Vacation here I come!

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

I'll be leaving today for my three-week adventure into the wilds of the Irish vegetarian kitchen (or something like that). Three weeks of cooking, and lazing about during the day... yay!

The place I'm staying at is a small hostel and if memory serves me correct then they had one computer with a 56k modem, which was being hogged by teenagers most of the time, so I have absolutely no idea how often I'll be able to get online. Especially since it seems some kind of monsoon has broken out over there and the weather forecast predicts rain every day (okay so that should be usual for Ireland, but when I lived there the summers were as bad and hot as here right now, so I dunno), which means everyone will be hiding out inside. That is if there's anyone else staying there (usually a few French people find their way there, tho).

Anyway, I might be online only a couple of times a week, but who knows (so no posts for a while for Kvettch/Nya/Quenn/etc).

If anyone wants a postcard from Ireland - send me a PM with your address; my daughter has discovered postcards and can't send enough of them these days...

Okay, now I have to start packing, so bye for now...

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

I hate packing. And I can't find my rain cape. And this place is bloody boiling hot.

And there is a giant grasshopper infestation outside my windows - I just had to chase one out and into its untimely death getting squished by the door.... grrrr.... never going to be ready in 3 hours...

[Nya Halcyon]

Thought I'd write a quick update on this...

I've been in Ireland now for two weeks, and so far it's been wet. Extremely wet. All-your-clothes-are-sogging-wet and soaked-through-to-the-skin wet. There's not enough sunlight to dry in, and all the tumble dryers can't cope with the amounts of wet clothing we have to deal with in the hostel. Ick...

Anyway, we've had to cook for 400 people the past four days, as the local university campus is housing some sort of furniture exhibition and we were selected to cook for them. I'm starting to get sorely disgusted at the sight of yet another giant keg of potatoes that need peelin' and cuttin'. And so far there's no pay either, and no one's mentioned anything about it. But we get fed twice a day and get to stay for free so I 'spose we should be happy with it.

I'm also convinced by now that half of France must have left and come here. In the two weeks we've stayed here, I don't think I've heard a word of English other than the few broken words rasped by some French teenager with a thinly rolled cigarette stuck between his lips. All my co-workers are French, too. Unfortunately I don't speak any French so that's making the whole thing a bit complicated but at least my boss is from around here (he's not the talkative type, though).

Nya is thoroughly thrilled to be here, however. There are lots of children and the language problem never seems to bother her: in fact, the other day she decided to sit some of them down and open an "English school", which was hilarious to listen to. I do get a couple of hours off in the afternoon so we've been to trips around the area and onto one of the outlying islands, so ever since I had to share our bed not just with Nya but with a whole array of jars full of sea shells and a complete crab shell, amongst other things.

I've decided to leave this place a little earlier than I'd intended, and head up the west coast and then on to Northern Ireland, which is pretty much unexplored territory for me. We can't spend a long time there but at least we can get a glimpse of it before heading back to Dublin and catching a flight home. There are sure to be some good pictures by the time I get back - just as soon as I've found the money to buy new batteries for my camera, which unfortunately got left behind at home.

Back to work now...

[Hartus Kenobi]

most of that sounds heavenly. Lucky.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Well, I hope 'vacation' continues to go well for you! :hug You are missed!

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Have fun leaving early and seeing things other than what you'd planned :) Always fun to do something unexpected on a trip away from home. Glad your baby is loving it though :D

[Kvettch]

Well, two days ago we had torrential rain which flooded our downstairs courtyard a bit and the roof drainage pipes overflowed. That was a fun situation - we spent most of the afternoon keeping the rain from coming inside, and so it was another day of getting thoroughly soaked... ah well... this morning the water was squelching out from underneath the tiles on the floor of the laundry room....

I am seriously out of money so we're not going to go anywhere other than back the way we came. Which really is too bad, but it's not like this is the last time we're coming here: next time, I'll hopefully have enough money to have a real vacation.

Anyway, off to cut veggies...

[Nya Halcyon]

Okay I'm back.... sort of camping out at my parents' at the moment before heading home and starting a fight with my landlord over the rent... but I'm definitely back to full-time internet access (oh how I missed it - does that mean I'm an addict? :p)

The last few days of Ireland were a crazy mix of bad weather, good food, miles of walking, celtic tombs, museums, a whiny child, little sleep and lots and lots of bumpy roads and mad bus drivers... we gradually made our way up the north-western coast, then swung back through Northern Ireland and to Dublin in a 7-hour bus drive of hell. In Dublin I had somehow reserved a room in the only bed&breakfast that didn't accept credit cards, which meant carrying all our luggage to the next (EXTREMELY expensive) hotel and getting a room there instead as everything else was booked out. At least we had free shuttle service to the airport in the morning... *grumble*. Whatever happened to make Ireland such an expensive place to be????

Now I'm back in Germany, though, I just wish I was back in Ireland again. I even miss the rain. Even though it gave me a runny nose.

[General Dan]

Sounds like an interesting trip to say the least. I've never heard of a working vacation?

Glad you made it ok