Apr 2006

Well we managed to hangover it into Santiago, Chile, whereupon we hopped on a bus and headed out to some ‘very fancy’ hostel .. snarf! He he. It was the only one with any room in it and it was not the nicest gaf we have ever seen to say the least. Howanever it was just a stop off point so we could meet up with the crazy swiss and lay our heads down for the evening. We finally bumped into Priska & Manuel in the hostel and we quickly set about drinking their beer and boring them to death with TALES OF INNNNTERRRESTtt.. Tee hee. It was great to catch up and have a great auld laugh with the lads. They had decided to rent a car for the next week and tour a bit around central Chile. They kindly asked us if we would like to join them and we were only delighted – a) to have a bit of a laugh, b) they are NEARLY as good as us at drinking (he he) and c) anything to avoid bus journeys! So first of all they gave us a mini tour of one part of Santiago, we got some eats and went to bed at a reasonable hour.

The next day we all hightailed it to the airport where we rented a very swish silver car! La Dee DaH!. I was very excited at the prospect of a ROAD TRIP!! Hee hee. Woohoo.
So off we headed into the unknown.. with no agenda and no worries. J We decided after a while to head to somewhere where they was some vineyards and so we headed to San Fernando. But once we arrived, the only thing in town was a bouncing castle.. (woohoo I hear some of you add) but it was not to be – it was for the kids and we didn’t want to lose face in front of the Swiss either. So we piled back into the car and headed on to Santa Cruz. Upon arriving in Santa Cruz – a very sweet little town – popular with weekend & vacationing wineheads – basked in the evening sunlight. We booked into our most expensive hostel/hotel (since New York) at 50 bucks a night! We were a little worried (as this was our first day in Chile and we had already spent nearly 270 dollars), but we were consoled with the following news that this price indeed included breakfast – and you could get it delivered to your room! Sweet As.
So we did the first thing the four of us do when we arrive anywhere – head for the beer! We settled in for the night on the balcony of a very nice pub/restaurant for some very expensive beer & wine. Then when we went to look for eats, we discovered there was not really much choice – so seeing as we had all went over budget - we decided to buy some bread, meat, tuna & beer and have some tuna / meat sandwiches back in the hotel. And what a roaring success it was. J
The next day, we were somewhat disappointed with our “Breakfast in Bed”. We kept waiting for yer woman to come back with more food but it was not to be… what a let down.
But it was a gorgeous day and there were vineyards to explore so off we went to the Viu Manent Vineyard near Santa Cruz. The vineyard surroundings were gorgeous – very meditteranean and rustic and really impressive. We were just in time for the next vineyard tour so we bundled onto a horse & cart and were given the grand tour. Our guide was very nice, if a little muddled and we were brought into the VAT rooms, and the wine process was explained in detail to us all (and just as quickly forgotten) and then the tasting began! Woohooo! However, when we were brought back to the wine tasting room, SHOCK, HORROR – the others in the group (Americans) started pouring the rest of their wine out!! ( Now I know this is the proper way it’s done, but when it’s your first time in a vineyard, coupled with the fact that you’re Irish, seeing this type of behaviour is unacceptable.) James & Manuel were both plotting to steal the pouring/slops bucket. We just said ‘feck it’, we paid 16 dollars (or whatever) and we were bloody well drinking as much as we could. I did feel a bit of a greedy alcoholic however, so I reluctantly poured out the one I didn’t like. The rest of them we drank (except the driver) and to make me look a bit better I pretended to throw out the last few drops.. he he he – fooled her! I also bought a bottle of my favourite (cheapy) wine so as to fool her into thinking I was a grown up.

Buenos Aires – Argentina part 3

Well on Monday, after much decision making (we are feckin hopeless), we decided to head up to the bus station and investigate a trip to the falls. (This is after deciding that No – we won’t go, we’ll continue chilling out here, and so started walking for 20 mins to our new hotel – It was Jim. Everytime we have a decision made (after hours of decision making) he throws a spanner in the works by changing his mind and uttering his doubts outloud). So anyway we walk 20 mins with our packs on in the heat and Jim says that maybe we should go to the falls, so grand, fine, lets go to the falls and off we bundle into a cab to the bus station. Except when we get there, he’s not so sure anymore. Hmmm 17 hours on a bus and 17 hours back – in four days?? Why that only leaves nearly one day of not being on a bus…
Hmmmmm… so another hour later we decide – Feck it – we’re staying and off we bundle back into a cab – back to the new hotel we had just left. :p

Our new hotel – the hotel Maipu – was much better, big rooms, tv, windows, private bathroom. It was great – the only problem being the smell of brasso getting up poor Jim’s nose. We hung about here for a few days making music on our laptop, and generally just wondering around town, relaxing, getting (expensive) hair cuts, eating inexpensive food and trying to get back on top of our budget – after blowing four days worth of budget in the first meal in BA.

On our last night, we decided to head out to a club again. We hit a different club – just around the corner from the hotel. It was great. We hit the Irish pub for some beer & popcorn, then stocked up on red wine in our room, gave ourselves a wash and donned our ‘going out clothes’. He he. The club was small, dark and cool with an absolutely FANTASTIC sound system. It was cheap enough in, beers were five pesos and despite it being slightly progmania again – we had a feckin blast. Each DJ only had an hour or so and at the end of each set the music was slowed down or stopped and each dj applauded before the next guy came on. It was all in all a brilliant night and we had such a laugh. James made some great hairy friends in the toilets and we also tried to accost the barman – who was wearing an “I heart Ireland” t shirt – to tell him “WE’RE FROM IRELAND..” (pointing at his tshirt and then at us) “IRLANDA…SOY IRLANDESA..” etc He just pouted meanly at us.. lol We were quite embarrassing.. in retrospect..

So we tripped off home at about 6am. Jim was giggly & drunk and I had to pack his bag whilst he half shouted, half drooled instructions at me.. “No only the jeans & the sleeping bag go at the end.. flip flops go at the top….”.

Then the harsh reality of getting up (still langered) to go to the airport at 9am. Yuck. But we did it, we finally found a taxi and got to the airport on time. The feckers charged us a fortune to get out of the country but eventually we got out. Onwards & upwards..

Travelling is great. You get to do things you’d always hoped you would do but hadn’t gotten around to yet. So far our highlights include helicoptering over the Grand Canyon, seeing the first fog of the year roll over San Francisco bay, acting like big kids in Universal Studios, sandboarding in the desert in Peru, climbing a million steps up to Macchu Picchu, sleeping outdoors in the amazon jungle, snorkeling with sharks, penguins, rays, huge sea turtles, sealions & fish in the scorching heat of the Galapagos Islands, clubbing in Argentina and crusin’ in a corolla in Chile with the crazy Swiss. And we’ve only just gotten to New Zealand – backpacker heaven – all geared to the great unwashed ranks of the temporarily unemployed.

The world is feckin huge though. Whilst boating around the Galapagos (albeit with green faces) it was amazing how much stuff was out there just continueing on with life, even while (shock horror) YOU’RE NOT THERE WATCHING!!! Though the islands were small, the sea is just humongous. It’s absolutely amazing and makes you realize that you’ll never in your lifetime get to see everything and that really you’re not that important or that big a deal at all!

Traveling also makes you appreciate what you’ve got though. Whilst before I had always said that I wouldn’t be interested in living in Dublin (mainly because I’ll never be able to afford a gaf there), I have seen Dublin in a different light since we left. It’s not so bad. Well the main things I miss would be the laughs with the gang, my family, my decks and of course – most importantly Mr. Chan’s and a bucket load of Simpsons of a Sunday evening. You do realize what bloody great mates you have though and what a bunch of funny bastards they all are.

Bundling yourself around the world also makes you realize what a fussy eater you actually are, (i.e. me) and a few times now (particularly in South America – mainly due to not being able to order correctly in Spanish) I’ve had chicken sandwiches, pepperoni and weird meat soup.. eek.. We’ve also realized how bloody krap we are at making decisions – especially the simple ones. It’s unfeckinbelievable. Yesterday we left to go have some lunch at 2pm. It took us so long to wander around deciding what to eat that it was bloody dinnertime (half five) by the time we had decided what we wanted.

Jim & me have also become inseparable whilst slowing morphing into each other. EEK!! It’s pretty difficult to hang out together 24 hours a day (with little escape – particularly in South America where it is a bit ‘uncomfortable’ to potter about on your own) and not start to think the same things I reckon. I’ve started to fall asleep everywhere (a previous Jim trait), and Jim has started to eat lots of spicy food (a me trait)!
Of course there are times that we annoy the socks off each other about silly things but mostly we get on swimmingly and have a great laugh! Now if I have to sit separate from Jimbob on a bus or a plane I start to wonder if he’s ok and turn around a lot making the thumbs up sign at him.

That's all for now. I'll have lots more boring words of windyness again... someday...

Buenos Aires – Argentina, part 2.

We had to change hotels in order to appease the lords of our budgets. We moved to the Hotel Cocao – a bit of a dive in all honesty. The toilet was not very nice and there were lots of little flies around but we weren’t in the humour of rerouting ourselves so we hunkered down there for a few days. After dumping our stuff, we hit the Buenos Aires zoo. It was a gorgeous day and we saw lots of lovely animals. It’s a shame that the enclosures were so small. They had five huge pumas in one teeny cage with no room to run around or nothing, neither did the bears! It was terrible. The condors too had noooo room whatsoever.

We went for the second best tuna sandwich in the land (the first being the one with snob sauce in the Galapagos) and a beer. We walked down to the Japanese Gardens where we saw the most Coi in the land in the little Japanese river. We had some fizzy pop then trekked back home again. Pheweee all this trekking. We headed to San Telmo later where we had more fantastic food in this little gay run bar.

On Wednesday, Jimbob went to get some yummy breakfast of breadrolls, honey, apples, bananas, yoghurt and muesli. I think today we went to La Boca. We trekked for a while then hopped on a bus to LA Boca. We tripped down the colourful streets of La Boca, looked at the Tango dancers and all the lovely artwork. Then we had a fantastic 5 peso sandwich which was delicious. Wowzers all the good food coming at the end of BA.
We went to the Boca Juniors stadium and had a wander around. We went right up to the top seats and nearly had vertigo, we quickly took some pictures and held the railings as we went back down the steps. WE got lost on the way out of the stadium and were running up and down stairs for another 15 minutes looking for the exit. We got the bus through some dodgy looking areas and jumped off at the shopping streets downtown. Jimbob stopped me from buying some books again, he said where would it end – we’d end up being a traveling library.. lol.

I tried on some pants (whilst shopping) and then we headed back to the hotel. We had some Chinese food on the way back – the worst Chinese food in the land. I spoke too soon earlier. Yucky ducky. Bland a rama.

Well I think after this, we had already run out of things to do here in BA. He he.
But we had decided to stay here in town so we could go & see Tarentella & Redanka on Saturday night in Pacha. We started to sleep late and then we did boring things like laundry, interneting, drinking beer & eating unlimited free popcorn in some Irish bar. On Saturday we lounged about before heading out. As noone goes out til 1am, we had to amuse ourselves (on the cheap) until then. Even still – when we got to Pacha at 2am, the place was empty. We explored the club upstairs drinking vodka & what tasted like Jif lemon for a half hour. It has a cool outdoor area right beside the sea, which I’d say was amazing at sunrise. It was a pretty cool club. Then after our explorations, we went downstairs to the main floor – the place was RAMMED. It was unbelieveable. You could not move. It was great – we were up boogieing in our “Sunday clothes” and having a right auld larf. It was progmania but we hammed it up anywho. I heard some people murmur “wow who are those two, they can really move….”, as we faded away into the night…

Buenos Aires – Argentina

Money, money, money. Arrived in BA on a foggarific morning! How do pilots land in the fog! We bumped into town and checked into a lovely great big hotel room, with a TV, bathroom and a huge balcony that had great views of the lovely tree lined street & the Palacio de Congreso. It was swell. We headed off for some toasted bread & jam – Argentineans have very small breakfasts. I reckon its cause they all eat so late at night that they’re just not hungry in the morning. J After a siesta, we hit the town with some fizzy orange! Oh yeah – we know how to rock out. Then we tramped the streets of BA, it’s a very big city, with some lovely big pedestrian streets – lots of leather shops, cafes, restaurants, internet places etc etc. We headed to a restaurant that Donna (one of our NEW friends from the Galapagos he he) recommended. We had steak, pasta and a bottle of wine for maybe 28 dollars or something. Bargain Town.

The next day we checked out the famous Café Tortoni – opened nearly 200 years ago by an Italian. It was very cool, with posh waiters and tasty coffee.
We saw the Pink Palace and saw the balcony where Evita addressed the crowd, and continued on down to San Telmo. San Telmo rocks. It’s fair day on Sunday (the day we were there) and the place was chock a block with stalls of trinkets and art. They had loads of stalls selling cool old vintage stuff. Everything was cool! I’d like to go back there in the future and stock up on stuff from the past. He he. One guy had some really cool old radios. I wanted one.
So we tramped around there in the sunshine for a while, and had a few bevies outside on the street, while some band created a right ould jamboroo of Jamaican reggae sounds alongside us. Then we went for ahem..more beer.. in another funky lil place with free crisps. Later we ate (for a change) some pepper steak and fish in a cool little outdoor restaurant. It’s a pity the food wasn’t that great!

On Monday, we decided that we were going to stay in town for a while cos we were tired of changing location. So we walked up to the rich area of town called Recoleta. We headed to the cemetery where all the rich & “important” people of the past are buried. Anywho the graveyard itself is full of mini statues of devotion to those who died. It’s crazy. Some of the tombstones are mad as ye like. All out OTT ness. There was two huge tombstones for two Irish Lads, a guy called Browne who founded the Argentinian Navy and a priest – Father Fahy. We took some very blasphemous pictures of James and me making faces in front of some tombstones.

We checked out the cinema mall nearby and Wordsworth here (James has started calling me Wordsworth due to all the reading & writing I do) bought a book called Killing Bono. We had some delicious coffee and some apple pie in a cool café and then trekked on back to the ranch. Saw some fancy hats on the way back, James may get one but he better hurry up before we have to leave the place as I am not running around on Friday morning looking for a hat!@!!@ He he. We hit the Celta Bar later and split a pizza and some beer. Nice Pizza.