Expat Kiwi's onward Travels - Part 3 - Back South in a Hurry

Go to Dublin for a tour of the Guinness brewery just like all good Expat Kiwis — Image by Leonhard Niederwimmer from Pixabay

At some point, probably the Belfast hostel, I met up with an Australian guy who was also heading south to Dublin. I convinced him to try out hitchhiking (because my funds were getting rather low), which we dutifully tried, and failed at.

After some fruitless hours on the road our thumbs got tired, the day was wearing on, and he convinced me to get a commuter train to Dublin.

In case you missed the previous parts of this series, check them out from the beginning of the story or perhaps the Index of posts will be more helpful?

I don’t remember much about my Australian travel companion, least of all his name, (maybe it was Kerry or something) except that all of the girls we met fell in love with his eyelashes. None of them thought much of mine.

Upon arriving in Dublin we found a hostel for the night and asked where to get a drink.

We had developed the habit of recognising the arrival in town by having a pint of beer. This might possibly have accounted for some of my unaccounted expenditure.

We asked our hostel hosts where we could get a drink and were directed to the (read with a Dublin accent) ‘Tamperber’ area of Dublin.

Neither of us actually knew what the guy had said, so we wandered the streets asking the various Dubliners we met if they could point us towards the ‘Tamperber’, which luckily seemed to work very well for us and we were motioned in the right direction.

After some walking about we did indeed find the ‘Temple Bar’ area. A vibrant quarter of the old city full of pubs and bars, named after the actual Temple Bar. A small relief was felt by both of us, and we got our first gold star in learning the Dublin accent.

The Temple Bar in Dublin - Not the Tamperber after all! But this Expat Kiwi found it all the same! — Image by Skitterphoto from Pixabay

Once there they wouldn’t let me into a pub because on my jacket sleeve I was wearing a white armband that had been given to me by a friend in Hamilton, Martin Webclaw (occasional member of the NZ-UK group Wendyhouse) before leaving that said ‘Freak Corp’

The idea was a mixture of being a freak, that is outside of society, but also part of a corporation or an army corps, that are very regimented. It was supposed to be some sort of anti-establishment/establishment narrative pinned to an old grey Danish military jacket.

Anyway, the bouncers didn’t like it and the only way that I was going to get into that bar was by removing it.

I had never had a problem with the armband until the bouncer on the door of the pub in the Temple Bar wouldn’t let me in.

I protested that he didn’t even know what it means (for my insolence he could have flattened me right then and there, but he didn’t. Nice chap). His response was that it didn’t matter what it meant, he didn’t have a problem with it, but, he pointed inside, ‘They might’

So, not wanting to have a fight with a drunk Dubliner or a drunk anyone else for that matter, I reluctantly removed the safety pins. And sadly it never made it’s way back onto that jacket, and now both are lost to time.

After I removed the armband I was let into the pub. I had a few drinks. The rest of the night was fairly uneventful.

I don’t remember much more about Dublin than arriving and going to that pub. I’m guessing that the Guinness brewery tour was also on the cards but I have absolutely no recollection of it. Nothing against Dublin, it was a lovely city, from the little that I remember, but my priorities had changed rather abruptly.

I do remember, rather well, that by this time I was flat broke, or very close to it.

[This is a bit of a theme in my life and I’m still dealing with it at the time of writing in 2021. It’s something that I’m writing about, so stay tuned if you have any similar karma in your life]

With my remaining funds, I decided to cut my travels short and find a stable place to make some more money.

Now, it occurred to me that I’d been offered a free bed in Birmingham by Orlando

Which wasn’t far away. I could get a bus from Dublin to the ferry port, catch the ferry to Holyhead in Wales, take another bus through wales to Birmingham, and then get a job…

I had a plan. I guess I cleared it with a phone call to Orlando, and then I was on my way.

I said farewell to my Aussie road buddy and off I went. I didn’t stop in Wales, all I remember is that there were a lot of rocks in front gardens as the coach made its way east to the Midlands…

All I remember about Wales — Image by Howard Walsh from Pixabay

And before I knew it I was beholding the beautiful site of the Bullring centre once again. Then the green of Mosley village greeted me again, and I was in my new home for the next section of my UK experience.