Traveling seeker in British Isles

January 26, 2006

What I’ve been up to…

Well, aside from having a breakdown. I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster. I purposefully didn’t “think” about what it would be like here in Ireland because I had no information to base it on. So I just focused on leaving and what that all entailed. Well, that was a huge mistake. But I really had no other way to know how the place was. I read all kinds of books and looked at travel blogs. I just wasn’t getting the nitty gritty of it all. But enough whining- at least in this paragraph!

I am adjusting, not at quickly as I had hoped, but it is happening. I am not as intimated by the city any longer and I go out and find the things I want and need.

I’m finally eating, but wish I couldn’t because it is hard to eat under 10 euros a day, and that’s if you eat one meal per day. I am only eating that one meal, so I’m doing OK and I’m losing a good deal of weight! HEY! Some days I spend a bit more and then try and make up for it the next. Money disappears like water in a desert. You just don’t realize how. I do NOTHING but eat a little, get on the Internet (most likely the culprit) and that’s it. I do leave a tip for my chambermaid (I like to use that word) when I move out of a room- that’s my only splurge!

For $100.00 American money you only get 75 euros. I’m turning in my last 100 tomorrow. After that – God knows.

My plans have changed since I last wrote. I PLANNED on going to Westport (home of my family roots) earlier in the week- but the only Hostel in the town is closed till tomorrow night (Thursday). The phone recording said that it is only open at 6PM for the night. I don’t know what that means, but I’m hoping to get a room for a least a week (the books says the dorm is 14 euros a night). So I can find a job-, which will have to be under the table- seeing that Americans can’t get work visas, unless you have all this stuff and I have none of it. So no real work available for me. I did read in the travel book that the hostel I am looking to stay in and one other place have been known to take on travelers for barter for 2-3 months for the busy season. PLEASE PRAY FOR ME THAT IT IS CORRECT AND THEY LOVE THIS LITTLE OLD FAT (soon to be less) LADY! I really want to settle down for a bit.

I hear that the difficulty that I have with understanding people is only going to get worst in the country. That the Irish borough, which we are all so found of, is so much thicker in the country. Problem is that I can’t understand a lot of it here in the city- where it is thinner! So good luck with that one!

I also hear that as wonderful as it is in the city in getting around, the country is no so. It is just that things are so much farther apart. In the city you can get just about anywhere on foot and then there are a lot of buses. But in Westport that’s not the case. So I am anticipating that in order to get to all the amazing places for photo opts for my ART-card business, I will have to find some sort of transportation. Which as all things in Ireland will most likely not be cheap! So maybe I can trade sex or something for a ride. (Haha)

I have to take the rail from Dublin to Westport. The trip takes about 3 ½ hours and cost 29 euros (one way). They have 3 trains a day as far as I can see. The problem is getting my entire luggage up there. I will NOT attempt it on foot and the bus is just as troublesome. The two big monsters are not well liked by me or the other passengers. So I will pay out for a taxi. Don’t know what they charge yet, but I’ll find out tomorrow. At least what they say it is and what I have to pay might be a different story. Taxis are independently owed, so it’s a crapshoot.

My sleep patterns are still all messed up after 7 days. Right now it’s 2:16PM and I’m wide wake. I have tired to go to sleep for 2 hours now and NOTHING. So I figured I write a blog. Last night is only the second night in 7 that I got full nights sleep. Actually at NIGHT here- I usually only sleep during the early morning or early evening. My home is 5 hours behind here – so when I finally get to sleep at 4AM here is really 11PM at home – the right time to sleep. I have NEVER had so much trouble sleeping or had this bad of jet lag or whatever!! Then I don’t want to get up and out early- and then I only have the afternoon to get shots in because it gets dark at 430ish!

I did finally get my first shots off to the printer via e-mail today! One thing went right! I think I got some nice ones and was able to order them. I am in a gallery in Bay Village, OH. It’s call BAYCRAFTERS, it’s part of the park system there. I will get the address and all and put it in this blog site. Then all my DEAR DEAR friends can go there and purchase beautiful ART-cards from Ireland! It would really help me here! I am going out tomorrow to take more photos of Trinity collage and the Steven’s Green –a park and then all kinds of streets and such.

I saw a great billboard that had memorable saying – I won’t butcher it here but I’ll take a photo and tell you what it says tomorrow. It really stopped me in my tracks! I did find a hand written sign that says, “Life is Long Gone” it was cool- I sent it for a card. It may not be all that positive, but cards can be just odd statements. I liked it, so I’m sure someone else will too.
I saw some more interesting posters and hand written things that show the tougher side of life that I will tell you about and also make into cards. Not all of life is so positive, nor should it be. If we didn’t have the negative, we would not be able to love and appreciate the positive. It’s the ying/yang thing.

On that note, I did want to mention the homeless here. They are all around, young people and old. I really want to capture their plight, but I also don’t want to make them feel anymore uncomfortable then they all ready are. So I’m at a stand still. But being such an expensive city I can see why they can’t make it here. I can’t help them with money, seeing that I’m just 75 euros away from being homeless myself.

I couldn’t download any photo to the blog – they only allow a 500KB and all my photos are 800KB and up! I don’t know how or what to do, but I tend to think maybe I can compress them. Don’t know how, or if it will work but I wrote my cousin to ask for help. Hopefully he’ll get back to me before I leave for the country. So maybe I’ll have SOMETHING up on the site. I wanted to put a photo of me, so anyone that reads the blog that I don’t know will know what I look like.

I did find that Westport has an Internet café. It’s VERY expensive, like 1 euro for 10 minutes! YIKES! I’ll ask for a job by bartering for airtime!
So that means I can write my blogs off line and copy and paste them in on the blog. I won’t be able to check e-mail as often, because that takes up way too much click-click of the euro! I guess I’ll try writing my e-mails the same way and save time in shop. (That’s an idea!)

I did remember something’s that were missing in my blog on Hostels. One I put a place to drop the history of Avalon House in and then forgot to insert it. But the jest of it is it’s an old school of some sort. And it is converted after laying in wait for a few years. A very Irish famous person went to school here- can’t remember his name. I most likely will be shot for not knowing that, but my mind has not been absorbing history information this past week – it was in breakdown. But I will make sure that I get info on this man and get back to you at some point. I love history so I will most likely bore you with all that I get excited about but later on that.

I did meet a woman at the Hostel that I think I have mentioned in earlier blog. Her name is Janet and she is a little older then I. We have some of the same history with our first marriages. She has planned this one-year trip
For three years and she still has had the emotional upheaval that I have been going through. Not in the same way (sleep, eating) but the panic, and tears, and loneliness. She has traveled all over Europe by her self! She has been to Spain, Italy (had her purse stolen there). Ireland (had her purse stolen here) and I’m sure a lot of other places that I don’t remember. She has been on the road since July of last year. She is a teacher (home eco. & history) in Canada. She has 2 children and 2 cats and 1 dog that died just after she left. She has rented out her home for the length of the trip. She is planning on staying in Dublin for 3 months. She was so bored she had to work, but since she also does not have a work visa- she can only volunteer and that was even hard to do! She finally got a job with like a Salvation Army type store and one at a little bookstore. She was quite excited about it and I was so glad, she was really breaking down. She has been quite anxious over having a place to stay for duration of time (SHOCK!) and she was looking for a flat. But the prices were upwards of 700 euro a month (like 900 Canadian money) and they were Dumps! Plus they all want 1-year lease! She just couldn’t afford to loose her deposit – it’s more then her mortgage payment at home! She was almost going to use her return trip ticket- but has since made arrangements with the hostel to stay here for 4 weeks till she gets her head around her plans. But she is really settling in and doing much better then when I fist met her. We don’t spend that much time together, I think that she’s a bit of a loner and I give her the space. I would love to do things with her, but it doesn’t seem to be what she wants. OH well.

I went out one day when I FINALLY felt almost my old self. That’s when I found out how easy it was to get around (after I got the whole street change name down). I went to the Temple bar area – an area that I hope never to see at night with all the drunken people. And it was really cool. I told lots of pictures of the unique and color full pub fronts and made cards out of them. I also went about to find a JOB of some sort. I was looking to find something with my Medium ship/psychic abilities. So I went to the only 2 new age type stores I could find. One was an Astrology shop and they were quite “We take care of all the people in Dublin”- I looked at him, like WHAT? And he stuttered and said “Well, I know there is 1 million people in Dublin, but there is only a small percentage that are interested in our services and we take care of them” in other words – BUG off! And I did. Didn’t want to be around THAT energy!

Note– Linda, I know that you found all kinds of new age, psychic stores on the web, but they are on line stores, not shops. I went through the list and tried to find them and that’s how I know.

The second shop, which wasn’t really a new age type store, was The Yellow Brick Road. My friend Linda found it for me before I left and I remembered the name – one of my favorite movies. Anyway, they sell crystals and beads and such. They had a few new age type books and cards but not a real store on it if you ask me. I looked around which is about 5×5 feet store. I do have to say that all the stores in Dublin are T-I-N-Y! How they work in such small spaces is a wonder to me! I’d get claustrophobic! I was trying to look around and kept running into this little woman. It was like we had a dance going. I found some little trinkets for my sisters and put my money down. I then asked if they knew of where Mediums were. I guess I didn’t make myself clear and they started to name the place that I just went to, and another place where there was a good one (Which I already found too.) I realized that they thought I wanted one, so I said NO- I am one. I’m looking to find a place that could use my services. They said, no not off hand. As I was talking to the shop keep the little lady that I had been dancing with was at the register too and she was chiming in on the location of mediums. When I left the store she came out after me to ask me a question. She asked how do you tell if the Medium or psychic is any good? And that led me to offering her a reading and sitting on a bench (rare in Dublin). We were right on the river and it got quite cold, so we went for tea. Her name is Bernadette and she was a wonderful woman! We (she did most of the talking) talked for hours in that little teashop. She was amazing with knowledge in so many areas. We had a lot in common. She had just taken a photography/graphic’s class and we talked about the woos of going to school as mature people. I gave her a reading – most likely the worst reading of my entire life. I wasn’t hitting on ANYTHING! Which was very frustrating to me, but she didn’t seem to mind. She is born and bred Irish and it was at first hard to understand everything that she said. But as time when on, I was really catching on. But as time really went on-, as I got tired, it was worst then ever trying to listen good enough to get all that she said. She is a typical Irishmen with the ability to talk. I love to talk and she could do circles around me! We had so much in common that I could see me in her if I lived here. She never married or had children (I was married once, but it was a Karma thing, I don’t think it counts) and I never had kids. She is a little round leprechaun and had lots of family issues that circle around the mother figure (sorry mom). She has issues with self-esteem and worth (preaching to the church here) and she just wants to enjoy life, as do I. She loves to try doing different things and is involved with lots of stuff. I liked her the minute I met her and loved her when we parted. She was a breath of fresh air to me. She has a photo on a site that she asked me to vote on. She could win a trip to Florida if she gets the most votes, so I’ll pass it on here. I couldn’t get the site, but maybe I did something wrong. But if anyone out there could take the time- I would appreciate it and so would Bernadette!
www.gemoneymovies.com
Go to: Galway
Go to: Bernadette Corlett
Go to: vote

OK folks – its now 4:03AM – I guess I will try it again. Off to sleep land (I hope)

Take care, Kym

Tags: Dublin, money, Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2006 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.