The last 3 weeks have seen me rambling with my brother in law Fausto Morales. It was his first time to Europe and he took in plenty new experiences for his first time here:
- A fresh pint of Guinness in Dublin
- Listening to melodic harp playing hippies at the Cliff's of Mohar
- A medieval banquet where you had to eat with your hands and bring plenty of "mead" in Buntarry castle
- A refreshing swim at Newton Cove, Tramore
- A tour of the Heinkeen brewing factory in Amtersdam as well as a tour of the infamous red like district and innumerable coffee shops
- A photo with the Mona Lisa in the Louvre
- A tour of the Eiffel tour in 38 degrees of stifling heat
- A history class on Napolean's tomb
- A bopping, thumbping, fist punching techno night never to be forgotten in Cafe Ole, in Ibiza's Space discoteque from 1am to 7pm
- A Facebook check in and plenty of snaps at the world famous Cafe Del Mar, with one of the best sun sets we've ever seen
- Eating mouth watering watermelon at the turquoise and azure blue beachs of Formentura
On the 2nd half of the journey his girlfriend a federal policewoman from Port Alegre visited as well as the well as Camila tagging along for good measure.
Just like my trip around the world a few years ago I felt the rambling spirit inside myself come to life again. Although not as long as my trip 7 years ago I found the 3 weeks very liberating. I thoroughly enjoyed going from city to city meeting friends, eating and drinking good food and wine and checking out what existed around the corner of calles, ruas, boulevards, streets, rows and lane ways.
Some of the stand out memories.
- Checking out the medieval toilets of Bunratty castle and sipping the sweet honey whiskey on offer. I'd recommend the banquet, for 50 euro it's a good night out, with lots of story telling, songs from the old days and plenty of belly laughs. The food was very basic but the atmosphere and entertainment made up for it. A pint around the corner in Ned's pub was well worth the visit
- Fausto's face after he jumped into the Irish sea for the first time. Like a dog fetching a piece of wood thrown into the water. It was a case of jump in, scream, search for the ladder and get the heck out of there, hyperventilating along the way! Brazil's are made of soft stuff... they need to toughin' up a bit! :)
- Enjoyed a very nice barge cruise around the canal's of Amsterdam and enjoyed taking in the massive bicycle stand and canal boats. For those uninitiated to Amsterdam life, the amount of bikes flying around and parked everywhere is crazy. Think Beijing in the good old days and you won't be far off. The canal ride was 11 euro and took an hour and a half. Well worth it. House canals of which I believe there are about 2500 in Amsterdam range from the weird and wacky to the ornate and beautiful. You can get a good selection here to see what I mean.
- In Brussels we visited the externally impressive Atomica monument which was great to look at but a real let down inside. If you go, don't bodder going inside, save yourself the 12 euro and just take some snaps from outside. There is some museams inside but they are really really poor. What I enjoyed the most from out 2 days there was seeing the world famous peeing boy statue dubbed "Mr PeePee".. well worth seeing him at while eating a tasty waffle from the shop beside him.
- Paris is Paris. This time the sun was a blazing 38 degrees roughly all of the 4 days we were there which made it uncomfortable. On more then one occasion my hand fan had to come into use. On this occasion the Eiffel Tower was majestic as ever. The queues were a disaster. We spend 50 minutes queuing outside to get in. 1 hour to go from the 1st to the 2nd level and 15 minutes to come down. The light show on the hour at night was as impressive as ever. When we where ther there was 10 models for some glossy magazine posing for an hour doing cover shots. For the first time ever I saw the tower being out photoed by a barrage of tourists who seemed more impressed by the even leggy catwalk models.
- I've never been to the Lourve, and for 10 euros it is fantastic value. One of the best you'll get at any museam in the world. It is massive and would take at least one full day to check it out properly, and at that at a rush. This time as well as the seen the black haired fair lady herself we also got to see Napolean's quarters. One hell of a party room and some incredible gold platted oranate rooms full of the decorations of war and triumph.
- Versaille, the French palace a mere 45 minutes by metro and train outside of the capital were well worth a visit. This is where the old kings of France lived in ridiculously lavish surrounds which massive perfectly manicured garden grounds and a huge palace that is hard to fully comprehend once your inside it's so big. Reminded me of visiting the Vatican.
- Ibiza was all about beach and top clubs. I saw Seb Fontaine and the amazing soul brothers in Cafe Ole, Armin Van Burren and the disappointing Paul Oakenfold in the world's biggest club Priviledge, a really great set from Calvin Harris in the impressive outdoor Ushia and then Eric Morillo in the equally impressive Pacha. Ibiza for me was overall a bit of a let down. Maybe I'm getting old and cranky a bit and becoming a bit of a travel snob but the cost of things was bordering on a joke. Fair enough, we paid 50 euros to enter the nightclubs, to see some of the best DJs in the world but 18 euro for a Red Bull and Vodka, followed by 12 euro for a bottle of beer was taking the piss! Also, for the first time in my life I got charged 3.50 for a bowl of ice to put into our fizzy drinks at a restaurant. Spain currently has 25% unemployment in total and 52% unemployment under 25's. Desperate times in Spain and you could sense it in the way the taxi men were looking for every little cent on their clock. It the trip cost 7.15, they wanted the 15 cents. Also, the food was very expensive and it looked like people were out to charge for everything.
Anyhow, great to be back home as usual and here is some of the photos so you can see what it was all about.
