Rippin In Cork!

16/11/09

1214 (local time)

“What’s the Craic?!” I have had a fantastic past 3 days! I've pretty much been doing something everyday!

I arrived in Cork via the train at Midnight, I was then meant to meet Eoghan at the bus station, so I stated walking with my bags, and all of a sudden the skys just opened up, and it was a torrential downpour! I hadn’t seen rain like that in many months, so it was good and exciting for the first 2 minutes, then I realised that I couldn’t walk to the bus station when it was this wet. So instead I gave Eoghan another rbell, to ask him if he could pick me up at St. Patricks Cathedral.

Once Eoghan and his brother picked me up, they took me too one of his mates houses, where we sat around, chatted about surfing and drank cider.

Once it got too, late Cian (Eoghan’s Brother) drove us home, where we all crashed out pretty early, because tomorrow we were going to go surfing!!!

I was fast asleep when I am woken up by Eoghan early in the morning, we slammed down some breakfast, loaded the surfboards onto the roof of the VW Golf and headed off to the coast. The first place we stopped at was huge, but it was too big to get out... the waves always look as if they were closing out! So we headed off to the next beach. On our way there, as we went down this hill, we were confronted with a bit of an issue, 30 blokes on big hourses blocked our way... I was quickly told be the boys that they were doing a hunt? So we drove past them very slowly not to scare the horses. What I did realise about all of them was that they all were drinking whiskey... I suppose to try and keep warm.

So we plugged into the GPS where we needed to go... unfortunately the GPS took us down some backward route but we eventually made it too the beach, and it was freezing! Eoghan was the first to man up and put on his wet wetsuit, I followed behind him, we grabbed the surfboards and headed down to the beach.

I had no idea how cold it was going to be, but I did know that the only way that I would keep warm was too keep paddling. Luckily Eoghan lent me a 6/5 mm Wetsuit and some super thick boots. The rest of the boys were wearing similar to me, but they had hoods on!

So I pretty much just ran into the water, jumped over the first big breaker and paddled like mad out the back.

I didn’t realise how big the waves were until I got out there. The faces on them were about 12 foot. I don't call myself a surfer at all... I think I have only been out half a dozen times with EB in waves that are only about 6 foot... But I couldn’t wimp out now! So I paddled around for a while until the current dragged me into the impact zone. A huge set was coming, I saw Eoghan drop in on one of them, and go straight over the falls! The wave was roaring, so I just duck dived under it and swam to the bottom, I went too late and was just churned and rinsed! I was under what felt like for ages! I was just bouncing around all over the place. When I finally came up for air, I looked around and saw another massive wave headed my way, so I took a huge breath and went under again... When I came up I got on my board and paddled to sure, there was no way, I wanted to take another beating like that again.

So I made it back, had a bit of a rest on shore and headed out again. Unfortunately it was the same deal, the waves were way too big, there was no way I was going to be able to catch any of them.

But I paddled out again, and once again got caught on the inside and was once again slammed... so same deal, had a rest on shore an headed back out.

When I finally made it out, I was hanging out with Rat (one of Eoghan’s mates) when I asked where Eoghan was, we looked to shore and saw Eoghan’s board in 2 pieces. So Rat and I hang out in the water trying to catch waves unfortunately the sea went all mushy!

So myself and Rat stumbled out of the water because of the shore break was so intense, on the way back up to the car I brushed past a ‘nettle tree’ I yelped in agony, I said to Rat that I brushed part that bush... he quickly explained to me that I need to get to a hospital ASAP!

I believed them, so I tried to hurry up and get back to the car... after 5 minutes of trying to get out of my wetsuit they all burst out laughing... it was obviously a joke that I didn’t realise, well 3 days in its still itching!

We eventually got back on the road obviously so tired after our surf, but as we were driving home we realised that there were an awful lot of puddles around, and a lot of people... So the boys and I drove around for 30 minutes going ‘puddling’. So we found the most amazing puddle, that nearly took up the entire road. The road was fantastic, long and straight, so the people couldn’t escape. So we drove along this road for a while until we found a family. As we drove past we gave them a friendly wave, then ducked up a drive way, quickly reversed, and silently followed them toward the puddle. When they got close enough, Eoghan jumped on the accelerator and sped towards them and the puddle, the man saw what was happening and looked at us with only fear in his eyes. We hit the puddle at top speed and sent a barrel of water heading their direction. They were drenched, we were in hysterics and now karma doesn’t like us too much...

When we got home, we unpacked the car and crashed out! We fell asleep for about an hour, and when we woke, it was beer o clock! So we met up with one of Eoghan’s mate called Dave had some beers and headed off into town.

We had an awesome night, with some funny stories that we told to each other the next day!

One of the reasons why I like Cork, is that I’d walk down the street and say “G’day” to a couple of girls, they would then surround me asking if I was Australian, I would then obviously say “yes” and then get numerous girls hugging and kissing me... Doesn’t get much better to be honest!

The next day was recovery day, but not for the Cian, Eoghan and Steve Show! We were planning on sneaking into the Blarney Castle. So we grabbed some gum boots and headed off.

We walked through forests and fields and eventually came to the Blarney Castle, we snuck under the barbed wire and got in.

The castle itself was beautiful, a lovely medieval castle, on entrance to the castle you have to walk up a long spiralling stair case, when we made it to the top the view was amazing, the colour of the trees were nothing less than stunning! So many beautiful colours.

After looking at all the beautiful colours it was our time to kiss the Blarney Stone, so you hang you sit down and hang onto some metal bars and lean back whilst hoping that you wernt going to fall to your death, you had to kiss a damp, moist rock... I'm hoping the reason why it was wet was because of the climate and not because hundreds of people a day slobber all over the rock... great place for swine flu.

That night we had a quite one, just a few beers and juggling balls... yep, I can now juggle (Christmas present anyone?)

By the 18^th, it was time for me to leave... So I booked my place on the bus and just waited out the time. It wasn’t until Tony (father) came home and told Eoghan that he should take me to a little town 20 minutes south of Cork called Kinsale!

So we topped the car up with petrol, loaded one of the two dogs in the car and headed off. When we arrived, I put on some Gumboots and we started trecking off to find the old castle. It was fun being in the proper country side again. After 1.5 to 2 hours of walking around, it was beer o’ clock.

I knew I had to be on the bus at Cork Airport by 5.30pm and if I missed that needed to be at the Cork Bus Station in town by 6.

When we downed the beers, it was about 5pm, but Eoghan assured me that it would only take 10 minutes to get too the airport, but when I plugged it into the GPS it said our estimated time of arrival was 5.32pm and this GPS is never wrong.

So we had a mission on our hands... our job was to try and beat the GPS so we raced along the road, and when we hit the airport, I pretty much stood in front a bus to flag it down, he informed us that we had missed the bus, but if we are quick we would probably be able to catch it in town... Luckily we got to town a lot quicker than expected and we got into town 10 minutes before the bus was to leave. So we said our good byes and I thanked him for being such a legend and that anytime that he is in Melbourne that he is free to crash.

My next destination was the student party town of Galway. Be Prepared!