Just touched down in London town....

I love London. I want to move here. The tube is so convenient, the weather is perfect, and there's so much to do. The plan was to spend a day here, two days in Edinburgh, and return to London the night before my flight home. I arived from Rome late Friday night, so explored as much as I could Saturday, which also happened to be the Pride festival and parade. I loved the parade. Everyone had whistles and there was loud music and bright colors, and of course rediculous outfits. And Jay Z and Drake were here for a music festival. Too bad tickets were £100.

Sunday morning, I was supposed to fly out at 7 am. Cost: £10. The first wrong turn happened when I booked a bus to Gatwick from a tube station that I would have to take 2 buses to. Cost: £20. Then I found out that that would require me to get up at 3 and leave by 330. No way Jose. So then I booked the fastest way to Gatwick, a train that left from a station I would need to take one bus to. Cost: £30. I would get up at 445 and leave by 5. Then, I woke up at 5:09 am. Frantic, I checked out and left without washing my face or brushing my teeth. Ran to what I thought was the bus stop and bought a ticket. Cost: £2. But that wasn't my stop. My stop was like 3 blocks away. Ran there searching, but couldn't find it. By the time I did, it was past 6 am. Total travel time would be 65 min, so I was definitely missing my flight. Then I stepped on some glass because my shoes like to vacuum debris from the street. So I made my way back to my hostel, rechecked in, crawled back into my original bed, and cried myself to sleep. Not really cried, but I was sweating. So £62/$90 and a heart attack later, I pretty much got up at 5 am to take a mile jog. Awesome. But having only one mishap in 2 months of travelling isn't too shabby. So I'm kind of ok with it, only because I get to spend two extra days here.

Tomorrow I plan to go candy shopping, free museum roaming, and park napping. Tuesday, I return home! Boy, do I miss it. I've had an amazing time abroad. 2 months flew by in the blink of an eye. I've seen and experienced things that many people my age will never get the chance to do, and I am grateful to be so lucky.

Arrivederci Roma!

Rome is a huge mix of stuff. There are ancient ruins all over the city, high fashion shopping, sketchy looking people and places, and soooo much gelato. Its crazy that the original forum that Julius Caesar used is still here, or the Colosseum, where Gladiator happened in real life! The sistine chapel wasn't as large as I thought it'd be, but the paintings were more than I imagined. The walls were covered with beautiful, huge, colorful art. Every inch of the ceiling was painted. So crazy! Too bad no pictures :( I snapped a few quick, blurry ones anyways though. And Saint Peter's basilica was filled with statues of popes and paintings! Rome was all about the over the top, ornate decorations and marble everywere! Which, for your information, is mighty slippery in flip flops. I have a bruised elbow to prove it. And I didn't make it to the Pope. I got here too late :( The Vatican has its own Swiss guards, that wear the most awesome uniforms. Round berets with a button in the middle and tilted to the side, poofy pants, pilgrim like shoes, and all of it is like red, yellow, orange, and blue striped, and they hold a spear.

I don't know what it is about Europe, but over here its quite normal to stare, especially in Italy. And if you make eye contact, they don't look away, they just keep staring. I've gotten my fair share of cat calls and hollers, which gets old quick. And there are lots of Asians here and they own stores that have the most random stuff in them including, but mot limited to, cheap jewelry, socks, hardware, fly swatters, and parasols.
My hostel happens to be surrounded by them. And European kings and emperors loved stealing obelisks from Egypt. Every major piazza has an obelisk for a centerpiece, or a fountain.

Rome swarms with tour groups. Everywhere. You'll just be standing reading something, or what not, and then, all of a sudden you're surrounded by a tour and in the spotlight next to the leader holding an umbrella or a stick above their head.

I can't wait to see ECLIPSE!! Argh!

Italy. So hot right now.

The weather in Italy makes me feel at home... which is not a good thing when you're walking all over the place! Its hot, and there's no air conditioning in the hostel.

In a few words, Florence can be described as... dingy, pizza, leather, carnivale masks, gelato, cathedrals, and museums. That may sound like a lot, but for someone that's not too big of an art fan, paying €8 to go in a museum just isn't too appealing. And I wasn't allowed in cathedrals because I was wearing shorts because it was hot. Its a vicious cycle. Leather is a big deal here, and its pretty awesome for me walking down the streets and seeing rows and rows of purses. I hope I can come back to Italy for Carnivale one day, because attending a masquerade is an absolute dream of mine.

I got to go to an opera, too! My hostel kind of wrapped around a concert house, and there was like a balcony box in the middle of my room blocked by thin drywall and two locked doors, but there was a hole in the dry wall and you could see large frescos on a wall. The walls were so thin that you were basically sitting in the opera house listening to a beautiful voice and piano.

Took a train to Venice today and met two nice Irish boys that I explored the city with. Venice is exactly how you would imagine it. With gondolas paddled by guys wearing striped shirts and hats, with canals a plenty, with houses that kind of look dingy, but beautiful at the same time, and with winding cobblestone streets of varying widths. Its a cool place, and
I may have been more inclined to do some more widened exploring if I wasn't dying of heat stroke. The buses and taxis are boats, and supposedly the city is sinking because the wood is rotting because the water is being polluted, not because the water is rising. Iiiiinteresting, huh?

Gelato here is better than anywhere else in the entire world. And cheap. Just like Guinness is better in Ireland, but for some reason its more expensive than in the states...

To Roma tomorrow to see the Pope. He comes out of his hole every Wednesday! AND Eclipse is out tomorrow!!!

Bavaria, land of lions! or pictures of lions! Rawr!!

Its never really crossed my mind, but road tripping around Europe is probably the best way to go. I met three Norwegian guys driving around on holiday, and I was so jealous! You can drive 12 hours from Norway and be in Berlin, Germany! We can drive 12 hours and be.... in the Tennessee? Boring.

My brother in law, Jeff, took us on a Porsche factory tour which was awesome. They use the just in time manufacturing philosophy, weird because I actually learned that in manufacturing class. They had autonomous robots and lots of awesome cars and people rode bicycles around inside the building.

Its true that on the autobahn there is no speed limit, and boy were some people going super fast. Our Mercedes rental couldn't accelerate or go faster than 140 kph, so we could only watch as Porsches and Audis and BMWs and Bentleys sped by. We had the freedom to go wherever we wanted, so we stayed in small German towns. The country here in Bavaria, or southern Germany is beautiful. You see the Alps and lots of green from the highway, and the landscape isn't ruined by billboards. I really really want a traditional German dress, but they cost at least €100 and I could only wear it for two occasions - Oktoberfest or Halloween. So it might not be too justified. Now if I were going to live in Germany for a little bit, I would totally get one and serve liters in a bierhaus. I also wanted a Cinderella dress before going to Neuschwanstein castle (built by crazy King Ludwig II and basis for Cinderella castle), but the visit was just as majestic without one. Now that place was a castle!

By the way, there's a Legoland Deutschland and its awesome! Minus the fact that it ruined the picture of innocence and youth that I had in my head when someone stole my shirt that I had bought 15 minutes earlier. But there's huge lego statues and rides and big lego pieces that are like 10 feet tall. And. there's a world cup soccer stadium that's filled with Lego people! Its okay to be jealous.

I've had schnitzels, pretzels, tons of ice cream, nudels, wursts, and Ethiopian food (huh?). It has all been delicious, but not so much on the Ethiopian goat meat... but they offered zebra and kangaroo as well.

I miss my travelling partner, and my sister, and my brother in law already. And everyone back home of course, but I have 10 days left! I must live them up!

To Italy and pizza and gelato!!

So on Monday...

I could totally picture myself living in Berlin. There is so much to do and see, and all kinds of people. Our first day, we planned on treating ourselves to some all you can eat sushi at a restaurant recommended by my guide book. We find it, and its completely empty with an open front that allowed construction dust in. The one guy working was anything but helpful and this place was not rubbing me the right way (Strike 2 for the food recommendations by LetsGo. Strike 1 was buckwheat crepes in Paris). So we left and ate "kebaps" instead. I think 4 out of every 5 meals have been kebabs, but they're so cheap and delicious and warm. The book semi redeemed itself by leading us to a fried chicken beer garden. We got berliner pilsners and half a chicken each. Apparently, you don't eat with your hands over here because we got some disgusted looks as we tore into our chicken, but forks and fried chicken is so much less efficient!

Since we hadn't done much that day, we went on a pub crawl that night. There were like 90 people being shuffled from one place to the next, resulting in a huge cluster. There was a big group of study abroad kids from GaTech, small world. And a group of Brazilians who were extremely blunt and upfront about what they were looking for, and who enjoyed artacking girls' faces, aka face raping. That hapoened to me multiple times! First, by one who said he would visit me in the States, then by 4 all at once, then by one who said I was "the chinese that all the guys wanted to kiss." Brazilians are so weird.

I learned that Germany was very ready to forget all the bad things that happened, but would always remember the victims through memorials and exhibits aimed at reminding people what intolerance and hatred will lead to. We visited Sachsenhausen, the model concentration camp which was right outside Berlin. It was in a small town, and you had to walk through residential streets to get to the entrance. The camp was huge and eerily creepy. Almost all of the prisoner barracks were destroyed so replicas were put up. One of the original buildings that was still there was the pathology building. This was the creepiest. The walls and floors were tiled and there were two autopsy platforms still there. The basement was a mortuary and it just looked like a scene from a horror movie. The foundation was all that remained from Station Z, the last stop for prisoners. This is where the crematoriums, gas showers, and "medical exam"/execution rooms were. It took us 6 hours to see everything there. We did an audio guide, and the accounts that it had from some of the witnesses were horrific.

On to happier things... A lot of Berlin was new and modern since 80% had been destroyed during the war. There was only one Nazi building that remained and it was now the tax office. The Berlin wall was a lot smaller than I expected, and was a simple concrete wall 8 ft high with barbed wire on top. There was a gay pride festival going on and free love all over the place. The wursts were cheap and yummy, and came in a bun that was 6 inches too short. Three nights in Berlin just wasn't enough. The public transportation system was vast and extensive, and we definitely pushed our luck by not buying tickets everytime we hopped on a train, because on our way to the train station to leave for Frankfurt, we got caught and had to pay €40 each. And then the transportation gods wanted to punish us more because an hour later, we dscovered that our eurail passes were valid for the train we got caught on and could have easily gotten out of paying the fine and being slightly humiliated.

Frankfurt is one of the few cities in Europe with a skyline, as the center for EU banking.A city arena was set up with food and beer and a huge screen for people to gather and watch the world cup matches. It reminded me of the area outside the Superbowl or outside the FL-GA game, but smaller.

Now were on our way to Stuttgart to meet my my sister and brother in law! It's Patrick's last day before he heads back to Dublin and then home :( and I'll tour southern Germany with my siblings before venturing on my own again to Florence, Rome, London, and Edinburgh.

Home of the Little Mermaid

The cheapest food in all of the countries we've visited has been the same - kebabs or asian food. And I can't remember the last meal that didn't consist of one of those. Kebabs are like gyros or schwarma pita sandwiches and asian is normally rice with chicken, vegetables, and sweet and sour sauce. Yum yum.

We made our journey from Amsterdam to Copenhagen on an overnight train, but unlike our luxurious private room train ride from Barcelona to Bern, we went the cheaper route, and did a six person couchette. Our room was six beds and thats it, and only had enough room for one person to be standing in it at once. The beds were hard, and the room was hot, but it was better than a chair. Our route went through the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, so on three separate occasions in the middle of the night, the train stopped, and police officers came through asking for passports. I've had better sleep than what I got last night...

I've been on a quest to find a danish, but I found awesome cookies instead. Hopefully, I will get a danish for tomorrow's breakfast before we leave for Berlin. We did a self guided walking tour that was suggested on one of our city maps. Got to see palaces, canals, yachts and sailboats, and Copenhagen's pride and joy, the statue of Hans Christen Andersen's little mermaid- oh wait, just kidding. She was on "holiday" in Shanghai for the 2010 World Expo. So in her place in the harbour, stood a 10 ft tv screen showing live, streaming video of the statue on display in China. The tv was probably cooler than the actual statue. Then we made our way to the King's garden, a huge city park. Europeans loooove their parks. It's great. Hundreds and hundreds of people congregate there for lunch or after school, just sleeping or reading or hanging out.

So the currency here is the krone, or dkk, and its about 6 dkk to the dollar. So we get to the atm and each take out 500 dkk, and out comes one crisp 500 dkk bill. Doesn't feel like much, and kind of makes you feel like a jackass when you buy a 15 dkk cookie with a 500 dkk bill... Just sayin

And if you have free time, read Chelsea Handler's books. So funny. I'm currently on the second one and its been a bit of a quest to find them here, but totally worth it.

Oh, Amsterdam...

You are full of smoke and prostitutes. Our hostel is pretty much in the heart of the red light district, which is super convenient. You know me, all about smoking and hookers! I did have to give the Amsterdam experience a try, so that's how we commemorated our first night here. Last night we found a coffeeshop that was listed in our lonely planet book. In my opinion, the lights were a bit too bright and the music was super intense for the "coffee" I was about to try. But anyways, it was an interesting experience that I don't think I ever have to try again.

Today, we went on the free walking tour, given by the same company as in Dublin and Paris. It started off kind of slow because or tour guide rambled at light speed in an almost nervous sketched out way, and our tour group was pretty quiet.

Our tour guide, Bernie.

But by the end of the tour, everyone was laughing and our guide was a little better about delivering his stories. We saw an old church that supposedly the red light district grew around because of the pervy clergy men back in the day. We also saw the most famous coffeeshop of them all- it was in a scene of one of the Oceans, and has a stoned, fat cat that hangs around.

The famous coffeeshop

A lot of the house fronts here lean forward and have pullies on the tops to ease moving into the attic. The forward lean was to prevent the packages and things from swinging into the windows, but then someone smarter came along and suggested simply extending the pulley arms instead of the crazy architecture.

You can kind of tell how the houses lean forward...

I've seen a good number of prostitutes in windows. In 2000, prostitution was made legal, and pimping illegal. So these hookers are their own boss and rent window time from businesses. The standard is €50 for 15 minutes of heaven, or whatever. Apparently, you pick one out, go in, wash up, and if your lady friend still doesn't like the looks of you, she'll give you a plastic sheet with a hole in it. That's just sad if a hooker doesn't even approve. Our Amsterdam adventure continues tonight as we tour the red light district and do some window shoppping, ha. Be sure to look over the older posts, I've added pictures since Dutch internet is cheap, cheap.

Brussels, you're lucky you have waffles!

Our hostel was a bit outside the city center of Brussels, Belgium, so when we arrived we picked up a map and started to explore. The map was "made by locals for travelers," so it had handy tips and fun facts in it. One of the walking tours took you around the northside to the green labrynth, a park, a bridge, train station, and by some prostitutes. The city that we saw looked dirty, decaying, and ghetto. Not what I was expecting at all. But, fun fact, french fries were invented in Belgium, despite the name. There were fry stands all around, and the norm is to eat them with mayonnaise. So we ordered a large to share and it came in a paper cone with a pile of mayo on top. This large was meant for 5 people, not 2, because by the end, we both wanted to die. We didn't even find any waffles, so by the time we returned to our hostel, we were sorely disappointed. The made by locals map makes me think that locals wrote it to turn people off from Brussels so tourists wouldn't take over their city or ever want to come back. So, the next day, we gave Brussels one more shot, and visited the city center before getting on a train to Amsterdam. The main plaza was gorgeous. There were buildings with gold ornaments and large, pretty cathedrals. The main attraction was just down the street, a fountain of a peeing little boy, the mannekin pis. He was about a foot tall, and got a new outfit a few times a month. Today, he was dressed as a scottish boy. The waffles were de.lish.us. They were filled with caramelized sugar and were excellent plain.

I ate my waffle before I remembered to take a picture, so these were the ones on display :)

I

The NIMBUS 2000. Yea. And my wand. The one with Cho Chang written on it.

Brussels is SO strange

So if you are planning to visit Brussels, set aside 4 hours max, get off the train at the city center, and grab some waffles and fries. I guarantee on your walk to the food stands, you will see everything the city has to offer :)

Goodbye, Paris. Hello, Brussels! Almost...

Paris has been beautiful. My favorite was probably the sparkling eiffel tower at night, which we could see from our hostel room window.
The crepes were delicious, but started making a dent in our budget so I became an official crepe maker in the hostel kitchen. Amy's Creperie due to open July 2010. Last night we decided to do the Paris pub crawl to see the night life this city had to offer. Bad, bad idea. Well, loads of fun minus the creepy 40 year old french man that was kissing my hand and face and telling me how pretty I was and asking if I was married and minus how terrible I felt today. Which brings me here, to a Best Western hotel with all the conveniences from home that one could ask for - a big bed, air conditioning, real towels, privacy, quiet, a late checkout time, breakfast buffet, elevator! I felt so awful all day and thought I was dying so all I wanted was a hotel bed and sleep, so I did it. Mom said I could charge a few things and although I have been reluctant to use their money for my trip, I felt as if this was something she would want for me, a good night's rest so I wasn't sick anymore. Thanks, Mom and Dad, love you guys! :)

America's Next Top Model, France edition maybe??

My favorite movie!

Tonight marks the fifth night in Paris, and I am glad to be leaving. I'm not sure if I look like a rediculous foreigner or if staring here is the norm, but I have been getting stare after stare from all kinds of people, blatant, long, direct stares. that continue even after I stare back. The French are very anti english, so much so that there is a society of the keepers of the French language to prevent english from creeping in. For example, they started to say le weekend, so the "immortals" immediately made a word for it, and people started saying le computer, so they made a new word for that too. They're called the immortals because you get the job for life and can only get one to you by someone retiring. I imagine them wearing long cloaks and hoods and being similar to the secret societies of the DaVinci Code or National Treasure.

Its funny the things you start to miss from home. Its been a month exactly and along with the comfort and cleanliness of home, I miss free water, the abundance of public restrooms, privacy, and Mom's food. Patrick misses ice, haha. Because Europe doesn't serve ice in their drinks, and their drinks are usually only mildly cold. And I miss free refills!! I tried to ease my homesickness by going to Chinatown. Its big enough that its on the map and listed in both of our guide books. We get there but you wouldn't have known it because it wasn't very obvious. There were just scattered asian stores and restaurants on four streets, definitely not what I consider a chinatown. But nevertheless, I got a don tot, chinese egg custard, from a pastry shop and four cans of Kirin for 1.25 each. But then someone stole our beer from the fridge in the hostel :( Our fault for leaving them there and making it too easy.

Tomorrow we will definitely be making it to Brussels. I hear there's the Godiva factory there :)

So. Exhausted.

Everyday I get so worn out! And you can't sleep in and recharge all your batteries, because there's just too much to see. I feel like I could sleep for 3 days straight, but I must keep going!

As you know, I'm a terrible hiker. You would think that one can't really be bad at hiking, but I am. So I was super satisfied with our hike up Mt. Pilatus. We started hiking from the bottom on a medium rated trail that lasts 4-5 hours. We thought "We'll be on a mountain, so it will surely be colder than the rest of the city," and accordingly, we both wore pants and brought our fleeces with us. Oh. No. It was sooooooooo hot on the mountain. And for some reason, towards the midway point, the trails were covered in manure! And there were swarms of the largest flies I have ever seen in my life! It was so terrible! Imagine being so hot, and sweaty, and exhausted, and walking through walls of flies and smelling horse poop and climbing a mountain. All at the same time. BUT with one of the most breathtaking views ever. So that made it semi-ok. Thankfully, there was a cogwheel train stop halfway up the trail so we hopped on that. The first half to the station was estimated at 1.5-2 hours and it took us about 3, and the second half was listed at 2 hours so it probably would have taken us 4. While we were waiting for the train, we tried to buy tickets at the little machine, but it wouldn't take our cash! But the nice conductor man let us on and put us in the unused conductor cabin in the back of the train. I think because we smelled awful, but it was still cool to be in the driver's seat on the world's steepest cog wheel train! The top of the mountain was covered in flies too!! So. Gross. But there was still a little bit of snow at the top. We took a cable car down to Switzerland's longest toboggan run which was a lot of fun! Thankfully we didn't get stuck behind someone that braked the whole way down, like the guy in front of us.Still had a ways to go to the summit...

sThank goodness for the train! In the cockpit.

Well worth it.

Leaving Switzerland was so stressful! We haven't quite gotten the hang of train travel yet. We barely caught the bus to the train station, and then at our train transfer stop, we found our train, car, and seats, or so we thought, until a train man knocked on the window and yelled to get off and that the train to paris was farther down. We hurried off and the train man just pointed down the corridor and told us to keep running. Another train man was hanging out of a car that was waaay down there and telling us to hurry. As we sprinted down the platform the whistle blew and I could here the train revving up! Ugh sooo stressful. But we made it to Paris and I slept the whole way :). Were pretty much going to double the amount of time that we think we need before travelling from now on.

Backdate to Friday

Russian mission! Eek!

The UN in all its glory

Geneva

Switzerland is beautiful, but man, is it expensive. Left Bern today, and arrived in Luzern, where supposedly its breath takingly beautiful. We got to our hostel which is kind of out in the residential boonie area, but its quiet and safe around the hostel. Its definitely the most expensive one that were staying at but probably has the least amount of amenities. Similar to our Geneva day, we had free travel today, so we took a boat cruise around Lake Lucerne. There was a boat waiting at the port so we just hopped on without asking any questions. Cut to 4 hours later, we find out that this boat never actually goes back to Luzern. So starving and boated out, we get off and switch onto the boat that would take us back. What an adventure!

Fine swiss cuisine, fried rice from the street! Yummmm

When I'm rich, and I decide to travel around the world again, I'm going to experience all of the foods the right way. With my daily budget, its just impossible to try a $30 full course meal when a simple premade lunch sandwich costs $7 and your drink is $3 and your hostel for the night is $30 . Sad, I know. BUT I hear that this hostel offers fresh bread with local cheese and ham and jam and butter and fresh orange juice, so I finally get to try some famous Swiss cheese. And I have become somewhat of a butter expert, since all u get for breakfast from most hostels is toast, butter, and jam. Irish butter is soo good, as well as irish beef, spanish butter, not so much. I'm excited for swiss butter because their dairy is supposed to be excellent. Oh, and I tried Rivella, a Swiss soda, which contains like 20% milk. It tasted like a roll of Smarties in Sprite.

Tomorrow is Mt. Pilatus which could possibly include a medium difficulty 5 hour 7 km hike to the summit. That's right. Me. Hiking. I'm still debating between that or an easy 1.5 hour hike....

Europe has this new line of "no frills" airlines which usually fly to smaller aiports right outside of large cities and have fares as low as 5 euro including taxes and fees. The catch is that you have to pay for every little thing and you're bombarded with ads during your flight. Wellll how bad could that be? Pretty terrible. The seat backs in front of you have no pockets and are made of plastic. There aren't any folding procedure pamphlets, there's a sign plastered to the seat in front of you. The overhead bins have ads on them. The stewardesses run up and down the aisles with catalogues and carts of things for sale. There aren't any assigned seats and you must check in online or pay extra. BUT totally worth it for less than $15.

Once we arrived in Barcelona, it was around midnight. And on our walk to the hostel we went the opposite direction and ran into a couple of prostitutes and a strip club, but made it alive to our hostel. Barcelona was beautiful and had so much history, but it was difficult to imagine the majesty in all of the old buildings because they fit right in with the rest of the city. We watched a free concert in the park and took a nap in the sun, explored the city including Gaudi pieces, the Olympic village and stadium, La Sagrada Familia (a huge cathedral scheduled to be finished in 2020), and saw KAREEM ABDUL JABBAR, who I just thought was some freakishly tall person. And we ate paella on the mediterranean coast. And saw an old naked man walking along the port.

Barcelona from the Gaudi Park
The best street performer! Bumblebee! And he actually transformed into a car!


Paella on the Mediterranean coast!

Kareem and Pat, homies

Then we took a night train in Harry Potter style to Bern. Switzerland is one of the most beautiful places on Earth! Since we have eurail passes we got some free travel today so why not take a day trip to Geneva, the capitol of international diplomacy?? We cruised on a boat on Lake Geneva and rented free city bikes to bicycle up to the European UN HQ. You know, normal day in the life of moi.

Me on the night train

My spanish got us by pretty well in Spain, but thank goodness a good number of people speak english here! Because neither of us know any French or German. Haven't tried Swiss chocolate yet but I will let you know how delicious it is when I do. Will also post pictures once I find a computer that doesn't charge $6 per hour, so most likely not until we leave Suisse, where everything costs double.

My Food Journey...

One of the best parts of this trip, other than the awesome sightseeing and accents, has been the foooood! If you're reading this, you probably already know how much I love to eat. And I'm super excited to try all the foods in all the countries.

You can't come to the UK without trying fish and chips. I've had them twice!
From the most famous chipper in Galway

Beef and Guinness Stew! SOOO delicious.

I also had bangers and mash, and steak and guinness pie, but those pictures got deleted on my camera:(. When I come home, I'm using Guinness to cook for everything! Tommorrow is the Fabulous Food Trail of Dublin, so there will be lots of food pictures there!!

Kiss It!

Today was the end of our tour of southern Ireland. We got to see the Blarney castle, and about 100 steps up was the Blarney stone. You would think it would be inscribed with something or have some kind of special placement, but it was just a specific stone in the castle wall. In order to reach it, you had to lay down and do a little back bend to kiss it upside down. Even though I think people pee on it and/or there's a plethora of diseases on it, I had to kiss it. Legend says I will now have the "gift of gab" or eloquence for seven years, or mouth herpes... But its ok, I immediately put Purell on my lips.

Last night was karaoke in the only pub in this little village we stayed at. Our hostel was more like some familys home/prison with no wifi or breakfast, but our driver bought us all McDonalds for breakfast :) just like home.

Mom and Dad, this is not for your eyes or ears...
Before Pat arrived, I was staying in a hostel for about five nights, and I immediately met a girl from LA who was just getting out of bed at 2 in the afternoon in her silk lace nighty... in a 12 bed dorm room. First thing she asks is if I have met a cute Irish man yet, because thats one of her life goals, and tells me that she has been hanging out with some spanish guys that have been living in the hostel, but she doesn't think she'll hook up with them since they're in the same room. Riiiiiiight. Oh and she tries anything once apparently and seems like an alternative hippy wannabe that travels around with Daddy's money. So of course, I tried my best to avoid her and her friends. The night before our tour, or morning of our first day, I woke up to some grunting and bed squeaking. At first I thought someone was you know, playing with himself, but then it was getting intense, so I thought maybe someone was dreaming? Definitely not. Because then I hear a girl moaning and interspersed slapping. Ooooook. It was super sunny in the room but there was a towel curtain draped around this spanish guy's bed, so thank God you couldn't see anything. I decided to shower because I couldn't sleep through that and needed someone else to witness what was happening so I woke Pat up.When I got out of the shower, it wasn't even 6am yet! I stalled as long as I could because I could hear them doing it from the bathroom! Pat heard the guy begging to put it in her butt. But all I wanted to know was who the girl was. It wasn't LA, she was sleeping in bed with the other spaniard. But I fell asleep before she snuck out. And what made it worse was the guy was this greasy, gross sketchtastic boy with a curly rat tail, and he was whistling to himself all day. Grossssssssss. But it was bound to happen in one of my hostels. I'm sure Amsterdam will be quite similar...

Keeping up with blogs is slightly difficult

While traveling, especially on a tour, its hard to find time to get on a computer or sit down and write in a journal. You're either super tired at night, or getting ready for the day in the morning, or out exploring during the day. Patrick and I are currently on day 2 of our 3 day southern tour. We had two days in Dublin during which we hung out with our Aussie friends and went on a free walking tour of Dublin. I have now learned the history of Ireland two times over, and have retained maybe 25%.

Our 3 day tour as been good so far. The first was slightly lame for me because the tour route deviated from what was advertised. So our first day was pretty much the same day tour as one that I had taken on my own in Galway. But the weather when I went on my own was gray and drizzly (the start of my love for rain jackets) and yesterday was beautiful, so I got to see the sights in a new light.

Sunny Day

Rainy Day

Our tour guide yesterday was a trip in itself. It felt almost as if he wouldn't stop talking, but at the same time, didn't say enough. He told us a few times how his father went fishing a lot, but didn't eat the trout he caught. That he would eat his dad's trout and his dad didn't like it when he rang him on the boat. When Patrick asked if he spoke Gaelic, he went on a 30 minute rant on how he didn't actually know any Gaelic, except for a few words and why he didn't know any. I've definitely had my fair share of open mouth sleeping as well. These buses just knock you out within 5 minutes. Boring tour guides or irish folk music don't help much either.

Today has been much better. The driver today, Seany, looks like a grungy street guy and talks like a leprechaun, so pretty entertaining. We saw the Cliffs of Moher today which looked like the Cliffs of Insanity in Princess Bride, aka AMAZING!

Mini Cliffs

Hardcore, I know
The Cliffs of Insanity...

A couple days ago, I learned that the library in one of the later Harry Potter movies was based on the long library of Trinity College AND that Hogwarts was based off of a castle in Edinburgh, so naturally, I have added Scotland to the end of my trip. Looks like, in total, I will be travelling one month with Pat in Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, meeting my sis and bro in Germany, and continuing on my own to Italy, England, and Scotland, and finally home July 6th.

Rain Jackets are Awesome!

Before I got here, everything I read about Ireland said that the weather was crappy and unpredictable. And since I have been here, up until yesterday, the weather has been beautiful. You can see bright blue skies in the pictures and everything. Well, yesterday, I went on a day tour from Galway city to Connemarra which is in the mountains. It was really pretty, and there are all these waterfalls going down the mountain and sheep running around. One thing we visited was Kylemore Abbey which used to be a Castle, turned into a vacation home, turned into an abbey, and finally a school for girls. The entire day in the mountains it was raining and gloomy and foggy. I have fallen in love with my rain jacket. It protects me from wind too! And my hiking sneakers that I got repel water and stuff. So awesome! The gross cold non stop rain isn't so bad when you're prepared!!

New Friends

So the people that I have met along the way have been all kinds. There was a french student on the first night in Dublin that creeped me out by being a little too open a little too quickly, and saying things like "it would be a pleasure to watch you dance," and "Oh, so that is how Americans are. Huh..." when I seemed reluctant when he suggested sharing my one apple. There were two other french guys living in Amsterdam that I met on a pub crawl and they were really nice- and tall! An australian architect student studying in Helsinki who is super cool. A South African- English guy who was definitely looking for a rebound after breaking off his engagement (which he loved to talk about). Some Ivey League PhD students... one lived up to the snob stereotype for sure, but her friends were completely opposite, and a bit flamboyant. And 2 American boys that were definitely the "Yea! America!" type. All in all it's been pretty fun. I noticed that single travelers tend to gravitate toward eachother, at least thats what I do.

I'm currently in Galway, but tonight is my last night. I'll be heading back to Dublin for a while, until next Monday when Patrick arrives. Looks like we'll be traveling for about a month, but who knows, we might end up working on a farm in Portugal, or a vineyard in Italy in exchange for small pay, accommodations, and food. Or maybe I'll go back to Dublin, and work for a month in an office.

Photos have been uploaded to Facebook!! Finally...

Change of Plans...

Pictures from yesterday:

Irish buildings in the "uppity" South Side

The Three Fates: A gift from the Germans. They weave your fate.

Dublin's mini Arc de Triomphe

St. Stephen's Greene. Largest park in Europe, or so I am told

City folk love their parks

So today, I decided to abandon the plan of working and living in Dublin to travel for a couple months instead. I wasn't having very much luck with the job hunt, but now I am having second thoughts. Ah! Who knows? My friend Patrick will be joining me soon (hopefully!) to start a traveling adventure! Maybe I'll stay. I can't decide! Tomorrow I think I am going to go on a mystery day tour to somewhere in Ireland. Today, I went to the National Museum of Natural History, also nicknamed the Dead Zoo for all the stuffed animals there. They had all kinds of animals from all over the world! Oh! And can you believe some Irish man asked me for directions?!

Giant Irish Deer

Giant Lobster

My new pet lion

Koala!

Rocko the Wallabee

Zebra!

Things I have learned so far about Dublin:
-Not many people here wear sunglasses
-They can't pronoune "-th" so "Thanks" is "Tanks"
-They drive on the left side of the road
-Irish people are always late, and usually never in a hurry. Even though this is a big city, none of the drivers ever honk at eachother
-No one wakes up early here. Shops don't open before 10am.
-Asian people run all of the internet shops

-They apparently haven't heard of lung cancer...

Trying to Adjust

So I have been here for probably about 48 hours, and man, is it hard. I don't think I realized what coming over alone was really going to be like. It's pretty lonely, and since I'm in an unfamiliar place, I get nervous when I venture outside of the main part of the city because I can't tell if it's a good area or not, since I don't really know what the norm is here. I have completed my resume, and tried to look for housing. Haven't looked for a job yet, because the timing just hasn't worked out yet, but tomorrow, hopefully I will start. I've set up 2 appointments to look at our apartments, but no luck so far. Wish me luck!

Other than that, today, I went to the National Museum which had a lot of history and archaeology of Ireland. The Gator Nation is definitely everywhere, because I ran into one of my engineering classmates in the museum!! What a coincidence! Although I'm not much of an art buff, I went to the National Gallery and checked out some french and irish art. Lots and lots of walking today, so I rewarded myself with a taxi ride back to Temple Bar :)

So if anyone feels like taking a last minute flight over, I will be more than happy to travel with you!!

Arrived in Dublin!

I have finally made it to Dublin to begin my 3 month adventure before the next five years of my life are devoted to school. Monday was super hectic, trying to run around Tampa finishing things up and running errands. The whole family went to the airport to see me off and after connecting in Atlanta, I was on my way to London. My flight was late by an hour, so I had an hour
to get my bag, go through customs, check in to my next flight, and find the gate. Well, that definitely was not going to happen. Turns out the terminals there are each separated by a mile, and there are long tunnels to walk through, and its basically impossible to get anywhere in that airport in less than 30 minutes. Mind you, I was carrying a 50 lb. pack on my back. So, I missed my flight, and took one out 2 hours later. Not too shabby. But alas, I made it to Dublin, to the Barnacles hostel (www.barnacles.ie). Tomorrow is my orientation for the Work in Ireland program, and then the job/apartment hunt begins! Thank you to all of you that wished me safe travels. I already miss everyone!