One Night In Derry

Our overnight trip to Derry did not begin well, due to the uniquely confusing setup at Lanyon Place Station. We managed to miss the 10am train and had to wait an hour for the next one. Annoying, but possibly meant we missed the morning rain in Derry.

The trip to Derry is about 2 hours and as we got closer the sun came out and we hit the coastal section of the route. Lovely!

There was even a stretch of beach that looked remarkably like home.

We arrived at Derry station a bit after 2 and the station was a pleasant surprise. Very modern, clean and bright.

The station is on the opposite side of the river to the centre of town so we walked across the Peace Bridge.

We’d booked an Airbnb property but only brought a small backpack each so we were fine to carry our things with us for a few hours.

On a day like this it was a nice way to enter the city, although it was still spitting a bit… but also sunny. So Irish!

There was a nice-looking walkway along the river but we headed into the city.

Not many people around, which is always nice.

We headed into the ground floor of the building below. I was interested in the stained glass. I read later that the windows tell the story of Derry through the centuries.

There was an exhibition on the history of Derry, which I can poorly but fairly accurately summarise as: English people arrive and ruin everything and the fighting goes on forever. Luke and I talked about this a lot, not just what happened but what could’ve been done differently, what might have happened if the English had never come. Ireland is so small that it might’ve been invaded by Spain or Portugal, or how different it would be if it had been left to itself. Is there even such a thing, in history, as a nation being left to itself?

I didn’t realise the English came to completely drive out the locals in the 1600s to set up plantations, much like those in the US and the Caribbean, although I think this happened first.

Next we visited the tourist information centre and picked up a map. They had a lot of Derry Girls merch and some interactive exhibits.

The craft village was recommended to visit, it’s a series of little craft shops that sell very typical Irish stuff, some more modern things and several hairdressers. Not the highlight of our visit but it might appeal to some.

The centre of Derry is surrounded by defensive walls, the mostly recently constructed in the UK and Ireland. They’re in excellent condition and the wall around is about a mile and offers an excellent view of the inside and outside parts of the city.

The wall walk was also surprisingly wide and the surface seemed quite new. There were sets of stairs along the way but it wasn’t a hard walk.

If I had more time I’d have looked for a walk to do in the hills around the city.

This area, Bogside, was where Bloody Sunday occurred. More on that later.

If you don’t immediately recognise these faces you need to watch Derry Girls immediately. Go do it now, I’ll wait.

After all the walking in the sun there was only one thing to do.

We stopped in at Peaddar O’Donnall’s for a drink and to listen to the old men at the end of the bar talk about what a good movie The Mighty Ducks was.

I had to photograph the place below. We didn’t eat there but I enjoyed their scattergun approach to punctuation.

Another photo of Northern Irish library architecture. It looks like a very defensible structure.

Before heading to the Airbnb we walked to the Free Derry area to have a look at the murals.

The old style, then the new below.

Our Airbnb was back over the peace bridge in the newer part of town.

After going through this door we had to let ourselves out the back door into a grim alley then down to a little apartment that was sparse but felt pretty new and was clean.

Plus they left us bread, butter and everything for tea and coffee so we were set. Back to the pub.

There were a bunch of pubs in a row so of course we went back to the same one we were at before. We had an hour to kill before dinner at Mekong, Derry’s top rated restaurant.

An unprepossessing exterior but the food was unreal. We ordered a range of smaller plates to share.

Vermicelli spring rolls, beef laarb balls, spicy sticky chicken wings, pork belly and glass noodle salad

The flavours were amazingly fresh and rich, with each dish having a unique taste but all tasting very Vietnamese. It was really hard to pick a favourite.

Dessert was a mandarin crème brûlée with ginger biscuit, which we used to dip in the brûlée and then crumbled over the top. I had a very sad moment at the end when I realised I’d probably never eat here again. We both agreed it was one of the top five meals we’d had on this trip.

In the morning we started with a morning walk through St Columb’s park. It was a nice big green space with just one creepy statue.

There were Columb-related statues and other things to look at in the park.

After a walk through town we went to the Free Derry Museum. Before entering I knew very little about Bloody Sunday but the museum was extremely informative and had artifacts from the day, footage and recordings.

If you go take a box of tissues, it’s tragic on so many levels and really makes you sympathise with the people of Derry.

On our way to the station we bought some fancy biscuits from this very instagramable shop then forgot to eat them.

We saw some fancy cars on the way.

Back over the Peace Bridge and to the station.

On the way home we got off the train at Castlerock, a little seaside town. We had a slightly underwhelming lunch at a local bar but the staff were very friendly.

Not as friendly as local character Ronnie, who wandered over as we finished eating and told us about basking sharks, how he had dropped his cornflakes on the floor that morning, and swimming in Greece. Having an extremely thick accent meant he was quite hard to understand but we concentrated very hard and seemed to make all the right noises.

We had a nice walk along the beach in the warm, windy weather and stopped to take a few photos before heading back to the station.

The trip back to Belfast was largely uneventful apart from the train running a bit late.

The weekend just gone has been very busy so this has been my most delayed post of the trip! We’ve done a few things over the weekend so I’ll to to finish everything off before leaving London. Only a couple of sleeps until we are home!

21Jun2023

Salzburg: Days 2 to 4

by Miss Penny Black

Well, I won’t lie, we didn’t do a whole heap in Salzburg. It was hot, especially after about 11am, all the way to the middle of the night.

I combated the heat somewhat by soaking my T-shirt then rolling it in a towel so it was lightly damp. This technique keeps you cool for at least an hour outdoors. If it gets really hot I add a wet thin cotton scarf for my head and neck. By then I look like Lawrence of Arabia but with more dripping.

Every morning we started our day with breakfast in the apartment followed by a trip to Kaffee Alchemie.

Luke probably looks sad because I’ve won more wordle games than him.

We tried their cappuccinos, iced cappuccinos and affogatos. Their coffee was extremely flavourful and not bitter or burned, it had a light sweetness and their milk foam was thick, not like the styrofoam- consistency milk froth you get in the UK. If I had two I never felt jittery either, just perfectly awake. Basically I’m crying on the inside leaving it behind ;-).

We did do a few activities in Salzburg after the first day.

On the recommendation of our lovely friends from the Mozart concert, we went to the midday organ recital at Salzburg cathedral. It was worth the €6 just to spend an hour sitting out of the heat, the architecture was very imposing and elaborate and the organ music was… fine. Not my thing but kind of interesting to see live. They had two organists who moved around and played each of the six organs in the building.

At the end we saw our friends (if you’re reading this, ladies please leave a comment, I wasn’t sure how to spell your names!) and they took another photo and I wish I had too. It’s always nice to run into familiar faces in a new city.

We spent some time walking around the narrow alleys of the old town. Most of the shops were luxury brands and had tourist prices but we did go into one cheese store that sold cheddar style cheese but with lots of different flavours.

The most unusual was lavender, which had the colour of blu tac. I ended up tasting some the second time we went in and it barely had any taste beyond cheese, the colour was a bit off-putting though. We did buy some aged sheep’s cheese and used it for our dinner.

The cheese shop also let us try some of their white port, which we hadn’t had since Porto. We bought a small bottle of that too.

We had two meals that I cooked in the apartment – pasta with grated cheese, salt, pepper, olive oil and cherry tomatoes. I feel like it’s my travel go-to since it’s so easy and usually most of the ingredients are already in the cupboard if there’s a kitchen in the Airbnb.

The fresh fruit and vegetable stall around the city sell the most amazingly perfect produce. I bought a big tub of red currants – something you almost never see at home. Luke didn’t want any so I got to eat them all myself.

There were many stores around town selling traditional clothing. Much like in Munich, it’s not unusual to see people wearing outfits like this around town. At around €500 for a complete set, it was out of my budget. I would’ve loved a proper dirndl for multicultural days at school though, a connection to my German heritage.

Luke did a load of washing when we first arrived and repurposed the shoe rack into the worlds smallest drying rack.

We spent two nights eating at a beer garden just around the corner from our apartment. It was a huge setup with both indoor and outdoor spaces, but we preferred sitting beneath the chestnut trees.

The food was very Germanic – meat, gravy, potato-based sides or dumplings, beans or noodles.

We also ate (or rather I ate while Luke watched because he was feeling a bit hungover) at the Afro Cafe, which was also only a couple of hundred metres from our accommodation. It was recommended online as a good place to eat and something different from Australian cuisine. It was good for brunch – I had the shakshuka, admittedly something that’s pretty common at home.

We went back to the Mirabell Gardens and saw a bit more of them. We were interested in seeing more of the palace but only a small part was open… or we couldn’t find any other open sections. The roses smelled lovely.

Outside the university was a funny set of sculptures of giant gherkins. I had a student last year who was obsessed with gherkins so we took a few photos.

One of these cucumbers in not like the other ones.

One thing that should be mentioned if you’re thinking of going to Salzburg, is the fact that they sell Mozart chocolates everywhere. They look very fancy but be warned – they are primarily filled with marzipan so just don’t bother unless you’re one of the 1% of the population that actually likes it.

There really isn’t much else to report about Salzburg. It seemed like a really nice city and there are several hills I would’ve loved to climb if it hadn’t been uncomfortably hot. I know no European Airbnb owners are going to read this, but for god’s sake please put some fans in your apartments. Just a pedestal or desk fan would make life more bearable!

The heat has convinced me that April to mid-June are definitely my preferred months for European trips. Either that or autumn. Go when it’s quieter, cooler, cheaper and just generally more pleasant.

Right now we’re in Frankfurt airport, which surely has to be one of the biggest in the world. Terminal B was approximately a kilometre from Terminal A and staff ride bicycles around!

Next stop: Belfast! Don’t let us down, Lufthansa, we have a dinner booking somewhere fancy.

4Jun2023

London: Portobello Road and Kensington Palace

by Miss Penny Black

First on the agenda today was Portobello Road. Possibly London’s most famous market and one I hadn’t been to in my many London trips.

We caught the bus there and encountered what was possibly London’s crankiest bus driver. We tried to pay with coins and he exaggeratedly gestured at the lack of a hole for us to hand them to him and snidely said ‘It’s 2023, use a card’. Well excuse us, but every bus we’d caught in every other part of the country took coins. What a jerk! Anyhow, apart from a child with the plague sitting right behind us, the bus journey was otherwise uneventful.

When we got there the markets were just setting up so it wasn’t crazy-crowded. We got a coffee and pastry (no point having a boring breakfast at home when there’s market food to be had) then decided to spilt up.

I ended up buying two spoons – I wanted a large one for learning to make rochers (when fancy food comes in a little roll) like this:

I found a really good one and I also found a little teaspoon for Lea because sometimes cafes don’t offer spoons and she likes to eat the foam off her cappuccino before drinking it. Also the little teaspoon would be perfect for making tiny rochers.

Fake flowers around doorways seem to be a big thing here.

One of my highlights of the markets was a laneway next to the vintage end where there was a giant wall of climbing roses. The smell was unbelievable and several people were stopping to take photos. Imagine having this along your fence!

My new cardigan did clash with it somewhat.

After a wander up and down we found the main food section. There was food from all around the world.

I went for a Peruvian arepa, which always reminds me of Charmaine as she taught me how to make them – although so long ago I’ve forgotten. This had plantain in it, which I haven’t had for ages.

The lady making the arepas put all the ingredients on the grill, including a big handful of cheese and cooked them all together. Watching people at stalls work with bbqs makes me realise how limited our use is at home and it makes me want to be more creative.

By the time we’d bought food and walked to both ends the market was getting very busy. We met Lea and Pete again and Lea and I headed to Kensington Palace, a short walk away.

On the way we saw some interesting fashion!

And some very bland fashion. I’ve given up taking photos of people dressed entirely in white as there are so many, so then I was taking photos of couples dressed entirely in white and now I can’t even be bothered doing that. It’s a mysterious trend. Also.. how do they all stay so clean?

On to the palace, which looked pretty dull on the outside (albeit with lovely gardens) but inside was very interesting.

We’d come to see an exhibition on fashion.

Apart from booking tickets I didn’t actually know that much about the building or the exhibition. It turned out to be a combination of iconic modern pieces, such as Met Gala costumes, combined with examples of historic royal gowns and suits that illustrated the origins of modern trends and inspiration.

But first a visit to the toilet and a look at some wallpaper designed to commemorate Diana, who lived here for many years.

I think the wallpaper was one of my favourite items of the day, actually!

Some of the modern items were really amazing art and political statements, such as Dan Levy’s beautiful Met Gala outfit, which celebrated the LGBTQI+ community and used fine embroidery and interesting techniques to create a really joyful and also comfortable outfit. I loved it!

I don’t really know a lot about the Met Gala but some people seem to use it for good, like Billie Eilish collaborating with a designer on the proviso they stop using fur.

Other pieces were funny, such as this piece worn by Katie Perry.

And some were just stupid, like this Beyoncé piece which was designed to make her look like a goddess for her VMA performance (fine, whatever) but has her own face embroidered on the front. If you need to know someone has reached a level of celebrity where they have no one left around them who will tell them the truth, this is an indicator.

Anyhow, as beautiful as many of the old and new pieces were, the exhibition seemed very focused on glamourising fashion and even going so far as it to say the need for specific items enriched communities around the world. No mention of the devastation of animal populations such as beavers for hats or the slave trade that funded/allowed these lifestyles (and still does), no mention of current ills such as the blinding of the children who sew the fine detail in dark workrooms on India, let alone the global impact of fast fashion.

Art like this is beautiful, but only a handful of the displays were ethical in any way. Emma Watson’s dress was fashioned from Oxfam-collected wedding dresses and Tan France’s Indian outfit, that celebrated his immigrant roots, was another favourite.

After all the slow shuffling along with the crowds my feet were aching so we walked in the direction of the nearest tube station and found a pub for a drink. Lea likes lemon, lime and bitters but it has been impossible to find anyone here who will make one so this time I asked if the barmaid had any angostura bitters and could she please add a dash to the lime and soda… voila! Almost as good as the real thing.

There was a Waitrose near the tube station and so we popped into to compare it to Booths, the fancy northern supermarket. It wasn’t bad but didn’t have a cheese counter so I’m going to have to say that Booths is still my supermarket of choice, although one of the cheeses we bought there was possibly the meltiest Brie-style cheese I’ve ever tried. For future reference it was:

Despite the rail strikes on the day it was a quick trip home to rest our feet. Pete and Luke were not long in getting back, they’d been to see the most recent Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

We had planned to go to the pub up the road, The Camden Head, for dinner and their free comedy night. Luke and I got there first and ordered dinner, which was late and unremarkable. What was remarkable was how little the bar staff were doing, particularly one young guy who spent all his time looking at his phone, vaping, drinking and high-fiving the security guard while the female bar staff cleared tables and served customers. My parents would have fired him in minutes if he’d worked at one of their pubs!

Unfortunately it turned out that, although this pub was called the Camden Head and there was comedy on, the free, unticketed comedy was at a different pub, also called The Camden Head, which was in Islington, not Camden. The comedy at the one we were at was ticketed and sold out. Sigh.

We ended up going back to the apartment and eating cheese and playing cards until about 10:30.

Not a bad way to end the day!

2Jun2023

London Day 2: Camden Markets and Hamilton

by Miss Penny Black

We eschewed our usual breakfast at home for an early wander up the road to Camden Markets. So early that half the shops weren’t open but we found coffee and sat for a little while.

I bought a bead necklace (blue of course) and a hand-painted tile for the kitchen wall.

I had a delicious bowl of salad for brunch. Luke got a Shake Shack burger. I really feel like there haven’t been enough salads and vegetables in my diet lately. I’m getting to that point in the trip where I miss my own kitchen.

After a couple of hours at the markets we went back to the apartment to get ready for…. Hamilton!

We got to Victoria Station early and had time for a drink in a roof top bar. Everyone else decided to play it safe and not have a drink before the show but I had a glass of wine.

The sun came out for a little while but the day was quite cold. In the city every alleyway is a wind tunnel but the underground is always boiling hot. It’s very annoying!

The building looks big but inside it wasn’t huge which meant that, even though we had seats fairly far back, we could see pretty well.

Luckily the family in front weren’t too tall.

The songs were catchy and the singing was great. I enjoyed it but I still can’t say I’m a fan of musicals in general. My favourite song was Washington’s first song and my least favourite was his final song, which felt like a waste of time. A controversial opinion, no doubt!

After the show we walked past Buckingham Palace. It really is a very boring building.

I like the shiny gold thing over the road better.

Then we walked to Soho via Pall Mall (Paul maul or Pal mal??) and then caught the tube to King’s Cross. No less than three independent sources had recommended we try Dishoom, a chain of Indian restaurants. there’s one in Kings Cross. We headed there only to find there was a 1.5 hour queue. They don’t take bookings so we decided to try again another day.

Instead we walked to our suburb and chose a little Greek restaurant that did lovely food. All very simple but tasty.

We got home around 8:30 and spent a couple of hours eating cheese and planning the future days in a bit more detail.

I sent Bonnie a postcard a couple of weeks ago, I don’t think she was very excited.. is this a yawn?

6May2023

Pontevedra, Spain

by Miss Penny Black

We booked two nights in Pontevedra (when I say ‘we’ Danny did literally everything) and left Santiago mere minutes after signing off on the Camino. We didn’t stay because we are coming back for a few days later on so we’re seeing a bit more of Galicia before then.

After this is three nights in Porto.

The apartment Danny found is lovely, it opens right onto a laneway in the old part of the city.

The interior is mostly mint green trim and feature walls of flamingo wallpaper.

Unfortunately, because we booked a Friday and Saturday night, between 4 and 6am crowds of people streamed past my window shouting, singing and partying on their way home from nightclubs.

The lady who owns the place met us when we arrived and said the front bedroom was loud but didn’t specify that the street noise, which was minimal during the day, wasn’t the problem. I’m writing this at 5:30am because I’ve given up on going back to sleep. Every time I think there’s going to be no more noise another group comes along to stand right outside talking at top volume.