| Name: |
Noreen Gallagher |
| Age: |
27 |
| Where do you live? |
The Compass Bar. |
| Tell us about your travels: |
I’ve been travelling through Australia for the past 14 months. I arrived in Sydney firstly. I was travelling on my own so it was a bit scary at first; I didn’t even know how to make a phone call out of the country.
I left Sydney about three months later, I couldn’t afford to stay there as they were putting up the prices in the hostels for the Olympics so I moved down to Melbourne. I had a friend from home living in Melbourne, so he was a bit of company for me. It was hard travelling on my own so an old face is always welcome.
After about three months was when the fun really started! Maeve flew into Oz. We spent about a week in Melbourne doing all the touristy stuff, like rollerblading, which I just happened to be really bad at but Maeve took to it like a duck to water. The usual other things like a visit to the Crown Casino (the largest in the Southern Hemisphere).
So then we found ourselves back in Sydney. We lived in an apartment in Botany Bay. We thought that because of the song everyone at home would have heard about Botany! We started working in a pub in the middle of Sydney. We were there for a couple of months before we realized that we couldn’t save money for travel, so we left Sydney and went to a fruit farm in Victoria.
We were working there for ten weeks picking grapes and feeding ourselves well on them. This was hard going, not so much the work but living and working so closely with the same people day in day out. I think boredom was the biggest factor on the farm but still it was a great experience and we met the nicest of people. So after the three months there we’d had enough and we decided it was time to see Australia. So our journey begins!
We firstly headed off down the south coast of Victoria along the Great Ocean Road. We spent a few days driving along it before we had to head back to Sydney. When we went back to Sydney we stayed with Sean Kilbane and his girlfriend Anne-Marie, Sean is from Saula and we were very grateful to them for putting us up and putting up with us. The reason we were back in Sydney was a for the Kylie concert. We had a ball at it. So a few days later we fly out of Australia into New Zealand.
New Zealand was just a short holiday for us. I was going over to get a holiday visa back into Australia. When we were there it was wintertime we wanted to get some skiing in but the season hadn’t started so we found other activities like bungee jumps, which I didn’t do, but my good travelling companion had a go at it. Going down the side of a hill in a little go cart was one of the activities we tried, this was called The Luge. Our time was up in New Zealand and we flew back into Australia’s west coast, into western Australias capital city Perth.
We met up with Maeve’s brother Eamon here. We looked for work but couldn’t find any, so we decided to leave before we got stuck with no money and couldn’t get out of it. Maeve headed to the Red Centre by bus and me and Eamon went to Darwin.
Maeve met us again about a week later all excited about her outback experience and ready for more outback living. We did a tour of Kakadu National Park, this is where a lot of the Crocodile Dundee was filmed. This was my first time in the Bush, sleeping under the stars in swags. We then fly on to Cairns where all our adventures were to take place.
Our first adventure was a diving course, we spent five days learning to dive on The Great Barrier Reef, and its a whole different world down there.
I took to the skies to overcome my fear of heights and went ballooning one morning. Then we went on a tour of the rain forests and learned about the different trees and their medicinal benefits.
Back on the road again heading south, our next stop was The Whitsunday Islands. This was just pure luxury. We were on board an 80-foot maxi yacht for three days. We just lazed around on the deck and took a few swims when it got too hot. Next we went to Fraser Island, this is the largest sand island in the world. Its a World Heritage area. We hired a four-wheel drive for our time here; it was the first time any of us had driven one.
Next thing we knew we were back in Sydney and heading off to Thailand. We couldn’t believe our time in Australia was up. We spent nearly a week in Thailand doing a bit of island hopping, hoping to get a tan before going home. Then we flew to London and spent a few days there before arriving home to Currane. |
| What were the highlights of your trip? |
Without a doubt it was Kakadu National Park. I have never seen so much wild life before. The thing I really loved was sleeping under the stars in the swags, just looking up and the last thing you see is the stars before you go to sleep at night. We learned a lot about the Aboriginal communities here, their history is amazing. I found that on this trip I did a lot of thinking, it made you think of what’s really important and having nothing didn’t seem to bother us. We were quite depressed coming back into Darwin after our few days in the Bush. |
| What were the low points? |
I couldn’t say that there were any. We did go through some tough times on the money side of things, but there was nothing I would change about the whole trip. |
| What did you most miss about home while away? |
You miss your family of course but like Maeve said we didn’t have any contact with older people and were used to sitting down and having the craic with them. I really missed Club Orange, we used to dream about it, and I’ve only had a couple of drinks of it since I came home but still its Mmmmm! |
| What was it like spending so much time with Maeve? |
Maeve and me are very different people; Maeve is more organized than me so she gets the job done quicker, where as I’d be still thinking about doing it. In all the time we spent in Australia we were hardly ever apart, we’d look for work together, we’d go out together and we lived together.
I think that if Maeve hadn’t come out to me in Australia I wouldn’t have seen all I saw. She is with out a shadow of a doubt the best person in the worst situation, always keeping the cool and looking at things rationally. For all her rational thinking, she’s mad as a hatter. She was always up for the craic and anyone she met she’d make them laugh. I’m glad she has such a care free out look on life because that out look kept me sane when things were getting tough.
Now I’m not saying that it was all roses all the time, there were times when things got on top of the two of us and we had a few words, but that’s all they were. The next thing you knew Maeve would be off singing and dancing and just doing what she does best being mad! I wouldn’t have liked to travel Australia with anyone else. Her good humour and level head were just what I needed; I’d do it all over again with her! |
| Profession, past/present employment details: |
Pass. Like Maeve I’ve done a lot of different things but I have to sort out the future now too. |
| What do you like about Currane? |
The people! |
| How would you improve the area? |
I would love to do something about the roads in Currane, they’re in a bad state. Its nice to go for a walk around the roads so maybe a little footpath just along the main roads would be good. I would also love to have some kind of park with a play area, picnic area and benches, just for the children to have a place to go to where they can play safely. |
| Favourite place/view: |
My favourite view is of Clare Island. On the Currane side of Nevins pub in Tiernaur you can see Clare island completely but just briefly. It always takes my breath away. |
| Favourite time of year/weather: |
My favourite time of year in Currane is the wintertime, its nice and quite, the fires is blazing and there’s only a few people around to talk to. Now even though winter is my favourite time of year I love hot weather. Going to the beach for a swim to cool down and things like that, talk about a contradiction in terms! |
| Favourite story/folklore: |
I like stories on Grace O’Malley the pirate queen. |
| Favourite saying: |
Don’t have one. |
| Place you’ve most enjoyed travelling to (and why): |
Thailand, it was an eye opener and very educational, the weather had a lot to do with it as well. |
| Place you’d never want to visit again (and why): |
There is no place I wouldn’t go back to. Every place has some good about it, it might be just that little bit harder to find! |
| Favourite book: |
Cain and Abel, by Geoffrey Archer. |
| Favourite music: |
I like Indie music, my favourite band are James. |
| Favourite song (Irish): |
I really like Van. |
| Favourite film: |
The Life of Brian, followed by Braveheart and the Wizard of OZ. |
| Favourite drink: |
Bulmers Original Cider, ‘all in its own good time’. |
| Favourite food: |
Indian food, the hotter the better! |
| Favourite type of night out in the area: |
I like it when its quiet, I hate going into a place that’s packed, you can’t beat a good singsong. |
| What sports do you enjoy: |
I like most sports, Like Maeve I’ve never tried one I didn’t like either! |
| Which teams do you support: |
Currane!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Which person would you most like to meet living or dead: |
Bono is one and the other is Madonna, I’ve always thought that she was a great person. |
| Any important plans/resolutions for the future? |
To be happy forever! |
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