El Primero Mensaje de España

Damn, I’ve been busy! With classes, studying, hooking up the WWOOF stuff, and exploring, it’s taken me four days to write this… anyway, here you go, the first Spain post:

Well I made it to Spain! The weather is incredible now—28C (82F) and sunny with a slight sea breeze; perfect barely describes it. However, I deserve it, the beginning of the week was horrible—15C and raining; actually, pouring. Not to rub it in or anything, but I’m going to go to the beach now…be back later to finish this.

Ok, I’m back…hoooly crap the beach is gorgeous :o) Pictures below…

The trip over here was interesting for sure—probably one of the more epic rides I’ve done in a very long time.

After a big rush to get out of the house in the morning (as usual, I left everything until the last minute!), I had a smooth journey to Faro. I was expecting rain, but when I got there, it was 20’s and sunny—perfect. Built my bike out in front of the airport, and took off for the city. The hostel was nice—big, quiet, and cheap. Slept well, but woke up in the morning to downpour! However, it stopped before the end of breakfast, so I decided to ride instead of waiting for a train. I rode seven rain free kilometers to the next town (Olhão), but as soon as I passed though it, the rain hit again—hard. Not wanting to go backwards, I decided to ride the 23km to Tavira in the rain, then take the train from there. 2kms more and I could barely see the road in front of me, but I made it to Tavira, just missing the train! I waited a cold 2hrs for the next one, which took me to the Portuguese border town of Vila Real de Santo António, then took a boat across the river to Ayamonte, Spain. It was still cold and rainy in Ayamonte, but the town was beautiful enough to make up for it. I took a short cruise around the town, and then headed to the bus station…only to find I had missed the bus by mere seconds! Not wanting to re-enact my cold stay in Tavira, I took off down the road on my bike. The 55kms to Huelva were uneventful and for the most part very pretty…but also wet as well. I did make it to Huelva before dark, and after riding around in circles for hours (literally!) looking for the hostel, I found it and plopped my sore butt down in my bed for a well-deserved (if I do say so myself) night of rest.

Day two was pissing rain almost as hard as the first, so I camped out
in the hostel for as long as I could, checked out the city a bit, then made it over to the place I had arranged with Jeronimo (my Spanish teacher) and Carlos (whose house I’m staying in). Went to bed after a quick drink and dinner with them.

Class started at 8:00 the next morning, and went really, really well. I’m taking private lessons (I was offered a reduced rate as it is the low season) and it is such a luxury, let me tell you. We learned "classroom" stuff first, then went for coffee and toast talked in spanish while we ate, then went back to the classroom.

So it’s been already been great experience, and my spanish is ever so slowly improving. Jeronimo is also a great resource for information about Spain as he has been all over. Carlos is just about as fanatical about cycling as I am and knows a lot about spain as well. He’s also been a really great resource, showing me a cool bike path (see below) to the beach, and has offered to help me route planning!

Well that’s the scoop for now…I’ll try to be a bit more regular with my updates (I know, I always say that) now that I have internet, so stay tuned…

And now for pictures...

The view flying into Portugal. Worth the price of admission.

Assembling my bike at the airport—I attracted one or two stares…

My bike loaded and ready. The rack has proven to be *really* problematic for touring, it was only meant for commuting I think…think I’ll end up having to buy another one, ugh. Anyone wants a rack let me know (actually seriously, it’d be fine (even great) for around town, if you want it, leave a comment and I’ll get back to ya.)

Looking down into Huelva—the big stadium in the foreground is the Plaza de Torros (bullring).

I keep coming across cool street performers, this group was really good.

These guys were great as well.

Cool street in the city center.

The path to the beach!

The beach! It was oh my god beautiful…and it was so nice to soak up some sun. It’s been a while! Even my bike looked content…

A little restaurante on the beach. Anyone want a cold one in the sun? A tapa perhaps?

The beach went on forever…

End of Chapter One

Wrote this on the bus to the airport. It's a couple days late, but what can you do… Spain post coming soon!

Well, I did it. Six months in Edinburgh—shit, I’m leaving Scotland! I’ll have to get over my horrible habit of saying cheers after every sentence, and now it won’t be completely normal to have “mates” or say “aye” or any of the other wee little words I managed to pick up. It’s flown by—I’m on the bus watching Edinburgh disolve away as I’m writing this, and I can’t believe that it’s been that long. There have been good times, bad times, and everything in between. Can’t tell ya how much I learned about people, life, and about what I want and don’t want from it. I’ve made friends that (I hope) I’ll have for the rest of my life. It’s been good… but all good things come to an end; I’m off to Spain now, bike in tow. I’m really excited now that I’m on the bus, I’ll have nothing to do but ride my bike for 3 months. I’m a lucky guy. Right, that’s all for now… next post will be from Spain!!!

Spain Training 101

Well Colleen’s gone now. It was good times…really fun to show her what I’ve been up to over here, have her meet my friends, Ireland—despite travel troubles—was really really fun, and we both learned good lessons about traveling.

Now I need to focus all my efforts on Spain. I still have to figure out how I’m going to carry all my stuff around, still need to put a deposit down on the language course, still need to plan my route from Faro to Huelva, still need to book hostels, send emails, pack up my room… the list goes on. And what have I done, you ask? Nada. I’ve sent a couple emails, looked at panniers, checked the results (and read the race report) from my favorite race, Paris Roubaix. I’ll get around to it though, not ta worry.

I did, however, get out on what will probably be my one and only training ride yesterday. I took off from my flat, and after being pulled over by the police for running my first (and now only) UK red light, I cranked south of town to the Pentland hills. I wound my way through farms and valleys, then hit the dirt and climbed, scrambled, decended, and generally navigated my way east until I popped out onto the road again, just a half mile from a cool organic farm. Stopped and had a great lunch, then painfully pedaled my sore self home. Five hours later, and I was sitting on my couch tired and sore, but with the biggest smile on my face. Going out for a hard five-hour ride probably wasn’t the best thing to do training-wise, but it was good to prove to myself that I still know how to pull through a hard ride, and now I have no worries about being able to at least do the riding portion of this trip.

Back to work today for the first time in over a week. It’s a bit rough getting into the grind again, but it’s great knowing that I’m only there for another few days. It’s so weird; it really hasn’t sunk in that I am going to be leaving here for good. Really crazy. I’ll keep y’all posted on further developments, for now it’s back to work for me!

Colleen's Last Day

Well we made it home to Edinburgh, but it still seemed that everything was trying to keep us from getting home…the plane was delayed an hour, the train cancelled. Unbelieveable.

Today was Colleen’s last day so we tried to make the most of it. We spent the morning (and a fair bit of the afternoon) in a clothing store called Joey D’s, with Colleen trying on just about everything in the store. We made it out with only having to pay a kinda large bill. After, we cruised up to Calton Hill, then down to the Royal Botanical Gardens. It was pretty cool—really peaceful walking through the little paths and walkways. Unfortunately, we were a too late to visit the main attraction of the garden—a huge glass house separated into 10 climate zones, housing thousands of plants. Oh well…next time.

Finally, after one last travel snafu (I incorrectly thought the busses left on the half hour, so because it was 3:30am we had to wait 45 minutes until the next one), Colleen was off…I shed a silent tear on the walk home…then slept till 5pm the next day!

Ireland Reloaded

We woke up early the next morning and caught a taxi to the airport. On the way we chatted a bit to the driver, telling him about our trip, comparing Ireland to the US and Scotland. He’d done some traveling himself, and told us that he still thought Ireland was one of the best places to be… He told us we should have stayed longer, and when he dropped us off he told us to come back soon. What we didn’t know was how foretelling his simple parting words would be.

We had no problem locating the checkout counter, but after waiting in line for a half hour, we were told we weren’t on the boarding list. Wait, huh? What do you mean? The exchange went something like this:
“Your name is not on my boarding list”
“Ok, so how do I get on the list?”
“You get a ticket”
“I have a ticket”
“Well it’s not for this plane”
“Well, shit”
After a brief check of my conformation email, we discovered that there had not been a mistake on the list, but instead the mistake was ours—we were at the airport a day early. We stormed out of the departure terminal, leaving a trail of chaos and destruction in our anger. After we calmed down, we assessed our situation—it really could be worse. Yeah we were tired, hungry, and were all prepared to get home, but this was Dublin! We caught a bus into town, and after a quick stop at tourist information we hit the streets, tourist map in hand.

Dublin is a crazy city. I don’t really need to say more, that’s all there is to it. It’s such a contrast to the Ireland that we saw; it felt like we were in a different world. It was like the Ireland that Ireland thinks the world wants to see. (Yes, that sentence makes sense, just read it again.) Everything was either painstakingly preserved, or newly renovated (or at least in the process of renovation). I’m not saying that is a bad thing, but it just felt a bit superficial—especially after seeing how cool the down-to-earth, small town Ireland was. There are so many signs pointing to attractions, we felt like we were in a giant tourist attraction. The prices reflected that feeling too—everything was even more expensive than the Edinburgh prices I had (painfully) grown accustomed to. We did make the most of it though. Fighting sleep and hunger, we walked all around the downtown area, lined up to take pictures with the rest of the tourists, and toured the Guinness factory. The Guinness factory was actually one of the high points of the trip (to Dublin, that is)—we were pleasantly surprised to find that besides the shameless promotion of Guinness, there was a pretty cool exhibit about beer making…a perfect way to waste an afternoon. We stayed until they kicked us out.

After that, we wondered around a bit more, trying to decide if we should book into a hostel or camp out at the airport. Our desire to sleep won out, and we took the hostel. However, once we got to our room guilt took over—here we were, Friday night in Dublin. Yeah we were tired, but what the hell…you only live once. We hit the streets once again, this time in search of a good Irish session. We searched and searched, but couldn’t find a decent one. Finally, the last pub we went to had a great band playing and we hung out for the rest of the night…good times, and another highlight of the trip.

We finally curled up in our hostel for a short night of sleep after a very long day…happy to be going home to comfy beds tomorrow.

So...Where the hell are we? (and what are we doing here?)

Random Street just outside of Dublin's fantastically tourisy Temple Bar district.

Forget what this cathedral is called...St. Patrick's I think. Pretty though.

We did actually stand in line to take this picture...it was so worth it, don't you think?

Can't be in Dublin without seeing the Molly Malone statue!

The session we went to...good times!

Last Day

Well it’s our last day in Ireland, feels like we just got here, guess that’s cause we just did. I know I already said it, but book Ryan Air flights early!!! My whole body has bruises and lacerations from kickin’ myself for not doing so.

We did however, make the most of it. Getting up early, John drove us north to the Mitchelstown Caves. It was 12km off the highway down a road that can best be described as a paved path. The ticket counter was the front door of a farmhouse, and the attendant was the old woman who lives there. It is one of the largest limestone caves in Europe, and is completely privately owned and operated. It was huge inside, with gigantic stalactites and stalagmites. It was discovered in 1833 by a guy who was mining limestone, and dropped a crowbar down a hole. He widened it, and found the cave. He was the first person (actually, probably the first living thing bigger than an insect) ever down in this cave. It was truly incredible. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures, but you can go here to see it.

After the tour, we made a quick stop back in Mallow to eat (another fantastic, homemade) lunch, and collect our bags. We raced down to Cork, where we met yet another relative, Mary. She was fantastic, but we only had time for a short visit. At last we had to say goodbye and boarded our bus to Dublin; an uneventful 4hours later we arrived at the Dublin airport, but instead of having to sleep there, we gave a call to Elaine (yet another hospitable cousin!) who came and picked us up, and took us back to her flat where we very gratefully crashed for the night.
The path to the caves...if it wasn't for the sign at the entrance, I don't think anyone would find the cave.

The view from the mouth of the cave...beautiful. I love that there is a telescope there as well...as if that scene needs to be magnified to make it more beautiful.

The only picture we were allowed to take of the cave--I was all over it.

Downtown Cork...the Irish love their Guinness, that and Guinness spends loads of money on advertising.

Return to the homeland…

It was really a weird feeling being in Ireland. On one hand, it was this new country that we had never been to, knew almost nothing about, and had no connection to other than a few phone numbers for “hook ups”. On the other hand, however, it just felt right. We were shown places where our greatgreat, greatgreatgreat, and greatgreatgreatgreat grandparents lived and raised the families that are truly our ancestors. We always knew that we had Irish relatives, but it always just seemed like something our grandmother told us to make us feel like we had some sort of heritage. It was this feeling of, “wow, so this is where it all began…”

Day two dawned as beautiful as day one and after a lazy morning, we dug a couple bikes out of the garage, pumped up the tires, and took off to explore the countryside. We had a lovely ride, just cruising along in the sun, soaking up as much scenery as rays. We got a little lost, but were put back on track by a friendly local who, in quintessential Irish manner, nonchalantly mentioned that there were some ancient ruins close by, even telling us what backroads to take to avoid a dangerous stretch of highway. The ruins turned out to be a 13th century priory that was spectacular. The crazy thing was it was just sitting in the middle of someone’s field, no parking lot, no swarms of tourists. ‘Suppose that was thing I liked most about Ireland—it’s so understated, and completely without trying to be so. They are currently one of the most economically successful countries in the European Union, have some of the world’s most spectacular ancient architecture, geological formations, and just plain ol’ fashioned good views, not to mention fantastic culture…and they acknowledge it all with a simple nod and a soft smile- before pointing the way to the next incredible place.

We eventually headed home, and after another fabulous home-cooked irish meal, we headed out for a whirlwind of visits to second and third cousins. Most of the time I wasn’t quite able to figure out how we were related to them, but they were all incredibly nice, very inviting, and unfailingly entertaining. On our last stop we mentioned that our travel plans for tomorrow included sleeping in the Dublin airport. They immediately mentioned that they had a daughter living in Dublin, just a few minutes from the airport. Just seconds later they were on the phone with her, and a minute after that we were told she would pick us up at our bus stop at the airport. Will make our trip easier for sure…

The day finished back in John and Margaret’s living room—we stayed up until 1am just talking, with John entertaining us with stories of farming before powered machinery--a completely different Ireland than we saw. We went to bed for another solid night of sleep.

More pictures! Again, you'll have to wait for summaries...I'm too lazy to do then right now. As always, they're nice and big, just click to enlarge...

Ireland 2006

Since I didn’t get wireless in Ireland, you’re going to have to have to settle for the re-runs of the trip…I’ll give you three segments in three days, so I won’t spoil the element of surprise…it’ll just be here a couple days after it happened. You’ll get more pictures that way as well, just so you don’t feel cheated. Pictures are good. So is Ireland. Ireland pictures are better. Right. I’ll stop now…

Only hours into our trip, and it’s been an adventure already…it’s just been one thing after another.
I was copying down our flight information last night and noticed that we had two flights really close to each other, I forgot that we were booking separate flights and not connecting ones, and forgot that the ticket counters don’t stay open until the plane leaves…
Our 3:30am shuttle to the airport turned out to be £5 more than expected, leaving us scrounging in our pockets for enough spare change to make it up…we almost made it, only 62pence short, and our nice driver told us to forget about it. The bus ride was uneventful, and we had the whole bus to ourselves for the first part. Upon getting to the airport, however, we were in such a rush to get off the bus that Colleen forgot her violin…after a frantic moment of running after the bus, she retrieved it, but just the thought of loosing it made us both sick. Once we got to the ticket counter, I asked the agent about switching our flight, but found it wasn’t possible…our only option was to take a €180 flight. Needless to say, we passed up on the offer, and will now be traveling to Dublin in the middle of the night via a 6hr bus ride from Mallow. Oh well… the saga continued, however, when I went to find my wallet and discovered that it, too, had been left on the bus. I got on the phone and an airport agent was able to get in contact with the driver, who by some miracle was able to bring it back to the airport! Unbelievable…

Miraculously, the rest of the trip went smoothly, though we were unable to sleep more than a few hours during the travel. Thus we arrived in Cork (pronounced Cark)—8hrs of traveling, only 1.5 of which was actual flying (lesson learned—book your Ryan Air flights early). Our wonderful hosts John and Margaret picked us up at the airport, and whisked us away on a cross-country (ok, cross-county) trip, showing us everything thing from quaint villages (with commentary about this or that ancestor), tourist towns, spectacular mountains, lakes, waterfalls, castles, and ruins; all concluding with a trip to (our great great uncle) Dennis Murphy's favorite pub, called Dan O'Connell's. It surpasses words in terms of character and history, and you just get this overwhelming feeling that something truely great and magical happens here every weekend. The owner of the pub had played with Dennis and other great fiddlers, and told us stories of sessions then and now...a really interesting guy. Fighting drooping eyelids the whole way home, we went to bed (in our own rooms!), sleeping better than I have in a very, very, long time.

Here's pics, I'll update with summaries later...

Spain Planning...

Taking a break from Scotland for a sec, I thought I'd update y'all on my my plans for spain this summer...
They've been (slowly) developing, but it looks like I will fly into Faro, Portugal around April 21, spend a day getting my bike built, equipment together, etc, then take off the following day for Huelva, Spain, which is 127km to the east. If I can, I might try to take 2 days to do it, and sleep outside somewhere for the first night. I'm going to try to get a hold of some backcountry/ trails maps so I'm not stuck on the highways and main roads the whole time. After I get to Huelva, I'm going to attend a language school for two weeks to try to get my Spanish up to an at least acceptable level. I've been living with two native Spanish speakers for 5 months and never took them up on their offer to learn Spanish... I'm kicking myself already, and I'm sure it won't be the last time! After Huelva, I'm going to work my way along the coast--hopefully first south around Cadiz, then Tarifa, then start moving up the coast. The route is dependent on where the farms are so we'll see where I actually end up going. It's a bit wierd for me to do this much planning, I'm usually more of a go with the flow traveler, but being on my bike and staying with hosts changes things a bit.

I've been really digging into the WOOF listings...some of the farms sound like paradise, and I can't believe I could be going to some of them...check it out for yourself...

I've also been having quite a time getting all my equiptment together--everything I need for my trip is at home, so my mom has been having to get it all together for me, going off of descriptions like "pedals, not the old rusty ones, the new ones, might be on the work bench or in a small zip lock bag...can you fit an 8mm allen in the back?" But thanks to the help of the crew at Kulshan Cycles, we managed to get it all (mostly) sorted, and I'm now almost completely ready to go. I'm hoping to just tow a small trailer that will hopefully weigh in around 30lbs loaded. We'll see if that actually happens though.

I'll keep ya posted as I know more, but for now here's the tentative route plan for your viewing pleasure (click to enlarge)...