Backpashing Europe

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen....so the song goes, and so it is....very lovely indeed.

Having been unable to find cheap flights to celebrate Xmas in Copenhagen last year, I felt rather obliged to make the most of my 5 day Easter break, so jumped on board a flight to Denmark.... with a few minor hiccups along the way: 1) getting stuck in horrendous Dublin traffic (a national disgrace!) and missing my flight! and 2) being put on stand-by for the flight the following morning and after gleefully accepting an upgrade to business class ("Yes I suppose that would be adequate") and boarding my flight, being informed that "Due to an excess of fog across much of Scandinavia, Copenhagen airport is presently closed, so we will have to sit here and wait for advice from air traffic control in Copenhagen before we are able to take off". Thankfully after a couple of hours, it lifted, and I arrived in Denmark.

Copenhagen is home to approximately 1.7 million people, including the Danish Royal Family, and in 2004 was placed at #5 on a list of the world's most livable cities, along with Sydney! Its charming, centuries old palaces and parks are juxtaposed by its stylish, yet ergonomically designed buildings and a space-age driverless metro. It's akin in many ways to Amsterdam with its gable-house lined canals, cycle-obsessed citizens, and scrumptious pastries - thankfully though, not a mob of Pommie stags to be seen (no offence to ye Pommie lads!). On the other hand, it had that Singaporean police-state aspect to it - it did seem a bit naughty to be seen to be jaywalking, and I would absolutely expect to see someone arrested should they dare spit on the pavement (NOT a bad idea!!)

I started my exploration of Copenhagen at the Radhuspladsen, the city square that is home to the monstrous red-brick Radhus (City Hall), flocks of manky pigeons and a proliferation of "polse" (hot-dog) eating people. The Danes seem to be even more obsessed with munching on hot dogs than the Norwegians and have all sorts of variations on the boring old mutilated mixed animal melange on a bun. If you fancy a hot dog with mustard, then so be it, but if you are more adventurous, you can also have a jalapeno pepper, Danish blue cheese and ketchup combo, or a Crown Prince Frederik Polse (don't ask), or even a Crown Princess Mary - complete with Vegemite!

From the Radhuspladsen I said G'day to Hans Christian Andersen, whose statue sits to the side of the square. Some 200 years after his birth, "Ho-See" remains a enormously popular national icon, and the whole city had gone a tad "Ho-See" mad in preparation for his 200th birthday with shops across the city selling out of his books faster than your local Spar (like a 7-11) can sell a batch of Cheese and Onion flavoured Taytos (for the uninitiated, a truly Irish obsession). Bidding Ho-See farewell, I made for the Danish Design Centre where I devoured my first fair dinkum "wienerbrod" before sampling some of the interactive art on show - a room full of funky, yet functionally designed chairs - when I got bored of sitting on the Pastil chair (a body-contoured chair which you can lounge about on in your swimming pool), I sat for a while on a Tipi chair (rather like sitting on an oversized featherless chicken), before moving onto the Tomato chair (a seat wedged between three tomato like spheres, and finally the Bubble chair - a large fibreglass bubble that floats from the ceiling!!

Anyway, back to the Wienerbrod I was munching on....what is so famously known the world over as the delectable Danish (in all its wonderful varieties), is referred to in Denmark as "Wienerbrod" (i.e. Vienna bread). Why? Well apparently, sometime in the 18th Century, a Danish pastry chef upped and moved to Vienna, where, in between copious coffee outings, and hanging with the Seccessionists, had time to perfect the "Danish" recipe. Ever since, the Danes have referred to the pastry as "wienerbrod". Incidentally, the Austrians still refer to them as "Danishes". Either way - very "Miam-my"!

With the afternoon sun finally rearing its puny little head, I skirted the periphery of the Tivoli amusement park (heavily padlocked for the winter), before roaming up to the quaint Nyhavn ("New harbour") canal, the former merchants' quarter of Copenhagen, and finishing the afternoon on a canal boat tour around the rapidly gentrifying dockland areas, where I got my first glimpse of Amalienborg Palace, the brand-spanking new Opera House, and the backside of the tiny "Little Mermaid" statue....

The following day I headed to the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek, a museum housing an interesting collection of Greek, Etruscan and Egyptian art, before heading up the Rundetarn, a 15th Century round tower, ducking my head into Vor Frue Kirke (where Crown Prince Frederik and Mary got hitched) and ambling down Stroget, a kilometre-long pedestrian shopping strip, replete with high-street fashion stores, eateries and souvenir shops selling Amber, trolls and postcards of the Danish Posh and Becks - aka Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary.

So what's the story with the newlyweds then?? Well, apparently the "commoner" Mary Donaldson, a Tasmanian real estate agent, was hanging out in a Sydney bar during the Olympics, and decided she might try her luck with the dashing young man at the bar - this is where dear Frederik comes in. Of course, not really knowing much about Danish Royals, "Our Mary", didn't have a clue that "Our Frederik" was Denmark's most eligible bachelor at the time. Fast-track to 2005, and she's married to the fella and one of Denmark's most talked about women. A quick scan of the magazine racks in Copenhagen's Central station highlighted just how popular this woman has become.....from the headline screaming out the word's "Skandal" and "Schok" in "Mary's familien" to the pictures of her holding a baby (presumable evidence of her desire for motherhood), it is clear she is quite the Danish Superstar - right up there with Hans Christian Anderson and Aqua ("Barbie Girl").

With a few hours left to kill, I decided to pop over to Sweden for the afternoon - as you do After a quick ride on the train across the 7.8km Oresund bridge, I arrived in Malmo, where I spent a few hours exploring the Gamla Staden (old town) and the city parks which surround Malmo's little castle.

The next morning I headed to Slotsholmen, the present day site of the Danish government, and site of the former Royal Palace, Christiansborg. Feeling uninspired to pay more money to see another load of overly ostentatious reception chambers, I instead went for a walk through the charming Rosenborg Slot (Palace) gardens, and wound my way down to Amalienborg Palace, for the Changing of the Guards before continuing on to get a close-up look at the extremely poxy Little Mermaid Statue, and the hoardes of people clambering it over for that special Kodak moment.

In the afternoon I wandered across to Christianshavn to visit "The Free State of Christiania". Christiania was set up in the 70s as a "semi-utopian" community, which was self-governing, environmentally friendly, and free of the capitalist constraints of the then government. Even today, it remains tax-free and rent-free for its residents, and is a nice change from the fast pace of the rest of Copenhagen. After passing through the gate to "The Free State", the colour and liveliness of the place became apparent....unfortunately, so did the size of the mangy dogs (the mangiest I've seen since visiting Cambodia!), so I promptly departed through the gate, which warned me that "(I was) now entering the European Union" - truly scary stuff hey?

On my final morning in Copenhagen I visited the National Museum, to brush up on my Danish history (yeah, it's still pretty shoddy), before lunching at a quaint little cafe downtown. "Ida Davidson" is apparently "the best place in the world" to sample smorrebrod, Denmark's gourmet specialty. Smorrebrod is essentially an open-faced rye bread concoction, which can be topped with anything from roast beef to fjord prawns, and garnished with whatever you like! I settle for carpaccio beef, topped with a wonderfully bitey mustard, and some salad....boring?? Hell no....absolutely scrumptious....and yeah, at 12Euro, well you'd be jolly well hoping so!!

So now, back to life in Dublin for another month, then onward to England for a while!

Let me know what ye are all up to!

Adios

Belinda xo

Greetz to all

Well another long lag between updates....and again well there's been "nooten mooch ta rate hoom aboat" (as the folk in Wick would say).

After a quick trip to Norway (I think that was my last update back in July!?!?!), I settled into life in Edinburgh. After 2 weeks in a youth hostel in town, Kath (one of my good friend's from
school back in Oz) and I moved into a flat just up the street for a couple of weeks. Now aside from the gas-leak, mouse problem, constant dirty dishes, heating problems and marijuana smoking housemates, it was grand! Yes well, so we moved on to bigger and better things on the other side of town, in a Victorian flat with an Englishman who was so tight-arsed he would set the shower heater to a timer, and go and switch all the powerpoints in the house off after he thought everyone else was asleep. And to top it off, he talked like a psychopath... no offence to any of ye out there!

I managed to pick up temp work in Eds quite easily, though it wasn't the most exciting work. Firstly I temped with a recruitment agency for a week, then they offered me a temp position as an HR administrator (cause of all my experience right?!?!) for a further 6 weeks. Spent the whole month of August in Edinburgh for the Fringe (festival)....the biggest arts festival in the world with theatre, musicals, art exhibitions, book seminars etc.....all on at once. And then there's a load of free street theatre going on 24-7. Managed to hit about 10 different events during the festival, including Jimeoin, who seemed a little jet-lagged or something....not in his best form.

Aside from hitting a load of festival events while in Edinburgh, I visited some of the cities/towns nearby....

St Andrews - a medieval town with lots of winding alleyways (including the ridiculously named Butt's Wynd!), puttaphiles driving range rovers, dive-bombing steroid pumped seagulls and throngs of salivating teenage girls, trying to get a glimpse of St Andrew's most famous resident - the one and only Prince Willy! Sadly for the girls, Willy (let's call him "The Mighty" as all princes need a title) is seldom there as between semesters of studying art history at the university, he spends his hours cavorting about the Cote d'Azur with scantily clad society girls. Aside from having a wander about the town in search of "The Mighty", I visited the spiritual home of Golf at The Old Course, paid the patron saint of Scotland (St Andrew) a visit), and went for a run along West Sands (the beach where Chariots of Fire was filimed)

Stirling
Here I visited the splendid Stirling Castle, and paid my respects to the one and only William Wallace (think Braveheart). I was disgusted to learn that after being sentenced to death for charges of murder, robbery and treason, he was publicly executed by partial strangulation (they only seem to do things partially over here - even the sugar syrup in sweets is only partially inverted), before being disembowelled and then quartered.....

Perth - unfortunately not the one in Oz tho.....this Perth (pop. 40 000) was voted most liveable place in the UK in 2003 and it is quite nice. Visited St John's Kirk (where John Knox preached a serom against idolatry in the 16th century, causing the rascal multitude to strip all the local churches of their fittings and ornaments before stoning the preacher), and Scone Palace, sometime home of the Earl of Mansfield and his hideous collection of coiffured poddles, elephant skulls, and spades used by Royal Dignitaries from the world over to plant trees about the Palace. The scones they bake in the cafe at the palace aren't too shabby either.

After about 9 weeks in Edinburgh all up, I took up a locum position in a teeny tiny town called Wick (pop. 8,000), about as far North as you can go on the British mainland. Wick was originally a Viking settlement, and more recently a big fishing port, but nowdays, well it's become just another town on the road between Inverness (stopping off point to see a certain monster), and John O'Groats, a ghastly place overrun by tourbuses wanting to visit the most northerly point on "mainland" Britain....cept it's actually 10miles down the road at Dunnet head. Ah well....Wick and its surrounds are home to a plethora of good Indian restaurants (a lot of Indian doctors locum up in the far north), as well as a strange population of sheep with ears the size of rabbits. Could it be the nearby recently decommissioned nuclear reactor?? Or perhaps another batch of "Dolly the Sheep" sheep. The locals up here also talk about the the "coos in da feld" (cows in the field) and eat decadently tasty things like Macaroni pies (basically macaroni cheese baked into a scotch pastry shell...mmmmm)

So things up in Wick.....a tad on the quiet side but the work was ok (a little hectic) and I did get to see a lot of Northern Scotland, including Loch Ness (sans Monster), the Castle of Mey (the Queen Mum's former home) a re-enactment of the Battle of Culloden (last battle on British soil?), the Highland games (men in kilts throwing hammers over poles, playing bagpipes and running around like eejits), Dunrobin Castle (the biggest house in the highlands, filled with stuffed animals), the quaint little town of Dornoch (site of the last witch execution in Scotland) and Fort George (the base for George II's occupying army in the highlands).

I also made it across to the Orkney islands where I visited Skara Brae, the oldest prehistoric settlement in Europe (older than the Pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge); the Churchill barriers, used to prevent the passage of German ships onto Orkney's Mainland; the Italian Chapel, painted elegantly by Italian POWs during WW2); the Khyber Pass (there is a teeny tiny street named that in Stromness); and the Ring of Brogdar (a stone circle over 4500 yrs old).

After a few days in manky (grotty, horrid etc) London, and a further few in lovely Cardiff (home to red dragons and the Millennium Stadium - where Oz claimed the 99 World Cup!), I'm now back over in Ireland....looking for a new home, settling back into work etc....I can't believe I'm missing the Aussie summer in place of the cold, wet, Irish winter.....crazy?? Nah, it's nice to be back again.

Anyway, gotta get going. It's a beautiful day outside today, hovering around 11C, slightly overcast...but not raining!!

Belinda
xo

"If Barbie is so popular, why do we have to buy her friends?"

Hilsen fra Norge!

After a rather underwhelming lunch of fish and chips in a Kilkenny pub last year, I decided to treat myself to a rather more interesting affair for my quarter-century attainment. I had originally fancied whisking off to the rambunctious metropolis of Rome, to see if both it and I had changed in the (almost) 7 years since I was last there. Rome had proven to be an endless source of vexation for me as I struggled to navigate my way around the cacophonic melange that is the eternal city of poco loco Vespa riders, warding off the incessant unsolicited advances of lecherous lotharios, whilst avoiding getting turned into minced-meat by the enslaught of perennial horn-honking obsessed Romans.

But it was never to be, as Ryan Air had sold out of their ridiculously low fares....but thanks to my move to bonny Scotland, I realised I had been afforded access to a plethora of cheap flights that were not previously available to me from Dublin.

So Norway it was to be.

Unfortunately only for a week - but bloody hell, that's all an impoverished, unemployed, sheila like me could ever hope to have afforded!

To give you some perspective on prices in Norway.....here's a rough guide...

Big Mac (not a meal) - €4.11/$AUD7.09
300ml Mocha - €3.75/$AUD6.50
500ml Coca-Cola - €4/$AUD6.70
Wrigleys 10 piece chewing gum - €1.20/$AUD2
1 litre unleaded petrol - €1.55/$AUD2.70
Dinner 2 people (no alcohol, basic Chinese) - €53/$AUD92
Laundry (one pair of smelly socks) - $AUD6.10 (I kid you not! oh and they weren't mine)
Taxi fare - 8km distance - €20/$AUD34.70
1 night hostel accomm - a bargain!! €17/£11.50/$AUD30

You get my drift hey?

As for some trivia on Norway...

• It is not an EU member but is party to various EEA arrangements which mean it has access to the European market, and is allowed to fish to its heart's content
• Norwegians are on average more aesthetically advantaged" than most nations of people - though I still think their Swedish neighbours are pipping them for the #1 title
• the Norwegian Vikings are responsible for settlements in places as far afield as Sicily, Greenland, Newfoundland (CA) and Dublin
• Two of its most famous sons were boath Roalds - Roald Dahl (who in addition to fathering the kooky model Sophie, wrote a few kiddies books on the side) and Roald Amundsen - the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911
• The average Norwegian eats 200 "polse" (hot dogs) a year
• Everyone in Norway is obsessed with gambling
• Lemmings in Norway do indeed go jumping over cliff-edges and plummet to their fate in the fjords below
• Norwegians drink a hell of a lot of alcohol, which is somewhat surprising considering the bizarre retail alcohol laws, as follows - In Norway, you can buy beer and nothing stronger, on weekdays only up until 8pm, and on Saturdays only until 6pm. After those times, or if you are in search of anything a little stronger, you must head to a Vinmonopolet. In what appears to be a borrowed concept from the former Soviet Union, you must first select your poison, take a number, queue for a long time, and then go to the counter where you will end up paying about 5 times what you would pay in any other country - Ireland included!

Anyway, back to my trip...

After a quick flight from Glasgow, I took another flight from Oslo, across Southern Norway's snow-mottled mountains that tumbled into turquoise hued fjords at their extremities, to arrive in Bergen , renowned not only as the gate-way to the Western fjords, but also for its absolutely deplorable weather (odds on heavy rain most days), to find an immaculate yacht-filled marina basking in glorious summer sunshine (good weather tends to follow me for some reason). Upon arrival I had a quick wander about the town before taking the Floibanen funicular up Mt Floyen ("The Vane") to be afforded a magnificient view down over Bergen and the surrounding fjordlands.

The next day I took the much-hyped, and a tad overpriced Norway in a Nutshell tour. It started with a 2 hour journey along the Bergen Railway line, before changing lines onto the 20km Flam Railway (an engineering masterpiece with 5 sets of brakes to prevent the train from sliding back down the mountainside) past spectacular waterfalls and mountain scenery, jumping on a 2 hour cruise through the Aurlandsfjord and Naeroyfjord (meaning of course "narrow fjord"), and then heading back across to Bergen. The cruise was splendid, and a source of great amusement as I was sitting amidst a large contingent of wealthy Japanese tourists, who in their Armani suits accessorized with Bally Shoes and Louis Vuitton Handbags (even the men!!), took great delight in reaching their hands up into the sky to feed the dive-bombing scavanging sea-gulls copious quantities of Pringles! (Of course with the soulful melodies of Grieg in the background, this made for quite a beautiful experience).

Back in Bergen the next day, I wound my way around the narrow cobble-stoned warrens that make up the present day city. Past the Bryggen, the gable-lined medieval waterfront village that was home to the Hanseatic merchants who traded beer and grain for fish; through the Torget's open-air fish market where the fishmongers show off their fresh daily catches of cod, herring, salmon and prawns; and up the passages of the Ovregaten - where a colourful mix of large 19th century villas curve up the hillside overlooking the city, providing a quiet respite from the bustle of the touristed centre below. I finished up the day with a quick visit to the Lepramuseet - a museum which is dedicated to the fight against leprosy in Norway - very strange indeed! According to the information provided at the museum, 3% of the population of Norway were classified as lepers at one point, and the Norwegian researcher, Hansen (leprosy is aka Hansen's disease) was responsible for identifying the leprosy bacillus. And in case you are really keen on learning about leprosy, the Norwegian word for hospital, derives from their word for leprosy - i.e. hospitals were places where lepers were housed; many for 30 or 40 years!

Stavanger was my next port of call to catch up with my old Saffa flatmate who is working there for a few months (as ya do!). Stavanger is essentially a port city founded on its oil industry, and is consequently home to a considerable number of wealthy ex-patriates with not too shabby yachts. It is surprisingly pleasant (for an oil city), and a little less tourist-swamped than Bergen. Still loads of Americans though - like everywhere else in Norway. Could it be all that oil perhaps?!?! Aside from watching the Rugby, we went on a hike up to Preikestolen ("the pulpit rock"), a large naturally formed 25 square metre plateau of rock which has sheer drops of 600m on three of its sides into the delightful Lysefjord below. It is thought that Preikestolen was given its name due to its possible significance as a sacrificial Viking site, but no-one really knows for sure. Pretty impressive drop down regardless.

A quick flight back East brought me to Oslo, purportedly the most sunny Scandinavian capital - a nice change from the eternal cloud/rain/wind/cold that has lingered in Edinburgh for the whole time I've been here! Upon arrival, I headed first to the Munch gallery...a most melancholic affair....his artworks typically portraying images of extremities of love, anxiety, death, anguish and despair. Here I saw his famous work "Skril" or "The scream" and all of its variations. After a quick wander through town, I wandered along King Johan's gate - the main pedestrian shopping area in downtown Oslo, before finishing the day with a little statue gazing at the wonderful Vigelandsparken, an open-aired statue park created as a means of celebrating the human form - an obelisk comprised of an entanglement of human figures is its centrepiece. The park is a favourite afternoon relaxation spot for locals and tourists alike - for a game of frisbee or football, sunbaking (yes, nude), roller-rapping, doggy walking etc.

I spent my final day in Oslo visiting the "must see" (hmmm but yeah kinda boring) VikingShip museum, detailing the history of Vikings from the Nordic countries and displaying the frames of the oldest Viking ships in the world. From here, a quick trip to the exceedingly more interesting Folksmuseum, before catching a ferry back across the harbour to the Aker Brygge, the former shipyard now home to loads of nice cafes and shops, going for a stroll through the Royal Palace gardens, and finally catching the train up to the Holmenkollen ski jump and its attached, interesting ski history museum. This ski jump is 110m long, and plays host to an annual ski jumping comp - considered a national holiday by most Norwegians, including the Royal Family who bag the best seats every year.

And now back in Edinburgh, doing temp secretarial work for absolutely horrendous pay - not bad work though. Eds is an absolutely grandiose city, though the weather is a national disgrace! Even the Scots are appalled by it. Apparently the temperature at the moment is 17 - let's just remember that this is Summer though - CRAZY!!

Anyway, greetz to all, hope all is well wherever you may be - Sydney, Melbourne, Tassie, Tassie (well there are two parts to each of you!), Eire, England etc etc........

Write back and let me know what you're all up to.

Cheers

Love Belinda

'T'as been a disgracefully long time since my last update, so this will be yet another hideously long spiel from B as she attempts to cover a little of the past few months...

So....after a wonderfully long soujourn in Oz and SE-Asia, I arrived back in Ireland mid-March to a city revved up for St Patrick's Day - the centre of Dublin was absolutely mad....never before have I seen so many viking hats, green t-shirts, and wannabe leprechauns in my life! Nor have I ever seen so many ludicrously langered (heavily inebriated) teenagers before 10 in the morning, staggering about the town, engaging in reverse-peristaltis while their good mates tried to prevent them from passing out into/falling asleep in the deposits they left behind.....And goodness gracious me, if you ever need a fix of American marching bands (gotta love a bit of baton-twirling once in a while), St Patrick's Day in Dublin, is the place to be. Nah, Paddy's was great craic, a little on the hectic side, but a whole lot of fun and a great experience.

Who exactly was St Patrick anyway.... I was a tad disappointed to hear that my childhood visions of a holy most-excellently bearded bloke, wielding a wooden staff to ward off the snakes, was a little off the mark. Turned out that St Paddy arrived in Ireland in AD432. He was apparently born in Scotland (though the Welsh, of course, dispute this claim), and arrived in Ireland after being kidnapped by Irish pirates (Arrrr!). He became a slave and was resigned to a life of tending sheep. He then became a Christian, returned to Blighty for a stint, and then hoofed on back to Ireland, after a prophetic vision instructed him to convert everyone in Ireland to Christianity....

• ****************************************************************************

Now skipping forward a few weeks to the Easter long weekend (a good opportunity to avoid the weekendly influx of hen/stag nights from La Terre de Pomme!!)...so my buddy Dean (yet another deserter from the Dublin fold) and I decided to head off to the West. So off it was to Killarney town, the base for exploration of the Iveragh Peninsula (i.e. the Ring of Kerry). Upon arrival in Killarney, we went in search of some tucker....only to find that the only thing we could get anywhere was fish!!! Apparently it's a Good Friday thing.....no beef, chicken, turkey, pork etc.....just fish!!!!! Very strange indeed. And would you believe that all the pubs were closed! Wow......really crazy. After a good feast on very boney fish, we hired some bikes (a slight improvement on the dodgy gearless Chinese bicycles I was cruising round rice paddies on in Laos) and headed for the nearby Killarney National Park. The park is a vast, resplendent, glacially carved out area, with large lakes, monastic sites, the impressive Ross Castle (the last in Munster to fall to Oliver Cromwell's army), ginormous trees covered in lichen, and mad-cyclists hooning around on their ten-speeders. There are also magnificient views of Ireland's highest mountain range - the Macgillycuddy's Reeks - of course we would have climbed up them all, if not for the dire dire weather.

The next day was spent on a bus tour (cringe!!) around the Iveragh Peninsula (aka the Ring of Kerry). Our bus driver, lets call him Seamus (as I can't recall his name), was as mad as a tellytubby overdosed on RedBull, and his driving reflected this. To be fair, the roads around the Ring of Kerry are rather hammered from the frequent flow of tour-buses all day long plying the road, but when you're whizzing around a hair-pin curve at 100miles/hr on a pock-marked, narrow road, one must question the sanity of the driver. The Ring of Kerry was all that one would expect though - beautiful, green, rainy and loaded with sheep and Kerry cows. From the ROK, I bussed up to delightful Dingle peninsula where I cycled out to the most Westerly point in Ireland all around the western part of Dingle - full of yellow flowers, bleeting mad sheep, hair-pin curves, and cottages set in the midst of limestone fenced green fields.

• *****************************************************************************

Another couple weeks passed.....same old same....( work, shopping, eating out, rock-climbing, movies, etc....) before yet another bank holiday weekend in May, where four of us chicks (3 Aussies and Pommie!) headed down to The People's Republic of Cork! Cork is the biggest county in Ireland, and home to lots of pretty green (and sometimes rocky) wide-open spaces, sheep, locals withsome of the most lovely lilting accents in the world (though at times ya need to listen really hard to understand them hey) and tourists who fancy themselves as being exceedingly eloquent after having kissed the Blarney stone! Funnily enough, there doesn't seem to be any cork anywhere in sight! We were in Cork during the accession of 10 countries (namely Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) to the EU, so were lucky to miss the madness going on back in Dublin's fair city (anti-globalisation protests run by groups such as the funnily named/dressed Wombles of Wimbledon). Whilst in Cork, we caught a cab out to see Blarney Castle. The Blarney stone is a chip of the Scottish stone of Scone that was presented to the King of Munster in thanks for his support during a 14th century rebellion. Apparently the hygiene of the stone is questionable (all the locals will tell you this), so my attempt at bending over (held by the ankles and dangling down a little gap) was a little half-hearted. We also meandered round the University College of Cork grounds, drove out to Cobh (pronounced "Cove", the last port of call for the Titanic before it sunk), and cruised around West Cork for the day. According to my guidebook, West Cork was once the "badlands" of Ireland; its ruggedness and isolation rendered it lawless and largely uninhabitible. It's now home to loads of farms, holiday cottages and lovely beaches. It's very pretty and a nice (mostly) chilled out place to spend a few days.

On my second last weekend in Ireland (another bank holiday weekend, you see the bankers work really hard in Ireland so they need loads of holidays), I finally made it across to the splendid Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland, with my long-time dear friend, Katherine, yet another antipodean who has relocated to the Northern Hemisphere. We stopped overnight in Galway, "the fastest growing city in Europe" (apparently!), where we visited The Crane (a good trad pub), and got romanced by the 82 year old Sean, the most famous locksmith in town, and a man who fancies himself as quite the Tangoist, when he's not doing a little Samba on the side. From here we caught a ferry out to Inish more, the largest and most heavily populated of the Aran Islands (a grand total of 700 people live here, and about 50,000 sheep!) and spent the day cycling all around the place. The Aran islands were absolutely delightful, full of green fields, sheer limestone cliff faces tumbling into the rough Atlantic below, ancient forts, monastic sites where early Irish Christians settled to attain spiritual seclusion, old fellas giving tourists rides around the island in wagons towed by ponies, quaint little cottages, and a few quite nice beaches.

And then finally my last weekend in Dublin.....not too shabby, though exhausting! After starting to pack up my gear last week, I realized that I had accumulated a disgraceful amount of gear.....so much so that I had to leave 2 big bag fulls of gear in Dublin, and still pay an excess on my luggage allowance...grrrr. Went to the RHCP/T(h)rills/Pixies concert on the Sat night with everyone else in the country........a little hectic being sandwiched in with 100,000 other people but good fun nonetheless.

For now I've moved on to the wonderfully grand city of Edinburgh. Who knows how long I'll be here. At the moment I'm looking for a new job, not to mention a home. I'm also heading off to Norway in 4 days for a quick holiday. Apparently Norway is more expensive than Ireland - could this possibly be so?!?!?!

To finish up, I'd like to say thanks to all who were part of my Dublin experience - I miss you guys!!! Especially thanks to Dean, Ken, Jo, Julie, Regina, and the rest of the Abbey gang, the Saffas, and of course all you chicks from the South Western Area Health Board! 'T'as been grand sharing the experience with you all...I'll be back soon enough I'm sure.

Anyway, must finish up, the chick at the library is evil-eyeing me, which means I have to get off the free internet service.....Hope this email finds all of you happy and well. Again, sorry for the disgraceful lag between emails.....ah well. Let me know if any of you are going to be up/over this way soon. Would be delighted to put any (? ok so most) of you up for a few nights....when I get a place that is!

Slainte

Love Belinda xox

G'day

Well after a couple of weeks of

"TheweatherhasbeensolovelyIalmostforgotIwasabouttoenteranorthernhemispherewinter", we're having a rainy day in Dublin. I'm actually well acclimatized to the cold and a balmy 8 degrees has no longer become something to write home about (which is of course why I'm doing it! hey?). In spite of all one hears about how shocking the weather is here, I think Sydney gets a hell of a lot more rain than Dublin (when we're not having a drought!). But then El Nino has gone a little nuts these days with his ambitious efforts to spread the good weather love all around......

For this email, I've decided to give you the LONG and SHORT versions (a-la-Leighton - Lord of the Castle and close friend of Paz Thakra - Cantrill). I was recently informed my emails are at times, nauseatingly long, hence the attempted succinctness.

SHORT VERSION
Since my arrival back from Croatia.....I have:

• Spent a weekend in Galway and visited the spectacular Cliffs of Moher and the Burren (lots of rocks speckled across the countryside) in County Clare with a tour guide who liked to perseverate (i.e. he had to say everything twice, say everything twice - "Soon we will stop for lunch. We will stop for lunch. You can get chips for €2. Did you hear you can get chips for €2?!" Jill [old uni friend] was on the verge of going "postal" but after those €2 chippies was able to regain some composure).

• Had some old school friends visit - Aimee, Claire, Suz and Zelda (all ex-Avondaleans) - very delighted to see some old mates, even if they did drag me along to the Arlington to watch the Irish dancing!

• Been enjoying the Rugby (nothing like being abroad to reignite the patriotic passions for sport) and spent many an hour at the pub (the Irish equivalent of the beach - without the sun, salt, sea, sand and seedbags in lairy dacks and speedos, and with a lot more pasty yobbos) with the antipodean delegation supporting the Wally-bies. Still a little disappointed with the loss - it seemed the whole of Ireland was barracking for the Aussies - not a lot of love between the Poms and Irish even now.

• Moved out of my home and back into the hostel (just til I leave) as Claire and Andrew (Saffas) left today to go to the US. I am yet to rid myself of the mandatory "Hey" that Saffas put at the end of every single sentence (I won't even get started on all the "just now" and "now now" business, let alone the "Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame" and the "Isit").

• Spent a weekend in Edinburgh on a reconnaissance mission (planning to move there next year) with my Aussie mates Anthony and Dean, and a new recruit Alana. It's absolutely gorgeous....(oh and you don't have to stare constantly at the pavement so as to avoid the bubbly globs of saliva that Irish men so like to propel out of their "mouts") we did a Ghouls and Ghosts tour with Spooky Dave, climbed the mountain to Arthur's seat, visited Edinburgh castle and ate some HAGGIS!! miam miam.....

• Finally visited Kilmainham Gaol - originally a gaol for thieving types (i.e. those poor bastards who got shipped out to Australia for stealing a pint of Guinness) - but later used as a prison for political ratbags such as James Connolly, Michael Collins, Padraig Pearse (Easter Rising chaps).

• Survived the knacker (think scary scary Westies to the power of 10) enslaught at the Smithfield ice skating rink - only a few war wounds to prove that I was "skating like I meant it".

That's pretty much it!

As for the next few weeks.......I'm hoping to still make it to the Ring of Kerry but am fast running out of time, I'm off to Paris (yet again) with some fellow antipodeans, and will be leaving Dublin just after Xmas.

As of this week, my itinerary for the next few months post-Xmas is as follows:

- a few days in Munich and surrounds
- Singapore
- a diving course in the Tioman islands (off SE coast of peninsular Malaysia)
- Penang
- KL
- Melbourne for my sister's wedding
- road-trip round Tassie for a week (in search of the famous two-headed Taswegian)
- Sydney for a few weeks
- Laos for a month
- Dublin for a couple months
- Edinburgh

Life's tough hey?

All of the above is liable to change in the next few days/weeks....but will keep you posted!

Will send the long version "just now" (translation - maybe today, maybe next week, or maybe when the Garda National Immigration Bureau start sticking up my picture on telegraph poles around town)...

Ciao

Love Belinda
xoxo