Leaving the Hare and Hounds

I wanted to take a picture with all of our stuff set up but then realized it was empty when we arrived and this is how we are leaving it now. Last memory of our room at the Hare and Hounds.

I had so much to say about the Hare and Hounds, but in the end it wouldn't mean anything to anyone that wasn't there. We worked with great team of people and we were able to overcome any kind of curve balls ... technical matter to customers flooding in all at once. The reason we decided to go work there in the first place was because on interview day we got the vibe that the managers were looking to add to their family rather than just expand their workforce, and in the end a family is what we were.

 L-R: Charlie, Leo, Jen, Micky, Sean, Cariad, Sara, Dan, Jesus. There were many many more.

 

Our Massive Garden!

The Summer BBQ, I really liked working outside.

Pub cat Guinness, or alternatively FatLazy,

I will miss this wonderful place but as they all know I got places to go new people to meet. 

Doctor Who Experience + Bus Tour

My little Tardis on the Torchwood entrance. 

We had a hell of a time trying to get to Cardiff since we overslept and missed the bus out from Victoria station. By the time we finally made it there we had to pay the £16 amendment fee to get on the next bus that of course leaves in an hour. So we just sat at the bus station waiting, when we finally got on the bus and was on route there was a car accident. Of course this would happen so the bus driver took a detour to get around the whole mess since it was blocking traffic. The driver mentioned that it would delay us about 30mins which isn’t that bad. I’ve been delayed for 10 hours once suck at the airport for that long isn’t a whole lot of fun.

When we arrived we headed straight for our hostel River House Hostel a quaint little place near the river across from the Millennium stadium. From there we were really close to city centre but this trip is just for the huge Doctor who day of FUN! I love this little hostel ran by a couple with a self service kitchen that had labels and free coffee and tea. A cozy living room area with a wii, movies and sofas, on top of all of that they do free food and drinks night so people can hang out.

Now for the fun, first thing in the morning we ate a very good spread of help yourself buffet. Now we hop on the bus straight to the Doctor Who Experience. Here are some videos we took from the day to start you off on this blog since these were so hilarious I couldn't pass up uploading them.

This is the scene in the episode from the skit above.

Like the bus ride out there wasn't exciting enough, we arrived to this huge building bought out tickets for £17 and we were ready for the next adventure.

During the line up we were briefed not to take any photographs in the first 30mins of the tour, next thing I knew I was talking to Matt Smith in the Pandorica and saving ourselves from Daleks where we had to navigate and drive the Tardis. There we watched the best 3D video I have ever seen and was sucked through the crack of time into the Doctor Who museum.

Inside was everything from the Doctor's screwdrivers over the years, outfits, characters and the development of. Wow I took over 300 photos!!

The 10th doctors tardis!

Emperor Dalek! 

Angels, Don't blink or I die.

The bus tour, we bought tickets in advance £25 each and this guy who has been an extra picked us all up from the Millennium centre. There was a fair group of us and it was a beautiful day out! We went to filming sites all over Cardiff. We saw so many places, were Cybermen fought the Daleks, the news stand of old Wilfred from the Christmas episode(Donna's Grandad), Leadworth (Amy's Village), the church that Van Gogh painted with the monster inside and many more. The tour was 4 hours long!

During the 11th hour episode, where everyone was pointing their cell phones at the sky. Amy's village Leadworth.

We are standing in the same spot as the Doctor and Martha when they said goodbye to Captain Jack. 

Van Gogh painting with the monster inside.
Next to it is the real church that we visited where
Amy and the Doctor watched Vincent paint. 

Here is me standing in the same spot as the Doctor, wooohoo!! We even at the same table as them! Table 11  FTW.

I had a wonderful time and if you want to see more pictures just message me! Definitely worth the money if you are a Doctor Who fan.

Irish Food & Randalstown

News of the day, Soda bread is not made of bread dipped in soda.

Today we started off with a traditional fry up 'Ulster Fry', since we had such a huge conversation at it at the pub on our first night out it has to be done.Sausages, fried egg, bacon, pancakes, grilled tomato, potato bread, soda bread, veggie roll. It was quite a meal!! I ate it so quickly that I forgot to take a photo for my blog.

This one has black pudding in it and the one we had in Dublin had black and white pudding. Also mushrooms, beans can be added to this meal.

Irish potato bread is yummy, but I do love tattie scones from Scotland and Potato pancakes from Poland.

Gemma’s mum dropped us off in town were we grabbed a drink at the local pub meet up with Sinead. From there we hit up a charity shop and picked up from groceries, I was all up for getting to know the local cuisine. So they suggested that I try some Irish munchies.

Oh yes yesterday we had champ with our steak and Guinness pie.

Mash with spring onion, simple yet effective.

Dan and I got a quick tour of the viaduct and bridge in Randalstown from Gemma and Sinead. For dinner we picked up pasties since Gemma has been mentioning it since our arrival. I thought it was like pasties in England but it is not.They are battered deep fried mash potatoes with minced pork served with chips and vinegar, we picked it up from a take away for a whole supper it was only £4.80.

Time to catch the train to Belfast from Antrim so we can make our super early train to Dublin. The train from Belfast to Antrim cost us £11 one way and our tickets from Belfast to Dublin was £25 each for a return so it wasn't too bad. Cept for to make the best of our time we decided to catch the 6:50am. We walked to Sinead’s place from the train station had a very relaxing evening drinking wine, liquored coffee and watching Breaking Bad. Wish there was more we could have done to repay her for her wonderful hospitality.  

Ireland - Causeway Coast

Bright and early on a murky Belfast morning, we taxied through the commuting hordes to find our tour bus. Having never been so overtly touristy as to take a couch tour before, we didn't know what to expect.

What we got was an incredibly dull etymology tour, our driver monotonously explaining the meaning behind the names of every glen and town we passed on our way north to the major sights. Danny usually is a sucker for this kind of stuff but even he couldn't enjoy the entire journey like this. Darren our bus driver put me to sleep and Gemma into apoplectic rage with his dulcet tones and sayings.

We experienced the worst weather of the trip during our brief stop at Carrickfergus castle. Here, ocean winds were blasting spray in our faces and we did not linger long. I quickly layered up for the suspension bridge. After Darren our bus driver told us many times how much money we would save by buying the rope bridge, causeway visitor centre and audio tour. (£10 for the two saving us a total of £4.10) We also adopted Lawrence a Chinese adventurer studying in Durham.

Carrick-A-rede was our first proper stop, after lots and lots of ill-delivered exposition. The weather eased off a bit crossing was still dramatic, courtesy of a howling wind on the cliffs. The island remains mostly closed off, leaving the wonderful views and experience of the rope bridge as the main draw.

From the pictures I had saw online I was thinking that the bridge was going to be much larger or should I say longer. However, when you are standing on the bridge being blasted by wind holding onto a rope that is literally pushing you to one side whilst looking down you can why this bridge makes your knees quake. Hold on tight and keep walking. After hitting the sign that tells you that you cannot go any further we headed back for a cup of hot chocolate and tea.

Next stop Bushmills distillery for lunch, we hand an hour to head in decide what we wanted to eat and give a taster to the whiskey if we so choose. We all had steak and Guinness pie in the café and tried some whiskey at the bar. Danny had a moment at the bar where he bought a bottle of 16 year, a very nice treat.

After briefly stopping at Dunluce Castle for a very short photo-op, we made it to our final stop, Giant’s causeway. The visitor centre is a far cry from when last Danny was there, apparently it was a whole new building hollowed out of the ground. We picked up our audio guide and began our trek to sea level alongside our new friend Chris from Seattle.

I thought that it was going to much larger when I arrived maybe because in my mind the giants would be massive. Even though it wasn't as huge as I had hyped it up in my mind the structural formation is very unique unlike anywhere else in the world. Plus the story of how the Giant’s causeway came to be has a very interesting story.

The audio tour was totally new to me I always knew that you could get a little voice guiding you around and telling you the history about what you were looking at. This was my first time using one of these devices and I did look for things that I wouldn't have which was neat.

We all split up climbing around the stones walking up to the ocean side, sitting on the rocks and taking photos. A wonderful place to some epic panoramic photographs. Lastly before heading back to the visitor centre we stopped to see the Giant’s organ. Gemma spoke with the bus driver beforehand and found out that he would he would be able to drop us off in Antrim which is near where Gemma lives. We got picked up at the bus stop for a lovely homemade stew supper.

Belfast Tour

In  the morning we caught a ride with Gemma's brother to Gemma's cousins in the city, had a quick coffee and hopped on a bus into town centre. First act of the day find where we get on the tour bus, it was nice and simple since we took the City Sightseeing Tour bus (the red one you see everywhere) there were guys wearing the red jackets everywhere.

We started Prince Albert's wonky clock, it sank partly into the baggy ground (Belfast's leaning clock tower) they had the opportunity to fix the lean bus decided it gave it some character. We passed the big fish, legend says that if you kiss the big fish that you will gain knowledge. Others says that it will steal your knowledge.

We saw the shipyard where the Titanic was built and the shiny white star centre (Titanic Museum) The legend goes that the Irish response to the unsinkable sinking was that it was fine when it left Belfast. English captain, Scottish navigator and one Canadian iceberg -not our fault!

During the tour we passed some relics of a past age, the big shipbuilding thingies called Sampson and Goliath . Near here was the studio for the first season of Game of Thrones the room with iron throne.  From there we cruised out the docklands to the east to see the (Storment) parliament building and grounds. Coming back into the city our guide gave us a brief overview of the Troubles. 

Basically, it was separatists pushing for free NI vs. unionists who were happy being part of the UK...for 30 years after the good Friday agreement in 1998 both sides put down their arms and things are better, but the great 'peace walls' that were erected to separate the opposing sides still remain to this day.

We saw more when the bus delved into areas that suffered the Troubles and took us along its length. It was heavily decorated, as are many areas with murals. There murals serve as remembrance, a demonstration of outrage or even just marking the territory. Flown flags and painted curbs also serve the latter purpose. Wandering in the wrong parts of Ireland was dangerous business for a long time.I'd like to say that this is no longer the case, but some wounds run deep enough to need generations to fix. 

Hopping off in the university district and went through the botanical gardens to check out the Ulster Museum.  There were a few dinosaurs and we read up on the events and history of the Troubles. 

The University.

Decided against walking through the botanical gardens and headed into the city centre to go up to Victoria City Square Viewing Dome, where we got some panoramic pictures of the cloudy city. It did not wobble like a lily pad. Back on ground level we met up with Gemma's cousin Robert and started on a slow pub crawl to Filthy McNastys. Gemma wants to point out the hottie at McHughes Pub, if you are ever there say hi for Gemma. :P We had a great time and did a group drawing of random assortments of things and I was educated on a full Irish breakfast.

Off to Ireland

Wakening this morning was slow, arduous and very unproductive. We ended up rushing around, it was not my idea of an efficient nor fun way to start a journey. All of our packing and our organizing was near non existent. I sorely rose from slumber to only find that we were instantly lacking the time that we needed to get things together before we were late for our many transfers to get to southend airport. I am so glad that we didn't catch the morning flight, I was really against trying to find a way to get to Ireland at a leisurely pace. Even us leaving so late in the afternoon we weren't moving fast enough.

Return tickets to Belfast was only £80 for two people so it wasn't too expensive. Should have done it sooner but better late than never. I can't wait to see Ireland!

We must be blessed with some possible force because after fretting about our lack of time (Mortlake -> Waterloo -> Bank -> Liverpool Street -> Southend) Arriving at baggage check in 10 minutes before it closed.

Now on the plane we will arrive 20 minutes early, another stroke of luck. To me though this time it was a small victory that we made it on to the plane at all I thought that we would miss it for sure. So when we were soaring high over the clouds I felt mighty relieved and was a bit flabbergasted that we made it at all since a couple hours ago nothing was packed and I was fast asleep.

Spitafields Market

I have had tonnes of recommendations to head eat in London over to Spitafields and visit the markets. Not only that if you keep walking that way you intersect with Brick Lane (if you like Indian food you will love this street) Lots of restaurants with hosts trying to entice you with deals and bottles of wine with your meal.
During our adventure there was lots of art to be seen, from within the shops, art galleries even through the streets and ally ways.

There isn't a shortage of stalls, I hear there is even more on the weekends.

A possible Bansky?

Definitely, would recommend going to Spitafields.