Home

Touched down in Ireland and now I'm home. The trip has been amazing, we have done and seen so many things. We've been gone 5 months, seen 15 countries (including stopovers), 5 continents, 4 wonders of the world and spent at least one night in each of 36 different cities. Pretty exhausting but damn fantastic. So many places we want to go back to and so many other places we now want to see. For now though I want to go nowhere and just eat a whole load of Irish food and see all my friends and family all the time.

St. Petersburg

The first day was mostly just getting to the hostel. We spent about an hour trying to get into the metro from the train station. Excluding one girl who just ignored us, we asked three people how to get to it and couldn't find any door that lead in to it. We found two sets that lead out though. Eventually we found a map and found out we were only and a 20 minute walk from our hostel. With our bags at the heaviest they have ever been it took a bit longer than 20 minutes but our hostel here is really nice. The girl running it is very friendly and we got some really good food and just sorted ourselves out. Next day was spent sight seeing. We saw a few of the parks and palaces that St. Petersburg has to offer and bought a few sweets for the guys back home. Brian made a complete mess of using his Visa card in a shop and caused a big queue and a lot of confusion I doubt we could have understood even if we spoke basic Russian (my Visa card has expired). Brian stopped by a small park were people released doves on their wedding day, to play with a baby bear. We are pretty sure it is now illegal to keep bears as pets in Russia but this guy still had one in a lead and muzzle. The heat was stone splitting and the parks were full of people in bikinis. It was a nice last day. Had a chat to a few guys at the hostel that night who had been traveling by train through Uzbekistan. Next day we were woken by a very load snorer and the door banging so we got up early and headed to the airport. The airport doesn't let you check in until a maximum of two hours before your flight so we were left sitting and eating terrible airport food. We were on our way home so it didn't matter. St. Petersburg airport has about 5 places to queue before you get on a plane and while your bags can go through to your final destination you have to get your second boarding card at the stop over airport and not at the start. We got very confused by this but met two other English speaking girls without follow on boarding cards so we took it to be the norm. Also met a slight drunk Ukrainian who has lived in Ireland at least 5 years who tried to convince us to go swim in the Black Sea cause it was so great.

Moscow

Next day we headed to the to the train station after a pretty relaxing morning. We arrived at the train station and about twenty counters are labeled tickets. We needed to exchange our booking confirmation for tickets so after asking at a counter we were directed to a building at the end. We headed in with our luggage through a metal detector (the guards just ignored me as I walked through setting it off and waved Brian through when he came after me). Then a random man got us to follow him to an office further inside the building and left us at a machine which looked like an atm. After some investigation we found out it was a ticket machine which had an bar code reader hidden in it. We random clicked buttons for almost half an hour to try and get our tickets. It displayed a video to show how to use the reader so we were ok there. However it need a document number (after 10 minutes of matching symbols in our dictionary we found that out). We tried every number on the ticket and then asked a passing person. She said it was our passport number and we then spent 10 minutes entering our passport numbers in a variety of different ways.. She then left and we messed with the screen and a new lady appeared with her who canceled the whole thing, scanned the document again, changed something, entered our passport numbers and gave us tickets. She made it look easy. We then had tickets. We went outside to the display and found a train at 13:00. It didn't have any words we recognised but it was the only train at the right time. 15 minutes before we went to the platform but there were turnstiles and we got turned away by the attendants there. They just pointed outside. That took 5 minutes and now we were getting worried. We rushed back to where we got the tickets and found the nearest attendant. She then pointed us in a completely different direction (turns out there are two completely different train stations in the same place). Finally the last attendant rushed us through the metal detectors and got us to run onto our train with only a few minutes to spare. Then we headed to Petersburg.

Moscow

We were completely exhausted and terribly sweaty from four days on a train when we got to the hotel. The hotel was part of three massive buildings on the out skirts of Moscow. From what we picked up they were built for the Olympics. They were all about the same size (our hotel building being 30 floors). It took the guy about 45 minutes to check us in but it was half five in the morning so that is forgivable. By the time we had showered and sorted our stuff out it was eight. We couldn't sleep because we would never get up again and we had a train to catch the next day. So we paid the quite high price for breakfast in the hotel and had a really amazing buffet. It was filled with fruit and veg done exceptionally well. It also had cheeses and breads and spring rolls and dessert and some really random other things. Then we headed out to see the Red Square and the Kremlin building. We explored the air and wandered the markets which were much more reasonably priced than Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. I suppose Moscow does good business with tourists so they don't have such high prices. Our energy drained away pretty quickly and we gave up on the sight seeing completely exhausted. Moscow seems quite nice though there isn't a lot to do but we really didn't get a chance to see much. Russian food is really good and the country is really nice. You get the occasional person who can't stand foreigners and ignores you or tries to get you to go away but you can one or two of those everywhere. Getting your visa registered everywhere can be a real pain though and the paperwork to get into the country is fairly excessive.

The Train

Poor Brian was pretty sick of the train at this point. The thought of three and a half days (three nights) seemed to be upsetting him and on the journey he got pretty frustrated being stuck in a cabin. After both of us walking up and down the train we realised we were the only English speaking people we could find. I think a lot more people travel from Moscow to Beijing than the way we traveled. The scenery was beautiful. The Russian countryside is full of brightly coloured houses and towns with cute little wooden fences. It was mostly countryside with a few cities which had a lot of space to grow. We did spend about 6 hours going nowhere which drove Brian up the wall as we couldn't tell the reason for it and he was sick of reading, playing with his iPod and listen to music already at that point. We were heading home though so that picked up his spirits. We are both a bit sick of living out of a suitcase and not having are own beds though we do love traveling. The train was meant to get in at 6 that evening. Turns out that delay was a lot bigger than we thought and I think we might have been going slower because of it. In the end we arrived in Moscow at 5 in the morning. Of course we didn't know this was going to happen as a conductor had said something in Russian about it we didn't understand. We stayed up late thinking the train could only be a few hours late and ended up getting almost no sleep. Sundowners still had a guy meet us though we didn't see him until Brian was stalking a different guy with a board and ended up back on our platform.

Irkutsk

We only got less than two days in Irkutsk. The company representative who took us from the train to the hotel was really helpful. They told us of the few sites in town but when we asked about lake Baikal they gave us all the details we needed to use the public transport in Russia and wrote out the name of the place we needed. First we dropped off stuff at the hotel but it was too early to check in. We walked down to the water front and then took a long walk around the edge of the city. We stopped along the way to avail of some free wifi which was advertised in spray paint on the ground. It was a beautiful day. The literature we got off Sundowers said it would be a max of 15 degrees but it was at least 23 degrees, probably more. We were so warm. Later we checked into the hotel and did some shopping and then looked at some of the old sunken buildings in the city. That night we had a seriously good meal of a sizzling beef, mushroom, chicken and potato dish. It was absolutely amazing. Especially after all the noodles. The restaurant (Brau House) had Russian dishes (which that was suppose to be) but it was an international restaurant that had a place in Dublin which I definitely want to check out. We had a few beers and headed to bed pretty exhausted. Next morning we headed out to Lake Baikal. The buses in Irkutsk to places outside the city just sit around and wait until they are full before leaving. You just go down and there is no timetable. Thanks to the info our guide had written down we were able to find the nearest town on the edge of the lake. There we walked around a market and then walked further along the edge of the lake. The area is absolutely beautiful. I would recommend going to see it. Even the town didn't seem to impact the natural beauty the area had. We wandered some more around the markets and then grabbed a drink and headed back to Irkutsk to catch our train.

The Train

Getting from Mongolia to Russia was very entertaining. We arrived in our cabin and put our stuff away. Later a few people dropped by and left bags on the two other beds in our room. At four in the morning a woman arrived in our room making a lot of noise. The next day we had to get up early to pass customs. A second person appeared in the room and so began their attempts to smuggle things across the border. Mongolian customs didn't really care about anything but it took almost the whole day to get through the order. In that time the two ladies in our room had taken four bags filled with new wrapped up clothes and stuffed them just about everywhere. They unwrapped, crumpled up and threw some on Brian's bed to look like they were his clothes. They stuffed some up their tops. They hid them in every hidey hole in the room. They even hid a few shirts around their ankles under their trousers. Russian customs was significantly more thorough. They checked the whole carriage for drugs (with big fluffy German Shepherds) and then army guys searched it for people. The whole thing took much longer than the China to Mongolia border crossing and we were soon sick of our new friends and the fact they continually touched and moved stuff (both ours and their). Once they got to Russia they got off and we were left in peace to reach our destination.

Mongolia

Next day we left our bags in the hotel and headed out sight seeing. We stopped in a cafe with free wifi for breakfast and found an open tourist office. There we asked what there was to do and the guy there just pointed out a few sites on the map. Ulaan Baatar is quite a small city. We headed to the temple which was a bit of a walk so we got to see the full length of the city. When we got to the temple we were yelled at and then charged for tickets. We paid and headed around the temple. They feed pigeons in the temple so the whole place was filled with them. There were quite a few buildings in the temple grounds. Finally we got to the main temple. A man appeared at the temple door and took our tickets. We were the only white people there and the only people who were asked for tickets. The man then disappeared and no one else was asked for tickets even though people freely entered and left the temple. When we got inside we say a 26.5 metre high Buddha. It was really impressive. All around the bottom were these cylinders that people seemed to be spinning. They would walk around the bottom of the statue with their hands out and just spin every cylinder they passed. The statue was amazing but we were told pictures would cost a bunch more money so we didn't bother as it had been quite expensive to get in at the start. After wards we sat in the courtyard at the front of the temple and found that the ticket guy didn't ask one other person to buy tickets to get into the temple. There were even other Asian tourists there that didn't seem to get hassled. We were pretty annoyed at this so we decided we had enough tourist stuff and just sat around enjoying the sun. Then we headed back to the hotel and grabbed our bags. At this point they were quite heavy with food and stuff so about three quarters of the way to the train station we stopped on a bench. An Irish guy named Niall came up to us to ask if we were lost. We told him we were heading to the station and just tired. Turns out he is married to a Mongolian girl and spent a lot of the last seven years in Mongolia but he still went home for a few months every now and then. He was also going home when his kids start school because the Mongolians were really racist. His wife was already getting hassled the whole time about being married to a white person and they found it really hard to go out in public together. His kids seeming looked half Mongolian and half Irish and would have been picked on a lot in school, especially with no adult bothering to stop them. Finally we headed tot he train station. Brian was given out to by a woman who was just wandering around with cleaning equipment but not cleaning, for having his feet on the wall. After this Brian was pretty angry. He really disliked Mongolian and just wanted to get out of there. He hated the people's attitude to all foreigners and being stared at in the train station for half an hour by a guy who wouldn't look away even when stared back at angrily was they last straw. We were soon on the train for two nights.

Mongolia

We arrived and were met by a guide who drove us to the hotel pointing out anything interesting we passed along the way. It wasn't a full tour but it did give us a good bearing. For some reason we were pretty exhausted from the train journey, neither of us slept very well. So we too a nap when we got there. We woke up about 7 and decided to go get food. We went to the ATM closest to the hotel. It had all the cirrus and mastercard stickers on it so we felt we were pretty safe. We tried our ATM cards but the transaction just canceled. Then we went on to the next bank with an ATM and the same thing. We went to about seven banks in the end and none of them accepted our ATM cards. We had been told to bring US dollars with us anyway but it was too late at night to get them exchanged anywhere. A lot of the later ATMs we found just had Visa symbols. At this point we were tired of everything so we headed back to the hotel and just ate some of the noodles we had bought for the train ride. Next day we got up and headed out to a bank to exchange some money. We went to a tourist office to ask about a day tour for the next day but they weren't open. Then we went souvenir shopping for a few hours. We also went looking for a supermarket to buy supplies, that took hours as the one we went looking for on the map didn't actually seem to exist. We saw a circus tent but no circus which was a little weird. That night we headed out to a Mongolian BBQ. The BBQ in Dublin is actually the exact same except they don't have horse meat or mutton in the selection and you could also get soup and salads. We had a really nice and filling meal. The place was crowded at eight and the guys on the BBQ stopped cooking to put on a bit of a show in the middle. That did mean we were waiting ages for food but it was good. Afterwards we headed to one of the Irish bars (there are quite a few in Mongolia though they seem to be run by Mongolians).

The Train

We arrived in Beijing Station at 7 to get the train at quarter to 8. We got onto the train and found that our two roommates hadn't turned up or weren't getting on at Beijing so we got the four bunk beds in the room to ourselves. It's hard to say much about the train. You just sitting around reading or chilling out while these amazing views of the countryside go right past your window. Mostly we ate the snacks rather than the noodles cause we weren't that hungry from doing nothing. We wandered about the train and Brian found the food carriage but we had everything we needed and it seemed filled with older people. Customs and immigration happened from about eight to one in the morning. In the middle we did get to see them change the wheels on the train. They seem to bash the trains about during the procedure a lot which was funny but seemed just like they were bored. Then they raised us really gently about eight feet and changed the wheels. While Beijing has a lot of mountains, greenery and you go through a lot of tunnels, Mongolian has been completely flat and brown. Occasionally you get mounds and you can see cars on roads go by every now and then but you don't get little towns or villages half as much by the railway line.

Beijing

Next day we went to Mutingyu which is a rebuilt part of the great wall. It's not the most famous part of the Great Wall but it's up there and there are less tourists. We got a gondola up and traveled from tower 6 to 20. It was quite the walk but the structure was very impressive and you got to see a lot of what they did to rebuild it. It must have been a massive undertaking as the non rebuilt bits look pretty destroyed. The only bad thing was the weather which was completely smoggy, foggy or misty so you couldn't see that far away. I feel it would make a big difference if you went on a nice clear day because you are so high up. We met a Dutch girl from our group and walked a lot of the way with her. She continued on after tower 20 but we headed back because we wanted to get the toboggan down. The toboggan is just a big metal chute which you go down on plastic seats with a brake. It was great fun though halfway down we got caught up in a bit of a traffic jam. It was a good way to get down from the wall. We then headed to a restaurant with six other members of the group and shared a bunch of Chinese dishes. They were really tasty but most were the usual dishes from Chinese at home like sweet and sour and black bean sauce. We headed back exhausted and chilled out for the rest of the night.

Next day we got up really early and headed to the Forbidden City. The place seems packed the whole time but we were warned after 12 it's unbearable. We were expecting to pay in from the start so we bought tickets which were quite cheap at the first ticket desk and then continued on expecting to come across a barrier. When we didn't find one we found out the ticket was for thee gate house. As we had already bought it we decided we might as we head back and go up into it. You actually get a good view from the gatehouse of Tienanmen square and there were a few interesting bits and pieces which you couldn't take pictures of. We saw a model of what we thought was the forbidden city but it never seemed to match up with what we saw in the city correctly. Much later we found the main section of the city which is cordoned off as a museum. We headed in there and there was already an impossible throng of people. I'm not much for crowds so I got sick of this early on but then Brian noticed no one was off to the sides but it would be worth checking to see if you could go through the side gates. It turns out you can so I would completely recommend walking up the sides of the forbidden city. At some points we were the only people on the path and you could hear birds chirping. All the tours go up the centre along with most people. You can see everything find from the sides and there are stairs up to the palaces from all directions. The palaces were beautiful but there were loads of them with a similar design. The gardens were amazing. For some reason we got distracted by talking about how you would convert a conservatory into a living space for semi aquatic turtles while wandering in there. They had really unusual rock features and square pools with bridges. I think squares are meant to represent earth and circles heaven so a lot of pools are square. We wandered in and our of a lot of building but even still we were finished early enough. The we decided to head to the silk markets. I hated them to be honest. One lady wouldn't let me leave the shop cause she was haggling with Brian and trying to get him to buy something. Another lady kept trying to sell me stuff I had just glanced at that was really expensive. They were the worst people from any market we have been to in any country. I would never go to a market like that in China again. Suffice to say I didn't buy a lot of souvenirs in China, except some authentic spices in the supermarket for Eoin and a few trinkets at the start. Going back to the hostel helped me recover because it's was a really chilled out place. That night we got to make our own dumplings. Almost everyone helped (it seems that on regular occasions some Americans don't help out with making the dumplings but still eat them at the end, according to guys who have been staying at the hostel weeks) rolling the dough or filling the little pies. Then they were taken away to be cooked and we ate loads of the them. In the mean time we had start a game of Jungle Speed where you have grab a squishy stick in the middle of table whenever the pattern on your cards matches someone else's. It was a really good game and we played it most of the night. Next day we moved to a hotel in Beijing (with a lot of getting lost) and so began the Trans-Mongolian final leg of our trip. I've been really looking to the relaxing train journey through Asia. Most of the day was spent buying supplies for the trip. Noodles, biscuits and crisps being the main portion and then buying ourselves dinner. We were that hungry so we grabbed food in the bakery. I got what I thought was a garlic bread but turned out to be a garlic bread filled with Peking duck (it was actually really nice). Brian got some things like cold slices of pizza which he said were good but a little too greasy.

Beijing

On our second day we got down to doing some touristy things. We headed out to the Summer Palace. On the way Brian said we were at our stop on the subway so we got off and then I asked Brian was he sure because it didn't seem like the right place. He quickly got back on the train just before the doors closed and left me at the wrong station. Brian has become about a hundred times worse at reading all types of maps or guessing at directions since we started on this trip and is continually leading us in the wrong direction. So I couldn't get mad because I shouldn't have listened to him :) Anyhow the summer palace is quite beautiful, with a big lake and giant open outdoor corridor that runs most of it's width. We headed up to a fragrant temple of Buddha (to be honest it's hard to say what things are called, everything is translated to about three different English names. You are much better off just trying to match the Chinese patterns than the different English names) which was up a good few stone steps. At the top we took pictures (and lost each other for almost 10 minutes around one rock) and saw a giant gold Buddha. We traveled around a the lake to see the dragon boats and a big stone boathouse shaped like a boat. We stopped on the long corridor to look at a pretty gallery with what seemed like a cross section of the different painting styles in China. On the way back from the palace we stopped to see the Olympic stadium. It's quite a long stretch of path between two subway stations. On one side you have the water cube and on the other the bird's nest. The structures are quite impressive but they seem really unused or underused now. Also the water cube is not just a giant cube filled with water, it's just a cube that looks like it's filled with water. It would be so much more impressive if it was. That night the hostel had hotpot so a big group popped into the bar. We all threw food into a pot of boiling water and chillies and then waited for it to cook. For the most part everyone took out the same amount of food they put in except a few people who stole other people's meat. We ended up sitting at a table with a Taiwanese and Belgium couple who were thinking of moving to China. It turned out we were going to the same part of the great wall the next day. Later two girls from Scotland pulled up chairs to our table. Everyone was sharing tables so when you arrived you just had to ask if the seats were free. They sat at a table with an American who said they could sit there. Then a half hour later he told them his friends were here and handed them their drinks. The drinks were pretty cheap in the hostel and everyone was getting along so we stayed in. Also did shots of something dreadful but the bar man didn't say what they were.

Beijing

I like Beijing. While very few people speak English, it's a really nice place to be. I think it's because I found the food in Korea so hard to deal with and despite what anyone has said to me I found the food in China to be quite like the food in Chinese restaurants back home. We got in to Beijing airport quite a few hours later than we thought as we had been moved to a flight three hours later. We grabbed the subway to our hostel which involved getting all our stuff put through xray scanners again. Every time you use the subway or go into a park or historical site you have to go through a scanner or get searched. Weirdly about a quarter of the people working scanners seem to be asleep so I'm not sure that they actually check anything. We've also seen at least one shop assistant asleep too. Our hostel was a really nice about three stops from the Forbidden City. The beds were clean and made everyday and three times a week you got a free dinner which everyone got involved in making. We were exhausted from two six o'clock starts and a night out so we chilled out in the hostel the first night with a few beers only to awoken by an obnoxious Canadian at 6.30 in the morning. The guy was really loud and inconsiderate. In the four nights we stayed there he woke us up every morning. Once he even woke us up while outside the room on his phone. He also huffed and tutted the entire time people weren't talking to him. We tried to get to know him the first day but decided we didn't want to after the first night.

Daejeon

For the rest of our Korea trip we spent our time with Kelly-Anne bar the last night. We got to meet another of her co teachers who was getting married at the end of the month. We also went to Dr. fish again and to the batting cages. Even I had a go and hit the ball about three times but it was good fun, Brian was especially good the first time and hit the ball loads. The next time I think he went to a fast cage and still hit the ball a good few times but not as many. Seems like a very American activity but it seems very popular with Koreans as it was busy late into the night. Saturday was a bit of a disappointment as we got up at half 5 in the morning to go para gliding along with a friend of Kelly-Anne's(Bernard). After driving all the way up to a stop on the way up a local mountain we found out it was too windy to go. Then we had a fight with the owned about getting the money back as he said he was going to keep one third even though he had said to Kelly-Anne's co teacher that a refund would be no problem. Kelly-Anne's co teacher was great though and we eventually got all our money back. After heading home slightly disappointed we made ourselves a fry and cheered up. That day we chilled out while Brian napped and eventually moved up to the roof of Rachel's apartment to sunbath on a really beautiful day. That night was our last night with Kelly-Anne so we went out for dinner (we hadn't been having a whole lot of luck with dinners recently, we even went to the supermarket to get potatoes cheese and bacon and ended up cooking it and realising it was pork). We got some traditional Korean food. You get a pot of boiling water and oil and plates of raw veg, meat and noodles. There is a hob in the centre of the table for the water. You add the veg then eat it and the meat and then eat it and finally do the noodles. You are given dipping sauces and sides and such. The meal was amazing but would have been a lot better if the owner had rushed us the whole way through the meal. He was a bit of a pest. We left after and grabbed ice-cream before having a few drinks in Rachel's apartment. That night we went to a few bars, a Noribang and a nightclub. It was a really great night though the Noribang wasn't half as good as the first place we went. The facilities weren't as good and we were rushed out. Must have been something about that Saturday night as Kelly-Anne also seemed quite rushed. We also got to play fuzball in one of the bars. Next day we said our goodbyes. I'll really miss Kelly-Anne and I really hope her schedule all gets sorted out as it seemed to be getting a bit messed up as we were leaving. A wedding she had been told about and was going to turned out to be on a different weekend which she had planned on spending and a hiking trip, she still wanted to do the para gliding but she was finding it hard to get the guy to do it when she was free and her and Rachel had missed the deadline for a race they had wanted to enter into. We did find out that Cormac will be going over to visit her in June so she will have even more company. On our last night we moved to the lazy bird guest house by the airport because we thought our flight would be at 9 (turns out it was moved to 12). The guys at the guest house were lovely and gave us a lift to the airport and collected us from the train station. It was a nice and hassle free night and morning excluding the early wake up.

Busan

We headed over to Busan after lunch at the temple. It started to rain and stayed like that for the three days we were there. As Busan is a beach town and there is not a whole lot to do when it rains. You can still go to their famous beach in the rain of course but the weather made us feel pretty apathetic. On the second day we did go to the world record holding largest shopping centre in the world. It had 14 floors which included a golf range, spa, ice-rink and a copy Trevi fountain in the basement. It's actually quite hard to get fruit and veg in Korea but this place had a good few fancy shops selling it at quite good prices so we stocked up a bit. We also went to see Thor in English. All the cinema staff there seem to speak English quite well and were quite happy to help. We had dinner in a really nice Italian restaurant that gave us some really unusual break with our meal that looked like chocolate cake but tasted like good bread.

Temple Stay

Next day we were up bright and early at 4 am to chant in the temple. It was quite cold and misty at that time of the morning. When we got to the main hall we found most of the monks there already and they had just started chanting. We joined in and I sat beside the foreign girl working there (Heather) who had a great deal of trouble as one of the temple dogs decided to curl up and try to sleep on the mat she was bowing onto. She had to nudge him off instead of bowing for a few minutes in the middle. The dogs have their own mats but seem to like the heat of other people's mats in the morning and take advantage of the fact people stand up and kneel down. So the dogs attempted to sit on a few people's mats. After that we had walking meditation. The idea seems to be that you can meditate doing anything at all once you learn how. We were feeling pretty good after breakfast and had an hour and a half break so we decided to go for a nap. It was a big mistake as when we woke up both me and Brian were both exhausted when we met up again. We headed to a final Sunmudo training session. That lasted a good two hours but was all about the stretching after which we got tea with the Norwegian monk to give everyone staying the opportunity to ask a monk about their beliefs and anything they wanted to know about Buddhism. It was very interesting as he seemed an avid believer who had come from quite a troubled youth. It seems quite a lot of the young monks have had problems and turned to the temple (or their parents turned to the temple) to put structure in their life or some such. There was a also an alternative school there were junior monks and normal students go. The Korea school system seems to involve students studying from 9 in the morning to 11 at night. They definitely go to school all Saturday but I'm not sure about Sunday. It's highly competitive at schools for everything and no one seems to have time to do sport. So the temple have a different kind of school that is more active and relaxed for the kids that can't deal with normal school. Finally we got lunch and ended our temple stay. We did meet some really nice people included an English actress who seemed like she never wanted to leave the temple after being there three days and another Irish guy who taught English in Korea, Julie and Declan. We got along really well with them and myself and Julie were staying in the same room and so were Brian and Declan. We also met an American guy named Lucifer who had been staying at the temple a month or so and was planning to stay a lot longer to find a way to deal with some anger management problems he had. He seemed quite a nice laid back lad so hopefully it was working.

Temple Stay

Next day we got a five hour free bus out to Gyeongju. There we got a taxi out to Golgulsa temple to stay the night. It seems like quite a big thing to stay in a temple in Korea, it's open to both locals and foreigners. Kelly-Anne recommended this temple and it seems like it has more foreign tourists than the others. The temple stay was definitely an experience I loved and would recommend to people traveling to Korea. When we arrived we were really worried about offending people as they give you a big long list of rules. The girls at reception said to head up to the Sunmudo demonstration as we had arrived earlier than everyone else. So after getting changed into the clothes they had given us (and accidentally heading to the wrong building for a while) we headed up quite a steep hill to the main hall, there we saw a display of the martial arts/yoga/gymnastics art that the temple is famous for. While there we spent a lot of time worrying about who we had to bow to and what we were meant to be doing. There were loads of locals in for the display but we were told we should bow to monks. It was hard to see who was who in the crowd. The display was amazing. While no one fought they did more kicks and tumbles and gymnastics than anything else. We climbed up the cliff a little and got a look at another of the sights the temple is famous for which is a giant Buddha carved in to the cliff face about four feet off the ground for the ledge below. It has been there a very long time and was the reason they decided to rebuild the temple after it burned down. Then we hung around on a bench waiting for dinner not sure what to do with ourselves. At dinner we met another temple stay guest who we had bumped into earlier while looking for our rooms. The girls and guys eat separately at dinner and you have to eat everything on your plate as there has to be no waste after the meal. You can go up for seconds though so you can just take a nibble of everything and decide what you want more of. There is no meat allowed in the temple and the main bit of the meal is rice but they do have a good selection of sides. A lot of them were seaweed based but over the dinner, breakfast and lunch we got some really tasty things like good mushrooms, some sort of stewed potato and something really nice caramelised and marinated in soy sauce. After dinner we had orientation. Here we learned that the temple is really open to foreign guests and actually quite understanding. While they have a rule that you have to perform 3000 bows if you are late for chanting they don't enforce it with anyone other than the monks in the temple. They allow for people being late and they understand it can be hard to adjust. They also let you take pictures in the anywhere outside the main hall. After that we did some Sunmudo training which was very interesting. We were all stretched out by the end of it mind you. For the most part we did more yoga bits than martial arts but on Sunday's they have more relaxed a day than during the week. The reason for the martial arts and yoga seems to be a way of meditation as well as sort of a healthy body healthy mind approach to following Buddha's teaching. There were three foreign monks and quite a few younger girl and boy monks as well as the experienced monks who lived there. There is no difference in the levels that can be achieved by the girls and the guys, the only reason for separation during chanting, sleeping and eating seems to be to keep away distractions. Once of the monks was a Norwegian that had spent about eight years in the temple and he was a full monk of the temple. There was also a French guy who had been there for about one year in total over the last three years and a girl who was working in the temple for the last eight months (she was quite busy so we didn't get to see her much). We ended the day with meditation and chanting and were asleep in bed by nine.

Daejeon

That weekend Kelly-Anne was off to Beijing so we decided to take a trip around Korea. First we headed up to Seoul to do some souvenir shopping in Insadong. We saved a bit of money by taking the slow train and as there was a lot to look at in the shopping district we spent the whole day there. The next day we decided to see some of the sights so we headed off to Changdeok Palace. There we got a tour of the secret garden for about 45 minutes. After which we left as the tour was taking forever due to the large number of people on it. We had more fun exploring the palace ourselves. While wandering we were given some tea based on random traits. In the end I got some cold tea for cold people and Brian got some warm tea for warm people. There was no hot water so I think they got confused by the time it came out. Brian's tea mostly tasted like dried carrots and mine tasted like some sort of grain. Very strange. They seemed to be doing a selection of things around the palace, probably due to Buddha's birthday being on the Tuesday. After that we headed to Changgyeong palace. It's very similar in style and like every palace in Korea but one, it was burned down by the Japanese at least once. There we wandered around the grounds and saw a great big pond with giant fish who seemed to like to skim the top of the water. After wandering through Seoul for a good while we found our final sight which was the Jongmyo Shrine. They keep tablets with the spirits of old king's and queen's there. There isn't much to see as all the tablets are locked away to trap the evil spirits. It looks almost like a big long stables but all locked up. The building was in a very similar design to thee palaces. As we had to get up really early the next day we decided to call it a day.

Daejeon

The next few days were just about chilling out. We saw bits and pieces of Daejeon and panicked a bit when none of the atms took our cards. Kelly-Anne told us that her card hadn't worked in the local atms either and she had to go into Daejeon centre to find an atm. We headed to the atm that she recommended and that didn't work either. Finally we found an atm that said it was a global atm and that accepted our cards. Seems it's quite rare outside the big city centres to get that type of atm. On Wednesday Kelly-Anne and he co teacher had arranged a trip for the three of us (Kelly-Anne, Brian and me) to head to a tea plantation. We headed out to a small little town on the train from a smaller station in Daejeon. We headed to a town called Beosong. There we got very confused about where to get the bus and ended in a pretty abandoned bus stop. So we grabbed a taxi out to the famous green tea plantation. First thing we did was find out that the first day of a two week green tea festival was underway. We headed to the main buildings (avoiding the museum) and saw a bunch of Korean tourists processing green tea. They were drying leaves, filling bags and picking out bits and pieces. We wander in among everyone to get an idea of what was going on as all the signs were in Korean. While we were doing this one of the organisers brought us over some tea which was really good. After that Kelly-Anne was a but worried we would only get to see pictures of the plantation and not get to go out to it. We headed to the information point for the festival where we got a map and a really tasty potato. We still have no idea why they handed us a potato but it was so good. We couldn't even find anywhere you could buy more cause we really liked them. An English speaking guy told us where to go to get to the plantation itself. We headed over, at the start we only saw bamboo and trimmed trees but eventually we got to the actually tea plantation. On the way we came to the realisation we were the only Westerners at this whole event. Kids and even adults kept saying high to us and giggling. We had a good time though and enjoyed the novelty of it all. The plantation had some amazing views of the tea fields and their unusual lines. There were also a few cherry blossoms out. At the end of the day Kelly-Anne phoned her co teacher Jin and she called the lift she had organised for us out to a traditional Korean guest house. There we slept on a heated floor in thick blankets as we were so exhausted. We also got a chance to talk away about everything going on and in the morning we headed back.

Daejeon

Friday night we got to meet another of Kelly-Anne's co teachers. So me, Brian, Rachel, Kelly-Anne and Jin went out to dinner in a local restaurant that seemed to serve a selection of foods with pig. We had pork belly in a traditional Korean style where the meat was left on a hob in the middle of the group and loads of side dishes were brought over. So we filled leaves of lettuce with meat, veg and sauce. There also some really unusual sides like apples in mayonnaise and lettuce covered in some really bright pink dressing. After that we headed to dunken donuts for a bit of dessert. Later that night Helena took myself and Brian out to a little cafe called Trinity/Dr. Fish. We grabbed a really nice coffee (chocolate milkshake for Brian as he hates coffee and some of the time tea). After drinking the coffee we headed to the other side of the room where we washed our feet. Following that we dunked them in a fish tank and had fish eat the dead skin off our feet for about 40 minutes. Brian giggled like a little girl (I did too but that is much more acceptable). Helena kept her feet out of the tank as she didn't like the sensation but Brian and me loved it. After that we met up with Kelly-Anne and a few more of her friends in a bar around the corner. Kelly-Anne had just been to her creative writing group while we were with Helena. It sounded like she had a really interesting group going. So we had a few drinks at the bar and got to know a few of the guys they hang with over here. Following that we went to a Noribang which is where you do karaoke in Korea. We had such a great time. We overran our time by about an entire hour and it was so worth it. After that we headed out to a nightclub.

South Korea

Next day we headed out to the War Museum near Itaewon. It's free in but we only have about an hour so we never even got inside. Instead we wandered around the outside looking at all the planes and helicopters used in the various wars Korea participated in. We also saw a few giant sets of speakers used to send propaganda into the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Soon after we headed out to Kelly-Anne. After a bit of messing involving trying to ask a Korean girl where the nearest pay phone was and having her speak English and let us use her phone, we found Kelly-Anne. That night we hung out with Helena (her friend from home), Rachel (an American also teaching English in Korea) and Tae-he (her Korean co-teacher). Got to catch up on all the gossip and news. It was great seeing Kelly-Anne half way around the world and fantastic to be staying with her. Got to bed pretty late and pretty much slept til afternoon the next day. This is the first place we could relax. Over the next few days we finally got a chance to relax. We saw a bit of Daejon and hung out in the parks. In the evening we got to see Kelly-Anne and catch up. We tried some dumplings in various forms (both myself and Brian have Oku-mandu as our favourite). That got us all the way through to Friday night.

Seoul

We spent our first night in South Korea in a wonderful little hostel in Itaewon. That's an international (though mainly American) strip of restaurants and bars on the outskirts of Seoul. We grabbed some food and hung out in the hostel. There we met an Italian girl who was on work experience in Korea and a German guy who absolutely hated it in Korea and was hiding in the hostel until it was time to go home. He was pretty sick and some people had been pretty rude to him so he was just left complaining. He did give us a taste of some really nice rice wine while we were there. Later that night we met a really annoying guy who was hitchhiking around the world. I think he'd make me hate hitchhikers. He just took some of the rice wine and then said thanks but afterwards which was pretty presumptuous and then said he would just use my laptop rather than go to the computers which were like 5 feet away. Then he spoke about his hitchhiking as if it were just so impressive a way of life but he didn't sound like he ever did anything nice for anyone else. The guys in the hostel were really nice though and even brought us snacks while we were chatting and watching films.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong was all shopping. I can't explain how sick of shopping we both were at the end of Hong Kong. The prices and selection weren't so great there. Certain phones and cameras that were already available back home had yet to be released in Hong Kong. We were really surprised to find that. Also 3 TB hard drives were non existent and 2 TB were almost as rare. At home you can easily get those a hundred places online and a few shops. We went to the biggest named shops in Hong Kong and still couldn't get them. We did have a good time in the markets though. The food was really good though we varied between Asian and Western a lot because of cost and location when we were hungry and stuff. Our hostel was in pretty bad condition and didn't really have a hostel vibe to it so no real meeting people or hanging out. A pigeon came in our window while we were trying to go asleep. A feather floated down and Brian noticed it. We did get to wander round a few places though and it is a nice city. The people are very nice. The shops have way too many assistants but I suppose shopping is a massive industry here. In the end we didn't buy a whole lot as we couldn't find one shop with everything we wanted and individually everything was more expensive than back home. I'm talking about electronics entirely here. I think Hong Kong is still quite the place to buy fashion but myself and Brian weren't really interested a whole lot in that. Final day we spent looking for a post office, turns out there was one in the airport which is pretty handy. Posted a few things home that we didn't need and that were taking up space in our bags and headed off on our flight. In the airport a family of Asians each wanted to get pictures with myself and Brian. First we thought they wanted us to take their picture but then one of them sat down between us and his wife/girlfriend took a picture and then she sat down between us and then a woman who looked one of their mother's did. Very weird indeed. BTW for those of you who heard the original plan it's changed. We are no longer heading to Osaka. After everything that's happened in Japan them seem up to their eyes in problems and everyone seems very worried about us (thanks) so we changed our flights from Osaka to Seoul in South Korea. Kelly-Anne has been nice enough to put us up for an extra week in her place and I can't wait to see her as I've missed he loads since she left to teach in Korea. So the change of plan worked out and ended up a lot cheaper without the extra boat ride and with Kelly-Anne putting us up. We would both be completely broke without our parents at this point so this should help in not having to annoy them again :) The last two weeks of the trip have been paid for since November so we aren't too badly off.

Bangkok

We got in really late the first night we got to Bangkok and had decided to book the first two nights in a hotel near the airport. That way we could relax after the crazy running around in Australia and get a lie in on the day we arrived. The hotel was about 25 Euro per room per night and was really luxurious. They had a nice bed (really hard as all the beds we've come across in Asia so far have been), an air conditioned room (its really humid and sticky in hong kong), a continental kind of breakfast and they made our towels into little elephants. We just chilled out and got our bearings that day. There really isn't anything to do around the airport but we were really exhausted so we didn't care.

Later we headed into a hostel in the shopping district of Bangkok. So we shopped. Things are pretty cheap in Bangkok so we got a few souvenirs in a market in a shopping centre and looked around the technology shops. While everything was cheap, it was also a bit behind what is available in Ireland. Anyhow, we got to see some Thai boxing outside one of the shopping centres. It was free and loads of people just turned up for it. It was quite the event. That night we had a few drinks in the hostel witht eh Scottish guy in our room and a Swiss girl we got talking to. The 7 eleven had pint bottles for about 1.50. I thought I got bitten once or twice but the next day over the course of the day about 50 bites appeared on my legs. As the day wore on they swelled as per usual (the next day about 10 turned into big blisters as well, I think my allergies for bug bites are getting a lot worse) and so that night my ankles were so swollen I couldn't really walk much. My pharmacists told me I'd be fine with the cream he gave me but I took pictures I'm going to show my doctor this time because I don't think they really know how bad it gets no matter what I tell them. The last day there was sight seeing. We headed into town and met this guy claiming to be a teacher who told us about a Buddhist temple and a ceremony in the palace there. We are pretty sure it was probably suppose to be a scam but it worked out really well for us. We got a tuk tuk for less than 2 euro for an hour who took us around to the temple which was pretty cool. We got to see this interactive presentation on how it was built and to walk up and see all the statues and the altar. Then he took us to a Jade shop but we left straight away as we couldn't afford anything. Then he asked us to go to a market but we said we had to get tot he temple for 2 (which is when the ceremony the original guy told us about was starting). After we told him no he took us to the national museum which is where we had asked. We were told the market bit was suppose to be the scam bit or something but anyway it worked out well for us so we gave the guy a tip. By that point it was a lot later than we planned so we skipped the museum and headed to the palace. We shouldn't have rushed because by the time we got our clothes (they give you extra clothes to put on free of charge as they don't allow shorts in the palace) and found our way around it was well after two. We did get to see some amazing buildings and an inspiring altar to Buddha. There were a lot of people praying and doing various things to pray like sprinkling water from a flower onto their heads and lighting incense and getting bits of gold leaf for something. It was a really interesting experience and it made me really curious to learn more about what they were doing. After the temple my legs had because unbearable so we headed back to the hostel. After a little rest we went back to shopping so we could get a few things we decided on the night before. Brian bought himself a stunning black and rose gold watch. It's an Alba watch with is a company owned by Seiko that only sells watches in Asia. We had checked them up online after the seeing the watch the day before. Seiko will repair the watch in Europe and we check all the guarantee papers and they were filled out correctly and looked good. It was also a shop as opposed to most of the stalls with watches we had seen and the price was brilliant because Alba doesn't have the same name for itself as Seiko so Brian was very pleased with his purchase altogether. The shopping was open til quite late so we got home to have a drink and head to bed before our 6 start in the morning.

Flights

Early on in the trip myself and Brian became British Airways frequent fliers so we could get points for most of our flights. We weren't really sure what we would do with the points but as it usually leads to money off things we though it would be a good idea and Aer Lingus isn't a one world company so we couldn't get points with them. Anyway our only actually British Airways flight was from Sydney to Bangkok (8 to 9 hour flight) and they were nice enough to bump us up to Business class. We checked in a half hour early as well so that may have had something to do with it. We got to sprawl out on a beds long enough for even Brian to fit. We got about 4 or 5 glasses of champagne before heading to bed. The food was delightful and really good quality. I would completely do that again for any long haul flights. Anyway I had to mention it because it was a nice treat.

Cairns

Final day in Cairns was a trip out to Port Douglas and we got a ferry along the way to see some very spectacular jungle. Port Douglas is a beautiful beach side town where Andrew, their son works in a jungle themed five star restaurant. It sounds like he really enjoys his work there. Also he had the tiniest kittens in his apartment as a stray he just took in was pregnant. We got lunch with him and wander back around a small market in Port Douglas. To finish the stay with them we headed to a BBQ with John's side of the family for his father's birthday. We only got to stay an hour but it was a nice way to chill out before the flight. We flew back to Sydney and our stay in Sydney was pretty non eventful We spent the day wandering around town before our flight to Bangkok. We picked up a tonne of books as we heard the train can be boring and we weren't sure of getting English books anywhere else.

Cairns

Next day was a sightseeing packed day. We headed out to a really high waterfall called Baron falls. Then John and Julia popped us on a gondola which headed out over the rainforest. We got to see a Ulysses butterfly flying below us because it was so bright that it stood out miles on the trees. We also traveled over the falls we looked at earlier in the day. As we were traveling we noticed that on one side of the hills the sounds of the forest where overwhelming and the other side it was quiet. There were two stops along the way to get off and see more of the forest and learn a bit about what the aborigines used the particular trees for like fishing by poisoning the fish and building tent like huts out of the various trees that were still there. Then finally we got an overview of all of Cairns as we came down from the rainforest. Later we got lunch with their daughter and grandson, Renee and Jacob. Then we all did a little shopping before getting fish and chips and heading to the beach we went to on the first day. We could see it this time as it wasn't pitch black. Finally we got back to the house exhausted. Before heading to bed Brian had organised a Skype call between Millie and Kay (Brian's grandmother). The rest of us had a good time too talking to Brian's family.

Cairns

We met John and Julia at the airport. These are Brian's first cousin's once removed and they were nice enough to let us stay for the three days we were in Cairns. They gave us a photography book on Cairns to give us more of a taste of the place as they said three days was too short. The first nice we went down to beach in Cairns where they had lived when they first arrived and had a really good dinner there. Then we headed back to their house. They have a lovely big house in the hills outside Cairns. The following day as part of Brian's birthday present, we headed to the Great Barrier Reef while John and Julia went to work. John was nice enough to drop us onto the Marina so we didn't even have to worry about buses. There are loads of pictures of it in the only album. It was a pretty amazing day. Brian even got to follow a Manta ray for a while with the camera. We got to see two different places on the reef. One had a lot more plant life and the other had a lot more fish. It's an amazing reef. We spend about 3 hours or so snorkeling on it. The whole experience took the entire day as it was a couple of hours to get to the first location and a could of hours back. We both wore suits that stop jelly fish stings as we didn't want to get completely sunburned like the reef trip in Mexico. That night, Brian's great aunt Millie came over and Julia made an amazing dinner and dessert for us. We spent the evening chatting away and looking at pictures from the day.

PIctures

Pictures for our trip are up all the way through to Australia.  Only just arrived in Thailand so it's actually up to date for a change :) https://picasaweb.google.com/113757691164438550487?feat=email

Sydney

We only had the morning in Sydney before our flights so we left our bags in the hostel and went to see the Sydney Opera house and harbour bridge. We spent some time in the big park there. In the middle of the park was this really noisy area where all the trees were filled to the brim with bats. Some were sleeping and others fighting but most making noise. There were easily over 100 bats. We also so some (I'm not sure of the word for this) areas filled with golden orb spiders. We knew them because we had seen them in the bug zoo in Canada. In certain bushes 5 or 10 of them would each build a golden web and sit in the middle of it. There were a few of the bushes around the park. After that we headed to the airport for our flight to Cairns. Brian has some family up there who were nice enough to let us stay with them.

Canberra

We were in Canberra for three days and two nights. Hostels were as expensive as hotels so we stayed in a nice hotel with a TV because there is nothing else to do. The first morning we went to the Russian embassy to get our visa (we had to go to the embassy as we had made special arrangements with them, we were told you normally can't get Russian visa outside the country you are living or working in). The website said it would take three days to get the visa but Natassia was really nice and organised the whole thing really quick. Second morning we collect our passports from the Russian embassy and decided to get the Mongolian one out of the way. Unlike the Mongolian embassy in Ireland, these guys made it seem like you were bothering them the whole time but we handed in our passports anyway and on the final day collected them. On the second day it was Brian's birthday and while the morning was spent in an embassy we did celebrate a little that night after he finally got to call home (it was a really dodgy internet connection as per usual). I had bought some really nice Riesling we both liked in New Zealand on the wine tour and we got another almost dessert wine Riesling and some Gewürztraminer and drank them with some take away. It was pretty unfortunate we were in Canberra but the wine was really good and we had a nice night in. Brian was pretty happy he at least wasn't on a plane for his birthday as he always looks on the bright side. Also we saw a whole flock of Cockatoos on the way home from the embassy that day because taxi's were so expensive and we decided to walk. There were like 50 of them digging for worms on the ground. It was such an unusual sight. We also saw some rare pink parrots we were told at the sanctuary were dying out but couldn't remember the name of and Brian saw a bright red parrot as well. For his birthday I got him flights to Cairns and a boat trip out to the Great Barrier reef as he has always wanted to swim in it and was disappointed when he found out we wouldn't be near enough to it in Sydney to make a trip out to it. The last day in Canberra and first day in Sydney Brian didn't seem to have a good day at all. The package he wanted to send home cost a lot more than it should have as it was heavier than we thought it would be even though most of the things in it had weights on them which did not add up to near what the scales in the post office said. Then we got Subway and it was horrible which is surprising as it is usually pretty standard. They were really scabby with the meat and put everything in the sandwich in the middle of the bread and left it open. Then we went to get the bus into town and they had dug up the road where the bus goes and the guys digging up the road couldn't tell us where the bus was actually going to stop or drive. In the end we had to walk a good bit away to find another bus stop after I pulled out my laptop to find a different stop. Finally when we got to Sydney he ordered a smoothie that had a texture of soup and talcum powder. The hostel we were in had the hole in the sink that was filled with stagnant water and there was stuff that looked like sick and no shower curtain. To top it all off his iPod touch couldn't get on the internet because he had bought an internet voucher in another hostel that had expired and he couldn't buy any more time without the voucher he got in the odd hostel which he didn't have anymore. Anyway he was pretty exhausted after the day so after dragging him to the supermarket so that he could find something to eat we just went to bed.

Melbourne

On our final day in Melbourne we headed out to brunch with Colm, Bobby and one of the guys Bobby used to work with and his friends. We went to this really nice cafe with fantastic juice and food. The guys had been to Canberra and were really disappointed. There wasn't much to do at all other than the museum and gallery. They had been very disappointed with the lack of night life (which isn't great as it will be Brian's birthday while we are there). Then they went on to talk with Bobby about the architecture in Canberra which was lost on us but the conversation soon turned to travel and other things. That night Bobby was nice enough to cook a roast lamb and potatoes especially for us as we were lovely. It was an amazing meal and such a Sunday meal from home. I miss being able to have proper meals. Bobby's neighbor who was also at the Thai dinner (Sarah) and her partner and mother came over as well. Sarah's mother was from Canberra and highly recommend the city, the museum and the gallery. After that Colm and Bobby dropped us at the bus station where we said our farewell. Hopefully I will get to see a good bit of them now that their little baby boy is on the way and will want to see all his family. That night we traveled to Canberra, arriving at 4 in the morning.

Melbourne

On Saturday we headed to the Victoria St markets that are quite close to where Colm and Bobby live. We got to look around a few souvenir stalls and Bobby grabbed some food for the dessert she was bringing to dinner that night. After that we headed on a walk through St. Kilda's which has a nice beach front. It was a good way to work off the donuts we got in the market. Unfortunately it also has a major abundance of cake shops and all the cakes look delicious. That was very tempting. That night Bobby's friends were having a get together which they were nice enough to invite us too. They were having a Thai dinner night. There were loads of people at it and we sat around chatting and eating from various Thai dishes and Bobby's gorgeous dessert. Then we played a game of Taboo with boys against girls. Girls won but there were two more girls than boys so there was a lot of competition and complaining. It was good fun though and everyone got really involved. One of the women there was from Canberra which is our next stop. She seemed to find it difficult to think of much to do in Canberra. That wasn't a great sign. The only thing she could think of was the gallery and Australia is really expensive so we weren't really interested in paying a lot to go to a gallery we wouldn't be that entertained in.

Melbourne

Colm had said to us that one of the big events in the Melbourne Aquarium is walking with sharks. We had checked it out online and decided that we would really like to do it so we headed off on Friday with that in mind. I feel myself and Brian have become a little immune to the beauty of aquariums after seeing so many. This one was a lot bigger than the one in New Zealand and the sharks and fish had a whole lot of space to swim in. It turns out you can walk in maybe half the bottom of the tank and you are fine to walk around in it once you don't have any problems traveling on planes. You get into wet suits and put weights on to get in the water. Then a big heavy helmet is put on your shoulders but it doesn't feel that heavy as it's filled with air and you are going into the tank when it gets put on your shoulder. We got down about 4 metres to the upper floor of the tank which is the only bit you are allowed walk on. Walking was really weird as even with the weights you float about so stopping and walking briskly are difficult. You don't get to touch any of the animals but you do get a better view of them than when you are in a cage. We saw a sea turtle go by and then we walked around for about 15 minutes with no much happening. Some sting rays were swimming up and down but they were still a bit away. Then we walked over to one side and a mantra ray swam right up to us along the floor of the tank. We got to see it right up close but then it landed on my foot. Unfortunately you can't look down in the helmets so I had no idea where it went. I had thought it was in front of me but then Brian signaled to move forward and the scuba diver who went with us took my hand and had to push the ray out of the way so I could walk off. Brian was laughing away as he could see it all quite easily :) Finally about 20 minutes in a shark came swimming up. It was a massive one, I think it was one of the biggest in the tank. He swam around with a few fish swimming along underneath him. The diver had to move me out of the way here as the shark was just swimming along really close to us and I might have been in his way if he had of kept going the way he was. After a little while the same shark making a second lap swam along by us. This time he swam within arms reach of Brian. Soon after we had to head up as you only get 20 minutes.

That night we headed to an AFL game in Melbourne Cricket stadium. Colm was able to get the four of us tickets. It's a bit like GAA with an oval pitch and a few changes to the rules. It seems really big in Melbourne and the turnout for the match was amazing. We were a bit away from the pitch but you could still see everything that was going on and it made it easier to see the game a whole. We were all cheering for Bobby's team Collingwood. They did really well and won the match by quite a large amount. It was well worth going to see an AFL match. It seems to be a really big sport over here. I don't really know that much about football so I'm not going to go into a blow by blow account or anything. The two of us caught on fairly quickly about the basic rules and almost all of them by the end of the match.

Melbourne

Thursday came and we decided to head to the Healesville Sanctuary. It was filled with Australian wildlife like Tasmanian devils, platypus and koala. It was quite nice and while there we got to spend about 10 minutes feeding a kangaroo. It was really fun. The seemed spoiled because they only want the treats and not the grass they were suppose to be eating. They are really soft. The animal feedings were pretty good around the park You got to touch a lot of the reptiles during feeding too. We saw the birds of prey display too which was worth going to see. Either birds never behave for these things and keepers just say to people that they are usually more behaved than this but they never behave when myself and Brian are there. One of the parrots refused to go back inside and stayed outside doing tricks and getting treats. Every time the keeper motioned him to come inside the bird looked away. Also a wild diamond tailed something jumped out at the diamond tail bird in the show and they both showed their talons. They were fighting over territory. Then the keeper had to hold onto the bird for the rest of the show while she made all sorts of noises at the wild bird and was very grumpy altogether. They were massive birds. In Ireland when we went to the birds of prey show somewhere in Claire the falcon was released and it was a really sunny day so he left and went for a swim in a lake and then sunbathed on the cliff. We saw the rest of the sanctuary and came back about an hour later when the bird returned for the end of the show. That night we headed out to dinner with Colm and Bobby. It was a really nice big portioned dinner in a restaurant called James Squire. We had a good time chatting away with them and getting to spend lots of time talking. Afterwards we went to a small Italian place for dessert (mostly cause I forgot about dessert in the restaurant).

Melbourne

We arrived into Melbourne in the afternoon on the 4^th of April (I feel I've left off dates a lot in the blog and I only update it when the laptop can get on the internet so it's not very consistent). We headed straight for my cousin Colm and his wife Bobby's apartment. Bobby was home from work so she came to meet us as the train station. Both she and Colm look great and they are waiting to have a little baby boy. That night we spent catching up and chatting away. Colm and Bobby still had work while we were there so during the day we kept ourselves entertained.

Tuesday we headed for a walk around the small streets and arcades in Melbourne. We toured around little boutiques stopping mostly at watch shops and to grab some food. After Brian grabbed some lunch we both went to a pretty little cake shop for dessert. The cake shop was a really high tea kind of place. The sandwiches had cucumber and the crusts cut off and they had some specialist teas with tea leaves and silver strainers. The cakes were delightful. Brian got Toblerone cheese cake and I hand a Lamington. Then we headed down to wander around the waterfront. We booked dinner for Thursday night as a treat for Colm and Bobby. That night the four of us headed out to a comedy gig just a few minutes down the road from the apartment. There were three different comedians and we got some food there before the show. The comedian's were very good, especially the last guy Dave Callan. He was an Irish guy who had been living in Australia a very long time. Wednesday we headed around the Docklands on a tour of the harbour and waterfront. I bought a pair of UGG boots and Brian looked at an awful lot of watches. In the airport in Auckland I bought a beautiful red Swatch watch that I am really happy with and since then he has upped his search for a watch. He has been looking for one since the disaster that happened with his watch in Canada. Brian had really loved the comedian the night before and found out he had an hour long show in town so we met Colm and Bobby at the train station and headed to his hour long show. It was based on a survey he did of 100 questions which he gave to 100 women to try and understand them better. He then did a very good gig based on the results. There were a lot of funny things. One of his questions was name a bad influence and two people separately came up with Ursula from the little mermaid. We then got food in a Japanese restaurant which was really nice.

Auckland

We arrived in Auckland to stay in Base hostel. It's a really generic hostel which is really hard to meet people in. Also our room was the smallest room you could fit two bunk beds in and the window just looked out onto the hall. That was kinda weird. So we hung around there for a while quickly realising that people didn't really seem to want to chat in the common area. There was free pizza in the bar and cheap drinks so we went down to that. We chatted with a few people but the bar was pretty quite and we had decided to go to the cinema. We went to see I Am Number 4. It was a cross between Roswell and Smallville. I thought it would have made a better tv series than a film but Brian really like it and is looking forward to the next one. He avidly believes girl in it serves no purpose whatsoever.

Next day we went to the Kelly Tarlton's Antartic Encounter. We wandered around and saw lots of sharks in different really big tanks and got to ride on a snow car thing around the penguin enclosure. They had these massive sting rays there. The oldest was massively long and weighed as much as three grown men. They seemed quite nice as the just seemed to lie on the person feeding them. After we had seen all the tanks and enclosures we got to put on wet suits and snorkels. Then we headed into the staff area and got into a cage (it had a perspex bottom and net sides with floats all along the top) in the shark tank. Then we got to snorkel around the tank and get quite close to a few of the sharks. It was really cool and the tank was really big. You could also scuba dive with the sharks but you need to be a qualified scuba diver and myself and Brian aren't. It was a really great thing to do and I would total recommend it. I'd say if you could scuba dive that would be even better but the snorkeling was cool too. Next day we chilled out for the day and headed out in Auckland that night. We got dinner in O'Hagans and then headed to the ice bar which was good fun. We got a few pictures and had a few drinks until my fingers were sore from the cold. Then we went out in a few different bars around the quay/viaduct area. It was a Saturday night and loads of people were out and there was good dancing. The following day we were considerably hung over. Brian didn't really leave the sofa and I was about the same other than going to the supermarket to get breakfast and dinner (I'm usually really hungry when I'm hungover). Had been doing quite well up to now cause my hangovers were usually better than Brian's but I was way worse this time. And that was the end of our trip to New Zealand. We'll definitely miss it here cause we were kept so busy the whole time.

Mt Cook

After that was Mount Cook. It is a town of about 100 to 150 people way out in the middle of nowhere. It is on the opposite side of the Franz josef glacier we were at a week or so ago. There is no way across the mountain range though. It was a pretty quiet time therre. Part of Brian's bucket list was to touch an iceberg. We had heard there was some really good kayaking on a glacial lake with icebergs so we booked that. We headed out at 10 in a two persom kayak (which every place we have gotten them in has called divorce kayaks). It was probably the calmest kayaking we have done because it was a lake. We got to touch a few of the icebergs while the guide crashed into them trying to make them flip. Then we headed to just under a kilometre from the front of the glacier at one side of the lake. Kayaks can't go closer as big waves form when ice falls off the glacier and they don't trust the kayaks to turn in time. The water is 2 degrees at the surface and 0.5 a foot down and you can't survive long it if you topple. While we were in the middle of the lake we felt a vibration and after the guide called back to base we found out there had been a 4.1 earthquake 20km away. It was good fun but it seems it rather depends on the day as to how good the tour is. That afternoon we went for a walk to see another of the glcial lakes.

Dunedin

It's a pretty quite town. We saved all the activites for the following day. Then we got up and headed off to a tour of the Cabury's factory. They have about a hundred extra types of Cabury's chocolate bars and sweets in New Zealand. They give you loads of free chocolate so we were quite sick by the end of it and still had a few bars left. After that we got some savoury food and salad in the supermarket. Following lunch we headed to the Speight's brewery tour. I've been on the Carlsburg factory tour which was good but this one was slightly better. It covered a good bit on the guided tour. The also go over what each of their 8 beers taste like. At the end of the tour you get 30 minutes in a bar with 7 of their 8 beers on tap. We did quite well for ourselves in the 30 minutes. I had a few glasses of their larger and a few glasses of their flagship beer which is really nice. Then I had a few glasses of their cider to end. Brian had a glass of every different beer and a few more largers and their main one. I had a taste of every beer our of his glass. Two of them tasted of coffee and supposidly one of those tasted like Guinness without the head. Anyway we were a bit tipsy after that so we headed back tto the hostel to have a few more beers and play some games of that New Zealand puzzle game with the squiggly lines.

Queenstown

Having spent our previous night drinking, our final full day in Queenstown was spent watching all the Lord of the Rings movies. We were up til half 2 in the morning doing that as there were a few delays starting due to a lack of proper codecs and waiting to get the correct cable. Nothing else happened. Finally came our last day in Queenstown. We got up and checked out and then went with Johnny for a game of frisbee golf. It was my first time playing. I have no power in my shot so it took ages for me to get around but Brian and Johnny were great at helping me play. Frisbee golf is a really fun game and I wish we had a course at home. While Brian was like 10 over par and Johnny 14 over par and I was about a million over par. I'd say after a few rounds I'd get much more reasonable figures. After that we got some lunch and headed off to Dunedin.

Queenstown

It was Paddy's day the day we arrived in Queenstown. So we headed to the hostel and grabbed some noodles and took a bit of a break before we planned on headed out. The guys in the hostel were going out so we decided to grab a few beers in the off license and join then before going to the pub. We stayed quite late in the kitchen, talking and playing drinking games and somewhere in the middle I had to go get us more beer as we had run out. After we headed out to an Irish bar but our group couldn't even fit in the bar because it was so packed. As it was late we had to head off to a non Irish bar to get space but all of town was buzzing and it was still great fun. Next day was spent with a hangover followed by mini golf. Me and Brian got the exact same in the mini golf but I think that was because his hangover was a lot worse than mine. The next day brought clay pigeon shooting. Brian was brilliant, he shot everything but the rabbits (little plastic disks that roll along the ground). Even then he got half of them. His hours on the Nintendo seem to have paid off. I didn't do as well but I did enjoy myself. I did hit more than half which made me happy. It was a great day and definitely something I would do again. That night we went on an official pub crawl. We meet up with a group of twenty or thirty and headed to a selection of pubs around the city. There were drinks promotions and free shots or drinks at each of the bars. We even drank at a pub called tardis which was cool. The logical follow on being the next day was for our hangovers which actually weren't bad at all. I got my hair cut and we booked the next three days of activities. We decided to do a different selection of activities on the second two days. 

We stayed in a hostel called Adventure Queenstown hostel and I have to say it is hands down the best hostel I've ever stayed in.  They make everyone fell at home and it's like one big family.  I think it's partly because there are a lot of long-term people there (people staying from a month to a few months) and partly because the guy running it just really wants to make it the best hostel in Queenstown.  That's a pretty big task considering the sheer amount of hostels in Queenstown and the fierce competition.  Everyone hangs around in the hostel and we've extended our stay twice here.  In the kitchen everyone chats with everyone new and when there are drinking games or just card games, everyone is invited in.  Even if you just want to sit and chat with guys while they are cooking or drinking.  People make an effort and invite you to chat or watch movies with them.  The guy running the place makes a big effort and sometimes they play the wii and just ask everyone passing to play a round.  

Anyway for the first day I went horse-riding.  We went riding around a place called Glenorchy and went past a bunch of places where Lords of the Rings was filmed.  Also a few of the people in the stables had been orcs in the films as they could ride horses well.  I was worried about horse riding after hurting my back so we took it easy.  The horse I was on was an ex stunt horse and a dream to ride.  So pretty soon I was cantering around the river bed without a bothered (the next day my lower back was a bit sore and stiff but that was just the muscles from doing exercise that I wouldn't normally do).  We got to go through rivers and the horses were really sure-footed.  It seems when the river is really high the horses can end up swimming through and pulling the riders along with them which is pretty cool.  You would never get that in Ireland.  That day Brian was meant to go out on a flat raft thing with handles at the side that you lie on going down white rapids.  There was a mix up in the booking but in the end he got to go down white water rapids on a body board.  You have to be a really strong swimmer to that which is why I didn't go for it.  I'm not that strong a swimmer.  he had a fantastic time.  It went really well the first time around and then the second time he tried to film the whole thing on my camera.  It didn't go half as well that time.  There are videos of it that me and Brian have on our hard drives.  The next day I went for a walk up a little of Queenstown hill and through the Queenstown gardens.  After which I went to a spa for a half hour in a floatation tank and a massage.  I hated the floatation tank, I getting really twitchy when I can't sleep at night and have to make the bed over and over again so the sheets stay straight and I have to make sure I am lying perfect straight and everything is in exactly the right place until I can sleep.  The floatation tank was like not being able to sleep.  I spent a lot of the time trying to keep myself in the dead centre of the tank.  Also I kept getting condensation on my face and it was all uneven and my ear plugs were uneven.  Ok so I'm just a bit strange but anyway.  The massage was amazing, especially after the horse-riding.  I felt completely relaxed after.  I have never really been bothered doing a bungee so Brian spent the morning doing a bungee.  He did the biggest one in the country.  He said it was brilliant, a great adrenaline rush.  He said he would do it again but it was very expensive.  Afterwards he headed for a game of frisbee golf.  They have a permanent pitch in the Queenstown gardens.  You have to get a frisbee from the tee to a small basket with a pole and chains in the centre.  It's suppose to be a very fun game.  That night the two of us played drinking games in the hostel and then went out to bar called Fraiser with about 12 people from the hostel.  It was a really great night.  There was drinking Jenga, cards and pool. 

South Island of New Zealand

Next we headed to Franz Josef Glacier. We headed out to the pub in the hostel that night and entered a rock paper scissors contest to win a Nevis Arc swing but we both got knocked out in the first round. We had heard that your could kayak near the glacier and touch little icebergs. When we asked about it we found out it was on the Mount Cook side and not the Franz Josef side but we are stopping by Mount Cook on the way back up the island so we still plan to do that. So instead we decided to go for a walk up to see the glacier. We had the whole day to burn so when we got up to the car park near the glacier Brian decided we should go for the five hour and twenty minute walk to see the glacier from above. We had been speaking to a couple who had headed up the path directly to the front of the glacier and they said the barrier is actually quite far away from glacier and you can't get closer without being on a guided walking or climbing tour. They sounded a bit disappointed. We headed off and gradually realised walk was a bit misleading. At a few short points we had to climb up almost vertical bits of cliff and grab on to tree roots to get up. We also had to walk on really smooth rock face from streams that was at quite a steep angle. We eventually got to the top and had a great view of the front of the glacier from a hill quite close to it. It doesn't really picture well as the glacier front kinda blends in with the sky and stuff. Then it started to rain and all the way back was very slippy. We eventually got back and actually managed the walk in about 5 and a half hours. We were absolutely soaking when we got back. Upon getting back to the hostel we decided to head to the glacier hot pools and relax for two hours before grabbing food in the restaurant by the hostel.

Following day we headed off early as we had a five hour drive followed by a two hour drive. We were also driving with an Irish guy called Liam who was in the hostel room at the last place with us. He was a really nice guy from Mayo and he was planning on getting a bus down to Queenstown. Even with our stop in Wanaka along the way we would still be arriving in Queenstown quicker than the bus. Over the last two nights we had been talking to him in the pub and found out we were all going the same way. The distance wasn't too bad on the trip but there were some seriously windy roads up and down mountains along the way. The views were absolutely amazing. We stopped in Wanaka about lunch time. We dropped Liam off in the town as he didn't really have much interest in giant puzzles and we went to the puzzling world there. There was a 1.5 kilometer maze with stairs in it. The maze itself wasn't really that hard in the end. We had it done in a lot less time then it said it took but I imagine that may have been for kids. We weren't the only adults doing it though as there were a few other couples we met along the way. You didn't have to find your way out, you just had to find your way to the four towers and then back to the start. After that came four illusion rooms which were interesting. The main one was pretty cool. It was a room entirely at about a 45 degree angle. It had various bits that completely freaked out your brain. Water that looked like it was running uphill and a big eye illusion wall. Then we played a few puzzles in the cafe while getting lunch. Things like building triangles out of various pieces of wood and that wiggle line making games. We played 3D connect 4 for a while. Me and Eoin had a 3D connect 4 when we were kids but it had 4 layers where you could place tokens. This one was 16 metal prongs and you put beads on them. We played for quite a while, both of us winning as much as losing. We would have kept playing only we told Liam we would collect him at 3. As I was navigator I chose the shortest route to Queenstown. It was especially up and down in the end but we did save a bit of time and Brian definitely wasn't bored driving. We did worry a bit about running out a petrol as towns are laid out fairly spread out along the way and not all of them had petrol stations.

Barrytown

I would recommend this to anyone going to New Zealand. Do knife making. It is so much fun and you get a really good knife at the end of it. So you start off with a long piece of carbon steel. Then you put it in a forge and heat it glowing orange (but not sparking cause then its burnt). Then you hammer it on one side. This will eventually be the sharp strong side. The hammering puts extra carbon in that side from the coke on the fire. The guy there told you when you were ready to move on. Then you cut the handle to size and filled it down on 4 sanding belts. This is the first set of sanding. Then we drilled through the handle on the steal to attach a brass and wooden handle We could only do this because the rest of the blade doesn't have as much carbon and is soft enough to drill. Then we sanded down the handle to a better shape Then we went for lunch. In that time the main guy there tidied up everyones blade so when we came back after lunch they looked great. At lunch we had toasted sandwiches and got to see some especially short Shetland ponies and swing on an absolutely giant swing which took 5 people to pull back to the highest point. Brian also took a hand as some axe throwing. They said on average girls make better knifes than girls but all the knives seem to come out beautifully. After lunch we spend most of the time grinding down the knife making it shinier and shinier. At the end we had to sand the knives by hand with very finely grained paper. Then the handle was stained and detected with shoe polish. It took the whole day but it was brilliant. Everyone had a good time and there were only a few more guys than girls.

South Island of New Zealand

Next day we went wine touring in Blenheim. It was a fantastic trip. We started at 10 and got to try about 6 different wines in each of the 7 wineries we visited. We got collected and dropped off at our hotel. The smaller wineries were a lot more interesting than the larger ones but there were a few people who requested wineries on the tour and they all seemed to be quite big ones. We seemed to like the Riesling, Gerwurztrominer (I've never heard of it in Ireland) and Pinot Gris. There was a lot of not nice Riesling though. But when they were nice, they were fantastic. They seem to be what desert wines are made of but that doesn't mean they are always sweet. I got a bottle of that in the second last place we went to and Brian got a bottle of Gerwurztrominer. I would easily do a wine tour again a few times. It was a great way to spend time. We got food when we got back. Next day we got a really nice lunch for 11 dollars as two of the women we were with on the wine tour gave us a voucher they had but never got a chance to use on their trip to New Zealand. It was a 35 dollar voucher which was really nice. Then we went on an exhausting 5 hour trip down to Greymouth and then a further trip to Arthur's Pass. It was a long day so we just got dinner and went to the cinema to see True Grit. It was a pretty boring film where a few bits didn't even make sense.

South Island of New Zealand

We flew into Christchurch but didn't get to see any of the city. We had organised to rent a car as the tourist board was advising people to stay out of the city. So we got our car and headed out to Hamner Springs. It was pretty late by the time we got there so we booked into our Motel and wet to the thermal baths. We soaked for about three hours, really enjoying ourselves and relaxing. It was a short stop as the next day we headed to Kaikoura. We booked some swimming with seals and went to the supermarket. We then went for a walk around some of the coast. Turns out there are seals all around the coast. We saw one all on its own in the first spot. Then we went out to a second spot with loads of them. We started walking out to the and realised there was one about 2 metres in front of us. They are quite camouflaged on the coast. That night we found out about the earthquake in Japan and the Tsunami warnings for everywhere with an ocean edge nearby. The next day they said the seal swimming was canceled because of the Tsunami. They said it was because they were so close in on the rocks but the tourist office said nothing else was canceled because we were on the other side of the island. In the end we book a last minute kayaking trip to view the seals. The tour actually turned out great. We had two person kayaks and Brian and me were together in one. We saw tiny penguins that continually dive down the whole time. Really hard to get a picture of as they don't stay on the surface at all. First we went to a big bay and saw a load of seals lazing about. They were everywhere. We got a few pictures and headed out to the next few bays. We learned a bit about the seaweed around us. Some of which is strong enough to destroy rocks. We got to sea some seals climbing up rocks which was quite impressive. The New Zealand fur seal is one type with two tail fins so they can climb quite well. On the way back Brian notice a seal splashing around as we went over we saw him eating an octopus. We got right up to him and he didn't mind It seams seals mind people a lot more on land but in water they aren't that bothered by people. So we got to see a seal eat an octopus up close and personal. On the way back in two seals came along and swam beside and under our boats. It was a really cool experience.