NoFixedAddress

I think that Cork may be a more vibrant city in the summer. It is a neat town with lots of small streets and more pubs than you could imagine, the city centre is like a large Whyte Ave, and a river running through it (like all UK and Irish cities), but there is just not much going on in the winter. I did enjoy a few pints in a pub while listening to some Traditional music which was great. It's basically a group of people playing guitars, fiddles, accordions and other random instruments, sitting at the only circular booth in the pub, which in most pubs is actually reserved for musician at certain times of the day, where they all face each other just jam away. They take turns starting a song and the other gradually join in. They played slow sad romantic songs and many up beat tunes that make you want to get up and jigg, needless to say it was a blast!
 
From Cork I made my way to the wee town of Dingle, where I celebrated my birthday cycling the Dingle Peninsula. It was a glorious way to spend it if I do say so myself! I decided despite the clouds and local warnings of the Dingle weather (not uncommon to have 4 seasons in one day) I was going to bike the peninsula! I was lucky that there was actually a place to rent a bike this time of year, as everywhere else I had been so far shut down for the winter and didn't do rentals. So off to Foxy John's I went to get my bike for the day. I guess that Dingle is known for its quirky dual pubs and Foxy John's still upholds the tradition. You see it is not only where you can rent a bike, but it is also a hardware store on one side and pub on the other. Now when I say hardware store, I mean loads of random bits'n'bobs, but apparently the guy has everything and anything you might need...I wouldn't doubt it! I was told by the hostel owner that they opened the earliest so it is not uncommon to see the local alcohol lovers (he didn't put it quite so nicely) there bright and early. Well, I rolled in at 9:30am and what do you know, there sitting around the bar were about 8 guys pints in hand, its Wednesday. No one seemed to take much notice of me except for one eccentric looking old fellow who asked how I was. I replied and asked the same. After our little introductions he asked me where I was from. I told him and then he opened his jacket to produce a tiny Canada pin on his shirt, random hey. After saying bye to my new pal I grabbed my bike. This was a cruiser/road sort of bike, no off roading for me. It had working breaks and loads of gears so I was happy.

The first half hour on the road I spent getting use to vehicles flying by me on those twisted narrow roads I talked about before. Only this time I was not in a big metal bus or car, I was on a dinky little bike.  At most times the roads were the size of a typical Edmonton bike path, with no shoulder mind you. You could imagine how unnerving it was having cars fly by at 100km/hour! I didn't really feel like the helmet the guy at the shop had dug up and brush the dust off of and I was wearing, was going to do me much good if one of these vehicles hit me. Some of the drivers slowed down, some just kept their speed and drove on the other side of the road and some did neither, so there were a few heart stopping moments, but I obviously survived!
 
Once I got use to the cars blaring by I was able to actually start enjoying myself and take in my surroundings. The clouds were dispersing and the sun was coming out! The warm coastal wind in my face was very refreshing and energizing but also annoying, delaying my already slow progress. Haha guess that’s what happens, my sedentary habits over the last month have not prepared me at all for day of hilly bike riding! So that is how most of the day went. I slowly cruised along the coast, through small villages, along side of the sheep and ponies grazing the fields with a beautiful backdrops of golden sand beaches, islands in the distance and lush green cliffs jutting out over the ocean crashing below, absolutely stunning! Man, I think the sheep have some of the best views in Ireland! There were random points of interest all along the ride, some I stopped at others I didn't. One I did check out were old housing/storage shelters that you can actually still see in use on farmer fields today. They are built like Igloos but made of rock, they were neat. Everything was brilliant...until I of course went and took a wrong turn adding an extra hour onto my already long day. You could say I was slightly unimpressed. I found out when I returned that the road signs are rarely correct, but they just don't bother to fix them as the locals don't use them anyway, hu, well thanks for that! But if it weren’t for my little detour I never would have got to experience the amazing sunset over the ocean. Got my bike back with 10 minutes until it was due back and had a relaxing evening nursing my soar thighs. A day well spent!
 
Next, Clair county to visit friends I'd met in Australia then Dublin!