Big Trip III England, Scotland, Wales & Ireland – The Blue Van – Overland Travels

Ireland Part One

admin — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 12:31:03 +0000

Howth by our camper

We went to Ireland on a ferry and it was very nice. It had games but they cost a euro each and a free movie, Ant Man. We landed in Northern Ireland which is still part of England. When Ireland rebelled, they took over every single part except this part, which is still part of England to this day and they called it the Easter uprising. It was filled with bombs and death. Everyone was afraid they would strike again on Easter,because was that was the 100 year anniversary. We were on our way to Dublin and we stopped in a little town called Annalong and we camped right in front of a playground and we met two friends there, Alex and Kora. We had fun there playing. We were trying to watch a movie that night and some people threw rocks at us, drunken teenagers. One rock hit right in the window, luckily it did not break. Then we left Annalong and drove to Dublin. We stayed in a little town called Howth on the outskirts of Dublin. We went for a carriage ride from the Guinness storehouse to Templebar. I really wan

I was happy

ted to go in a carriage, ever since South America, I wanted to ride in a horse drawn carriage! I got to drive the horse. It was great. When St Patricks day came, it was crazy and bustling. We each got a green hat and a green hoody to go to the parade. It was really crowded but we got there early and we got a great seat right in front of the bandstand where they filmed all the things and stuff. The parade was great, I loved it. Our friends were coming that day from Alaska. When we got to the bus station where we were meeting them, I started to throw up. I was sick, very sick. We started to walk to there hotel. I vomited a ton and the train station. We got to their hotel and I laid there in their bed, sick as ever. I threw up a lot. Then we had to go home to Howth. My brother and sister were staying the night. I did not throw up on the train. I laid down and went to bed. The next morning, we were going to go on rides for the Prawn Festival. We went on the

Driving through Guinness on the carriage

rides it was fun, I was still sick. The next day everyone came over and we got fish and chips. Dublin was kind of meh. There were parts of it with broken down windows and graffiti but parts were really nice, too. After Dublin, we drove around. There were thousands and trillions and billions of lambs , they were so adorable, I loved them and wanted to get them, Once I got stung by a stinging nettle while we were in Ireland and it hurt for days. We went to a little town where we hiked up to a cathedral and we got lunch there in a pub. I had chicken and chips, it was the town where my mom

Going past Saint Patrick’s. We went to Evensong there the night before Saint Patrick’s Day

and dad’s families were from

Temple bar was really crowded every night

Northern Ireland and Dublin

Annabelle DeCorso — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 20:11:33 +0000

We got to Northern Ireland on a ferry that went into Belfast. The ferry ride was two and a half hours long, but it had free movies and wifi which was pretty cool! Once we got off the boat we parked the camper, and went into Belfast.
Belfast was a pretty gross place, my parents kept saying if I talked about the great potato famin people would get offended and punch me, a bit scary to be honest. I walked around with Jennah mostly because she wanted to look at dresses and I was going to help her look for them.
Of course, while we were there it was almost the anniversary of the revolution which was in 1916. Right before we got to Belfast actually there was a car bomb injuring a 52 year old man.
In Killyleagh Jennah and Jack met up with a friend Jennah met online. Everyone else was stuck in the camper. We took a walk, though, the town was small.

In Annalong Max, Sylvia and I met two girls named Kora and Alex. We talked a lot and hung out at a park. Annalong was fun, until when we were trying to watch a movie but were interrupted by a group of young people throwing rocks at us, my parents kept going outside and screaming at them, then once they didn’t stop my mom called the cops. Pretty intense. We left that town the next morning.

Finally we went into the Republic of Ireland, but of course the sim cards stopped working because we weren’t in the UK anymore, so we raced all the way to a phone store to buy sim cards.

After a bit of driving we got to Dublin! We decided to stay in the Harbour in Howth, but even better, we were gonna be in Dublin for the St. Patricks Day Parade! And my friend Heidi was coming to visit with her mom and brother, and there was gonna be a Prawn Festival on the weekend!
The first time we went into Dublin it was alright, we went to Temple Bar and went into a shop and bought a ton of St. Patricks Day stuff, I got a headband, a hoodie, and face paint!
When it was St. Patricks Day we went into Dublin around 9:00am even though the parade started at noon, we had to get good seats.

It was awesome! Everyone was all dressed up and had face paint on and makeup, and Heidi was coming at 2:00pm.
When the parade started I was so excited, there were like 12 marching bands and so many other things! But I was tired of standing by the time it ended. Then we had to go find Heidi at the bus station! That was fun.

When she came we lazed around in the hotel room quite a bit, but she also came to Howth and we went around the Prawn Festival. We also went to a zoo, which had more things than I expected it to.

It was fun, I hope the other parts of Ireland are as much cool as this.

Dublin and Friends

Max — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 20:10:52 +0000

We spent St. Patrick’s day in Dublin, which was packed. We woke up early and left Howth to get a good spot for the parade, and we found one along a fence. We got McDonald’s for breakfast and waited for the parade to start. We had to wait two and a half hours for the parade and then it took another hour and a half to go past. The parade was pretty cool. They had some cool floats for it. We bought some hoodies a couple days before so we would have green things to wear. I got a Temple Bar one which is very nice and comfy. After the parade we walked to a bus station, which was a good distance away, and meet up with our friends who had flown in from Alaska. We started walking to their hotel when Sylvia started throwing up. She threw up for about fifteen minutes, but then was able to walk to the metro station and we took the train to their hotel. We stayed there for a long time till Sylvia felt better and was able to go home. Me and Annabelle stayed at our friends hotel room that night and got pizza from a place from across the street. When we woke up we walked down to a little shop and got some sausage rolls and coffee. The mocha I had was amazing. We walked to the Dublin Zoo, which was very close by, and went in. The zoo was surprisingly good. The Siberan White Tiger display was closed, but most of the exhibits were open. The zoo was a very nice zoo. They made the monkeys hunt for their food. We watched baby elephants play for a long time, but finally had to leave to look at other things. They had Red Pandas which look kinda like a raccoon but red. After the zoo, we got some pizza and fries at the café at the zoo and waited for my mom and dad to show up. Sylvia had to stay at the camper with Jack and Jennah because she was still sick. We met up with my parents and went back to my friends hotel. We hung out there for a while then my mom, my dad, Annabelle and her friend went back to the camper for the night and I stayed at the hotel. We went to the pub next door and got food. I had a massive burger which was awesome and my friend got curry. We went back to the hotel and me and my friend stayed up late. There was a festival going on in Howth so we went there. It was the Prawn festival. Prawns are these lobster/shrimp thing. The festival was fun and there was live music there. Me and my friend got apple soda, which I had been looking for for a while. Our friends left later that day. When we were driving out of Dublin, my friend texted me saying they didn’t make their flight and that they were in a hotel at the airport. So we turned our camper around and went to them. We camped in the hotel parking lot and my mom got a bottle of wine to bring up. They ordered room service which was very fancy. They bought tickets to Iceland for the next day so we didn’t see them after that. Dublin was great and I’m glad my friend came.

Highland Dance

Annabelle DeCorso — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 19:03:04 +0000

I’m a Scottish Highland Dancer with the Red Hackle Pipe Band in Fairbanks. Highland Dancing is more of a athletic dancing and physically demanding. It’s also solo and competitive.
I know 4 1/2 dances, the Highland Fling, the Lilt, the Flora, the Sword Dance, and the Seann Triubhas, (I only know half of the Flora).
I’ve been dancing for five years. There is a Highland Games in Palmer, Alaska each year, and you can compete in it for Highland Dancing. When I first went I danced the Highland Fling and the Lilt, I’m not sure what place I got. I also dance at the Tanana Valley State Fair in Fairbanks but not for competition.
In July before I went to the UK I went to Vernon, Canada where there is a school/camp thing called Piping Hot Summer Drummer Highland Dance, it was intense and I got super sore, but everyone there said I improved a ton.
When we went to Scotland I was excited because I thought Highland Dancing would be like a big thing there. . . It wasn’t as big as I thought it would be. My parents found a class for me to take, it was a bit awkward there because I knew different steps then everyone else, but it ended up okay.

The outfit for Highland Dancing is a kilt, hose, a white blouse, a jacket, leather dance shoes that are called ghillies, for the national dances you have to wear a white blouse, a circle skirt that has a tartan on it, a plaid which is a fabric that hangs over your shoulder which is the same color of the skirt, ghillies, white ankle or knee socks, and a vest. The outfits are weirdly expensive.

The music in Highland Dancing is usually bagpipes, I’m not exactly sure what the names for the dance songs are but the Sword Dance’s song is called Ghillie Callum.
I can’t wait to I get back because I’ll be able to practice a lot more.

Ferries

Max — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 15:32:48 +0000

The ferries you take over to the Shetland Islands are luxurious and fun. On the ferries there are cabins which you can rent for the night and a lounge called the Magnus Lounge. The lounge cost around £10 to get in but once you are in you get free soft drinks and snacks. There is also is a play area for little kids and a room with video games for older ones. The one with the video games costs money to play my sister and I found out. It cost £1 for fifteen minutes, which is kind of expensive. When we went on the ferry from Orkney to Shetland we slept in the Pod Lounge, which is a room filled with these strange chair this for sleeping. My mom and Sylvia didn’t sleep in there and instead slept on the floor of the cinema. You can also buy breakfast on the ferry for yourself. You can buy a meal or the all you can eat breakfast buffet. We got the all you can eat breakfast buffet because for every adult meal you buy, two kids under sixteen eat free. The breakfast was pretty good. They had soda and juice. The eggs were ones you can buy that are freeze dried that you have to put in water to eat, so they were in a tub of water. After breakfast I felt sick. The ferry are called Northlink, and they sail to the Orkney Islands and to Shetland. The ferries also come with free wifi that, once you get out to sea, is very slow. Also on the ferries are gambling machines, which Jack spent £5 on. It was a sunny day on Shetland which is very rare. The ferries ride over is around twelve hours. The ferries are super nice and fun and have comfortable chairs.

Shetland – Sylvia

admin — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 14:05:49 +0000

We went on a ferry to the Shetland Islands, it’s a part of Scotland. It’s famous for the sheep that make beautiful yarn. These are special sheep they are not like any other sheep because this is such a tiny island that all the same here but different from every where else. It’s famous for these ponies that are very small and they have been here for thousands of years. They are very tiny and they have lots of hair. To get here, we had to take 2 ferries. One to the Orkney Islands that took 90 minutes and one to Lerwick that took 12 hours. It had a theater, gaming area, bar lounge, restaurants and a store. There was no people von the ferry at all. We slept in the theater, me and my mom but everyone else slept in this place called the Pod Lounge. The Pod Lounge cost £10 more to sleep in one but we didn’t have to pay because there was no one there. A pod was a chair that was comfortable and you can lean back. I didn’t sleep in there because I didn’t want to be quiet. The next morning we went to breakfast. It was all you could eat so I was excited. The food wasn’t v that good. I don’t eat eggs so I don’t know how good the eggs were. The bacon was Scottish and not like American bacon. American is fried in a pan and is crispy but Scottish bacon is more like ham and it’s called rashers. I didn’t like the bacon. I had cereal. When we got off the ferry we drove to a cliff over the ocean with no fences. My brother Jack got very close and I got freaked out. We found two fairy rocks! The rocks had deep puddles around them.

Hostels

Jennah — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 00:10:13 +0000

Since the end of December, Jack and I have stayed at three different hostels in two different cities and countries. The first one we stayed in was on Cow Gate street, by Grass Market, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Cow Gate has many clubs, hostels and bars on it. Even later than three am, you can hear people out and about on the streets, singing and playing music. One time, right outside the hostel we were staying at, there was a group of people from several different countries playing music on a guitar and singing.
The second hostel we stayed at was in London. I can’t recall the name of the area it was in, but it was only about three or four tube stops from Buckingham Palace. This hostel, in my opinion, was not as fun as the one in Edinburgh. Security was a lot more intense. You had to have a key to get inside,which wasn’t very fun. If you were outside talking, the security men made you go all around the building to the smoking area, even if you weren’t smoking. You had to be quiet because of the residential buildings nearby. And, one of the people we were with while there wasn’t much fun. I did meet a very nice Argentinian man, though,and they gave you free towels with your room.
The last hostel we stayed in was in Edinburgh, like the first one, but in a different area. This hostel had a lot of very nice qualities – free breakfast, free laundry, etc. The showers were particularly enjoyable. All of the hostels had a chill out room. The first one had many big cushions scattered along the floor and a TV that was always playing movies. The second one, I didn’t go into. And this one had comfortable leather couches and a little kitchen area for making food, and a TV. In the chill out room, Jack and I met a big group of people who were all staying there for the weekend, and who had also all met at the hostel. There was an American, but a majority of the people were from Scotland or England.
Eating food while staying at hostels is hard. It’s expensive to buy food from the city, and even more so to buy it from the bars that are usually attached to the accommodation. While staying there, Jack and I lived off a lot of kebabs and french fries with gravy. Mom bought us soup once, which was greatly appreciated, but I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve eaten french fries with gravy from a restaurant called the Clam Shell while staying at a hostel in Edinburgh. For future reference, it isn’t really a good purchase. They aren’t very filling nor good for you. Kebabs, on the other hand, are very much worth what you pay for.

More on Castles and Food

Max — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 23:56:04 +0000

While we’ve been here in the UK driving around, we’ve been to some castles. And learned that they can be very repetitive. Castle are fun to explore, the smaller castles more so, but then they start to just repeat. Bigger castles, like Caenarfon, get more and more repetitive as you walk on the side of the walls. Because they were built for defense and not so much to explore, you will soon start to see the same room over and over again. Harlech was a good castle because it was smaller, and less repetitive, which made it more fun to explore and see. Also while we’ve been over here I’ve learned what people eat over here. Bangors and Mash is just Sausage put on top of mashed potatoes. Fish and Chips is a fish filet with fries. I have yet to try it, but I assume that it will be good sense I like fish, and fries. They also have Blood Pudding, which sounds gross. Blood Pudding is made of oatmeal, onions, pork fat, and blood. They normally use pork blood too make the pudding. Another thing they have here is Yorkshire Puddings. Yorkshire Puddings are these bread like bowl things that you put gravy over top. They are very good and I like them a lot. Yorkshire Puddings are eaten with meat most of the time. The last thing in gonna talk about are Shepherds Pies which I like quite a lot. A Shepherds Pie is just vegetables, minced, which is cut up meat, lamb with mashed potatoes spelt on top. The food here is good and I feel like we should probably eat more things like Shepherds Pie in the US.

Tintagel

Max — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 15:25:33 +0000

We drove into Cornwall and into Tintagel, which is a little town on the coast of Cornwall. We camped at a pub stop there and stayed there for a few days to save some money. The first day we where there we went to see King Arthur’s castle, and Merlin’s Cave. The castle is on top of a giant rock, with cliffs on all sides. It had a great view of the ocean, with waves crashing on the rocks below. Merlin’s Cave was also very cool. It went straight through the rock that the castle was on and when there was high tide the cave would fill up with water. Sylvia got soaked in the waves. My mom dropped her phone and lost it for a little bit. My dad found it on the stairs down to the beach. The screen had cracked but besides that it was fine. The sodas were very cheap at the visitor for some reason so we were going to buy a lot of them but the shop closed early. While we where in Tintagel we also walked the coastal hike. It ended at a little town which had a pub. The walk was very pretty and had many great views. There were sometimes when we could have easily fallen off the cliff into the ocean, but luckily none of us did. We spent a long time at the pub there which had good food. We were going to see whether or not we could drive our camper down to it so my mom and dad could have a date there. We walked the road back and it was to narrow to drive our camper down so we decided not too. Tintagel was very nice and was very scenic and I had a fun time there. The castle was very cool and the beach were Merlin’s Cave is, is also very nice. The coastal walk to the other little town was awesome.

London by Sylvia

Michelle — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 23:35:06 +0000

London is great. We went out for Indian food. It was super awesome. My sister got butter chicken and I got a kebab. This something I got a lot in Peru and there it was on a stick. Here the stick was taken out but it was still pretty good. We had to go to this far away place to find the perfect food. I never had Indian food before but the first time I had it it was a good experience. It was my oldest brother Ryan’s idea.

Big Ben is very pretty. I didn’t know it was attached to the House of Parliament.

Instead of a subway there is the tube. At every stop there is a voice that says MIND THE GAP. That means there is a space between the platform and the train.

London Bridge is not actually London Bridge, it is the Tower Bridge.

We went to see the Tower of London where Mary, Queen of Scotts head was cut off. I will say executed because it sounds less creepy. We saw the grave of Anne Boleyn. Every year, since her head was executed, or chopped off, on the date, someone sends 2 dozen roses and no one know who sends them or who pays for them, it’s a mystery. Anne Boleyn is Henry the 8th’s wife and he had a new wife every day and every morning he executed his wife but Anne Boleyn told him stories every night and stayed alive, is that right? Some people say that if the Ravens ever leave the Tower of London, it will fall into dust. They keep some there in a cage because they don’t want the Tower of London to fall into dust.

Where they executed people

Buckingham Palace is where the Queen lives. The Queen has a dog, and I really like this kind of dog, it’s called a corgi. There is a princess and a baby princess. Every 24 hours, there is the changing of the guard. A giant parade, men on horses, a ton of men carrying guns and the whole thing is to change the guards protecting the Queen and the princess and baby princess.

We went to a museum and saw real mummies with bodies in them, real bodies. I thought it was kind of creepy. There was one real Egyptian person called Ginger, curled up in the fetal position, he had ginger hair that’s why he was called Ginger, and he was laid out under a stone and they brought him all the way to England and I thought it was creepy, too.

We took a tram like in a ski resort up into the sky to get across the Thames. It was a beautiful view. I took a ton of pictures. We also went to see a play called Wicked. It was very, very great.