Jameson Distillery & the trip to Bath

Sorry for the late post! The internet at our hostel in Bath has been shocking. 

So as I said in the previous post, in Dublin we visited the Old Jameson Distillery! 

I had really been looking forward to it, as Jameson's is my Dads favourite whiskey and I have come to really like it too. We went on a tour of the distillery and learnt about the history of Jameson and how the whiskey is made. It was really interesting! I actually learnt quite a lot from the tour. The distillery we visited in Dublin is no longer in operation, so we didn't actually get to see any whiskey being made. They did however have scaled down (still huge) versions of all the things they use to make the whiskey so we could still see how it is made. After the tour we got to do a whiskey tasting which, lets be honest, was what we had been looking forward to. We were given a taste of Jameson, Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker and compared them to each other. It's really amazing the difference in the taste when you are comparing them. As well as the tasting we also got a free drink at the bar which was pretty cool. We had Jameson with ginger and lime, which was delicious! (You should try it dad. Jameson, ginger beer and lime juice with ice) 

After the tour we took our last walk around Dublin and went back to the hostel to rest. We left the hostel with plenty of time to get to the ferry. Google told us that we had to catch the 151 bus, and then it would be a nice, easy 12 minute walk from there. We should have realised something was wrong when the bus driver seemed really surprised when we said we were headed for the port. We got off at the stop we were told, and proceeded to follow the directions Google had attempted to give us. We made it to the entrance of the port, with the help of a lovely lady who happened to be walking by us and was willing to give directions. This was about 20 minutes away from the bus stop. Yay! We had made it to the port. We stopped in at the service station to ask for directions to our terminal. The man there told us it was about a 30 minute walk away, maybe longer. Our ferry left in 20 minutes. We were almost about to try our luck and just leg it to the terminal, when (thank god) a taxi drove around the corner. The taxi driver laughed at us when we told him we were going to walk there, and said we were not the first tourists to make that mistake. Luckily we made it to the ferry just in time. An hour after we had originally planned to be there. The ferry was extremely nice. More of a cruise ship really! It's huge! With a bar, lounges, cafés, a cinema, a casino, games room and a shop. It was a 3 hour journey to Holyhead, Wales. I wish it had been longer so we had more time on the boat! Once in Holyhead we had to wait for the first train out. We arrived at 12:30am and our train was at 4:25am, so we had a long wait ahead of us. There weren't many chairs at the station, so on the floor it was. It was absolutely freezing in the station, and it was tiled so we had to sleep on tiled floor which made it even colder. It was a really unpleasant few hours. Once our train arrived it was a 5 hour trip to Newport, Wales. At least the train was warm. I think we both managed to sleep a few hours each. Once in Newport we only had one train left, thank goodness. The train to bath was only about 40 minutes long. However it was a painful 40 minutes, as a bunch of drunken Welsh boys (it was 9:40am I might add) got on and were extremely loud. We finally made it to the hostel. 

Dublin

Sadly today is our last day in Dublin! We have had so much fun, and really enjoyed our time here. 

Like I mentioned before on our second day in Dublin we did a free walking tour. Although it was not as good as the one in Edinburgh we still enjoyed it and learnt a lot. We are really loving these free walking tours, as it gives us the opportunity to see a lot of the city as well as learning about its history. Plus the tour guides are really friendly and give you tips of what to do and what not to do in the city, which has been really helpful! We finishided the walling tour in a park called Stephens Green. It was so beautiful! We wandered around the park for a bit before heading back into the bustle of the city. We have been here for a month now and I still haven't gotten over how green the parks and lands are! It's truly amazing. Once we had explored the park we headed around Dublin just to look around. We found lots of cool and quirky shops - so many candy stores! - and discovered some really cool old alleyways. We also found a tattoo parlour, that I absolutely fell in love with, more to come on that later though. 

On our third day in Dublin we thought it would be fun to visit the National Leprechaun Museum! Anyone heading to Dublin and thinking about going to this museum, I would probably say give it a miss. Whilst it was quite interesting to hear about Irish mythology (which I have really taken an interest to, it's so fasinating) the museum itself was not that great. Really not worth what you pay to get in. It's definitely more aimed towards kids than anything else. It was a fun thing to see, but yes I wouldn't recommend it. 

After the museum we wandered around the shops there for a while and then headed back towards where we were staying. At 5pm that day, I was scheduled in to get a new tattoo!!! I was so excited! I had found this artist on Instagram and absolutely fell in love with his style and artwork. I had a tattoo in mind that I'd had on my list of tattoos to get, but didn't think I would be getting it for a while. However this artists work was exactly what I was looking for! And then I found out he worked in Dublin, really close to where we were staying! I was so excited. We went to the tattoo parlour (Dublin Ink) and asked if they had any spots available, and the receptionist said yes...on the 16th of June. I was pretty devastated. We told him we were leaving in a few days and wouldn't be here then, so it wouldn't work out for us. He told us to wait there and went to have a chat to the artist. When he came back he said that the artist thought he would be able to fit me in at 5pm the next day!! I was so lucky, and so happy! So come 5pm we were back at the tattoo parlour, and I was getting ready to be tatted. Let me say it was the longest 2 hours of my life. I am so bad with pain, and it was so incredibly sore. But my goodness it was worth it. I absolutely love the tattoo, and am so so happy that I was able to get it done by an  artist I love. So very lucky! 

To celebrate we went and had a drink at a very traditional Irish pub. Harrison tried a Guiness! It was really gross 😝

Yesterday we were up bright and early to go on a day tour to Howth fishing village, 30 minutes out of Dublin. The tour was with the same group that does the walking tours (Sandemans) and it appealed to us because it was not a bus tour. Most day tours you get on a bus for hours on end and don't really get to see that much out of the bus. However on this tour they take you to the location via public transport and you do the tour by foot! We were really looking forward to it. When we left to start the tour the weather was looking really bad, and only got worse as the day progressed. We did most of the tour in the rain, which wasn't so fun, but we still really enjoyed the day. We started off by an old castle and learnt about it's history, and that people still live in parts of it today!! 

We moved from the castle into the forest, which was just beautiful. In the forest our guide told us legends and stories of faeries and leprechauns. He told us the myths surrounding the forest, and the folk stories connected to it. It was so interesting! We trekked through the forest and up Howth Hill. The view from the top was pretty spectacular, even with the rain and fog. You could see all the way back to Dublin! It was really beautiful. 

Back down the hill we went, on our way to a pub for lunch. We walked through another section of forest and through a bit of the village, which was really nice. It was a great relief to get to the pub and get out of the cold and rain! We got fish and chips for lunch, and made some friends from Perth and LA! It was great. After lunch was done we reluctantly returned to the rain to continue our tour. It was well worth braving the cold, as our next walk was along the Howth cliffs. The cliffs themselves were really beautiful, and the view from them was just as amazing. 

We walked along the cliffs to the harbour, in the hope of seeing some seals playing in the water. After a bit of waiting we did see some seals! Even though it was just their little heads poking out of the water, it was still very exciting. We made our way back to the train station and ended our tour. It had been a really long and tiring day, but it was such an amazing experience, and I'm so glad we got the opportunity to see Howth and learn more about Irish history. 

Today we are going to do a tour of the Jameson distillery (was supposed to do it yesterday but went to Howth instead) which I am very excited about. We have a long night of travel ahead of us, as we leave Dublin at 9pm and arrive at our next destination (Bath) at 10am tomorrow. So other than the distillery we are probably not going to do much, just relax before our all nighter. I have really loved Dublin. I wish we could have seen more of the Irish countryside, but I suppose it is something that we will have to come back to do in the future. 

Craigengillan, Irvine and back to the Isle of Arran!

On our third day in Irvine our lovely hosts Liz and Jim drove us to a place called Dalmellington. In Dalmellington there is the Craigengillan estate which Harrison's family lived in for 400 years!! Unfortunately the house was unopen to the public. However we did get to wander around the beautiful gardens. The gardens were still perfectly manicured and were absolutely gorgeous! We found a bunch of graves in the back of the garden that dated to the early 1900s, but we think they were pet graves. We had lunch sitting on a bridge and then wandered down the very, very long driveway/road into town. It was really cool to see the place where Harrsion's family comes from! 

The next day we went in search of the Maritime Museum. We got the chance to explore more of Irvine, and wander down to the harborside which was really pretty. Unfortunately you had to pay to get into the museum, and we didn't really need to see it that much, so we didn't end up going in. However we did have lunch at a lovely little cafe right on the water. It was really beautiful, and nice to treat ourselves to a cafe lunch. 

On our last day in Irvine we returned to the Isle of Arran. We were so incredibly lucky with the weather, we had the most beautiful day! It was sunny and warm, just stunning. We spent the day horse riding! 

We went on a one hour horse ride through fields and next to creeks. 

It was so beautiful, I absolutely loved it and wished we had gone on the longer ride!

 

Once making our way back into the town we sat down to a packed lunch (thanks Liz!) next to the beautiful blue water. It was a perfect day. Once we were done with Arran (rather we knew we had to leave to make a bus 😕) we hopped on the ferry and made our way back to Irvine. From there it was back to Edinburgh for the night before flying into Dublin the next morning. Everything went well until Glasgow where we had to catch another bus to Edinburgh. However this bus was over an hour late (National Express)! It was really annoying. We only ended up in Edinburgh at around 10:40pm. 

This morning we were up bright and early to catch a plane to Dublin. Needless to say, it was a stressful morning. The airline we were flying with was really cheap (Ryanair) and it definitely showed. We waited a really long time to check in, and then our flight was delayed. Also, I would highly suggest avoiding flying out of Edinburgh if you can avoid it. It is totally chaotic. Security takes ages and is just really rushed and doesn't seem to have a very good system. But regardless of all this it was not a bad flight, and we made it to Dublin safe and sound! We are currently staying at Abigail's Hostel in Dublin, and so far so good! We have nice roomies and the hostel itself is really nice. It's got a good kitchen and everything is clean. Main downside is our room is above a club, the music is very loud. But we will see how it goes. Tomorrow we are off on a free walking tour (same company as Edinburgh, Sandemans, they are really good and do free walking tours in lots of countries). Then on Wednesday, which I am super excited for, we are going to the Jamesons Distillery! So I will write about our adventures in Dublin as they come. 😊

Glasgow and The Isle of Arran

The day we arrived in Glasgow the weather was quite grim. It was raining and windy and freezing! So we weren't able to do much on that day. However we were so exhausted we didn't really have it in us to do anything anyway. Luckily at our new hostel we had our own room!! It was a four person room and we were lucky enough not to have any roomies! We were so happy. The next day was still raining but not nearly as much. So we set off to explore. We walked to the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. We absolutely loved it! We ended up spending most of the day there. It was so interesting.

 After the museum we walked around Kelvingrove Park for a while then headed back to the hostel for dinner. Next up we were off the Irvine! I was particularly excited to visit Irvine as (you may have guessed) it is in my family's history and we had ancestors that lived here. We are currently still in Irvine. We are staying with some of my grandmas friends and we have been spoilt! We are so incredibly lucky. They took us out for dinner last night to 'the oldest pub in Irvine'. It was pretty amazing to have pub food rather than beans and pasta. 

Today we went to the Isle of Arran. It was absolutely amazing! One of the most beautiful places. We walked around the town for a bit and then headed off on a walk through a valley called Glen Rosa. It was so beautiful! 

We walked alongside a river through farms and fields and next to mountains. The water of the river/stream was so amazingly clear! Harrison had a drink from it. We came across a waterfall which was pretty cool! It was such a beautiful walk. 

We had lunch (packed and made by our host - so cute!) in the middle of a big meadow/field next to a small creek. There were wild rabbit hopping about all around us and beautiful birds flying past. It was amazing. We didn't see nearly as much as we wanted and will probably go back sometime during the week. We came home to a delicious home cooked meal, and a proper bed to sleep in. It's also been great actually being able to drink water out of the tap here, as you are not able to do so in London. So grateful. Tomorrow Liz and Jim (our hosts) are driving us to a place called Dalmellington, where Harrison's family has a lot of history. I think it's going to be really interesting 😊

Edinburgh.

Whilst the city of Edinburgh is incredibly beautiful, unfortunately our stay here has not been a great one. This is mainly due to the hostel we are staying in, which I suppose is just something we are going to have to get used to. The hostel itself is not too bad. It's filthy and the power sockets don't work properly and the wifi constantly drops out, but all in all it hasn't been too awful. However the people staying here have been pretty atrocious. From keeping us up all night as mentioned in the previous post, to leaving the kitchen in an absolutely disgusting state after using it, they really just have not been pleasant. Anyway, about what we have done in Edinburgh. We only arrived in Edinburgh fairly late so the first day here we didn't do too much. We walked around the general area of the hostel and looked at the grocery stores around. This night we had the 8 bed room to ourselves which was pretty awesome as well! The second day in Edniburgh started out really great. We got up and went on a free(!) two and a half hour walking tour that took us all around the city. It was so interesting learning about the history of Edinburgh and seeing all of the beautiful sites, such as the castle and various other monuments. After the walk we lazed around for a bit, and then after dinner we headed of for another walking tour by the same company. This one was a night time tour called 'The Dark Side' tour. As we were walking there we noticed that a whole bridge had been sectioned off by police. There were ambulances and police officers everywhere. We later found out that someone had jumped from the bridge earlier that day. We had been walking along there earlier and must have just missed it. It was really sad. The tour started at 9pm and took us around to all the 'haunted' sites of Edinburgh and we learnt about serial killers and the witch trials and all that fun stuff. It was really fantastic 😊 We made it home around 11:45 and were completely exhausted from a full day of walking. As you may have read in my previous post we had a really awful nights sleep thanks to our roomies. Today we were basic the walking dead. We managed to get to the National Scottish Gallery which was quite beautiful, and have lunch in some lovely gardens. However we were both so tired and unethisiatic that we headed back to the hostel and had a relaxed day. We had done most of the things we wanted to do yesterday anyway, so it wasn't too bad. We are off to Glasgow tomorrow, so hopefully our experiences there are better than Edinburgh. 

Dear Roomates

To the drunken assholes we had the 'pleasure' of sharing a dorm with last night, 

thank you so much for keeping us 'entertained' last night, as you put it. I really enjoyed being woken up at 1:30 in the morning to the lights being turned on and four of you stumbling into the room. I appreciated your attempts of 'shhhing' each other, only to burst into laughter and giggle like young school girls. I especially loved it when one of you drunkly tried to make your way up to the top bunk of your bed, only to bring the entire bunk bed toppling over just infront of me. Well at least it didn't hit me, hey! And I was so interested that you did the exact same thing, less than 5 minutes later. Harrison really enjoyed having to hold your bunk up for you and help you up the stairs. He also loved having to get the blankets that you had left behind on the floor and pass them up to you. And to the guy who was looking for his phone, I admire your persitance. You really needed to find it at 2am. And you would not let the rest of us hear the end of it, until you had the damned thing back in your grubby hands. We were so glad that we got to hear all about your drunken shenanigans at 2:30am. When you finally fell asleep, we were so relived to hear you snoring like freight trains, we wouldn't want to worry that you weren't breathing! But that was not all! My favourite part of the night was when your other two buddies decided to stumble home at 4am. It was so clever of them to bang loudly on the door, as they were too drunk to work the key card. I loved the way you checked on us all by shining the torch on your phone right into our bunks, and onto our faces. So considerate! It was also so awesome that you wanted to make sure your friends were alright, by thumping loudly on their beds with your fist until they woke up! So kind! I really just love getting to sleep at 5am, thank you so much! We even got to watch the sunrise! I'm so glad that you also decided to wake up at 8am and converse loudly about your night before. It's not like we had already heard the story at 2am! It was so intriguing. And to the room a couple of doors down that decided 8:30 was a fantastic time to blast music from their amp, thank you so much for sharing your music with the hostel, I'm sure the other guests loved it just as much as we did. I sincerely look forward to seeing what tonight holds, as we share the room with you again. So excited. 

Yours truly,

Your roommate. 

First Two & a bit Weeks of the Gap Year

I'm going to be upfront and say that I am probably not going to update this blog very often, as you may have already guessed from the lack of posts in the last two weeks. However, I will try my best to make a post every now and then. 

London. After 24 hours of travel we began our adventure in Ealing Broadway. Ealing Broadway is a town at the end of the district train line that is filled with quirky shops, and beautiful buildings and parks. We took the train from Heathrow, our first time ever on the British underground, and made our way to the hotel we would be staying in for the night. We arrived there at 9am, 5 hours before check in. We both had not slept very well on the planes, so we were both exhausted. Luckily the lady at reception was absolutely lovely and let us have a room early, a nicer one than the one we had booked too. We knew we couldn't sleep, or we would make the jet lag worse, so after a shower and a change of clothes we set off to explore Ealing Broadway. We firstly went in search of some food. We were (and still are!) amazed at the price of groceries. Much cheaper than back home. Our first meal in London was a bagel each from a little takeaway shop for £1.50. £3 and lunch was done! We were pretty amazed. We sat in a park we found and ate our lunch, and probably looked like massive tourists but we didn't care. We were in a different country, eating our first meal paid for with our own money, starting an adventure of a lifetime. It was a good first day. 

The next day we set off for London Central. We would be staying at the London Central YHA, which was very exciting. For me especially as I had never stayed in a hostel before. We woke up to a very overcast day, but were hopeful that it would not rain. We learnt that day that we should never be hopeful that it will not rain in London when the sky is that grey. We made it to the train and began on our way to the hostel. When we arrived at our stop it was pouring. Great. We only had a vague idea of where we had to go, and ha not yet gotten a map. (We picked one up as soon as we got to the hostel and have not yet put it down). We started the walk from the station to the hostel in the rain. It was pretty miserable. After about half an hour of running from shelter to shelter we finally made it to the hostel! We were only there one night, but it was a really nice hostel! I thought it was clean and warm, and it had a kitchen and wifi and all was good there. After dumping our heavy bags we made our way to the British Museum. I have never in my life seen a museum that huge. It was absolutely amazing! We were there for 4 hours and didn't even see half of the museum. We both loved it and were shocked by how huge it was. And the architecture was just incredible. I've found that with most of the buildings here. They are just beautiful! All so unique. After the museum we headed to the London Dungeon. By this time the weather had cleared up and the sun was out (are we in Melbourne or what). The walk was really beautiful. We went through the towns and across a bridge that had an awesome view of Big Ben. The London Dungeon was an incredible experience. It was terrifying and thrilling. I loved how they included the history of London, it was so interesting. If ever in London it is something I highly recommend doing! Next up would be the London Eye. The weather had cleared up beautifully, we were so lucky! By the time we got to the top on the eye the sky was blue and the sun was out and we could see all the way across London. It was pretty spectacular 😊  We walked back to the hostel through Oxford street and were amazed by all the shops. We briefly went into a toy store called Hamleys which was amazing. Dinner consisted of a £3 tesco meal deal. It actually wasn't that bad.

On our third day in London we set off for our new hostel in St Paul's. Luckily the rain had held off so we didn't get drenched this time. The hostel at St. Paul's was very old fashioned and really cute. It didn't have a kitchen though which we didn't really like. To start the day we went to the Borough Markets. Wow! What an experience. The Borough Markets is a food market in the middle of the city. I was blown away by how many stalls were there, and the variety of things being sold! I absolutely love the markets! We didn't buy anything, but got a lot of free samples (yay for backpacking budgets!). The markets had such a vibrant feel about them, I really enjoyed it. We spent the rest of the day walking around the area. We found a museum called the Clink Prison museum, which showed the history of a prison that was there in medieval times. I really enjoyed it! We also went into the Tate Modern art museum. The building itself was amazing! It had a huge tower at the front of it. I can't even explain how huge it was! We ended the day by going into St Paul's cathedral. It was incredible! We were lucky enough to catch the start of a service which was beautiful. We watched the choir sing and looked around the cathedral, it was an amazing experience. 

Next up was Earls Court. We were supposed to be there for four nights, finally an end to the moving around each day! However the hostel booking got messed up and we were only there for two. The first day at Earls Court we had a bit of a relaxed day. We had been on the move for the past 4 days and were pretty tired. We walked around Earls Court, and had our first drink at an English pub! The next day we went and watched the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. We got there early as we had been told that to get a good spot and be able to see you needed to be there early. It was a cold day. Probably the coldest since we had arrived in the UK. The wind was bone chilling. We waited an hour and a half in the cold and the wind and we got an awesome spot right at the gates. However, I feel the wait in that wind was not worth it. I can see why people say to go early because by the time the guards came out and did their thing there were dozens of people trying to get a glimpse of the show. Although we had a good spot, people shoving and sticking their cameras in front of your face really defeated the purpose. I didn't really get to see any of the actual show. It was pretty disappointing. But ah well, it is something you have to do whilst in London. To try and warm up we decided to walk to Harrods. I had been told that Harrods was big, but I was not prepared! It was absolutely massive! I was completely awe struck! And it was so beautiful! The architecture of the building was amazing. After exploring Harrods, and not even making it to half the shops, we left to have lunch in Hyde Park. Hyde Park is so beautiful, and so huge! We sat under a beautiful tree near the lake and had lunch. It was lovely. We walked around the park for the next few hours and then headed back to the hostel. 

Next we were off the Camden. No more YHA's for us, we moved into a hostel above a bar, where we stayed for the next 4 days. It was an interesting hostel to say the least. Every night there was something on, and we got discounted drinks as food from the pub which was pretty awesome. Our first day in Camden we went in search of the Camden Markets. We were lucky with our hostel location as the markets were just up the road! They were absolutely amazing! I just love the markets in this country. There were all sorts of things at the Camden markets, from food to clothing to tattoo parlours. We spent a few hours wandering through the markets, and got lunch at the food section. We spent the rest of the day walking to and around Regents Park which was really lovely. 

Day 2 in Camden we trained to the natural history museum. Unfortunately, unbeknown to us we had picked a public holiday to visit the museum and it was absolutely packed! Nonetheless, we enjoyed if. Again, the building itself was just incredible. 

The next day we made our way to Westminster Abbey. There was a lot of construction going on and there were a bunch of scaffolds up in front of the Abbey. However it was still really beautiful, and a nice thing to see. This day was the windiest we had had so far. It was really awful, I don't know how people deal with wind like that. We walked along the river for a bit and stopped in at a place called the garden museum. It was literally a museum about gardening so we didn't stay there very long. Once we had made our way back to Camden we went back to look at the markets, and found a whole section that we had missed the first day!!! They were even bigger than we had first thought! You could get lost in the maze of stalls and shops along the small lanes that make up the market. 

After a late morning of trying to decide what to do we went to the Victoria and Albert museum. It was really awesome! There was some truly amazing artworks there. There was a whole section of casts of famous statues which I really liked. There was a replica of the statue David, it's so tall!! We spent to whole day at the museum. 

After 4 days in Camden it was time to leave. We were catching a train to Maidenhead later in the afternoon so we decided to go to Somerset House for the day. I was pretty thrilled to find out there was a huge photography exhibition on at the moment! We spent 3 hours in the exhibition, and I saw some of the best photographs I have ever seen. It was really inspiring. We had some time to kill before our train arrived so we sat in a beautiful park outside the station and with some henna that we had purchased at the markets I have Harrison a henna tattoo! The train ride to Maidenhead was pretty quick, and really beautiful. Once we arrived we met a family friend, Merril, and she took us home. It was so nice to have a home cooked meal and sleep in a real house! You don't realise how much these things mean to you until you don't have them anymore. 

Our first day out of London City, we went to Windsor. It is much the same as the Windsor in Australia, but with a pretty grand castle (haha). We walked through the town and came across a quaint little fudge shop, where the owner ushered us inside and we were given free fudge samples. We also got to watch the fudge being made which was really cool! We bought some peanut butter fudge, it is so delicious. After the fudge shop we went on the Long Walk, which truly is a long walk! We didn't make it to the end unfortunately as we didn't have time. It was such a beautiful walk though! We had lunch at a little Italian place. After we had eaten, the owner came out and gave us an Italian shot on the house! It was really strange, and the shot was awful! But it was an experience. 

After Maidenhead we were off to Winslow to visit my Dads cousin John. We were so incredibly lucky that Merril drove us all the way there! It was such a beautiful drive through the countryside. I could so happily live in the English countryside. Once in Winslow we were taken on an amazing walk through the country. We walked up to the top of a big hill and were greeted with an incredible view. I've never seen such vibrant green landscape! After the walk we were treated to a drink in a small pub. I also fell in love with the family's guinea pigs. That night we had English fish and chips, and as someone who doesn't like fish I can say that it was really yum! 

Before we left Winslow we went to Waddesdon Manor, which is a huge, old estate. The house and the gardens were magnificent! It was such an interesting thing to see. That night we took the bus to Oxford where we stayed the night. 

Sadly we didn't get to see much of Oxford, as the bus we needed to take to get to our next destination came at 7:30 in the morning. It is defiantly a place we are looking at returning to. We were headed up to the Lakes District and had a long day of travel ahead. Firstly we had to take a bus to Manchester, which took 4 hours. We had lunch in Manchester and then had to take a train to a place called Oxenholme. Our train was delayed by an hour which was super annoying, as it made our travel time even longer. However the train did eventually arrive, and although we had to stand for most of the journey, it was such a beautiful train ride. Once we got to Oxenholme we got on another train to our final destination, Windermere. Luckily this train trip wasn't too long, and again was really beautiful. Once we got to Windermere the hostel was really close to the station. The hostel set up was very different to the ones we had previously encountered. It was unmanned. So we got a code to the front door and let ourselves in, and headed up to 'reception'. This was really just a small desk with a piece of paper with our names and rooms on it. We had to pay in cash and put the money in an envelope and into a safe. Although it was strangely set up, this was my favourite hostel of the ones we have stayed in so far. There was a small kitchen and a lounge room. Our room was a four person room and the people we roomed with were really nice! We got along really well. 

Our first full day in Windermere we walked down to the Lake. The weather wasn't too great, and it was really really cold. But the lake was amazing! It was so big! We had lunch in a park by the lake and wandered around for a bit. We bought some duck feed and Harrison fed swans and ducks and geese! He was like the bird whisperer, all these birds surrounded him begging for food. We decided to visit the aquarium, which was across the lake. It took 40 minutes by boat to get there. The boat ride was lovely! It was warm inside and the views of the lake were amazing. The aquarium was small, but had some really interesting creatures in it. Harrison was delighted that we had made it just in time to see the otters be fed, as he absolutely loves otters. I think I was more transfixed on him watching the otters than the actual otters. It was adorable to see his face light up so much, to watch his childlike glee as the otters ran around their little enclosure. We saw lots of fish as you do at an aquarium, but also these adorable little monkeys and some pretty awesome ants. I fell asleep on the boat trip home, it was so warm and peaceful that I couldn't help myself. 

The next morning was a little stressful, as we had to try and book our future accommodation in Edinburgh and Dublin, to which we found there were not many vacancies. Edinburgh was okay, but we found out that the time we wanted to stay in Dublin, there is a festival on, so everything is booked up. However after moving some things around we managed to sort it out. Time to actually start the day! The weather was absolutely gorgeous, blue sky's, beautiful sun, no wind and warmth. We decided to go on a few of the walks around the area. The first one we did was a walk to Orrest Head lookout. It was a beautiful walk through the forest and up a small mountain (basically a hill but I'll let it slide Windermere). Once we got to the top we were pretty tired, but as soon as the view hit us we knew it was so worth it. I can truly say that the view I was greeted with at the top of Orrest Head was the most beautiful view I have ever experienced in my life. I was blown away. It felt like we were on top of the world, we were invincible. It was such a beautiful moment that I actually teared up a little (lame I know). We had lunch at the viewpoint, not wanting to leave. We had to force ourselves away from it, and begin the walk down. The next walk we went on was the Queen Adelaide's Hill. It was a walk through the forest and then along the lake. It was really beautiful. We came across a gorgeous little waterfall and creek. Once we broke out of the forest we were greeted by the glistening blue water of lake Windermere. Again, I could so happily live there. Once we were done with our walks we had a drink at the pub and headed back to the hostel. 

That leaves us with today! Today we left the beautiful Windermere and headed to Edinburgh. It was a two hour train trip through the Scottish countryside. I'm beginning to love our train trips. We only got to Edinburgh around 2:30 and went in search of our hostel. Whilst looking for it we walked passed the castle which I am excited to explore. The hostel the we are currently staying at is interesting. It has a perfect location, however it is probably the worst of the hostels we have stayed at so far. But we will make the most of it! We are only here for four days anyway. Tomorrow we plan to go on a free walking tour around the city to see the sights and whatnot. I will try my best to keep this updated to avoid another painfully long entry. That's all for now 😊