A Break in the clouds

In short, I probably should have just scheduled to come home earlier... Then I would have had a week to readjust before coming back to work, I've only given myself a single day.

Whats happened in the last couple weeks:
1) Got stuck in Cork for 4 or 5 days, because I had food poisining and was in too much pain to leave the bathroom the entire time for the most part.
2) finally just ate the pain and took a bus to Killarney National Park (in Ireland still), where the breathtaking views made me feel a little better, untill I started shitting blood. Talk about a vacation eh? I quickly took the next train to dublin so I could return the bike and fly out, trying to get to my relatives houses in Hattingen, Germany.
3) I had to spend the night in the Netherlands, in a town 40 minutes from amsterdam. I felt a lot better after that night, so I went and walked around Amsterdam the next day and saw a very inspiring Enviro-Photography exibit. Highlight.
4)Took a train to Hattingen, spent time with Onkel Oskar and Tante Kathie (the older couple in the pictures) then took a train to Bobenheim to spend time with Wilfried and Lilli (the younger couple in the pictures). It was really nice spending time with my family there, thats the part that I wouldnt take away.
5)took off for Venice, Italy. Spent a couple days there getting lost in the streets, that was cool. Nice weather too.
6)Finally im writing this here in Corfu, Greece at the Sunrock hostel. It just so happens that I got to corfu right when it got colder and started absolutely dumping rain, so much so that it hurts to be outside. Its clearing up the day I leave, which is pretty consistant with the way luck goes sometimes eh? It was apparently really nice for the two weeks before I got here. So again its another place where Im stuck in the hostel.

Now I hope I can get back to Frankfurt, and that the ferry back to Venice isnt cancelled, otherwise im gonna have to buy another ticket home. I wish I had gotten home a week ago.

So finally I was able to get some stuff together at some internet cafe... though I probably spent 10 euro doing it, i REALLY wanted to get this stuff out there, it was bothering me.

Forgive the poor processing, I was stuck with using windows paint, but at least I had something eh? Nothing is really final or anything, or cropped for that matter, but whatever. I plan on sitting down with Jennea to do the final run through, which'll be awesome and a half.

Oh yeah, and if you are curious about where/what something is, leave a comment... the files got a bit mish-mashed, so the locations aren't chronological. Though, the only beach I was at was at Tramore, so if its a beach photo (or carnival photo) its in Tramore where the surfing is.













































































<-- I find these inspiring















































































































































<-- blah, bad lighting

Well, after biking on the horrible N25 freeway, we are in Cork. Lost Cody for a bit at the end since I had to take a detour to nurse my knee back to health enough to bike the rest of the way. So now we are staying at hostels on opposite sides of Cork, and have to communicate via email. Though today is likely the last day we will hang out before going our seperate ways. My knees have made sure that Cork is my final destination. Not a bad distance really, but I'm disappointed that instead of stopping due to being tired, I have to stop due to health reasons. It was a good journey though, hopefully in the future I can condition my knees to work better so I can do something more long distance. But as it is, I was biking the last 10km of the journey with primarily my right leg (my left knee is the gimpy one), and thats a pain.

Funny thing that happened, some guy on the freeway in a tiny car drove up right next to me and proclaimed "You're strange, you're strange" and drove off. I was confused, to say the least. What an odd thing to do, and on the freeway when people are going 120km/hr around him as well. Turns out there is a town called "Estrange" or something along those lines, but still, kinda silly. Also, the Brazilian guy I met in Tramore would forget my name, and just call me "hey Sweet!" since I was the first person he had ever heard say that. I suppose I've been dubbed "Sweet" on this trip.

So now my options are open. I'm done with biking, and after I get back to Dublin, I can go and do whatever I want. I was considering tons of stuff, like just flying straight some greek islands, or just staying in Tramore again for more surfing, or going straight to germany to spend some 20 days there or so. I dont know what I'm doing, but I'm not gonna rush myself, I have all the time in the world to do something or nothing, both of which I'll be happy to do. But one thing is for sure, I'm getting the bloody hell out of Cork. I'm not really one for the big cities. Doing a pub crawl every once in a while is pretty damn fun, but I'm kinda sick of it by now, and people are just so much more open in the countryside for the most part anyway. Plus I love the outdoors (meaning not urban outdoors, the REAL outdoors) where I can just up and hike somewhere on a moments notice. Perhaps I'll just take a bus to Kilarney National Park. I hear its awesome.

No pictures at the moment unfortunately, still cant find a place where I can use a computer normally. All the computers here are nerfed with the lame internet use software that only lets you launch internet explorer. Blah. Where are some hax when I need them?!

So tonight is going to be my 4th night in Tramore. This town is awesome, if you ever come to Ireland and like things to do besides pub crawling, come here. There is still a really nice pub, the Victoria House, but the rest are a little more low class apparently. Plus the hostel I'm staying in kicks ass. Its basically just a surfer beach house that you can pay to stay in, and since we've been here for so long the guy is only charging us 10 euro a night. Best hostel ever. Also everyone that has come through there is awesome. We met this one dude, Adam, who is working at a hotel here, and hes also into photography. Its always refreshing to meet another photographer and be able to chat about it, since I dont really know too many back home.

Anyway, the real reason to stay is surfing. Yes there is surfing in Ireland. I surfed a little yesterday and I'm doing it all day today as soon as I get off this entry. The waves, surprisingly, arent that bad. The beach is shallow for a long time... it extends for about a half kilometer out into the ocean about 4 or 5 feet deep the whole way, all sand no rocks. Plus there arent any nasty animals in this part, so theres pretty much nothing to worry about.

I also went on a day long photo shoot and got some awesome photos to show, but unfortunately I still cant post anything yet. I'll maybe be able to post stuff when Im in Cork, but we'll see... I'll definitely be able to post when Im in germany with the relatives.

So tomorrow we're doing that 77km ride to the next town, which is pronounced "Y'all." Then its 50km more the next day and we are in Cork! Sweet.

Oh yeah, some Brazillian guy last night was laughing at me for saying "Sweet," because its the first time hes ever heard someone say that in real life. The other place he has heard it was in "Dude, wheres my car." Sweet.

Just a quick update. We biked from Courtown to Wexford, and now we are going to hazard harsh winds and really heavy rain for Arthurstown, but who knows how well we will do. The original idea was to bike to Tremore, but thats an 80km ride and with the weather how it is, I doubt we would make it. The wind is so bad that my backpack is like a sail pulling me back, forcing me to use the lowest gear. In retrospect, I should have gotten a couple of those sacks that fit on the side of the bike (and are waterproof), but those were something like 130 euro each, and I wasnt prepared to pay that for just 20 days of cycling.

The sheer weight of the pack on my ass hurts so bad. My muscles are totally fine, but it gets so painful to sit on the seat with all that extra weight on my back that I can barely bike farther than 60km a day.

Anyway, I wouldnt be doing this if it werent a challenge, and that it is.

Ill try to get pictures up, but since I dont have access to a laptop anymore, I cant really get my photos off and post anything at the moment.