My mommy

Not to mention the fact that I'm in new sweatpants (going chav, perhaps?), have just had an awesomely warm shower, and have a pack of the waffles my Oma and Opa used to get me when I was a kid.

It's been a fun two days. We've conquered three markets (Albert Cuypmakt, Noordermakt, and Lindengracht market), each with ridiculously cheap goods on sale (hence the sweatpants) and tons of interesting people strolling up and down.

Market

We made it to the Dam, approached Madame Tussauds (but changed our minds when the long queue and the Price of entry became known to us), and ended up searching for legendary Grandma's Appletart (and found a place that probably wasn't THE place, but still had awesome tart).

Protest going on in Dam Square

Yesterday we went on the Canalbus - a really nice method of getting around the city and seeing the touristy spots, as it allows you to hop off and go do your photo-taking, gasping-in-awe thing, and then hop back on the next one an hour or so later.

Canal view

Captain

My mom managed to get me to take off my ridiculous purple beanie, but then I went and found myself another equally ridiculous one. :)

Me and my hat v.2

I met my old pal, Freddy, down in Dam Square. He tried to kidnap me, but I fought him off.

Me and my buddy

And tomorrow my mom's setting off back home to where the sun is hiding, so I still have another day of exploring the city ahead. I'm also quite excited as tomorrow will also be my first CouchSurfing experience. Let's hope it works.

written by  Brigid Jelsma on February 5, 2011 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Walk a little further to another plan
tagged Amsterdam
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Welsh is fascinating and confusing as anything. Apparently they have seven vowels, double L makes the sound shhl, and the people are extremely patriotic regarding it. I met Sai, the host I was staying with in Caernarfan, and he showed me around the cute town.

Caernarfon Castle

Caernarfan is right by the coast, very much the typical Welsh town you see in movies, and to walk along the little path between the water and lush green fields was quite an experience. Sai had the cutest puppy (Luna), who scampered about and explored the area.

Luna (Sai's puppy)

Staying with him was really fun, and his roomates are also pretty cool. Sai made stirfry for supper and then the five guys took me to their local pub, where we played pool, drank a LOT, and took turns choosing songs on the jukebox. But me and Gareth were sorely disappointed by the lack of good music on the thing. It didn't have Mumford & Sons, MGMT or Beirut. Terrible.

Then we staggered home, somehow having reduced our numbers to three (me, Sai and Gareth), and crashed.

It was really fun. :)

written by  Brigid Jelsma on February 8, 2011 from Caernarfon, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Walk a little further to another plan
tagged Wales
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After meeting Sai and Gwynn for lunch I hopped on a bus back to Bangor, where I met Antonia. She is a really interesting lady, with many tales to tell of her experiences in Africa and the rest of the world. Her House was really homely, and reminded me strongly of my Opa and Oma's House in the Netherlands. We spent ages chatting about pretty much everything, and then Sarah, a Couch Surfer from France, came in, and we began to make supper.

One of Antonia's friends came over for the meal, and it was a really relaxed, pleasant evening, with good food and good company.

The bed was devine. Soft and comfy and perfect. I honestly felt I was staying in five star B&B.

The following morning I went for a walk with Antonia's puppy, then spent some time helping out in the garden and doing a few chores around the House. It was actually quite satisfying to be doing something worthwhile.

I'm a bit sad to leave Wales as I really don't feel I've spent enough time here. But, sitting here on the train, watching green slopes and little Houses slip past, I know I'll come back, eventually.

written by  Brigid Jelsma on February 9, 2011 from Bangor, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Walk a little further to another plan
tagged Wales
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This book will contain the warped babble that spews forth from my brain. And, hopefully, it will stop me from saying my nonsense out loud, but I'm afraid I'm not that optimistic. I tend to move through life in a constant state of confusion. I confuse myself. I confuse everyone. I even have arguments in my own head.

I'm just going to do the boring thing and give you some background to all this. I am eighteen. I have a kitten, wonderful parents, and two older brothers who I simultaneously adore and blame for everything in my life. At the moment I am on a gap year. I tell everyone the year off is for me to 'figure out where I want to go with my life', but in reality I think it's just my being too lazy to go straight to university. Then again, even that point I'm not too sure on, because I do actually have to figure out what I'm going to spend the rest of my miserable life doing. So maybe I'm not lazy?

Anyway, most of my friends are back in Cape Town beginning the courses that will lead to jobs and stable lives and then marriages, mortgages, children, pensions and DEATH. Maybe I'm delaying the inevitable by running away? Or maybe I just have a depressing outlook on the lives of the responsible?

I started 'planning' my gap year when I was in grade ten. But that just consisted of bold talk and squiggles drawn over maps of the world. 'Yeah, so I'm going there and there and, ooooh, yeah, I HAVE to go there.' It's still just bold talk and squiggles, but, oh jesus, I'm actually in the middle of a squiggle!

See, thanks to all my shit talking to pretty much everyone, I somehow got myself trapped into this 'massive trip where I'm going to see EVERYTHING'. I told too many people. I'm too stubborn. I'm experiencing too much fun and terror to chicken out now.

The plan, devised while meant to be studying for my final geography exam, has unfortunately been pretty successful. Joe, the eldest of my two big brothers, has been working as a vet in the UK for a while. So, abandoning my kitten, parents, one brother and all my friends, I left South Africa and moved to the grey northern part of the world, supposedly to earn money for when I begin travelling the rest of Europe.

I've been working at Domino's Pizza ever since.... The End.

written by  Brigid Jelsma on February 21, 2011 from Hertford, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Walk a little further to another plan
tagged Book and Hertford
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I can barely go five minutes without getting excited about it. Everyone around me is getting sick of my constant 'CouchSurfing, so amazing, staying here and here and there and travelling with this guy and meeting them there and have to see this and that and, have I mentioned how amazing CouchSurfing is???'

To be honest, I'm surprised my brother hasn't strangled me. I am a bit obsessed. But can you blame me?

Anyway, the start of my 'massive trip where I'm going to see EVERYTHING' is Dublin. 31st of March. At the moment I'm still bouncing ideas around, but it looks as though I'm going to be travelling through Ireland either with three other people or with a guy called Mark.

I'm kind of leaning toward travelling with Mark as finding CouchSurfing hosts willing to put up four people will be a bit tough.

My plan is to spend a few days in Dublin (maybe hit the music scene), then head South through Kildare, Kilkenny and down to Cork, explore the coastal region for a bit and then make my way up to Shannon in time for my flight to France (Nantes) on the 14th of April.

Two weeks isn't really long enough to discover Ireland, but it'll have to do.

And then, my French adventure shall begin! A few days in Nantes, and then I'll make my way down to Tarbes to spend two weeks with my WorkAway hosts in the Pyrenees Mountains.

Could I be more lucky? Or happy? Maybe if my best friends were here with me, but other than that....

:D

As I stepped out of the building, Andy's warning rang fresh in my mind, but I thought, "Pffft, I come from South Africa. I can handle ANYTHING.' Not, and I make this clear, that South Africa is a terribly dangerous place, because on the whole it really isn't, but compared to Hertford where a bit of graffiti gets into the tabloids... well....

I put my hood up and hunched up my shoulders, did my best to send out a 'don't mess with me' vibe and began my adventure.

It was lovely. The wind was brisk and the air was fresh. Reflections in the canal were disturbed only by the occasional duck settling down for the night, and all I could hear was the 'shhht, shht, shht' of my jacket as I walked.

Then it occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to hear someone approaching from behind....

I glanced back. The path was clear. I continued walking.

Or was it? I glanced back again. What was that shadow at the corner there? I walked faster.

Oh, shit, I nearly walked into someone! (And that poor old lady will probably get back home and tell her husband about the crazy dark figure that nearly trampled her.)

Berating myself, I continued along my way, determined to make it to my favourite spot in the marshes. It was no longer about getting some fresh air. It was now KILL OR BE KILLED. Nah, it was just my being too stubborn to go home.

Once I stepped out onto the open plains of King's Meads, I began to relax. The sky was a burnt pink. In the distance I could hear the faint drone of distant highways. Across the marshes I could see the warm glow of houses. Ahead of me, I could see tiny dark patches hopping around as bunnies scampered out of sight.

It felt lonely. Lonely in the way one must feel standing alone at the top of a mountain, gazing down at the world. It was beautiful.

Feeling emotional, I settled down on the mound and closed my eyes for a few moments. It was so peaceful. The air was so pure. No one around for miles.

A thought popped into my head: 'what if I'm not alone?'

I glanced around me, eyes skirting the perimeter, falling on an unidentifiable dark-spot. It moved. Jerking upright, I stared it down. It moved again.... My heart thudded. I crept closer.

A bird took flight from the bush I'd been staring at....

Feeling stupid, I took another quick look around me and then settled back down.

Harsh breathing came from somewhere to my far left. I held my ground; I wasn't going to be a chicken again. It didn't stop.

I began backing away. I could see the silhouette of something that didn't fit in with the trees or shrubs. I grabbed my bag.

It was then that my mind decided to remind me that I'd crossed a lit up area as I came into the King's Meads, so anyone already there would have seen me approaching....

That thought had me stumbling back along my route as fast as possible. Every dark figure was menacing. Every time I looked behind me there was a dark figure following me.

I got back onto the proper path and nearly fell into the canal when a branch brushed my arm. The path was lit, but only for about 20 metres. Beyond that I had to pass under a bridge.... There was a smear of water across the path (as though something had been dragged?).

Then there was a man holding a knife that turned into a tree.

A torso of a dismembered women that turned into an assortment of flower pots.

A face in the water that turned into a duck's bottom.

I felt stupid.

And then the hoarse breathing started up again... louder.

My panic rose....

The breathing came closer, closer, closer. The water in the canal began lapping against the side. I spun around.....

And saw a barge approaching.

The big, scary, hoarsely-breathing monster passed me by and I felt more stupid than ever.

But still, there definitely was a dark figure following me. I could see it just where the light lit up the pathway.

I got past the Old Barge, crossed the bridge and rounded the corner, looking back on the path I'd just come along....

The dark figure behind me turned into a young woman walking her dog....

What a night. I'm exhausted!

written by  Brigid Jelsma on March 14, 2011 from Hertford, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Walk a little further to another plan
tagged Hertford
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I survived the packing experience with only a mildly traumatic sensation of ‘there’s something I’m forgetting’. First aid kit, tampons (sorry to all male readers), shampoo, a travel towel, a compass (always necessary, especially with my awful sense of direction - which way’s north again?), undies, socks and then the not-so-essential things: my passports, Eurail passes and clothes.

Anyway, so I think I’m prepared for everything up to and including a nuclear apocalypse, and, if you believe my brother, that could actually be quite soon.

And, despite Ryanair’s best attempts, I made it to Dublin in one, mostly undamaged piece. This city is amazing.

It’s really similar to Amsterdam, but I feel a lot more comfortable here (for the obvious reason that makes Amsterdam one of the main tourist destinations). Let’s just say Dublin is a more PG version and leave it at that.

There are statues on every street corner, people busking at the sides, tons of interesting, little shops, no shortage of internet cafes, and it’s all within reasonable walking distance. O’ Connell Street was my first delightful discovery and, once on that, it’s so easy to find everything.

My host was friendly and welcoming, but unfortunately had to work most of the time, so I barely saw him. But, despite that, I had the house key and a plan!

I’d checked couchsurfing events and found one! My aim: arrive at the meeting and get to know a whole bunch of people. I showed up, rang the bell and a guy came out. “I’m here for the couchsurfing meeting?” He just looked at me. There was no meeting that night. That’s on Wednesdays. It was a Thursday. Once again, I’d failed to read something correctly.

But, Andy (as I later learned was his name) told me to come inside anyway. And that was probably the best thing that could have happened to me.

The hangout is kind of like a communal place where anarchists and activists and like-minded people spend their free time. So far I’ve attended a squat group meeting, learned how to make seed-bombs, joined an anti-fur protest and have made some awesome friends. And tonight I get to hear Erik sing! That should be interesting….

And last night I met up with another couch surfer, Tom, and had my first pint of Guinness. It was good. You know, for beer. But nevertheless, it’s still BEER. Cider and cocktails all the way. Oh, and shots, don’t forget those. And I’m not actually an alcoholic, if you’re wondering.

Hmmm, what else can I say? I went to Dublin Prison for a tour with two other couch surfers, I went to Phoenix Park, the National Art Museum, the National Museum, the Chester Beatty Library, wandered through Trinity College, saw Dublin Castle, Christ Church, went along the river, lay in the sun in Remembrance Park, stared up at the spire and got a sore neck (it’s SO high), and am now in an internet café updating everyone so they don’t convince themselves that I’m dead and am in need of rescuing.

The point is: I am having an amazing time. Dublin is great. Visit it. That’s an order.

Tomorrow I’m heading down toward Kilkenny to stay with a new host, so here’s hoping that I don’t miss my bus at ten in the morning!

written by  Brigid Jelsma on April 2, 2011 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Walk a little further to another plan
tagged Ireland
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Erik and his band played and they were brillinat! Their band's name is the gaelic word for Anarchy, so you can pretty much guess what they were singing about. Then this other guy I hadn't met before took the stage with his band and for the first time in my life I had a song dedicated to me by a musician! He pointed at me, asked my name and said, 'This song is for Brigid'.

Let's just say, I was pretty chuffed.

And to make it even more awesome, he really could sing! I would actually buy their album if they ever get stuff recorded.

Afterwards, we got chatting and I discovered his name - Brian. Then I convinced him to meet me somewhere in Waterford to join me for my trip across Ireland, but I don't think he can get away from work and stuff so spontaneously. But, anyway, another friendship was forged!

Oooh, and, on that note, I also made friends with this Polish man and he's very nearly convinced me to throw Poland into my trip as well!!! But I'll just have to see where I am and how I'm feeling by the time I get to eastern Europe.

Then there was a minor disaster - Aga, who I was meant to stay with that night came looking for me, but just missed me. And her phone wasn't working - PANIC. But it was actually quite comical. Andy, Erik and Conner found it highly amusing because, as they put it, 'We wouldn't leave you out on the streets, you know?'

I ended up walking up to random people at Seomra Spraoi and asking them if they had a 'free couch, bed, spot on the floor, anything?' Once that was sorted (and you'll be amazed at how many people were willing to help) I could finally relax and enjoy the terrible dance music that Brian's housemate was DJing.

Yesterday morning, I hopped on a bus, ditched Dublin and headed towards a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere. Leighlinbridge. And, when I say 'tiny', I really mean it. There is one tiny little corner shop that serves as the village supermarket. Granted, there are loads of pubs and one touristy hotel (in which I'm currently sitting and stealing internet), but STILL! It's absolutely lovely.

I went for a really nice walk (with my massive backpack on my back and my little backpack on my front) along the river, killing time and stopping randomly when my shoulders started to complain. Then I found a nice little corner to fall alseep in, hugging my bags and wriggling until I was comfortable.

Then I moved a little further along the path and fell asleep in a new spot, and so on and so forth until a fisherman who had seen me pass him a few dozen times eventually sat with me and offered me a beer, and we got chatting.

It was wonderful!

Then I met up with Aileen (my couch surfing host) and was shown the luxurious room I was to stay in. Aileen is amazing. She welcomed me to stay despite the short notice of my request, and has gone above and beyond what's required of a host. Plus, she has REALLY great taste in music!

Today I am just going to chill out and take it easy, recover from the late nights in Dublin and wander around the town. I'm quite looking forward to it, actually.

written by  Brigid Jelsma on April 4, 2011 from Leighlinbridge, Ireland
from the travel blog: Walk a little further to another plan
tagged Ireland
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Leaving Leighlinbridge was a bit sad, as I had a really great time there with Aileen and the town is absolutely charming. We went out the previous night to a little pub with Aileen's friend, Ben - a wonderful guy who is really great fun, and three ladies from various countries in Africa. It definitely made a night!

But, yes, I hitchhiked away.

People are so amazing!! One young Polish man was so concerned about me he gave me his number to call if I had any problems and lifted me well out of his way. Another Irish bloke drove me pretty much right up to the address I was staying at. It was great fun! Even the bits of lull in between lifts, walking through random little towns, alongside fields of curious sheep.

And then I met Joe, the couchsurfer I'm staying with at the moment. And then I met his baby, Fay. Adorable! Such a cute little munchkin!!!

I actually got to look after her for a few hours and we wandered around Kilkenny Castle. She loves flowers. I am so tempted to kidnap her, honestly!

But the whole family is wonderful. Susie is from Switzerland, Joe teaches a form of martial arts, Fay is an angel (most of the time) and Sam is the cutest little lad ever. Today Joe was awesome enough to take me around the area, walking through forests, along rivers, drinking from holy wells and exploring monastries.

I really love Ireland. I could easily live here. So much open space. Lush green fields. Ruins covered in moss. Loads of interesting mythology. People who just chat to you without prompting. It's wonderful.

I'm sitting in a little pub in Thomastown, sipping a Magners. I think I'll actually survive this trip.

written by  Brigid Jelsma on April 6, 2011 from Thomastown, Ireland
from the travel blog: Walk a little further to another plan
tagged Ireland
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