Touring Northern Ireland in the Paddy Wagon :)

As part of our hostel we were offered a free tour today with Paddywagon tours. It went to carrick a rede rope bridge, the Giants Causeway and then Derry. Of course we decided to take it up!! As broke backpackers all they had to say was free and we would be in, regardless of where it went!!

We had an early start and breakfast before being picked up at 9.15am. We met Troy who would be our tour guide for the day. He was a real Irishman from north ireland, not some ring in tour guide with no idea, so that was good. During the first part of the trip to the rope bridge he talked and talked and talked. It was hilarious!! He was telling irish jokes, and little stories and things, then would be like "Where was I again... oh yeh, the rope bridge!!". He was saying what happens on tour stays on tour and how if any of us see him drinking through the day, we were NOT allowed to tell his boss!! Lol, or he would go all Liam Neeson (from taken) and use his life skills to hunt us down and kill us... Then he was making jokes about how he doesnt actually have a licence, as he failed 4 times. But hopefully he can pass next weeks test!! We were all laughing, but then nervously thinking, ummmm... this IS ireland, hes probably serious!!! lol

Some old man who clearly was too uncomfortable from the stick up his bum was complaining telling Troy to just be quiet and put some music on or something... but Troy basically made fun of him then continued with his jokes lol. Ohhh I love Ireland!!!

We got to the rope bridge and had about an hour a half to explore. We walked down to the island and crossed the bridge. It was insane. The water was crystal clear and the cliffs were so colorful. It looked like the carribean or something, but then in the background were these huge rolling green hills and sheep and houses. It was one of the most spectacular places ive been.

Next stop was the Giants causeway. It was another 'short walk' down to the actual causeway. But it was beautiful. All the walking is fine when Ireland is the backdrop. Its so easy to get distracted!! Once we got down the bottom we had a bit of a look around, got some photos and then decided to go back up to the pub :) The most interesting part of the causeway were all the tales and myths about how it was created. Officially it was due to a lava eruption, but there are irish myths about a Giant who fought a scottish giant... theres hundreds of different stories! Its fascinating.

After a real good irish stew and beer we all fell asleep on the bus on the way to Derry. Clearly I still havent caught up on enough sleep yet!! Once we got to Derry we were taken to the information centre to meet Rory, who would be our walking tour guide. It started raining almost as soon as the tour begun, but it wasnt too bad. Rory took us around to the old town, which is the walled city. He told us the history with catholics and protestants and why all the fighting begun. Then he told us more about the IRA and the real IRA and how all that came about. I had heard so much about the IRA but never knew why they fought until now. He said that at the moment it is 90% at peace, but the real IRA are still there and just as dangerous if not more dangerous than the initial IRA.

He showed us murals and memorials relating to bloody sunday which basically kicked off the 'troubles' in northern ireland. It was insane!!

Then it was a short trip back to the hostel. It was such a great way to start my travels through Ireland. So much history in this area!!

Once we got back we decided to head to the bottle shop. Again, I know ive said how cheap it is here... but we managed to get 8 half litre beers, and 12 breezers for 15 pounds!!! This is heaven here.

Were enjoying it so much we have decided to stay another night. We want a proper sleep in tomorrow and to have a free day to just wander around at our own pace. (Even if our bathroom light is blown, the shower floods and our room lock is dodgy...) who cares!! lol. Still loving ireland!!!!

To be sure, to be sure... Im in Ireland!!

Well after another long 13 hour bus trip, 2 hour ferry then one more hour on another bus... we arrived in Belfast!! We jumped off the bus, grabbed our bags and my Europe guide and wondered what the hell we were doing in Belfast!!! lol

We had nothing booked, no idea of what there was to do, no plans whatsoever!! So we decided first off to head straight for the Belfast Welcome Centre. It was about a 20 minute walk into the city centre from the bus station. At first it looked kinda dodgy and it was a little scary, but the further we walked the more we decided it was just 'character'! Its quite a busy little city. Its more modern than a lot of the other places we have been. There are some older places, but a mix of new ones all amongst it too!

Walking has been a bit of a problem when I had my suitcase, but only after one day I LOVE my new backpack!! I can get up and down stairs like lightning!! :) So the walk into the welcome centre was good. Laura still has her case which was giving her a bit of trouble cos it was so heavy, but wasnt too bad.

The welcome centre was opposite City Hall which is this massive building right in the city centre. There were cops and traffic marshals everywhere. Probably didnt help ease our concern about Belfast...

The people at the welcome centre were so helpful. They found us somewhere to stay and showed us where to go. It was another hike, but we were just glad to have anywhere. It took us priobably 40 minutes to walk to the hostel. It was pretty tricky to find, but we got there.

When we checked in the lady told us about all the facilities. After places like switzerland and france me and laura were shocked how cheap ireland is!! We are paying 35pound a night for a private double ensuite room, free wifi, breakfast and then she said as we were staying 2 nights we could have a free tour if we wanted. We were pretty excited!!

It was still early, but as we had been on a bus all night we got up to the room and just crashed. I slept most of the afternoon trying to catch up. Feels like we havent slept properly for a month!! Then we had showers and got cleaned up before searching for food!! Even the food outlets are cheap here. We got 2 massive baked potatos, a huge thing of chips and 2 cans of soft drink for 10 pound!!

Then we got back to the room early. Caught up on some skype and facebook (very important activities while overseas!!) before getting an early night.

Now we are on our own all I want to do is sleep!!!! Its nice to be able to follow our own plan and do what we want when we want. Although it is lonely just the 2 of us at times, especially after spending 20 days with 50 people!!

Its so good to finally be in Ireland!!! :)

Kayla and Laura take on the big bad World :)

After the trip was over we went to stay at Jaimes for a night to get settled and make a plan for our next stop. My poor suitcase finally gave in and I replaced it with a lovely new backpack so now I really look the part. We got all equipped with sleeping bags and stuff, so now were ready to go.

Jaime lives out of London in the most gorgeous little town. Her house overlooks the thames river and is only a short walk to everything. It was so handy. After our shopping we stopped at tescos to get some wine and then went home to enjoy our drinks with our Edam cheese and crackers. It was so relaxing and such a good feeling to have no plans. Its probably the first time in my life where I have no idea where i will be or what I will be doing 24 hours from now.

We had a really nice relaxed arvo and night. In the morning we had to say our goodbyes to Dono as he was going to stay at his cousins place until he flies home. Then we repacked our cases and took off for the bus station. We intended on going to Dublin but when we got there we found out the bus was full until Wednesday. So we asked what tickets they had out of London for the day and she said the only thing left was Belfast. We figured why not, and this brings me to now. Sitting on another coach, this time for 15 hours!!! Going from London to Belfast.

Belfast is probably the one place that my dad told me I wasnt allowed to go. He said it was too dangerous, but we are big and tough enough!! (At least thats what im telling myself!!) Its a little bit scary with no plans. We have no accomodation booked, no idea where anything is. All we know is we get into Belfast at 10.30 tomorrow morning!! But its so exciting at the same time.

Well im off to stretch my legs a bit while there is still room on the bus!! At present there is about 10 people on here, but apparently from Manchester onwards its full. We have loads of water and nuts, fruit and snacks. All set to go!!

Hopefully we get accomodation in Belfast and I can fill you in again from there!!! Wish me luck!! :)

Contiki all over :(

So with contiki over what is my verdict?

I loved it!! There were times where I just wanted my personal space and a bit of down time, but looking back, there is no way that I would have done half of that stuff if i didnt do contiki! Ive gone from someone who had never been overseas before to seeing 13 countries!!

As for our tour I like the places we went, however germany felt a bit pointless. We only got 2 seperate one night stays. (Munich and Rhine Valley) which seemed more like sales opportunities than tours. Would have been nice to have 2 days together so we actually had a chance to see it. Apart from that it just got better and better with each day. I was genuinely stunned with each new country.

The variety and differences in the places we went was crazy. It was one extreme to another!! And the special contiki stops like the chalet and the chateau were amazing.

I went from a bit of a nanna who had been out probably 3 times in a whole year to someone who was able to drink everyday and live on 4 hours sleep a night!! (I still got it...)

Plus I made some awesome friends who I will hopefully stay in touch with in the future.

Its really opened my eyes up to the world and shown me possibilities I had never imagined. It was one of the best things ive ever done :)

Big thanks to Joel for entertaining us and to Magic for getting us everywhere fast and safe. (We really appreciate those illegal drop offs you gave us so we wouldnt have to walk as far!!)

I liked it, I loved it :)

Amster-DAMN!!!!

It wasnt a very long drive from Rhine Valley to Amsterdamn. There was one service stop, then only a quick drive into Edam for a Bike ride along the Dyjk. (Canal).

It was raining on the way into Edam but by the time we got to the bike pick up point it had stopped, so everyone grabbed their bikes and we left. They were the old school grandma bikes. It was so much fun. Half way through the ride it started to rain again though and not many people were well equipped. We rushed the ride through and got back to the store quick to drop the bikes back as everyone was cold and saturated. It was a shame because it would have been really nice otherwise!!

From there we went to a cheese and Clog shop. They showed us how the cheese and clogs were made then we went into their shop for a tasting. The cheese was out of this world!!! Much better than coles brand tasty cheese block!! lol. We also tried Stroopwafels which are my new favorite thing in the world!!! Hard to explain, guess you have to come to edam to try!!

From there we were taken to our hotel to check in and get freshened up ready for our night tour. After dinner we were taken back into Admserdam and to the 'Amsterdam ballet...' also known as the sex show. When in Amsterdam right!! Then joel took us on a walk through the red light district before free time. It was good going through as a part of a tour as I think it would be pretty scary to go alone. Its just such a different place, so relaxed with all that stuff. Every shop you walk past you can smell weed...

We caught the bus back to the hotel later on and got a relatively early night. Coming to the end of the tour everyone was struggling a bit. Everyone has the contiki cough and a sore throat, so an early night was good.

The next day we got up early to go on our canal boat bike ride. It was so much fun. We took about an hour and a half to make our way round a little circuit in the canals. It was a fun way to see a bit of Amsterdam too. Because me and Jaime went in one on our own we were exhausted by the end cos we had no one to share paddling.

After the canal bikes we had free time, but we wanted to go back early to get ready for our farewell dinner. By the time we wandered around finding our way back to the bus station though it was about 2pm!!

We all got ready for our farewell dinner then we were taken to a canal cruise. We got an hour long ride around different canals with a few wines which was fun. Then we got dropped off at a chinese restaurant for our dinner. The food was really good, and of course a few more wines.

After that we walked back into town to go to a bar. We stayed a little while and had a few drinks, then got taken to a shooter bar, but it was really cramped so a few of us left. We walked our way back to the station doing a bit of a food tour stopping at most food outlets on the way before getting home.

The next day was mixed emotions. We left admsterdam fairly early ready to head back to London. I slept majority of the way. Its like now my body knows contiki is over its given in. It held in for a long time!!

We got back to London and checked into the hotel then joined most of the group down at the bar for our goodbye drinks. It was a nice way to end it really. I was glad it was over so I can sleep and drink more water than beer, but sad to say goodbye to all my new friends!!

I met a guy at the bar who was starting his contiki the next morning, so we gave him bits and pieces of advice for the tour. Was wierd thinking that ours is now over. Feels like it only just begun!!

I think that night I slept for 10 hours straight...

Rhine Valley...

The next morning was extremely hard to get out of bed. It was a big trip from Switzerland to the Rhine Valley in Germany and I think I slept the entire way!! We stopped at a service stop first, then went on to Heidleberg which was so pretty. Plus its a uni city so it was so cheap!! A gelato and red bull was only 4 euro!! There was this little fountain in the middle of the town where I went to go and wet my feet. The water was so nice I ended up in the fountain completely!! It was so good. Then I had to lie in the sun to dry out before the bus left again. From there it wasnt too far to St Goar where we were staying the night. The last few kms were driving along the river with all the wineries and castles. Germany really is a gorgeous country.

Once we got to St Goar we were taken straight to the beer stein shop. I had said all along that I was going to get one, but they were more expensive than what I can afford, plus then you still needed to pay postage. I decided to just leave it and ill look on ebay!! There was also a cuckoo clock shop which had lots of little knick knack things.

After that we checked into our hotel which had about 5000 stairs. My poor suitcase is struggling to make the distance of the trip. It copping a fair bit of damage. After dinner we were taken to wine tasting at this really old little cellar. It was kinda creepy how dark and damp it all was. Plus the couple that worked there were a bit scary too. In the end I think we were just scaring ourselves more than anything. We tasted a few different local wines but they were all so sweet. Not my kinda wine. But they had cheese which was really nice!

After that was free time. We went back to the hotel and everyone caught up on emails and things. The only problem with such a big group is that theres usually only 4 terminals at the most so the wait can be hours, and the wireless never works so I gave up and just went back to my room.

The Rhine Valley seemed nice but one night wasnt really long enough to get a good look around and to really appreciate it. It more felt like a sales stop, to buy steins, clocks and birkenstocks.

But it was nice to have an early night for once. Get myself all ready for AMSTERDAM!!!

To the top of Europe!!

The next day it was raining when we left Munich. It was pretty funny seeing 50 people running out to a coach with suitcases trying not to get wet. Our first stop was Liechtenstein, one of the smallest countries in the world!! On the way in our tour manager found out that it was the National Holiday for Liechtenstein. Therefore a lot of things would be closed, but there was a festival going on! We got there and only had an hour free time to organise swiss money and get lunch. Switzerland was the only country aside from the UK where we would need money other than Euros.

At these stops you normally wind up spending the entire time queing for toilets or ATMs and this was no different. We had a quick look at a souveneir shop where I realised Joel wasnt lying when he said switzerland was expensive!!! It was ridiculous. 2 euros for a postcard, the t-shirts ive been collecting from each country were 3 times the price and food and drinks were crazy! At least they had free toilets :)

We got lunch from a stall and went and sat in the street to eat it. While we were sitting there a local guy came up to us, bent right over in our faces and started saying something in German. We asked for english and he was asking "Where are you from??" He was just curious and was asking us about what we were doing in liechtenstein and stuff. It was just funny how in our faces he was!! He couldnt believe we only had an hour, and said we would miss the big 'festival' where they open up the princes palace garden and have free drinks and stuff. He ended up off on his way again... and we went back to the bus. Laura again reminded me of the movie taken where a local invites the tourists to a party in order to kill them... haha.

Our next stop was Lucerne (Luzern). I was really looking forward to it as my boss Lloyd had told me about it and that it was really nice. When we arrived we first went to see the lion monument which was a memorial for the swiss guard who died. Then we were dropped off in the city near the old town bridge and walked up to Harrys watch shop. We were shown all of the watches and swiss army knives which were good to see but I couldnt afford in my lifetime!!

From there it was straight into our Chalet in Switzerland. It was one of the most beautiful stretches of road ive ever seen. We went through little valleys and mountains beside lakes and rivers. On getting closer we had great views of Jungfrau where we would be going the next day. We got to the chalet which was beside a river and waterfall right in the base of the mountain. It was amazing!!

After dinner I was planning on an early night to catch up on sleep. Jungfrau was going to be a big day and I didnt want to be tired or hungover so started getting ready for bed early. Then I went up to Serens room to see her before bed and they were all getting ready to go down to the bar. They twisted my arm and in less than 5 minutes I had gotten changed and had a drink in my hand!! I didnt end up getting back to my room until 2.30am. We had to get up early ready for the train.

We we walked up to the train station where we boarded our first train which took us up to the base of Jungfrau. It was beautiful scenery, there were cows everywhere with little cow bells ringing while they ate. When we stopped at the first stop to change trains we had 20 minutes spare time to take some photos and stretch. Then when the other train arrived it was about an hour and a half to go. It was so steep!! I have only ever really been on the Kuranda train for scenic railways and it was so much steeper!! The last 4 kms was through tunnels and it was freezing. We stopped twice to take photos out of windows in the tunnel and I couldnt believe how high up we had gone. It really did feel like you were on top of the world!

When we got to Jungfrau station everyone split up to go and do their own thing. We went straight to the ice palace which was built underground and had little ice carvings and caves you could go through. It was freezing but so amazing!! Then we got the lift up to the sphinx which is the highest point on the mountain. It was actually not as cold outside. The sun was so bright and there wasnt a cloud at all! The views were probably the best thing ive ever seen in my life. You could see all the way down into the valleys and so far into the distance.

After that we went outside to play in the snow. When we walked out, we had only been there for about 5 minutes when we heard what sounded like thunder. I looked over to the mountain and we saw a huge chunk of snow falling down! At the time I wasnt worried about how dangerous it was, just about how amazing it was that we actually saw an avalanche. Then after it I thought maybe it was a little scary!!

We found ourselves a spot and got set up to make our snowman, in between having a snowball fight or two. There were activities like tubing, skiing and tobogganing you could do. But we were happy just making our snowman. I was only wearing jeans so it wasnt long before I was saturated. I ended up almost lying in the snow but it was so soft I didnt care. With the sun being so bright too it wasnt taking long to dry out.

When Hans, our snowman, was finished we took a heap of photos, then I put my contiki jumper on him for some more pics. When we were almost ready to leave these 2 guys walked over and asked if they could take their picture with Hans. They were going to pay us because in europe you need to pay for everything!!! But because they were cute I thought we would let them for free :) Then a few more people came to take their pictures too. I have put a photo of Hans on here for you to see.

After that we were all really tired so thought we would get back to the camp in plenty of time to get ready for our Swisco Disco party night. It was being held in the bomb shelter at the chalet and there were going to be 3 groups there!!

Everyone was falling asleep on the train and we were all sitting next to strangers. So it became a battle of trying not to fall asleep on the strangers lap. It went a bit quicker coming down the mountain but we seemed to have to stop a fair bit. When we got back down to Lauterbrunnen we stopped at the pub on our way back to our chalet. It was actually a cheap pub with free wifi, so we sat there a little while before going back.

When we got back everyone had dinner and started getting ready for the party and drinking. It was close to 15 days straight of drinking so it was a bit of an effort at first, but didnt take us long to get in the mood!! Almost all of our group dressed up which was good. We always seem to put in a bit of effort for party nights. It was another really big night. I got myself back to bed before being dead to the world, when Laura and all the others came in and started taking photos of them all lying over me. I guess I was very 'tired' as I didnt even stir!! It wasnt until the next morning I realised when I looked back over the photos.