The First of Many Goodbye's

Leaving Athlone was really sad. Considering it was only our first stop, I'm sensing it's a sign of things to come. On our final day we started slow, and didn't leave the house until late morning. We went to Suede Bar for a very Irish carvery lunch with Joanie, wandered down the The Strand along the river just long enough to settle our food and then started all over again, going into the Olive Grove for mid afternoon desserts and coffee overlooking the water. We went home only briefly before taking in a final pint at Seans Bar with Joanie and Bennie.


True to form, Courts was still drinking 15 minutes before a taxi was due at home to take us to the bus stop. Despite suggesting that I go home to pack and he would catch up (not a chance - I packed most of our stuff that morning but damned if I was finishing up while he was having fun) he drank it down and we were ready just in time for the taxi.


We were only in Athlone a week but I felt homesick for it the second we left. It's a long time since we've seen Jonaie and it will be a long time before we do again. Bennie and herself showed us so much kind Irish hospitality that we couldn't have possibly felt more welcome. Joanie had worried we would be bored watching DVDs and TV at night but truthfully we loved it. For myself, at home if DVDs or TV are on, I'm simultaneously blogging or doing nails or planning our trip or cooking dinner. It's a rare occasion that I watch the telly without a single other thing on my mind. Aside from that, after a long day exploring, a quiet opportunity to relax and snuggle into a blanket was very welcome. 


We were so successfully made to feel welcome that after we arrived in Dublin, set our things down at the hostel and found Eddie Rockets for the first of several awesome meals there, I was homesick for Athlone. The sweet smell that greeted us whenever we entered the house, the big black nose of Jimmy the dog peering over the staircase, leaving our backpack in our room and taking our blanket to the lounge, making a hot chocolate and settling on the couch for the night. Small actions that combined to make a routine, which in turn made Athlone home. 


Sitting in Eddie Rockets at 10pm eating garlic fries and burgers, our adventures of the day would have been made all the better if we could have returned home to Joanie and Bennie's house afterwards. Instead, we retreated to our single bed (we have bunks but chose to squish onto one) in a 16-bed hostel room. No pets or friends in sight. Ping pong balls fly past your head when you settle in to watch TV. 


So did Athlone meet our expectations? See what we thought we'd find here. It definitely is bigger than I first thought, but Old Athlone, where we were staying, still retains it's small-town charm. People at home complain of the recession - we honestly don't know how lucky we are. What I definitely didn't expect was to have the effects of the recession smack me in the face everywhere I turned - abandoned half-built houses, shops closed so quickly the chalk-written specials still decorate the wall, pubs closed so proudly they display 'Closed for Renovations' signs with no intentions of reopening. Locals in the street discuss their unemployment like it's the weather. Speaking of which, Athlone is cold. I knew their Summer wasn't as hot as ours, but I didn't realise it was genuinely cold there by our standards. The wind or at least a breeze blows constantly so warmth from the sun is filtered out. I feel the cold particularly easily, but still. 


I had it pretty right when I said it would be 'accommodating, polite, friendly, a little bit old fashioned, not shiny and new, more homely and comfortable' although I never anticipated just how old everything is. Courts said it better when he said he thought it would be 'really friendly, very green but with grey skies. Not terribly warm but filled with friendly beer drinking people'. That about hits it on the head.

www.flickr.com Penelope_nz's Athlone photoset

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Wild Wild West: Galway and the Cliffs of Moher

Joanie had to work the first couple of days we were in Athlone so we decided early on in our trip to go for an adventure as soon as she had free time. We had planned on staying around Athlone for the week, but Joanie mentioned wanting to show us Galway and the rest fell into place. For a last minute trip, it turned out awesome. 2 nights before we left, we booked seats on a bus for about 14 Euro each (return, for a two hour trip), a night in a hostel for 11 Euro each (Galway City Hostel, highly recommended for location as well as free breakfast and Wi-Fi) and a tour to the Cliffs of Moher for about 25 Euro each. Sorted.

Adventure day came and we boarded the bus. Even though Joanie has been to Galway plenty of times, she was excited to see it through our tourist eyes. Despite having no idea where Galway was or what was so great about it, we were excited to explore with Joanie along for the ride. We dumped our belongings at the hostel, which was 2 minutes from the bus station and 1 minute from the best parts of town, and went exploring.

Galway is a seaside town on the west coast of Ireland. Technically it’s a city but even by New Zealand standards it’s a small city. Our first stop was Super Macs, an Irish fast food chain. I’d been seeing them everywhere and wanted to try it out. Verdict – average. Glad I tried it though! We got a map from the tourist office but we barely used it. Joanie pointed us in the direction of the quirky main street but our noses led us from there.

Galway is awesome. It has the quaint, cutesy qualities of a small town with the conveniences and attractions of a city. We ended up covering a huge distance, winding through the quirky shopping streets (conveniently led by Shop Street), wandering along the river walk, checking out the gorgeous Cathedral and lying in Eyre Square - the main central park space - in the sun with coffee, then meandering along the waterfront until we reached the beach and I could dip my toes in the Atlantic Ocean – just to say I had. We made it all the way along to Salthill, a suburb of Galway that felt like the typical seaside town you see in movies and on TV. Starving and tired, we cheated by catching a taxi back to the city.

Back on Shop Street we chose Dail Bar for dinner and it was the best choice of the trip – or at least the best food of the trip. Cottage Pie and mushy peas followed by Bread and Butter Pudding. Courts and Joanie washed down their respective Steak and Mash and Fish and Chips with Guinness and I stuck with Budweiser – old faithful, having seen me through my American travels as well. Courts and Joanie finished the night in the pub below the hostel, while me and my dear friend jetlag checked out the sights behind my eyelids.

Day two of our adventure saw us join a tour bus to the Cliffs of Moher. Our tour guide was great – just the right amount of cheesy and knowledgeable. There were several stops to see baby horses, donkeys and rabbits, which he gushed over and referred to as if they were his own pets, having seen them every day along his travels. To balance out the cheese, he knew everything about every town, pub and ruin we passed. Between anecdotes and history lessons there was Irish music quietly playing but the music was the minority and I prefer it that way – I like to hear as much as possible about the places we’re visiting.

There were plenty of stops for photos of the countryside, and a visit to the Ailwee Caves. The caves were cool, buried deep in the limestone mountains and crafted over thousands of years by now-dry rivers. The visit added value to our tour but I don’t think I’d call it a must-see. At home we’re spoiled by caves filled with glow worms and we half thought we’d see bats, but there was nothing but rock and lime stone formations. A geologists dream and a cool little bonus but I don’t think I would pay the 12 Euro admission fee – we only had to pay 5 as the tours get a discount.

Late in the day, we reached the Cliffs of Moher – spectacular land dropping hundreds of metres into the Atlantic. Much of the coast is fenced off in case you get too close to the edge but more of it is not, and with winds as strong as they were it’s easy to see how so may have made it their final resting place – accidental and not. The views were spectacular and not at all dampened by the impending black clouds that haunted us throughout the day.

As we made our way back to Galway, we wound around the coastal roads. In place of sand, limestone flats stretched out into the wild waves, making for a wild and beaten landscape. That’s what struck me the most about the Irish landscape - or at least the Burren, the area through which we travelled – it’s so rough and beaten up. The trees grow in the direction of the wind, animals shelter behind rock walls from the harsh Atlantic winds, and rocks and thistle blemish the fields. It’s beautiful but not pretty. Joanie said they reminded her of New Zealand’s South Island which experiences much harsher weather conditions than the north, and which I haven’t seen much of. At least in the North Island, grass is almost cleaner – no rocks, not a lot of thistle, just grass. Trees, even on the coast, are somehow softer. More like what we experienced on the Viking Boat.

Overall our trip to Galway and the Burren was awesome. A perfectly unplanned adventure that let us see more of Joanie’s Ireland – just what we wanted. What’s the best place you’ve visited that you hadn’t heard of before you got there?

www.flickr.com Penelope_nz's Galway and the Cliffs of Moher photoset

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Penny and Courtney Present: The Novelties of Athlone

• The free phone number here is 08000, said Oh-Eight-Thousand. At home we call 0800, said Oh-Eight-Hundred. So it’s similar enough to home, but that’s what makes it stand out.
• At home we have boxes of miniature chocolate bars called Cadbury Favourites. Here, the same box is called Cadbury Heroes. That’s not the best bit – one of the choices inside is a tiny bar-shaped Cadbury Crème Egg. It’s so obviously the best idea Cadbury has ever had. Come on New Zealand, catch up!
• Streets Ice cream is called HB. It’s really weird to see the Streets logo, which is really recognizable and the second biggest Ice Cream brand at home, but with HB under it. HB stands for Hazelbrook Farms, which is cute, but wrong. It’s Streets, people!
• In the pub, they have glasses and a jug of water free for anyone to help themselves. This is normal. What’s not normal is the bottles of flavor next to them. It’s cordial, like Thrifty or Ribena at home, but it’s in Olive Oil bottles, you know with the thin spout? I should have figured it out for myself but I didn’t get what the flavours were and if you were supposed to add a splash or full flavour or what. I’ve just never seen it done before.
• Every call is a toll call. Same as when I lived in Australia, but I never thought about it here. At home, all local calls are included in your monthly fee for having a phone line. If you call out of your wider region, it costs extra. Here, all calls cost money no matter what. It seems backwards.
• Irish people call winter ‘summer’ – OK so that’s my attempt at a joke but seriously, this is not summer. At home we have fairly mild summers; it’s not as crazy as Australia or the US. A warm summer’s day might hit 27 degrees Celsius if you’re lucky. In Ireland, we were sitting around 11 max. All the rain makes for a beautiful countryside, but the cold was well outside my expectations.
• The tour guides mention hay making as if it’s a novelty. I don’t know who it’s aimed at, which country doesn’t make hay, but us Kiwis see hay bales and think ‘Oh look a hay bale’. Apparently not everyone does.
• Speaking of Tour Guides, they think Alpacas are some crazy exciting animal worthy of a zoo. Our Tour Guide in Galway stopped the bus to explain that we were about to come up to a field of an animal you would only see in Dublin Zoo, something bizarre looking, that you would never expect to see in a field. I’m thinking what the hell is it, are there Lions just sat there behind a fence? Nope, Alpacas. Very cute Alpacas, but just Alpacas.
• They have Wi-Fi on buses. Is this a worldwide thing? I know NZ is well behind the times in terms of technology, but for us, Wi-Fi on buses is exciting. Who would have thought, Wi-Fi on a bus?!
• Being told to “Mind yourself” is a good thing. If I told someone at home to mind themselves, they’d turn around and ask me what the hell for. It’s like our Mum’s telling us to mind our manners when we were young – if an adult told us that now we’d think they were out of line. We’re fully grown adults, we can figure these things out for ourselves thank you very much. Here, everyone says it. When you leave a shop, the friendly shopkeeper tells you to mind yourself. When you leave a taxi, you tell the driver to mind himself. It’s more like wishing someone safe journeys.
• Castles are as common as houses. I tripped out on all the old stuff in Ireland when we first arrived. After our tours throughout the week, I’m all castled out. Every few minutes there’s a ruin or a castle. I thought they were for Kings and Queens but no. Think you’re important? Build a castle.
• Irish people say ‘like’ in the wrong place in a sentence. The word ‘like’ is ridiculed as a sign of low intelligence sometimes. Reality TV stars use it every second word. I use it all the time myself, as do lots of people I know. It’s a buffer word, a nothing word that fills a gap in a sentence where an ‘um’ might usually go – “They were, like, getting ready to go out”. Here, it’s at the end – “They were getting ready to go out, like”.
• Chips (Fries) are a vehicle for flavour. In New Zealand, we have chips with tomato sauce. Maybe with salt and vinegar if we’re daring. Here, chips are like crackers or bread – something to put other, more exciting things on. Cheese, curry sauce, mince, garlic sauce, bacon, chilli – you name it, it can go on chips. Best idea ever.
• No one drinks at home. Irish people think house parties – where you invite your friends over to chat and drink and play music and drink and dance – are weird. At home, most drinking is done at home. If you’re going out, you have ‘pre-drinks’ where you get ready and chill out and get a few drinks in you because everyone knows once they’re out on the town the drinks will be that much more expensive. When you run out of money or time, you might even go back to a friend’s house for ‘after-drinks’. Often, there’s no need to go out at all, because the party’s at your place. Here, you meet at the pub, drink at the pub, and go home when you’re done. Apparently it’s a novelty that because of the recession, people are starting to buy wine at the supermarket and drink at home.
• There are hair straighteners in the toilets at pubs. Why you would need to straighten your hair when you’re already out I don’t know, but that’s just me, because I know a lot of girls who would love this idea.
• Laundries are in the kitchen. I don’t know if it’s just older houses, I think it is, but apparently it’s not as weird as I think it is to have the clothes Washing Machine next to the sink, under the bench. Right by the oven and the fridge. Laundry rooms are a new fandangled thing put in new fandangled houses.
• At home, Irish pubs use a particular font, an Irish looking font. Don’t ask me why it’s Irish looking; I think it’s supposed to look Celtic or something. But in Ireland, they use it too. For pubs, shops, whatever. When I pointed it out to Joanie, she had never noticed before.

So obviously this list is 100% tongue in cheek. It’s funny the things we find weird in a new country, things that are completely normal to its residents. What have you found novel or bizarre on your travels?

www.flickr.com Penelope_nz's Athlone photoset

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Are you Living Your Dream Life? Part Nine: Jessica

Who are you and what is your life like now?

I’m Jess, a 22 year old, I study full time, I work 1.5 jobs, and I have a serious boyfriend and some seriously amazing friends (family included). My life right now is probably not as bad as I think, but it seems pretty hectic. I have classes Monday to Friday for my Bachelor of Hospitality Management majoring in Event Management. In my long four hour breaks between classes I work in a Call Centre, then in the evening (how often depends on how busy we are) I work at a theatre/conference centre as a Food and Beverage Supervisor. Most days I’m on the go from 6am till 11pm… does that seem hectic to anyone else?

On top of this all, I have the Uni assignments to complete and exams to study for… can I please have three more days in the week? Oh, and not to mention seeing my friends and family and paying attention to my two gorgeous cats… who crave more attention than babies!

What would you do all day, week or year if you were living your dream life?

Not working would be the easy answer, but it’s the boring answer…I would get way too bored! I’ve done it for two months before and that was too much! So maybe, having the ability to have a week off whenever I wanted would be great, but having something to keep me busy would be essential. Seeing as I just mentioned I’m studying hospitality and events you may have gathered this is what I want to do in life… correct.

So, right now, I would have to say…

Dream job - Event manager for my own company (it would have to be super popular and successful) and working from home or an awesome office on the North Shore or Auckland City. Doing amazing music events (my main interest at the moment) and any other fun event that came our way.

Dream living situation – A new, modern house with the boyf (with all my own furniture!), right next to all my best mates and family… like our own little community.

Dream money – Right now I rarely pay my bills (apart from rent) on time, only have a big food shop once every couple of months and don’t have any emergency money or savings… this way of living sucks! So, dream money would be a lot of it….I don’t care about the amount… I just don’t want debt, I want a nice car with a full tank of gas (and one for boyf), I want food in the pantry, I want a glass of wine with the girls when I want to, I want taxi money so I can dance/drink the night away, I want dinner out at a nice restaurant whenever I feel the need, I want my cats to be able to go to the vet when they need to, I want to go to the doctor when I’m sick, I want my appendix out! (Another story; another time maybe?), I want clothes that match the season I’m in. I’m assuming all of this would add up to millions… but I don’t necessarily want to be a millionaire…like I said, I just want things taken care of so I can work, love, play and laugh.

Dream health – Minus the six broken wrists I had when I was smaller… this has all happened in the last 5 years… I’ve had two laparoscopic surgeries to remove ovarian cysts (so many internal examinations because of this, I can’t tell you a number… I would guess 40), I’ve had a trip the hospital for bruised ribs (guys should not kick girls in the stomach!), I’ve had a colonoscopy and gastroscopy to investigate bowel and stomach problems and I’ve had a near miss with my appendix (yes, I should have got it removed but I couldn’t miss Penny’s 21^st party) and one extra week in hospital with about 10 blood tests and lures (I don’t do needles!), two ultra sounds, a CT scan and no results found (I don’t have cancer, yay!). Four hospital visits in the first three months of 2011 by the way! So what you might have gathered that I’m trying to say… I want to be healthy (I’m sick of being sick)… or just know what is causing these issues (seeing as I wasn’t diagnosed with anything in March I’m still in pain nearly every day). 

So what's stopping you?

Nothing is really stopping me from all of the above… I’m just being ‘held up’ by obstacles… they’re obstacles because I know I will achieve all of the above one day.

My dream job (not my own company, but working towards Event Management) is definitely in the near future (even sooner than I think if I get some luck my way very soon)… but in the industry the obstacle I have to face is my experience… I know I can do it, but people need proof, especially because I’m only 22.

My dream living situation won’t happen until I’m earning enough money to pay a lot of rent for the brand new, modern house I crave. But I will be living with the boyf in the near future, which makes me all giggly inside, and lets me breathe a sigh of relief… no ‘who’s house do you want to stay at’ every night, more time spent with my gorgeous kitties, everything will be perfectly set in its place and I don’t have to clean or try and ignore other people’s messes!

My dream money situation won’t happen this year at least (unless I win lotto?), but I will be super happy and satisfied when I’m earning enough money for a nice house for me and the boyf, lots of food and bills being paid on time.

As for the dream health situation… this is the one thing I don’t think will actually ever happen… because of all the issues and tests I’ve already had (once again, yay no cancer or serious illnesses!) there’s not much else to do but wait… wait for my appendix to burst and find out that was the cause? Wait for an alien to burst out of my stomach and admit to inflicting all this unwanted pain? Wait for another ovarian cyst then eventually not be able to have kids?

I can handle not becoming a millionaire or living in a penthouse suite until I’m much older but the one thing I can’t handle is this pain… too much fast walking at work when we’re busy and I’m bent over grabbing my stomach with tears in my eyes, having to stop half way through sex because the pain is too much (scar tissue maybe?), it’s all not normal and should f*** off.

In conclusion, after all this babbling…I guess, right now, my dream life would be $5.00 in my bank account to buy a coffee when I get tired at work this afternoon and no pain… is that too much to ask for? Am I selfish for asking for no pain when I’m still so much better off than others?

Thanks so much Jessica for contributing to the Dream Life series! 

If you would like to participate, I'd love to have you on board. Use the Contact Me tab to email me your answers to the Dream Life questions. I'll reply to get your photos and let you know when you will be published. All I ask in return is that you link back to Dancing in Barefeet on the day you appear.

Are you living your Dream Life?

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