amullett's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries TravelStream™ news feed for member amullett on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/amullett en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:40:14 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com Ticket market — Galway, Ireland http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917560/tpod.html Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:40:14 -0400 2nd time round: Adam goes back to Europe for a bigger bite of what he sampled before.
Galway, Ireland

Driving into Galway was somewhat of a nightmare. I mean driving anywhere in Ireland is crap because the locals can't get over the great joke of stealing, defacing or changing roadsigns in order to send tourists the wrong way. Galway on the other hand just has so many winding and one way streets that its impossible to keep your sense of direction. The locals seem to have no idea aswell. We stopped to ask them where this particular street was and they told us all sorts of things. When we finally got the the place where we were sleeping, they told us to go park the car round the corner. We found the parking lot and entered it. As soon as we found a spot we had people handing us tickets. In this car park, you could buy an all day ticket or no ticket, so when people left they just gave it to other people to use. Within two minutes of being out of the car, we had been given three tickets and had given two of them to other people who were entering the car park. I can't believe that the people who own the car park could be so stupid to not have shorter ticket parking.

Anyway I was supposed to meet up with my ex-workmates from the Belgian Beer Cafe in Galway because they (Cormac and Kate) had just moved there from Perth. Anyway when we got there they weren't contactable. We had this really dumb Australian girl in our room. She was from the Gold Coast and her skin was something like leather because she had been in the sun so long. She told us proudly after five minutes knowing her that she had some heroin and cocaine and other drugs. Then she showed us her resume - one job as a cafe worker after 6 years of working. She dropped out of school. A real candidate for "Aussie battler of the year" aka moron.

Anyway we went out that night coz it was some university party and all the pubs had live music and loads of drunk students in them. We had dinner with an Irish couple who we shared a table with - they had come down from their country town for the festivities. Well at least thats what we thought. It turned out that they had come for him to get a massive tattoo of the girls name on his forearm. I can see all the bogans reading this thinking how romantic that is, but its sort of lame if you ask me. She was pregnant with their child and neither of them were over 20. I can hear Queen playing 'another one bites the dust' in my head.

Anyway we ditched them and went to another pub where this drunk guy was talking shit about how I was a foreigner in Ireland - I think these people really need to get with the times. After finishing our beer and walking over broken glass that no one bothers to clean up, we went to Super Mac's which is like an Irish McDonalds. Inside there were all the 16 year olds who couldn't get into pubs that night. We sat down with our meals only to be hounded by these two fat teenage girls who wanted our chips. I have never seen a human so akin to a seagull. This fatty was literally snatching at my chips without even acknowledging that they were mine. I had to physically slap her sausage fingered hands away.

We left Galway having not seen my friends. Oh well...
]]> It's decadent — Kilkenny, Ireland http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917380/tpod.html Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:02:57 -0400 2nd time round: Adam goes back to Europe for a bigger bite of what he sampled before.
Kilkenny, Ireland

We arrived in our hired car and went straight to the internet terminal that we saw on the main street. It was very cheap at 6.00EUR per hour. We were trying to couchsurf in all the places we went and had sent a message to the one available host in Kilkenny. She was from Poland I think, but was living in Kilkenny for who-knows-what reason. Anyway we got a maybe answer her pernding whether her friend was coming to her or not. Her friend did come int he end and we ended up at the hostel.

The hostel was one of the classic hostels that you would imagine with a kitchen and big dorm rooms. It wasn't as nice as other hostels that I've stayed in, but people there stayed for ages and it had a nice community feel to it. Most times a hostel just feels like a cheap hotel. We met some people there from Australia and New Zealand as is common in hostels in Europe. After cooking a scrumptious dinner, which I thought was fabulously decadent, we headed over the road to a pub where they had live music. There was an open mic of sorts going on and I was encouraged to play, but when I got up there and spoke to the guy, he realised I was Australian and immediately told me there was no room for me to play. Irish people can be racist pricks sometimes. Anyway they played good music and some old Irish people got up and sang anti-English songs and everyone clapped. I had the most awesome burger that night from this Pakistani guy - classic brick of fat, but sooo good.

The next day when we were leaving we saw these two girls from the hostel who were walking towards the bus stop. We had been concerned that we were spending too much money on fuel, so I ran over to them and told them that we would take them to Cork for five euros each. They consented and off we went. On the way there we went to Kells Priory which was an old monastery - that was pretty cool.
]]> Beligerent Irish boy — Dingle, Ireland http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917500/tpod.html Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:18:02 -0400 2nd time round: Adam goes back to Europe for a bigger bite of what he sampled before.
Dingle, Ireland

We checked into our hostel and found the same two girls from the other hostel in Kilkenny from two days ago. At first they seemed relatively cool because we shared the same grievances about the strange lady who checked us into the hostel. She was one of these strange hostel owners who sleeps in the hostel, probably because they want to keep tabs on everyone. She had a strange accent that I guessed was from Poland, but from my experience with racist Irish people and how they hate hard working eastern Europeans, she didn't want to say because she might be labeled. I asked her anyway what her accent was, ie if she was Polish, of which there was no doubt really. She said 'Scandanavia'. The fact that it isn't a country, but a collection of countries made me sure that she was a Pole and was afraid of being ridiculed.

Anyway enough about the strange hostel lady. We were invited for dinner with the two girls from Ireland. For those who know nothing about Dingle, it is a tiny fishing town during the winter and a tourist hot spot during the summer. I was there during the winter so the town was dead. The NZ girls who turned out to be more and more annoying as the night wore on - and it did wear on - told us about how they were looking after the super-rich's kids in London and how they were flown to France weekly to teach the kids how to ski and speak French. They also told us about their "off the beaten track experience" in Ireland, which involved driving down the country roads instead of using main arteries. Give me an effing break morons, if you really think you are getting an "off the beaten track experience" by not taking main roads, then you really shouldn't be allowed to look after children.

Anyway to get to the meaning of the title of this story. We were having dinner in this pub and we got the end of the meal and none of us could decide whether or not you are supposed to tip in Ireland. For all normal people, the idea behind this conversation would come across as us trying to be culturally sensitive and ethical tourists. This moron 18 year old Irish guy came up and in the most leprechaunish accent you can imagine said "Now A'm jus huvvin me dinna ova dere, but really, wull ef yer huvvin dis karnversaytion, denn it really shorws where yer frum,". It took us a few minutes to piece together the information of why this person came to our table, spoke to us then sat down, what he actually said and what he was trying to say. After about 20 minutes, we worked out that he was simply a moron and no further thought need be put to the matter.

We left Dingle the next day - there are some lovely photo spots around Dingle and it is where most of the cliff photos you see will come from.
]]> Goodbye Brugse Zot! — Brugge (Bruges), Belgium http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/germany-2006/1148677620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/germany-2006/1148677620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/germany-2006/1148677620/tpod.html Thu, 08 May 2008 14:52:33 -0400 Adam in Deutschland: A quest for Wurst, Fußball and everything European.
Brugge (Bruges), Belgium

And so ends the Bauhaus Hostel and Brugge for the young man from Perth. It was a great stay, but it is definitely time to move on to bigger and better things: under the radar for too long. In total, I worked there for just over two months and I think that hostel work is the way to go from now on.

In regards to the title of this entry: Brugse Zot is a beer made in Brugge and it is called that because at one time the king of Austria went to visit West-Flanders and they put on a massive parade. When the king arrived, the parade was so extensive and overwhelming that he said "all I have seen today is fools". Zot is Flemish for crazy/fool. Therefore it is the city of fools.

On my last night there in the hostel, I did what any self-respecting Australian backpacker would do: I got drunk. It was a big night of party and I was bought a present from the best ice cream store in town by the assistant manager - it was quite the surprise. The tub was so plentiful that eight of us only managed to plough through about half before it all became a bit too much.

Some of the people at the Bauhaus have been a bit crazy and some have been very cool. There are people in the town of Brugge who have amazed me with their ability to speak multiple languages and others who I wish would just shut their mouths for good. Most of the people in Brugge could speak three languages FLUENTLY and a handful could speak more. It is really a labour of love for the Belgians to speak another language, but that doesn't give you the chance to learn theirs, so that's a little sucky. In the time that I spent in Brugge, I managed to pick up some Flemish and I surprised myself how much I could read the newspapers because of my German skills. Some of the things I can say in Flemish include "one beer please", "one coffee", "can you speak English", and a few other random phrases. Like everyone does with a new language, I learned the insults and swear words first.

Some of the best times I had in the Bauhaus were with the customers. I would often mingle with the customers and take them around the city for drinks or food or whatever. It was something different and it gave me a chance to get away from work and home (the same thing). A few times we rode our bikes over the border to the Netherlands to a town called Sluis and other times we would just cruise round the city aimlessly.

I managed to meet a few cool people by working at the Bauhaus and I am hopefully going to see them in the future before we all leave Europe. Something that is definitely on my list of things to do is to go to this music festival in Hungary. There is an island in the Danube river and on this sandy outpost, there is a week-long music extravaganza with heaps of bands that I like. Everyone reading this who is in Europe has to email me and tell me that you will come. Everyone reading this in other places (ie USA, Australia) has to buy a plane ticket and join me too haha. It is in August and I really want to go, so we will see.

I have lined up an interview in Berlin at the Circus hostel, which is a sister hostel from the Bauhaus. The managers of the hostels are chummy and it would be a fairy tale if I could get work there - it would be my well-poised gateway to Eastern Europe. Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine and Slovenia will be at my mercy and with the cheap flights you can get out of Germany, it will be a sinch.

Included in the photo album for this entry are most of my workmates and a video walk-through of the Bauhaus from the front door, to the bar, through the kitchen and then down the back where the intimate couch setting is. It is a really cool bar and now you can get some sort of feeling for the way it went and how it looked. Although all that is changing as you read this: the whole hostel is undergoing a makeover because an English company bought it and it seems like they enjoy spending money. The new reception opened the day I left, so now I am one of those old-school staff that will reminisce about the good ol' days when beer was cheap and the food was good.

On my last day in Brugge, I did what had to be done: I got some Belgian fries in the town square with Andolouse sauce (sweet and spicy, mayonnaise based sauce: very yummy). It was a fitting and unhealthy send off to a city that I thoroughly enjoyed living in for two months.

Goodbye Brugge, hopefully I will see you again.
]]> Dublin party — Dublin, Ireland http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1203760920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1203760920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1203760920/tpod.html Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:37:09 -0400 2nd time round: Adam goes back to Europe for a bigger bite of what he sampled before.
Dublin, Ireland

I touched down in Dublin and went straight to a party from the airport. It was 10pm and I had no where to sleep, but I knew that I was going to a couchsurfing party, so what could possibly go wrong? Naturally with a question like that, you dear reader, are expecting that something will indeed go wrong - this was fortunately untrue and I found a host with no problem. On the contrary I had multiple offers for hosting - some were more attractive offers than others...

So anyway I turned up in Dublin at 10pm and I jumped on the bus and found the pub with the help of an Irish dude I met at the airport. Fortunately the bus took me more or less directly there and I entered the massive party (about 100 people) on the third floor. I hadn't seen such a big party before with couchsurfing and apparently it is a common occurance in Dublin - nice to see...Anyway I hopped to and bought myself my first pint of real Irish Guinness. I know you are all dying to know, so I will tell you straight away - yes Dublin Guinness does taste better than in other places.

So anyway, the next step was to find a host - I had emailed a few people before I jumped on the plane and some of them had read my emails while I was in the air. They knew what I looked like and approached me. I had two options that were worth considering. One with a the host of the party who would have had 15 other guests in the place and the other offer was in a house full of Australians. Well when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Birds of a feather flock together...ok, ok, enough of the sayings and proverbs...Anyway I made a gentleman's agreement with the Aussie girl Renee and at the end of the night she let me crash at hers. The rest of the party passed mostly uneventfully.

The next day I did some sightseeing in Dublin and I found this really cool bookstore - just as I was going to buy something, Renee called me and told me to meet her at the Spire. Basically it is a big metal spike that marks the centre of the city. It stands at about 120m tall. I went to the Spire and met Renee. I never found that bookstore again...

Renee showed me around the centre a bit and we went looking for shoes for me as mine had holes in the bottom of them and let in water. We didn't find anything for my feet, but instead we went shopping and bought some food for the evening. They have a market for fruit and meat in one of the streets which I liked, but then we saw some child pissing on the fruit stand; that was awesome. At the meat store we wanted some chicken and the butcher did us a deal and gave us about double of what we wanted for the same price as normal. Not bad.

We went home and I made my now-famous pie. It is famous across Europe because I have made it in Lithuania and in England - soon I will have my own TV show ala Jamie Oliver. Some mates of Renee came over - Dave from Melbourne and Suz, his girlfriend who is from New Zealand. They also brought their guest with them, who was from France. We ate like gluttons and finished the pie in about 10 seconds flat.

Non-chalantly Dave asked me what I was doing next week. I said nothing, I asked the same and he said nothing, then he hatched the plan: we would rent a car and drive around the south of Ireland. I immediately agreed and the deal was done. We would start driving on monday morning...

The next day Renee had to go on a road trip on her own, with Dave and Suz actually. They were going on a one day trip. If you put two and two together you could summise that Dave's life in Ireland is just one big road-trip bonanza. When Renee left, I went on my second day of being a tourists. I went to the Guinness Storehouse (the factory/tour) which was awesome. It was very educational and you could taste the beer as it tasted at different stages through the brewing process.

That night I met my new host, Calum. Yes it is only one L. Anyway this guy is some sort of Scotch whiskey genius and could tell you anything you wanted about it. When we went back to his place, I met some other guests that were staying there. There was a German guy who was there and he looked farmiliar, but neither of us could figure out how. We worked out the connection a little while later. He had come to a party in my house in Berlin when I was living there is 2006. Pretty wild eh?

Anyway, the next day we left on our road trip.
]]> European Sunburn? — Viareggio, Italy http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206964500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206964500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206964500/tpod.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:58:15 -0400 2nd time round: Adam goes back to Europe for a bigger bite of what he sampled before.
Viareggio, Italy

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]]> Street salesmen — Florence, Italy http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206964380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206964380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206964380/tpod.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:57:52 -0400 2nd time round: Adam goes back to Europe for a bigger bite of what he sampled before.
Florence, Italy

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]]> Mountain top public house — Galiga, Italy http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206532140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206532140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206532140/tpod.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:50:45 -0400 2nd time round: Adam goes back to Europe for a bigger bite of what he sampled before.
Galiga, Italy

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]]> No spaghetti in Bologna — Bologna, Italy http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206359220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206359220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1206359220/tpod.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:49:13 -0400 2nd time round: Adam goes back to Europe for a bigger bite of what he sampled before.
Bologna, Italy

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]]> Floor crash — Dublin, Ireland http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/amullett/europe-2007/1205917620/tpod.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:46:31 -0400 2nd time round: Adam goes back to Europe for a bigger bite of what he sampled before.
Dublin, Ireland

I returned back to where I started for my flight back.
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