Saturday, May 28, 2005

11 Days! It's been 11 whole days since I last posted. Schnapple, I think that's a record! Beilev me, it has not been for lack of things to blog about,. quite the contrary I suppose. Life has been *rather* hectic as of late and what with my growing popularity as a lunchtime companion at work (yeah, Emily and I go every day now!), I've hardly had a chance to get on the Internet at all. Between flex-time, over-time, ceilidhs and dates, as well as general exhaustion, I've been kind of tied up.

Right, so this morning I woke up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to tackle some long overdue errands via the Internet - namely paying my credit card bills and seeing just how much of my Canadian funds had disappeared into the Student Loan Money Pit since I last checked. Alas, CIBC online was out of service. Blast it! So I decided I'd best check my emails, since last tiem I did manage to get on the ent I sent out a large number of emails in hopes that I would recieve some replies. Again, the forces that be were against me - Hotmail simply won't cmoeup for some reason.

So, here I am..a last resort - I will entertain myself by writnig a blog post and convince myself that maybe one or two other people may read it..and be amused or, at the very least, well informed.

So..what has been going on?

Well, last weekend saw a monumental event occur - Miss Keri Shields returned to PEI 'only for four months' she claims! In any case, she was given a proper goodbye weekend that spanned Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday we went to the Walk About because they had a cheap drinks special on. I was still bitter about being denied entry the week previous becasue I was wearing a hat. This time I was there with my hair for all to see (emily save me from further despair over my hair by putting highlights here and there...I'm sorry that was a rhyme I couldn't resist).

In any case, a good time was had at the Aussie bar and i made sure to request a song for Keri-Beri - it was between 'Is this the way to Amarillo?' and 'I hope you had teh time of your lie'. The latter being the final choice. For those of you who don't know the song 'Is this the way to Amarillo?' - lucky you. It's a remake of a song originally done in the 70's by Tony Christie (I think), but ahs beenm revived by a well-known comedian over here in aid of charity. It's a frustratingly catchy tue and you find yourself doing an on-the-spot dance that would put your own parents to shame. Best it stay on this side of the ocean - we wouldnt' want any Canadians bringing such contraban bac....

Right, well Friday night was the biggie in terms of Keri's leaving do. It started with dinner, continued with copious amountso fwine (and I speak only for myself, miss Sields was having a rare day of 'taking it easy on the liquor) and ended at a club where leather, spikes and men in mascara were the norm. That's the last you'll see of that for awhile Keri...unless you start a trend in PEI that takes over the current t-shirt, jeans and men in baseball caps trend...

Suffice to say, afer a hard night of wine-drinking and extensive chat with Megan & Scott's single, male, IRISH flatmate, I was much in favour of a low-key Saturday. So, after preparing a three-course meal for Keri's 'last supper in Edinburgh', I chilled out and watched a moive on my own while the rest of the gals got to put it in their own words 'the sh*t scared out of them' on a tour of Edinburgh's underground, haunted vaults. Kelly & Lindsay slept together.

Sunday was another relaxing day (see a trend here). Eventually I made my way into town, only to run into an Irish bloke I had met via Ailbhe (my Irish friend) the week before. I anticipated a five minute - hey, how are ya? conversation. Two hours, two pints and a sore stomach (from laughing so much) later, we headed back to the flat where I introduced the funniest guy I have met as of yet, to Kelly & Lindsay. A riot.

Monday = nothing exciting

Tuesday = drinks with Ailbhe

Wednesday = Desperate Housewives

Thursday = date with Irish bloke (Megan & Scott's flatmate, not the 'most hilarious one', but definitely a contender for second place)

Friday = ceilidh with the girls! Return to Filthy McNasty's, where I am happyt o report that Don still remembered me and unhappy to report that all the hot bartenders aer gone and only the ass named Ruarie remains.

Today = I am here. Woohoo.

In other news - I am booking a flight home for Sept 11th. I am probably not coming back to Scotland after that...unless circumstances change. We have a load of people staying with us over the next week. Hostel Canon Street is re-opening for business after prolonged lack of business.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Life = crazy/busy/fabulouso!!

I last left you in Killarney, Ireland with an entirely unacceptable post that lacked detail, wit or intrigue. What's wrong with me? Well, let me count the ways..no, actually I don't think I have that much time :)

Anywho, things I forgot to mention about my time in Spain & Ireland:

Spain

A kilogram of fresh strawberries for 90 cents!!!
Copious number of sweet shops to tempt the palette....and a candy whore.
Stu from the Calgary Zoo - so wish we'd had more time to hang out with him in Barcelona, could tell he would have been a riot
Music on the public buses - so fun!!!
Did I mention the heat and the beaches and the Spanish boys?
Oh and girls with weird mullets. Yes folks, it's back and no better than it was in the 80's.....

Ireland

Two dogs being very romantic (again and again) while we ate our lunch in some remote area on the west coast.
Meeting some random English surfer dude while we ate our lunch in some remote area on the west coast.
Very cool Canadian girls at my hostel in Killarney, even more cool Canadian girls at my hostel in Kilkenny. We are everywhere - watch out!
Three random re-meetings of travellers. One girl I had met in barcelona ended up at my hostel in Killarney, one couple I met on the bus to Limerick ended up on the same bus I as on two days later going to Kilkenny. They were from France, we spoke English. One v cool Aussie girl I met at my hostel in Killarney ended up being outside the toilet that I was in at a vegetarian rstaurant in Dublin three days later. It's a small world after all!

Um..Ok, I suck. I can't think right now. The reason for this - I have just worked a 1.5 hour day, I am at the local movie store (which has Internet) and counter guy is super hot (so am trying to figure out what witty thing I can say to him when I pay for my time). So, yeah i am tired and distracted!

In other news:

I have met my new flatmate, Lindsay - she is awesome!
Keri is leaving on Sunday - for PEI!!!!!!!!!
Our new Canadian friends, Megan & Scott, have a single Irish flatmate (and its a male!)
I got my hair cut last week and then freaked. It is the shortest ever and I abhor it. I wore a hat out on Friday but that kind of backfired because they refused me entry at the Walk About unless I took my hat off (no way!! my short hair, by this point would also have been very very flat)
I am coming home in September..at least for a wee while, we shall see what new adventures await me then....

Sigh, again I must depart - i am too poor to blog people. Too poor :(
Life = crazy/busy/fabulouso!!

I last left you in Killarney, Ireland with an entirely unacceptable post that lacked detail, wit or intrigue. What's wrong with me? Well, let me count the ways..no, actually I don't think I have that much time :)

Anywho, things I forgot to mention about my time in Spain & Ireland:

Spain

A kilogram of fresh strawberries for 90 cents!!!
Copious number of sweet shops to tempt the palette....and a candy whore.
Stu from the Calgary Zoo - so wish we'd had more time to hang out with him in Barcelona, could tell he would have been a riot
Music on the public buses - so fun!!!
Did I mention the heat and the beaches and the Spanish boys?
Oh and girls with weird mullets. Yes folks, it's back and no better than it was in the 80's.....

Ireland

Two dogs being very romantic (again and again) while we ate our lunch in some remote area on the west coast.
Meeting some random English surfer dude while we ate our lunch in some remote area on the west coast.
Very cool Canadian girls at my hostel in Killarney, even more cool Canadian girls at my hostel in Kilkenny. We are everywhere - watch out!
Three random re-meetings of travellers. One girl I had met in barcelona ended up at my hostel in Killarney, one couple I met on the bus to Limerick ended up on the same bus I as on two days later going to Kilkenny. They were from France, we spoke English. One v cool Aussie girl I met at my hostel in Killarney ended up being outside the toilet that I was in at a vegetarian rstaurant in Dublin three days later. It's a small world after all!

Um..Ok, I suck. I can't think right now. The reason for this - I have just worked a 1.5 hour day, I am at the local movie store (which has Internet) and counter guy is super hot (so am trying to figure out what witty thing I can say to him when I pay for my time). So, yeah i am tired and distracted!

In other news:

I have met my new flatmate, Lindsay - she is awesome!
Keri is leaving on Sunday - for PEI!!!!!!!!!
Our new Canadian friends, Megan & Scott, have a single Irish flatmate (and its a male!)
I got my hair cut last week and then freaked. It is the shortest ever and I abhor it. I wore a hat out on Friday but that kind of backfired because they refused me entry at the Walk About unless I took my hat off (no way!! my short hair, by this point would also have been very very flat)
I am coming home in September..at least for a wee while, we shall see what new adventures await me then....

Sigh, again I must depart - i am too poor to blog people. Too poor :(

Monday, May 09, 2005

13 hours later and I am feeling 100% better. There's something to be said for a good night's sleep and Nyquil.

Anywho, let's start the recap:

Barcelona

I believe I left y'all on Wednesday night, while I was distressing about having broken out in a rash for the second time! Well, in 'mysterious break-out' department, I've had no more surprises...yeah!!!

Wednesday evening we decided to 'go out' with a couple of Americna gals we had met at the dodgy hostel the first night. Because we were all being rather cheap, we decided that going out would involve picking up cheap liquor at the SPAR and drinking on the beach. I bought a one-litre carton of Sangria for 1.50 Euros and was v suspicous that it could taste of anything other than some gross cough medicine. I was wrong, very wrong. It turns outwine really is cheaper than water in Spain..and delicious! We ended up drinking with some very random people we met on teh beach - very random, indeed. One guy was a DJ, another a male stripper. Ahem. We also ended up meeting a guy from Quebec and his French friend. Spanish, French, German and English were all practiced and spoken very poorly that night.

The next day, afer 3 glorious hours of sleep, Jen & I moved to a new pension - a steal at 15 euro each for a private room in city centre!! Let's Go rules! We ended up walking our asses off (literally, I swear I have nothing to sit on now), and eventually found the Olympic Stadium. jen needs some new golas in terms of what she wants to see in a city - how about a church?? More plentiful and centrally located!!! That evening, with cash on the low I decided that Jen & I should go out to eat on my MAstercard. We found a decent deal on Las Ramblas (the tourist street of Barcelona). A three course meal was advertised at 9 Euros. The food was mediocre - nothing amazing, but decent enough after days of bread & cheese diet. The outrgae came, however, when I rec'd teh bill and found we had been charged 4.30 Euro for each Coke Lite we had ordered. That's $6.50 each!! Oh, I was not impressed!

Dublin

Thursday was travel and wait at airport day. The trip was pretty non-eventful, save for hte fact that I forgot I was going to a cooler climate so my tank top did nothing to stop the biting wind at the London Stansted airport. Lovely.

Anyways, I got settled in to my B&B in Dublin and went out to meet a couple of people I needed to see. And, I must say, that while I was apprehensive about my second meet-up of the evening, it was by all accounts, absolutely necessary and entirely successful in abolishing any lingering doubts I may have had. Suffice to say I am finally cured. No more time or energy to be wasted on the undeserving.


Limerick

I was supposed to land in Ennis, but the bloody bus was super late and I was super tired, so I decided to take a B&B in Limerick. My second enticement for staying in Limerick was that Blue Moose was playing in the city that evening!! Unfortunately, they ended up not playing their gig, due to another band already setting up at the venue - a confusion in calendars. They were meant to be playing in Kilkenny. In the end, I tucked myself into bed early and had a good night's rest. The next morn I checked out Limerick, aka 'Stab City' and found it to be less than endearing..except for all the references to Shannon. I took a picture of the River Shannon!

Killarney

I landed here and instantly fell in love with this little town. It is so quaint and Irish, plus it happens to be just adjacent to a huge National Park and some amazing scenery. I wakled through part of the park and checked out a castle. Back at the hostel I met 3 of my roommates and discovered they were from Canada! We all ended up going out on the town and free drinks were served up all evening by Murphy's promoter and high rollers from London.

Yesterday I woke up sick, but went for a tour in Seamus (the Canadian girls' rented car) and did the Ring of Kerry. Spectacular scenery, breathtaking. I wish I hadn't been so sick.

And that leaves me here, on my way to Kilkenny - another long bus trip....yeah!!

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Hey all. Well, I should probably write a massive post tonight because it's been a few days and A LOT of things have happened, but I simply can't. I am just too sick. yep, that's right, my Ireland holiday has been marred by sickness, which pretty much hit me the day I left Barcelona. A combination of stress, long bus rides and short sleeps has not been the best remedy for recuperaion. So, I will write when I can and try to tell you everything.....for now I am going to sleep.

Asta La Vista

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Hot! Hot! Hot! The temperature, the men, this country! 30 degrees today people, 30 degrees centigrade on May 3rd. Phew, I musthave melted a few pounds off today. Unfortunately, I am quite sure I consumed a few pounds today in chocolate, candy, gelato, etc. Oh and half a kilo of strawberries. Ah but I am getting ahead of myself. Let´s start from the beginning....

OK, so Valencia was amazing. Our second day we did what any sane-minded person would do - we laid in the sun, ate sinful foods and basically did as little as possible. We started this strenuos day in the city park, which is actually a dried-up river bed that runs through the middle of the city. Its been landscaped since then and is gorgeous. We ate the strawberries we had got at Valencia´s marke, apparently the biggest in Eurpe. One kilo of delicious strawberres for 90 cents!!!

Eventually we dragged ourselves to the beach and laid in the sun. I waded into the Mediterranean, but didn´t make the full plunge...

The evening was spent wandering the streets and then trying to figure out where we were going to g the next day. Jen & had scrapped our plans to go inland due to travelling time and lure of the coastal towns.

We eventually decided to head to Tarragona, a medium ized city about an hour from Barcelona. The main attractions: another beach!!! and some Roman ruins (been there, done that in Italy).

Anyways, Tarragona was fabulous, nt least because we had a private room with shwer for 17 euro each wth a balcony that overlooked a lovely plaza.

The main highlights in Tarragona were:

the beach - I had a lovely siesta mid-afternoon

the promenade and main street - absolutely gorgeous, with palm trees and all that jazz

getting invited to join a stag party - three Canadian girls and about 15 Spanish guys..only one of whom spoke decent English. Ah, but it was all good and free drinks are always appreciated. Sadly, the husband to be was dressed up as dynamite and only getting married because the bride was pregnant....

the Carinapizza Jen & I had at a restaurant - it was gorgeous to look at and delicious to taste. We didn´t know what we had ordered but found ourselves chowing down on a pizza with big strips of bacon, red peppers, NO tomato sauce AND a huge egg fried into the middle - it was yummy!!

Yesterday we arrived in Barcelona an, cross my fingers, that was the low point of my holiday. It was raining when we arrived, the hostel we had booked was dodgy to say the least, particularly the area in which it was located. No one who I had hoped to hear from had contacted me (ahem!) and I had to cancel my Visa because I couldnt find it. However, the most disturbing part of the day was when, about an hour after we left our dodgy hstel, I completely broke out on both my arms. It started on one hand, with what looked like bug bites, then travelled up most of my arm and formed a huge red rash. Then noticed the same thing was happening on my other arm. I freaked. Jen remained calm and useful. I feared the worst : bed bugs! I rushed to a pharmacy and the woman would only give me allergy medicine, depsite my insisting I am not allergc o anything. I shelled out 6 euros for the tablets, but popped into the next pharmacy, where they gave me a foam to rub on teh rash. That worked like a miracle and I was all better in mere minutes of putting it on. Was still wary about staying at hostel, but in the end we did because it wuld have cost too much to switch . I know now that it wasn´t bed bugs, but I still don´t know what it was....

Today was lovely - sunny and absolutely sweltering. We moved from dodgy hostel to hostel whch I suspect will be really LOUD! I am getting too old for this..or too spoiled. Whatever - Ireland B&B´s, here I come! Jen and I trekked to Park Guelle, which is this massive park with architecture by Gaudi - absolutely stunning...I have postcards to show everyone. Other than that we did a lot of wandering, got lost and did some other stuff..like eat and search for public washrooms.

As we were walking back to the hostel tonight, my arms broke out again!! I don´t know what it is - but the foam did the job again!! I hope this is a short term thing.

Anyways, one more day in Spain, then off to the Emerald Isle for some solo R&R.