castle

The right stuff (Jordan day 1 & 2)

Sunday 24th November – Monday 25th November 2019)

Growing up, Jordan was just my favorite member of New Kids on the Block, THE boy band of the 90’s. It wasn’t until I was older and was allowed to watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that a different Jordan came onto my radar, all thanks to Petra. You know those last scenes when they find the canyon of the crescent moon? The hidden tomb carved into the rock where they find the holy grail? Yeah that’s Petra and since seeing it on the movie and finding out it’s a real place it’s been on my bucket list.

So back to the story. The universe sent me some love and gave me a whole row of seats on the plane so managed a snooze and pretty much breezed through passport control and customs. Had already bought the visa online so stamp, smile and I was done. Finally stepping out in Amman, the capital of Jordan and looking to be welcomed by the big arse Travel Talk sign as per Morocco, it was more of a search and rescue mission, when I saw a random group of tourists, figured it was them, kinda learning stuff huh? While it wasn’t quite the horrendous heat that welcomed us in Marrakech, it was pretty damn warm and I didn’t put up much of a protest when somehow I ended up with the front seat of the car, sitting head on into the air con for the ride to our accommodation. First impressions of Amman, uhhhhh??? Kinda what I expected Morocco to look like, except in that case it exceeded expectations, this was right on. Not to say it wasn’t interesting, very very different to any city I’d ever been and damn damn busy!!

Checking in at the hotel, I was still having an affair with the universe and got my own room for the night even though I’d only paid to share. Noice. The briefing that night by the tour guide I have to say was pretty average, the tour guide dude which to be honest, can’t even remember his name was no Abdul from our Morocco tour, mind you, Abdul set pretty high expectations!! All briefed I was still snoting everywhere so instead of being a normal Holly and trying to make friends, I just went to bed. No beer, no gin, just the other strong stuff.

Monday morning in Amman and it was the first of many BOTB. Except this bus was kinda small, like an 80s Volkswagen van, small and probs the same age. Our tour guide, let’s name him Donnie (my second favourite NKOTB) asssured us it was only for today and we’d have a bigger bus when the rest of the group joined us… rest of the group?? Huh?? Am I missing something? Was probs searching for tissues when Donnie mentioned that last night. Anyhoo, we were off to Jerash, a world heritage UNESCO site with ancient Roman ruins and the second reason behind Petra I wanted to visit Jordan. On the way Donnie got his guide on and introduced us to Jordan, a country shaped like half a t-shirt, ruled by a king, a democracy and apparently really really safe. Don’t mind the fact it borders with Syria and Iraq, minor detail. The population is just shy of 10 million, not bad for a country 87 times SMALLER than Australia, there are also millions of refugees as you’d except given the unrest all around it. Also has Israel to the left, to the left. Yes Beyoncé. The river that runs through Jordan is creatively called the Jordan River, maybe it sounds familiar?? Yeah, that’s where Jesus was baptised, the place also has biblical ties to the angel Jacob although Donnie didn’t elaborate on that one. Alexander the Great also marched through here when conquering the entire planet. Feel some google coming on, Donnie isn’t entirely forthcoming with the endless amount of facts this nerd needs!!

Arriving at Jerash, you’re kinda underwhelmed cos it seems like google has lied about its grandeur. But then you see this…

An ancient arch built by the Roman emperor Hadrian, yep, that dude again. Built to welcome himself to the city, thats one hell of an ego! Only he was allowed through the centre arch, the soldiers had to go through the sides. A yella from Donnie and we’re through the arch and looking down on an underground cemetery, which we weren’t allowed to go in, it sat beneath these cool tiled things that had a name but once again was searching for tissues and didn’t quite hear what Donnie said it was!

A wander down the road, through a smaller arch and we’re into the Hippodrome, I’d compare it to the Thunderdome, it’s where they used to do chariot races, up and back and around seven times, 244m each time or all up?? Can’t remember, too much pseudoephedrine! Either way, looked pretty cool and by the sounds of it, damn dangerous, the cemetery makes sense now!

Through one more arch with watch towers that unfortunately was most destroyed by an earthquake and oh right, yeah I see it now. Google told no lies, this place is huge and bloody amazing!! But first the arch…

And now the site that is Jerash, the place dates back to 7500 BC, has been taken over by every man and his dog passing through and is considered the Pompeii of the East, yeah I got my google on for that one!! The curved pillars, which really take your breathe away when you see them, are called the forum and is 90m long. You can just imagine how intimidating and impressive this city would have been back in the day, the Romans sure knew how to show their might!

Our next stop was the theatre where they had plays and entertained those part of the ‘in’ crowd, don’t think the locals were allowed in.

The steps up the theatre were pretty steep and uneven, I knew I could make it to the top but getting down was gonna hurt my netball knees, but when in Rome…and the views were worth it!!

My pictures really don’t capture how massive and impressive the site is, even with a super duper wide screen camera lens I really don’t think you could capture it. There are ruins as far as the eye can see, but smack bang in the middle of a city so there’s quite the contrast between the old and the not so old. Ruins upon ruins upon ruins and I loved it!!

Now I did kinda listen to Donnie again but trying not to be a complete arse, or maybe I just will be, he really wasn’t overly engaging when he spoke, kinda like listening to my grade 9 physics teacher. I missed Abdul’s enthusiasm! What I do recall, the site was dug up for some reason, there’s still plenty underneath they haven’t quite gotten too, costs money and apparently the government have other priorities, like helping all the fleeing refugees, fair enough. What I love about the site are the columns, they are so imposing and stunning, perfectly lined up and so damn high, how the hell they got them up I have no idea, maybe it was the same aliens that did the pyramids?? Or just probs thousands of slaves, another reason for the cemetery…

So the next place was a temple with ten pillars for Artemis and maybe dedicated to Diana, the god of love?? Or was it dedicated to Artemis, I really must listen. Either way, it was built on the highest point to be closer to god. In fact, all the churches on the site face Jerusalem, how they worked it out back then who knows, certainly wasn’t using an app on their iPhone! Considering the country is now 90% Muslim, pretty impressive they got away with having churches at all. But from what I’ve learnt about this dude Hadrian, what he says goes.

I kinda wish that this place had one of those self guided tours, stick in some headphones and wander while listening to the history of the place, and blowing your nose. Can’t recall what this next place was, either I wasn’t listening or Donnie didn’t mention, probs another arch for the egotistical Hadrian to wander through…

Our last little stop on our Jerash site tour was at a water foundation dedicated to Nym… yeah a god. Maybe it was Nymphadora, or is that from Harry Potter? Didn’t quite catch the actual name but what is amazing is that the whole little city had running water, all plumbed in. Again, how the hell????

Heading out of the site, down the cardio maximus (thanks Google!), there was time for a few more selfies and snaps of the curvy column thing, really is a marvel how they got them so perfectly aligned. Wonder if you can see this place from space??

Finishing up at Jerash it was BOTB and up to Ajloun Castle, everyone knows I love me a castle!! This castle was built in 1145AD to stop the crusaders, didn’t catch if the dude Hadrian had anything to do with it… Gooogle, what say you?? Ok, so it was built on the grounds of an old monastery and was made into a fort to keep watch over peeps traveling between Damascus and Eqgypt. Coolies, apparently it’s the style of the ottomans but others have added to it to make it bigger and better, as men back then always felt a need to do. As far as castles go, it was ok. I know, I sound like a douche saying that but the castle count on this trip must be up in the twenties by now so lots to compare to and it’s pretty hard to beat the stunning castles of Scotland!!

I’ll give the castle some cred though, the views were absolutely gorgeous! Looking out over the Jordanian countryside it was a sea of green, red and white – green trees, red sand and white buildings, wait, their flag is green, red and white, might be onto something there!! Probs not but the most impressive bit was that you could see over to Jerusalem, if only I could remember which picture it was…

After enough castle time it was back into Amman, past this cool mural which included a picture of Jordan, see the half t-shirt shape???

To cap off the day there was a promise from Donnie to take us to somewhere local for dinner. Looking forward to trying some Jordanian food, you can imagine all our disappointment and blahing when the local turned out to be a shawarma joint, pretty much imagine what you’d eat at 3am after a night out and that was dinner. I mean, it always tastes good at 3am but didn’t really feel like I was trying something new. On the walk back home I did manage to actually eat something local, some kind of gooey, cheesey, honey, pistachio, I had no idea what I was eating thing. Looked like a camel but tasted pretty good, can imagine how yummy it would be if my taste buds were at full strength! At days end, hate to say it but Abdul 5, Donnie 0 but Jordan was winning in the awesome stakes!! Geez, judgey cow aren’t I!!!!!!

January 29, 2020 0

Toon Town

Saturday 16th November – Thursday 21st November 2019

Having delayed my flights to stay in Maryland a little longer, my flight home was with two airlines I’d somehow never flown with, one I’d never heard of. The flight worth Spirit Airlines, a Tiger Airlines equivalent was fine, easy check in, window seat without having to fork out a small fortune and gorgeous views of clouds and a hell of an awesome view as we touched down in Florida.

Yes I know, you’re wandering why I’d go south from Baltimore only to fly north and East to London. All comes down to cashola, cheapest route! Anyhoo, the long haul leg with Norwegian was something of an experience. I didn’t fork out for an allocated seat so unfortunately got stuck middle row in between two rather large gentlemen who both claimed the arm rest before I could take a breathe, my bad. What I didn’t know was that for my 8 hour flight there would be no in flight meal, water came at a cost, as did a blanket and headphones for their entertainment system. I half expected them to charge for the air I was breathing. The service befitted the no frills. Needless to say I learnt my lesson, say NO to Norwegian… unless you’re broke but go prepared!!!

Enough whining, once in London with no sleep it was adrenaline that kept me going, into my storage locker to drop off my suitcase, exchange it for backpack only travel and get a very stinky me to Kings Cross to meet Kylie for lunch.

I wish I had a picture of Kylies beaming smile, something you really need in your life when you’re 30 hours with no sleep. Over a long lunch chatting away, the one glass of wine went to my head and before I knew it, I was running late for my train. And yes, I proved why it is called running late, well, cos you run… I did make it with seconds to spare, luckily Kylie checked the time otherwise I would have been sitting there blah blahing away and never have made it. Anyhoo, with a four hour train ride to Newcastle up my sleeve I tried to cross stitch… didn’t end well…

Arriving in the toon I was now well and truly sick as a dog, jet lagged AF, the poor Geordie who was on pick up duty got me to my hotel, I think. Must have cos I woke up there the next day, hello Newcastle!!

So for the next three days my Geordie friend who you’ve met before showed me the sights of the toon, had only really seen the pubs on my previous visits. I wish I could say I had some awesome stories and great info about Newcastle but being sick AF the entire time, I wrote nothing down and only have pictures to rely on, and there seems to be a day missing. Could it be that snap happy Holly was too sick to take a single photo for an entire 24 hours???

Anyhoo, what I do know is that there was definitively a visit to Laurel Park, the birthplace of the Laurel half of comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. I do remember the Geordie, being a wee bit older than me, explaining who the dude was… just needed my foggy memory regigging that’s all!!

Later that day as time stamps on my pictures tell me, we wandered along the river Tyne, way too many bridges for such a liddle town if you ask me. I thought the Geordie had planned the scenic route but just happened to be the way to the castle.

And no, it’s not a “New” castle as you’d expect from the name, a rather old castle in Newcastle, it wasn’t just all the Sudafed that confused me on that one! But I love me a castle, even if it wasn’t the one I meant I wanted to see when requesting my tour from the Geordie. Oops, still damn awesome castle, still not sure why it was me that ended up in the shackles…

Usually my favourite part of a castle is, well, the castle but this time the castle was outdone by the views from its roof out over the toon, ok, so maybe this place ain’t so liddle!!

So from the castle we made our way right into toon. Must have walked, no pics of how we got there. But we did find Christmas markets and a ski bar, an alpine village if you will. Pictures tell me it was pretty, and I do love a mulled wine so presume I liked that too. And there was a reason the Geordie wasn’t drinking but I really don’t recall.

We also ate dinner somewhere obvs but can’t for the life of me remember where or what. Let’s just get onto the next day which was part of the reason I made a visit to the toon, it was the Geordie’s birthday. He was 21 + 11 – 5 + 18 – 2 years old. Instead of getting schlacked on his birthday, the Geordie had actually planned something more spiritual. Funny how the Geordies don’t have another word for spiritual but a hundred and one for getting drunk… (all Geordie words that mean drunk). So the plan for the day was to head to Durham, a town an hourish away and see a lady who did, I want to say Kinetic, I keep calling it that, it’s not that, I’m on a plane and can’t google it, really really bugging me! Anyway, the lady did have a name, Shelley, the only way I remember is that I have her email address written in my phone. Oh yeah, before Durham, we had brekkie by the beach, by the castle I actually wanted to go to!! Must have been damn sick to not take photos of the beach and a castle!! As if I didn’t, maybe I deleted them accidentally?? Makes no sense. Back to Shelley and Durham. The town is a gorgeous little place, as evidence but this one crappy picture I took.

I’m convinced I deleted the pics, no matter how sick I am, I’d take photos. With the high Sudafed gives me, pretty sure I’d go nuts and take a million pictures of a single rock, but anyway. Durham was pretty, google it for pictures. We both met up with Shelley first for a general chat then I went for coffee while the Geordie had his Kinetic session… oh shit, just remembered the word, it’s reiki.. even laughing to myself, sounds nothing like kinetic!!! Massive anyhooooo, in my Sudafed stupor I did take a photo of my coffee. WTF?? Beautiful little town and I take a photo of the coffee?? Super annoyed with myself. I don’t have many pictures to add to this post so you’re gonna get a picture of my coffee. Costa coffee, great name, crappy taste, maybe I should do their marketing???

So my reiki session isn’t something I needed to write notes about. Even all drugged up on Sudafed I remember it like it was yesterday. I’ll try my best to explain but know it won’t do it justice! So you lay down on like a massage table, but clothes on and on your back. You’re covered with warm towels so you feel pretty damn cosy and calm, maybe I should sleep on a massage bed, I remember how comfortable I was. Shelley doesn’t say much, just some general calming words about relaxing and letting go. What I remember feeling was a surge of positivity, voices in my head (my own, I’m not crazy, much…), telling me that I got this, everything is going to be ok, I can be the best version of myself, it was time for a new start. It was the most positive my own voice has ever been, out loud and in my head. During this Shelley just had her hands cupping my head, they stayed there for a while then moved to rest firmly on my stomach. And that’s it. I know you’re probably like huh?? That’s it?? But if I could explain the energy going through me, well, I would. I tried but there aren’t words, or at least none that I can find. Off the table and sitting on the couch with Shelley, she explained what she felt in me. She felt an intense sadness. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Of course I sooked cos when someone points out something about you that you have to work hard every day to overcome, you feel like they see you. It’s not that I’m sad all the time or that sadness overrides happiness, I think anyone who has had someone they love intensely die, and in tragic circumstances, there’s a sadness that always sits inside you, alongside all the happiness and joy you feel the majority of the time. As I read somewhere, you don’t get over losing someone you love, you just learn to live with it. That was my sadness that Shelley felt. But the thing about reiki and Shelley is that it’s all about love and healing. I may not have written down my adventures in the toon but I did write down suggestions from Shelley on how I can work on healing. And yes, being a student of psychology and a recipient, this is the spiritual healing side of things. I do believe you need both, and funnily enough, or not, there are a lot of similarities in their suggestions on how to heal. Her suggestion was that I write a letter to younger Holly telling her what she needs to help her heal, and make a little shrine to myself, practice some self love. With reiki it’s all about love and I’m onboard with that!! But most importantly, I am to visualise my future and put it out there into the universe what I want it to be. There were some other things we discussed but kinda way personal so I’ll just leave it there and get onto the angel cards reading!! No idea what the hell they are about?? Not the same as tarot, tarot aren’t nice, these are a deck of cards with specific angels and meanings to help guide you. Mine looked like this:

I’m not embarrassed to say this was not my first time with angel cards. When Brett died I saw a medium, she knew things I can never explain, I believe in the after life, that there’s more. She also read my cards. The messages from my cards this time were about finding a way to love and forgive myself. Won’t go into it but this is my biggest challenge. And I need to heal as well as accept. Second biggest challenge. Lots more she said but a belief I know I need to work on is that that things don’t happen to me, they happen for me. That’ll take some time but I have hope I’ll get there!

So after our reading and wiping the mascara off my face, we bought some local charcoal cheese that came highly recommended from Shelley and headed back to the toon. With a pit stop at some store, a big one, we gathered our cheese board for dinner and dug in. And no, I didn’t get a picture of the charcoal cheese! But this did pop up in my Instagram feed, maybe the universe is trying to tell me something??

The next day was up early and off on a train to Gatwick, more specially to Peterborough then onto Gatwick. The morning wasn’t anything to write home about, just lots and lots of snot!!!!

January 20, 2020 0

Roots

Friday 20th – Sunday 22nd September 2019

Despite my smell the Geordie gave me a warm welcome in Newcastle, I mean the toon. Forgot they speak a different language and damn it, left my Geordie dictionary in oz.

If the Geordie was expecting a fun night out with Matilda he was a bit disappointed! I was rooted so room service and the first five minutes of the movie Dark Phoenix and I was out like a light.

Lucky for me, my Geordie friend, who has been mentioned before under many names, Pattie, Nora and possibly his real name David, is a good bloke and organized a weekend showing me my roots around England. The first stop was Askrigg where my Dad’s mum, otherwise known as Grandma, had family originate. The family also happened to be none other than those of the Terry’s Chocolates fame. Knew I had chocolate in my blood, explains a lot. I was kinda glad when the GPS of Nora’s Vauxhall, a kick arse car I’d never heard of, thought Vauxhall was just a tube station, anyway, GPS took us the scenic route into Askrigg, tiny tiny roads and gorgeous little villages. Nice for me who got to ooo and ahh at the pretty scenery, not so much for the Geordie who had to drive in a road big enough for one car, just, no idea what people do when someone comes the other way?? Driving into Askrigg poor Pattie had to deal with my millions of photos a minute habit but managed to navigate us to the town centre where I could jump out and explore. Such a weird feeling being somewhere you know your distant relatives walked the streets, drank at the pub, lived their lives. Really does make me want to go back and trace my grandma’s family history, ancestry.com here I come! After a pit stop at the pub of course…

BITC (hehe, that’s almost naughty but sure you have it figured out Mum), and we headed to Scarborough, a seaside town in Yorkshire where my Mum’s mum, the other grandma, went to boarding school. The English countryside really is gorgeous, different to Scotland but pretty rather than rough and rugged, and felt different listening to a soundtrack of Elvis and AC/DC rather than my hip hop and Aussie indie rock. Not complaining, love them too! The Geordie’s playlist of movie theme songs made me realize my head really was full, things were just popping out, like names of songs I knew but just didn’t know anymore. So is this what old age feels like???

Anyways, driving into Scarborough Nora had to put up with my ooos and aaahs again, especially when we rocked up at the hotel, a stunning old building right on the beach. Davie did good.

While the inside was something of a rabbits warren, I would have been jealous had we been staying anywhere else. It just so happpened that we’d made it to Scarborough in time for the Geordie to watch the soccer, sorry I mean football (I really mean soccer!), his Newcastle boys were playing a team that was gonna whip their arses apparently. Leaving the Geordie at the local I headed right for the beach, oh how I’d missed the ocean. Corfu felt like months ago!!

Scarborough was so not what I expected! Yes the beach I knew was there, but the Ferris wheel and cliffs and esplanade with casinos I had no idea. Very cool surprise!

What wasn’t a surprise was returning to the Geordie at the pub to find a goalless game… I get how skilled the dudes are that play but no score in 90 minutes?!? I need more action in my sport. A few beers in and the Geordie was ready for karaoke. For the record, I will never ever be ready for karaoke. For a dude with a thick accent I can hardly understand, he does a bloody good Elvis! Some McDonalds later and we called it a night, there may have been quite a few gins and beers between the Maccas and night but anyway…

Up and at it on Sunday, I don’t know if I was more excited about the bacon at the buffet breakfast or seeing more of Scarborough. Can we just say equally excited??? BITC and hooning around Scarborough we found the convent my grandma went to school at, THE most beautiful church and cemetery on cliffs overlooking the ocean and a fort. Winning!!!

On our trek back to the toon, we stopped off at the other beachside vacation town of Whitby, conveniently minutes before England and Tonga kicked off at the Rugby World Cup! No complaining from me, getting chauffeured around England to all the places my family are from, dude can stop for as many games as he wants! But once again, did leave Nora at the pub while I explored the gorgeous Whitby. What a picturesque town, a seaside village with ruins of a castle on the hill (no time to trek to) but did make it to the lighthouses for gorgeous views over the cliffs, ocean and back into then the town. Surely this is more interesting and beautiful than rugby reet?? I mean there’s even a replica of the Endeavour, how does anything compete with that???

At least this time when I found the Geordie it was good news, the English were winning, which given that that it was now my other homeland, I was kinda happy about too. I think I’m finally getting the gist of rugby, and might actually know the difference between league and union, union is the one with the scrums right?? If I’m not going to have AFL on the regular for the next year, I reckon rugby is gonna be my game. Exciting, tough dudes and there’s no way they can go a whole game without scoring points! Ok, I’m on the rugby band wagon, but now the question is, who do I support in the World Cup?? Australia, England or Scotland? I think I’ll keep that answer to myself as it may get me into trouble!

BITC and feck, my train leaves in 2 hours and we’re 1 hour and 45 minutes away from Newcastle. Nora didn’t seem all that bothered, gave me some reassuring words in Geordie that I couldn’t even repeat if I tried… well actually, I did try a lot that weekend to speak Geordie but like all my accents, just kept coming out Jamaican! On the leg back to Newcastle, or maybe it was before, at some stage there was the discussion that I’d keep thinking about for days, and change my answer multiple times. So if you could go to the concert of three bands or singers no longer together or alive, who would they be?? It’s harder than you think!! After lots of back and forth, Nora and I both agreed that Queen and Elvis were on the list, his third was Sinatra and mine was The Beatles. Bloody hard cos that means other epic bands and singers like David Bowie, Jeff Buckley, Janis Joplin, and Amy Winehouse don’t make the list. And since we were on the topic, next question was what three people that have passed would you love to have dinner with? Not necessarily all at the same time… I think the question may have changed part way through cos the Geordie picked Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and the Dalai Lama, who obvs is still with us – my picks were Princess Diana, Mary Queen of Scots and Hitler. I know the last choice is controversial but as a psychology student, meeting someone like him that did so many horrid things, a conversation about values and morals would be out of this world, how he’d justify the atrocities he committed would be an interesting conversation. As would the conversation with all our other choices of course. In hindsight the dead people conversation may have just been a tactic to distract me from how close we were cutting it with time, it worked. At the station it was a quick good bye to the Geordie and I literally had 8 minutes to get into the station, find my platform and get onto the train. I made it in 5…. how I have no idea, a cross between running and shimmying through the crowd with a backpack, handbag and bag of other crap, mostly gin. Back in London, it did kinda feel like coming home. Mind you as someone that doesn’t technically live anywhere, wherever the roof is over my head is my home. But it’d only be home for one night, I’d booked a sneaky trip to Pisa and Florence the next day…

October 11, 2019 0

For the Throne

Saturday 7th – Sunday 8th September 2019

So here starts one of my absolute favourite days of the year! Being a massive Game of Thrones nerd, and Kyles being one too but in way cooler fashion, we decided to do the GoT (Game of Thrones as hence will be known) tour around Northern Ireland. For the GoT nerds playing at home, you’ll recognize some iconic locations, for everyone else, it’s just real pretty so stay tuned!!

At some stage in the previous days, possibly over a gin or two, we got our Google on, found all the locations and Kyles worked her magic with Google maps and all of a sudden we had an itinerary for the trek. Looked a little something like this:

I know, laugh to yourself, there’s no way to possibly do all that in one day! Or is there??? After nearly paying £1,600 to hire a car due to dodgy fine print, thank god for Aussie charm, we were on the road, with me at the wheel as I was the only one with an international drivers license. I was a little confused at first, the towns had speed limit signs but once you hit the highway, there was nothing. Then I realized what the circle with the black line through it meant, no speed limit!!! Kyles I think felt my moment of realization as I put pedal to metal and an evil smile crept over my face. It didn’t go unnoticed that her hand coyly made it up to the handle to hold on for dear life!! Unfortunately we were only in a Ford Fiesta so hitting 80 mph hour was a groan, that’s around 130kmph. Stop freaking out Mum! I slowed down for the corners…

So apparently about 75 per cent of GoT is filmed in Northern Ireland, I think we saw maybe 5% of it, had we hired a mustang I could have really put my foot down and seen at least 25%, but here goes…

Stop 1: Downhill Beach & Mussenden Temple in Londonderry

GoT: Remember the first inkling that maybe Melisandre was a looney when she burnt a heap of people on the beach in season 2 as an offering to the Lord of Light? Ugh, the things people do for religion… The cliffs were also transformed into Dragonstone, ancestral home of House Targaryen and stronghold of the Baratheons.

K&H: We had a more delightful time on the beach doing cartwheels, dorky photos, leaving our mark in the sand and doing normal things, like enjoy the scenery as opposed to burning people, although I did do a good impression of a burning man…

We also ventured up to the temple itself and the castle, cos by god so we love a castle!!! Tip for travelers, get through the gate before it officially opens and you don’t pay entry fees, and have time to chat to the lovely Irish dude making coffee before the crowds swarm… Views from the temple were unbelievable, and the castle, even though it’s heritage listed, you’re free to climb all over it?!? Would not happen in AUS…

Stop 2: Dunluce Castle – Bushmills

GoT: Castle Greyjoy, appears in lots of seasons!!! Although I’m thinking the CGI involved was epic cos it’s not looking too much like the original!!

K&H: It might not look like it, but the castle is on a highway so scooting along and there it is, the buses lined up should have been a dead giveaway… a U-bolt later and we’re tucked in front of a bus, parks are harder to come by than castles in Ireland! Would have loved to explore but unfortunately this is as close as you can get! Pics don’t do it justice in terms of magnificence perched on the edge of a cliff, get why it was the perfect place to be the Iron Islands!!!

Stop 3: Giants Causeway – Bushmills

GoT: Giants Causeway isn’t in GoT but not sure why the hell not?? Would have been the perfect place for Drogon to BBQ Varys, or for Jon to mope…

K&H: Once again a locals tip proved useful, park down the hill so you don’t have to pay and detour around the outside of the visitor Centre not through it so once again, you don’t have to pay. No wonder leprechauns have a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, bloody need one just to visit all the sites! As far as natural wonders go, Giants Causeway is absolutely stunning, well, would be when not covered with tourists. Once again, people are free to wonder all over, wet rocks, crashing waves and tourists in search of the ultimate selfie, what could go wrong?? In all seriousness, beautiful hexagon shaped stones jutting up and down creating staircase like trails with pools of water and waves crashing. So stunning. Quite a few moments of contemplation were had just taking it all in, and also wondering how the hell we get back down off the rocks… this place alone is worth a trip to Ireland!! My pics don’t do it justice so have stolen a good one from Google, obvs which one it is…

Stop 4: Bushmills Distillery – Bushmills

GoT: So obvs they don’t film at any distilleries in GoT but they sure do down a lot of grog so surely this is worthy of the GoT tour??? Pretty sure Cersei would have had to down a few before her wifey duties with the boar of a man King Robert…

K&H: Being designated Dave I couldn’t partake in a full whiskey tasting of my own but sharing is caring so had a swig of Kylie’s and by gosh, I’m turning into a whiskey convert… the fire in your throat, felt like a dragon! The bar man was kind enough, or we paid enough, to give us a run down on what we were tasting, dates and raisins in the 12 yo, toffee and dark chocolate in the 16 yo and citrus in the 21 yo… I just tasted whiskey… I think the good stuff is lost on me! The distillery itself was pretty, and one gentleman in particular was too, made me walk into Kylie while he was giving her one hell of an Irish smile!!

Stop 5: Dark Hedges – Stranocum, Antrim

GoT: Season 2 this site doubled as the Kingsroad in which a young and not yet faceless Arya Stark travelled in the back of a cart along with Yoren, Gendry and Hot Pie heading to The Wall. Apparently also the road that led Ned Stark to his death… let’s just call it the road to death…

K&H: So the Dark Hedges aren’t actually the Kingsroad. As you’re driving to the visitor center for the Dark Hedges, you literally drive through the Dark Hedges, we realized this about half way through!! But thought, nah, that couldn’t be it!! The Dark Hedges themselves aren’t in GoT, just really pretty trees that create a canopy over the road and block out sunlight… as the name would suggest… somehow we still weren’t convinced we’d seen them or the GoT site so paid to enter only to soon learn that yup, we’d driven through them already and past the “free to see” GoT road… only found that due to the hoards of people on the road, dead giveaway. Too bad for anyone wanting to actually drive on the road! Still an awesome walk through a forest and up the Kingsroad, beautiful place and not surprised it was used so much in GoT, the first place to look just like a scene from the show, the others have needed a stretch of the imagination somewhat!!

Stop 6: Ballintoy Harbour – Ballintoy

GoT: Lordsport Harbour in the Iron Islands where Theon Greyjoy returns home expecting a tic tac parade but instead hears crickets… also where he first meets his sister Yara, we all remember what happened on that horse ride. Spots around this area were also used for the funeral of Balon Greyjoy, the old mean dude and for the drowning of Euron to crown him King.

K&H: The pedal came off the metal for the descent down into the harbour, Kyles was still holding on for dear life but more so due to the multiple 180 turns rather than my driving, possibly a bit of both! Once there, it’s was obvious everyone was there for GoT. The crowd around the GoT plaque was a give away, as was the fact that while pretty, this small harbour hardly saw any action before GoT and probs only had about 5 visitors a year, who were probs just lost… still worth a visit, everywhere in Northern Island is gorgeous and this was no exception!

Stop 7a: Larrybane Quarry – North Antrim

GoT: The location where we were introduced to one of my favourite characters, Brienne of Tarth, when she kicked the arse of all the other Knights, including Loras Tyrell to earn her service under Renley Baratheon, one of my least favorite characters, lacked balls, and not in the way Varys did. Catelyn Stark also makes an appearance here, another kick ass female in the GoT universe, as does the shadow baby, did we ever work out what that was all about?!? Thought he was the Lord of Light, not shadows…

K&H: Kinda weird going to this location because it’s actually the car park for the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. So yeah, parking on the set location. Unless you’re a GoT nerd, probs would have no idea and just write it off as the pain in the arse car park further away from the main car park. Regardless, could see how the scene would come to life and probs deserves to be more recognised as it was quite pretty in its own right.

Stop 7b: Carrick-A-Rede Rope bridge – North Antrim

GoT: In season 6 the egotistical Euron Greyjoy pushes his older bro Balon Greyjoy, King of the Iron Islands off this bridge. Oh what brotherly love!!!

K&H: I’d been a teensy weensy, or a hell of a lot nervous all day leading up to this. Walking across a rope bridge some 100ft (30m) above the ocean is something of a challenge for someone scared of heights! But I’ve never let fear stop me do anything – jump out of a plane, walk the roof of Adelaide Oval, parasail… I know fear is all in my head and it’s something I can talk myself through, if only my legs would of stopped shaking and my palms not been so sweaty…. on the walk over I held on both sides tightly, pretty sure I also held my breathe as tightly too. Luckily Kyles was first to cross with me close behind so not heaps of people making the bridge bounce. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, and the views on the little island we crossed to made it worth it. The views walking down to the bridge were also bloody beautiful. The whole place is stunning, even without any intentions of crossing the bridge, it’s still worth a visit! For the crossing on the way back I’d built up my courage and decided I’d film it. Strangely my fear of dropping my phone was worse than the fear of falling off, good distraction tactic or a sign of a phone addiction??? Anyhoo, the adrenalin of being scared shitless is always worth it!

Stop 8: Cushenden caves – Antrim

GoT: Who could forget Melisandre giving birth to a murderous shadow baby?!? Definitely didn’t see that one coming! The caves are where said birth took place in season 2. If I was Davos, after seeing that I would have just left her there!

K&H: The little town where the caves are is cute and quaint, actually felt bad for the locals parking so illegally… the caves are literally around the corner from a pub and you really did feel like you were in Westeros. With not much else in the scene, you could almost imagine a row boat rocking up at any moment and Davos jumping out, and me drowning Melisandre. Joking, she was good in the end, wasn’t she?? Still not sure about that. Anyhoo, the caves were pretty damn cool for a wander around. Not as cavey as I thought they’d be.

Stop 9: Carrickfergus Castle – Carrickfergus

GoT: Once again, not actually used in GoT but there are so many epic castles in the show, this may as well have been one of them. I suppose considering Sainsbury’s was next door, probs would have been hard to shut down the entire area just for the show!

K&H: We were finally Belfast bound after an epic day of adventure and when there’s an option of seeing one more castle, you see the one more castle!!! Big gorgeous castle but was smack bang in the middle of town so kinda lost its magic on account of it’s suburbia location, a bank and Indian takeaway across the road just didn’t sell it to me! The sunset sure as hell made up for it!!!

GoT tour break: Back in Belfast still with the hire car, we hit the town but made a pact that we’d be home by midnight so we could get up at 8am and head to Winterfell. Should NOT have gone to the Thirsty Goat for round two… needless to say we staggered in at around 2am, somewhere during the night I stole this dude Kevin’s glasses, I gave em back though!! Another brilliant night with Kyles, have missed her so much!!!

Stop 10: Inch Abbey – Down

GoT: This place was used as Robb Stark’s Camp near Riverrun in season 1, long live the young wolf, really had hoped he’d last longer. Surely he would have made a better King than Bran the Broken, oops, spoiler… Catelyn Stark also rocked up here, still haunted by her death in the Red Wedding, surely Cersei deserved that not her!!

K&H: Believe it or not, we did actually get up at 8 and hit the road. Yes there was a lot of bacon and huge coffees involved but neither of us were giving up the chance to see Winterfell, no matter how sore our heads were!! Our stop on the way at Inch Abbey was the tranquility needed to soothe our heads, the beautiful ruins with no one around, well not tourists anyway, just a man walking his dog. Really beautiful, can imagine how stunning the Abbey would have been in its day. Shame that so many castles and abbeys have gone to ruin.

Stop 11: Castle Ward – Strangford, Co. Down

GoT: WINTERFELL!!! Home of the only family left intact, well they did lose the young wolf and the kid that couldn’t zig zag… almost intact!! One of the most iconic locations throughout the show from the very first episode to the last. Long live Queen Sansa, oops, another spoiler…

K&A: Well we made it. The number one place on our must see was Winterfell!! Honestly, wee bit disappointed… could see how the courtyard would be set up, one of the tower and gates looked like Winterfell but defs lots of CGI on this one. That aside, always awesome to see a castle, the lake near by was stunning and it was a sweet walk through the forest to the castle. And hey, I’ve been to Winterfell, tick that one off the bucket list!!

And so here ends our GoT tour of Northern Ireland, not only did we get our kicks seeing where they filmed, we also saw some of the most beautiful sites of the country, Ireland is absolutely stunning and the people are just as lovely. What a great time us two besties had, but back to Belfast then London to enjoy the last of summer as winter is coming…

P.S. My Geordie mate was nice enough to tell me two weeks later that the sign I thought meant no speed limit actually means ‘national speed limit’ which is 70mph… ooops, guess the speeding fines are in the mail 😬

September 25, 2019 0

#castlechallenge

Bacon buttys are heaven. Bread. Yum. Egg. Yum. Cheese. Yum. BBQ sauce. Yum. Bacon. Yummers. Recovery food of champions, or the severely hungover.

After Star Wars and bacon, there were castles. What started as popping by Alnwick Castle turned into the castle challenge – how many castles can we visit in one day??

The answer is 6, not including the halloumi castle…

First stop, Alnwick Castle, just don’t be an Aussie and pronounce the l ie the w or you’ll get a swift hiding from the Geordie locals. Being the place where Harry learnt to fly, had to wear my overpriced Gryffindor jumper, also because it was cold AF.

Second stop, Chillingham Castle where the sunshine turned it on, apparently I bought the weather with me… always thought I was more of a storm…

Then onto my equal favourite, Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island. It was like stepping into a movie about King Arthur or the crusades. The road over can only be used when the tide goes out, and damn be sure not to be driving back across when the tide comes in… didn’t get right up to the castle but the priory ruins and cemetery were stunning, so much history, could feel the lost souls.

Next was Bamburgh Castle, looked like the Red Keep from Game of Thrones and of course getting all excited again about seeing Jon Snow for reals…

Haloumi Castle was by far my favourite. The deep fried roast chicken not so much…

Warkworth Castle was a quick pit stop, then onto Tynemouth Priory and Castle. Really was all castled our but in awe of being able to leg it around in a few hours and see so many. Can’t think of another place in the world where that’s possible, lucky poms.

The nights plans to head out on the toon in the Georgie Shore quickly turned into a snooze fest, quite literally. Ten minutes into a movie on the couch and Kyles and I were catching zzzz’s.

Friday 28th December 2018.

December 30, 2018 0