Monday, November 20, 2006
Had to try the Dutch beer - TYSKIE!
Last weekend, Kate and I went to Derry, Northern Ireland with Matt, Zara and Neil. We stayed in Essex with Matt and Zara Friday night and left at 5am Saturday morning. We arrived in Derry around 8:30am and picked up our hire car that Neil had arranged for 2 days. We spent the day going to Giants Causeway (renowned unofficially as the 8th wonder of the world), brilliant place.
Mother Nature wasn't smiling upon us though, we had to battle gale force winds and chilling conditions, which in the end was pretty funny and added to the experience - especially climbing a cliff that had a big sign saying "Avoid in strong winds" and watching Matt have to crawl on his knees up each step just to get to the top! The rest of the afternoon was spent driving through small towns like Port Rush and Port Stewart and having a few beers.
That night we went out and had a big one! We drank a heap of beer, and had to try the Dutch beer TYSKIE which was on special for �2 (sic). They went down a treat and we ended up staying on then till we wiped them out, literally, and had to go back to something else. At 500ml at 5.6%, we were well and truly "happy" and moved on to a club till about 2am and called it a night!
Sunday morning we visited Kate's Grandad's grave who recently passed away and then drove to a classic little village called MUFF where the boys, as mature as we are, had pictures around the sign welcoming us to MUFF. We went to Donegal and Green Castle, and then made our way back to Derry.
Neil had to leave that night, and the rest of us went out to dinner, then went to a bar for a few drinks afterwards.
Monday we did a walking tour of Derry. We walked around the top of the city walls whilst getting an interesting, but biased , history of Derry and the conflict between the Irish and British from our tour guide! We then entered the Bogside and Free Derry where we walked amongst the murals and the same path the protesters took on Bloody Sunday and finished at the Bloody Sunday monument where 13 people were killed that day! Was pretty eerie standing there where it all took place, I won't forget it and now I love U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday even more! After that we had done everything we wanted to and had 7 hours to kill, so we went shopping, walked along the river, saw a movie (Sixty Six, I definitely DO NOT recommend it), and then had dinner, where I had 2.5 main meals, all cos they were on special!! WHAT A PIG!! A few beers later we were on our way to the airport and back to Essex by midnight. We all chucked a sickie the next day and got back to London Wednesday night.
2 weeks and we're in Egypt! Can't wait!!
Mother Nature wasn't smiling upon us though, we had to battle gale force winds and chilling conditions, which in the end was pretty funny and added to the experience - especially climbing a cliff that had a big sign saying "Avoid in strong winds" and watching Matt have to crawl on his knees up each step just to get to the top! The rest of the afternoon was spent driving through small towns like Port Rush and Port Stewart and having a few beers.
That night we went out and had a big one! We drank a heap of beer, and had to try the Dutch beer TYSKIE which was on special for �2 (sic). They went down a treat and we ended up staying on then till we wiped them out, literally, and had to go back to something else. At 500ml at 5.6%, we were well and truly "happy" and moved on to a club till about 2am and called it a night!
Sunday morning we visited Kate's Grandad's grave who recently passed away and then drove to a classic little village called MUFF where the boys, as mature as we are, had pictures around the sign welcoming us to MUFF. We went to Donegal and Green Castle, and then made our way back to Derry.
Neil had to leave that night, and the rest of us went out to dinner, then went to a bar for a few drinks afterwards.
Monday we did a walking tour of Derry. We walked around the top of the city walls whilst getting an interesting, but biased , history of Derry and the conflict between the Irish and British from our tour guide! We then entered the Bogside and Free Derry where we walked amongst the murals and the same path the protesters took on Bloody Sunday and finished at the Bloody Sunday monument where 13 people were killed that day! Was pretty eerie standing there where it all took place, I won't forget it and now I love U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday even more! After that we had done everything we wanted to and had 7 hours to kill, so we went shopping, walked along the river, saw a movie (Sixty Six, I definitely DO NOT recommend it), and then had dinner, where I had 2.5 main meals, all cos they were on special!! WHAT A PIG!! A few beers later we were on our way to the airport and back to Essex by midnight. We all chucked a sickie the next day and got back to London Wednesday night.
2 weeks and we're in Egypt! Can't wait!!
