Into the wild..

Today I left what some might call civilisation and ventured north into a very isolated part of Ireland. I woke up later than I had intended to find that Catherine had left a breakfast spread complete with note for me which was very heart warming. I took the morning slowly as I didn’t really have that far to go. 

By noon I was walking into Sligo, walking quickly out again to go to a spot from which to hitchhike. It wasn’t long before I got picked up and began my journey to Glencolumbkille. The first guy claimed he was some sort of dyslexic genius with a massive IQ (which me mentioned many times). He dropped me about 20km up the road, but drove past his stop so he could drop me at Creevykeel, a megalithic type of chamber tomb or court cairns built in the 3rd millennium BC. Pretty old stuff. 

   
   
The next person to pick me up was a bad ass lady probably in her late 30s who after years teaching philosophy to school teachers was enrolled in a full time welding course. We got along very well and we had a good giggle. She dropped me just out of Donegal where I got picked up by TJ, a retired civil servant from Dublin who was off to meet his mother. He took me on a scenic tour of the coast line and despite being about 10km past his destination was happy to drop me from outside my hostel in Glencolumbkille. 

From there I went inside and met Pierre-Alexander, who is my fellow workawayer. I am spending a few weeks in this town volunteering in a hostel through a programme called Work Away, wherein I work in a hostel/farm/home for board and food. Pretty nice deal. My place is a 12 bed hotel on the edge of the village, which at the very moment is pretty sleepy with only three rooms occupied. 

I went for a walk around the village and took it all in. It’s very small, with two pubs, a shop and a post office and not much else. 

   
    
    
    
 I returned to the hotel and Pierre took me to our little house just down the road where it was able to settle in. I spent some time repairing my shirt with a needle and thread, as the back tearing and I hadn’t bothered to go buy a new some. Waste not want not, my sewing skills aren’t too bad either. 

About 8pm we had to go back to check some last minute guests in. I got chatted to a young American guy from Seattle who was in town with his girlfriend who was on a university trip to study Irish in the town, so there was a big group of Americans floating around – although they weren’t staying in our digs. He was a pretty awake kind of guy so we talked about politics and history and the lot for quite some time. 

Eventually the guests showed up and we were able to return to our little house. I finished repairing my shirt and decided to head to one of the pubs to show face and introduce myself. I got chatting to some of the American students and once they had gone had a good chat with the bartender about life here. Small town politics – pretty interesting stuff. Everyone knows everyone’s business. 

I returned home to the news of the Manchester arena bombing which was pretty distressing – I’ve had a long time love affair with the city which is only 40 miles from Liverpool and have spent a lot of time there. I stayed up watching for updates before going to sleep. It’s sad that it takes events like this to bring cities together.  

Two days in Galway; one in Sligo

Kate and I left Gio and Dani’s and went into Dublin to get the bus to Galway. We had a picnic on one or the bridges looking up the Liffey before boarding our two and a half hour bus, which was very hot so I struggled to stay awake – much to Kate’s amusement. 

By mid afternoon we had arrived and went to drop some things off at a local hostel. We went out and had a walk around the cathedral, which was very fine and gothic. We followed the a River Corrib down to the sea and wandered around the waterfront area before heading up into the bustling streets of the Spanish quarter. 

   
    
    
 
   
   
We spent the next day doing much the same, walking around the sneaky streets. Kate departed for a flight back to London around 5 and I went and met Mohan who was hosting me for the night and we went into the city to stop by some pubs. We ended up at the Salt House pub where there were a whole lot of buskers and couchsurfers so we hung out there the rest of the night. 

   
   
The next day I got up and out early and went and wondered around the university campus before heading out to a spot to hitch up to Sligo. I wasn’t waiting long before getting picked up. I got dropped about 20 miles up the road and wasn’t waiting 20 seconds before Craig picked me up on his way back from a night out in Galway. We hit it off and ended up getting some food in Sligo.

 

I wandered around Sligo town for a while before heading up to Catherine and Yusifs house, where I was staying. We had dinner and talked for the evening and got a really great evening sleep. 

   
    
    
   

Ber to Dub // Changing Lins

I had another full day in Berlin, which I spent with Mick. We had a very relaxed morning, and in the afternoon we took a walk and train ride around the city, stopping at a few sights that I hadn’t been to before, most notably Tempelhofer Feld, the former runway of an airport which the nazis used during WW2. 

   
 We walked the grounds and caught some more trains. Back at the pad I made some huge daddy lasagnes for the whole house and seven of us had a nice evening together. 

  
The next morning I got up to catch a flight to Dublin to meet Kate Schrader, and after a €60 fine (wrong ticket) I made it to the airport and to Dublin where I milled around until Kate arrived. 

We went down to the south part of the city where we were couchsurfing with a Brazilian couple, Giovana and Danilo who had prepared dinner for us. We ate and got acquainted before going to bed. 

The next day Kate and I explored Dublin, going to many of the places I had visited before, so if you want to fill in the day you can re read my last few Dublin posts. In the afternoon we caught up with Kate’s friends Rain and Rory over Guinness in a lovely pub before going back to Gio and Danis for another meal and giggle before hitting the hay again. 

   
    
 

Last Day in Copenhagen // First in Berlin

My last day in Copenhagen was a super relaxed one. As it was Sunday Fernando and I were pretty happy chilling in the house most of the morning. After I made us some food we hit the bikes once again and went into the city. We first went to recycle a whole lot of beer cans which was pretty exciting – you desposit them in a machine which gives you 1dk for each can. By the end we had enough for another 6 pack! 

  
We stopped via the old cemetery and saw the stones of Hans Christian Anderson and Kierkegaard. The cemetery was more of a lush public space than a gloomy place of death. 

The sun was beaming and everyone was out. We found a spot in town where there was a flea market going on and a patch of green to soak up the wrays – fortunately I had strategically packed some beers and we lay in the grass for a while watching the people and talking about creative things.

   

We cycled around some more, scoring another reduced bag of baking and went down to the Superkilen park, a large outdoor recreation space designed by BIG. I had a go on the monkey bars – I didn’t get very far. 

We returned home and Fernando went out to play badminton and I stayed in and packed up and caught up with some people and emails. Fernando returned and I made some yummy veggie burgers. It was then time for me to go so we said goodbyes and left. What a great dude. 

I got the metro into town, these are all driverless so the front window of the train is available to sit in. Seeing a train journey from the front is pretty amazing, especially when you’re cruising through a pretty new tunnel system. It was like real life ‘On a Rail’ from Half Life (niche reference). 

I found my bus to Berlin which left shortly before midnight and was able to sleep pretty well, a skill I’ve picked up over the years. I got into Berlin at 8.30 and found my way into the centre. Shortly after I met my friend Freya who I knew from Dunedin days. She’d just arrived a few weeks before and was looking to live in the city after falling in love with it last winter. It was really good to chat up with her by the river. 

We walked around a bit and eventually Mick joined us, another Dunedin pal and the three of us cruised and enjoyed the fantastic sunshine. Mick took us to a NZ pie shop (you just can’t find a good kiwi pie in Europe/uk) which was pretty special time, it had been a while. 

We sat in the sun some more before Freya departed and Mick and I went to his house where I’d be staying for a few nights. Mick lived with Lars, another kiwi pal so we caught up as well and I met the rest of their flat. They have found a lovely big apartment in a building with lovely high ceilings and big rooms. Sounded like a pain in the arse to get though – heaps of paperwork. So much for efficiency.  

   
    
   

Copenhagen // City of Architecture

Today we went to explore the work of the Bjarke Ingles Group. I was introduced to BIG in university and was inspired by their outside the box, environmentally conscious thinking around how architecture can more than a means of accomodating people but be a part of a functional, liveable urban space which enhances quality of life. It was only as I was sitting on the bus to Copenhagen that I remembered that they were a Danish Architecture firm, with most of their breakthrough works located in the city. And coincidentally just down the street from Fernandos house. 

Fernandos area is between the city and the airport, so it is a relatively new area, so much of the architecture in the area is brilliant, with many exciting and innovative spaces. You are never too far from water and green space, and the areas between the new apartment buildings are all open and free flowing, with foot traffic and cyclists prioritised over cars. 

We reached the first of BIG’s famous works, ‘The Mountain’. This is a tiered apartment block, arranged so that every apartment has a great view, sun and a backyard, without losing privacy. The apartments are stacked diagonally on top of a massive colourful carpark with a huge etching in metal of a snow capped maintain, which is claimable along the top edge. 

   
    
    
   
Next door was the VM houses, another building by the firm – one of their first major projects.    

   
We continued down the road, through construction zones of what will eventually be a bustling new city centre. We eventually came to the masterpiece, 8tallet. This is a multi story apartment block with plazas, parks, businesses and ‘streets’ built into the structure. It’s hard to explain but it is incredible. Along with my photos is a video of Bjarke Ingles pitching the concept. 
   
    
   

8H – The 8-House from BIG on Vimeo.

After wandering this for quite some time we continued toward the sea. This building sits beside a large area of agricultural lands, all accessible by bike. We cycled along the coast, finding many shelters which are provided by the government for people to rest/stay in if you are out on a big trip. Nice touch. 

          


We headed back to the house, another 30km under our belts. I went out a little later and got some food from the supermarket, taking my time to admire some of the local architecture by night. Very nicely lit structures. What a big nerdy day. Inspiring stuff. 

Copenhagen // Cycle city

Today Fernando and I went on an epic cycle journey that would have me asleep by 9pm. 

After breakfast we got on our bikes and headed to Amager beach, an artificial island with curvy sand dunes forming a lagoon and park areas. As it was a public holiday (General Prayer Day) the place what bustling with kite surfers, cyclists, skaters and walkers. Across the water we caught a glimpse of Sweden. 

   
    
    
   
We cycled down the end of the prominard before heading back westward to Freetown Christiania, a green and car-free community established in the early 70s by hippies on an old, disused military base. The vibe was very good, the centre was packed with people – mainly due to the open sale of weed and hash, despite it illegality, but once in the quiet streets the place was very tranquil.  

   
    
   
We hung their for a while, enjoying the sunshine. We got back on our bikes and, after a brief delay with a flat tire, set off on a big mission to Jægersborg Dyrehave, an 11 square km forested park, formally the hunting ground of the King. Aside from the paths, the park was left to its own devices, so toppled trees and huge branches were left to lie and become apart of the environment. It felt like we were miles from civilisation. We spent an hour or so exploring the park, through thick forest to open plains with herds of the deer that the King would hunt, and then his ‘little’ holiday house, which you might say was fit for a King. 

   
    
    
    
    
   

We cycled back to the city, stopping at the supermarket for some produce. There is an app over here (and in London I understand) where, when closing, business like bakeries will list discounted goods so that nothing gets thrown away. So for 35dk we got about 4 loafs for delicious fresh bread. What an idea! 

We returned to Fernandos pad and I worked out that we had cycled at least 70km. Fernando prepared a lovely spread of fresh food, we ate and I promptly fell asleep on the couch. 

   
 

The return to a Civilisation // Hamburg – Copenhagen

I boarded my plane and by mid afternoon I was back in Hamburg. I got on the train and went back to Körsty and Lisa’s house where Körsty let me in and we caught up. It had only been a week since I left. Lisa got home from work and we had some dinner. They are lovely girls and I’m super fortunate to have found them. I went to bed as after two restless nights I was dead – and I had an early bus. 

I got up the next morning and had a coffee with Lisa before making my way to the central bus station. I got my 8.30 bus to Copenhagen, which arrived shortly before 3, with a brief ferry ride in the middle.  

Copenhagen really is an amazing example of a city that works. It’s clean, modern and efficient. I’m having difficulty getting my head around a currency that is both high in value and numerically high as well. Usually it’s one of the other. 

I walked around the cental city and up the river for a few hours before getting to Kastellet – one of the best preserved star fortresses in Europe. I sat there for a bit before continuing back into the city, where I crossed west to Nørrebro, which felt like a super cool district. One thing about Copenhagen is that it is super multicultural. There are people from everywhere living here, so walking down the streets you hear a smorgusboard or languages and accents. And the cycle infrastructure is a dream!

   
    
    
    
   
I headed to the eastern side of town to go and meet Fernando, an Argentinian web developer newly moved to Copenhagen from London. He has a huge apartment in the newly developed Vejlands Allé district, arranged for him by his new employed. 

He told me about life here, about the 37 hour work week and how working people are allowed a lot more time for family. The taxes are high, but they are teired so the rich pay more are the not so rich pay less. And therefore everything is provided. We hypothesised that it is these two factors that enable people here to think outside the box more often and be innovative, in turn making the city better. 

Fernando and I have very similar music taste so we were spinning vinyl all night while making dinner. Tomorrow is a public holiday so we will see the city by bike then. 
  

The Change of Heart // Reset and Recalibrate

Today was a bit of a strange one. I woke up in my tent on the beach after a somewhat restful sleep, despite having one eye open due to wild camping and the booming music from the village down the beach. I sat up, condensation dripping down from the canvas, I looked at my map, read the guide for the day and worried that by getting further from Antalya it would be harder to get back, and given the depressing nature of the current empty Russian resort town, I decided to pack it in. Not just the hike, but Turkey. 

I can’t really explain it. When I was a boy in my early teens, I had a phase of going to my friends houses for sleepovers and in the middle of the night I would decide I didn’t want to be there anymore and end up going home. There was never a solid explanation for why this happened, but something would just switch in my brain and that would be what I had to do. 

This is the comparison of the feeling that comes to mind. While it’s been amazing here, I’ve found it a little isolating, being the only native English speaking tourist in the city. And while the hiking day was absolutely amazing, I definitely feel that a) my pack is way to heavy and b) the full hike is something to be shared with others and c) becoming more isolated is not the way to help me deal with the fact that I am really missing my life in the UK. 

So I went back to Antalya and booked the first flight back to Hamburg, got in touch with my new friends there and will be going straight to them. Then, I got rid of 90% of my things. For the purposes of illustrating this scene, you can imagine the scene from Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, during which Michelle Phiffer’s character returns home after Chrisopher Walken pushes her out of a sky scraper window, turns her house upside down in a fit of rage and starts sewing her cat woman outfit. This is nothing like what happened in real life, but I’ve got an audience (hi mum and dad) to entertain. 

In actual fact I got in touch with Yesim and said I had a lot of stuff to give her if she wanted. She was very excited. So I went to her a gave her everything that I had which I hadn’t used yet, and some things I had used once. So my tent, sleeping map, sleeping bag, cooking stuff, misc camping stuff, and my giant pack were gone. I’m now but down to my classic daddy pack, consisting of undies and socks, a tshirt, toiletries and chargers – and the clothes on my back. 

“You’re crazy, Angus!” You might say. Sure, I gave a way stuff worth a bit of money. But I’m now back to exclusively carry on, which means I can fly for super cheap. So the money lost will be made back in savings. And I am now much more mobile. So this was one weight of my back. 

For the rest of the day I wollowed in self loathing. While it was the right choice for me to put myself back in a situation where I’m more likely to find like minded people to hang with, I couldn’t help but feel that I had failed in someway. That I lacked the courage and strength of mind to be a true ‘rambling man’. I know this is a stupid thing to think, which made me self loath even more. There are a lot of things on my mind right now, but as I head to the airport I do feel a weight has been lifted. 

Hopefully, with a bit of proper, long term planning I can find some kind of purpose to this wandering. Right now it feels like I’m just putting off the return home, while dreaming of ways I could possibly return to the UK. 

In the meantime, I’ll be heading to Denmark tomorrow. Sorry for the down buzz post, unfortunately it can’t all be McBryde Looking at Things. Occasionally there is McBryde Has Internal Battles, but after a pretty good sleep in the airport, my frame of mind is better. 

#realtalk

Hike day // Lycian Way

Today I left Antalya to have a day of hiking the Lycian Way, an ancient trail from Antalya to Fethiye. By 8am I had said goodbye to Yesim and was on my way to the marina to catch the 9am ferry to Kemer. 

I arrived around 10 and was quickly on my way out of the grotty Russian resort village. I got some apples on my way out of town to go with the simit I had purchased in Antalya. It took two hours to walk to the trail, as I had jumped in a few days into the trail. 

Once out of the town I was in a beautiful rural vista, something of a time machine with little old ladies in head scarfs and cardigans arranging bunches of miscellaneous plants and yelling at goats outside ramshackle old houses under a spectacular mountain range. 

The first thing that struck me was Devil’s Rock, two massive boulders which towered over a small village. By this time I found the track and began climbing stoney forest paths. It was hard work with by 15km pack, but the view was worth it. Fortunately it was overcast so the heat was not as intense as it could have been. 

   
    
    
 I ascended and descended the mountain in a few hours before reaching the coast. There was now a bit more evidence of civilisation, with a number of sweaty Russian tourists paddling in the water. After some time scrambling through the coastal undergrowth I came to some fantastic ruins, the ancient city of Phaselis. What remained of the town was a large aqueduct, Bath houses, agora and a theatre. These were most spectacular. 

   
    
    
   
I continued on, meeting some Turkish hikers who were walking the other way and had made camp for the night. Through the forest, marshland and farmland I found Tekirova, which is where I would stay the night. After 8 hours of hiking this was a relief. This was another Russian resort town, only fairly deserted and a little sad. 

I found a place to have a much needed feed for 13lr, before pitching my tent on the beach and sleeping. The town boomed with loud music until 2am, but that didn’t stop me dozing, with moonlight streaming throu the canvas of my tent. 

   
    
    
 

Antalya // Day Four

Today is my fourth and final day in the Turkish resort town of Antalya. It was a slow start, doing some bits around the house in the morning before going for a stroll to find some bits (apparently string is a luxury item these days, I couldn’t find any anywhere) before I met up with Zeynep, a 22 year old music teacher who wanted to show me around. 

We went down into the old own and sat on the pier in the marina until we were joined by her sister and her mother. We sat there a little longer before going to meet some friends of Zeyneps where we could see the sun set behind the mountains. 

  

   
    
    
 After a while we walked through the old town again and we went our seperate ways. I returned to Yesims house and hung out with her and her housemate for a while with some wine before turning in. 

Tomorrow morning I catch a ferry to Kemer, from where I will start the Lycian Way – a 500km ancient walking trail from Anatalya to Fethiye. I’m not sure how far I will make it, but I will give it my best shot!