Some of you may remember how I helped that man fix his boat when I was in Italy? Yeah that was through a website wherein you stay with people who provide you a room and food and in return you help them out in some way. It could be working at the farm, fixing boats, gardening etc. In Ireland I was helping out the Wall family on their dairy farm down in the very rural town of Mullinavat. 3 hour bus trip from Dublin airport. Rad.
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(Scene from the kitchen. Reasonably sunny innit?!)
Joseph is the son (and the guy who put the farm on the website) and he lives with his Mother and Father - Joan and Pat. In typical Irish fashion they've got a massive family but most of the other siblings have moved out or away (one is in Melbourne coincidentally enough). Joan has recently had some hip troubles so for a lot of the time I was kind of her personal assistant. Other times I would help milk the cows, took a trip to the Cow Mart to sell some cows with Pat, general gardening and otherwise helping out around the house. It was a nice experience but I must say that rural Ireland has some odd aspects worth noting ...
(Beer drinking isn't odd ... not doing it more often is a bit weird though)
For example, the constant talk about people dying. Because families tend to be quite large it makes sense that family networks are even larger so when someone dies it spreads throughout the town like wildfire. When driving around Joan would point out the houses with people who had died from things like cancer / stroke / heart attacks etc. It felt a bit grim to be honest. The general atmosphere was a bit downcast despite the beautiful weather.
(Joan kept saying she hoped the dog wasn't 'taken'. I assumed by Jesus or whatever but no! People come and steal puppies to sell them! This is their third 'Toby')
I went to mass one day with Joan just to see what it was like. At school we had to go to church so I know the general idea but back then it was still pretty boring even with the Rev trying to jazz it up a little. Unfortunately it seems some things never change. I had to enter through the 'men's' entrance and listen to a lot of talking. Joan was doing a reading so I wanted to see her and, yeah, that was nice. However, not being raised in a religious household it all seemed a but samey and a bit eye-rolly at times but it was pretty short and culminated with an upbeat choir so I shouldn't complain. I quietly opted out of the Eucharist but donated a single euro to the cause.
(It's a shaky picture as I had to be discrete. Still got looks)
Joan was not a great cook... The first night there I had a piece of chicken that was so dry it was solid served with vegetables that had been boiled so much they no longer held any nutrients. For lunch we had salmon (why?) served with half a steamed cabbage. A few times a kind of soup/sauce was made from a powder packet labelled 'farmers vegetables' but clearly contained nothing of the sort and was generally poured over whatever was on the plate - even if there was nothing on the plate. Potatoes were served unpeeled on a separate dish and looked like rocks. Potato rocks waiting to be peeled and consumed for their starchy contents. At least potatoes are cultural, right?
Cows are a bit crap you guys. They really don't like being around humans, they're pretty stupid and my god they just LEAK faeces and urine. Just pours right out of them! It's almost unbelievable until you're standing behind them attaching the milking machine. The cows are milked twice a day and have to be herded into the right paddock for grazing. Besides that they don't really do much except occasionally moo. Keep it up cows!
(Herding cows in style)
I arrived in Dublin roughly midday and, after a couch surfer cancelled ON THE TRAIN THERE, I had to check into a youth hostel. I haven't been in a youth hostel for a while and I was a bit reluctant to get back into that mindset of pub crawls and going to 'recommended' restaurants etc. but it wasn't too bad really. I did end up going on one of the pub crawls which turned out to be pretty cool but otherwise I was out of the hostel for most of the time. I managed to squeeze in the leprechaun museum, The Guinness storehouse, the big sights of Dubbers (Trinity College, Christchurch cathedral, The Castle of Dublin) and a fair few beers between.
(I'm a fucking leprechaun)
When I started drinking beer back in the day it didn't really taste that good I'll be honest. However, it was cheap and everyone else was drinking it so I just kept it up and now I'm a pretty big fan! Guinness was always that dark liquid that I could never conquer though. It just looked dense ...
(There she is)
Coming to Ireland though it was a must and surprisingly it's not nearly as bad as I either remembered or thought I remembered. It's pretty good! At the storehouse they had fudge made with Guinness, you see how the beer us made, advertisements blah blah - the whole Guinness situation - then finally you can go up into a bar that over looks Dublin. Unfortunately Dublin isn't exactly a 'tall' city (by any means) but view from on high are always nice. Especially with a beer in hand (and in beard).
(Yes, admittedly a posed photo - note flat Dublin. Flatlin)
On the second day I took a bus trip over to the west of Ireland where things are supposedly 'more Irish'. I want to say The Corrs are from here but some quick research tells me they are from a place quite close to the east coast - complete other side of the island. I was mega hung over from the pub crawl the night before so the three hour bus ride was a strange haze of semi consciousness, scenery, and snacks. Once there, there was a brief tour from a painfully awkward tour guide and then it was back on the bus to check out some LANDSCAPES.
I'll admit at this point I was still not up to scratch so missed the first hour or so of the tour (sleeping) but caught on later. The main destination was the Cliffs of Moher which turned out to be legitimately beautiful. I got some pretty nifty photos including some with me in them - an oft difficult feat when travelling alone. We also stopped in this picturesque country town for lunch. Yes it was very touristy but it was right by the ocean but had all of these cool fields with wild flowers and cows (more cows) chilling out in them. All these sights culminated in another three hour bus ride back.
(Three hour bus trip back?! Jesus I'd rather just ... )
Although I didn't really plan it I ended up taking a trip into Belfast to visit my friend David from when I studied in Miami back in 2007. Some of you may remember David from that time there was a streaker at the MTV movie awards. It was good Friday around this point and for some reason (religion) Ireland will not allow anyone to buy or sell alcohol on good Friday so at 12am sharp bars stopped selling the fun-juice which meant a fairly early night. Fortunately, most people started early so were pretty ok to go home. The next day we went to see where the Titanic was built (didn't go in) and just hung out really! I had a plan to catch back in Dublin so around 6pm that evening I hauled ass BACK to Dublin airport to fly back to London.
(David's world stage debut feat. Hayden Panettiere)
I liked Ireland! I was worried it would be similar to England and while yes there were some similarities I think it was distinct enough for it to be a stand alone venture. Once I hit Northern Ireland I could see some of the things I'm used to from London but Dublin was notably different I thought. I didn't drink as much as I thought probably due to the family I stayed with not being drinkers much at all but I had my fair share. Ireland is cool you guys.
