Grasmere Newcastle

... seen any men with guns, we said no and he said how do you know and pulled down the car's sun visor to show us his gun! (he also called the pope a nazi so he was a bit strange) but there's obviously still alot of tension there, our next stop was on the side of a road between two long 10m(ish) high walls that run right through the city and out into the mountains - the peace wall to keep the protestant and catholic neighbourhoods seperated. there was a sculpture set into the wall with ...

We hit Giants Causeway and Dunluce Castle today, which is a huge castle<br>that literally fell of the side of the cliff while people were in it<br>waiting for their meal. It was pretty cool to see, then we drove the<br>entire Coastline which was unreal. It was soooo cold and rainy and<br>windier than ever today, yet still there were a million ...

... wisdom) thought it was best for us to do the Guiness Factory tour FIRST instead of last thing Saturday afternoon. Those keen for a quick pint agreed, and off we went. <br><br>In a nutshell, the Guiness tour is a must see for anyone in Dublin. The brewery has been going for 250 years, and the Guiness family is responsible for most things in Dublin (including the Guiness book of world records, don't you know!). Guiness is celebrating it's 250th year ...

... to be suddenly confronted with the City Hall in all its archetectural splendour. Next comes a rather mundane road with local shops which suddenly turns into a hive of evening activity with bars, restaurants and crowds of people on the streets.<br><br> I escaped unharmed with an overall impression that actually its quite a nice place and no more threatning than any other city.<br>

... paying the entrance fee as we wouldn't be able to complete the walks. So we left it, and decided to go for what we hoped might be a scenic drive back to our B&amp;B. This turned into an unexpected treat as we stumbled upon the Spelga Dam, which snuck up on us as we meandered through the ...

Tuesday 15 October Yay! We have a car!! Hired a cute little Volkeswagon Polo, 4 door for the next 4 days. Its small but its nice to have a bit of independence again. We dont have to wait for service stops to buy food! Anyway so we went from Edinburgh to the car place to Hillend, the dry skiing place. Its a bit weird to ski on, its made from the same stuff brushes are made from and it kinda feels like snow but its harder to stop. I fell so many times! We only skied for an hour ...

... spot was a bit dodgy with boy racers in and out.. hence wasn't the best nights sleep. A big day playing tourist, walking down the street with map in hand.. we checked out Castle Garth.. the new castle that Newcastle was named after! And spent the afternoon in a Science centre for life.... and had to do the Scooby doo ride!! (just for you Bryce!). Look out Scotland here we come...

... the end but at least we snatched a goodbye. Despite attempts at displaying a blase attitude towards leaving, I will miss Glasgow and especially the folk who've formed my life there for the past four years. But anyway, we're off. A couple of days of r 'n r courtesy of the Svanbergs (who are experts at it) and then we're off to London. At last: goodbye for now to these:

... 06/2006 Santiago -> Easter Island 10/06/2006 Easter Island -> Santiago 11/06/2006 Santiago -> Quito 21/11/2006 Quito -> Miami 21/11/2006 Miami -> Guatemala City 10/01/2007 San Jose -> Dallas 10/01/2007 Dallas -> Seattle 13/01/2007 Seattle -> Chicago 13/01/2007 Chicago -> Washington 16/01/2007 Washington -> New York 19/01/2007 New York -> London PHEW!!! That equates to around 80 hours of flying in total. Check out the next entry for our ...

... particular Protestant areas seemed poorer in comparison to the Falls Road, the terraced houses were generally not as well looked after, some of the shops were boarded up and there was a lot of litter piling up in the streets. The murals were much more foreboding too, almost exclusively glorifying Loyalist paramilitary groups with paintings of balaclava-clad men pointing machine guns in a show of strength for the Loyalist cause. <br> <br>I found these places just as ...