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Published: August 13th 2007
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Spraoi Festival
People gathering in the streets for Spraoi. When I left off of my last travel blog, I was entering the weekend of the famous Waterford Festival known as Spraoi. Everyone has hyped me up for this awesome festival that enthralls the town for the entire weekend. Let’s just say that my expectations were a little too high.
The festival didn’t kick off until Saturday mid-afternoon. There were supposed to be street performs, circus acts, and bands all over the town. Everything was free so you just walk around, enjoy a beer and watch the crowds and performers. As expected, it started raining and continued to rain all day long. Waterford didn’t really have a contingency plan so most of the acts stopped for the day. I would think after the entire summer of non stop rain they would have thought of a back up plan.
I joined a few co-workers at a local pub around 2 pm and stayed with them the entire day and into the evening. I got home around 3:30 am after a long day (and night) of pub crawling. I slept in Sunday morning so I missed church. It rained again all day Sunday so I stayed in my apartment most of
the day and read. Around 10 pm Sunday evening, I joined a few other co-workers out for the parade and fireworks. The parade reminded of a high school homecoming parade. The floats were made of paper mache. The floats were pulled and pushed down the street by these poor teenagers. I found this very odd since every time I drive to Shannon or Dublin I pass 500 tractors. The city of Waterford didn’t think to ask the 500 farmers to borrow their tractor to pull a float. After the parade the fireworks started which was about 11 pm. I found this very odd since I had to work the next day and it the festival was still going on. I then found out that Monday was a national holiday and everyone was off of work. I was starting to get excited thinking I had Monday off of work but then I was informed that AOL doesn’t have the day off. Figures! The fireworks were actually really cool and it was by far the highlight of the festival. I went home and went straight to sleep.
Last week at work was fairly uneventful. Nothing really exciting happens here so nothing
On the cruise
Fjords in Norway to report on.
Friday I left work around 10:00 am to drive to Dublin for my weekend getaway to Norway. My flight was on time and I landed in Torp, Norway around 6:30. From Torp, I took a bus to Oslo which was about 2 hours away. I got to Oslo and found the train station where I had to pick up my tour package. Last week I booked a tour called Norway in a Nutshell. This tour was a one day world wind tour of Norway’s west coast and famous fjords. The tour was quite expensive but when else will I be in Norway to see some fjords. Like I always say, “When in Norway……” OK - I’m kidding; I have never said that but what the hell - I need to see some fjords.
My tour left at 6:15 Saturday morning so I cut Friday night a little short. I walked around Oslo a little bit, checked into my hotel and was in bed by midnight. Saturday morning I walked to the train station and started my Norway in a Nutshell tour. It started with a 5 hour train ride from Oslo to Mydral (directly West
Valley
This is from the top of the moutain looking down to Flam - after the bus ride. of Oslo). From there we took a 1 hour train ride down the mountain to Flam. From Flam we took a 3 hours boat cruise through some Fjords. From there a 2 hour bus ride up a mountain to Voss. Then from Voss the 5 hour train ride back to Oslo. I got back to Oslo around 11:30 pm. It was quite the sightseeing day. Norway was absolutely gorgeous. The mountains were amazing and still had snow although the temp was well into the 80’s. I met a lot of different people on my tour. There were lot of American’s on the tour (mostly retired couples in their 60’s and 70’s). Saturday night after I got back from my tour, I went straight to bed.
Sunday I woke up and started sightseeing Oslo. My first impression of Oslo was that it was very modern and cosmopolitan. I am basing this off of Ireland which I still think is stuck in the 1950’s. I regretfully did not check the weather before I left on my trip but I figured the temp would be very similar to Ireland. Such was not the case. I packed jeans, my fleece and some polo
Sculpture Garden
Oslo's famous Sculpture Garden shirts. I was sweating my ass off the entire day. It was 80 degrees, 100% humidity and no wind. In the states I would think this would be a very cool day, but after being in Ireland all summer I was dying. Besides the first day in June, I don’t think the temperature has gotten above 70 degrees in Ireland. Oslo was OK. I was not overly impressed with the city especially after seeing Venice and Edinburgh. It was pretty modern, very commercial and very very very expensive. The dollar exchange rate is terrible right now. Sunday for lunch I had a ham sandwich and a diet coke for $30. I hate to see my credit card bill when it comes in. Lord knows how much I paid for my food on the train and boat.
I spent the rest of the afternoon touring a famous sculpture garden, the Royal Palace, and the Norwegian Art Museum. Sunday afternoon I caught the bus from Oslo to Torp. Flew from Torp to Dublin and then drove my 3 hour trek back to Waterford. I got home around midnight last night after a lovely but expensive weekend in Norway. Honestly I wouldn’t put that on the list of Must -Do’s in Europe although I’m glad I got to experience it.
I only have 3 more days of work before I head home!!!!! I am flying home this Friday after 7 straight weeks of being here. I’m so excited. I am flying back to Ireland on 8/31 with my Mother. We are going to Paris for 2 days then come back to Dublin to pick up my Dad. Then the 3 of us are going to tour Ireland on Sunday before I return back to work on Monday . Over the next 3 weeks I will be in Kansas City, New Orleans, Gulf Shores, AL, back to Kansas City, Ireland, Paris and then Ireland again. I’m sure the next travel blog will have plenty of action.
I hope all is well in the States!
Cheers,
Jason
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Chris
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All is well in the States
Thanks for the well-wishes. We here in the States are doing quite well