Rain, rain, go away

This morning I slept in until eleven. It was wonderful. Even after that coffee and tea last night I somehow managed to sleep like a rock. The free breakfast at the hostel was amazing, though. A scone and tea. 

I headed out to Dingle on the 11:30 bus and got there at about 1. It was raining pretty hard in Tralee and I was reaaalllly hoping it would be nice in Dingle, since I don't have a raincoat because I'm dumb. Also, I don't have an umbrella. I do have a tarp though. 

I met up with another fellow couchsurfer in Dingle-- Kata. Kata is a teacher from New York who has traveled already to Iceland and some other places (I can't remember the other places because I got too excited about Iceland). So we bonded over Iceland and traveling and whatnot, split the cost of a bunch of produce, soup, cheese and bread at a local supermarket and went to the pier to eat. It was a little windy and chilly, but not bad after the sun came out and lit up the emerald coast. 

 This is Kata. She's awesome.

We went back to her hostel to drop off my stuff and charge my electronic whatnots (the last hostel I stayed in had no outlets). I met an Italian guy there named Giuseppe whose English wasn't very good. I told him, "Non parlo Italiano ma posso capire in po perche parlo spagnolo" (I don't speak Italian but can understand some because I speak Spanish). Well, for the first time I got to put it to the test. We actually *struck up a conversation* in two different languages and it was about the happiest moment of my life. Most of what I didn't understand I just had him repeat and got it the second time, so it wasn't entirely smooth but it blew my mind. Anyway, Kata and I decided to walk through town and down to the beach. 

There were traffic cones everywhere because of the marathon, but we still got to enjoy all the colorful buildings in the city and the landscape. Everything here is so cute. 

Also whiskey. Once we got to the beach, it was half covered by seaweed because of the low tide. I don't think I've ever actually seen seaweed before. It's so strange... 

We headed back after reaching a dead end and I left Kata at her hostel. I booked one back in Annascaul, a town about 15km east of Dingle, and left a but early on the bus because it started to rain again. We planned on biking Slea Head again today (now it's Sunday, keep up with me here) but Kata is feeling pretty sick so I'll wait until tomorrow. Instead, she's coming to Annascaul just to hang out and I think we're going to go see Inch Beach, which is evidently world famous for surfing? 

One thing that I would like to do while I'm here is climb Brandon's Peak, which is on the peninsula, j use to say that I have. I'll update on that later. 

Wen I got back to the hostel yesterday I met what I thought was a couple from San Fran but they turned out to be half siblings. We struck up a conversation from either side of the hostel kitchen and ended up walking into town to hang out at a bar for a bit before coming back and watching that awful movie where Meghan Fox is a demon and kills people or something. I don't know. I ended up going to bed around 3:30, and I've just woken up at 1pm. I'm not sure what to do for the moment so I'm just waiting until Kata gets here around 5. I've got a sore throat so I'm taking it a it easier today and I've had about four oranges to eat... Lets hope that staves off any kind of sickness that might keep me from enjoying my trip...

Things to know about Ireland so far: 

Good craíc (pronounced like 'crack') means good fun.

There are a lot of different types of Irish accents.

Do NOT even THINK about drinking your beer until the foam at the top has gone away. DO NOT under ANY circumstances drink off the foam before it settles.

Grass here looks like AstroTurf. 

To say someone is attractive, you say "You're a ride."

No one says "wee."

No one EVER says "Top o' the mornin'."

Bread and produce are dirt cheap. Precooked or packaged food is not.

A pub is not a 'bar.'

Rain. Lots of it. Also, the temperature fluctuates rapidly and wildly from area to area. 

There aren't very many insects.

Their minimum wage is roughly $12 an hour, and things are generally more expensive here. 

If you pronounce their town names wrong, they'll ask you to repeat it over and over again until you get it right because they think it's hilarious. 

And then bad stuff happened

Here are some pictures from my bus ride to Cork, and then Cork, and then to Tralee. 

Cork:

On the way to Tralee: 

We arrived in Tralee later than I wanted to so I didn't get to go to Dingle today like I planned. I'm meeting a couchsurfer there and hiking the Slead Head (or something?) and doing other stuff. She's a much more seasoned adventurer than I am, so I'm glad I met her. 

When I got to Tralee I met up with a couchsurfer, Dennis, who grew up on a farm here and teaches second grade (I think) at a private school. He took me back to his place for some tea and roasted chicken which was great, except I don't drink caffeine so my head started spinning afterward. He introduced me to some of the history of the town and talked about how he hadn't had the chance to travel, so he picked up couchsurfing to hear about other people's lives. It was pretty chill, and then after dinner he took me to the bottom of the local mountain (I don't know it's name...) since I mentioned I wanted to hike. I thanked him for his hospitality and went on my way!

The view was spectacular. It was almost too much to handle. I took a huge number of pictures but this was one off favorites: 

At about eight o'clock I was really tired and it had started to rain. Decided to head back down to check into a hostel. Easier said than done. I didn't pay enough attention to how I got there, so I got lost as soon as I was back down at the base. 

It was starting to get dark, and I knew I did not have much time before things were going to go your if I didn't find town. I mean, I figured it would have been easy. Just go in the direction all those lights had been when I could see them from the mountain. I pulled out my smartphone who's battery life if about four hours and tried to GPS my way back into town, but the signal kept cutting out and it showed me as being in all these weird places I knew I wasn't. AND it couldn't find my hostel by its address, so I had to get directions from the website on how to get there, except that didn't help because I was lost. It was semi dark by the time I had reached the base of the mountain:

And then it got really dark. 

And I was in the middle of nowhere, for all I knew. 

I didn't want to bother anyone at home quite yet because I would feel bad, but it was getting very, very cold, my feet were wet, it was dark, I was scared that I was going to be attacked by something, AND I had no idea where I was. Finally at 10:15 I reached a country street corner where I couldn't go any farther because it was pitch black and I am NOT *that* adventurous. 

Luckily there were houses a few blocks back so I started retracing my steps and went up to one, knocked on the door and rang the doorbell, no answer. I went to the next one. Same thing. I was starting to freak out. A lot. By this point my phone would have died so I had it plugged into my external battery. I took it out to see if I had a signal. Nope. It was also only fifty percent charged and wasn't charging anymore?! I checked the cable to see if it a still connected... It had broken. Wonderful. So now I was cold, wet, hungry, and lost with zero connection to anyone and the pressing matter of phone sea was upon me in the de that I ran into a signal somewhere. 

I tried a third house. I knocked, and could see someone watching tv in the living room with headphones on. I knocked. Nothing. I knocked again. Nothing. I knocked really hard one more time, and there took his headphones off and ran away... But his dad came to the door. I was expecting a backlash but I was desperate for help at this point so I didn't care so much. Fortunately that's not actually what happened.  

I explained I was really sorry and that I was extremely lost, and I just needed some direction as to how to get to "Bibi's Hostel." 

"That's not around, that I know of." Oh dear sweet mother of everything holy. I was so ready to give up I everything at that point. "But here, come inside." He let me in even though I kept telling him I didn't want to intrude, but then he just sat me down in the kitchen, gave me a couple energy bars and some coffee, and proceeded to just make conversation with me like nothing had happened. We talked about his nephew who also travels (he's 18) and has gotten lost a few times just like I was. He asked me a bunch of questions like if I had a hat, and a coat, where I was from, etc etc. when I said I didn't have a hat and that when my head was cold I simply wrapped it I my jacket, he looked at me like I was crazy (okay, I am) and went into the other room and gave me a hat! He insisted on driving me to town and dropping me off at a hostel he knew existed, so I took him up on his offer and thanked him profusely. 

So now I'm finally settled down in "Finnegan's Hostel" in downtown Tralee, which is apparently the Kirksville of Kerry County. Got my shower, I'm in my blanket, the guy served me some hot chocolate, met a couple Belgian guys who are traveling for fun before uni starts, and then I wrote all this. Night. 

Last of Dublin

Yesterday was basically perfect. First I walked more around town and had some local produce for lunch, and then Andy called me up and invited me to go wall rock climbing or whatever it's called. I think he called it bouldering? I wasn't really keen on the idea, but I thought, "We'll, the worst that could happen is I seriously injure myself." That, and I might have a lot of fun, so I went! 

It was so much fun! I've never climbed before and by the end of the two hours we were at this facility I was climbing at level 4! (That's actually not that great, but I'm proud of myself for not falling off the top of any walls). 

When we were done we walked through the grounds at the national museum of art which were gorgeous and remind me of pictures of Versailles that I've seen. I got my first real scone (cherry vanilla mmmm). After that I had to go back home to take a nap because jet lag sucks and won't ever stop. 

Later that night we went to a really fancy bar.

I felt severely underdressed. Everyone here is so well dressed it hurts. Oy! Thiago mentioned I looked less American than most people that come here, and then proceeded to say, "Sometimes I see Americans dressed in these tidied clothes and I don't understand... Is just like, WHAT were you THINKING?" You know that game, "gay or European?" Yeah, that's not even a joke. It's so true here. 

Anyway after two pints at the first bar we headed to another one where there was a drag show going on. It was like we walked into a different country altogether. Suddenly there's no space for anything but yourself and your pint and a queen is up on stage singing her heart out while two Brazilian guys dance madly on either side of her (and actually, they were twins, which was weird). 

Finally around 3am I decided it was best to go home so we headed back to Thiago's where I slept like a drunk log. This morning was not pleasant.

So today, I've decided to go to Dingle and some other place in county Kerry on the west coast. The national bus system, Bus Eireann (pronounced ah-rin), is running specials from now until October where you can get to any major city in Ireland for five euro. So today I'm taking a bus to Cork first and then to Tralee, about 30km out of Dingle. 

It took me an hour of walking and asking random people on the street to find the bus station, but I made it! Now I'm sitting on a bus with wifi writing this post and enjoying the friggin beautiful Irish countryside. Let me tell you now-- all the pictures you've seen, all the things you've heard, come nowhere near to doing it justice. It's just gorgeous. Everything is so green, and there's trees everywhere, with rolling hills, and the sun is shining down on everything and it's just ridiculous. 

If you ever decide to travel by public transport, even buses, take into account that they don't have bathrooms on them like us. I'm stuck on this three hour bus ride with a water bottle in my stomach. Ohhhhhh dear.

Lovelovelove

DUBLIN IS AMAZING

After breakfast I called up my host for tonight, Thiago, and key for directions how to get to his house. Long story short, I got lost, took the wrong bus, and went over a mile too far on the bus I wasn't supposed to take. At that point, I gave up and went for the GPS on my phone and just walked the 1.6 miles back to his house. 

Walking back from the bus stop that was too far.

Cute houses.

He met me on the street and we went to a supermarket to get beer and food. Produce is super cheap here. I got tomatoes for 27 cents each, but the an eight pack of Guinness was €12 ($18! Wtf!). Yeah, not buying alcohol here. I'll wait til I'm somewhere where it's cheap. Anyway, we walked around a bit and then came home to eat lunch. We were planning on making pasta, but Thiago's roommates, who are also Brazilian (and just now learning English) had already made food and offered for us to have some. IT WAS SO GOOD. I had Guaraná to drink (a Brazilian drink, fizzy and sweet), and they had made pasta with some kind of delicious enchilada sauce with cheese and some kind of meat. Then, we proceeded to converse in a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, and English-- basically whatever we could all get by in. I helped them with some English, and I learned a hell of a lot of Portuguese in about an hour. It was wonderful- connecting with people you'd never be able to before by learning their languages and sharing food- that's what life should be about. Or, you know, something along those lines. 

After lunch I went to my room where there's a mattress all set up for me. My first official couch surfing experience! So excited! Here's the view from my window: 

I fell asleep at two this afternoon when Thiago went to school and I didn't wake up until he got back at 6:30. Afterwards, we had some food, drank a bunch of Guinness, and then headed out othe tow again. He took me to this really awesome non-tourist pub called the Celt Pub on Talbot Street. There was some local music playing, with an accordion player and a guitarist. The accordionist had fingers that moved like lightning bolts.  I'll upload some video at some point, but without actual computer it's gonna be too much work for now. Sorry guys! But believe me when I tell you it s amazing and very much worth going. 

Every time I talk with a local I'm starting to take on a more decidedly Irish accent. I think it helps people not see me as a tourist, and also makes me feel like I'm trying to be part of the culture, especially with the whole pubs and Guinness thing. I am LOVING it here.

Andy met up with us at the bar to hang out a bit, and after the bar closed around 12:45 we headed back to Thiago's house. Andy just left, and now I'm done writing for the night. Good night, ladies and gents. 

The post office, where some kind of battle took place. I don't remember... Andy was talking about it 

Dublin

I'll post details about my flight later because it was interesting but not as interesting as Dublin! We landed yesterday morning at ten til nine (over an hour earlier than we were supposed to due to tailwinds). Getting throug customs wasn't bad-- I had to fill out a card saying where I was going and how long I would be in Ireland, etc etc. Apparently, it's really hard to hard to immigrate here. Since I had no idea where I was going, and I was really stressed out, the first thing I did in Ireland was evacuate my insides in the 'gents' room. Afterward I felt good enough to ask people for directions and found out how to get downtown. It was a mess and I was terrified the whole time, but I eventually made it to my hostel (Abigail's hostel, right next to the river in downtown Dublin). The bus here had wifi so that helped  me figure out what to do a bit. It was also less than two pounds to get here from the airport which is pretty cool since it's a half-hour drive.

EVERYTHING is written in both Irish and English (I was told my a local that Gaelic was just called Irish here). The river is gorgeous, the people are nice, and the weather is friggin perfect. It was a bit chilly yesterday morning but it soon warmed up to about 70. I wasn't allowed to check into the hostel until 2pm, but they let me keep my stuff in their locker room all day, so I decided to go figure out my phone situation. It was AWFUL. 

So I was under the impression that my phone was unlocked and ready to get a new SIM card. Wrong. I put the SIM card in and it wouldn't work because it said my phone was still locked. The shopkeeper recommended that I get my phone unlocked around the corner by a bootleg shop run by a small Japanese boy. He wanted 35€ for it which was way too much, and I knew that AT&T had unlocked my phone, so I figured repeating the steps of backing it up through iTunes and restoring iSight work. The only problem is that I didn't have iTunes or a computer anywhere. Fortunately there is an 'Internet cafe' a block down from the hostel where you can get on a computer for not much money and do whatever. I plugged in my phone, found out iTunes didn't work because it was missing 'QuickTime', installed that, still didn't work because the software was too old, installed a new copy of iTunes, and then restored my phone and it WORKED. Took about forty minutes. By the time I got it fixed, I was about ready to give up and have the Japanese kid work on it. 

Anyway, I now have a working smart phone with a bunch of texting and lots of data and whatnot. On to the fun stuff...

I was hungry so I bought a couple apples from a local supermarket and started walking. I walked *everywhere*. I walked all over downtown Dublin all the way to the residential district south of town  and all the way east to the port. 

 

I got lost and it took my three hours to figure out how to get back to my hostel, but when you're  walking through town really fast and pieces of apple are flying every which way out of your face, people leave you alone. There were street performers, beggars, beautiful buildings, seagulls everywhere (!), and friendly people I stopped to talk to about the area I was in. I stored at H&M to get a shirt that didn't make me look like a poor tourist and then got a message from a guy in Dublin who wanted to hang out (from couchsurfing). We decided to meet up outside my hostel at six so I had time to nap and shower.

He took me out to tea (which they drink with milk here... It's weird) and then we took another walking tour of Dublin. We also met up with my first CS host, Thiago (pronounced chiago) from Brazil and went through some parks, trinity college, went to a resaurant that is exactly like Chipotle but not as good, and the decided to go out to see the ocean. 

 Andy!

 Thiago!

We took a train to the east coach and caught the sunset from the train station, and then walked back all the way into downtown Dublin by walking on the beach. 

By the time we got back, we decided to go out and drink some so I could have my first official Irish pub experience. Evidently, you have to say cheers every time you get a drink and before you drink it. You also can't drink your beer until the foam is gone and it's settled. Guinness here... Not a huge fan. But definitely better than Guinness back home. It tastes completely different! I really got into the local way of drinking whiskey - Jameson with a splash of water. Supposedly it brings out the flavor more or something, but really I just think its so you don't explode from too much alcohol all at once. 

We took turns buying rounds until about two in the morning and finally decided to call it a night after finishing at a bar where there was live Irish folk music and people were dancing Irish-ly and singing together and it was WONDERFUL. 

The hostel here serves all you can eat breakfast so I'm taking advantage of that now while I write. I want to write so much more about this city but there are better things to do than write while I'm here so more later. :) headed out to Thiago's house north of Dublin's center. 

The Final Countdown

I'm literally counting down the hours until I leave. Six. Five. Currently, we're at four. And every hour is taking its toll on my blood pressure. I spent the night with my friend Tanner in St. Louis playing video games and becoming increasingly more nervous.

All I've got left is to print out my boarding passes, get to the airport, and leave. But to take some of the stress out of the day, Tanner and I covered "Cups"! Here it is:

Yes, that is a giant etch-a-sketch in the background.

Y'all are gonna be missed by me when I'm gone.

Packing. Blah.

I've always been a worrier. And subsequently, a heavy packer. When I went to Philadelphia for two weeks last year, I literally stuff my enormous suitcase to the brim and on top of that filled my backpack up with crap. Clothes, a computer, paper, pencils, batteries, gadgets and chargers, sunblock, etc etc. Lugging all that stuff from the airport to my room at U Penn was ridiculous. When I was a kid, my family went from St. Louis to St. Joseph often to visit my grandparents and I remember one time in particular when I'd packed silverware, scissors, coloring books, stencils, and part of my chemistry set (among many other things like construction paper and glue... maybe I was planning on doing crafts) all inside my school backpack because I thought I might need them. What if there was paper that needed cutting? What about a kid in need of a Barney stencil? My chemicals were a must; they might have saved me from some monster with a weakness to borax.

But this time, I can't pack heavily. Traveling around several countries with a million pounds of luggage just isn't feasible or smart. Not to mention that RyanAir, the budget airline I'm flying around on while I'm over there, imposes a weight and size limit on your carry-ons of 10kg and some dimension measured in centimeters I don't remember. So the problem was there: fit enough stuff into one backpack that I could survive for ten weeks.

No one has really written a good guide for how to choose a backpack. At least, not that I've seen. And being American I have no real concept of how much stuff can fit into 20, 30, 40 liters. I had to look up pictures of people with various sized backpacks to get some idea of what to get.

I could probably fit 10 weeks into this.

After like twenty hours of banging my head against my keyboard I finally found this satisfactory thing:

Some CouchSurfers recommended Osprey bags and the size is 34L or so. I figured like that sounded big enough (but really I was just guessing and it was on sale... don't fault me). Plus, look at all those zippers and straps! AND it comes with a lifetime warranty-- they will fix any part of this backpack for any reason for the rest of my life if something gets torn or broken or for whatever reason bursts into flame. So that's cool. It's called the Osprey Quantum. Pretty neat.

The next thing was to get a tent that would fit inside this pack, weigh next to nothing, and be waterproof. So I got this funny looking cocoon thing:

So those are the two important things for my survival. Here's what I've fit into my backpack now:
1 tent; 1 tarp; 1 pair jeans; 6 pairs socks; 7 pairs underwear; 1 microfiber towel; 1 blanket; 2 tank-tops; 1 t-shirt; 1 jacket; a camera; an external charging battery; my iPad; chargers; toiletries; wall outlet converters... oh yeah, and a Sherpa.

Sherpa!

 And then I'll be wearing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts when I leave, obviously. It all fit into my pack and weighs only 6 kilos. This is gonna be one hell of a trip.

Today is my last day in Kirksville and I still have no host to stay with in Dublin. Not too worried about it though; there's a CS event going on right downtown just a couple hours after I land, so I guess I'll head out that way, have coffee with some local CSers and see if they know what I should do.

ADVENTURE and RAINBOWS about describes how I'm feeling right now.

Inklings

Hey everybody. It's been a while. There's a lot to catch up on before I leave IN FOUR DAYS.

So nine months ago I was really itching to spiral into debt. I had several options. I could buy a yacht, or lose the lottery a hundred million times like everyone else, buy all the twinkies that were about to be taken from the shelves, or I could travel Europe and put my adventuring skills to the test. Yachts are useless in Missouri, the lottery was too boring, and one can enjoy only so many twinkies before going into a diabetic coma (not to mention they're already back on shelves... excuse me while I run to the store). So Europe it was. Originally I didn't think I wanted to go enough to actually spend money on it. But then I saw this:

The main pool at Sillans-la-Cascade, 50km from St Tropez

And this:

Santorini, Greece

And THIS:

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Oh, mercy.

Having recently purchased an iPad there was now the possibility of using some really cool apps that would make traveling much easier and cheaper. Skyscanner is one such app; it lets you look at flights to and from wherever you want (picked from a rotating world map) and then compare flights day-to-day between those locations for months at a time. I managed to find a dirt cheap round-trip ticket ($610) to Dublin with a 10-week trip length way back in January and couldn't resist.
So my whole last semester went by pretty quickly, I graduated, and then came the "Oh shit." moment when I realized I needed to figure out how on earth I was going to stay alive for 10 weeks while trekking through various countries. Enter CouchSurfing!

Not this kind of CouchSurfing. 

CouchSurfing is an online social network of travelers (and those who host travelers) all over the world. There are currently about 6 MILLION participants in over 100,000 cities worldwide. Here's a video:

Of course from the first moment I heard about it, I was hooked. If you've read my earlier posts, you'll know that a year ago I was in Philadelphia. My first night there, I ended up at a bar learning to country line dance out of sheer boredom, but was then treated to a bachelor party with people I'd only just met, homemade daiquiris, a beautiful view of Philadelphia, and expensive cheese and crackers with wine, AND my first taxi ride. All that was because I showed interest in some complete strangers and their country line dancing. I knew I'd be ready to take that international and CouchSurfing would be the perfect catalyst for cultural immersion. More on that later.