Journal Entries
Update
Posted Aug 2, 2008
Right, so it's about 10 months since I last put anything up here, and since then...
I went to St Petersburg & Moscow, hung out with Sarah, and survived flying with AeroFlot back to London after SAS cancelled my flight out of Moscow... Then my flight to Cork couldn't land because of mist, so I was diverted to Shannon, but I got home eventually and went back to work.
Not much excitement - moved to a new flat, sharing with an Italian/Latvian couple, which was ...interesting...
Flew to Leeds on Boxing Day & stayed with Nic for a few days, then headed down to France to go skiing with my second cousins 
It was great fun.
Then it was back to Cork & back to work... Winter was wet & depressing... Our office moved closer to town, which was handy - no more infrequent & unreliable buses!
Went to Galway at Easter for my friend Mario's birthday - had a good party with my friends up there And a few times since.
Left Ireland last week, and have been staying with my cousin in southern France since - soaking up the sun!
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Aug 2, 2008
10 Things You Don’t Need to Know About Kaliningrad (Калинингра́д)
Posted Sep 27, 2007
1. Arriving there is exciting... Khabrovo airport is the crappest I have ever seen! Altho I noticed the dodgy airline (which is based there) in fact has several planes, tho most of them look somewhat second hand, and also owns a number of Ladas with signs saying ‘follow me’ to guide planes to the terminal. The Russian military were waiting at the bottom of the stairs as we got off the plane and onto a bus for a 20m ride to the terminal door, & thankfully no worries with immigration. I did however have to ask at information where to get my bag (the next building!)
2. The Cyrillic alphabet adds a whole level of complexity to the foreign language thing – not only do I not understand, I can’t even read it!
3. Seemingly, if it’s not labelled in neon, it’s not worth knowing about.
4. There is a profusion of public transport – trams, trolley buses, regular buses & mini buses but still masses of totally anarchic traffic & smog to rival London – altho more diesel fumes probably… Quite a few old Ladas, but also a good few BMWs, Mercs, Audis and Hummers!
5. There are plenty of hideous soviet apartments blocks in varying states of decay (altho no more hideous than other places I’ve seen them) and some new shiny apartments blocks (no more appealing than anywhere else!) There are lots of trees tho, and very clean pavements – the babushkas sweep them daily it seems, including 1 saw following a guy with a brushcutter mowing grass, sweeping it up off the footpath and putting it back in the grassed area! There are also some quite incongruous expensive-looking French & Italian-sounding handbag shops at the ground floor of rundown apartments blocks.
6. They produce 90% of the world’s Amber - it’s beautiful
7. When getting married, it is very important that the brides look as much like toilet roll dolls as possible (think big puffy skirts) and that all the guests decorate their cars and drive around for hours honking constantly.
8. It used to be a german city called Koenigsburg and there are lovely German red brick churches and gate houses, plus a stunning new orthodox cathedral.
9. There are little kiosks absolutely everywhere – selling cigarettes, bread, drinks, snacks, hot dogs/burgers and alcohol – which it seems you are obliged to drink in the street.
10. Even if you pay lot to stay in a hotel (which you pretty much ave to) the toilet paper will still bear a startling resemblance to sand paper, and you still aren't allowed to put it down the loo...
And there's one thing you do need to know - the supermarkets have fridges full of super-cheap beer & vodka (half litre, top shelf) 120 Rubels (just over 2 pounds/3.40 Euro/5 Oz dollars), yes, that’s half a litre for the price of shot!
(This partially explains the hangover I got the next night in St Petersburg...) More on that later...
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Sep 27, 2007
Planes, trains, buses, taxis, floods, friends and a baby
Posted Jul 23, 2007
All in the space of one weekend!
A friend from my time inb Edinburgh had a baby recently, so I and some other friends organised to go and visit her in england this weekend. This coincided with what is apparently the worst flooding the country has seen since 1947, so the travel arrangements were a little more complex than we anticipated...
Kerry & I arrived in Birmingham from Dublin early Saturday morning, and Jen flew in from Edinburgh shortly after. We had heard that there were problems with the trains, but the main problem seemed to be that everyone we spoke to had a different version of what was running! At one stage we were told flatly that there was no way of getting to Ludlow, in fact we weren't even going to get out of Birmingham... After an assortment of phone calls to Nicci, with her partner calling the local bus depot, we got directions to the right bus stop and made our way to Kidderminster, some more confusion, hours delay and another bus we got to Nicci's house around 10 hours after leaving Kerry's in Dublin!
So then we went to the pub We wandered around the town a bit, and looked at the river (apparently about 4 times as wide as normal), with a good 5 feet of water over the football pitch etc. The rest of the time we spent lounging around eating and drinking (as usual) and admiring Nicci's baby - something entirely new! He's a fairly placid and appealing little thing, who seems to do all the normal baby things - eats, sleeps and fills nappies! All in all it was a very sedate and grown up get together, especially compared with our normal pastime in Edinburgh, which was going out & drinking like fish til the early hours! It was great to catch up with the girls - I can't believe it's been a year since I left Edinburgh!
Getting home again was even more exciting - once again, it looked smooth enough - catch a rail replacement bus to Shrewsbury & a train thru to Birmingham in plenty of time for our flights. Except we waited 2 hours for the bus, and eventually realised that by the time it came we wouldn't get to our flights. So we got Jen's fiance Vince on the the phone and got him to start looking at flights the next day (starting from £100 - OUCH!). Jen's flight was a bit later, so she went in a taxi to Shrewsbury with 6 other people who were waiting and we thought all was well there. Kez & I went back to Nicci's, and managed to get hold of a taxi who could take us straight to the airport - an hour and a half away, and £120 later, but we made it! Back in Dublin, we heard from Jen that she had got thru to Shrewsbury and on a train, but then someone threw themselves in front of it, and she didn't get to Birmingham in time after all... Such dramas!
So anyway, I'm back in Cork now, and made it into work after catching a bus at 7am down from Dublin. Somewhat shattered, but it's pretty quiet so I should make it thru to 8pm.
At this point I have one more month before my visa runs out, then I'll travel round Ireland & visit France for a few weeks with Mum & Dad. Then I'm vaguely planning a trip thru eastern europe for a few months (depending how long the money lasts) and probably heading home in November/December...
Hello to whoever is still checking in on this! Hope all's well
Right, time for another cup of coffee...
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jul 23, 2007
Marbella
Posted Apr 18, 2007
Well, apparently this is one of the rumoured 45 days a year when the sun doesn´t shine in Marbella - I´ve just been walking along the waterfront, and I may as well have been in Salthill in Galway! More palm trees here I s´pose... Went out drinking last night with 2 girls from the hostel, and caught up with my old flatmate Jorge, which was good fun Slept most of today as a result, but hell, I am on holiday!
The last few days have been good - I went to Cartagena, Almeria and Malaga - all of which were lovely, notwithstanding the guidebooks suggestions to the contrary. Have to admit I spent a moderate amount of time wandering the shops - I´ve been so good lately (altho i still have too much stuff!) partly cos Galway´s shopping is pretty limited... And trying on clothes when u have to peel off 4 layers in order to do so is a total pains in the backside! But aprt from that, I´ve almost reached saturation point with castles, fortresses, ancient ruins, and museums, so I haven´t actually done anything touristy in Marbella (except come here, I guess - the whole place is incredibly touristy!). People here speak more english, which makes life a little easier, altho we still try to speak spanish. That caused some hilarity today, when the english girl from my dorm tried to ask the waiter for another vaso (glass) and instead asked for a beso (kiss)!
More soon, love to all!
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Apr 18, 2007
Sun, castles and museums
Posted Apr 15, 2007
Tonight I´m in Almeria, a lovely city by the sea - spent the afternoon wandering around the gardens and walls of the Alcazaba - an ancient muslim-built fortress. Got a bit sunburnt - it had to happen eventually!
Yesterday I was in Cartagena, another lovely coastal town, with a history going back to the Romans - really interesting. There was a museum about the Spanish Civil War as well - interesting, but not much context and a little superficial in the effort to be bilingual (altho I can´t really complain about being able to understand!).
The day before I caught a ferry across to a curious place called La Manga del Mar Menor (the sleeve of the small sea), which is a narrow spit of land separating Mar Menor from the Mediterranean. The guide book with told me this didn´t mention that it is also lined (almost end to end) with high-rise hotels and apartments! It would be a lovely place to stay tho - more beaches than you can point a stick at, clear water, lovely scenery (and high-rises...), nice weather... Altho I bet in summer all the beaches are still full!
Anyway, enough for now, more soon!
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Apr 15, 2007
CJ-Maranup
Researcher U779884
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."