Visiting Alan and Tina's home outside of Manchester has been dead brilliant (as Claire and Carys would say, we're so taking that back to Canada with us!... You can have wigger!). We spent our time consuming cider and wine, laughing our heads off and taking in the wise words of comedian Peter Kay "Garlic bread? Garlic bread?" We went to see The Manchester United Stadium which we have say Alan is a little obsessed with...And to Lyme Park where we took a tour around a hall where the movie 'Pride and Prejudice' was partly filmed. Alan's sister April and her husband Steve took us out for a nice dinner as well and that completed the visit with all five Copestake siblings that Chevhaun is second cousins with. Big thanks to all of them and their families for keeping us well fed and watered before going on to see the rest of Western Europe and living out of a backpack.Oh we'll be back! .....We always come back! Thanks so much for everything its been wonderful.

We travelled to a village called Penrhyndeudreath to stay with more of Chevhaun's family, Nina and Morris and it was with them that we discovered the amazing beaches of Wales and fell in love. They took us to see a village called Abersoch where Chevhaun's Great Grandfather lived before moving to Canada for good back in the 1920's. We were very fortunate because Nina's daughter arranged for us to see the home of a great poet named Hedd Wyn who passed away in 1917 before recieving a major poetry trophy. Poets are greatly honoured in Wales and recieve engraved chairs as awards to commemorate them on their poetry. Hedd Wyn had already recieved five chairs for previous achievements and was to be awarded with a large, very detailed thrown until it was announced at the ceremony that he had died a month earlier. The chair was covered with a black cloth and delivered to the family of Hedd Wyn, which then became known as The Black Chair and eventually a movie based on the story was made. The nephew of Hedd Wyn lives right up the hill from where his uncle's house still stands untouched and he gave us the honour of seeing the five chairs and throne that the great poet earned. See Ma! we did learn something! Our trip to Wales have been short but sweet, packed with loads of family history and great people. We are back to England for our final days in the U.K, then on to Amsterdam.

Wales really is Britain's best kept secret! It is an absolutely beautiful country that we both have agreed to visit again. We went to stay with Wendy and Gwyn in a town called Caernarfon and saw where Chevhaun's Great Grandfather was born and raised. Fortunately we have had great weather and we walked around the Caernarfon Castle and also saw where her Great Great Grandfather and Great Aunt are buried. Gwyn took us to a town that has the longest name of any place in Britain called Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (no, we do not know how to spell it or say it and never will). We went to the highest mountian in the UK too called Snowdon which really isn't that high compared to Canada's peaks! Welsh must officailly be the heardest language to learn because of all the differnt meanings of letters and really grasping the hacking and spitting sounds that go along with them. Chevhaun and I learned how to say 'how are you?' and 'pity' and thats about as good as it gets.

Two countries down in 12 days...We are moving right along and arrived in Buxton England on Thursday afternoon to stay with family of Chevhaun's for a few days. Ian, Sue and their son Paul made us feel right at home, spoiled us like crazy and we almost forgot how nice it is to sleep in a real bed and have clean clothes. (Yes we have been in bunkbeds for 12 days and haven't done laundry since we left...dirty birds we are) Buxton is a lovely community of about 20,000 people and is about an hour train ride away from Manchester. Sue took us for a drive to see Chatsworth, home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire which is a village outside of Buxton. Their estate is amazing and we got to take a look around in some gift shops and have a hot drink in one of the cafes. In England tea time comes about every two hours, so we are constantly sipping on something hot! We also stopped in a place called Bakewell and picked up a few homemade puddings which were delicious. Chevhaun and I toured around central Buxton and saw the Museum, Art Gallery and Opera House, as well as the Pavilion Gardens which is like a bird sanctuary. Check out the strange duck/chicken looking pheasant. On Saturday Ian and Sue took us out to another village called Eyam which during the Bubonic Plague was devastated by disease. It is a well-lived in Village now, but on each house there is an engraving to remember family members who died during the plague. Some houses lost up to 12 family members or more all within days of each other because disease spread so quickly. That evening we watched two reality shows which are pretty well the UK's version of Canadian Idol and Dancing with the Stars...Except now Chevy and I have become addicted to them over here and will now have to be checking the internet to see the status of contestants for the rest of our trip.

Our trip to Scotland would not be complete without a visit to its charming capital city Edinburgh. Every building is historical and connected by winding cobblestone streets and you can hear the sound of bag pipes in the distance from any shop corner.Chevhaun and I have both decided that we would live here in a second. The day we arrived we took a sightseeing tour around the city and then tried Haggis for lunch. It was the first time and the last time! Our hostel, Edinburgh Backpackers, has many Canadians staying at it who are either just visiting or live and work in the city. We took a 12 hour tour to the highlands of Scotland that lead us to Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness. We took a boat ride across the Loch but never ran into any mythical sea creature along the way. We also saw a highland bull which is called Hamish. After the tour we packed it in early, but not without fitting in a few games of rummy. It's on. The next day we had lunch in a park facing the Edinburgh Castle and started the uphill treack to see it, stopping to torture ourselves in many shops along the way. We have decided to stay one more night and got a deal too. We are headed to Buxton, England on Thursday to stay with family of Chevhaun's.

Our first night in Glasgow was an interesting one. We woke up in the middle of the night to one of our roomates passed out on Jenny (another roomate) in her bunk. She had her pants down and when we were unable to even get any sign of life out of her we had to alert the front desk and get someone else to. It was so funny, mainly because Chevhaun thought it was me leaned up drunk against the poor girl. In the morning the drunken stumbler stayed asleep until we left and was gone for good when we got back (probably because she puked in the middle of the floor). We made our way through central Glasgow, stopping to shop a little of course and had lunch in George Square where City Chambers and The Cenotaph are located. We caught a sightseeing bus around the city and then went to The Museum of Modern Art followed by the Glasgow Museum and Botanic Gardens. Our evening was spent consuming bottles of cheap wine and roast beef and carmelized onion chips. We then thought up a bet to keep for the remainder of our trip: Seeing how Chevhaun and I are avid Rummy players, we decided to not shave our legs for the duration of the trip and the person with the most points scored during Rummy will buy the other a leg wax in London before returning to Canada. Side note...don't worry we both will be getting our legs waxed - compliments of the loser of course.

We took a super-scenic train into Belfast from Dublin and arrived at our next hostel The Ark, where they are very friendly and our room has three bunk beds...only one of which is occupied by a girl from Australia. We have decided that Belfast is far cleaner then Dublin, but just as busy. We are located very central again and the streets are constantly filled with people, cars and drunk Irish beggers. We love the wankers! Today we hopped on the Mini Coach for a tour along the coast of Northern Ireland. Our first stop was at the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge which is one hundred feet in the air suspended with two pieces of plywood which we walked on. After a quick visit with some sheep and cows grazing in the green (don't think dirty now) hillside we hopped back on the mini coach and headed for Giant's Causeway...the eighth Wonder of the World! When we arrived to the Causeway, which are hexigonal rocks formed by volcanic reaction, the sun came out in perfect time for us to explore the amazing scenery. We walked about 4 km along the causeway and various cliffs surrounding it. The day ended up being a 9.5 hour adventure and so we leave you here to get some shut-eye and prepare for another day of our journey abroad.
P.S The pic of Kyra leaping over the fence in an attempt to use the picture timer..."Kyra are you going to make it over the fence?" "Don't worry, I'm like a gazelle!"

Day two in Dublin was much nicer, weather wise...we woke up to blue skies and friendly faces and strolled out into the bustling streets of Dublin to see what we could find. We discovered fast how dirty Dublin is - finding trash everywhere and walked along the River Liffey (Liffey meaning dirty...fancy that) and into the heart of Dublin. Our hostel is located very central already but we seem to enjoy walking in circles and have become quite good at it. We headed to a popular bar called the Celt Pub for a few more pints and enjoyed the traditional Irish tunes (live) with a few familiar faces that we met the night before. We have decided that Dublin was our learning curve of the trip, getting us used to the currency, hostel life and how to be much more polite then we would be in Canada! DO you know that to ask "who is this" on the phone or in person is considered very rude? and that buying drinks for the people you are with is very common courtesy in Ireland? We milked the fruits of that labour hahahah. So until next time goodbye to Dublin....

Well, we made it to rainy Ireland...jet legged, wet from searching for our hostel for an hour and ready to have a shower (Which in it's self is a horse of a different color). We finally find Abraham House and walk in to a room with two bunk beds, which bottoms are already taken and a bathroom that you need to be extremely flexible to maneuver in. We love it already and it gets even better when we wonder down the street to some Irish pub for our first pint of Guinness. Thick! But oh so good, way worth waiting for, especially when a local informs us that Dublin has the best Guinness you'll find. We proceed in playing a game of Bluff which is quickly called `What the Fuck`. Even more hysterical coming from a native Irelander. The ice is broken between new friends with a joke from (some guy who's name we cannot pronounce)----`Shove on your knickers, your mommas comin''! For those of you who do not get it, it's a pun on Chevhaun's name. That is our night for now, until next time.................
Chevy and Kyra