Belfast.

So we have been laying about, stuffing our face with food, watching tv etc in preperation for what will be our epic arrival in Amsterdam. Caught up with Gramps at the caravan, saw the countryside of Belfast through the thick fog. Went to a Viking Festival which was more like a small gathering ha ha. Were yelled at by a scottish dude who wanted us to stay longer. Not much to report as yet, we are heading into town tomorrow so maybe more to document after that...

Last Day in Dublin.

Last day in Dublin today. Woken up again by the stupid guitar playing guy in our dorm, add to that 4 obnoxious stereotypical American guys saying things like 'totally dude' etc. We ended up at a Gallery this morning where we saw the Francis Bacon studio which was pretty cool. We went to the Wax Museum afterward which was lots of fun. Saw some cool characters like David Bowie, Darth Maul, Yoda, Michael Jackson, Boy George (ha ha), Madonna, Batman, The Simpsons etc etc. Took some ridiculous photos as expected.

Headed to the Guiness Storehouse after that but didnt want to pay 15 euros to get in so we took some photos and headed to a pub instead for a pint of Guiness. Just did a bit of general wandering today coming across some cool sites as we went which is what we have done in most of the cities we have visited thus far.

Tried to hit the hay early, was woken in the night by a half naked man entering the room who proceeded to get completely naked and hop into one of the American girls beds, thank god said American girl was not in the bed at the time but got a shock when she lifted the sheets to find this creep completely starkers!!

Had an awesome breakfast the following morning at a pub on Oconnel Street then headed for the train the Belfast. We were blessed with really good weather during our entire stay in Dublin and we knew it was bound to come to an end at some point. Upon arriving back in Belfast it was freezing and pooring with rain!!

Relaxing tonight, Dad and Emma are arriving tonight and Muriel tomorrow so it will be a McBride reunion. All in all Dublin was really awesome, the city itself was really nice the only let down was how crazy expensive everything was, especially food, wouldnt want to be living there due to that. Looking forward now to a few relaxing days in a proper bed with a good shower some lovely food and good company before we are off the Amsterdam!!! Woohoo.

Dublin Day 2.

So today we headed straight for Graffton Street to find the Phil Lynott memorial, we got a little lost but finally found him and he was awesome :) we went to Captain Americas for lunch on said street and I had one of the best Vege burgers I have ever had!! Manda had a tasty vege enchilada. There was some rad memorabilia on the walls but typically we got stuck in the U2 section, I HATE U2!!

We went and saw the Oscar Wilde house but was pretty pissed they don't do tours through it anymore. Walked along the river Liffey etc and saw some nice buildings etc. We went to Dublinia which was Viking and Medievil Museum and that was awesome. Dressed up in some Viking costumes and took plenty of ridiculous photos.

Went out to some pubs for a drink tonight and paid an obscene amount of money for 2 Vodka and Lemonades, it really is expensive here! Stuck to beer after that and got a little hammered and headed back to the hostel after getting some hot chips and having a hot chip sandwich mmmmmm. There are a bunch of loud American dudes in our room now who are another addition the the equally annoying dude who makes way too much noise in the morning!!

Not sure what we are up to today, maybe the Wax Museum, probably the Guiness Storehouse...who knows. Booked our accommodation and flight to Amsterdam, so excited!!!

Welcome to feckin Dublin.

Arrived in Dublin, weather is still amazing!! Extremely hung over so short blog entry. Hostel is good, nice and neat and tidy and nice people. Metal club across the road from the hostel, aaalright. Went to the grocery store to stock up on some food. Went to a little pub to sink a few brews. Got a few sixers from the Off Licence, headed back to the hostel. Played Beer Pong with a few Irish chaps and an Aussie and completely dominated. Ended up far too drunk listening to Thin Lizzy and Metallica. I slipped away off to bed cause I couldnt see straight, followed by Manda who munted on herself on the way to bed ha ha ha. Welcome to feckin Dublin (in the voice of Al Swearengen).

Ireland.

So we were both rather ill on the last day in Edinburgh. We havent been able to eat properly since we left and I think it finally caught up with both of us so we were at the hostel most of the day. We left for a walk in the afternoon down a nice little path along a creek and we went and bought a few beers from the shopkeep and downed them on a park bench outside a church ha ha.

We hit the hay pretty early as we had to be up early to check out, we shared a single bed on this night because we were supposed to be in seperate rooms but would rather sleep together. Worst sleep ever. Woke up, packed our stuff, Holly accidentally left her mobile in the toilets and some jerk stole it!! Should be able to get a new one through travel insurance when we get back so she had to buy a really crappy one worth £7.95 and it is such a piece of shit ha ha.

Got to the airport super early, caught up on some reading, got some lunch etc. Finally checked in and went through the usual routine of being looked at like criminals, Hollys bag tested for drugs, take off our shoes etc. Our flight was delayed by half an hour and when we got to Belfast we discovered that Hollys Aunty was at a different airport. With the help of a nice policeman we got sorted out and made our way to Aunty Iris with the help of some lovely Irish people along the way.

Had a few Budweisers then headed to bed for an awesome sleep. Amazing shower in the morning followed by a delicious breakfast. Just chilling today till we get our train around 3 to Dublin where we will probably hit up a metal pub tonight as there is one on the street where our hostel is, aaalright. Cant wait to visit the Phil Lynott memorial rocking my Thin Lizzy hat throughout the streets ha ha. Peace.

Edinburgh.

So we got to the airport with plenty of time and had some awesome cold salads whilst we waited for our flight. Boarded the plane and were in Scotland in about 1 hour. Thank god our flight wasn't cancelled. We got a bus from the airport into the city centre and found our hostel really easily. The hostel is awesome, it is an old cathedral that has been made into a hostel so the ceilings are huge and the exterior is amazing.

After checking in we found we were sharing a room with some Spanish girls and immediately realised that there will be naked women everywhere in Spain as they have no problem nudeing it up in front of us. They are really nice even though they speak hardly any English so its all good.

The hostel has kitchen facilities, tv, dvd player, pool table, showers etc with a decent sized common room with a bar etc so its a pretty sweet set up. We headed into the city the next day, only about a 2 minute walk from where we are staying. Saw the Edinburgh Castle and a whole heap of old churches. Had a look around the Edinburgh Dungeon, found some cool shops on Market St and had a vegan baked potato, soooo good.

The city itself is really beautiful and the people are really nice. We went to the tartan weaving mill and found our family shields and tartans etc and bought a few things. We basically wandered all over the city except for a few parts which we are going to see today.

Finally booked our flights for Belfast, hopefully they go ahead without any trouble. Looked up a few metal type bars and clubs so hopefully if its not too cold tonight we can go out drinking, its actually pretty hot today :)

Speak soon xxx

Uncle George's, Frog Manor and London.

We arrived in England last Friday, and after a long and exhausting flight (which was about 12 hours) we were very thankful that Holly's uncle George picked us up from the airport. We then had a long drive of around three hours back to his house which was in Crewe, but it was so beautiful out there we didnt really mind the long scenic drive, especially knowing we would soon be enjoying hot showers and more importantly real food!!!!

And boy did we eat, with the starters of hot crusty bread dipped in melted camembert cheese (that George's lovely girlfriend Elaine cooked for us), we then had vegetarian fajita's that were sooo good, not to mention about fifty cups of earl grey tea.

Early start the next morning and off to Wales, and boy was that worth it. George and Elaine drove us in to see the Conwy Castle which was just enourmous, photos will never do it justice. It was so old and so beautiful.

We also stopped off at Betsy-Corp (well thats not how you spell it but we couldnt remember) and here we had Welsch tea... It was amazing!! It was scones with jam and cream and welsch bread and this lovely little cake thing that were the highlight, they were just so good.

We drove back to George's house and quickly got ready to go out for our long awaited dinner, and this was probably one of the highlights of our trip so far. We were taken to a restaurant called Frog Manor. It was actually more like being in someones home. It was so crazy, we all sat in this sitting room which looked like the room of someones Grandmas house, it had a tv and lounges and was all crazy and cluttered. There were frogs everywhere (toy one's) hence the name Frog Manor. We chose from the most amazing menu as well, everything sounded sooo good it was too hard to choose. We also had to choose three courses which we have never done before. We ended up in a dining room with a big table that we all sat around and ate our delicious meals, and we really are not exaggerating, it was one of the best meals we have ever had! Thanks Uncle George!!
After our final sleep in a comfortable bed with our full stomach's we awoke early Sunday morning to prepare to head down to London and find our hostel.
The train ride was long and it took even longer finding it. We came into luck again as they had over booked so we got a room of our own.
We will be sure to update you all on our adventurous day in London as soon as possible!!!!
Missing everyone lots and lots and heading off to Scotland tomorrow.
Hope your all doing good we are about to head off to the pub and get some beer and food!!!
love Holly and Amanda!!
(and boy people sure arent lying when they say London is cold!!!!)

Imperial Palace and the Thunder Dolphin!

So we slept in a bit today and then headed straight for the Imperial Palace in Central Tokyo. You cannot enter the actual Palace you can only wander around the Eastern Gardens etc which is what we did. They were indeed very beautiful, especially the tranquil pond and waterfall. It was super hot today which made it really uncomfortable walking up all the hills. We then headed to Tokyo Dome City which turned out to be a real chore in terms of finding the right stations, buying the right tickets and wandering the streets in confusion. Thank god for Mandas navigational skills or we would never have found it. A nice young chap on a bike approached Manda to tell her that her atmosphere was very attractive and that he wanted to `make friends` with her. She tried to refuse his advances and decline his request for an email address but he didnt understand. So after providing him with a fake email address we finally reached Tokyo Dome City. Bought our tickets for the Thunder Dolphin which was a kickass rollercoaster and had an awesome time! We got the funniest photo of the two of us on the rollercoaster! We cannot upload photos from these computers as they are too slow in case you were wondering why there arent any yet but we will as soon as we get to England tomorrow!! We have to be up at 5am to make sure we get to the Airport in time tomorrow, those annoying men in our dorm room better be quiet tonight or there is going to be hell to pay!! Grrrrrrr.

Lions, Tigers and Bears Oh My!

So today we headed to Ueno to visit the Zoo and some neighbouring shrines. Was easy as to get there and only about $8 AUD to get in! Unfortunately the last Panda the Zoo had past away in 2008 of heart failure so we didnt get to see any Pandas expect for the plastic and stuffed ones. We saw some rad Polar Bears and HUGE Grizzly Bears. Lots of cute Monkeys and Gorrilas as well as the cutest little Armadillo I have ever seen. Tigers and Lions were also there as well as Penguins and Seals etc. We had some delicious Pancakes with Ice Cream and Iced Tea for lunch. Our cameras batteries went flat towards to end so we filmed some stuff and took a few photos with the video camera. Afterwards we looked around some shrines and temples around the area and headed back to Shinjuku. We went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building which has free admission to the observatory which provided some amazing views of Tokyo. It just goes on and on and on for miles! Finally we started making our way back, Manda finally got some sushi, dinner time :)

Roppongi.

So today was especially heinous weather, super cold and raining non stop but it actually turned out to be a nice break from how hot and stuffy it has been. We headed into Roppongi after we finally found an ATM, as we were running out of cash and had to settle for Ritz crackers and vegemite for dinner last night. So we found our way into Roppongi and finally had our first decent meal however it wasnt Japanese. We went to Bagel and Bagel and had awesome bagels, iced tea and muffins for lunch!! Felt so much better afterwards. We continued to wander in the rain and found an awesome WW2 bomb site which was made into a small Japanese garden and shrine, got some rad photos. We stumbled upon Roppongi Hills where there was another nice Japanese garden as well as a statue that looked exactly like the Spider Beast you fight in Gears of War. Found some cool buildings around the area and a MASSIVE cemetery that went on for miles. Took us about an hour just to walk through it and the tombstones looked amazing, some of them were really huge. We made our way back to Shinjuku and had a quick look around but we still need to go back and have a proper look. Scored ourselves a free umbrella, aaaalright. Going to hit up Tokyo and Ueno tomorrow to visit the Zoo and some more temples and shrines.

Shibuya.

So today after another epic sleep we headed back to Harajuku to try and spot some more of the Harajuku girls and boys, there were a few there but we would see more later on our way back. We basically just wandered and ended up in Shibuya which is a rad town. Definitely the party spot, we found a Karoaoke bar we want to visit later and a shop which sold nothing but condoms! We visited this massive record store which had about 10 floors and found Kiddy Land which was a 5 story toy store full of awesome Star Wars toys etc. We found some awesome shoe stores with more Dr Martens that I have ever seen in my entire life and we had to really fight the urge to start browsing. We ended up in Yoyogi park where a massive festival was going down and there were Japanese hippies EVERYWHERE! Didnt even know such a thing existed. A man wasnted to take a picture of Holly`s blue eyes and hair in the middle of the art exhibition. We were hassled by a few drunk Japanese men but finally made our way out and strolled through the lovely park where people were playing voilins and guitar. On our way back out we saw a Lady Ga Ga lookalike and more of the Harajuku boys and girls.....more men dressed as women. Our feet hurt from walking so much because the subway system is so hard to figure out. Back at the hostel now and after a few Asahi`s we`re feeling a little drunk....

Harajuku and Yoyogi.

So we had a pretty awesome sleep last night but we keep getting super confused with the time? We got up super early thinking it was much later and go ready to head out to Harajuku. We had Ice Cream for breakfast which was rad and jumped on the train to Yoygi first to see the kickass park we saw from the bus on our way to Shinjuku from the airport. We found it and it was really lovely. It reminded us of the Dandenongs back home. We walked for ages through the park to the centre where there is a massive shrine where there was a Japanese wedding going on. People were praying in the temple and there was a massive tree where people hung prayer cards all around it which looked really cool. We finally made our way to Harajuku where there were so many cool shops! Lots of lolita clothing etc. We got some jewellery and some awesome bathing suite sets which we cant wait to wear when we git to somewhere hot like Spain. Going to attempt to find this metal club tonight. Toodles xx

Our Sweet Little Ace Inn

We finally arrived at our hostel with great difficulty finding it. The staff here are really nice and speak fluent english so that already made us feel more at home. Our first run in with luck for the day was that there was a stuff up with our beds, but luckily instead of being in two seperate beds in the room with about ten other people we have a sort of shut off room with shutting doors and two comfortable beds on the floor, so its kind of shut off from the other beds. It really made our day.
We made some friends from Canada, New York and London already that are in our hostel and im sure we will have some great nights partying with them.
Lastly we found a family mart store down the road and attempted to get some dinner, ended up with yoghurt, lollies, and some weird ice tea milk due to Holly being a vego.
Anyway just about to experience our first shower thank god.
Wish us luck.

We have arrived!

So we have arrived in Shinjuku! The flight went pretty fast and we got some sleep so it was all good. When arriving at customs in Japan Holly declared her Bullet Belt and due to the laws in Japan she could either pay for them to hold it till we left or leave it behind. She has another one at home so she left it behind. The computers here are hard to use.....we struggled with our packs finding an internet cafe. We nearly cried when we logged into Mandas Facebook, we miss our friends already!! Going to try and hit up a heavy metal club called Metal Gods tonight, if we can find it. But first we have to find our hostel!!! Wish us good luck. Love and miss everybody xx