Blogs from County Cork, Ireland, Europe - page 52

I got a new stamp in my passport today! I was looking at my friend Brad's passport and he's got tonnnnnes of stamps and visas from all over the world in his. I'm so jealous. I'm just going to Europe this year, so I'll get at most 3 stamps. Oh well, it's better than none. Anyways, I'm in Ireland! I already like it a lot. Brad and I hopped off the bus (after 15 hours) and wandered into the Garda (Police Station). We said we were trying to find the tourist information centre and they didn't feel like giving us directions so they just DROVE us there. Isn't that nice? I'm really excited about being here! We're headed west tomorrow and I can't wait! My 12 hours in London yesterday were nice. I got to catch ... read more

"If I have learned anything from cycling it is to always spit to the side." - Bryan Flint, April 2006 There is an allegory to the statement "Be careful for what you wish for because you just might get it." It is "Be careful what you disparage, for it might just be the thing you need." On Sunday night I stayed at a Hostel connected to the Dzogchen Beara Tibetan Buddhist retreat center on the Beara Peninsula on the Southwest coast of Ireland. On Tuesday I returned and am staying to participate in a Buddhist retreat over Easter Weekend. There are number of reasons for this. First, after eleven days of travel and nine of cycling my body told me to stop. Second, Hostels on the outer West coast of Ireland are a whole other animal ... read more

Hello to whomever may get this... I just wanted to send a quick update and let you know where I am at. We just arrived in Cork, Ireland to learn how the Irish celebrate St. Patty's Day. I am sure it should be quite interesting. It was an interesting trip here, we realized last night ~6pm that we hadn't looked into getting to the airport this morning at 5:15am and then found out that the tube station doesn't run that early. Well it was an evening of moving back and forth and realizing that we were too late to find the easist way there...so we bit the bullet and paid for a cab (85 GPB yikes!), versus the other optinon which was leaving for the airport last night and sleeping there... Anyway we made it here ... read more

This past weekend I went to Youghal (pronounced Yawl) and Cobh (pronounced Cove) in East Co. Cork. I stayed Friday night at Evergreen House in Youghal. It was really lovely. A family lived in one part of it and rented rooms in the other part. There was a four-year old girl named Ella, a ballerina, and a two-year old named Oscar, who wore a little monkey hat. They had a really nice garden and the house was right against the ocean. It was cold and windy Saturday morning, but wandering around the beach of Youghal was just beautiful. The mother from Evergreen House was going to drive me to Midleton, but then I just decided since it was a nice day to go to Fota Island and Cobh afterwards by train. I spent a good deal ... read more

Hello! Only 2 weeks and 5 days till the Big departure (Amanda's and Yvonne's second last Thursday ever in Siemens - well for a while anyway!) We will be starting this blog properly when we leave and there is actually something to write about but for now we just wanted to share with ye our route ( I can tell ye are dying with anticipation!) I hope that the link below will bring ye to it. However being a wee bit technologically challenged I can't guarantee that it will work at all! http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_AJ.html... read more