The Munster Mash

I was looking forward to Ireland . I had heard allot of good things about the people, the places and of course the Irish Guinness . I was looking looking forward to it because it was going to be my first time using hitching as the primary means of transportation so there was some uncertainty of how it would all turn out which made it all the more exciting .  My cousins Ian and Ness accompanied by the children and "Ella" the trusty Ford Galaxy were kind enough to pick me up from a service station in Swansea and we drove to Fishguard to catch the ferry to Rosslare in Ireland . In my rush to get food from the subway across the street in the morning I forgot my mobile and left it sitting on the couch in the living room of my host which was a pain because as well as being a mobile phone it was also my watch,alarm clock and a backup camera. Without my mobile Ella took us towards Fishguard and we stopped off at McDonlds much to the delight of the kids before lining up and driving onto the ferry without ANYBODY checking our passports on the way through or when we drove off in Rosslare ,perhaps the British have the same theory on emigration as Robert Muldune who was once quoted as saying that anyone leaving New Zealand for Australia rises the IQ of both country's . The ferry ride was nice and there was plenty room to chill and read books or blob out and watch the football on the tv . The first impression I got of Ireland while we were driving along is that it was similar to New Zealand countryside ,fields full of cows and sheep,mountains and cliff tops and a greenness I hadn't noticed in England . My original plan was to hitch from Limerick to Pallaskenry where I would stay with a CS host but Ian was kind enough to drop me off at the pub where my host Enda was playing and saved me getting drenched as it was bucketing down with rain . I said my goodbyes to the family as they made their way to Shannon and I hung out in the pub drinking Guinness (what else ?) with Enda and his friends then we retired back to his house and sang songs and played guitar all night which was a epic introduction to Ireland . The next day the plan was to get some money out in Limerick and hitch to the cliffs of moher , I accomplished only one of these goals . Still buoyed from my success in hitching from London to Swansea I didn't bother to make a sign thinking that everyone on the N69 would be heading out to the cliffs....wrong . I ended up walking from Limerick over the County Claire border to find a spot to hitch from , I tried my luck in a couple of spots but after 3 hours I gave up and turned back for Limerick and learnt a valuable lesson....ALWAYS HAVE A SIGN !!! . I found a local bus service on the way back and caught it to the centre of town just across the river from St Johns Castle and walked a loop around the mid-evil part of the city which was nice .5 pm came and Limerick showed its size with most shops and places of interest closing leaving not much else to do so I walked along Dock Rd and hitched back to Pallaskenry . I got picked up after 2 minutes with my Pallaskenry Please :-) sign doing the trick . I got picked up by a women who was in one of the row boats I saw on the river earler . Sheena was a Irish rep and had been training for a world championships or some such thing and happened to live in the next village after Pallaskenry . Enda wasn't home when Sheena dropped me off so I jammed on my guiater until he made it home a hour or so later . We had a good chat about music,films,hitching and the Irish perception of those dirty cheating All Blacks ! . In his youth he would hitch everywhere around Ireland even into Europe and was a great source of information on how to go about it . We exchanged some Kiwi and Irish music in the morning then it was time for me to head out to Cork . Enda dropped me off in a great spot and I was picked up again within 2 minutes . Simon who had picked me up had spent the last 5 years in Afirca working with various aid agency's and the UN and had some interesting views the Aid agency's and their failings (there were some good points as well) on the ground . He is now working for community project where he was trying to create a unity between gay and lesibian groups in Ireland which he didn't sound very confidant about achieving in the immediate future . He dropped me off in the centre of Cork were I could walk to my hosts place which was across the river from the Grand Parade and the English Market . My host was from Bejing and with his work spends his time between Ireland and China . Walking in the door it was appeared that Hai Yan appreciated his Beer and had quite a collection of bottles and cans . He had just come home from work so we headed out to get some grub and then check out some of the local pubs and put the local brews Murrays and Beamish to the test (they passed). We then moved to the excellent Franciscan Well brew pub (try the Amber Ale) and spent the rest of the night before retired to Hai Yans house . The next day Hai Yan went to work and I went for a walk to the tourist information and found a few maps and walking tours for the city . I took my time walking around the English Market then started making my way through the city up the hill to Church of St Anne Shandon or known locally as the Four Faced  Liar . I worked my way back down town and met up with Hai Yin and we had a traditional Irish Burger King meal for dinner and we headed out to Oliver Plunket St where allot of the pubs are lined up ready to take your euros . This night the Irish Football team was playing Argentina which didn't really appeal to Hai Yin so we headed back to his house and try a local concoction that is half lager and half Guinness . I don't recall what is poured first but this is apparently important...... . The next morning I caught a bus to the outskirts of town and walked 20 minutes until I found a spot to put out a tatty Dublin :-) sign . That was the end of my time in Munster and the similarity's between it and NZ were obvious with the farms in the countryside and the rugby shirts in the city's . The natives in Cork are dismissive of Dublin in the same say that London and the rest of England are of each other which made the trip to Dublin something to look forward to