| HAWAII |
| Thurs 14.02 - Arrived at Honolulu at 11.45pm. The queue for U.S. Customs took forever. Chatted to a fella from Letterkenny, Mark McNulty, whilst in the queue. Got bus to Hostel. Room cleanish, but the sheets had been changed so we slept in our sleeping bags. Fri 15.02 - Got up for the second time on 15th of February 2002. We are in the main resort of Waikiki Beach, which is an area of Honolulu. The beach is great and the temperature this time of year is in the high 20's. Hot, but not too hot. We went for a walk along the main beachside street. The place is fill of people from the US mainland and Japanese. We went to another hostel to see what it was like. Spoke to Irish fella on reception. He was from Loughrea. He knoew Shane, Pauraic, the Nevins in Lurgan and even Father Stankard!!! Small World!!! Lay on beach read for a while then went to "Kelly O'Neills for a drink and dinner. I had to go back to the hostel to get ID as they wouldnt serve us without it. (Grey hair and a pot belly wasn't enough proof that I was old enough!!). Sharing dorm was a fella from Boston. He got up to go to the toilet three times during the night. That wouldnt normally worry me but he nearly killed himself getting down from the top bunk and I was on the bottom bunk. Sat 16.02 - Up at 11am. Went for a walk to the Park, listened to school band playing at a bandstand. Very good. In the evening we went for a strool down the beech. Went to a great Mass in St Augustines. The music there was fantastic and the sermon made sense. There was a festival on and as part of that they were showing movies on a big screen on the beach. so we got pizza and popcorn and sat on our towels and watched "Return of the Jedi". I tried to get Claire to understand the greatness of the Star Wars trilogy, but she thinks they're crap. Sun 17.02 - Went to Perl Harbour. But we werent allowed in because we had rucksacks. Due to the new security measures. We had no where to leave our bags so we had to leave. We got another bus on to the Alo Moana Shopping Mall. Its pretty big. Did a little window shopping. When we got back to hostel there were a Welsh mother and daughter in the room, Annharad and ? They were really nice people. Mon 18.02 - Went back to Pearl Harbour minus our rucksacks. Went to Museum first. Fantastic artefact there. Letters to family at home, recover japanese torpedoes, etc. The Navy take boat loads out to the monument built over the sunken USS Arizona. 1,177 people died on the USS Arizona, and 2,220 died in total on 7 Dec 1941. It was a very sombre experience. There were people that survived that day at the monument. It was hard to believe that I was here at the location of one of the most important events in the 20th Century. After that we went to the USS Bowfire. This is a decommisssioned WWII submarine. It was nicknamed the Pearl Harbour Avenger. It was great to see the inside of a submarine as it was something I'd always wanted to do. We went back to Waikiki and went to a free Hula Dance show on the beachfront. Theres loads of free things here. I was on stage for a while trying to master the moves. But the saying in true, "white man can dance". Tues 19.02 - Did the walk to the top of Diamond Head, the hill that overlooks Waikiki. It was a tough 30min walk to the top through tunnels and up 99 steps to the lookout. There were artillery stationed here during WWII. Chatted to a few Yanks and Canadians. The Canadians thought that Sean Penn was the leader of the IRA. I had to explain that Sein Finn was actually a polititcal party, not a person, and that Sean Penn was an actor! Wed 20.02 - Got bus to Hanuama Bay. had to pay $3 each to get on the beach. I snorkelled. Most of the coral was dead, but the tropical fish were very good. I saw a massive parrotfish about 1m long. We went to "Jack in the box" for lunch. If youre here try it, their burger are massive. Got back to hostel. A fella from LA, Johnny, was in the room. He showed me pictures of his ex-girl friend and told me that another ex-girlfriend of his was a Playboy model and died of a cocaine overdose. Shit, I'd only said hello to him and he was telling me this!! Thurs 21.02 - Went to the "world famous" Kodak Hula Show at 10am. Great show and FREE. It lasted for 1.5 hours. We then went for a walk in Kapiolani Park, where there was a school choir singing. Chilled there for a while. We did our washing and then went to the beach where I practised by breast stroke. Its getting better! Fri 22.02 - We went to see Iolani Palace. Hawaii had its monarchy here until 1893, when it was annexed by the US. It only became a state in 1959. Went on to Ahola Tower then , but it was closed. Taco Bell for dinner, lovely. Sat 23.02 - Caught bus to Manoa to go and see the waterfall but he pathway to it was closed due to a landslide. went to the International Market Place in the evening and then back to hostel to watch "The Exorcist" on TV. Not as scary as I'd imagined. Sun 24.02 - Went to mass. A choir from Singapore was singing. Very Good. We then went to the Damien Museum beside the Church. Fr. Damien was a Belgian priest who came to Hawaii in the 1800's to help the Lepers here. He died of the disease himself after 40 years of helping. In the afternoon we went to a free concert in the park. A local radio DJ was MC. At one stage he asked for the person who had travelled furthest to get to Hawaii. I went up and thought I had the prize in the bag, until and old German women came up. It was only a Tshirt prize anyway! I couldn't believe after me saying I was from Ireland, someone came up and said they were from Oklahoma!! |