Ireland – Day 7 // The Recovery and the Departure

Today we all pulled ourselves out of our respective spots of slumber and congregated in the living area. It was decided with a fair amount of certainty that brunch was the order of the day to nurse our tired heads. So 6 of us marched into the drizzly town to a lovely little spot.

We walked back to he house via a pint of Guinness, during which I had been convinced that I would certainly not be leaving Limerick today. So I stayed, lounged lazily around the house and joined in drinking of the remaining booze.
The afternoon became evening, pizza was ordered, and the now 4 of us snuggled together on the couch to watch Game of Thrones until we were all asleep. And that was how my last night in Ireland was spent.

On Monday, I went into the city with Caroline on her way to work before we said our sad goodbyes and I went and had a look around the medieval part of the city before jumping on a bus to Dublin Airport to catch my bus.

What an amazing week, full of amazing characters, friends, hospitality and generosity. I’ve talked extensively about everything from the Olympics to Irish cultures and history, and picked up some of the local colloquialisms. I’ve experienced great variations in the accent and learnt about the place of tradition and culture in Irish society, which seems to be alive and well.

Although a week seems a short time, it’s a long time since Louis CK last Monday. Since then, I’ve stayed with a lovely Irish family in Naas, hippies in Cork via Killkenny and Waterford, two nights at a backpackers in Killarney, and two nights with beautiful new friends in Limerick. I’ve taken two planes, two buses, two freight trucks and 10 cars. This has been an absolutely enriching experience.

The Irish I have come across are a beautiful people, friendly, warm and welcoming. If the scousers are some of the friendliest people in the UK, the the Irish take it to a whole new level. I’ll certainly be researching visa options for next year.

McBryde Out.

Ireland – Day 6 // Limerick

After taking full advantage of the free breakfast policy at my Killareny Hostel I limped up to the pick up point for Limerick. I stole in the pissing rain for about 15 minutes before being picked up by a man on his way to a football match in Galway. Another local with a New Zelaand connection, whose daughter plays football for the Irish football team.

We hit bit of traffics on the way up so we ended up taking a lot of scenic back rounds to get around it. Was a good way to see the sites.

By 2.30 I was on the outskirts of town, and after hobbling into town and having some food I met up with Caroline, who I had met on couchsurfing and had invited me to a house party at hers, which was a goodbye party for the three tenants who were all due to fly one way to Taiwan for an adventure.

I was out to work straight away, fetching speakers from a house around the corner and playing a roll in putting together a beer bath.

Once the tasks were done we set about boozing as people flowed in and out throughout the night. After a lot of wine, boogieing and chatter I found a spot on the floor for a kip, with a whole lot of new pals under my belt. Stellar way to meet the locals.

Ireland – Day 5 // Damp cycling

Short post today. I rented a bike in the morning and attempted to cycle to Dingle, which is about 65km away. The rain was off and on all day but the country side was lovely. I only managed to get to Inch which is about 40km so still a respectable days work. I stopped and sang to some cows too and back at my hostel chatted to a Canadian girl for a bit before showering and sleeping while everyone else went partying. My body hurts. Here’s some photos.

Ireland – Day 4 // Killarney

Today I woke up at 9.30 and slowly pulled myself up. No one was stirring in the house so I wrote a wee note and slipped out into the narrow streets of suburban Cork.

I walked around the city all morning, heading up St Patricks hill to get some perspective on the city. I did a loop in the hills and came back down to the city, walking around what I had taken in last night, this time by day.

I walked in the direction of the university, which as it turned out the right way to hit the N22, the road I would be hitching from to get further south.

Cork University is a very charming, green campus with lovely gardens and stone work. 10/10. I aat in the grounds for a bit before heading towards to the street where I would result my hitchhiking.

I was picked up by a young dude who was off to see his parents just down the road with a wee puppy in the back seat. He was an online personal trainer and car enthusiast who was living in Cork. He took me about 20 minutes down the road tva better spot to continue on to Killarney. He even extended the invitation to join at his parents hour for lunch, which for some reason I declined, however in hindsight I’m not sure why.

I was now in a tiny wee town in the stretch of road to Killarney. It was only a few minutes before Kevin picked me up, a 40 something man on his way home to Tralee, just a bit further in from where I was headed. We talked about the communities of Irish speakers in the area and I learned a bit about Kenny County. The views out the window were pretty great.

He too had been to New Zealand some decades ago during a stint living in Australia with his then wife. He was currently requalifying in food sciences at Cork Uni after 15 years working in supplying bone to dental surgries.

It wasn’t long until we arrived in Killarney, and he dropped me in the centre of town. I got the immediate impression that this is a very very touristy town. The streets are lined with shops telling classic tourist tat, overpriced fish and chips and Irish music pouring out of the many dozens of Irish pubs.

I had a wee explore before booking a hostel room for the night and heading down to the tesco to get some dinner supplies. After I had checked in a fed myself I popped out in the drizzly dusk to walked into the national park to see Ross Castle and get an impression of the area.

It is lovely, deer chill in the fields and occasional leap out of tall grass around you, the reflection of the distant mountains glisten in the lake and the forests are lush. Very Fiordland feels here.

I got back to my hostel around 930, had another round of dinner and chilled. My feet and hamstrings are starting to feel the strain I’ve been putting on them. No matter. Tomorrow I’ll be exploring the area by bike, should the weather hold up.

Ireland – Day 3 // Killkenny, Waterford & Cork

Big day today. And an important day for my future travels. Proper nomading and making the most of opportunities.

I got up around 730 and had breakfast with Sydney before we piled into the car with Sydney’s mum Leslie, who was dropping Sydney to a bus to go to Dublin for an interview. En route I was dropped at the best stretch of road to start on my hitchhiking journey south. My first stop was a Killkenny, about an hour drive from Naas. It was 10am.

I was standing on the side of the road for about 10 minutes, sign in hand before I was picked up by a 21 year old lad who was heading home to a small town where he repaired tractors and buses. He’d just met someone in Naas who had some vital parts from Dublin for the local school bus.

He dropped me at his turn off and pointed me to the on ramp back onto the highway continuing on to Killkenny. It is illegal to hitchhike on the highways, so on ramps are your best bet.

At the bottom of the on ramp was a round about which was a turnpike to near by farming towns. This being the case, I really was in the middle of nowhere, and there weren’t many cars coming past me. It gave me time though to realise that there is a method of communication that drivers use for hitchhikes, which i never realised.

One is pointing in a direction, which I assume means I’m not going that way, and another was the ‘I dunno’ gesture (raised shoulders and palms up), which I took to mean either ‘full car’ or ‘I dunno’. There is also a lot of people just waving and being friendly. It kind of feels like you’re busking.

Anyway it took about 35 minutes for me to be picked up by William in his massive fertiliser freight truck. This was my first time driving in a huge truck, let alone my first time pulling myself up to the cab of one. He was pretty chuffed to hear that. William had been driving trucks for 35 years all around Ireland, lives just outside Killkenny and has a wife and two teenage boys – the eldest of which was a tractor driver in one of the surrounding farms. Good honest folk.

We arrived in Kilkenny at about noon, I thanked and farewelled William (who gave me his contact details incase I had any trouble) and I hopped out at the lights in central Killkenny.
I walked from there up to St Canice’s Catheral and the tower, which Will had told me about. It was nice, €4 entry fee and €3 to get up the tower though. Stuff that. I took some snap in the grounds and continued into the town.

The streets were lovely and narrow, with sneaky little side streets. It opened out into a pedestrian promenade just beside Killkenny Castle, where I sat and had some lunch before roaming the grounds of the castle and through some sneaky secret gardens. After about an hour I found my way to a good spot to get picked up to head to Waterford, which was about 30 minutes drive away.

It took me about 25 minutes to hike out of the town and through the suburbs to get to a good spot. I was stood on that stretch for about 20 minutes before Eman pulled over. I hadn’t noticed he had pulled over until he had beeped about three times and I turned my head to see who the road raged was raging at. Hilarious. 2pm.

Eman was an Irishman who was home from Brisbane, Australia, where he had moved with his wife and two children 20 years ago as the result of a midlife crisis. On Friday he got a call that his father was on his death bed so he dropped what he was doing and got on a plane. It was just a scare and he was on the mend, but he was on the way to Waterford hospital to see him.

We had plenty to talk about for the duration of the trip for example: which, of the things Australia and New Zealand dispute ownership of we were happy for the other to keep (Russell Crowe, Phar Lap). I also learned that as a nation the Irish travel a lot as well, like kiwis to London the Irish seem to go to Australia, America and New Zealand. Very interesting. I also learned about Ireland’s national sport, which playing was punishable by dead at some points when the English occupied.

By 3pm I was in Waterford, a port city with Viking links and was one of the first to be taken from the Irish, because of stupid King who recruited some no good ruffians to protect the area from other ruffians, but hadn’t considered that the first ruffians were also ruffians. So they kind of just walked in and stayed. This is what Eman told me, and I’m paraphrasing of course

The city had little to offer in tourism. One of the first stone towers of it’s kind in the country, a glass blowing workshop, medieval museum and some churches with a wee town centre area.

I went and had a coffee and a wee shop to use some wifi and chatted to the proprietor of the shop who was a 26 year old Californian who had followed a Christian group over there and now lived there with his Swedish girlfriend who has a baby on the way. He had travelled a fair amount so we talked for a while. His goal was to visit all the continents so we considered ways he could visit Antarctica. I told him that my priest growing up would go down to be the priest, which was interesting to him.

At 4pm I left and made my way toward the road to Cork, which is where I planned to stay for the night. This would be my longest stretch of the day, 108km.

I walked for about 30 minutes, making a new sign with cardboard from the coffee shop and finding a spot. 15 minutes went by and I’d had a lot of friendly gesturing when a man pulled over and offered to driver me to a better spot for the journey out of town. He was a late 40s-early 50s Irish man who had lived in the UK and abroad a long time, so his accent wasn’t very thick. He took me about 10 minutes up the road, via a stop at Harvey Normal to buy a printer.

He left me at the last round about out of town, leading directly down to the Cork road. 5.30pm. It wasn’t long until I got picked up by Kenny, a 30 something welder who was driving about 45 minutes down the road to Dungarvan. He was a family man who had recently been to Liverpool on a stag do with 14 lads. It sounded like everything I loath about Liverpool central on a weekend, but it provided a source of jovial chatter.

He dropped my by the ocean and in 5 minutes I was picked up by another Welder who had nearly exactly the same van. That was weird. There are a few pharmaceutical plants nearby which they seem to work at. He was driving another 15 minutes up the road to his house in the middle of nowhere. We were way up in the misty country roads.

When he dropped me off it was in absolutely the middle of nowhere. He left we with a bag of Werthers Originals which, after gobbling a few I held with my Cork sign to try and entice drivers.

I walked up a bend in the road to a straight, misty stretch and in 10 minutes a dude, not much older than me had driven past and come back to get me. Just lovely. He had been milking cows all day. He had spent a bit of time in Wales painting and decorating but was back home lending a hand with his mates dads livestock. He dreamed of travelling but said he was tied down to a lady who didn’t share the desire to move. He seemed happy though. He dropped me at his turn off and I was again in the middle of nowhere. It was about 6.30pm, the light was starting to go, headlights were starting to come on and I was still 48km out of Cork.

It took about 20 minutes to get picked up again. This time by a freight truck carrying mail to a depot in Cork from Waterford. Two in one day, nice! He had been to New Zealand in 2010 with his family and explored the north island. We also talked about how he spent 3 years as an illegal alien in New York painting and decorating with a couple of lads from Liverpool in the 80’s. One time they were doing up a place which turned out to be where illegal aliens are processed. They got that job done pretty fast.

He dropped me about 4km out of Cork, I was on the home stretch. There was a field in between the top of the off ramp he pulled in at and dropped me and the bottom of the on ramp heading back onto the motorway in the cork direction which was covered in rabbits.
It had been pissing with rain, and though it was not as heavy when I was out there it was still damp. It was darker now and my spot wasn’t the best but after 20 minutes a polish man picked me up and dropped me in central Cork. 10 minutes later the rain stopped and a rainbow appeared. 8pm. 10 hours, 9 drivers, job done.

Walking around I found the city very nice. I’m told it is a similar population to Dunedin, so I had high hopes for it. The centre city is situated between two rivers which run out to sea, with the suburbs on two hills either side.

I walked to a cafe and had another coffee and some internet. The only thing I had really planned on doing when I got to Cork was to get in touch with Sydney’s sister who I met for 15 minutes last night. I don’t have a phone in Ireland and Skype wouldn’t let me add credit, so Syd was kind enough to call her and get a location for me to find her.

It was about 10 minutes walk from where I was so I headed over. She was with a bunch of classic Manor hippie pals which was nice. They had all just had a big dinner and we’re just gathered out front of a vegetarian place. I chatted to her for a bit before she headed off with some of her pals. I had hoped to stay with her, but knew something would work out.

Fortunately I had had a very friendly introduction to her friends Deborah and Daniel, who I’d met 5 minutes before. We got chatting and eventually started walking back into the city together. Daniel is a local Cork hippy who works at a kind of outdoor adventure course with zip lines and the like. Deborah is his girlfriend who is from Brazil. Both are lovely and we walk the streets, which tonight were flooded with drunk school kids celebrating their exam results coming out.

By this stage it was 10pm and they invited me back to their house and extended the olive branch of a couch for the night. Success! We walked up one of the hills either side of the rivers and wound through the narrow streets to their flat.

We had tea and talked for a few more hours before I had to start writing this post, which has taken the better part of two hours. It’s 2.30am and I am sleepy.
A good first day of hitching.

Ireland – Day 2 // Naas

After a very long time I’ve put on my solo travel cap and have embarked on a solo exploration of the great nation of Ireland, starting with baby steps that will lay the foundation for the rest of my time here.

When I woke up at 7.30am in my hostel bed Stef was already long gone, having left in a taxi at 4am to catch his 6.30am flight back to the UK. I pulled myself out of bed and after a caffienation found my way to O’Connell station where I boarded the 126 Bus Eirann service to Naas, a small town about an hour out of Dublin with a population of just under 21,000 where I was meeting Sydney, a couch surfing host with whom i would seek a day of adventure.

It was another bloody scorching day, and as I rode the bus I could feel the think wool of my beanie pressing against the light burn I got yesterday from sleeping in Phoenix Park.

On arriving in Naas I found a wee coffee shop where I sat and wrote lyrics for a new banger hit single I’m working on and waited for Sydney, a 20 year old Naas native to meet me. We met and hit it off immediately, and we walked back to her family home so she could collect some things and set off on an adventure. I had been reading about Wicklow National park which is near by, and saw also that a large lake sized part of the river Liffey was near by. So we agreed to head in that general direction.

At the family home I met Todd, Sydney’s Texan father and her other brother Erin. Brother were charming and I was extended the offer of a bed for the night, so with that box ticked I was able to head off to enjoy the day worry free.

Syd and I walked to an appropriate point in which to stick out our thumbs and hitchhike 15 minutes down the road to Blessington, which is right next to the river. We were standing there, sign in hand for no more than three minutes for before a lovely polish man called Tom picked us up and drove us to Blessington on his way back from a meeting. Easy.

We were dropped right on the lakes edge and spent the next few hours walking the beach, shooting the shit and enjoy the glorious summers day.

Around 5 we started our journey back the Naas, finding ourselves at a pretty awkward piece of road, we headed back toward Blessington and chose a spot. After not much luck a friendly local lady on the way to the supermarket with children in park yelled out the window “you’ll never get a ride to Naas from there” and proceeded to drive us to a better pick up point. Within 5 minutes we were picked up by two polish lads on their way to work who didn’t speak much English.

Back in Naas we went to the tesco so I could get some nibbley pre dinners for the family as a thanks for welcoming me into their hope. I met Syds mother and sister, Leslie and Ashley. Ashley’s is a roaming hippy type who would have fit in well at the manor. She spends her time hitching around the country to attend different workshops and spiritual group gropes. She was only around briefly before hitching down to Cork, which is good for me as I intend to be there tomorrow night myself.

Syd, Erin, and I sat and chatted in the evening twilight over beer and hummus. Erin eventually went to get a bus to Dublin for the night leaving just Syd and I to talk into our 12th hour together.

 In summary, an amazing day. Country air and the company on actual Irish people is what Dublin has always lacked for me, fantastic though it is. It was a perfect sequence of events for the next few days. Having only hitched once before today I was really in need of a comrade to do it with a few more times to get me more comfortable with it. Tomorrow I plan to hitch through multiple cities on my way to Cork tomorrow. Many locals said to me today that if you’ve done the  Ring of Kerry then you’ve done Ireland, my my priority is to get to Kilarney as soon as I can so that I can allow enough time to do that by bike. Until tomorrow, readers.

Ireland – Day 1 // Dublin

Today at 6.30am Stef and I departed Huskisson street for Liverpool John Lennon Airport and flew to Dublin. By 10.30am we were walking the bustling streets of Dublin. It was Stefs first time and I had been in March so I acted as tour guide for the day.

We walked around the central post office, Trinity College, Dublin Castle – where we had a midday snooze in the park behind and Pheonix Park where we sat amongst the still grazing deer, slept some more and got a little bit sunburnt (absolutely scorching day, which was unexpected). I didn’t take that many photos as they would just look the same as my post from the last time I was in Dublin. Stef got a bit arty with his.

We walked back into the city to the 3 Arena to see Louis CK, who was the reason for the trip in the first place – and he was absolutely phenomenal.

We are now sitting in a sleepy pub drinking a Guinness before hitting the hay. Stef has a flight back to the Uk at 6.30am and I am heading into the country tomorrow to meet a new friends and hopefully do some hiking, though I don’t know what she has planned.

May-July update

Hello readers,

It’s been a wee while since I’ve written a blog, and as I am off on a weeks adventuring tomorrow I feel it is a good time to fill you on the everyday goings on if this nomadic honorary scouser.

Life in Liverpool over the last few months has been entertaining  with lots going on.

Work at the bar with my palex friendlon Alex Fenlon has been nothing short of a pleasure, and over the last few months we have seen a wide variety of events in our wee bar, from national cocktail competitions, burlesque acts, issues panels, bands and parties.

Dear J McKay left us for the big city lights of London, but not before an appropriate send off featuring NZ/US band Unknown Mortal Orchestra in Liverpool and a trip to Leeds to see comedian David Cross. After which I accompanied her down to London, where, amongst other things I participated in the London Pride Parade.

Alex Wilson stopped by for a week or so on his way to Edinburgh Fringe via a few other places with was amazing.

Brendan and Uella also arrived off the back of their European tour and stayed for a bit before themselves heading to Edinburgh where they are now settled.

I also played host to a charming Californian band who I met at my bar, who stayed with us for three nights and were great guests.

The Liverpool Biennial is on at the moment, which is a 14 week international contemporary art exhibition that happens at a multitude of venues around the city. One notable exhibit is the former Toxteth Reservoir, open to the public with a laser installation inside. The acoustics we favourable for my sneaky gregorian chants.

 

I payed a short visit to Birmingham to catch up with my dear friend Tan who I was very good pals with when I lived in Wellington in 2011-2012. We hadn’t seen each other since then so where better to catch up than on the opposite side of the world.

On returning to Liverpool I left again immediately for two nights camping in the lakes district with Alex and the crew. Good fun

Over the last few months I’ve been rehearsing a performing some of my songs at venues around the city. This came to a head last week when I had the pleasure of playing to a packed crowd at my own venue, Studio 2. After all that excitement I will be retreating for a while to try an write more tunes.

Last week the Huskies payed a visit to our friend Oliver’s house in the woods just outside of Ruthin in northern Wales to work on his allotment. The Huskies have been going here for a while and have slowly been turning it into a kind of retreat.

Stef and I drove down via a visit to Conway, where we walked the Castle wall and ate icecream.

When we arrived at the forest we began moving earth and planning new structures before having dinner and talking into the night. The next morning we continued our work with occasional food and tea breaks. I decided to tackle the well overgrown 800m drive way with a weed whacker which was good fun.

Thanks all for now. Stay tuned, tomorrow another adventure begins.