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| (Ireland) Kilkenny - Bray, Dublin - Cork - (England) Birmingham - Bristol - Torquay - Totnes |
We were running late to catch our bus to Powerscourt, so we had to run all the way to the bus station. I was running behind the boys with a peanut butter toast in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. The girl's gotta have her breakfast!
We got to the bus a bit early and met some interesting characters on the bus, including a drunk man (this is 9am in the morning by the way) and Bray's Elvis who was singing all the way.
We got to Powerscourt and had to walk 6 kms to the waterfall. So as we walked, we stuck our thumbs out and got a ride. Yes! My first hitch hike in Ireland. We got to the waterfall, and it's a beautiful place. We also took the time to be children again and played on the playground until a bus of school kids came and took over the place.
That night, we went to Harbour Bar where I met local Bray people who are awesomely fantastic people. The band was amazing, they were songs they were singing were humorous Christian songs. They were hillarious and I love how the main vocalist was wearing a night gown and a lamp on his head with a bushy red beard. Really felt the St Paddy's vibe.
The next day, we went to Dublin and cruised around the city where we met beautiful Tayo, Dan's friend. We all then went back to Bray and went to Harbour Bar again that night. Different people came and it was a different band, but still singing hillarious Christian songs. I absolutely love Bray.
After another late night, the next day the 3 of us went to the beach and jumped in to the ocean. Ireland's the coldest place I've been to so far, but I had to jump in to the sea in Bray because I felt like it was my home. After being all fresh, Ed and I hitch hiked down to Cork. We had 3 rides altogether and waited beside the road no longer than 1 hour.
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| From left to right: Foggy day in Kilkenny; The band playing at Harbour Bar, Bray; Foggy Bray; Bray pebbly beach; Dan and Ed being little boys playing in the playground; Me beside the river of the waterfall; The three of us walking to the waterfall before hitching a ride; Ed, me and Dan posing away; Me and Ed in front of the waterfall; Ed and Dan; Dan in his cubby hole; Dublin with its green buildings |
When we got to Cork, met up with super lovely Simona and her housemates, Fladdy who's such a sweetheart and the charming, extremely intellegent and hillarious Daryn. Ed and I stayed at Simona's place. The three of them were such great hosts. We were extremely spoilt with food and drinks.
The first night in Cork, we went out to a pub. The live music that was happening there was a jam session, so it was nice a spontaneous. Then we ended up dancing our heads off at another pub with DJ playing some tunes. When we got back to Simona's place, Daryn and I jammed all night long, which was really nice.
The next day, St Paddy's day!! The day that I was suppose to get absolutely pissed since the afternoon. So I planned to start early. To complete the maximum St Paddy's experience, lovely Daryn cooked us an Irish breakfast in the morning. Then after that it was just liquid diet. I dressed up in a very non St Paddy's costume, which is a Japanese Manga style dominated by the colour pink but needed a little token of green, or something to do with St Patrick's day, but didn't have much luck when going in to shops on the way to the pub. But as I walked out of the first pub, a girl who was fixing her bike on to a pole, saw me and gave me a tiara that says 'Irish Princess'. Perfect! It completed my St Paddy's costume.
It was 15 of us that night and we were pub crawling. I had my guiness, beamish and murphys. I must say that Irish guiness does taste different from you have it somewhere else and it's so much better. I actually really like it.
Having drunk so much, I managed to get myself sick all over the city of Cork. I was feeling really terrible for doing that at that time, but it was really comforting when as I was feeling sick, people around me were talking about their st paddy's and throwing up all over the city experiences.
The next day, it was another day for everyone. People went back to their day to day activities. Accompanied by Daryn, I walked to the bus station to go to the airport.
Goodbye for now Ireland. I definitely shall return one day.
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| From left to right: Simona with her Beamish and Fladdy; The beautiful church in Cork (something about this church); Me in my St Paddy's outfit; Having Irish breakfast with Simona, Ed and Daryn; My Irish Princess tiara; Me and Ed hitching down to Cork; Me and Daryn on the way to the bus stop; Birmingham; Another picture of the church in Cork; One of Banksy's graffitti in Cork; Birmingham. |
After not meeting for 2 weeks, I finally met Mats in Birmingham where we spent a couple of nights there. Then we head to Bristol and spent the night with Heather and Libby.
The next day, spontaneously, we decided to head to Torquay before starting to help out at a place in Totnes. We spent a couple of nights in Torquay and saw amazing things such as Sandy Man's art work on the beach, a couple of swans on the beach who came really close to us and of course the amazing views of Torquay, the English Riviera.
On Sunday, we headed to Totnes and met Richard and Sandra to have a nice picnic with them. We had our picnic in Dartington estate, where the trees were starting to flower. It was a beautiful place.
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| From left to right; Beautiful beach of Torquay; The magnificent swans; Torquay beach; Sandy Man's art work on the beach; Geoff, the Sandy Man; Mats blessing the water in Torquay for the World's Water day; Torquay; St Matthias Church in Torquay; View on the way to Totnes; The flowering trees in Dartington; Richard, Sandra, me and Mats; Richard and Sandra |
After an amazing week of catching up with friends, we finally got to our home for the next 2.5 weeks in Totnes.
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