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from the plane
flying over the mountains of afghanistan. it was amazingly beautiful - the photo doesn't do it justice.i should have started a blog before i left, like most PR conscious travellers, but the decision to go to ireland to save up more money for south america was rather last minute... and setting up a blog never quite happened.
here's what tim and i have been doing since leaving perth.
Perth to Malaysia: 12 hours in KL airport, trying to sleep on benches in the departure lounge; then on to Manchester. From Manchester we flew to Dublin and then jumped on a train to Dunlaoghaire, half an hour south of the city. 34 hours after we left Perth we arrived at Phil's hostel in Dunlaoghaire.
Phil is a kiwi pirate who writes childrens books and spends most of his time 'managing' the hostel drinking guinness and consuming illicit substances in the pub next door. typical phil: a note in the bathroom says 'keep showers short. if you need water to mate in, go down to the sea.' the big news at marina house was that 'stinky' (the little white stray cat that phil adopted) became famous in a fashion shoot for some womens mag. she wore diamonds and even had her name mentioned. Diamonds modelled by
waiting for the train
this is the train station in dunlaoghaire, south of dublin. the public transport in ireland is really efficient, but expensive. there are no student discounts, so most povo people like ourselves walk and ride bikes. 'Stinky' the cat. Phil decided that he wanted to put the 'rags to riches' story of stinky into one of his childrens books.
since arriving we have been to Galway, Annascaul and Killarney. we spent easter in galway and went to a beautiful old catholic church for the sunday service. as soon as we got back from Galway we heard of a job going in Annascaul running a hostel, kitchen and laundry. charlie, the egotistical fascist who runs paddy wagon tours and hostels said that we could have a weeks free accommodation down in annascaul to see if we liked it or not. we thought it sounded pretty good, and a weeks free accommodation in this insanely expensive country is not to be sniffed at - so we jumped straight back on a bus and headed off into real irish country.
annascaul was beautiful, but we were a bit daunted by the prospect of isolating ourselves in a tiny sheep village for four months looking after drunken yobbo aussies and americans coming through on tours. although it would be an easy way to earn money, i probably would have gone on a killing spree, slaughtering innocent backpackers. i
sheep in annascaul
this is annascaul, a village where there are more sheep than people. i went a little crazy taking photos of the new born lambs :) hate tours, and the only thing i can think of which is worse than being on one myself, is having to cook food and make beds for an never-ending procession of young kids who think that speeding around ireland on a luxury bus, (vomiting guinness at key tourist attractions along the way), is a great way to experience the 'local culture'. we made the most of our free accomdation, went for some beautiful walks up into the hills, visited killarney and then headed back to Dublin.
since then we have both got jobs in cafe's and found a house in central dublin. tonight we're going to check out some irish bands that have just recorded cd's with my friend sean, a local producer. sean and ed (who plays in the symphony orchestra) are two regulars at my cafe. we have some interesting people that come in, and the staff are mostly pretty cool. everyone gives the chinese guys who work in the kitchen a hard time though. a lot of irish people are racist, especially towards polish and chinese migrants. makes me feel right at home - it's just like good old oz.
thats all i have time
for right now as the internet is crazily expensive here.
love to everyone xoxox
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Mum
non-member comment
Hi darling, I think this is great. Went into it today to see if you'd updated it at all - maybe you'll have time to do that soon. Love you lots - will text you soon. T