Life-Work Balance

It doesn't matter how intensive your work is, how time consuming your studies are and how tired you get home after all of them. You should always make time for some other activity, it can be sports, some artistic hobby or whatever, as long as you enjoy it. Another important thing about this hobby is that it must be something you do constantly and don't skip no matter what. It might sound complicated but it's actually as simple as forcing it into your schedule and not giving up on it (and to yourself).

For me, practicing Judo is a great way to get my mind set on something other than work and everyday thoughts, it makes me concentrate on an entirely different thing. One of the things I like about it is that the great physical effort you have to put into a training session is a huge contrast to my work, that involves mostly sitting in front of a computer in different angles.

Yes, it can get tedious, making progress is hard and there are those days when I have to struggle myself not to give up on the training session. But the fact is that most of the time and especially after showing up for a session after missing a few I have real, genuine fun and that's what it's all about.

Traveling

I haven't blogged in a month, and for a good reason too. I was traveling Ireland for two and a half weeks and after physically landing it took some time to mentally land and even more time to "catch up with life" - organize my photos from Ireland, watch all the episodes I've missed while being abroad, etc..

This trip is obviously something I should write about, my trip companions actually offered all kind of ideas during the trip, but I don't really know what to write. As I write those lines I don't know yet what I will write about. Really. I guess I'll just write some outline of the trip and interesting highlights for those of you who plan to visit Ireland as well.

Part I - Shortened version of the Wicklow Way

Since we wanted to make the most of the time we had and the last part seemed a bit boring, we decided to start from Dublin and walk only for five days - up to Moyne/Tinahely and not up to Clonegal. 

The walk was really great. Especially since we had no rain at all during walking (and in general great weather), actually we had lots of luck since everyone we talked with before the trip told us we'd be totally soaked inside out, in reality the massive coat I brought ended up as just a burden, the only times I took it out of my bag was when I moved it to another bag. We had some rain during the first two evenings and some rain on the last two days in Ireland - and that's it. Oh, and one evening when one of the guys hung his clothes to dry outside, but that wasn't me so it doesn't count. All in all this absence of rain is another proof to my belief that I have tons of excess luck. Anyway, words (except maybe "Green") won't really describe our walk so you can either check out the photos or walk the Wicklow Way yourself (recommended option), and we've learned a few lessons as well:

Tip 1: Public transportation in Ireland sucks:

a. It's expansive - buses are expansive, taxis are expansive and trains I prefer to forget (31.5 euro for a train from Galway to Dublin).

b. It's hard to find. When planning to quit the Wicklow Way early we didn't consider the fact that we won't be able to find a bus and the "taxi" we eventually used was an elderly guy with a van (that robbed us nonetheless).

So what do you do? Whenever possible just rent a car, this method has it's own limitations (drop-off points and the like) but it's much more convenient and cheaper.

Tip 2: Don't carry around your big bags. The places you stay at, will be glad to transfer your belongings to your next stop for a fee (usually 20 euros), but it's worth it. And if you picked Ireland you can probably afford it.

Funny 1: We're lame. During the walk we've met many people doing the Wicklow Way. Many of those people aged more than twice our own age and they didn't even bother listening to my second tip... embarrassment indeed.

Part II - The South

Next we rented a car and visited:

a. Around Cork: 

Blarney Castle - a nice castle which has the "Stone of Eloquence" on the top floor, kissing it is not a simple task, so unlike other visitors we decided to pass.

Fota Wildlife Park - a very nice wildlife park - unlike a zoo, animals are not behind bars and mostly (not the cheetahs though) are separated from humans only by water or modest wire fences. 

b. Around Killarney:

A whole day of cycling in the Killarney National Park - Ross Castle, the Gap of Dunloe andMuckross House, including sailing through the three lakes by boat. 

This little adventure took some recovering from.

Part III - The West

In this part we dropped of the car and stayed for three days in Doolin - the place where everyone owns a B&B (at least one).

a. Walked the section of the Burren Way from it's beginning to Doolin (we took a bus to the beginning) through the magnificent Cliffs of Moher.

Tip 3: The Burren Way. Looking now (we didn't have a map as we did the walk) at maps I have, it seems there are at least two versions of the Burren Way - one that starts in Lahinch and simply skips the Cliffs of Moher and one that starts at Lisacnnor and goes through the cliffs. We tried to do the second version but it was very poorly signed (unlike the Wicklow Way), luckily we realized going down at the cliffs didn't make sense.

b. Took a ferry to the largest of the Aran Islands - Inishmor - and cycled through it (this time it was much easier).

Tip 4: Unless you stay for the night you have only about three hours to visit the island before the return ferry arrives.

Tip 5: There's an option to take ferries for the islands from Galway as well, an option worth exploring.

c. Spent about half a day in Galway.

Part IV - Northern Ireland and around

After a brief stop in Dublin to celebrate Rosh-HaShana and rent a car we headed up north.

a. On the way north we visited the megalithic tombs at Bru na Boinne.

b. We stayed at Carlingford near the invisible border and did a short (about 11 km) walking route - poor signing again.

c. Drove to the very north of Northern Ireland and been to the Giant's Causeway. 

Funny 2: When we finished with the Giant's Causeway it was already dark, we were hungry and we had a long long drive back to Carlingford so we entered a nearby hotel to eat. I don't know why but we were total strangers there - everyone looked at us,  they didn't know how to charge us for the beer and asked us to another room to serve us dinner, strange...

Part V - Dublin

We had about two days in Dublin - one before going up north and the last day, can't say the city is too exciting, the Guinness Storehouse is nice but unless you're a Guinness fanatic it's not that much of a thrill. Also there are some nice museums.

That's all folks.

Of course, if anyone is really planning on visiting Ireland, I'll be more than happy to answer any questions.