Italia2Eire

My new house in Dublin

2010-05-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Rock of Dunamaise and Killarney

2010-04-22T00:56:00.000-07:00

On my way from Dublin to Killarney, I stopped to take some pictures at the Rock of Dunamaise.

Post St. Patrick's

2010-04-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

So my first Paddy's day here in Ireland. I was expecting something more traditional, but the day surprised me with a very colourful parade similar to the one we have in Italy for "carnevale", where masked people and chariots parade through the main street.
People attending the event (me included) were also wearing all sorts of green clothes and accessories, from stupid hats to temporary tattoos, in a very contagious "Irish pride" emotion!

Check out the pictures here! (please note my Italo-Irish look!)

St. Patrick 2010

Motivational poster

2010-03-02T20:45:00.001-08:00

Trim Castle

2010-02-26T08:20:00.001-08:00

So winter season is at his best (sort of), and traveling with the motorbike is not so nice. But with a 14 € return bus ticket, you can get outside Dublin and experience the (cold) hinterland, in particular the town of Trim, where a very scenic castle has been used as a location for Braveheart movie.

Here are the picture of the trip!

trim

Some extra pictures taken during the trip

2010-02-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

I had some extra pictures saved on my mobile, and I got a chance to download them to a computer via bluetooth just now, 5 months after I took them.

They've been taken in the south west of France, when I was hosted in Fa (near Foix). I was impressed by the castles and the cliffs of this region on the Pyrenees.

Carcassone

Snowy Dublin!

2010-01-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

Howth in a foggy morning (with my parents)

2009-12-18T06:06:00.001-08:00

Howth genitori

Outside Dublin

2009-11-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

Howth

Malahide

Carlingford

Monasterboyce

The coast

Glenlough

Long term accomodation in Dublin

2009-09-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

Let's face it: Dublin is one of the, if not the top, expensive cities in Europe. So like everything else, rents for rooms are quite high, especially in the very city center.

My search for a room took me one full week. The first and only resource you'll need is the Daft website: all the ads are there. So grab a PC, pen and paper, mobile phone and a map of the city, and start browsing the ads in the website. Don't bother sending email or text, most of the time you'll get no answer: just pick up the phone and dial the number on the ads. I called or texted about 50 (!) before finding my room.

Most of them won't answer or will tell you the room is already gone. But a few will arrange a viewing for you (I had 15 viewing before finding my room). Of this, some of them won't like you (or at least, they didn't like me), so you will get "Well, yeeeeees, but I have other people viewing, I'll let you know tomorrow", and other will be crap rooms. It's very difficult to find a good room!

Some house are really in a bad area, with nackers fighting in the streets. Others are really crappy: mold on the ceiling, broken fornitures and facilites, low or total absence of cleaning. Others are good, but not so good to jusstify that price. With the recession, price have dropped, but still a single room in the City Center is 350 to 500 Euro per month, a double room (but just for 1 person) is 450 to 600, and if it's ensuite, you can add 100.

At the end I found this place in Ringsend, Dublin 4, 450 Euro for a double room, sharing the house with two professional girls, all mod cons and with a safe park for my motorbike. Usually Dublin 4 is a posh and fancy zone, but they told me Ringsend is the worst area of D4, but it's still safer and cleaner than most of the City Center north of the Liffey, and less expensive than other D4 areas, so I'm happy with it!

All the photos of the trip

2009-09-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

A bit late, the list of all the pictures I took during my trip, on Google Picasa albums

Istres

Poitiers

on the ferry

Ballymakeera

Galway

Falcarragh

Dublin

My room

2009-09-18T08:33:00.001-07:00

I finally found a room for a long-term accommodation, in a nice house in Ringsend. Here's the video!

Four Courts Hostel, Dublin

2009-09-18T03:43:00.000-07:00

I stayed one night at Rory's place, then I moved to the hostel because I didn't wanted to stay at someone place for a week while searching for a long-term accommodation.

I had already booked the Four Courts Hostel via internet before leaving Italy, and it turned out it was a very good decision: the hostel is one of the best I've ever been to, regarding cleanliness and facilities. The kitchen is huge, clean and you have anything you need. I stayed in different rooms (10 beds, 6 beds and 12 beds dorms) and I would recommend avoiding the 12 beds because you will share the bathroom with a lot of people, but the 10 beds and 6 beds have ensuite. The only downside is that there is a locker (you need to bring your own lock) every two beds, so there is a chance yours will be already taken by someone else.

I met some nice people there, if they will ever read this blog, it was nice to meet you Paddy and Marjolen! The staff is friendly and the location is not so bad, along the Liffey river, so I would recommend anyone looking for an hostel in Dublin to give this a try.

I've been viewing a lots of rooms while staying here, I contacted more than 40 landlords! and arranged a viewing for about 15 of them. Finding a room in Dublin is so difficult! At the end of the week I went back to Rory's place for a couple of night, because staying in the hostel was expensive (actually the fees were not high at all, but zero is defenitely cheaper than any other fee :)).

The end of the trip...

2009-09-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

I warn you, this post will be very sentimental, because I finally made it. The trip is over.
16 days, 2 countries, 4.400 km, 800 Euro (including petrol, food and all expenses) and countless number of people met.

These are just numbers, not enough to describe the awesome experience this trip was for me. I'm not exaggerating when I say this trip was an unique enriching experience that got me in contact with so many ideas and different philosophies. So my advice to my friends living in Italy (or any other country) is: leave. Leave now when you still have no wife and kids, and experience how the world really is outside your city. Having lived for all of your life in a single city, or in a single country, is not enough.
You'll have time to come back later, and settle down with your own family for the rest of your life (if you ever want). But don't miss the chance to have an experience like that, as it will really enrich your life. Travel alone, so you will have to talk to strangers. Travel in cities and countryside, and be hosted by people with different nationality and lifestyles, so you'll get in contact with the most different life styles. Travel for a long time, so it will not be a short break from home but something more, and maybe you'll forget you had a home somewhere.

I know it's difficult to explain, but one thing I just realized in this trip is that you should not be afraid of traveling, and I'm not talking about 1-week holidays. I'm talking about moving from one country to another, trying to figure out where you'll future will be. Because all the difficulties you'll find in moving will slowly disappears while you gain consciousness that all you really need is a small bag and your life. You just need the minimum amount of money to survive (eating, finding a shelter) but you'll realize all the expensive modern amenities, PCs, TVs, cars/motorbikes, good clothes, are nothing compared to the experience you'll be living. I was not sure my motorbike could make it to the end, but after a few days I was not worried anymore: if it would have stopped somewhere, I could just leave it there and start hitchhiking, or continue with trains or buses. If someone would have stolen my bag, as long as I still had 50 euros with me, I could buy new pants, t-shirt and towel to continue the trip. If I would have missed the ferry I already booked, I would have certainly found another way around.

I'm not saying you don't need money or that you should be a beggar, it was a real comfort for me having a bank account with some money in it so I know that even if someone would have stolen all my cash and bags, I still could get some money somehow to continue traveling. But anything else is superfluous. You are a bit squeamish? You don't feel comfortable in meeting strangers? You are very picky with food? You are not confident with your communication skills in another language? You are afraid of being stolen all your belongings? All these problem will vanish as you just realize that there might be a lot of evil people in the world, but also a lot of very friendly and helpful persons, and to go over any problem all you need is your will. You will realize that you don't really need many things that were important for you before. I use to say to people asking me why I had a big bag "well, at the moment that's my home", and it might have been a joke, but was not so far from reality.

I meet more than one person living their lives in this way, moving to a new country, working/studing there for one year or two, while saving some money for the next move, and then leaving for a new experience in a new country. I'm not saying you can do it for your whole life, but when if not now, when you're still young and have no family on your own? You'll eventually find the love of your life or a place you like so much, and you will settle down there for the rest of your life, but as long as you don't experience how the world outside that place really is, you will not have the opportunity of appreciating it.

So after these corny rants, I could officialy declare my trip is over... ...for now!

Day 16: the final ride

2009-09-14T02:59:00.001-07:00

4th September
And finally... the last ride from the cold north to my final goal, the capital, Dublin!

I was arriving in Dublin one day earlier than planned, so I still had to find a place to sleep for the night. I had the addresses of a couple of hostels (and I had already booked one hostel for the next days) but I wanted to give another try at CouchSurfing, so while on my way to Dublin, I stopped in an internet point and posted a message with my phone number on the "CS Dublin last minutes request" group board.

I wasn't expecting a reply, but two CSer contacted me on the mobile and offered me a place for the night! So I just decided to go to the first one answering, and it was Rory, a.k.a. DUBLINGUY, I think he's one of the most active CSer in the city if not in the entire country! He told me he was hosting a lot of people but he could spare a place.

I arrived in the city too early, he was still working, but I left all my stuff att the building reception and went for a walk in the city. So, finally, Dublin!!

Getting to the center with the motorbike wasn't difficult, as the city is not so big, compared to other european capitals. The problem here is that you don't have many parking spaces for motorbike, so luckly there is a public underground parking near Rory's, which should be free for motorbike (I hope!).

I remember the city center from my previous (short) visit last winter, so it looks familiar to me: Temple Bar, the Liffey, Trinity College, Grafton Street, O'Connell Street... Just the time for a walk and a hot choccolate in the (expensive!) City Center, then I went back to Rory, where I met this big men! He's so hospital he was hosting a bunch of people at this place, and he offered me to stay there as long as I needed! I met there some spanish and australian guys, and we went out togheter in a pub, where there was a CS party.

Day 15: the awesome County Donegal

2009-09-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

3rd September.
A new day in one of the most norther places of Ireland. There was a yellow thing, quite round, so bright, in the sky. Anyone was wondering what it was, then they remembered it should have been the Sun!
I think sunny days here are so rare people forget they ever exist. So the weather this morning looked fine, but hey, we're in Ireland, on the Atlantic coast, so just a few minutes after I started riding the motorbike heavy rain started to hit the road.

But to be honest, after so much rain in these days, I was not caring anymore, I didn't even stopped to wear the rainproof pants, I just continued raiding happily in the rain with the jeans. I was completely wet but I'm starting to suspect wetness is just a state of mind (or maybe the cold just ruined my brain!). So as the rain was coming and going every once in a while, I stayed with wet jeans and socks all day, but it was fine.

The landscape here is AWESOME. I've just been riding all day wandering in random directions, I passed the (non-existing) border with Northern Ireland and passed trough (London)Derry, but I was more interested in the countryside than in visiting city so I just went back to County Donegal and kept riding. I think I did some 200 km in the day, going up and down hills, along the cliffs on the coast and trough small towns. I also gained a sort of 6-th sense for spotting the rain, the fact here is that the rain is so localized (like it can be raining just in a 100m radius) and so fast-moving that you can spot the rain coming or passing by when riding. You can stop on top of a hill and look at the area, you can spot the rain moving very quickly, and wait to let it go ahead of you, or take another road to avoid it. It worked most of the time!!

At the end of this wonderful trip I come back to Falcarragh where Sarah was waiting for me. I just bought some food to cook an italian dinner for her, but it turned out she was a better cook than me, even with the "pasta alla carbonara"!
We spend the evening talking a lot about topics ranging from wolves and sheep to Italian and Northern Ireland history in the '70. And at the end we watched an Italian movie with english subtitles, "Mio fratello è figlio unico" (My brother is an only son), in front of a lit fireplace (!) as I had to remove the cold rain from my bones!

Day 14 (2nd september): the cold north

2009-09-06T03:34:00.000-07:00

Wake up in the morning after being up until 4am, quickly packed the bike, said goodbye to Blue, one of the most hospitable host I've ever met, and I'm again with tires on the road, pointing my headlight to the north.

I stopped just for lunch (a panino) and fuel, but I made some friends during the trip: two labrador dogs which I share a part of my paninno with :)

As I was traveling north, the nice countryside of Galway and central Ireland turned, after Sligo, in to the wild landscape I already saw on the south-west. And I think here the mountains are even higher (even if the highest mountain in Ireland is very low compared to continental Europe).
The cliffs on the ocean (like the Cliff of Moher) are very impressive, and so are the rocky hills and mountains, with the ever-present sheep cropping grass.

After a ride in a very cold rain, I finally got to Falcarragh, northern Co. Donegal, so one of the most northern point in Ireland. The weather here is so cold, even compared to Galway or the south. I met here Sarah and his family, his father (a good cook!) prepared an indian dinner for me, the three brothers and Sarah's boyfriend. After the dinner, tired and cold, I had a quick hot shower and went straight sleeping!

Day 13 (1st September): Crash course in arabic culture

2009-09-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

So as I said yesterday, this is Ramadan month and being hosted in a flat with arab people during these days is an unique chance for me to know more about this culture. During Ramadan muslim should be fasting all day, so they only eat when the sun goes down and before it raise again in the morning. Since they have to fast all day, their last chance to eat something before the day-long fasting is just before the sun is rising, so they stay awake all night to have a second dinner at about 4:30.

During the day I just went walking around the city, luckly the weather was not bad (that, in Ireland, translate to just a few showers during the day :)) so I had the chance to walk around the canalworks and visit the Galway Civic Museum. Galway looks like a small city, very cozy but not chaotic, people playing music in the street and in pubs, and lots of students (students dress the same way in all part of the world, I think :)).

At night I got back to Blue's "kasbah" :) and we made an agreement about dinner: I would have cooked the first dinner (9pm), so it would have been an Italian dinner (Pasta!), and Blue would have cooked the second one (after 2am), so it would have been an arabic dinner. So I cooked "pasta al pomodoro" and "pasta alla carbonara" for 7 people (it didn't tasted so bad after all) and then I stayed up all night talking with people and playing arabic cards game... and of course watching special Ramadan TV shows! It was very intresting.

Oh, in case you are wandering what is that "thing" in the picture, it's a multireligious window!

Day 12 (31st August): an awesome dinner

2009-09-06T02:35:00.000-07:00

The weather today is just as bad as yesterday. But it's the second days I'm staying in this place so, according to my ideal of a wandering trip, it's time to move again.

So I've put on the (supposed) rainproof wear and here I am on the road again. As I was supposed to be in Galway at 8pm, I decided to do some deviation during the road to explore the south-west. Mike suggested me to try the Ring of Kerry (a famous scenic drive), and so I did.

The landscape here is impressive. The harsh weather created a landscape without trees, just hills and mountains covered by grass where sheeps crop or simply sit in the middle of the street. The soil here seems to permanently wet, with strong wind sweeping the vegetation. So are the road, wet and windy, and very dangerous because here the speed limit is 100 km/h everywhere, even if there is a sudden U-turn with worn tarmac, that will be dangerous even at 60 km/h. It's so strange to see the 100 km/h limit sign gust before a dangerous bend!

I got lost (intentionally maybe!) a couple of time in the cliffs and hills surrounding the Ring of Kerry, but then I finally made my way to Galway. I arrived there in a very strong rain, so I stopped at a gas station and called Zool, my next host. He came to pick me up with Jennifer, a swiss girl, and he took me to Blue's house, where I would have been hosted. So even if Zool was "hosting" me, I wasn't staying at his home but at Blue's.

Blue is a nickname for Mahmoud Albloushi, a very very funny and crazy guy from Kuwait. This is also the month of Ramadan, so there was a lot of people, mostly from Saudi Arabia, staying at Blue's waiting for the night to have dinner. So staying here was a full immersion in arabic culture, and it was so intresting because I never had this chance before.

The same night, Zool cooked the most delicious soup I ever ate in my life, a secret Malay recipe keept by his family! And Jennifer prepared a delicious swiss dessert with marzipan, chocolate and dates. What a awesome dinner!!

Day 11 (30th August)

2009-09-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

The weather today was not very gentle with this Italian biker visiting the south of Ireland. It has been raining all the morning so I just stayed at Mike's place answering emails and doing stuff on the internet (you know, Facebook, CS, ...) until two friends of Mike came to visit him with teir lovely child, who is mad about bikes (see picture!).

We then spent the afternoon working on the motorbike, as it needed some electrical works on the rear lights, and Mike was really helpful in fixing them (he even had a spare bulb to replace the damaged one). We went shopping for food (with the car!) in Macroom town and... well that's everything we did today as it was raining and we really had no options. So it was just a relaxing day with no riding or sightseeing.

Day 10 (29th August)

2009-09-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

The impact with the Irish climate, once off of the ferry, has been quite rude, not because of the rain but because of the cold! Just 5 days ago I was still in the 37°C hot, now here it looks like the temperature is 17 °C.

I've been riding between Rosslare and Cork in the morning, trying to do by best to adapt to the left-side drive. I'm alive now so I think I somehow managed to do it.

I really feel I'm in a new word: the climate, the landscape, the people, even the gas stations and the shops; everything is different compared to mediterranean countries.

I've been driving without stopping for pictures or caring for the landscape, I was just worried to reach my next host before freezing in the rain, so at 4pm I arrived at the meeting point in a small town 60km from Cork, where Mike met me and took me to his log cabin in the wood.

Mike is a real motorbike enthusiast, and his place is full of motorbike spare parts, magazines and books. He traveled in Europe with his bike (a Triumph) and has some nice videos of him riding, shot with a bullet camera fixed on the bike.

His place is really nice but a bit secluded, and the evening I was too tired for anything, so I went sleeping early, sometime around 10pm.

Day 9: Faster! Faster! Faster!

2009-08-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

The trip today was a real challenge.
I wake up at 8am, I said goodbye to the kind Sandra at 9am, but at 10am I was still in the city, buying some food and being caught by a police camera for speeding. Then it even started to rain. So at the end I left Poitiers at 10:30am, and I hat to be in Roscoff at 4:30pm, including one stop for the lunch and 3 stops for the fuel.

Luckly the rain stopped after some minutes, but the temperature was still a bit cold. I rode for 6 hours ignoring anny speed limits, I don't know if any other police camera got some nice pictures of me but I hope they won't find me in Ireland!

The problem with the fuel in France, with a small fuel tank like mine, is that many gas station accept only bank cards, but I had only cash, plus on the national there are very few gas station, sometimes even one every 100 km. So the trip was like speeding at 130-140 km/h for one hour, then slowing down to save fuel because I was running out of it, spend 30 minutes searching for a gas station between the small towns, then back at speeding on the nationals... it was very stressing! I finally got to the ferry, where a couple from Belfast riding a Harley Davidson helped me boarding the bikes as it was my first time on a ferry with it.

The ferry is quite big and I regret I left the PC in the motorbike's bags, now no longer accessible, because here there are a lot of power plugs and I could have spent the night watching a move. So the book "City" by Alessandro Baricco will be my company on thies 16-hours crossing with the ferry!

Day 8

2009-08-30T04:51:00.000-07:00

Sandra had some job interviews during the day so I stayed alone most of the morning and the afternoon. I washed some clothes then I went for a walking tour of the city center. One thing I'll remember about Poitiers is the cathedral: the inside look so huge and massive. I've visited bigger churches in Europe, but the inside of this one is designed to make you really feel how big this place is.

In the late afternoon I rejoined Sandra and we spent some time walking, chatting and shopping in the center. Despite of what she thinks, Sandra is an interesting girl to talk with, not every one can say to have spend one year of their high school in Brazil, and then six months in Erasmus in Portugal, and to had got lost in a snowy night in Belgrad... she has a lot of stories to tell.

We spend the evening arguing about what to put inside the sauce for the rice we had for dinner, then we had a beer in a nice but a bit expensive pub and finally I took her for a night ride on the motorbike, which I think scared her quite a bit :)

Day 7

2009-08-30T04:38:00.001-07:00

Before leaving the flat in Pau I left a stupid drawing (see picture) in the guestbook they have in the toilet (a nice idea).

Then I started to move north, heading to Poitiers. I passed the Bordeaux regions, where you can really see a lot of wineyards, typical of this famous wine area.

After a stop for lunch with something I bought at the supermarket, the never-ending National 10 finally took me to Poitiers after a 500 km ride.

The mileage shown on the motorbike stays I've done 2200 km since the beginning of the trip, while according to my plan the should have been "just" 1700 until Poitiers.

There I met Sandra, a french girl who hosted me in an empty flat she still has to move in. Compared to other places I've been sleeping in this trip, it was really really confortable. We spent the evening with some friends of her, and while they were mostly speaking in frech, we has some fun toghether chatting about french writer and trying to teach me some basic french words like "apero" or "boulé".

Day 6 in Pau

2009-08-30T04:22:00.000-07:00

This might be the first contact I have with the feared "atlantic" weather. I'll have time to know it better in Ireland! The sky is gray and little drops are falling every hours.

Antoine's flat is really "my-home-is-your-home", or better "my-home-is-everybody-home". I had to ask 3 persons in the morning before finding one living there enough to know where I could get a cup for the breakfast.

After breakfast and after using the washing machine, with the help of a really helpful girl who couldn't speak a single word in English, I wen around the city of Pau for a walking tour.

Pau might not have many big attractions, but I had a good time just walking in the streets and in the parks. There are a lot of parks and flowers, and the Boulevard du Pyrenees, on a sunny day (this, unfortunately, was not my case) can give you a really nice views of the mountains.

Between one rainfall and the other, I had the time to visit (just the outside of) the Pau's castle (much more of a manor than a fortified castle) and the old city center. Then in the evening I rejoined Antoine and friends and we wen for an aperitive before dinner. After eating a "not-so-italian" pasta at home, we were all to tired to go out for the night, so after some chatting around the table, I said goodbye to all the people I was not going to meet in the morning after before leaving for the next destination.

Day 5

2009-08-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Time to move again. So I packed all my stuff, said goodbye to the farm and the lovely people there, and went back on the road!

Before leaving, I spent some time reviewing the website of the farm with Emanwela, to thank her for the hospitality. I will work on it at the end of my trip, to change just a few things and publish an Italian translation of it.

Back to the trip. After realizing the beauty of the roads near the Pyrenees, I've decided to avoid highways and travel on departmental and national roads. The trip from Fa to Pau pass near some wonderful castles of the Cathare area, so I've stopped a few times on the road to take some pictures, especially in Foix where I also had lunch.

I've arrived in Pau in the evening, after a few drops of rain hit me on the road. It was nice compared the 37 °C hell-hot air of the south. I reached Antoine's place, really close to the city center. I found many people staying there, some living there and some hosted just for a few days like me, so it was much more like staying in a hostel :-)

At night we went playing pool and had some beers in a nearby pub, but the "Leaning Tower Bridge" team (me and a girl from London) lost the only match we had :-(

Day 4

2009-08-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

The day started with a very cold shower (since there is no hot water), which helped me to wake up completely.

My plan was to visit Carcassonne for the whole day, but since I discovered Rennes-les-Chateau is just 10 km from the farm,, I've paid a visit to this thanks-to-Dan-Brown famous village. Once there I found some booklet about the impressive castles you can find in the zone, "le pais cathare". So I spend the morning and the early afternoon riding 80 km around some small towns in the "gorges" just to enjoy the landscape and the view of some castle from the distance. The road is so enjoyable and impressive with its "gorges", plus the speed limits are quite high in France compared to the Italian one, so it was a real pleasure to spend some hours riding.

So at the end I just spend one hour in Carcassonne, for a quick walking tour of the fortifications and I relaxed for half an hour in the grass near the city walls. Carcassonne is really touristic (and by the way, is the only place I've found the ever-present Italian tourists so far), but the fortifications are something you should really see. I know I've already used the term "impressive" in this post but I'll use it again as it deserves it... Impressive!

Going back to the farm, I found Steve, an irish all-life-long travellers some 50 years old, and I played some pens and paper games with the kids, who then I took for a short ride on the motorbike. They are so crazy and so lovely, like all kids they don't want to brush their teeth and they argue a lot, but they are also so responsable because of living in the farm: they know how to use a disel generator and how to walk and take care of the sheeps. I think Justin and Emanwela are doing a good job rising them.

PS: I forgot the camera at the farm, so I took some pictures with the mobile phone, and I don't know when I'll be able to post them

Day 3: into the wild

2009-08-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

Last evening we were supposed to hike until some wonderful waterfall in the Parc du Verdon, then spend the night in the forest, near the waterfall. But we ended up leaving home really late, then we stopped to pick up Marie, then we stopped to buy food and drink ("le picoler!"), THEN we finally left with the car/motorbike to reach the place... 150 km away!

So we started hiking in the night at about 10pm, and we gave it up after a 10 minutes walk as hiking in the complete darkness was not a god idea. We stoppeed in a open field with a lot of grass and we had a good time with a guitar, some booze and a relaxed chatting under the stars.

In the morning I left to Fa (Perpignan) and after a 600 km ride I finally got to the "Fermeé Lowry".
There I found Emanuela and Justin, their two kids, their nephew and two friends of them who were staying for a long period to help them with the farm.

These kinds and friendly people runs a low-impact farm, growing and herding their own food without the use of electricity and chemicals.

This is a new experience for me, living in a community that has no electricity (except for the light during dinner), that lives with the cold water descending from the mountains and has a dry toilet.

For dinner we had some delicious lasagne with goat, and a good pudding. I'll sleep in my tent, next to the sheep stable, since all the caravan composing the farm are occupied by the other hosts.

Day 2 (almost)

2009-08-21T05:55:00.001-07:00

I started the day alone in the house: my hosts are working in the morning, so they gave me a spare key and left early in the morning. So I spent the morning exploring the area with the motorbike, visiting the towns of St. Mitra and Martigues.
As you can see from the pictures, these are typical mediterrean towns, the one you can find from Sicily to France to Greece. So nothing new, even if the position of St. Mitra is really impressive, on the top of rocky cliffs.

Like yesterday, the weather is very hot: I'm currently in the home because it's too hot to stay outside! And, by the way; french conputer keyboards are really difficult to use!!

Today we plan to do some hiking, we will leave in the evening and spend the night sleeping in the forest, near a waterfall. I don't have hiking shoes but it seems that the hike will be easy and one of the host can share a pair of his shoes with me. Tomorrow morning I'll go back to the motorbike and I'll leave for my next stop, Fa (near Perpignan).

Day 1

2009-08-21T05:53:00.001-07:00

Here we go. The first day of my travel. The first time I live my home not for a simple trip, but to move away from my country, my family, my friends.
Maybe I've never realized before today what this new experience really means for my life. It will be radical change in my life, but I'm activelly doing this change with an optimistic and enthusiastic mood.
The only regret I have is to left a special person in Italy... but enought with these rants, you are here for the trip, right?

I left Pisa on the 20th around 10am. The motorbike was fully loaded and so heavy I had some problems in opening the side stand as the motorbike is so low. The main big bag I carry on the back of the motorbike should weight something like 20 kg, plus I have a tent, a backpack, a sleeping mat and a sleeping bag hanging from it. And the side hard bags of the motorbike are full, of course.
The 650km trip to Istres, Provence, France was a sort of nightmare. As I was riding in the middle of the day, the temperature was never below 33 °C along the way, with a top temperature of 37 °C. With a black motorbike jacket, black helmet and black gloves. It was like riding throu hell!

I put my wheels on the highway in Pisa, and I ride northward out of Tuscany. I found the usual traffic in Genova. I passed the jammed city, the highway's tunnels of Liguria, Ventimiglia and the Italy - France border. I passed throu the cliffs of Liguria and Monaco, I passed on the frech higways with the "speed limit for ozone pollution".

When I finally reached the area, I spent about one hour trying to find the town of Istres, because people I asked on the street were giving me wrong and constrasting directions. Finally I arrived in this sunny mediterrean town on a big lake, near the sea, after a 650km trip, 44 Euro of highway fees, 48 Euro of gasoline, 4 bottles of water and a sandwitch.

I had problem in finding the girl who was supposed to host me, but I finally found her flatmate and reached their home, a nice two-room appartament in a newly build area.

The planned route

2009-08-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

Date	Trip	Distance
20 August	Pisa (Italy) to Istres (near Marseille, France)	600 km
22 August	Istres to Fa (near Perpignan, France)	320 km
24 August	Fa to Pau (France)	320 km
26 August	Pau to Poitiers (France)	450 km
28 August	Poitiers to Roscoff (Finistère, France)	500 km
28 August	Ferry from Roscoff to Rosslare (Co. Wexford, Ireland)	480km
29 August	Rosslare to Ballymakerry (Co. Cork, Ireland)	250 km
31 August	Ballymakerry to Galway (Ireland)	250 km
2 September	Galway to Falcarragh (Co. Donegal, Ireland)	310 km
4 or 5 September	Falcarrag to Dublin (Ireland)	380 km
Total distance:		3860 km

About the trip and the planned route

2009-08-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

As I'm going to study at Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, from the beginning of October, I decided to move to Ireland with my beloved motorbike instead of flying there by plane.
I know this will be more expensive and difficult but I didn't wanted to miss this unique chance to enjoy an awesome motorbike journey and visit some parts of France and Ireland I've never been to.

Moreover, instead of following the straightest road from Italy to Dublin, I'm going to wander around France and Ireland in a 3.300 km trip that will last 16 days. I'll be travelling alone, but I'll be hosted by people I never met before, who are willing to share a bed, a couch or at least the floor with me (I contacted them via the wonderful CouchSurfing website). I hope this will help me get in contact and understand the essence of the regions I'll be crossing. And just in case I run into some last-minutes problems, I'll be carrying a tent to sleep on my own.

I've decided to avoid Great Britain in my trip, there are no clearly defined reasons for this choiche, but the use of a different currency and the need to use more than one ferry are two motivations that come to my mind right now. So I'm going to reach Roscoff, Finistère, France, and catch the ferry to Rosslare, Co. Waxford, Ireland.

Now something about my bike. It's a 2005 Kawasaki KLE 500 with 35.000 km. It's not the biggest or most powerfull bike you might want to use in a trip like this, but I've had it for 4 years and it's a reliable, modest but good-value motorbike.
And, thanks to the two side hard bags I fitted in the rear, and the big rear plate it has on top, it can be loaded with a lots of stuff (as you can see in this picture!). I've used it for mid-range trips like Cote d'Azur, France, or Napoli, Italia (about 600 km from my place).
So yes, I've never used it for a journey so long, but I believe (and hope) it will do good even for such a long trip! Of course, before departing I'll have some mainteinance operations and check performed by a good mechanic.