September 2016

Ireland

Well my first day in Ireland went with a bang lol!  What an eventful time I do have.  I suppose if I choose to do what I’m doing then there is always going to be problems.

It all started well, I was so excited to get to the ferry port in Pembroke dock, I have never been to Ireland before apart from for the rugby in Dublin and then we just came to watch the rugby then went straight home.  But this time I was going to spend the entire month working for someone in Derry beg in return for board and lodge.

I got off the ferry about 7ish and started my drive towards Derrybeg which is the complete other side of the country, no stopping  for food or toilet, no time, so I followed the instructions given to me on how to get there by my host, which turned out to be crap and took me 30 miles out of my way.  I didn’t manage to get to my hosts house until 2am and as I pulled up I just knew it was not going to be a good experience but I went in and chatted to the lady and decided to give it a go.

We chatted for about an hour and she was really lovely, told me about all the best places to go and that if the weather was ok during my stay that we could go sailing and I could go to the Galway night of culture and join in with the singing, which all sounded really exciting but and this is a big but, the place was filthy, the smell when you walked in the door wasn’t just the smell of freshly cooked food but the smell of years of neglect.  Now I’m not  house-proud by a long shot but this place was awful.  I went to bed and when I pulled back the covers it was obvious that the bed linen had not been changed since the last person slept there, if ever, if the truth be told.  But because it was so late I had no option but to try and sleep.

It was the most awful night, freezing and damp bed, and the smell of damp was horrendous, it was obvious that nothing was ever done in the way of cleaning this house.  The lady told me the night before what was expected of me and basically she wanted me to clean up after the family every day and to tackle a massive pile of washing that had built up for about a month, and clean the oven as well as feed the dogs, make sure they go out for run and clean up their poo if they had an accident in the house.

The house was full of piles of stuff everywhere, in my bedroom there were piles of stuff across the whole of one wall and in the so called bathroom which only had a toilet and tiny sink, there was more piles of stuff and in the room where the washing machine was there was loads and loads of bags of recyclable stuff which they hadn’t managed to take to the recycling as well as piles of rubbish.  It was filthy and I decided I wasn’t staying, but it was too late to leave then, so I tried to sleep, put the alarm on for 7am, packed my bags and turned off the light.  This all sounds very judgemental but I don’t mean it to be, I just can’t stay there.  I understand that everyone has the right to live as they please.

It was awful, despite the fact that I was really worn out from all the travelling I just couldn’t sleep, so I got up at 7am took all my stuff to the car and waited for them to get up to tell them, I didn’t want to just disappear without saying anything, anyway they got up about 8am and I heard the lady in the bathroom so I just went out to tell her I was off, she was still half asleep but just looked a little puzzled and just said ok goodbye, not that there was much she could do otherwise.

So there I was in the outer regions of Ireland with nowhere to go and nothing to do, I put a message on my Facebook to see if there was anyone who could help me and my friends also tried to help by sending messages to people they knew, but as I was driving around I thought about asking local hotels if I could work for them in return for board and lodge.  I drove down the road for a bit and stopped by a lovely lake to have my breakfast and think about what I was going to do.

After breakfast I drove into the next town which was Clifden, a lovely town on the Atlantic coast with beautiful scenery.  I went to see the local church and drove along the Sky loop which goes high into the mountain so you can look back down over the bay at the wonderful views, on the way round the loop I came across the Abbey Glen castle hotel, so I thought, it’s now or never, I turned in, parked the car, bit the bullet and went straight in to ask if the manager had any jobs in return for board and lodge.

The manager’s name was Brian and he was sitting there with Gary, the guy who was organising the golfing competition down at the Connemara golf club.  Brian said he would think about giving me a job in the week and in the meantime he told Brian to take me round to the golf club so that I could camp safely for the next couple of nights.

Gary was lovely; he took me in his car and showed me all there is in Clifden and took me to the golf club, stopping on the way to admire the views and to look at the interesting features in this wonderful area.  We got to the golf club where Gary had to organise leaflets and advertising boards for the golf competition, I helped him sort the signs, he bought me coffee then we went back into town to finish off printing the signs, while he sorted the printing, I went for a walk to find out about buying a new phone for use in Ireland, it was 49Euros so I left it for now, I don’t really want to pay that much for a temporary phone.  I came across a pub showing the rugby match between Munster and Scarlets so I stopped in for a quick drink, Gary met me later and we chatted to the locals.  I tasted my first proper Guinness; it was lovely so I had a couple more.

Gary took me back to the hotel for me to pick my car up and I drove back to the golf club to put up my tent, hoping to see the sunset, which I did, it wasn’t the best I’ve seen but stunning none the less.  With the tent up, I went to the club to charge my electronic stuff and write my blog and eat some dinner.  I ordered Irish stew which turned out to be exactly the same as Cawl, it was lovely.

Then off to camp by the sea and wake up with the sun shining and an exciting day ahead!!Hopefully!!