Mike's Blog

Today I’m on the train from Holyhead to London… I spent yesterday’s train ride talking to an old Irish bloke named Pius. “Pious by name, not by nature,” he assured me. He’s a builder who’s looking to expand his business into England given the recent economy troubles. Things really dried up in Ireland, he was saying he had a client who wouldn’t pay him for some work he’d done… for 68,000 euro… that’s like 83,000 in dollars. Ridiculous. He is definitely the most interesting person I’ve met yet, very passionate and intense. He’s been doing a job he loves for 30 years, father of 4, claims he’s married the perfect woman… he said “she’s just a diamond.” Another favorite quote, “I’m not used to smelling smoke on me clothes, just blowing it out of me lungs!” 

I”ve often thought construction or building something would be a great career… work with your hands, get paid to exercise and enjoy the outdoors. As Pius said, “There’s nothing more satisfying than looking at some’ting you’ve built with your hands and your head and tinkin’, I built this ting and it’s gonna be there for 100 or 150 years …” Hell yeah. I actually did a bit of a construction job for a bit, and it did a number on my lungs. If it wasn’t for that, I would have seriously considered it. 

Llandudno was a quiet little town where apparently everyone in the UK retires. At least that’s what someone in town explained. Another hostel room to myself, this one had 8-10 beds in it! The only other tenants were 3 australian girls. I was impressed by the place… seemed like they took a nice normal house in the neighborhood and converted it… the showers and bathrooms were just like being in someone’s home. One of the newest hires of the Llandudno hostel is a white woman from Zimbabwe… she lost her home in Zimbabwe and moved into South Africa, and as things worsened there she’s ended up in Wales. I don’t know much about politics, much less African politics, but she started talking to me as though I did. I guess there’s some racial cleansing there, the leader is kicking all the whites out. At first I thought she was saying Wads, naming some group. But apparently, they are kicking white folks out of Zimbabwe. She made some other seemingly racist comments, which shocked me given that she grew up in Africa… she claims that whites are leaders and blacks are followers from her experience… according to her, all the countries run by blacks are falling apart or beginning to fall apart. 

I don’t know if that’s so true, but it was interesting to hear her perspective on the matter. I’d like to think that tyranny breeds heroes and that it’s not a racial thing… time and experience will teach a nation how to rule itself, and ultimately that change must come from within… In a cultural appreciation workshop I took at HAVI, the course leader, a brilliant guy, compared cultures to humans. Will Africa ever grow up? I hope so… everything I hear about it makes me think of it as a young child, which is odd since the cradle of civilization is there. Maybe it breaks the metaphor? Maybe I’m just ignorant and there are plenty of stable places in Africa… my guess is that is more likely than anything else.

I’m not used to hostel beds yet, they really skimp on the mattresses. I have a sleeping bag I haven’t used yet, I think I’ll start laying that on top of the bed to give some minimal cushion. ‘Bout time it started pulling its weight!

The pack seems to be getting lighter every stop… I don’t know if that’s because I’m getting stronger or if I’m randomly losing stuff. So far I haven’t missed anything! I grabbed some dinner with one of the Aussies, and I learned that they say “Sweetass!” instead of or in addition to “Cool!” Caught me a bit off-guard! Frankly other than sweetass, she was a bit difficult to converse with… she was doing a similar trip as I but had plans to do Europe, then over through Russia and down through China back home… 2 year trip with a tight budget and everything. And she was just 19… no American parents would let their 19 year old girl do a trip like that, much less alone! Those crazy Aussies and their thirst for adventure! Another not my typer, but an interesting companion for a dinner… I had chinese food that tasted amazing and was quite reasonably priced at 4.50 pounds. My sis was telling me that she heard even chain restaurants in Europe use fresher, local ingredients compared with the US, so even the crappy food may be higher quality. So far it’s all been great!

Today I’m off to London, which, as I’ve been told by just about everyone I’ve met including the Aussie and some rather large women I talked to waiting for the train, is one of the more unfriendly places. No one smiles, or will converse unless there’s some business. I’ll get to the bottom of it! I plan to break through to the warmth under the icy stiff upper lip, we’ll see! Pip pip! What what!

Cheerio!

Today I’m on a ferry leaving Dublin to a port in Wales called Holyhead.  I’m not doing too bad with the motion sickness, but I am glad that it’s only a 2 hour trip. 

I checked into the hostel yesterday morning, it was pretty smooth. The place was basically like a small version of a dorm from college… a bunch of rooms that have nothing but beds, and then a couple of common areas with tables and tv’s… a kitchen as well. Nice to finally have accessible internet for free, although it was a little slow. I ended up getting my own four bunk room, and I guess traffic was light enough that no one else ended up there with me. I was still careful with my stuff, but it was nice to have my own space!

After I checked in, I grabbed some traditional Irish stew at a pub down the street… it was fantastic! It was full of flavor, but surprisingly heavy considering it’s basically just lamb, potatoes, and carrots in some herbs and broth. After stuffing myself, I headed to Phoenix Park, which is supposedly the largest city park in the world at 26 square miles. The waitress at lunch suggested I hire (rent) and bike for the day, so I did. That turned out to be an excellent decision and I ended up riding around the entire thing. You can imagine how tired my legs were! The park was fantastic though, gorgeous ponds and greenery, some nice hilly areas, a couple small castles, and an old fort that was blocked off so no one could go inside and have the building collapse on them. Cool!

When I was done with the bike I headed back to the hostel on the tram, which is actually pretty smooth running every 5 minutes. I spent some time trying to plan out the ferry ride and the trains, it was actually pretty difficult given the timing… either get in London around midnight and then try to find a place to stay or chill out in Holyhead, the port town, until tomorrow. Logistics, bah!

I ended up at an Indian restaurant for dinner, pretty good but expensive. Gotta go all out on the last night though! After dinner I met some German folks and an American in the lounge… one of the Germans told me to check out this town on the way to London called llandudno (the double L is actually pronounced like sl). Apparently there is a great hostel there, much better than Holyhead… problem was, I had already booked the ferry for today and the train for tomorrow from Holyhead. So I’ve booked a roundtrip train to llandudno from Holyhead and I’ll check out this place, then tomorrow it’s back to Holyhead and on to London. Phew!

So what did I think of Dublin? One of the things that really struck me about Dublin was the friendly atmosphere… back home, if you were to start talking to a group of guys at the next table over, they’d probably give you a funny look like you’re disturbing them in their private little world… over here it’s hard not to talk to the people around you. Another example of this is the wait staff. It might be due to the fact that I ate out alone a few times, but I’ve had more actual conversation with waiters/waitresses out here than I have ever had back home. And the best part is that these folks don’t get regular or very large tips… One waitress I had was extremely pleased to get a little over 10%, and yet they are friendlier and more attentive. I also got the impression that when they were chatting with me, they were actually interested in me instead of just being nice to get a better tip. This might be due to the fact that I was eating alone, or from America, but it still made dining out a much nicer experience.

We’re coming up on Holyhead now, cheers to solid ground again!

A Saturday spent wandering Dublin is nothing dull, I can assure you. Yesterday, I witnessed the following: A marionnette playing a piano, a falun dafa parade (I guess it’s a meditation art), a weed legalisation parade, two men wearing giant leprechuan heads, and various street performances… my favorite was a band made of a violinist who played with the bow behind his back, a drummer pounding on a wooden box he was sitting on with little hackey sack moraccas taped to his shoes, a guy working an upright bass, and an acoustic guitar. Not bad for just walking down the street!

I also got lost walking around today… disappeared into a park and lost my sense of direction on the way out, ended up walking around for 20 minutes to get back to the same park. I forgot to mention before, street signs in Dublin are terrible… they are written on the sides of buildings and sometimes not at all. Occasionally, there is a post with an arrow type sign on it, and yet these same signs also point you to landmarks and districts… so there’s no way to tell if it’s marking a street or pointing you to something. Genius!

I should also mention that the street names themselves are horrid. Many if not all of the streets only retain their names for a block or two, at which point they change. I thought Texas was bad…  but to illustrate, one of the main streets in Dublin from west to east is called: Thomas Street, Cornmarket, High Street, Christchurch Place, Lord Edward Street, Dame Street, College Green, College Street, Pearse Street, Ringsend Road, etc. See for yourself on google maps! The names I gave describe about a 20-30 minute walk. Yeah.

Getting lost was just fine by me, got to see a quieter side of town away from the tourist onslaught. The city is very clean and green throughout, and the prices a little off the main drags are still high but a little more reasonable. Once I made it back into the city, I found a nice little tourist information center where I finally grabbed a free city map… now that I’ve got it I’d say it’s essential.

From there I walked over to the Guinness brewery despite some advice to take the tram there. It only took 15-20 minutes walk from the city center and it worked up a nice appetite. The tour there is kind of nice… it’s mostly self guided with audio-visual stuff, so you can go at your own pace. Lots of fun things to learn about Guinness there, my favorite was the fact that Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease at the brewery in 1700 something or other. I didn’t get a chance to read the lease, but I wonder if the rent is locked in… now that would be smooth!

At the top I had my free pint and met some dudes from, drumroll please….. San Francisco. Wanh wanh. I guess they were from the same fraternity even though one was 23 and the other was 30. They were BOMBED… when they finished their Guinness, the younger one found a couple of unfinished ones on another table and snagged them. They were alledgedly there for 5 hours following this routine, and they hit the Jameson distillery beforehand. Wow. They may have even stolen one unattended glass that might have belonged to some lady who was checking out something out the window a few paces away, we never figured it out.  They invited me to grab some burgers with them on the way out of the place, which I did. Thankfully, the older one mandated that they return to the hostel to get to bed early after. He had just come in that morning. I’m not sure how you operate on no sleep with jetlag and still do that kind of drinking, but he actually seemed in better shape than the young guy. Not my kind of folks, but entertaining for a couple hours!

I wandered around the bar scene for a while, couldn’t seem to find a place I wanted to stay in… I ended up having a drink at a smaller place with some guys playing fiddle/guitar. On my way home, I found some religious dudes holding signs that said John 3:7 or 17, not sure. There was a girl arguing with one of them vehemently, so I decided to stop and listen. Her friend tried to pull her away from the argument and then ended up talking to me… nothing like serious religious and political discussion at 1:30 in the morning on the streets of Dublin. Mind you the street I was on was more like an outdoor shopping mall, quite safe Mom. 

By the end of it, the other girl had 3 or 4 of the religious dudes all arguing with her and her friend dragged her away as she shouted obsenities and imperatives to “Keep your prejudice to your F!&@ing selves!” I shortly learned that the cokes they were holding were spiked with Bacardi… and that it is illegal to drink on the street in Dublin (maybe Ireland?), but as one of the girls said, nothing is illegal if you don’t get caught. Errrr…

They bought me a beer at a dance club called Copperhead Jack’s or something, and then I left them there. Again, not my kind of people,  but interesting in a small dose. I slept in this morning and today I’ll just be taking it easy and getting ready to move from my hotel to a hostel tomorrow morning. Exciting times!

Well it’s rainy morning here in Dublin and I finally found someplace where I can use the internet, so here comes the first post!

I landed here yesterday morning at about 8AM, which is 2AM back home I think… getting to the airport was a little hairy and I had a couple of scares thinking I was going to miss the flight. My favorite was when I was eating in the airport before security and I noticed that my ticket said the gate closed at 5:50 and it was 6:00… I scrambled through security and got to the gate right as they started pre-boarding. I guess they just stopped issuing tickets at 5:50, so phew! Still, I got mine at 5:40, so that was close! Yeesh!

Aer Lingus is a cool airline, even at the gate the ticket counter was full Irish folks in vivid green outfits and everything was brightly lit and clean looking. The plane itself was full of green apholstered seats… it was only half full! I had a window seat and one empty next to me, so it was nice to be able to spread out my stuff. I only slept about 2-3 hours… they served dinner about an hour in, I wasn’t expecting that! I didn’t know airplane food still existed… it does, and it hasn’t changed. It was good though, they had cheesecake that was actually pretty tasty. They also served a light breakfast 30 minutes before landing, so booyah!

Once I landed I grabbed a bus to the city, it was only about $3… the houses in the suburbs out here look pretty charming… kind of like adobe style in new mexico but with shutters and vaulted tiled roofs. I also spotted a rental car company that was advertising or just had the peculiar name of JAPCARS… wish I could have gotten the photo in time. I think they have a website, need to check that out!

I missed my stop so I had to walk for about 15 withboth my bags, it wasn’t that bad actually. Thank goodness it was nice and sunny. They didn’t have my room ready when I got there at 10:30, so I wandered around a bit. They have a few parks here that are basically a couple city blocks square, and there is a wall of greenery that makes you forget you’re in the middle of a bustling city. Pretty awesome… 

I had a huge lunch in the pub I’m staying at, chatted with some old dudes from Denmark… they told me to make sure I hit Copenhagen before I leave, so I may just do that! The big lunch was a big mistake, I finally got a shower after that and jetlag hit me badly. I’ve never been tired like that, usually I’m tired but I still have plenty of will power… this was like I didn’t have control over what I was thinking… I had to lay down and I was out for about an hour. I had to fight to wake myself back up, but I knew I needed to get up so I did. Once I had my coat on I felt alive again.

I spent some time just walking around before dinner, I found a wifi spot that didn’t work… I ended up feeding some coins into a terminal to use the internet for 10 cents a minute, which is 6 euro/hour, which is about $8 an hour. I thought my wireless wasn’t compatible, but the spot in this restaurant is working fine, so that’s a relief!

I found a coupe hostels walking around, price is about 18 euro for a dorm stay… today or tomorrow I’ll book a couple nights somewhere. It’s amazing to think I can find accomodations for about $25 per night… try finding that in Chicago!

I had an awesome dinner at a Thai restaurant, it was in the basement of an apartment building but was actually really nice… I was the only one in the place, apparently Friday night dinner doesn’t happen until 10 when people are smashed and hungry. It was nice and peaceful though, and the waiter was a friendly lad from Nepal… I’m not sure how he ended up here, but he said he came for the job… must have been a family owned restaurant or something. I had some sizzling seafood dish, which was awesome. Included in the mess of variety were crab claws and fish balls… I didn’t know anyone served just the claws, but they were tasty!

After dinner I walked around a bit more, apparently you can drink on the street in Dublin and every bar had about 12 people standing near the doorway holding their pints. I had resolved to sack out early and keep it tame the first night, but it was tempting to stop in! I resisted and made it home around 8:30… crashed and woke up at about 9:30 to get ready for sleep. There was a bustle of noise outside my open window even though I’m on the 4th floor… I fell into a deep sleep for 12 hours and today I feel great!

The sink in my room has a separate faucet for hot and cold, and both become extremely hot and cold after about 30 seconds of being on… so that sucks! I guess you’re supposed to fill up the sink or something… the shower is awesome… it’s phone booth style with no place to even put the soap, but the water pressure is fantastic!

Anyway, I’m sure future posts won’t be this verbose, and hopefully I’ll get some pictures up… I’ve got to say it’s been nice to just chill out a bit after all the weeks of scrambling to prepare and socialize back home. Speaking of which, hello blueberry muffin with cream!

Keep it real yalls,

Moike

PS: It’s friggin green here! And they have no sales tax, friggin awesome.