http://tji84.wordpress.com/

facts about today:

 i am eating saltines with hummus

i have six dollars and 17 cents in change

i have a huge hole in my pants

i think i found a city in ireland i like

--------Lahinch

Zerwałem się dziś z pracy, bo od tygodnia leczę przeziębienie i nie mogę skubaństwa wyleczyć. A, że nie miałem dziś nic do roboty więc zamiast grzebać na stronkach z laptopami stwierdziłem, że odeśpię i podleczę się trochę. Siostra wybyła była na jakiś czas, więc wycyganiłem na te parę dni laptopa. Foty poszły w obróbkę, nadrobiłem zaległości w czytaniu innych blogów, nawet jakiś film ściągnąłem. Pięknie jest...

Lahinch, tym razem fotograficznie

Wracam do wyjazdu z przed 2 tygodni (a wydaje się, że to było wieki temu)... Kilka fotek z moich (niezbyt udanych) prób surfowania:

wizyta na Moherowych Klifach

Benidorm, 5 rano

Ponieważ bilety do Polski są horendalnie drogie (np. ostatni weekend czerwca - 300€!), to na długi weekend, zamiast do Wrocławia, wybraliśmy się z Alexem do Benidorm. Lot do Alicante, tam wynajęliśmy samochód (Ford Ka - dla nas dwóch jak znalazł) i w drogę. Miasto paskudne - bloki jakieś totalnie od czapy, dookoła pustynia prawie że. Ale kiedy wreszcie odnaleźlismy swóje apaartamenty i wyszliśmy po 21 'na miasto' - zakochałem się w Hiszpanii. Piątkowy wieczór zaczyna się od kolacji. Paella z owocami morza, sangria - pycha! Potem (było już grubo po 22) poszliśmi wzdłuż plaży uliczką pełną klubów. Benidorm (o czym dowiedzieliśmy się już po kupieniu biletów) to jedno z ulubionych miejsc wakacji Anglików i mocno jest nastawione na turystów. Odpuściliśmy sobie jednak wszystkie hard rock caffees, pełne ludzi po 40stce.

Wybraliśmy Penelope - lokal nazwany na cześć pewnej znanej Hiszpanki ;) Na wejście dostaliśmy shoty tequili za free i zniżkę na pierwszego drinka ;) Nadmienić należy, że w hiszpańskich klubach nie skąpią alkoholu i leją 2x (jeżeli ja zamawiam) lub 3x (jeżeli Alex zamawia po hiszpańsku) więcej. A upijać się nie ma po co, bo widoki upajają wystarczająco. Jak na razie Hiszpanki to jedyne dziewczyny jakie spotkałem, które

mogłyby się równać urodą z Polkami. I tylko wszechobecny dym papierosowy psuł zabawę. Po 4 miesiąca w wolnych od dymu klubach Irlandii to było trudne do przeżycia. Łzawiące oczy, śmierdzące ciuchy i kac gigant - bez tego mogę się doskonale obejść. Co ciekawe impreza rozkręciła się koło 1 w nocy. Zwineliśmy się po 5 rano, a i tak po drodzę spotkaliśmy 4 dziewczyny, które zapraszały nas żebyśmy poszli z nimi na

kolejną imprezę. To jest życie ;)

Następnego dnia plaża i jeszcze więcej dobrego jedzenia, a wieczorem powtórka z nocnego szaleństwa. I tak do poniedziałku, z tym że niedzielny wieczór był lajtowy, bo jedyne osoby w klubach to turyści.

Nauczyłem się kilku nowych hiszpańskich słow: fuet (katalońska kiełbasa - pyszna), churros (slodkie, tłuste racuchopodone coś) i horchata (napój z sam nie wiem czego, ale dobry). Więcej nauki w planach, bo Hiszpanki kuszą a nie bardzo mówią po angielsku. No i do samej Hiszpanii na pewno wrócę, ale nie do Benidorm.

Dublin nie składa broni

Po powrocie okazało się, że w Dublinie lato. Słońce, lekki wiaterek. Pięknie. Żeby jeszcze tylko kobiety nie odbiegały tak znacznie od polsko-hispzańskich standardów. No, ale nie ma co narzekać. W końcu trochę Polek tu jest. ;)

I znowu wciągnął mnie wir zajęć. Środa wspinaczka, czwartek impreza w brazylijskim klubie w towarzystwie (nareszcie!) pięknych kobiet. Sobota domówka u Dominiki (przydał się przywieziony z Hiszpanii Havana Club). W niedziele kac gigant, a tu o 15:00 trzeba było zagrać mecz tag-rugby. Myślałem, że zjadę w tym słońcu. Tradycyjnie wszyscy na kacu, tradycyjnie zaliczyłem przyłożenie, tradycyjnie pary starczyło nam tylko na pierwszą połowę meczu i przegraliśmy. A wieczorem znowu imprezka na zakończenie sezonu. Lajtowo - do 24:00.

Uff!

A teraz się kuruję bo organizm się w końcu zbuntował. A tu trzeba zbierać siły, bo w środę koniec kursu wspinaczkowego i będzie okazja do paru drinków...

A za 19 dni - najazd na Wrocław! Nareszcie! Trzeba pokazać Alexowi, że Polacy nie gęsi i swoje kobiety, imprezy i dobre jedzenie mają!

...ależ to był weekend ;) Pojechaliśmy (15 osób) do Lahinch na zachodnim wybrzeżu Irlandii. Pierwszy wieczór tradycyjnie zaczął się w lokalnym pubie od wypicia kilku pint. Około 1 w nocy pub zamknęli wiec wróciliśmy do domków, no i oczywiście 'party house' był nr 24 czyli nasz ;)

Imprezka trwała do 5 rano, były żarty, dyskusje i przede wszystkim dużo muzyki i śpiewu bo Dani i Richie zabrali gitary... wiec oni grali a my śpiewaliśmy wszystkie hiciory od Pink Floyd, Green Day, przez U2 aż do ostatniego szlagieru Irlandii - Galway Girl. Okazało się, ze Emma ma niesamowity głos - śpiewała Volcano i 9 Crimes - momentami wcale nie gorzej od Lisy. Richie i Dani też potrafią nieźle śpiewać, a cala reszta również brała czynny odział. Nawet ja dorzuciłem swoje pól-szeptane (żeby nikogo nie przestraszyć) chórki w "Green Fields of France".

Następnego dnia pobudka skoro świt o 12 i główny punkt weekendu - surfing! W kwietniu. W Atlantyku. Takie rzeczy to tylko w Irlandii.
Pogoda była super - słoneczko, lekki wiatr. Dostaliśmy pianki, buty - i do wody. Zasady surfingu są generalnie proste - kładziesz się na desce, czekasz na fale, jak przychodzi podnosisz się i tyle. Ha, łatwo powiedzieć. Fale jak w pralce nadchodziły z każdej strony, zimna woda wlewała się za kołnierz - generalnie ubaw po pachy ;) 2h minęły nie wiedzieć kiedy i dopiero wtedy poczułem jak mecząca była walka z falami. Po szybkim prysznicu - wypad na oglądanie Moherowych Klifów. Widoki zapierają dech w piersiach... i podejść można naprawdę bliskooo krawędzi...

Po powrocie kolacja w pubie i muzyka na żywo. Zespól był niezły - "The Threesomes" - 3 kolesi po 40, którzy zagrali kawałek ostrego rock n' rola w klimacie Thin Lizzy - z graniem na gitarze zębami i tym podobnymi atrakcjami ;)

Po powrocie dalszy ciąg imprezy - poznałem kilka fajnych 'drinkin games' :D Wszyscy byli naprawdę zmasakrowani.

A następnego dnia piękna irlandzka pogoda - 11'C i deszcz. A my z powrotem w pianki i do wody. 2-metrowe fale i tym podobne atrakcje. Bawilem się świetnie ;)

Wiem, ze ten tekst ma jedna poważna wadę - brak zdjęć. Ale niestety z powodu rozłąki z laptopem chwilo nie mogę ich wrzucić... Jak tylko go kupię obiecuję foto-relację... A na razie tylko jedno (ja jestem po lewej prawej) - jego autorem jest Dani Dominguez:

Tymczasem zbieram siły na kolejny ostry weekend ;)

I started out my day by going to Ennis, to check on the restaurant I found the other day, and see if it was open. I was planning to swing by on the way to Meg’s for dinner, and check/respond to email. Along a part of the road that was actually wide enough to be comfortable driving on, I saw an old lady hitchhiking. I couldn’t leave her to battle the chilly wind, so I stopped and gave her a ride, wondering if I was going to get myself into some kind of mess.

She turned out to be a delightfully interesting person. She was going into Ennis to busk – sing for your supper basically! Buskers are street musicians (I suppose they could be poets or writers or mimes as well?) and will set up their instruments, a chair, and a donation box (often a hat), and start playing. She divided her time between Colombia, I believe, and Ireland, spoke excellent Spanish. I couldn’t resist practicing just a bit. She had just finished her first CD; quite a process to making a music CD. You start out by learning to use a metronome, as your music must be precisely timed because later you’ll add the singing. All done solo; each track is laid down separately. Once each track is recorded (there might be more than one instrument), then you put it all together. She recited one of the songs she’d written; it was about busking, and quite descriptive. I really enjoyed visiting with her, and was kind of sorry it wasn’t a longer ride. Having a local with me made finding parking much easier! So I found that the restaurant would be open later, and off I went to the beach.

I drove up to Ennistimon, where of course I passed the turn to Lahinch, so I stopped and wandered up and down the street for a bit. One of the few places I’ve seen streetside parking where you park straight into the sidewalk (as opposed to parallel parking). And it appeared to be free as well, another rarity! I found a very nice little shop with some arty things and some cute things; I left with an awesome wool scarf that turned out to be quite itchy; should have tried it on first! But I think a little fabric softener and some cold water will take care of the itchyness.

I drove through Lahinch with no problem, except that I saw a bookstore, so I had to stop and see if they might have a flower book. And I was in luck! I took a few photos of the beach there, but it didn’t look like there’d be good beachcombing, so I didn’t walk down to the sand. Lots of surfers; I passed a surf shop walking down to the bookstore, with a crew of them just getting ready to cross the street. I think there were six or eight of them, all dressed in wetsuits and carrying identical blue boards. They were all linked up, carrying boards in both hands; I should have grabbed a photo of that, but the camera was in the car.

Once I left the bookstore with my flower book, I poked through a couple of woolen shops, but didn’t find anything to bring home. Before getting back in the car, I took a few photos of the beach, then headed on south.

I saw a little sign to White Strand; it was only one kilometer, so I thought what the hey, let’s check it out. White Strand turned out to be a nice little beach with an almost empty carpark. I didn’t find any shells to pick up, but the rocky area was just a treat to walk through; very carefully, as there was quite a bit of seaweed and the rocks were wet in some places. There was a lot of seaweed on the sandy beach; brought up by the storm the day before I guessed.

I saw a number of brown/dark brown wet slimy looking lumps before I finally decided they must be sea anemones. None of them were in any of the tiny tidepools I found though. I didn’t stir up any fish when I poked through the seaweed either. Lots of limpets and small snails, and I found a large population of small mussels on one rock too. I was a little more conscious of the time today, since I was meeting Meg and her husband Dan for dinner later, so I decided to shove off and continue south.

I stopped at Spanish Point, just west of Milltown Malbay, but there was surprisingly few shells there too. A few surfers though, and best of all, a clean bathroom with toilet paper! So it was worth stopping in the carpark and wandering around on the sand for a good twenty minutes. The beach was a bit unusual, in that the sand was not flat; it was sculpted into small pools and mounds. I found several spots that were somewhat like quicksand, and I sank into them a little, which prompted me to head for higher ground that was more solid. There was a tiny rocky head that I would have explored if I’d felt confident that I wouldn’t slip and fall, but it was just wet enough with enough seaweed, that I could see slipping on it. So off I went again, this time back to Ennis, via Creegh/Kilrush/Lissycassey.

I parked, on the street again, and paid for an hour’s parking. I’d hoped my two Euro coin would buy two hours, but nope, it didn’t, and I didn’t get any change either! That’ll learn me, I guess! To get change, I went up to the Hughes and Hughes (similar to Barnes & Noble), and found-of all things, I couldn’t believe I could go in there and look around for two minutes and find Complete Irish Wildlife! It isn’t as complete as I would like, but it does have a lot of information on plants and wildlife, so it was a good buy.

I found the restaurant with not much trouble, and sat down. The waitress kind of ignored me, as I had the computer going and she didn’t realize I wanted to eat. I was ready to eat the table by the time she took my order! I got all my email read (or all that I wanted to read anyway!) and answered, played my daily crossword, and inhaled my food before going back to the car. I expected a parking ticket because I was a little late, but apparently the parking goddess was smiling on me, and the windshield was bare of any little bits of paper.

Now I was off to the other side of Limerick, to find Meg and Dan’s renovation project. I had a fairly good idea where to go, as I would take the same highway turnoff as for the Limerick Racetrack. Given that I would be looking for a house though, I gave myself plenty of time for getting lost. And getting close to their house turned out to be easy, but as “they” say, the devil is in the details! I called Meg for last minute instructions, and after going too far and turning around and around again, I finally found it.
Meg and Dan are renovating an old servant’s quarters, that was originally part of Lord Clarina’s estate. It’s a duplex (but I don’t think that’s what they call it), that they’ve added a beautiful living room on to. Now it’s a matter of doing all the finish work-the painting, finishing up the trim, finishing/refinishing the floors, fitting out the kitchen-all the stuff that’ll make the house beautiful when it’s done, but isn’t much fun to do because it’s time consuming. They share a studio that is at one end of the carriage house (not attached to the house), where the horses were stabled. Because of the renovation project, the studio is housing boxes and furniture and those odds and ends that you have in your house and need to put somewhere while you are painting etc., so it’s rather a mess, but it was wonderful to see someone else’s work area and share the frustration of having to move this to get to that.

I think Dan is primarily a photographer, but Meg showed me some of his three dimensional work that was quite intriguing. I forgot to ask if he has a website, but I’ll check into that and add it later. Meg is primarily a print maker, but she has a body of fiber work (printed) too. She also showed me some mosaics from a workshop she taught to 13-16 year olds a few weeks ago. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to go through the studio and look at artwork, as we were expected for dinner at Dolf and Orla’s shortly.

This time I rode with Meg and Dan, but I was so busy talking to them that I didn’t see where we went or much of the countryside. Sadly, we had to stop and wait for some debris from a horrible accident to be cleaned up. There was a young man standing by one of the cars with his hands behind his back; I am fairly sure he was handcuffed. One car was upside down in the other lane; the occupant(s?) of the car didn’t seem to be there, so I’m sure they were on their way to the hospital. This is why U.S. insurers won’t cover you in Ireland; the accident rate is very high, due to the speed at which many people travel, drinking, and the windy narrow roads with the occasional (far too often really) sign saying “hidden driveway”. Meg also said the young lads will soup up their cars and drive even faster. Dan, by the way, is one of the saner drivers, so I had nothing to worry about.

Crossing the highway, we’d seen a line of travel trailers. Meg asked if I knew about travelers, and I said yes, a little. They’re the Gypsies; instead of traveling in horse drawn wagons, they have caravans and cars. Isn’t caravan much more romantic than travel trailer? They have a hard time finding a spot to park their caravans; I’ve seen a couple of signs saying no overnight camping, which seems to be specifically for the travelers. And here I am, with a blog called Luck O’ the Irish Traveler! Well, I didn’t know!

The evening at Orla and Dolf’s was fantastic! A scrumptious dinner of mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, beef stew made with a delicious red wine, chicken, and carrots and turnips chopped and mixed together, with a lovely carrot cake from Meg. Kieran was there too (a different one than from the set dancing); he’s a painter and had brought by two pastels for Dolf and Orla; they were going in the dining room. Beautiful colors; I really liked them.

After dinner Dolf was persuaded to play the bodhrán (bow – ron) for us, an Irish drum. There are several different sticks to use, each of course making a different sound. He also played the accordian for us as well. Orla sang a couple of songs, accompanied by the squeeze box. Dolf used to play for set dancing, although he hasn’t done it in awhile. He explained that set dancing is quite different in County Limerick, from the dancing I did in County Claire, exactly as Tony and Dee said. Great conversation; we talked about everything under the sun. I drove back to Meg and Dan’s with them, and then onto Broadford by myself. Quite chilly by now too.

There you go Kieran, I said it. Now that'll be €3 for advertising on my blog please.