A Big Belfast Weekend

For our final weekend in Belfast we did a lot of things! First up was seeing The Prodigy. I’ll be honest, I’m not usually one for going to shows like this where there’s a lot of standing around, queues for everything and apocalyptic toilet situations. However Luke was keen to go and it was a show that would be over by 11pm – a big draw for most over 40s and particularly for me, who is almost 50.

The forecast was for some rain so we (Luke, Peter, Ciara (Peter’s sister), Ash, Danny and I) took brightly coloured ponchos in little plastic balls but I also decided to take my proper raincoat. It’s such a hard decision, whether to take a coat to an event. If it doesn’t rain I’ll have to hold it all night, but if it rains and I get wet through I’ll be miserable and cold. I did wear it all evening through some light showers so I was glad I’d taken it.

I’ve always liked The Prodigy, even though almost all their music is quite angry, punk-electronic shouty kind of stuff that I wouldn’t normally listen to. Prior to the show I thought I’d only recognise two or three songs. I ended up knowing almost all of them and the ones I didn’t know I really liked. We stood fairly far back from the stage but everyone around us was dancing and having a great time.

Adding to the enjoyment of the evening, Danny had booked taxis to take us there and then pick us up outside, so the whole thing was very seamless and smooth. Normally getting home from big events is stressful with the crowds and transport but it was all so easy.

We ended up staying up until the small hours, talking and cuddling Freddie. A brilliant evening all round!

The next day (Saturday) we did absolutely nothing but sit around watching TV and chatting, as one does after a big night out. On Sunday Danny drove Peter, Luke and I to Mount Stewart, a manor house with extensive gardens.

There was a car show out the front with some very cute and stylish old vehicles. Luke and I paid for entry to the house and the ground floor was open.

After learning so much about Irish history on this trip, it’s hard for me to enjoy places like this in an uncomplicated way. Yes, I love the architecture and find things interesting, but the people who entertained their highbrow friends here so they could ‘get away from it all and relax’ in a 22 bedroom, 24,000 acre estate, were doing it while catholic families only miles away were living in squalor because the government, that these people were part of, treated them like second class citizens. Not all that different from Australian history, I guess – almost all the beautiful old buildings in Melbourne were funded by gold that was gained from the destruction of native lands and removal of indigenous people.

Still, I did like the scope of their lounge room. It managed to be enormous and yet cosy and it was interesting to think about the points made in Watching the English, the book I’ve been reading throughout my trip. The author says that at the very top and bottom of the British class ladder, people will have mismatched and old furniture. The poor aspire to matching lounge suites but the rich inherit antiques and don’t want their furniture to match, for fear of looking like new money or middle class. Very few pieces matched in this room so these people must’ve been very rich!

Luke liked these lettuce-shaped dishes where the handles were formed by the curl of the leaves.

The gardens were slightly derelict but had quite a Secret Garden feel. There was a walled rose garden with some lovely specimens.

Beautiful. Also I’m so glad I got a new phone before I left, how lovely is the soft focus!

We had a shower then sun for five minute intervals and on our 30 minute walk I think I took off my jacket then put it back on at least ten times.

I’ll only show you the sunny photos though, to give the impression we had perfect weather.

Cygnets!

The landscapes park had lots of different types of landscapes and copses of different types of trees.

After a drink at a seaside inn we dropped Freddie off home. We then headed to a venue that was usually quiet on a Sunday afternoon so we could try Belfast’s famous LASA spice bag (famous because Lizzo had recently taken to social media to complain about missing out on trying one as they were closed after her show).

However things were not as we had anticipated – a DJ was playing extremely loud music indoors and LASA, one of the food trucks lining the walls, was giving away free servings of their spice bags. Unfortunately whoever was making them had doused them in chilli flakes so we left it unfinished and moved outside.

I wish I could post a video, it was quite deafening for mid afternoon on a Sunday. There were family groups sitting around looking a bit shell shocked.

Apparently it wasn’t their normal fare – as you can see, pretty plain.

Peter got us all some slices of excellent NY-style pizza, which were much more satisfying.

The whole time we were outside there was a man with a dog and the dog was standing either on the table or trying to get to our table to get our food. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a public eating place that allows dogs on tables.

A bright rainbow came out over the rooftops.

We spent the rest of the evening at different bars. Being a Sunday, it wasn’t too busy.

This pub had live music and way too many things that required dusting.

So many flowers decorating the pubs and bars.

‘Baby Guinness’ – Tia Maria with Baileys

But all good things must come to an end, and on Monday morning Danny drove Luke and I to the airport.

Goodbye Belfast!

If one picture encapsulates our meteorological experience it’s this one.

Danny and I made vague plans to do another walking trip, possibly around The Ulster Way, which is in Northern Ireland. That might be something we do next time, who knows?

29Jun2023

One Night In Derry

by Miss Penny Black

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!

26Jun2023

Belfast: Day 3: A Drive Around The Ard Peninsula

by Miss Penny Black

After a lot of wine and a late night for some (everyone but me), we all had a quiet morning before Danny took us on a very scenic drive around the Ard peninsula.

But first, Luke and I took Freddie for a walk to the supermarket. He was extremely well behaved and didn’t do any of the annoying things our own dog does.

Danny, with a medium amount of interference and obstruction from Peter, cooked up an absolutely perfect breakfast.

Danny does the mushrooms with a melty cheese and marmite and they were indeed magical! I shall be giving this a try at home.

Eventually we got ourselves into the car with Danny at the helm and Peter assisting with directions. Luke and I were left to admire the rolling green landscape and blue skies.

The houses along the coast are lovely colours.

We spotted an icecream van and got out for a stretch and some photos. Lucky we captured the sky at this point because the predicted storms that Danny had pooh-poohed earlier were lurking over the horizon.

The weather was just lovely and, most importantly, not too hot.

Normally photos taken by strangers are terrible but this lady did a great job!

I thought the clouds behind the van looked a bit like icecream.

We drove along the coast for a while and Danny pointed out landmarks. We lined up for the ferry across the narrow strait.

Dark skies do make for great photos though

Catching the ferry was fun and the flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder added a little spice to the scene

Not long after we drove off the ferry the rain started absolutely smashing down and then the hail started.

Apparently you can be fined in Ireland for driving through a puddle and drenching a pedestrian, which doesn’t seem like a policy in line with the famed Irish love of craic but there you go.

We saw a lot of tractors and I forgot I was collecting photos of them (and I’ve forgotten why) but here’s a terrible photo for the fans out there.

We stopped at the door of the Mourne Mountains in a little town called Newcastle. The mountain behind the town made it look a little like the Lake District but it was on the Irish Sea. It has a very shallow bay, apparently when the tide is low you can walk a very long way out.

We took a walk along the very pretty seafront, which was marred by a high cement wall and worse around the town’s public swimming pool.

We stopped in a pub for a drink. The whole place was very quiet for a not-totally-freezing Sunday afternoon.

On the way home the sun came out.

Irish rainbows have to be extra special, surely?

We finished the evening with a picky tea of fancy cheese and Peter’s delicious soy and chilli cucumbers – yet another dish I’ll have to try out at home.

Good night!

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.

19Jun2023

Hallstatt to Salzburg

by Miss Penny Black

Last night we very much enjoyed an excellent night’s sleep in our lovely bed, but we have noticed that in the hotels we have stayed in, both in Switzerland and Austria, the double beds are always made up of two single beds. Even when the room/bed head would not accommodate two single beds with spaces between, they are two separate beds. Often they have completely separate fitted sheets, which must be a pain to change, and they always have two separate duvets/quilts/doonas. Weird!

See how the bedhead is in two sections? This one has a cover but you can see two separate duvets underneath.

It does make me wonder what things people find strange when they come to Australia.

Despite our room being quite hot last night there was still no cooler option sheet-wise than using either the divested duvet covers or the ornamental spread that covered the whole bed. There was a small Dyson fan but we couldn’t open the windows for a cool breeze as there were no fly screens and, being by a lake, there were plenty of bugs. It feels like a market someone could really capitalise on financially!

There’s two layers of doors and windows, one of which is double-glazed. Excellent for winter but not for summer.

Anyhow, our sleep would’ve been a bit longer but the sun was shining in through the thin white curtains by 5:30am. Fortunately we’re both pretty good at sleeping through daylight. Seeing as how many parts of Europe experience extremely short evenings for at least a quarter of the year, the ineffective curtain situation is also mind boggling. I think I’ve reached the point of the trip where all I’m noticing are problems… sorry! I am actually still really enjoying myself!

Breakfast was a buffet that seemed to be manned by one extremely busy waitress. The selection of food was great and we ended up sitting next to an older American couple who had just finished their fourth biking holiday. They were both retired teachers and we had a good chat about work. One had been a reading teacher and told me how much she had loved the First Steps program, which was developed in Australia.

We left our bags at reception and went to hire a boat!

The small electric boats are hired for 30€ for an hour and it’s a great way to escape the hot streets and noise. Plus I love boats!

We hired one immediately at 11:30am but by the time we got back there was a queue.

The boats have two speeds: slow and stopped. Fine by us, and the electric motor means the lake is very quiet. The town has signs up asking people to keep the noise down and not play music on the street. Also there were signs about not flying drones but we saw one in the air just before we left.

As we had some time before the ferry back to the train, we went back to the hotel and had a drink on the deck.

Several staff members remembered us from the night before and I got to ask one of them about living and working in such a tourist town.

He said they often work 12+ hour shifts and the hotel they work for provides accommodation if they want it nearby, but it does cost them money to stay there. He rents a place in a nearby town and travels to Hallstatt.

He said people in the village had mixed opinions on the value of the tourism and the vast number of visiting cultures had changed the nature of the place, with some people taking photos through peoples’ windows and being more invasive and pushy. Right after he said this a family came in and immediately demanded a particular table, an umbrella (in a huge concrete stand) be moved and then they plonked themselves down despite the manager of the restaurant saying she couldn’t accommodate them.

It’s almost incomprehensible to me, with my reticent Anglo cultural heritage, to argue and demand something in a business then sit down and be perfectly comfortable with people I’ve just upset serving me food and drink. I’d just leave, but according to my Watching the English book, that’s not a trait everyone shares and I guess maybe there’s something to be said for being so much more bold…?

Watching the manager deal with the situation was quite something. She was a very dynamic and direct person, and she came to our table soon after. We told her we admired how well she did her job.

It must be quite the challenge to deal with people from all over the world, all with their own ideas of what is appropriate, what is polite and how to behave. Businesses in such places seem to do all they can to manage people effectively, but when people don’t speak the language (ourselves included, obviously!) it’s not hard for things to go wrong or get very confused. The restaurant had a sign in German and English asking people to wait to be seated but a lot of people just walked right in and sat at a table.

After our drinks we headed to the ferry landing next to the hotel. This might be the smallest non-chihuahua breed I’ve ever seen.

We caught the ferry back across the lake.

It was quite hot inside but better than being on the back of the ferry in the direct sun.

We’d booked dinner and a show in the evening, not thinking about the train cancellations and travel time but it worked out fine.

We sat on the scenic side of the train this time. Apparently the water in this lake is drinking quality!

We took a taxi from the station in Salzburg to our Airbnb place in the old town.

This is the building entrance, not our front door. Pretty imposing though!

The kitchen, note the fold out table and folding chairs and the complete lack of room if you chose to use them.

The kitchen is so tiny it reminds me of our Camden flat but the lounge and bedroom are quite spacious. We would’ve really appreciated all this room when there were four of us!

The flat has windows on two opposite sides so the evening breeze is nice but the amount of noise from people walking past is quite high. The stone walls of the buildings means that it echoes a lot. Also there are no fly screens and the owner had left the windows open so there were heaps of flies zooming around.

Still, the mattress is decent and it’s nice to have cooking facilities and a washing machine.

We had a lie down for an hour then changed for our dinner and classical music evening at the St Peter Stifskulinarium, the oldest restaurant in the world.

How old??

It’s been in operation since at least 803 AD. 1220 years!

It’s huge too, over 600 seats in 11 rooms. All the rooms are different colours and themes. The main restaurant looks like this:

We had a drink here before the show, which was in a large room upstairs. Parts of the restaurant are carved straight into the cliff face.

One the way to our concert we saw some pretty amazing wallpaper.

Also some fancy lighting fixtures.

Our concert room was more traditional.

We were sat at a table with two lovely ladies, one from Delhi, one from New York, who had become friends because their husbands were childhood friends and now they go on trips without the husbands! I love that! These lovely ladies told us about an organ performance that happens at the cathedral each day at midday so we said we might see them there.

The concert was all Mozart, mostly songs from operas but some instrumental pieces. There were only two singers, one man and one woman, and they were quite incredible! The volume and notes they could reach were something I don’t think I’ve heard in person before.

I do wish there’s been more instrumental pieces though, they were Luke’s and my favourite.

A very interesting way of laying the table!

The only food I photographed was the dessert, nockerl, a local dish that I think is supposed to represent three mountains. It is served with raspberry sauce underneath and basically tastes like undercooked meringue, very sweet and soft.

A short walk home afterwards and straight to bed, although it was still warm inside. We opened up the windows for some airflow but noisy passers-by meant closing them, then putting in my noise-cancelling earplugs and playing rain sounds.

In the morning (6:30ish) a sewerage truck parked almost under our window and ran some kind of pipe down every sewerage line in the area for about two hours with a loud motor running. Not our best night’s sleep!