In Dublin's fair city....

At the moment I am in Dublin and having a downer day where everything seems bad and I just feel like going home. I hate feeling like this but it happens occasionally....



Luckily that was written a week ago and now....
I am having a fantastic time. I love Ireland even though it has rained all the time (not quite true it was lovely and sunny yesterday! Perfect day travelling through the countryside and exploring the beaches).

The tour is great! I am having fun getting to know the people on the tour with me. We have been out every night since we started so the rumours about party tours are all true! But it has been great and some of my friends and maybe even my relatives(you know who you are) will be happy to know that I have started to learn how to drink. I have even tried Guinness which is ok but "Car bombs" are deadly. Sorry to Oma and Opa and others that are shocked :) Cover your eyes. hehehe

I love the music they have here it is really good . And guess what not.... many people know that Acushla is an Irish name!!!!! How annoying!

I love the Republic of Ireland but find the politics in the North quite heavy. We were in Derry or Londonderry (depending on what side you're on) but the night we were there some one got shot and that was tied up with the problems. There is still tension but it is such a small percentage of what it was. It must have been sooooo scary growing up during that time!!!

Got to go - it was lovely talking to you all.

Thanks to all that have sent me emails - I LOVE them!!! Sorry if I can't always reply. To the rest ofd you I'm still waiting......if you ever have 5 minutes to spare drop me a line some time.

All my love and hugs and kisses Acushla

Liverpool - Land of the Scousers

Hi all,
you should be very proud of me it is now past 11 pm and I have just got into my hostel. I have been out 'on the town' in Liverpool! It's a Friday night and I just couldn't sit in my room and go to bed early so I had dinner then wandered around until I found a bar that had a live band. So I went down there and listened to the music, had a few drinks and started chatting with some German boys. Then went to an Irish pub to watch the last 1/2 hour of the football. The whole game was quite boring but in the last minutes of the second lot of extra time Croatia scored!!! Then 4 seconds after the game was meant to finish Turkey scored!! It then went to a penalty shoot out which Turkey won!!! How crazy!!! But it was good fun. I then walked back to the hostel where I am now trying to quickly read all your lovely emails, which I love so much, and to type this and do 5 other things at the same time before the time runs out!!.

I have spent the last few days in the Lake District which I just love!!!!!!!!!!!! It is soooooooooooooooooooo BEAutiful. Just lovely. I had a brilliant time. Got quite wet but oh well.

Last week I spent time with an amazing family, the Hendersons. Rosie is my cousin's girlfriend and I stayed with her family in the country near Salisbury. Rosie and I went to places like Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral.

The English Family Robinson Burden

The English Family Robinson Burden
Originally uploaded by Acushla Burden

Went to dinner with Dad's brother Tony and his partner Lisa.
They have 4 boys, Beau holding his daughter Mia, Brady (not in photo), Chad & Buddy. Grandma and Grandma, were there with Serena, mother to Mia.

Isle of Wight...... Land of the McDoogles...

A very big SORRY to Karen Brown.

I apologise to Karen for not writing in my blog about the wonderful Isle of Wight and all the fun I had there......... 

On the Isle of Wight in a little house in Newport (that is surrounded by such a lovely garden - it even has a newt pond!) lives the lovely family of the McDoogles. The leader of the family is Karen, such a wonderful person (a one in a million kind of person) she just accepted me into the family, made me feel at home and loved. Yes she did also make me do the ironing and help her clean up the garden but this was fine as I wanted to help anyway.

This is an extract from my journal...
16/5
Stirling aged six is wonderful, so lovely and lively, just a great little boy. We had a falling out the other day over such a little thing, so we where "no longer friends" but eventually I got in his good books again. 

I can't write how he says my name, but its like a- COO-sha-la. 

We are all sorts of things together, like pirates looking for treasure; or secret agents on a mission to capture daddy; explorers trekking through the wild jungle of the amazon.
I really love his outlook on life, the simplicity and joy of childhood. He is so imaginative and just plain old sweetie pie... most of the time. :)

Time is running out... I will continue to shamelessly flatter the Isle of Wight another time.
xoxo Cush

Jane Austenland - Bath

Just a quick line to say.....
narny narny nar nar I'm in Bath.......and it's wonderful!
lots of love Acushla.

Bruuuucccccccccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......

Well hi there.
It is the day after the Bruce Springsteen concert, which was just FANTASTIC!!!!



(Acushla wasn't quite this close.... but it gives you an idea of the size of the concert.... Paul)

Scottish Highlands and Islands...... oh and England too....

So very sorry that I have been neglecting you all. I will now try to recap what has been going on for the last two weeks.....

I arrived in Scotland on Sunday. Edinburgh is a beautiful city especially the parts I was in.....
now this just shows how much I have been neglecting you.... I wrote that over a month ago and never finished it. Some time I will have to write a really long account of what I have been up to but for now I have only half a hour so I will tell you what I have been up to in the recent past.

I have spent the last week in London in a wonderful flat with some wonderful people (Frank and Jess) in a wonderful location (Pimlico right by the River Thames just down from the Britain Tate, an art gallery which houses some lovely statues and some fantastic paintings by William Turner). It's in the City of Westminster so Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey are right down the road and Buckingham Palace is around the corner....not that I have been there! NOTE I love the Tube - it is so great it will get you anywhere if you just have a little patience and a Tube map.

For the last week I have been packing my bag each day and heading out to explore the "Big Smoke". There are so SO many museums and art galleries that I really haven't go to go to all of them. Like today I went back to Trafalgar Square (I was there a couple of days ago but you really can't take in that much in just one visit so I have been returning to places like Kensington Gardens and the British Museum) and wandered around the National Gallery. My favourite part was seeing the works of Turner and Constable also the Impressionists and Van Gogh (it isn't "Va Go" even though that's how it sounds). It is really amazing to see these paintings in real life. Paintings that I have studied with Julia and Gubs (my art teachers). They always said when we were studying a painting, 'When you go and see such and such' and here I am really seeing these paintings up close!! It is so great!!!
Now I know, not just believe, that it is real that so many years ago Turner put paint to canvas and created 'Rain, Smoke and Speed'. It makes history so real. You can see proof of history all around you when you are in London. I love it. I then went to the National Portrait Gallery where I saw lots of famous people most of whom are dead now. It was great to see portraits of past kings and queens, once againg it makes the past real not just a story in a book or dates on a page but a physical thing that has lasted through the generations. It was nice to place the different people to an era especially all the scientists who made such amazing discoveries in the Victorian era. I get to use all sorts of things that I have learnt in school or through books or what people have told me when I remember what so and so did. For example Leonardo da Vinci or Michael Faraday.

Just to let you know that I am very happy at the moment and having a great time. I was in a blue patch last week but that is just the way travelling goes - you take all of it on, the good and the not so great. I love and miss every single one of you and hope that some day you will be able to have an adventure like mine.

All my love Acushla.

P.S. If you don't send me your addresses I can't send you a post card. So please email your address AND POST CODE (somebody gave me their adress with no post code which isn't particularly useful).
P.P.S. You might like to know that I get reminded of you when I listen to certain songs - Sasha when ever Jack Johnson comes on. (sorry I have to go!)
Bye! xoxoxo