Cork+

Looking at past entries, I guess its time for me to do a proper travel blog!

Well, my journey began at in the ruins of Blarney Castle, a stark reminder of the turbulent days of Irish history.

Blarney Castle-Looks as good as new!

Years of Irish weather have caused the floors to collapse, and bare zen like walls are all that remain.

All the floors have collapsed

However, it is still an imposing sight nonetheless. People come here to kiss the Blarney stone, which is said to give you that mysterious gift of the gab. Hundreds queue up to make this ‘pilgrimage’ everyday, it’s obviously comforting to know, that the stone is cleaned erm, yearly.

Castle Rock Garden-No requirement to kiss every rock. The stone is more than enough.

Cork used to be an important harbour, and it still is today. In fact cork was built on many small islands in the River Lee, over the years, the islands were paved over to form a large one, and the city began expanding onto the steep river banks. Long tiring walks up and down those slopes makes beer taste even better.

Calm waters of the River Lee.

Just south of Cork, we arrived abruptly at the sea side town of Kinsale, arguably the prettiest lunch stop of the trip. As quickly as we arrived, the buses disappeared and we were left to roam the streets. A warm hearty Fish and Chips should be enjoyed with a view like this!

Stunning seaside views, and charming little streets make up the town that is Kinsale.

A gem we found in the town park beside the sea.

Not knowing if they had foam parties at night, we made a quick exit from Kinsale. Things apparently took a turn for the worst when the driver lost his bearings, and the bus overheated, but look at the view! The driver couldn’t have picked a better spot to break his bus.

A lovely spot to chill while the bus (and driver) cool down.

Spectacular sunsets, wide open beaches, and babes walking the beach fully clothed. I kid you not, this is Ireland! Irish weather isn’t as bad as we thought. I guess rains everywhere but not at the beach! 

Still waiting patiently for the bus
Joel

a place called guadalajara

Tongue twisting name aside (it’s pronounced gwa-da-la-ha-ra), the city of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco is a charming place which reminds me greatly of Europe. It is a colonial area where the Spanish built their European buildings and cathedrals in the city centre, where I stayed at.

After a twelve hour bus ride, this is what we saw:

The courtyard inside the museum grounds:

We also made our way to the nearby town of Tlaquepaque (pronounced as Tlah-kay-pah-kay), where they sell the best artisan works in Mexico – for a price, of course.

The park:

Lol so cute:

Sooooo many birds.

And this was when the sun was setting:

Another highlight of my weekend getaway was the trip to the town of Tequila.

This is the farm where they harvest the fruit to make Tequila. I can’t remember the name of the fruit though =/

Farmer dude using a stick with a really sharp metal end to get the fruit out. It looks like a pineapple.

Inside the place where they make Tequila:

They gave us samples to try. There are four types of Tequila: Blanco, Reposado, Viejo, Extra Viejo. The difference between them is the time they let it set for. The longer they let it set, the smoother it becomes. And the more expensive it costs. Extra Viejo goes down really smoothly. But still, I didn’t like any of them, no matter how smooth they were. I really do not like the taste of Tequila.

We also went to the Jose Cuerva factory place. It has really nice buildings.

My friends also bought a 5litre carrier of tequila! It only cost $26 SGD? Alcohol is really cheap here.

I don’t know how to end a blog post! So i’ll end here hahathxbai.

Tips For the ‘Independent’ Traveller-In Galway

Travelling alone need not be such a daunting experience. Lets examine my solo experiment in Galway:

1. Always time your visit properly.

It is really exciting when you arrive in a city, and everything/everyone is asleep. Hence, you decide to retire to your suite. Thanks to your self-imposed ‘shoe-string’ budget, going to the pub or club are out of the option. Things could end up looking like this:

2. Choose a room with a TV

Never knew that stupid black box could be such a life saver. Never mind that, we can always chat with our new found room mates! Which brings me to my next point.

3. Pray for proper roommates

Things could be bleak when they are all out getting drunk, perhaps worse when they return. Therefore, if they return with a discoloured shirt, or talking to themselves, please pretend to be asleep. Beware: The pretense may last the whole night, if they happen to snore as well. With no ‘real’ sleep at all, you decide to wake early.

4. Waking up on time, pays dividends.

Somehow, everything looks great in the morning, could be the sunlight, or rather your lack of sleep. A photo frenzy begins. Now feeling optimistic, you embark on a tour.

5. Choose a seat with a clean window! Fancy DSLR/DLSR/DRSLs will not work with additional ‘fog filters’. Photo frenzy stalls! You decide to change seats immediately, giving your high tech equipment space to breathe. Things are finally beginning to work out, and another photo frenzy ensues.

Shots look dark, is it my camera?

6. Back to point 1. Before you know it, it gets dark again! You have barely digested lunch :s

Joel

(Non) Irish Cookbook

Ireland is a great place known for its natural beauty, and friendly people. What about Irish food?

How about some (Non) Native recipies. To make the dishes more palatable, a hunger rating is conveniently provided.

The Curry Style Chicken & Chips

A hearty chicken dish, sure to leave a smile* on your face.

Proceed to buy grossly oversized chicken nuggets, and a bag of large chips. Arrange neatly on a big plate. Drizzle everything with a good dose of sweet & sour curry sauce. Mix well before eating. Ingredients courtesy of macs.

*of disbelief

Hunger rating: Hungry

The Tubes in Dilute Sauce

A warm dish that promises to be as satisfying as it looks.

Raise the heat and boil the tubes. While doing so, rush to the nearest convenience store, purchase a packet of quicksoup, and mushrooms. Dice the mushrooms to bits, stir the soup powder in, and mix thoroughly. Remember to add water liberally.

Hunger rating: Gastric Pains

The Wait-long Mac & Cheese

Probably the centre piece of any meal.

Set the stove to lowest heat settings, ensure the water does not boil. Wait 3hrs till hunger is unbearable. Boil the pasta to desired toughness, and grind the cheese. Remember to add milk and flour, mix thoroughly. Ensure all the cheese has melted, to form a nice gooey paste. Throw in remaining mushrooms for added bite. Good luck with the washing.

Hunger rating: Slight Urges

Only the Leprechauns eat better!

Joel

Letters from Ireland

Hi there!

Perhaps the best way to start, would be a short introduction of Limerick. Well hmmm….

Imagine a land where time stood still, where hairless trees lived. Rustic ruins of old castles, defy time, littering the country side. Muddy trails lead nowhere, footprints linger from the past. The mighty river takes note, and ripples hardly form. You might say its dull here, everything is a stroll. Well, that’s because its hard to see here, after a scotch. It doesn’t really help either, when enveloped in fog.

WT, why am I going in circles? I guess its the Irish way, but I hope that gives you an idea!

Cheers,

Joel

home away from Home

Have you ever walked onto foreign land and felt like you walked into a home away from home?

I read this on someone’s blog before I departed on my “trip home”, and now I can totally relate to what he wrote…

“As i step out of Heathrow airport, memories invaded my somewhat vacant mind and as my eyes roamed the scenery in front of me, it felt as if i have come home.. Not that i have resided here before but, however, during my virgin trip there, i felt as though i was from there in my previous life, as much of the streets and buildings seemed extraordinarily familiar, i could almost tell whats at the next turn….“

It is my story too. *puke*

It is an unfinished story that is waiting for me to complete. *double puke*

It is a story with no ending, because a home will always have its doors open, ready to welcome you back. *triple puke*

Holborn, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and most of all, Oxford Street – I can’t wait to see you again, very soon. :p

wanderlust

there’s something beautiful about travelling.

about leaving all your chains and inhibitions behind and just running out into the world, embracing whatever it throws at you.

there’s something beautiful about cultures and their practices. meeting people from different backgrounds and learning about their quirks and idiosyncrasies. it makes you marvel at how diverse God created the world and the universe to be.

there’s something beautiful about living and breathing with complete strangers, who gradually become your acquaintances and then friends. these stranger-turned-friends who live with you 24/7 and see you at your worst, yet when all you have is one another, you learn to love and depend on them and vice versa.

there’s something beautiful about venturing into the unknown. about not knowing what lies ahead yet going ahead to explore the vast expanse anyway.

there’s even something beautiful about the chaos in a foreign land. about excitement amidst the disorientation and the adrenalin rush from the flurry.

I wanna be a traveller! I wanna be an adventurer! I wanna see and live and experience the world at my feet!

because I promised

and so here’s my take on the countries I’ve toured so far (which isn’t really a lot though it sounds like I’ve toured a lot of countries lol) Pictures of the trip are actually almost all up on my Facebook so just go there and see them.

Vienna, Austria

Hm where to begin. I personally found Vienna a tad bit boring. Sure, the architecture and the statues erected were really pretty and grand. But after some time, they really start to look the same till the extent that I sometimes have no idea what street I’m in because darn, all the buildings there look similar!

We visited museums there. 5 in fact. I did find some museums pretty interesting, such as the Sisi Museum. I guess I found it more engaging when I’m actually learning about actual human beings (Sisi is the queen/empress of Austria in some point in time and she’s reportedly damn chio so everyone’s very interested in her life) than say, looking at The Imperial Plate Collection.I still can’t believe I paid EUR20 to look at plates that I can easily see in those high class plate shops.

Other than the above, we also visited supermarkets. I know right, who the hell goes travelling and then ended up only noticing the supermarkets. But seriously, try living in Oslo. You’d find the urge to lug food back from Austria (or anywhere else in general since I doubt it’s hard to find food any more expensive than that in Norway) and where else to do it other than supermarkets? Food there in Vienna, so far, was the cheapest I’ve seen. We had a couple of good meals and though technically, they’re still expensive in terms of Sing dollars but really, when you’ve seen Oslo food prices, nothing is expensive anymore. That said, wait till I get to the part where I paid S$60 for a meal in Switzerland.

Our hostel in Vienna was alright I suppose. Other than having to climb up a hill everytime we go back to the hostel, that place was relatively clean. Except that insects like to, not only, fly into our room but also into the common toilet. It’s really disgusting. I hate insects. I think they should all die off like dinosaurs.

So.. this marks the end of the Vienna trip. I wish I could have done something more arty farty there, like attend a concert, since Vienna is like, the city of music or something. But we didn’t. No idea why we didn’t but I personally thought it was a bit wasted. Nonetheless, the company was good so I guess ultimately that’s what matters the most. =)

I’ll update about the Switzerland trip another day. I still need to go pack my room. =(

“social commentary”

It has been awhile since I last wrote about my “adventures” in Europe, and it has been an even longer while since I returned to (harsh) reality in Singapore. But memories of those days are still very much fresh in my mind, despite the stale tropical weather here lol.

I think I would like to allow this entry to flow from the top of my head (to the bottom of my toes…). Very often I start writing with an agenda in mind and what comes out sounds too…polished, too manicured, and too good to be true. I add in cliches, embellish my sentences and rhyme my words. Look, I just did it again.

Upon return, I have been going through random bouts of reminiscing and daydreaming about those 30 days in a home away from home. Haha I say that because yes, “Lawndon” holds a special place in my ♥ heart ♥ For the first time I could imagine myself living in somewhere other than Singapore. For the first time I could actually imagine myself uprooting…albeit temporarily.

• In week 1, my experience with the undergrounds gave me a glimpse of the vibrant creative scene in London and I could imagine the possibilities of working there.
• In week 2, school began and the idea of doing my Year 3 internship there occurred to me.
• In week 3, I did up a customised resume for London only and started spamming companies with it.
• In week 4, with no luck on the application front, I started scheming 101 Ways To Obtain PR in London.
• And in week 5, with no luck and no permanent residency in sight, it was back to harsh reality in Sunny (and Sian) Singapore

And why the change?

I realised that while I was a narrow-minded Singaporean/Azn kid like everybody else when I first arrived in London, the subsequent 30 days have changed my perspective from the micro to the macro.

Previously, while the nitty gritty of life, e.g. questions like “omg what am I going to take next semester”, bothered me like every other kiasu Singaporean student, the me now is more willing to allow such anxiety to take a backseat. Not to say that I’m not kiasu anymore (you can’t take the Singapore out of the Singaporean), but I’m slowly learning to just ~chill~ and take it one step at a time. No point getting all worked up over screwed-up administration…

Just today, The Sunday Times reported that 3 Singaporean students came up tops at Oxford. Apart from that, we constantly pwn the locals there at their own (academic) game. We have an immense pool of young budding talents who are eager to make it, yet why do we not produce any Nobel Prize winners (and why do many great thinkers and philosophers come from the West)? That’s because our education system trains us to “return everything to the professors” at the exams. So yes, it’s back to Square One every time.

But of course, our education system is not without its merit (bolded for emphasis, lest I get mistaken for being anti-gahmen). While it required a sacrifice of my childhood and teen-hood, in return, I receive good training in several aspects. For one, although I’m still not used to speaking up in class (aha, another result of our rote-learning system), I’m happy to say that I am able to organise and pen my thoughts down more coherently than those who have been trained to speak up from young, no country or name mentioned…

And so my point is, I think our education system – especially from tertiary level and up – needs a good revamp.I’m no authority on education or societal issues, but I think I’ve lived through enough of this regime – and sacrificed enough of my prime – to offer my two cents’ worth on this.

Gothic Camden (London markets – Part Two)

After a somewhat quiet Friday at Portobello Market, Camden – another must-go market – was a shocking contrast!

Perhaps because we went on a weekend (Saturday), it was thronging with people and full of hustle and bustle.

Camden Market is actually the collective name for a host of eclectic markets in Camden Town. But if there is one common feature that unites these markets, it is the gothic feel characteristic of the entire town. It was like GOTHam City!

Truly a visual spectable to behold.

Gothic storefronts

Gothic salespeople?

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...

Loud, screaming colours!!!

Dark, eerie colours...

The most interesting market of the lot, in my humble opinion, is probably Stables Market.

No prizes for guessing how it earned its name..

Stables Market

(to be continued…)