Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Tangents

So part of the whole hitching thing involves talking to a lot of different people. One thing I have noticed is they all, no matter their background, have one thing in common. A huge dissatisfaction with the government. Everyone has some complaint, whether it be about NAMA, the roads or just simple arrrgh frustration arrrgh! The thing that I wonder is, what can a regular joe like me do about it? As I have never really had any form of interest in politics and my education in the way this country is run is fairly limited I have no idea. Granted I can vote for someone else when the election around but is there any way to do something now?

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Going up the country.

So I'm obviously doing well on the posting more regularly thing. :P What can I say, life gets in the way. I have been at home for maybe 2 weeks in total since Christmas but that is no bad thing. In January I made an epic journey from near Carrick-on-Shannon in Leitrim to Cashel in South Tipp. I was on the road from 9am until dark and decided for the sake of my safety to get the bus from Cashel to Cork. It was interesting, it gave me a better idea of the true distances involved in travelling the length of a country. I would make you realize how long it would have taken people to travel before motorized transport. It also showed me that in the summer months I could probably hitch the length of the country in the hours of daylight.

The weekend just gone I hitched to Clara in Offaly. This was hilarious as I was in Moate on Monday last week as I got stuck there for 2 and a half hours when trying to hitch from Galway to Maynooth. I got dropped in Midleton by the one of the parents. Then I got a lift from there to Dunkettle from a couple that had never picked up a hitcher before so thanks very much to them.
I then spent the bones of an hour standing on the side of the road before the roundabout trying to get a lift and was getting nowhere. I then got a lift from a lad I believe his name was Padraig with whom I chatted tek and the inability of UCC to teach computer science. He dropped me at the Horse and Jockey and I was walking only five or so minutes when a fella called Cathail picked me up. He had two lovely dogs in the car. One a King Charles spaniel and the other some kind of wire-haired terrier cross. Some of the friendliest dogs I have met and they spent a good portion of the journey on my lap. THe pair of us spent a load of time chatting about the state of the county. He's the type of guy that you'd like to chat to in the pub. We had a grand laugh and he dropped me in Birr.
My next lift was in some ways one of the most interesting. He was a semi-suit (sorry if you are reading this but this is for clarification) which only pick up maybe one in every 200 or so and his name was Brian. He had told me he had passed me at Horse and Jockey but he had a rather good excuse. He's from Athlone and had driven from there to Cork that morning and he was not driving back. He had one problem however...He had left his wallet at home. He told me that when he was leaving Glanmire the tank was looking low and the reason he passed me earlier was that he was making a bee line for a petrol station as he had scraped together around seven euro which he spent on petrol. When he picked me up outside Birr the tank was showing empty. When he dropped me in Firbane the tank was still showing empty, I scincerly hope he made it. He was so sound he refused the €10 I offered to give him to ensure he made it home. And for those of you that want to know I believe he was driving a Toyota Avensis.
My final lift was more or less uneventful as it was only a short trip with time only for the basic plesantries. All said and done it was a fun day of travel and an equally fun weekend of social activities followed.. :)