Christmas Presents for all

So over my many different vacations of late I've been collecting a lot of paper.  Maps, guides, pamphlets etc...  I decided to finally put them to good use.  Christmas Presents for everyone!

These were made from Disneyland Maps.

Each bouquet has 8 flowers with 3 different flower sizes. Each one took about 3 hours to make or so.  I made 5 bouquets all at the same time to it is hard to say how much time it took to make them individually.

They are wrapped and ready to go!
I love being ready for Christmas.  I hope that everyone likes their holiday gifts.  I always love making things for others for the holidays, but really anytime is good too!  

Day 8 Into the Republic of Ireland

After a very informational and fun evening in Belfast it was time to head south into Ireland proper.  

The first stop was along the Irish coast.  A place called Giant's Causeway.  

The story goes that there once was a giant named Fynn McCool.  The causeway used to connect Ireland to Scotland.  Fynn was a smaller giant with a wife and they had heard that a huge giant was on his way to challenge Fynn. So Flynn’s wife dressed him up like a baby and painted a rock like a steak and a steak like a rock.  She gave the steak that looked like a rock to Fynn and when the other giant came across she introduced that giant to Fynn's baby.  Fynn ate his steak while the other giant tried to eat his own and could not.  So after seeing the size of the baby and how easily it at the steak when he could not he decided against meeting Fynn himself and ram back to Scotland destroying the causeway as he went.  A Great story and an amazing place. 

All of the stones that are scattered around are hexagonal.  Volcanic eruptions created the size and shapes of the stones.  The stones even create natural staircases around the entire area.  Truly amazing to walk around and again take too many photos.

Our next stop was our Northern Ireland in a town called Londonderry.  Like Belfast there is still a lot of religious tension.  Around the interior of the city is another wall.  But compared to Belfast's relatively young wall Londonderry's looked to be about at least 300 years old.  

Cannons were along all the city walls.  These days the walls look like they are protecting the stores, restaurants, and shopping malls.  The city is also known as Derry.  There are more Catholic Irish leaning people in town that don't want the city connected to the UK.  On our way out of town there were more Union Jacks than in town representing the Protestants in the area.  

After our lunch stop in Londonderry we drove south to the border into the Republic of Ireland.  Again there was nothing really showing the change of country outside of a sculpture in a round about.  My poor passport feels so unused. 

We arrived into our next city for the next two nights of Galway.  The hotel we stayed at was on the outskirts of town.  Very sketchy area with missing letters from buildings and abandoned buildings.  A little off-putting when your sheets have holes in them, you go to the front desk to request a sheet change and they just give you the sheet to change yourself.  Or as one other person on the tour thought that someone was constructing the world’s largest ransom sign.

So after changing my sheet we went into town for dinner. Being at another port city I decided on a seafood pasta dish.  The price was a little steep and but so was the portion size, way to big.  So after a long day I headed in early to get a good night sleep for another day in Ireland the next day.

Day 7 The Walls of Northern Ireland

We left Glasgow to ferry across the sea to Belfast.  After a little drive to the port we drove our bus onto the barge.  We were not allowed to stay on our coach when we were moving across the seat but thankfully the barge was state of the art.  

There were dining halls, restaurants, shops, seats all around, and decks to wonder around. I got a refillable hot drink cup for free because the credit card reader was on the fritz.  Score!  The journey only took a little bit more than 2 hours and we landed easily on Northern Ireland.

Our next stop was Belfast.  Belfast has a very checkered past. I was a little hesitant to visit the city because of the problems they had had in the recent past.  We started our visit with a black cab tour.  We had four drivers from both religions that took our group around the city to both the protestant and catholic areas.  1969 to 1998 were the real battle years.  Like most conflicts of the past only a few people made the lives of those around them hell.  The protestants believe that the country of Northern Ireland should stay a part of the UK.  In their area the Union Jack flag flew from every home, street lamp, and between the streets.  There were paintings along the walls of most of the buildings that depicted those who lost their lives during the conflict.  But the paintings in the Protestant areas they were primarily what the rest of the world would probably consider war lords.  

A few of them were killed after the official conflict ended in 2000.  The stories we were told is that many of the leaders were killed by other factions on their own side because of in fighting.  There was one painting depicting a lone sniper that was painted in a way that the rifle barrel seemed to follow you wherever you went that they call the protector.  Very creepy.  

Our next stop was to the Belfast wall.  Around the wall here are 10 gates and all of them are still on use.  It is what you imagine that the Berlin wall should look like.  The wall stands 45 feet tall.  People to this day still try to throw things over the wall.  There was a clearly patched area from a Molotov cocktail that didn't make it over.  Many people have signed the wall hoping that their signature and the wall will be a thing of the past. 

We signed the wall and headed into the Catholic area.  The Catholics want to be a part of Ireland rather than staying with the UK.  Our stop inside the walls was at a memorial.  The most recent troubles started in 1969 on Bombay drive where the memorial was with the wall only about 10 feet away.  The homes that border the wall have cages protecting the back of their homes from stuff being thrown over still to this day.  Many people lost their lives including a few children as young as 4.  Photos of those lost and their names were placed around he memorial.  

Our final stop was next to a memorial wall that memorialized both sides of he conflict and spoke to current issues.  We took a group picture here.  All said and done that during the conflict 3800 lives were lost, more Catholics than Protestants, and about half of those lives lost were bystanders.  Such a silly thing to fight about and there is truly still no end in sight but at least it is better.

The other thing that Belfast is known for is their port and specifically the building of the Titanic.  All around the city there were stuff to buy, a new museum to visit (if i ever come back I'll to there but there was not enough time), and items from it all around.  Our restaurant had quite a few decorations around including the placemats.  

I ordered a leek soup, which was very good, and fish and chips that was too greasy.  It was a bit disappointing not to get the best fish and chips but I suppose you can't always win.  After dinner a group of the girls went downstairs to a karaoke bar.  When we first got there it was pretty much dead in there but that meant that a lot of us could get up to sing.  I had never sang in a karaoke bar before so it was a new experience for me.  The problem was when more locals started coming to the bar they were ignoring our song requests so after about 15 minutes of listening to Irish people singing sad country songs it was time to go and get a decent nights sleep for he next days adventure.  

If I ever get a chance to come back to Ireland I would defiantly come back to Belfast.

Projects that need finishing

There are many projects of mine that are sitting unfinished around the house.  I suppose it might be high time to get them out and start on them again.  

Most of the time my projects are practically done when I pull them out again.  To find and finish all of them will be a long process but it needs to be done.
My brother's wedding quilt.  I finished the top yesterday.  So now all that is left is putting together the back and quilting it.  Should take me a couple days but it needs to be done.  And will be by Christmas, I swear!

Kaleidoscopic quilt - The top is complete.  I will need to figure out how to quilt it.  I'm again in a queen size bed so it needs a queen size quilt.

 Patriotic quilt - This quilt is meant to be a decorative piece.  I had two of these.  Now I only have one as  I gave one to my mom, but she has to finish it!

 Another diamond quilt - I have enough queen size quilts already that I don't need another.  This quilt was also claimed by my mom to use in the guest bedroom at my parents house.  It looks great in the room, brings a lot of life inside.

Diamond baby quilt #1 - The top is complete and the batting and backing are attached.  All that needs to be done is quilting the pieces together. 

 Diamond baby quilt #2 - same as above!

 Diamond baby quilt #3 - triple that!

And some of them are complete.  I'll show them off on future posts!

Day 6 Working Man’s Glasgow

Our next stop after Edinburgh was Glasgow.  It only takes about an hour to drive over so it was a shot day on the bus.  Compared to Edinburgh Glasgow is working class city.  Up until the 90s most of the city would have been considered working class.  In the late 90s they started reinvigorating the city towards tourism, a developed downtown and upper class shopping.  

We started the tour at George square.  Like many European cities of the past the square was used as a stockyard and butchery.  Today many statues of the cities past politicians, writers and namesakes stand around the square along with another WWI monument. 

We proceeded to walk down the road to a statue of the Duke of Wellington.  Many of us had seen pictures of the statue before abed it was not because of how famous he was but because of his adornment.  The Duke has a construction cone on his head.  Basically awesome.  The town certainly has a sense of humorous about themselves.  For many years the police would take the cone down but it would always be back on in the morning so they gave up on keeping the Duke sans hat.  

 Behind the Duke is a former home of someone that had too much money.  The home is now home to Glasgow's modern art museum which was formerly a home.  I'm not a big fan of most modern art and that museum did not change my opinion.  The best thing in there was sculptures that looked like the ice cream at the top of a cone.

I wish I would have bought a post card of the Duke in the shop but I suppose that I remain consistent with my non buyers remorse.  Along with not buying any tartan scarves in Edinburgh, there were too many options.

 A few of us then walked over to the city cathedral.  It wouldn't be a European city without one.  This one was one of the most impressive that I have seen.  The upper level was huge.  The stained glass murals were probably 20 feet high each.  My guess that there was at least 20 of them.  Not only was that but there a whole lower level that had a variety of rooms for a variety of ceremonies.  Even if you are not supposed to take photos inside I did anyways. 

From there we grabbed a very authentic Glasgow meal of an overpriced Mexican burrito.  Just what I thought my Scotland experience would be.  Oh well.

 Most of the group headed back to the bus up to a whiskey distillery.  I've been to breweries before so I had some level of what to expect.  We started with a dram of single malt whiskey that most people couldn't even finish.  We walked around the distillery with our guide who explained all the steps of making it.  She also told us that they used to have the Royal seal on the bottle because the queen mum used to order and serve it.  Gotta love a 100 year old lady who still likes her whiskey.

The drive back the distillery was beautiful as it could be considered part of the Scottish highlands and lowlands.  But before heading back into Glasgow we drove up into the highlands to Loch Lomond.  Just like the song, you take the high road and I take the low road and I'll meet you at Loch Lomond.  So yes.  I saw a Loch in Scotland.  Bryn for the win!

 Our bus dropped us off at the hotel in what seemed to be the Indian part of town.  Let’s just say that our accommodations were not the Ritz but they weren't hostels either.

Our regular guide Tim told us about a comedy club in town so we all headed that way for a show.  A group of girls and I ended up at a small local pub where I ordered a toastie.  Basically a grilled cheese with onion tomato and bell peppers with a side salad. I only paid £2.95 for it and it was the best thing that I had outside our paid meals and Oink. Nothing fancy but it was great with a little hard cider.

After dinner we went to the comedy club called The Stand.  There was a sub par warm-up guy with 4 other comedians that came over to Glasgow from Edinburgh fringe.  He first guy was an Aussie like half of our group so he played to that really well.  The next were two women and they were both excellent.  The last guy was probably the worst.  About 3/4 of the audience was from out the UK and if he had been paying attention to the last couple of acts he would have known that most of his jokes were not going to make much sense to us.  Plus he looked like an old crazy Harry Potter without the glasses which I couldn't get over.  About 2 1/2 good acts for £10 was a good value.

Back to the hotel to sleep off an interesting but not spectacular day in Glasgow. The next day we would cruise across the sea to Ireland.  I suppose most cities would be a letdown after Edinburgh.

Day 5 A Solo Day in Edinburgh

I enjoyed my second full day in Edinburgh solo.  Almost everyone in the group took a day trip up to Loch Ness. it took them 5 hours to get up there, only one hour to explore, and 5 hours back.  I'm glad I passed on going because I had the most fantastic day solo.  

I went down for another Scottish morning breakfast and found only a few people stayed behind.  I ended up taking an easy morning leaving a clothesline in the room full of hand washed clothes and left around 11 and hit the town.

I got off a couple stops before where I had previously because there were a couple churches around with art fairs around them.  And taking after my mother I had to explore around the cemeteries in the town.  Every cemetery contains so much history and it seems that especially around Europe they all have a different feel to them.  

I walked into the church where they were rehearsing for a show a couple hours later.  Its always nice to have some extra ambiance while wondering around. 

On the outside of the church there wad an art fair but there was not too many things that tempted me so I walked out without anything added to my bag.  I headed into Prince's gardens and walked around in the rain taking pictures of the Edinburgh Castle from a different angle. 

From the park I went the Scottish museum   Mostly paintings and busts inside.  Nothing stood out to me too much.  Some of he landscapes were worth a stop for but how many can you truly look at.  My favorite was a display from various artist and their depiction of turn of the century fairy tales like the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.

After the museum there was a bit more Fringe fest to see.  There was a woman contortionist doing a show with hula hoops out front.  She was very talented and extremely flexible but for her own safety when it started to rain she ended the show.  Well I didn't pay for it so I can't complain.

I headed off to a part of town that I had not visited the day before, New Town.  This part of town had more upscale shopping and hotels.  I was hoping to run across the international book fair.  I was close by when I was walking but I did not find it at the time.  Oh well.  Nothing in that area interested me too much so back I went to Old Town and the Royal mile.  

I headed towards the castle again and stopped in some of the shops and literal tourist traps.  One shop I couldn't figure out how to get out.  Easy in not so much out.  After walking by bagpipers, William Wallace, and old timey soldiers I walked into another church.  I had a nice conversation with a local man inside about the Stone of Destiny and the various myths about it and if the one that is in possession by the government is the real one.  Who knows?  I got directions from them to a restaurant that was in the KC paper before I left and headed down alleyways and stairs to find it.  The place was called Oink and they serve pig roast sandwich   They were excellent and I got there between the lunch and dinner rush because there is usually a line out the door.

I walked down the road to Grey Friers cemetary.  The story goes there that a man passed away and his dog came to his gravesite every day.  For 10 years the dog came to his masters grave and even when they locked him out the keepers would always find him in the morning.  Amazing story. So much so that there is gravestone for the dog and people leave dog toys for him.  Also around the area is a coffee shop that JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book.  Sorry about all he Harry Potter mentions.  I realize I have a problem.

Around this area is the former city meeting place and the place where hey hung he accused.  There is another great story from his area as well.   There was a woman who was hung in the square who lived an entire second life if you will.  She was hung and when she was about to be buried she woke up and had not been killed.  The town rallied to the judge that she should be hanged again to follow though on her verdict.  But he judge disagreed because she had already been hint so she had already served her sentence.  So now that is why the sentences stay hung until dead.  Good to know!  

So off from the hanging spot I went down one of the lower streets to where ever it lead me.  I ended up around the other side of the Royal mile from the castle and at he Scottish Parliament building.  Scotland reinstated their parliament in 1997 and are currently proceeding to become their own separate country from the UK within the next few years.  The building is very strange looking.  If you looked at it from above the buildings would look like leaves and then connected with walkways.  Very strange.  But I ended up talking to a couple of employees of the building.   The woman instead of saying yes to answer said aye, awesome!  We talked about the summit that people were climbing behind the building and abut how long it would take to get to the top.

Well needless to say but my next adventure was he climb to the top of Hollyrood rock.  It took me about 45 minutes or so to get to the top with many stops in between   I've been working out at the gym before leaving but certainly not in preparation to climb mountains   When I finally got to the top I was rewarded with a 360 degree view of the city.  I could see the inlet, the other side of Scotland to the north, the ports along the water, a cruise ship in the water, the neighborhoods surrounding the city, the downtown area and the Castle.  It was totally worth the effort.  I got some other people at the top to take my picture while trying to stay upright because of the super heavy winds.  Wow is all I can say about the view.

I got a little lost when I was walking back into town.  I figure if you don't get at least a little lost while traveling you didn't do it right.  I found my way back to he middle of the Royal mile and found the bar where our group was meeting for he pub crawl.  We went to 5 fifteenth bars around the center of town, getting a shot at each and drink specials where we went.  Some of he shots were good, others were terrible and i ended up taking the shots of some of he lightweights.  The last bar we went was the best with a great DJ and a Frankenstein theme including the shots coming from test tubes.  I had a couple drinks and barely felt anything.

So after a really long day a couple of the girls and I caught a taxi back to the hotel for a good nights sleep for our next city of Glasgow.