St. Patrick’s Day Around the World

by Jamie Rhein on

If it were possible to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day around the world, like if you started in Australia and worked your way west around the globe, where might you land?

Here are 6 possibilities. None of them in Ireland:

At The Mean Fiddler in Sydney, Australia, St. Patrick’s Day is a family event, and it lasts the whole weekend. Besides great music , there’s authentic Irish food fare.

The Tokyo Irish Music Festival 2007 in Japan is another two day event. This is a real blend of east meets west. Michael McGuire of River Dance is part of the performance line-up. So is Taka Hayashi who joined Riverdance a few years back.

For free T-shirt and hat give-a-ways, head to O’Malley’s Irish Pub in Shanghai, China. The doors won’t close on St. Patrick’s Day until the last person leaves (or something like that). The next day is a truly kid-oriented Irish festival. I think the idea is to give the kid’s something to do while the adults get over a hang over.

If you happen to be in Turkey, here’s a website to help you find a pub on your own. The addresses are given.

At Finnegan’s Irish Pub in Florence or Rome, Italy, you’ll find the real Irish deal and Irish sports broadcasts. The website has maps to help you get to that pint of ale before St. Patrick’s Day is over.

In Dublin, Ohio, (I had to pick this one, I live near there.) St. Patrick’s Day starts off with a run and finishes off with my husband’s favorite Irish Band, The Prodigals. They’re excellent and they tour everywhere.

For a comprehensive look for Irish pubs in other global locations, check out the website, Irish Abroad.

Happy St. Patty’s Day and “Top of the mornin’ to you,” or some such thing. The photo is from last year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City. It is a blast. I went year’s ago.

Rottnest Island: Experience it Yourself

by Jamie Rhein on

A few days ago, I wrote a post about cycling in Western Australia. One of the highlights was a day trip to Rottnest, Island. The island, not far from Fremantle, is a getaway destination that’s perfect for beach going, cycling (like we did) or swimming with dolphins. You can sign up for a variety of tours including bus tours and a train tour once you arrive. Since taking a ferry is the only way to get there unless you fly or take your own boat, it feels adventurous from the start.

Because private vehicles aren’t allowed, this is a cyclist’s paradise, and if walking is more your speed, there are several guided walking tour options to learn about the penal, agricultural, aboriginal and maritime history of Rottnest or about the uniqueness of the flora and fauna. This is the only place in the world where Quokkas, small marsupial animals are found in the wild.

Check out foiled’s video on YouTube for a fun, wish you were there, cycling experience. This is a round-up of what his friends and he did from taking the ferry over to a pub stop at the end of the day . This is done in a quick music video style so it’s fun to watch. He packs a lot in. By the way, if you go, bikes are rented by the day and come complete with locks and a helmet.

Cycling in Western Australia and More

by Jamie Rhein on

Okay, so my cycling to trip to Western Australia was with 20 high schoolers-17 of them boys, and I wasn’t a high schooler. I was a teacher chaperone with tasks like shouting out every once in awhile, “Stop doing wheelies!” or “Stay on your side of the road!” And so what if some of them complained about the cycling, even though the trip’s title was “Cycling in Western Australia.” The trip was stellar despite all that. With one support vehicle that carried our gear and one vehicle that turned into a mobile kitchen at night and offered goodies like cookies, oranges and water at pit stops, what wasn’t to like? Particularly, since the air was dry enough, we could sleep on air mattresses under the stars and not be covered with dew in the morning. Instead of waking up to dew, I woke up to coffee brewing. The women who did the cooking also made coffee.

This was a nine day excursion through small towns like Yallingup and Balingup along flat land to rolling hills with a section along the coast and a detour to Rottnest Island. Each day was about 30 miles of riding at the most with plenty of time to take in a sheep farm, historical sites, boogie boarding and state parks. On the last day we biked from Fremantle to Perth, spending time in each of these cities. Since I was a chaperone, I could only look longingly into Fremantle’s pubs when I wandered sans kids for two hours during some scheduled alone time hours. No beer for me, but the historical aura of the place made up for it–almost. One of the high points of the trip was the night tour by flashlight of Fremantle Prison. The prison is now a museum.

Ours was a planned tour, but unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the company. If you want to a do-it-yourself experience, here is a guide I came across. Below are some links to cycling companies I did find.

  • Active Australia, Kookaburra trip.
  • Australia Bicycle Tours and Vacations
  • Bushsports guided bike tours.
  • Australian Explorer.com – Cycling Travel Services.
  • Here is a link to a day trip company in Perth.
  • Pedal Oz: Bike Tours Around Western Australia

Oh, about the trip. Adult or not, I didn’t get off the bike once to push it up a hill and I can’t say the same thing about the boys who kept trying to outdo each other. Score! (I didn’t say I wasn’t breathing heavy, I was just determined to not get off that bike.)

Brit Skateboards Entire Length of the Outback

by Willy Volk on

No, not the restaurant — Dave Cornthwaite skateboarded the entire length of Australia!

Cornthwaite left Perth last August, hoping to raise money for a charity. Seven months and 3700 miles later, Cornthwaite arrived on the other edge of the sprawling country with a whopping $40,000 in donations, a whole load of blisters, and a new world record.

Claiming he’d do it again, Cornthwaite downplays his achievement: “I’m just an ordinary guy who’s just done something amazing… Just find what you want to do and go for it and a couple of years later, you can go back to normal life.”

[Via Hobolinks]

Is The Tasmanian Tiger Really Extinct?

by Jonathon Morgan on

In 1936, the last of the Tasmanian Tigers — wolf-like mammals that were over-hunted by European settlers — died in a zoo, rendering the species extinct.

Or did it?

According to German tourists Klaus Emmerichs and Birgit Jansen, the answer is no. The two claim to have captured digital photos of the tiger while on vacation in 2005. But after initial speculation by experts that the photos were real, further investigation led to accusations that the pictures had been manufactured.

Emmerich recently returned to Tasmania in an attempt to video the animal, and clear his name. “I want to prove that it is not extinct, like the people think and the world thinks,” he said.

Proof that the animal exists is a sort of holy grail for mystery hunters — with unconfirmed sightings re-igniting the fervor year after year.

No word on whether or not Emmerich got what he was after.