09. February 2014

Holy Rice in Tralee

I took the advice from my host Norman and traveled from Galyway to Tralee. Unfortunately, at that very time Cork and other cities were pretty much affected by flooding. Therefore I had to stay a few days more in Tralee as I had usually planned.

Tralee offers a lot of possibilities for excursion

In Tralee I learnt that Guinness is the typical beer either for older people or tourists, therefore I switched to Hackenberg. In addition I learnt the Irish way to repair a mobile phone by holy rice and in return I taught the Irish guys the necessity of using 'Schultz' after a hearty burp and what do to when someone forgot it.

Moreover my interesting chat with the boss of Dingle. But this story you'll find in an extra post which I just dedicated to him.

But in the end I left Tralee due to I didn't feel comfortable anymore as the anchor point drove home on the weekend and the hostel seemed to turn into a place for sad souls...

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Tralee and what to do there?

When I arrived in my hostel in Tralee I met an Irish guy who offered me at first his Mars bar and after this he asked me if I want to drive with him and his friend to Killarney on the next day. What a nice beginning :-)!

Tralee itself is famous for its festival Rose of Tralee. I have to admit after three days I knew all the most interesting places in Tralee.

The Rose of Tralee and the famous song

Palms in Tralee!
Well, I know it comes a bit out of the blue but I had to show the pic here.

The smell of the Middle Ages

I visited the Kerry County Museum which was really nice and interesting. They show a medieval village and even they try to imitate the smell from the Middle Ages. This means the smell of horses and their manure... I'm not joking!

There you can feel the atmosphere of the Middle Ages.
I'm not sure what I should fear more: the smell or the mad knight?

Some movement and relaxing

In Tralee I also checked out the so-called Aqua Dome: The swimming pool. The good thing was that I was almost the only person there and therefore I had the whole whirlpool for myself :-). I also check out their sauna and the slide which showed my speed.

Unfortunately, I wasn't that fast, even if I used the special trick...

Great opportunity to show my fresh french pedicure feed: the Aqua Dome

Books about the Germans

I love books and therefore I visited the library in Tralee. There I found the following book. It's about the Germans and which words are apparently important to know... Even me wasn't aware of some of this words...

Good to know! Even for me... Never heart about 'Teufelszauber'.
I'm still wondering were the writer had to live in Germany to learn this words... Poor guy.

The invention of the holy rice and other nerdy survival tips

In the hostel were some other guys. Thomas who offered my his Mars bar and a trip to Killarney, Derek who lived for 5 years in Guetersloh (therefore I felt a bit sorry for him ;-) ) and a few others.

Derek was a kind of an anchor point there due to his positive attitudes. I was really looking forward when he came back from work. When he was there the atmosphere was nice.

One day when Derek came home he was a bit pissed because his mobile phone was fallen into the water and didn't work anymore. Or like the Irish say: "It's fucked up!"

No problem at all: the Irish way to solve such a problem is rice!

Well, rice absorbed liquid and why should that not work in that case? And indeed, it worked! The holy rice was born. Derek even tried to get a better WiFi connection by putting his tablet into the rice but actually it didn't work. Well, holy rice has its limit ;-).

Irish way to repair a mobile phone

When you forget your charger for your phone but you have a USB cable with you, a great nerdy survival tip is to find a device like a TV or receiver with an USB port. Then you can use this device as charger for your phone. That's it.

By that and by teaching 'Schultz' I could a bit impress the Irish guys... :-)

The new trend: e-cigarettes

I forgot to mention that Thomas tried to cut down smoking by using an e-cigarette. He preferred both ways: using e-cigarette and a real cigarette.

I also tried the e-cigarette but it was just scratching in my throat and I had to cough.

It seems to be a new trend in Ireland. Since I'm here I saw a lot of people with an e-cigarette. Someone told me that they created over 100 new jobs in a company in Galway which sells e-cigarettes. Well, a new market for an old addiction covered by a new name...

Rescue after a bad dinner

I thought to buy an instant meal from the supermarket would be a great idea! Just pouring hot water on it and it would be great. Unfortunately, it wasn't... To be honest I have never eating anything bad like this before and threw it away.

But Derek felt sorry for me and offered me some from his great self made Chinese food. It was really tasty. Well, that was my second experience about a great self made dinner from a man :-).

Well, I love Ireland!

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Short trip to Killarney

The trip to Killarney with Thomas and his friend Keith was a bit pushed for time but it was very nice there. I already knew Killarney from my first trip to Ireland in 2009 but I'm still always impressed about its nature.

It also gave me the chance to get used to the Irish accent and I learnt some slang. For example the word 'flip' which used my new Irish friends in almost every sentence "Flip! That's bad..." "Flip! That's great...". It's another word for 'f***' they told me. I think 'flip' sounds better.

By the way, Thomas and Keith exchanged their e-cigarettes because they used different flavour. Well, that must be friendship... Sharing your e-cigarette.

The impressing landscape of Killarney

Muckross House in Killarney

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If you don't feel comfortable anymore, then change it!

Anyway, after a few days I already knew all about Tralee. Moreover the mood in the hostel seems to change and turned into a place for a kind of sad souls...

The mood in the hostel changed and so did my mood change, not only that my room was pretty cold despite the heater was on.

New arrival

One day a new arrival appeared in the hostel: an older woman maybe in her fifties who seemed to be in a bad condition.

When she went through the TV room where I and the other guys sat she didn't say anything and seemed to be drunk or something like that. Anyway, one of the guys was kidding another guy that she'll be his new roommate etc.

Some minutes later the guy who worked in the hostel came and told us: "Well, she complaint about her room I had gave her. Now I put her in room 3 and everybody will be happy...".

Hmmm, what was my room number again? I checked the label on the key and it tells: number 3...

Ok, it seemed not everybody would be happy about the change. Maybe I became a bit neurotic but I immediately asked for a locker where I could put all my stuff in it and I took some other things with me.

But later I just felt sorry for the woman. She didn't have any luggage or fresh clothes with her. Every night she went to bed in her whole clothes and when she woke up she left the room without using the bathroom. She just took her jacket and a small bag and left. Well, therefore we hadn't to struggle about the bathroom...

We didn't talk much together.

High time to left

Due to Derek left on Friday which means the anchor point will be away I decided to leave as well. Honestly, I didn't feel either comfortable anymore in my cold room or in the hostel and it was high time to left.

I couldn't bear any day longer at this cold and sad place. Maybe I sound very dramatically but if you're on your own at a foreign place, then it can feel worse than usual.

That's what I mean by if you feel uncomfortable, then change it. It's up to you.

Therefore I made my decision and traveled to Cork despite of the bad weather forecast. But I rather prefer bad weather than bad mood...

Actually it turned out to be a great decision and I met lovely Tamara from Switzerland there.

More about my time in Cork will follow in one of my next posts. :-)

Tags: Ireland, Tralee, Killarney, Feb2014

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