Do you know who lives there?

3 countries in 3 days....

Apparently it's my turn to update the blog so expect a lot of waffle! To complete the trinity of Scotland/England/Ireland we spent an easy day on Saturday getting ready to fly to Ireland (and James calming me down from the excitement of it all!!) Martyn then kindly gave us a lift to John Lennon Airport, Liverpool, and with James getting excited having passed the birthplace of his beloved Jaguar, we booked ourselves in. The flight was harmless enough, as were the customs, and the bus into town, and the walk to our accomodation, and the accomodation....it was all going too well! And that's pretty much how the next three days went.

We had a slight hiccup in that everywhere was shut on the Sunday and we spent what felt like forever walking round Cork trying to find somewhere to eat, and had to settle on a pint of Guinness and a game of Irish football in a local! It didn't matter though, we were on holiday, and were content. What we weren't expecting however was to wake up Monday and find it was a bank holiday weekend so yep, you guessed it...Cork was closed again!!!

Who needs a city to be open though?! We got into the spirit of the trip (literally!) walked for miles, saw some of the sites and EVEN had to settle with a lager and garlic bread breakfast at 9am to use up what sustenance we'd found but not managed to finish the day before. One might even think we were back in Finland.....

Tuesday we hit the streets of Manchester with Andrew and Liam. I was glad the boys were there to help because despite growing up next to the city I really don't know it very well. Luckily for James the boys knew the city inside out and we were able to show James a whole range of places. What he was most bemused at it seems is that whatever the weather, come rain or shine, the English will sit outside for their pint! (and yes, the rain has now started, and no, James hasn't melted yet!) The day ended perfectly by driving past the Coronation Street set and seeing Carla leave for the day. Well I was happy :-)

We then drove to my parents for tea and they treated us to a Roast Dinner. James was able to experience 'Bajkowski Meal Times' and during the course of dinner had to join in the debate about the apocalypse, evolution and property value politics. We then settled down for the evening with 'Brassed Off' and watched a 'proper English' film. It was a fun night, so much so that we forgot to take any photos- oops!

And so we're onto today, another day of no photos. Today we've been taking it easy. I've been tidying my stuff away, and we've watched a film, AND completed a jigsaw of Scandinavia!!!! We needed today off because we've run ourselves ragged the last two weeks, and half way through the holiday we're preparing ourself for hitting 'the South' tomorrow. On that note though, I've got three bags full of papers from this year which are going to be burned- and James is looking restless at me to go and start the fire, so I'll end it there. Not sure how regularly we're going to be able to post while we're further down the country but we'll keep taking photos and will update where possible :-)

Travels in the North

Well, we've survived another few days and they've been quite an amazing few days, let me tell you! On Monday we drove up to Durham to stay with Beckie and see all that the city (since there's a cathedral, though by James' estimation it's really a town) has to offer. It was a good opportunity to see where Maria spent "The Uni Years," from season 3 of Mariaoaks, and to compare the life here to the life @ Helsingin Yliopisto (The University of Helsinki). We also took a quick trip up toward Newcastle to see the Angel of the North for a nice comparison of the naked men on the beach we'd seen with Theo. After lunch with Susan on Tuesday we braved the stairs to the top of the cathedral tower. It was only when we reached the top that James remembered he's afraid of heights.... That night Beckie had organized a special night out for us all, only to find that the entire "city" was shut. Oh well, you can't win them all, and we still had an amazing time at Bellvedere with Beckie and her housemates (and Simon).

Wednesday we set off for Edinburgh. Being our fearless selves we set off without a map thinking that the centre of town must be "roughly that way," only to find that it was not, in fact, "that way." Turns out it was completely the opposite of "that way," but we had a nice walk by the coast anyway. Luckily we were able to find our way back to the car despite every street being called Trinity because Maria had wisely noted that we should follow the Ferry Path road (and we all know who lives there!) Thankfully Mary was there to save the day and help us get our bearings properly. She took us up Arthur's seat to have some amazing views of the city (and yes, James believes Edinburgh is actually a city). Afterward it was back to Mary's for some traditional Scottish haggis and tatties followed by a local beverage in a local pub. Thursday we bid farewell to Mary and were left to our own devices roaming around the city. Luckily this time we had a map and Mary had shown us where the centre actually is! We even managed to find ourselves a traditional Scottish breakfast complete with potato cakes and black pudding. The day was beautiful and it wasn't until we'd begun driving back down to Durham that rain set in (so many wet sheep!).

Back in Durham we reunited with Beckie for curry club in Wetherspoons. She'd looked after us all week and it was a lovely way to end our time with her. We drove back down to Leigh Friday morning and a visit with Martin, Kathryn and family (including Lady!). Keeping with tradition we went round to the local chippy shop for our tea and spent the evening just relaxing, and getting ready for our trip to Ireland! We'll be leaving this evening for Cork, and couldn't be more excited! Look for those pictures on Monday=)