Leaving Ireland

Thursday, 22th of September. I left Patti and Mark in the morning to cycle the 75 kilometres back to the ferry the same way I had come to some weeks before. Interesting to see how different my feelings were now, nothing left of seeing everything as new and amazing, everything was just usual, banal and a little boring – nevertheless nice. For the first time for weeks no clouds all the time, it became a really sunny day, and when there were clouds, it was far away from raining.

The crying came over me from time to time and culminated in the sentence: One's worthless if one's not working. I didn't know how deep my father's inferiority complexis working inside of me. I think I understand the mechanism, but I can't change my feelings, so it's still something to work on. For now I think it's just good to have some insight. Nevertheless it was just awareness, pure feeling. I didn't felt bad at all. Mainly I was still glad to come back home, and also full of faith, curious what will happen, how I will go on. And generally I'm really optimistic and think I'm on a good way.

Also at the ferry harbour it was really nice, the whole procedure was very relaxed – and then the ferry… The Oscar Wilde is not only a really big ship, but it's a real ship, that means as the most important fact for me one with a sun deck! For the first hour I milled around, looking for all the new things, seeing how things work… It was just amazing. As Melanie had told my I set up camp in my reserved seats room and put my sleeping mat and bag to the floor, as some others did, too. I felt so new, so refreshed – in this sense I'm pretty green, but it's great if you can be thrilled by a passage and all the things what are connected.

For the first time since I'm on tour my t-shirt with the free hugs print at both sides really worked! When I was walking around I heard some people talking about it, and when I met them later (something had fallen off my pocket down the stairs and one of them kept it and gave it back to me) I offered directly a hug, and he was glad – I think it was his first time – and made an “Oooh”-sound when being hugged. Later when I once again did my tour on the ferry an older man (he's 65 I had learned) asked me: “Is this true?”, referring to my shirt, so we had a really warm long hug, and I also hugged his wife, sitting next to him, who said while hugging: “Oh, I miss my daughter so bad!” Then they invited me for a glass of wine (and more glasses later…), and we spent the whole night together. Barbara had been a nun when she was very young, following the will of her parents when she was sixteen, but two years later she felt in love with a priest, so she quit, but the priest didn't. Later when meeting her husband Michael she became mother of four children. They invited me to come to their home in Cork and also to sleep in their cabin – so nice, so friendly and also a little bit drunk… During our conversation once a man came to me from the back and while saying: “I can't resist…!” he hugged me from the back, and than I answered his hug from the front, too. I also had a funny little moment, when I had eye contact with a retired man who obviously had read my shirt, so I gave him a smile and he answered very polite: “No, I don't want to…”

Bud, Jimmy and Asterix

Friday, 9th of September. Someone had told me it would be worth it to visit the Aran Islands, so Carl called the ferry people in the morning if they would go to the islands and yes, they would go to Inisheer, the smallest and closest of the three islands. So I cycled the two kilometres up to the landing place and there I had to learn I better should have booked, they were full – but there was a little chance they could take me with them if I wait and maybe some people didn't come… In the end they picked me up, and I don't think they counted all the people.

I saw my first wild living dolphin! And how big he was! And all the people shouted "Aaah…!" and "Oooh…!". He seemed to be very used to the ferry traffic and swam around the ferry all the time when we were still close to the sea – they must have trained him somehow… The crossing was interesting. I was surprised the ship didn't tilt off, so much waves such wild sea– usually people go to amusements parks to feel like this. Once again I met nice people and hat nice chit-chat. One of them called me accidentally a tourist so I made sure that there's a difference between me and a tourist, although I was doing touristic stuff at the moment. Before entering the boat I had some silly experience, when a group of real tourists came to the ferry place, driven to this place in a small so called Safari bus, and when exiting one man shouted: "Adventure!" Adventure? Excuse me? What an adventure? Maybe an interesting nice trip, but what on earth is his definition of an adventure? In this sense I can be really arrogant to other people…

Inisheer is really small. I did the one half of this island in a horse cart. It was fun to experience the coachman. When I asked him what he offers he explained he would drive me around the island and explain everything, but what he does wasn't much about history or other typical sight seeing stuff, he just named everything we passed through – here's the school, this is a lovely playground, here I used to do fishing when I was a fisherman… But he was really lovely. He was constantly talking to his horse, called Bud, what is short for Budweiser, and he sang and hummed along traditional Irish songs all the time and also when he was talking it had a melody.

The other half of the island I did by foot. All this island is about stone walls, and these are maybe the main reason why to come to this place. But it's also somehow curious… The islands' geology is mainly karst limestone. So the Aran Islands are one of the finest examples of a Glacio-Karst landscape in the world. The other interesting thing is the wreckage of the MV Plassy, which was shipwrecked off Inisheer in the 1960s, but the islanders rescued the entire crew of eleven from the stricken vessel using a breeches buoy. Nevertheless all in all to come to this island wasn't better than most other places I had seen, but it was nice.

When crossing back I was so extremely tired and exhausted. This was very weird, because all this cycling all the time don't effect me, but walking for one or two hours… Maybe it was also the weather, the air, the crossing. On our way back I dozed. But I still wanted to go on cycling this day. It was 4:30 P.M. when I was back on my bike, and the weather had become really good! Bright sunshine, although somewhat sticky. But as I once again had no host for this night I could just cycle as long as I felt like it. And it was just great cycling, refreshing and new. After the first ten kilometres I met another cyclist, who stopped me and we talked from the first moment as we always had know each other. Jimmy is doing skateboarding for a living and when he wants to relax he does long distance cycling tours. I met him on his first day of touring, it was just a pity he cycled withershins. Jimmy is such a cute guy, I thought for a moment to take him with me for kissing and touching… We talked quite a while and hugged each other for goodbye. I would love to hear from him again.

Close to Derreen the R 477 was barred to traffic, a policeman made sure that no car passes, because in this area there is the film shooting of the new Asterix movie, but if you are a cyclist they let you pass. I don't like the life action adaptations of the Asterix comic books, but crossing the scenery was just great. First I passed the area were the staff is located, lots of signs guide to the catering, the place for the extras and so on, then lots of actors in their costumes passed me (one Norman acted like a Norman to me and shouted a very wild roar while looking very angry) and then I came to the shooting place, where I had to stop and be quiet, but had also some nice talk with some Romans and another French guy. And all were extremely friendly and invited me to stay, so I did for a while.

 

Finally Ireland…!

Thursday, 25th of August. This ferry from Fishguard Harbour railway station up to Rosslare Harbour was right how a ferry should be. Quite small (compared to my other ferry experience downright tiny). Many travelling pedestrians. The car deck looked much more like a small parking garage with nooks and crannies, not available for trucks (this Stena ferry goes three times a day up to Ireland, I took the express line, I suppose the slower lines are for trucks, too, as I saw some trucks waiting in the harbour yesterday). It's so much better than the last ferry! The ferry's windows are made to afford a good outlook, you are really on a boat, not within one of these synthetic autonomous universes on its own. Most space is used to offer different areas to sit and chat. And… you are able to go outside!

It was an extreme and intense up and down on this ferry, although the staff said it's quite normal. Nevertheless all of us passengers had very funny walks and you could hear some laughs about this and the rocking ship at all – maybe this amusement was also caused by lots of alcohol… – "[Pirates] drink lots of rum and after that they stagger and when the ship is rocking as well it evens out…". Other people appeared to be sea sick, sometimes I wasn't so sure about me, too, but I did it well already.

I really like this ferry company which seems to care a lot about their passengers and they cared perfectly about the bikes, too (there was one more bicyclist at the ferry who started in London and will now cycle through Ireland for two weeks), it just felt like great service.

Even the crossing was cheaper as I had thought from looking at the internet – quite the contrary to the other company DFDS Seaways, who charged my nearly double price. They reasoned this because of no online booking. (Okay, by total numbers it's not such a big difference: 39€ instead of 21.50€ for me and my bike to do the 63 kilometres from Dunkerque up to Dover in two hours, and 34€ – or 28£ – instead of 38€ for the 106 kilometres from Fishguard up to Rosslare, also in two hours.) I bought a nice traveller's map in the ferry's shop about Ireland which had a fair price (and so I was able to get rid of my last English money). This meant I didn't had to think about this anymore and was able to know how to navigate from the first moment in Ireland.

When we reached the harbour I first thought: oh, we already arrived (it was such a quick crossing), not till then I thought: Now I am in Ireland! I had a stop at the harbour to correct my luggage, when a guy come up to me, asking about my tour, and then he offered me a bed for the night in Curraglass because he did much hitch hiking in the past and was familiar with the needs a traveller has. I already have a host in this area so I had no usage, but I had a nice talk with Matt and his girlfriend Kylie who I met, too, and I invited them to join my blog and to stay with Klaus and me in Bamberg if they ever come to Germany again. I would be glad to hear about them again. Thanks for the great welcome in Ireland!

Even the way how Ireland received me was so much nicer in comparison to England who even didn't received me. But in Ireland there wasn't this heavy traffic at the harbour, instead of that there were likeable signs who remembered anyone about the left-hand driving in three languages (English, French and German). From the first moment I was so enthusiastic and thrilled about being in Ireland. I cycled the 75 kilometres up to my this day's host Mark and his wife Patti within four hours, just flew through this great landscape and felt happy. Small roads with nearly no traffic – my main image of Ireland is about freedom. I'm so glad to be here.

PS:
When I had to pee I used a place behind some bushes – and was amazed when I revolved to see this herd of young cows who were so curious about me that they all had come to the gate. I love cows for being so interested and observant. When I started cycling again, they followed me doing gallop as long as possible. Cows like to play and are anything but dull.

From France up to England

Friday, 12th of August. Slept quite long, spent some time in the internet and had a nice chat with Elise, so it was 12:30 when I left Elise's and Julien's place. 20 kilometres left up to the ferry harbour, cycled the road Julien had shown me yesterday on Google streetview. Great cycling among the dyke – proper dike, but also arduous (called Dig du Breack). No tourists, only some fishermen. Arrived harbour at 2 P.M. after 775 kilometres since I started in Bamberg, that's the time the ferry goes – damn, but then I learned that checking in needs lots of time anyway. While waiting to enter the ferry I saw some people playing boules.

It's unbelievable how many cars and trucks fit into this ferry! And I was the only cyclist (so I was prominent – many people called out to me, if they identified me, the amazing cyclist). As I had a look at the interiour I felt immediately like being inside Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. People of all ages and sizes (that means height and width), myriad restaurants, casinos and gambling machines for all ages… all offering dissipation and entertainment by spending ones money. Furthermore public address announcement every few minutes, either friendly and impersonal like a hitchhiker's door or so extremely enthusiastic and British. Normal and strange at the same time. Kind of surrealistic. As you can see, I'm not really used to such settings. In my conception you are able to go outside onto deck of the ship.

I had a nice chat with an English lady – thank you for spending some time with me! She told me useful details about England (time zone – the ferry company fooled me as it wrote departure: 4 P.M., arrival: 5 P.M. pretending that the passage would only last one hour…, Great Britain road types and some more). England exerts itself for appearing likeable. When we came within eyeshot, we had a bright side to White Cliffs of Dover.

When I arrived in Dover first I had problems by following the bicycle guiding line at the harbour, then suddenly I realized that it's left-hand traffic in this land which made me totally confused. It went even worse, when I tried to find my route within all this traffic in town, my stomach felt very weird, just knowing I was doing wrong with being on the left. It took me some time to discover how this left hand cycling works, at first I didn't had a behaviour pattern about how to turn to one's right without ending at the right side. It really frightened me and I was close to cry, as I had to act in a way, I knew it is wrong – not even wrong but also extremely dangerous. In my normal life context. It also felt very strange, like being in a mirrored world (and in this way only two-dimensional), which wasn't the – so called – real one, so anything else could appear as maybe being not quite real, too. A weird feeling about when everything is losing its matter and structure and coherence.

Leaving Dover I had a very exhausting cycling upon the hill leading to Dover Castle. Please follow the (not so exhausting) route up to Dover Castle on Google streetmap, by following A254 (maybe you first have to revolve and look in the converse direction) respectively Castle Hill Road and Constable's Road… – What do these cycle path signs mean? Why do they always start and end?

View Larger Map
When you reach the point where Connaught Road goes to the left, have a look to the left and enjoy this great outlook all over Dover! Believe me, it was really high angle. When I tried to cross road and cycle upper road to the right, it once – and only this time! – happened to me, that I ended up at the right side, and while realizing, some fast cars were coming towards me (notice the windy road), it was quite shocking, but not that bad as this constantly feeling of doing or being wrong, to act against the best of my knowledge. I am pretty sure this wasn't about missing faculty of abstraction but about can't trust myself, my knowing, my feelings, my body signs. Shortly after I was able to cool down and inure to this usage.

I like England and the English East coast. I like this old fashioned house building style. It was somehow hilly but easy to cycle, and – big surprise – there was no wind at all. Sometimes I cycled the coast. I cycled through Deal (which is located at the coast), Sandwich (Sandwich ist absolutely great, absolutely worth to come back!) and Ramesgade up to Margate. Great landscape and a beautiful sundown… – They must have another sun as we have at the continent, so bright, it just moved me away.

One of my bike's back end wheel spokes did break, I'm not really sure what to do about. Repairing would probably cost so much, it would be easier to buy a new rim, but in that case I could also wait till the defect enlarges oneself and shows some impact, what it isn't doing right now.

I arrived at today's couchsurfing host Allan's place after sundown (I had cycled around 45 kilometres from Dover), and he offered me a bubble bath – what a great pleasure! I felt extremely good at Allan's place and actually also before. I desired to stay any longer. When talking about, Allan and I agreed, that we would like to spend some more time together.

We spend the evening, or let's better say, the night with tasting much alcohol from all over the world countries, each bottle with its own history. Meaningful experiences about Allan's life. Each sample was accompanied by a song I played on my (right now five string) guitar, which was anyhow connected to the country, some ingredients or any other connection I was able to make (sometimes just a one word connection). I sang and translated Griechischer Wein from popular Austrian singer Udo Jürgens as we tasted Greek wine, I sang Hörst du die Regenwürmer husten? as we tasted original Tequila with worm… It was a remarkable night, magical atmosphere. It was close to 2 A.M when we went to bed, to me that meant I went to my Greek styled room with fine outlook at the coast.