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Mon 27 Mar, 2006 10:44 pm
Well folks I was asked if I would consider blabbing all my travel adventures to the world, I figure its going to be a long
long thread this is in no random order and kind of in a diary format but I will try and keep each entry to the minimum that I possibly can..hope its not too boring.
Inspired by Lash
.. victim of the travel bug!
Ireland- Dublin to Cork
Arrived on the ?'Irish' ferries to Dublin had a rocky trip across the Irish sea nothing worse than trying to shop duty free clasping cartons of fags with one hand whilst the other frantically looking for anything to steady myself on
..armed with my goodies I tried to eagerly exit the boat, to find out I had not listened to the man on the speaker system properly and ended up down below with all the cars
back upstairs I go and followed the foot passengers off.
Beautiful ferry by the way, it had 2 bars and a movie theatre, smoking was outside on the top deck, hence it took all of about 5 seconds to smoke my ciggy due to the speed of the boat and the wind factor
quite a pointless effort all in all.
Who the hell is that waving at us?? Im asking my Kiwi friend, As 2 strangers are yelling and jumping up and down at me through the glass window, as Im trying to retrieve my luggage
I got closer to these people and it ended up being my buddy and her boyfriend, who were supposed to meet me in Cork, she had grown her hair and was sporting a fine pair of spectacles! No wonder I did'nt recognise her.
We went immediately to the closest Bar (as we do) downed my guinness, and caught up with the ?'goss'.
Now there is nothing like being crammed in the back of a tiny hatch back with my luggage and everybody talking at once especially when 2 have an irish accent and they are talking as fast as the speed of light, yap yap yapping all the way from Dublin down to Cork.
We stop off along the way to view a castle, not much to see as it happened to be closed at that time
.ah never mind, back into the car we all crammed and headed off into Cork city.
Did you know that Ireland has gypsy's, I saw them in passing and my friend explained who they were.
"What are all the flags for?" As I noticed them everywhere hanging from Cork store window and Pub signs, I asked my friend and she said it was to show support for their local ?'Hurling' team for those who do not know what Hurling is, here is an over view
.
Hurling is an outdoor team sport of Celtic origin, played with sticks and a ball. The game, played primarily in Ireland, is arguably the world's fastest field team sport in terms of gameplay (however the ball travels faster in other field games such as hockey) Hurling is one of Ireland's native sports.
We finally made our way to her mums house
.yay "gidday Mrs K"
now Mrs K is a staunch irish Catholic woman who never ever misses daily mass, the most loveliest lady on the planet (aside from my Mum) she had our dinner all ready on the table.
I cannot eat mushy peas
..its like baby food, try as I may it was not appealing at all.
Mrs K, not one to beat around the bush, "oh for the love of god girl get it down ye!"
I was expecting her to spoon feed me at any given moment.
4 hours later, Im plastered from the duty free liquor trying to climb up the creaking narrow hall way stairs in the dark
.found my room tripped over my bags and crawled to my bed.
...to be continued
Haven't read the text yet, but thank you for posting...
Read it now, yeah, keep talking, please..
Awoke freezing to death, headache and all, found my way to the bathroom and wondered if all of Ireland had handles on their toilet cistern to flush, instead of a push button and what way am I supposed to turn the damn thing anyway..problem solved.
The shower was a laugh it was one of those box things, so by the time I got the thing going and undressed to hop in
the hot water had gone cold, I tried to turn the handle around on full to ?'hot' and then the water just barely trickled out, stuff this for a joke.
Back in dressing gown, down the stairs still freezing to death, I asked my friend "whats up with your shower?" she laughs and says its broken, and one of her 5 brothers was supposed to fix it! Back upstairs I go and jump into a cold shower
.
After breakfast and a pot of hot tea, served in an old metal tea pot (which is rare to see these days) I swear it must have held 6 litres of tea, I decided to get out and about and see Cork
..
St. Finbarr Cathedral - now Im not one for churches, but I was told a story about this particular one and I just had to go and have a look at the Angel that adorns the top of the cathedral, and also my friends brother was supposed to be named ?'Finbarr' after it, but their father had a few too many pints on the way to register his birth and he completely went blank and made up a name for him
.much to the horror of Mrs K!! anyway back to the Church
The Gothic grandeur of St. Finbarr's Cathedral dominates Cork's "South Side". This nineteenth-century Anglican cathedral is as impressive on the inside as the gargoyle clustered exterior. Legend has it that the golden angel, perched on the cathedral's eastern extreme, will blow her horn to announce the ending of the world, and then fly away. In 1999, her two horns were stolen during construction work but they were returned a few days later, much to the great relief of locals.
Inside, it has an eternal (apparently) candle, which my Kiwi friend thought would be a laugh to blow out, which he did, and thankfully I had my lighter in my pocket!! Well worth the visit though, if you like architecture.
to be continued.....
This is my home city KiwiC - careful now...
(in other words, bm)
careful about what???? :wink:
Lively reporting so far!!!
why thank you Osso...once I figure out the photo thing, I shall put my photos up...
@KiwiChic,
Next adventure BALI.........dear Gaaawd
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