Isle of Man: a trip back in time!
Hi everyone! So we ended up on the Isle of Man because my Mum is a Mylrea, which is a very good Manx name, with much family history there. She has always been a proud Manx, and was very excited about going there after so many years of hearing stories. Someone in Glasgow made comment to us that the Isle of Man was like going back 50 years, and holy moly were they right!!!!!! We flew over on a tiny plane, and it took about 20 minutes in the air from Glasgow. We picked up a hire car, and made our way to what was the most shittest hotel ever!! I had been going so so so well with all of my accommodation choices, but woah this hotel sucked arse!! We were pretty tired and settled in for the night, 2 little lumpy beds. My bed was so shit that I slept on an angle...the mattress was the worst ever (even worse than the hostel In Sydney I stayed with Lovejoy!!) !! I can't believe we didn't just pack up and walk out?? But the next morning I did tell the receptionist (she had crazy eye too- ekk!) that it was the most shitful room and shitful beds. They promptly upgraded us to a bigger room with views of the Irish Sea. It was still pretty shit, but less shit than the last room. We decided to stay, and in retrospect still don't really know why!!!! ;-) However we made the most of our time there, and we both really loved the Isle of Man. The island is only about 52km long and 22km wide, and it is most famous for the TT motorbike race every year. The TT was over just a day before we got there (we planned it to not be there during the race) and it was pretty cool driving around the coast with all of the race equipment still up- like padding on buildings and poles. The island is also well known for not having a speed limit for the most part- woohoo!!! Zoom zoom!!!!! I had fun!!! Everywhere we drove was amazing. And beautiful. And old. Either REALLY old as in ancient, or DATED from years gone by when tourism was huge. Back in the day it was the place to go for summer holidays in the region...but now there are heaps of half empty run down hotels and rooms along the promenade in Douglas (the capital) which is really sad. When you are in the museum and you see photos of the hay-day it is even sadder! We spent a bit of time at the Manx Museum, Mum did some research on the family.. And generally loved all of the history. It is so well curated we were constantly impressed and in awe. As is my hot topic in all destinations- there was a great veggie place!!!!! Mum jumped for joy at the site of salad, and it was at about this point that we started to feel ill at the sight of potatoes. There are 3 vegetables that I think will be off the menu for awhile when I get home- potatoes are in first place. Zucchini and peas are fighting it out for second place. Menus always have "potatoes and vegetables".. Who knew they should have their own food group?? Driving around was easy and fun. Everywhere was so close... It took about 18 mins from east to west!! I loved Peel, it was really beautiful! We also found a great fish n chip shop and I introduced mum to vinegar on chips. She's not a fan which I am surprised at.... But I can't pour enough vinegar!!! Could do without the potatoes though!! We checked out a graveyard in Andreas- which was one of the main spots for Mylreas. Finding it was interesting... I drove into what turned out to be some blokes property- looking for a graveyard. After we drove out and pulled up out the front he closed the front gate.... Don't think he had closed it in 50years... Whoops.... Eventually found it, and mum got right into finding relatives. I have a real issue with walking on graves and it was really windy and crows started hovering.... And I have watched the Exorcist movies wayyyy too many times, and it totally freaked me out..... I ended up sitting in the car and left my Mum behind in the graveyard. Good daughter or bad daughter?? This is debatable.... However it is amazing that the graves go back as far as the 1500s, and probably further had Mum kept looking... After this we also checked out St Judes, and took some photos for my brother's little boy Jude! Mum also looked up Mylreas in the phone book and made some random calls. She ended up meeting a distant cousin, Peter, which was great! He was very nice and I think it was icing on the cake for Mums trip there. I hope they keep in touch! We talked about the history of the Isle of Man, and the lifestyle of the island. Peter told us a great local saying "Traa dy Liooar" which means "time enough"... They go slow and take their time with everything.. I found this most frustrating on our last day... It was pissing down with rain and I had dropped mum off at the museum and did some washing and went to the post office. Good god! By the time I picked mum up late in the day I was ready to scream, cry, and maybe kill someone... Small country towns make me a little crazy.... I managed to return the hire car unharmed. Our plane to Belfast was the smallest thing I have ever seen... I'm pretty sure it was a toy plane actually... It was full, all 19 passengers. There were 2 pilots and they sat just in front of us.... We could see out the front windscreen of the plane!!! Wtf!!! Also, one of the pilots handed out mints as we got on... I don't think most of the pilots for Emirates would even unwrap a mint for themselves let alone hand them out to passengers. When he got on, he also loaded the two little steps that we used to get on the plane. They had a tiny hook next to the tiny door for safety... No one could stand up straight. Pretty sure it was built for smurfs!!! The safety video was by a bunch of 10 year old Manx kids, which was pretty cute, the wings of the plane were above us out the window which was a new concept... And there wasn't enough room to take jackets off and mum was glad she had hers on (a raincoat no less) when water poured out of the air con above her seat. The baggage was stored in the nose of the plane, but most people had carry on. I don't know how they fitted it under their seats?? There was no where above the seats to store anything, It was only about 20 mins in the air to Belfast... And it was surprisingly smooth. I will admit it was the first time I've ever got on a plane and checked if my life jacket was under my seat. So I was glad that we survived and made it one piece... Phew! I have a photo of the plane somewhere, will dig it out when I upload the other pics. You can almost see it from behind the baggage cart!!! I have attached a picture of the Isle of Man symbol which I really loved. The story of where it came from differs from who you talk to you and what book you pick up... Another really famous resident of the Isle of Man are the Manx Cats... But I only saw a stuffed one at the museum, no real ones in the street. So I will file them under "myth" for now. Meow!! So we have been to London, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Fort Augustus, Glasgow, Isle of Man, and now it's time for Northern Ireland..... First stop Belfast! miss P
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