary shook our hands, looked us in the eyes and said in an intense voice, "Good luck on your studies." It was hard to keep a straight face.  I'll miss her though :) 

We were back in Dublin once again and we slowly made our way back to the airport.

The perfect size suitcase to mail a sheep home! 

Now if only I could find one big enough for a highland cow...

With our postcards in the green mailbox, a lovely view of the sunset over the River Liffey, and the last of our food eaten before we boarded the plane, it was time to say a final farewell to Ireland.  

I've made a list of memorable quotes from the tip and have a handful of brochures and pamphletes of places we visited.  Good memories for sure.  Thanks for the great company girls.

A big Guinness cheers to Ireland!