After a couple of months spent home when I went back from my Up North and Down South trips, it was time to start over again. As usually - why should it be easy, when it can be tough - North for the winter! Let's see where Windy islands tour will lead us... 😎😆
You can also fallow the trip in Polarsteps. Not to overload the post with pictures, most of the photos you can find at the end of it divided into galleries.
19 November 2022 – Lyaskovets, Bulgaria
After the double than expected pause, it’s time to start the next adventure – the Windy islands tour.
26 November 2022 – Sofia, Bulgaria
First stop – Sofia.
A necessary visit to my favourite therapist to take care of my humble personality for last time before the following months of obscurity.
And of course, my beloved friends, who must send me off before the departure. (Mainly because they had to have me staying with them before that! 🤣)
Thank you, guys! I love you! 🤗🤗🤗
26 November 2022 – Manchester, UK – the first of the Windy islands
Roberto’s first flight ended on English soil.
Tightly wrapped in foil by one of my friends, he appeared at the overseas baggage strip safe and sound. Although last in line looking somewhat unkempt and abandoned, he was safe and secure!
After a quick operation with the manicure scissors, he was freed from the cocoon and tossed on my back as usual. Only this time he has a little sister… 🙈🙉🙊
27 November 2022 – Leeds, UK
The reason I chose UK was because I didn’t choose it! 😆
It was definitely not on my list of destinations for the winter, especially given that I can’t work there legally. Still, I had promised my sister, being free and going back and forth, to look after my nephews for a week.
Why not, I thought, I’ll find some work anyway. Even if it’s not there, flights from England are much more affordable than in Bulgaria.
I suspect that somehow my inner mind-set had been felt and Leeds greeted me with a week of abundant fog… 🙄
2 December 2022 – Tunstall, UK
After my sister returned from her vacation, she made sure to take me on vacation too! Thanks, sis! I’d hardly had another opportunity to enjoy the windy and wet beauty of the English coast.
We had a peaceful and cosy weekend enjoying the squawking of the seagulls and the sound of the crashing waves. Thank you! I love you (sometimes)!! 😜🤗🥰
6 December 2022 – Dublin airport, Ireland – the second of the Windy islands
In the meantime, I kept looking for an option and a direction to go to next. Only, it had been a month with no results at all and I finally I made an arrangement for a job in London. Thanks to a good old friend from my London period 12 years ago. 🤗
I didn’t want to go there. Yet, it was the only option I have at the moment… And was grateful to have it at all!
However, just a day before I head towards London, a lady had texted me with an offer for Ireland. From Workaway community. It was a position with no payment, just accommodation and food, but it was good as a start!
I let the path to lead me and have promised to follow it, so – hang on, Ireland, I’m coming! 😝 Anyway, as a priority, after Norway and Scotland, was Ireland. But I’d go to Zanzibar, too, if I was led to… 🤪
At the airport it was quite a big wait and hang around. No distinct bus information, no help desc, no staff to ask – I had to ask random people, most of whom, are either in my situation or just have some idea, but…
Well, I eventually found what I was looking for. After about 2 hours of wandering around and asking people. Good that I had 4 hours between landing and the bus… 🤦🏻
6 December 2022 – Burgesbeg, Ireland
The journey from the airport to Nenagh was unexpectedly pleasant and interesting. Passing through Dublin, I asked the driver if I could sit on the seat behind him to take some photos and videos, at which point he pointed out the folding seat next to him and became my private and wonderful tour guide for the rest of the journey. 😁
Siobhan met me at Nenagh and we headed to her outhouse – an old renovated farmhouse – spacious and cozy.
Siobhan works as a holistic therapist and yoga teacher, and I was supposed to help her with the housekeeping as well as working with herbs and potions, which I found rather interesting.
Well, the reality turned out to be a bit different and my interest cooled down a bit. Everything was kind of chaotic, no plan, no organisation, waiting for hours for her to decide what she was going to do (and therefore I) and wasting time dumbly hanging around.
There are no random things, though…
The lack of organisation and sorted priorities is driving me crazy (even though I travel without a plan, my trip is actually very organised, precisely because I need to be flexible and ready to react at any moment)!
I suspect Siobhan is just teaching me a lesson, so I’m trying to take it in as I look around for the next turn the road has prepared for me. 🤔
I must say though, it was just the first two days while we get to know each other and our habits. She was just too busy and couldn’t get organised well enough, where the issue came from.
Afterwards we got along pretty well and I was actually sorry when came the time to leave. Which was another unexpected and a bit odd plan change, but later for that…
It’s cold. Very cold. And it’s beautiful. Even more beautiful. 🥰🥶💨🥰
But the house is warm. The wood-burning stove powers the radiators, and the almost metre-thick walls keep the heat inside for a long time.
10 December 2022 – Nenagh, Ireland
The farm is remote without any settlements or transport, so my only option is to go out with Siobhan when she leaves for work and come home with her.
Which I do. 😉
I walk around Nenagh for a few hours, finding a second hand shop in the meantime to buy some warm pants. I also climb the tower (entrance free of course) to see the town from above, while wondering how the soldiers in ancient times climbed up with armor and weapons, as I was struggling with a backpack and a camera and barely made my way up the narrow steep stairs. 🤔🤦🏻♀️
I ended up having another hour to wait before Siobhan finished work and we can head back. Soooo, this was the moment I’ve been waiting for – the tour ended in an Irish pub over a cup of Irish coffee!
Oh yeah! After the first sip, I felt the heat running through my veins! It was definitely not too much coffee inside… 😜🥃☕😁
17 December 2022 – Lough Derg, Ireland – Windy islands tour
A nice leisurely walk by the Lough Derg lakeside and a cup of aromatic coffee in the nearby town – Killaloe. It was cold, we were all skating (including the dog) on the frozen ground, but so peaceful and beautiful.
I don’t know, I didn’t get to see much of Ireland (plans change on the go and I don’t usually get asked for my opinion 🤣) but from the little I did get a chance to see and feel, I know I’ll be back again one day.
Preferably not in the winter… 😂🥶😝
In the meanwhile, I got another offer from Workaway and this time for paid work. And in Scotland! Do you think I had to think twice?! And they wanted me ASAP. Yet, having some past experience with the Scottish loyalty, I was a bit cautious and waited everything to be confirmed, the address, details, etc… and a few days extra.
Then I arranged with Siobhan to leave earlier than planed (I need a paid position and she understand that), arranged to stay with a friend in Edinburgh for a few days to have a look around and bought my ticket to Scotland. Just to receive a message a few hours latter, that the Scots have changed their mind… 🙄🤦🏻♀️
What’s wrong with those people, I keep wondering?!? They have just left me hanging in the air with a ticket to nowhere and with no place to go to… Yeah, there is something definitely wrong here… 🤔
Anyway, I should be fine, as always! Yet, it’s not the way you treat people! Not at all!!!
But I am still going to Scotland – I’ve already got a ticket anyway and have some Windy islands to explore! 😉
GALERIES
