Days 25-28, Ireland, January 3-6

January 3

Today we caught the bus down to Dublin from Belfast. It's supposed to take just under 2 hours, but after a multi-car pile-up on the freeway it took us almost 3. YUCK.

We met George and Pauline at the airport, went back to their place and had a relaxing afternoon, dinner and I had a nap on the couch while Daniel watched some Irish TV. After I'd woken up, we went out to the pub for a drink and I tried my first Guinness... You'd think I would've hated it. OH MY GOSH. BEST BEER I'VE EVER TASTED! 

January 4

George brought us into Dublin today to see the town. There's not much to it! We went in a few shops, met Pauline and their oldest son David for lunch at Maccas, had a photo with a Leprechaun, saw Trinity College and a statue of Molly Malone (look her up on google if you're interested...), then got the bus back home again. We went out for dinner that night to an Italian Restaurant where George, Pauline, Mark and Kevin go every Friday night. Daniel asked the lady for a "Coke" but she couldn't understand his accent, so she brought him a "Corona"! It was very funny when Daniel told her it wasn't what he'd ordered! Then we went home and didn't do much.

January 5

I'd said to George that I wanted to see "the sterotypical Irish countryside, like you'd see in movies and on postcards, with green fields everywhere with sheep and cows" which sounded extremely stupid of me to say when he was telling Pauline what I wanted to do for the day! Anyway, we went up into the Wicklow Mountains, walked around an old cemetery in the hills at Glendalough and saw some pretty amazing Irish countryside. It was a great day, and the salad rolls in the car when it started raining finished the afternoon off nicely.

That night, Daniel stayed home and did some boring stuff - facebook, packing etc - while I went to and Irish Club. Mark (the son of the people we were staying with) is the assistant manager and his brother Kevin agreed to go with me to the club, so I was fortunate enough to not have to pay anything at all for entry, cloakroom hire and drinks. It was rather empty for a club but I had fun with Kevin nonetheless :)

January 6

Today we flew back to Germany. Not much to say, but the flight back was half an hour quicker than the flight there, and the view above the clouds just before coming in to land at Frankfurt was absolutely incredible! There were a million and one jets flying in all different directions at all different altitudes, the clouds looked like giant marshmellows and we just wanted to bounce all over them, the sun was just setting so there was a beautiful orangey/pink tinge in the sky - it was incredible! Having a window seat was the best :D haha. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a photo of it because it was during the descent that you could see all this, so my phone was already switched off :(

I had a bath before heading to bed early.

Day 24, Ireland, January 2

(Written by Emily)
Today was our last day in Northern Ireland and Belfast. We got the bus into town where we met the daughter of one of mum's old school friends from before she moved to Australia (30 years ago). We drove out to Ballybeen, mum's childhood hometown, and had coffee with Tracey. We went for a walk down to mums house and had some photos sitting on the wall out the front, and I'm sure anyone who saw us was probably very curious as to what we were doing! Haha

21 (I think) Cairnsmore walk, Ballybeen estate, Dundonald

After this we were driven into Ballyhackamore where we had dinner with grandas sister Ruth's son and his family - Ian, Dana and daughters Katy, Amy and Josie. It was lovely spending the evening with them, they reminded us so much of our own family dynamics at home! Older sisters teasing younger ones, especially! Ian gave me some photography advice and showed me some of his work and we had a lovely dinner with them before heading back to Georgies and packing to head to Dublin the next day.

Days 20-23, Ireland, December 29-January 1

Sorry its a bit late, and delayed.. but here it is!

Saturday, December 29

Today was our last day with Andrew, Gillian and Sarah and they took us to the Ulster Folk Museum. Its like an Irish version of that gold mining place in Ballarat which I cannot spell the name of... [Sovereign Hill] It was really good! Emily, Sarah and I walked up into a place where you can dress up and get a photo, but we didn't do that, we just talked to the guy, who though we were from New Zealand! Then we went into the church, bank, court house and other buildings from that time era. We went into one particular building, I can't remember what it was, but you could walk up right into the attic and there was a sign that said "Look up! The roof above you is over 300 years old!" We've never walked out of a room so fast! Then we figured out that the roof was older than Australia! We were freaked!
Every time we went into a room and there was a fire we stood in front of it for at least 5 minutes warming up before we left again. We went into one house and there a very nice guy in there, we talked to him for about 10-15 minutes, he directed us over to a small house and there was a new litter of piglets. It was cute, but it smelt bad.
Later that evening, we went to stay at Aunt Georgies. We had bacon, eggs and chips for dinner that night. And so ended our week with Andrew and Gillian. Stephanie and Jade came over for a bit and then we went to bed. I slept on the couch.

Sunday, December 30

The next day we slept in, and didn't do much. Then we went to Martys later in the afternoon. Had dinner there and chatted for a bit and got home by 11ish. I think.. I don't really remember. [Added by Emily: we also looked through some of Marty's photo albums... Saw some embarrassing photos of Gary (HAHAH) and photos from Marty's wedding where mum was the unofficial "flower girl" as she was coincidentally wearing the same colour dress as the bridesmaids, so she was in all the photos!]

Monday, December 31, 2012

On New Years Eve, Aunt Georgies son, wife and 3 kids - Phillip and Claire, Catherine, Peter and Rachael - took us into Belfast for the day. It was really good and we both had an amazing day! We went into a few shops, did some stuff, then we went into Nandos and had Nandos in Ireland, it was so different to Australian Nandos! Like.. wow. It was busier, they had a few different things on the menu and they had 2 different bastings as well! Mango and Lime, and also plain-ish.
We then headed up to the top of their big, fancy shopping centre/square, Victoria Square, where there is a dome lookout. It was so awesome!

^Prince Albert Clock - Belfast's "Big Ben" crossed with the
"Leaning Tower of Pisa" 

Later on that evening we went to Stephanies sons house for a kind of new years party. I remember, there was one drunk Northern Irish guy, and he asked me "So, whats the best part of your trip so far? You better say Belfast!" it was quite funny. Emily, Jade and I stayed until about 3.30ish. I played guitar  for the drunk Irish people. It was funny. Emily and I stayed at Stephanies house that night, I slept in till about 12, then got up and didn't bother having breakfast because we were nearly about to have lunch.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

 For lunch, we had like.. a roast? With various vegetables and what not. It was good! After lunch we all sat in the loungeroom then had desert, not long after desert.. shit went down! We started playing Bingo with the family. I've never seen so many people, from different ages (me being the youngest, right through to Aunt Georgie being the oldest). Most of the people were between 20 and 50 as well! It was weird.. I didnt win, however I did come close! I only needed 1 more number! Gaaaaah! :P
After bingo, Emily, Jade and I went outside and played with sparklers, it was quite fun! But then it started to rain so we went back inside. Not long after that we went home and went to bed!

Days 18-19, Ireland, December 27-28

Andrew, Sarah, Daniel and I went up the Antrim Coast today, because Andrew and Gillian have a house in Castlerock (north coast) near some amazing places in Northern Ireland. The coast road is beautiful, but long. We got to Castlerock after almost 3 hours travel, had some lunch and then went out to see the Giant's Causeway! It's an INCREDIBLE rock formation, but I won't try explain it with words...

It was a lovely afternoon and the weather stayed nice for us, which was good (despite looking cold and cloudy, it was apparently some of the best weather they would get the entire year... oh dear).
We went for a nice walk in the village of Castlerock with the dogs before dinner, and Daniel, Sarah and I stayed up late playing Scrabble (I won. We all cheated though), and a small game of Truth or Dare in which Daniel ended up with makeup on, and Sarah stood in the rain for a little while, and I melted an ice cube in less than comfortable places... Hahaha

The next day (Friday) we went for a drive half way up the hill in Castlerock and then a walk for the rest of the way to see the Mussenden Temple and Downhill Demesne. It was cold, windy, and super muddy with sheep and rabbit poop everywhere. We were rather mucky by the time it came to get back in the car, but we saw some incredible views from the top and it was a beautiful morning walk. :)

We had a relaxing evening at Andrew and Gillians for our last night staying with them, after getting back to Belfast around 5.30.

Day 17, Ireland, December 26

Boxing day.
(Written by Emily)
Most people do a lot of post-Christmas shopping with all these big sales... We were NOT those people.
Today we drove around Belfast with Andrew and Gillian. First we drove into Ballybeen and saw the house mum grew up in (photos to come on a later date), we went through Belfast city centre and saw the Titanic Quarter (the Titanic was built in the docks of Belfast, something that took Northern Ireland 100 years to be proud of, since it sunk on it's maiden voyage in 1911). We drove up the Shankill road and past the church (Ballysillan Presbyterian) where Granny and Granda got married, and further up the road to Ligoniel where granny grew up. We saw the park where granny played as a young girl and the street (and roughly where their house was before it was knocked down) she lived in.
We were out for about an hour and a half, and stopped at a shopping centre on the way past to have a quick look. We didn't find anything.
We had dinner and after that went to visit Stephen and Rebekah and their two kids. Stephen and Rebekah brought my cousin Nicholas and I out a few times when I was there 6 and a half years ago. They now have two kids - Ethan (2 and a half years) and Alix (4 months) - and I was excited to meet Alix as she is the only person over here that granny and granda don't know! I know family that granny and granda don't ;)
Linda and Lisa were there as well, Stephen mixed me drink with Fanta and ...spiced rum, which ended up tasting like ice cream :)

FAMILY TREE

So (it's only taken me a few weeks to realise), most people have NO idea who is who, and we're talking about all these relatives so I've had a go at creating a family tree (with holes), to give you a basic idea of who's who. Sorry to anyone if I've left you out, or if I've got the birth order of your family wrong. :)

The colours represent lines of descent - the blue people are sisters, the purple people are their kids (and all first cousins) etc.