# Irish Traveller journal



## dubh (Jun 14, 2018)

This thread will be posted periodically with my Irish travel log. Recently I left my hometown via train (paid not hopped). I haeded to New York and caught a flight first to Iceland then to Dublin. I will be posting pics and updates. I am travelling by bike. I am busking in Galway next. I was able to get through immigration by having a name to give as an invitation and because I am on disability I had proof of income and return travel. I spent the first day cruising around dublin listening to buskers and picking up my bicycle from a used bicycle tinkerer with a good deal. I will be sleeping rough and dumpster diving most of this trip. Looking forward to hitting the Irish countryside. 

pic of my hometown train depot, which also is a hub for freight trains and a crew change sport. Nearest depot is in Cleveland.


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## dubh (Jun 14, 2018)

pic from plane taking off from Raykevic Iceland. Iceland was pretty cool, so far the biggest hurdle is trying to get away from American zombies everywhere you turn. Iceland has a really nice standard of living, cool place, not just the ice.


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## dubh (Jun 20, 2018)

So I arrived into Dublin after transfer in Iceland. One is struck of the irony of an Irish-American waiting in a long ass line for immigration as streams of non-Irish Europeans go past scan their Ids and walk into the country. The immigration guy gave me a few odd stares few odd questions but since I had answers and a return ticket he let me pass. So there I was in new glitzy Dublin.

my only goal in dublin, meet my bike person to pick up a pre-arranged purchase of a re-built bike, if ever in Dublin, hookup with 'dublinbikeman' for a good ride and deal by a bike enthusiast if you have the spare euros. be mindful, no buses have bike racks, the roads be a wee bit too slender here for those protrusions on the front as we have in the Americas. so you will be biking everwhere but that is also good because walking sucks more to me. i always try to get into the pale (dublin) and out of the pale as soon as possible, it's great for a few hours but after that i'm ready to go. 

ended up a hostel with nice breakfast, then started a bike journery from dublin to athlone through the countryside, on my way to Galway city and eventually the gaeltacht (native irish areas). riding in the countryside was well worth it never mind the 20kmh head wind that comes from the west the whole way or 60lbs of added baggage on the bike. i took a route along the royal canal through meath and westmeath, which is where my ancestors lived 800 years ago before the Norman invasion and plantations of those areas, one plantation town that stuck out was moate, one is amazed at how even today there is a distinct Norman culture there compared to native areas of ireland (the countryside). It was interesting to see where my people came from and how it was possible we got our family name, as it is related to cows and you see plenty of cows and sheep there every direction you look. 

My first nighht I was in enfield, I drunk Irishhman showed me a good place to sleep, the woods by the train station. I got some rest as it started to rain heavier.

I returned to my route, went through several small villages. the farming people are incredibly nice and warm and welcoming. the small villages I stopped off in had some really nice people. Although all the people in cars going from Dublin to Galway are well, people in cars going from one big city to the next, you know the types. 

i spent my second nighht in a derelict barn. see pics. strung my hammock up on the beams. 

the next day I biked 52km to Athlone and caught the train to Galway. There are bike racks on the main trains. Although you may have to yell at people to mover their luggage, that is when you should use your American accent since it sounds 'rougher' and people move their luggage 

I arrived in Galway with a bad cold. there is plenty of busking here. I have not yet busked, but after my next trip to the Gaeltacht I may busk. I am off to the west coast to study gaelic next, a bike and bus trip.


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## dubh (Jun 21, 2018)

buskers in Galway and Merlin Park a great forested area.


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## dubh (Jun 21, 2018)

buskers playing traditional irish music


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## dubh (Jun 22, 2018)

found this awesome forest squat location short distance from downtown Galway City.


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## dubh (Jun 22, 2018)

palmazon said:


> Ireland was very hospitable to me back in nineteen hundred & 86; I’m probably olde enough to be yer father... Oops - praps I shouldn’t broadcast that


naaa. were probably around the same age. I was first in Ireland in '89. 

Cheers.


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## dubh (Jun 24, 2018)

getting drunk at a pub listening to irish music


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## dubh (Jun 24, 2018)

so after getting drunk at the pub last night I snuck into a caravan park and camped illegally. Luckily they had lotsa dumpsters. snagged a full box of cereal, bran flakes... all around a fun night. <robots included  >


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## dubh (Jun 25, 2018)

Today I journeyed to Knockmoyle Ireland to stay at a "money free" mini-farm. It is incredible by traveller standards. I first heard about the main backer Mark Boyle through his work 'The Moneyless Manifesto' The farm is very nice. It is a great mini-autonomous zone. 

I will post more on this later. I biked through the Galway countryside 24km to get here, ironically just as i pulled in my back tire blew out, you know what they say about wagon wheels and settling.


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## dubh (Jul 1, 2018)

some more pics from the farm in Ireland. It was a fun week here. I discovered a group that lets you stay at various organic farms in exchange for labor in Ireland.


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## dubh (Jul 7, 2018)

Abandoned Farm near Letterkenny. The place to get drunk if under 18.


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## dubh (Jul 7, 2018)

tramp camping which is illegal in ireland. a county donegal forest squat site.


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## dubh (Jul 19, 2018)

and then i found a secure forested area that I have been squatting for the last couple weeks with no plans to go anywhere else since it's in my ancestral zone where there are plenty of people that look, act, think, like me. and not just when drunk, but we do like to get blitzed.


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## VikingAdventurer (Jul 19, 2018)

Great thread. I absolutely LOVE the pics!

Ireland is DEFINITELY on my bucket list, for sure.


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## dubh (Jul 21, 2018)

so while exploring the forest I am squatting in I found this abandoned farm building in the middle of the forest.


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## scntfc (Jul 31, 2018)

Updates? Cool story breh!


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