Finn McCool's Mighty Pipe Organ

I have been a bit surprised that a handful of my friends (who I generally consider sort of intelligent) hadn't heard of the Giant's Causeway. It's one of those things that I assumed everyone knew about. Much like Loch Ness. Turns out I was wrong. So for those of you who don't know, the Giant's Causeway was made by Finn McCool, an Irish giant with a hexagon fetish, so that he could get to Scotland without getting his feet wet. It was later broken up by Benandonner after some griddlecake-based hijinks leaving only a pile of wonky hexagons.

Turns out that the wonky pile of hexagons is pretty impressive, way better than I had expected. My only real gripe is that public transport timings meant that it was something of a smash and grab affair, rather than a leisurely appreciation. 

I stayed in Derry. I'd not been to Derry before and don't really see why I would go back. Don't get me wrong, the city is interesting enough, it's just the whole pro-IRA vibe that they had going on made me feel conspicuously English.

Ate me an Ulster fry. Possibly the least healthy thing I have ever eaten. The whole thing had had the flavour and texture deepfried out of it. Even the beans.

Vampires and That

So my second time in Transylvania. And this time it was the Transylvanian end of Transylvania where there are vampires and tourists and that, not the other end where there's amazing scenery and foreigners are a bit of a novelty. Hell no. If I can't get a set of novelty Vlad Tepes coasters then it's not Transylvania regardless of what the map says.

Brasov is pretty pretty though, I can see why that's all touristy. Ideologically it's about as far as you can get from Bucharest with its communist chic and hard to cross intersections. Brasov is all toytown tranquility and fairytale eaves. And vampires, obviously. The Black Church looks like prime vampire real estate.

Talking of vampire real estate, we took a jaunt out to Bran Castle to see the so called home of Dracula. That's a place that does a turret well, albeit in an Exit Through The Haunted Gift Shop kind of way.

Back in Bucharest now. Had a trip to the National Peasant Museum (odd, obviously) and am now in the airport, swallowing annoyance that they told me I couldn't use Romanian currency in duty free, made me change my money, only for all food and drink to be in local currency. Which meant my cola cost more than any meal I've eaten this weekend. The rotters.

Romanian Balls

And back to Eastern Europe. This time Bucharest, which so far (and in real terms it has only been one afternoon) is providing an all round good level of weird. Against a backdrop nowhere near as grey and angular as I'd been led to believe - even the guidebook describes it as Europe's most unappealing capital.

So, according to TripAdvisor, Bucharest's premier tourist attraction is Escaperooms. Basically it does what it says on the tin: you're locked in a room and given an hour to escape by working out a series of clues. What kind of city has reenacting Saw as their main tourist attraction?

Last night finished up in a glow-in-the-dark, crazy golf themed karaoke bar or it could have been a glow-in-the-dark, karaoke themed crazy golf bar. Either way there are nowhere near enough glow-in-the-dark, crazy golf themed karaoke bars in the world. Fact.

And it wouldn't be proper weird if there wasn't something weird to eat: pork fillet stuffed with turkey testicles - bring it on.