Ain't the craic grand in ol' Dublintown

Hello again! Welcome back to 'The Life'. I suppose that now a significant time has elapsed since my last post I should alert you all as to my whereabouts. I forget, you know, to do these things; travelblogs are so last year, and it's become so normal to move from city to city and country to country that it slips my mind - you understand.

Right now I'm in Dublin, maybe a city a little more familiar to you than Bristol - I only go on about it because of a nice boy who lives there - and to be honest, my first day in this 'Vibrant and Youthful' city (according to tmylonely planet) was in fact 'Gloomy and Miserable'. Imagine if they'd written that in the guidebook. To summarise:

1. The plane from Liverpool John Lennon Airport (truely!) to Dublin was grounded due to a collision with a (presumably giant mutant) bird, which had smashed the headlights and messed up the fuel tank....what the...? Clearly this type of mishap only occurs with Ryanair planes. So, we were late to arrive finally in Dublin.

2. Of course, I didn't have any accommodation for the first night, so after wandering aimlessly for about 1/2 hour with my 18kg portable house on my back, I made some calls to some Servas host families and managed to score a night with a single lady and her daughter - of course they lived an hour away on the bus, and then I wasn't offered any food so I cooked my own couscous (mmmmm..) and was immediately made to feel reather unwelcome in the house. Servas, by the way, allows me access to Host families who don't mind putting up a stray traveller every now and again. It's very handy.

3. Whilst waiting for the bus, I asked a friendly looking girl for change for a 1 euro - she thought I was asking for money, oh my god, so embarrassing - she forced her spare change on me (I DID explain myself) and then proceeded to take me under her wing - she gave me her phone no - we had coffee yesterday, she organised for her boyfriend to take me around to some art galleries today, she helped me plan my travel around ireland, and she arranged for me to stay at her mother's house in some small village on my way to galway - this girl is probably the most hospitable and selfless person I have met so far on my travels - a true lifesaver if I may say so. At least that was a good thing - I don't usually ask people for money on the street but it certainly paid off...haha...paid off, get it.....
yep.

4. I walked past a man lying on the sidewalk with blood everywhere, all bright red shiny blood on the road, on the footpath, everywhere, so much blood, and I couldn't see where it was coming from but it scared me, and then all of a sudden the police and ambulance were there, everyone rushing, and I was pushed on, but oh my goodness, I didn't realise that blood could be so red, and bright, like food colouring.

5. I saw The Drones, a band from melbourne, last night, and armed with my friend of the moment, a spanish writer living here with his wife and kids, met the band afterwards and had the most fantastic time, such amazing music and in such a small venue too, it was very special. Blah blah blah, I hear you say. Whatever.

6. To make a long story short, everything is grand (as they say) and despite my cold still dragging on and on, I'm packing my bags and heading to Kilkenny tomorrow - and then off to Galway around the south coast. Sweet!

Love to you all, love so much.

Soph, the little one.

Photos for you, kids

Alright, so I could have made life much easier for myself but instead I fussed around and took a few years to get a couple of photos up on the web for you. The giant half-photo below is a link to a bunch of pictures - click on something that resembles 'view as slideshow' when you arrive at your link destination extroadinaire. In other news, I'm sick, typical - after less than around 15 hours accumulated sleep from friday night to tuesday night - my body has just given up on me I think. So, I have a cold, stomach bug, etc etc. I love england. Anyway, staying at some fabulous family friend's place about a 1/2 hour from Bath and they've looked after me very well. We were going to go to Stonehenge today, to satiate my desperate tourist hunger for queues and big rocks, however, I spent most of it in bed reading and holding my stomach. You know, now I think about it, cleaning the toilets at the youth hostel was probably prime contributor in my being sick. Ugh.

Ok, well, enjoy the limited photos. It might be a while until I get more up so you can just put them on repeat for a few weeks if you like.

Lots of love
Soph

England Freakin Yeah!

Photobucket Album

bristoli baboli

isn't it funny how things all just work out? I was on the train to bath, worrying about where I was going to stay because there wasn't a single bed available in the whole city, and decided to keep going to Bristol, which I knew nothing about, and then one thing led to another and I now am staying for free (in exchange for a few hours cleaning) at an amazing new hostel, with amazing, being supplied with free internet and am now known as the cleaning girl, honorary staff, having quite a splindid time. Apparently I am the first person to stay and clean, so it's all a bit of a novelty - works for me. This place, by the way, is the hometown of Banksy, the graffiti artist, and Massive attack, and Portishead, and has the most fantastic live music scene. Right now there's a reggae band playing in the courtyard and the weather is amazing. It just makes me laugh to think about how everything just falls into place. I'm tempted to stay but I know that I could get stuck here. Next stop is likely to be lincoln, and then dublin, where I'll use my charm and good looks to find a job, earn heaps of dosh, find a sexy irish boy, and possibly drown in travelling bliss. Awesome.

must run, busy girl that I am....

love sophie

St Just

Oh my goodness.

I'm stuck in a tiny town called st just, in cornwall (the pasty place), with no money and no banks and an internet banking system that isn't working, haha, this is all hilarious for you I'm sure, but it's a little disconcerting for me. No banks. No money. I'm not going anywhere.

I'm staying with some long lost relatives (83 and 90 yrsold), we haven't actualyl established how we're related, but they're feeding me and have given me a bed all the same.

Time to go, and look at things.