The return to homelessness

So in my last post I had left Galway (eventually), which marked the start of my 2 months travels in order to get home for Christmas! 

My travels started with Scotland. I met my friend from home in Glasgow where we attended a film festival and explored the coffee and vegan delicacies of the city. It was a cool city, reminded me of Dunedin at times! 

Next was Edinburgh where I mostly relaxed and explored the beautiful architecture of 'the dunedin of the north' as well as a visit to 'portobello beach'.. where the beach weather rather resembled that of Dunedin!!!

Next stop was Denmark where I visited an old high school friend in Aarhus. We spent our days cycling around this beautiful city. It was so nice to cycle around as the motorists give you your space and respect you a lot more than in NZ! We went to the art gallery which was pretty phenomenal and a few really good museums and well as a deer park and Danish Handball match.. Another unique experience! 

Being a 'European cyclist'

'Day of the dead exhibition' 

Me and Kaila on the infinity walk (built for European capital of culture 2017)

Greece was next. I flew into Athens and spent a few days exploring the bussling capital. It was a big change from Denmark but the 20 degree heat was well welcomed! It was amazing marvelling at the history of the place and enjoing the cheaper prices after Denmark!! 

The acropolis

Next I caught the 12 hour ferry over to Crete, arriving in Heraklion and departing for Matala, a small commune South-West of Heraklion. Matala was a fishing village occupied by the hippies in the 60s due to the caves overlooking the beach. They were chased out by the government and church in later years but the vibe of the village very much still remains. 

The 'famous hippie caves'

I spent just over a week here. The village was situated on the beach set amongst a lot of hills and cliffs so i spent my days swimming and walking over the hills to neighbouring beaches. It was about 30 degrees most days so once again, the heat was very welcomed!  

'Mystical Viewpoint'

On my way back through Heraklion I visited Knossos, the capital of Minoan Crete, often called Europe's Oldest City

Next came Portugal where I was to stay for a month. I arrived in Lisbon and caught a train down the south in the direction of 'Carrapateira', a small fishing village in the Algarve where I was going to be working on a farm for the next 3 weeks in order to save some money during my travels. This prompted my first hitchhiking experience! Carrapaterira wasn't reachable by any other means so I walked to the road and began to very timidly lift my thumb and even before I had even lifted it it a car pulled over and gave me a lift. The farm I was working on was called 'Cunca" and was a small self-sufficeint farm consisting of a number of small gardens, a lot of animals and many other pieces of land aroound the area. The farm was between two beaches called 'amado' and 'bodeira', both which hosted surfing and could be accessed by walking the cliffs between the 2 beaches. The work here involved gardening, landscaping and a good few days of removing stones from fields. The weather was high 20s everyday and there was lots going on in the neighbouring villages such as a hippie-flea-market, pizza parties and a chestnut festival where they roasted chestnuts in the middle of the streets. The area was beautiful and the people were all very accommodating.

One of the gardens on the farm

The cliffs between Bodeira and Amado

'Portuguese style bike lock'

When my 3 weeks was up I began my hitch-hiking-public-transport expedition back to civilisation. In Faro I met a friend from Ireland amd we spent a week exploring the main villages along the south coast. The included the picturesque Faro:, Albufiera where we biked along the coast following its many beaches and caves alongside a spot of dolphin watching, and Lagos where we explored more beaches and narrow winding streets of the old town.

A dog lazing in Faro

The beaches along from Albufiera

Lagos beach explorations

After my month in Portugal I flew to Bologna where I met with two friends from my course (one who lived there and the other who was joining me for central america and moving to NZ). We spent a number of days in Bologna exploring the becuatifl city, riding on scooters, eating amazing food, and drinking delicious wine. One memorable food experience was 'Eataly', which was a huge food expo which was had just opened up as a permanent exhibition the day before!

San Luca - a church up on the hills over Bologna

We also did a day tip to Florence and were blessed with some beautiful weather for it! 

Gelatos in Florance

From there myself and Rachel embarked on our flight to Panama where we will explore Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Chile before flying to NZ for Chrsitmas, but that is for another blogpost!

Until then,
Slan,

Ka kite 

J x

All good things come to an end

So a month ago my time in Galway came to an end, much to my disapointment. However, I feel I should fill you in in the happenings between my last post and then!

Firstly Mum and Rose came to visit. 

The reunion 

They stayed in Galway for a week where I showed them all the sights and sounds as well as a 'choir' performance where they did a rendition of R-Kelly ‘remix to ignition’. 

Welcome to Galway brunch

We hired a car and travelled around Ireland. It was a lot of fun. We explored the beautiful Connemara including the arts and craft centre of Spiddal - a must see!

Coral beach in Connemara

 County Clare and the cliffs of Moher (where we got some very Irish weather)

Moody cliffs of Moher

Then headed down to Killarney where we did the ring of Kerrry which was very beautiful, we also headed out to Dingle and explored a number of quaint towns along the way such as Kenmare, and Dingle itself.

We then headed down to Cork before doing a big drive up to Northern Ireland where we saw the Giants Causeway and the Titanic Museum (a definite must). 

Giants Causeway

After that we met Dad and Jackson in France and I septa a few days there with them before heading back to Galway to finish off my masters thesis.. Which I did! Hoorah!! It was a very stressful few weeks but was a great relief to get it all handed in and finished up!

'I finished my Masters' photo

For my last few months in Galway I just worked, surfed and tried to relax a bit. My friend heather came to visit. By now I was truly able to Gove a true ‘Irish experience’ in Galway, this consisted of burritos, rain, having a ‘can’ by the Spanish arch, and off course, those creamy pints of Guiness

We also went back to Killarney and did a kayaking tour around the caves and lake which was pretty cool.

Killarney Caves

I also managed a trip to Inishmore, one off the Aran Islands off Galway's coast where we hired bikes and explored the island

The views from Inishmore

And alas, time went by and my time in Galway came to a very sad end. 

A 'farewell' from work

On my final night my good friends band played at my old work, so it was nice to watch them.

'Dott'

I was so sad to leave the next day that I got the wrong bus to Dublin and missed my flight.. which was the last one out.. A minor spanner in the works but nothing thats couldn't be ameliorated by a good friend who lived nearby and came and collected my very sad self. Alas, the next day I managed to catch a flight out!

My time in Galway was, to say the least, amazing. I had so many great experiences and met so many awesome people. Galway is a beautiful, vibrant city and will always have a very special place in my heart 

All the love

J xoxo

Update from the Emerald Isle

So I have been in Ireland for about 10 months now. Time flies! Especially crazy considering I only have 5 months left. I have been here for twice the amount of time that's left! 

Anyway, I have taken a few trips since I wrote last and other than that I have just been exploring new places in Galway! It's always fun to explore places right on your back door that you didn't know existed till now! Amongst all this I also managed to finish exams (phew!) with only a couple of break downs. This means I just have my dissertation to write now!

The trips I have taken were to Amsterdam and Budapest. I visited some friends from home in Amsterdam who were at the end of their Europe trip. It was nice to catch up with them and relax in that beautiful city.

I went to Budapest with a friend from home who was visiting me in Galway. It was a very cool city we enjoyed a couple of 

days of sun and explored the baths as well as all the usual sights around the city. A very relaxed and cheap city!

Other than that I have started cycling again. Mum always said that the pavement hurts regardless of the country... This doesn't apply in Galway apparently

And that has lead to the exploration of more places such as here

And here

And of course a touch of geocaching!

Heck, we even had w hole 5 day long irish summer!! Apparently I got a tan but the Irish and NZ definition of tan may differ slightly! 

Anyway that's me, summer is approaching which means I can work full time so it's time to work and get saving to fund my travels back to NZ!

Love and peace

J X 

UPDATE: I'm still alive and kicking.

It’s been a very long time since I have written. Apologies. I now have a laptop so hopefully that means my updates will be a bit more regular. Especially seeing as I can now include pictures which makes it much more fun and interactive. Since I last wrote I have been to Sicily with my German friend Muriel who I met in Wellington. It was beautiful and hot with amazing food and Muriel successfully managed to drive amongst the infamous Italian drivers!

London, where I saw a horse, of course

Belfast, where I saw the Christmas markets and lights

And on trips around the coast of the west along the ‘wild Atlantic way’ and of course, stopping to pet the Connemara ponies in the Connemara. 13 year old Jess would be doing that weird-excited-holding-my-breath squeal with the plethora of horses I’ve been seeing!! 

Other than that I have just been working and studying. I work here

And study here. 

It’s winter here, so it’s pretty cold. We had 'snow' one day

A lot of fog

And sometimes the odd bit of sun 

Christmas was very relaxing, my friend Bella from NZ came and visited so we ate, drank, watched Christmas movies and were indeed, very merry! Europe over Christmas is always so festive with all the lights and markets, I guess its needed to get them through the cold, grey weather!

New Years I worked about 13 hours and it was very busy but after that 13 hours, it was great fun!

I’ve just moved houses for the third time as the lease ran out on the last one. This one has no rules and no mould so things are on the up! My ethics has just been approved for my masters so I will start the research soon. I a looking at the effects of stress appraisal and illness perceptions in people with multiple sclerosis. It is due August but am aiming to have it done earlier so I can join the part of the family that are coming over to Europe! Woooo! So alas, it’s crunch time… but of course there’s still time for some adventures! Here’s some pictures of Galway to make you feel like you’re here a bit. 

Keep doing you, you’re doing great

Sending love and peace

J x