It's Been a While.....

I apologize for not adding any updates. I have not really touched my computer since some point at the beginning of May due to no consistent WiFi access and although being back in the States, I still have not gotten on my computer until today. I’m going to try to wrap up 3 weeks in 3 separate blogs spanning hopefully just a few days apart, so bear with me.

I was reminded that in the last blog I forgot to mention that I actually played a gig in Ramstein. I actually got to play with some Air Force guys (and non Air Force), mostly just songs that I know already and played before for one set, and in the other set, which was just a jam band feel, I actually played bass! I forgot how much fun it actually was to play bass, not just your typical 4 beat pattern in most churches, but full runs and odd beat patterns. Not all fun is just in guitar, although I still think its tops! Well after leaving the Sitter’s I went to Luxembourg. The first and main thing I wanted to do was see the World War II Memorial to all the US Soldiers that gave their life to keep us safe. At the head of all the headstones was General Patton’s gravesite, as if he was still commanding his troops. It was a really good place to reflect and just step back and appreciate all that our service men and women do for us. After the memorial, I headed to the center of town only to be disappointed and finding not much of anything, so I just hopped on the next train to Brussels! First thing I did in Belgium (after finding a place to stay for the night) was have a Belgian Waffle, and of course it was divine! After being there and eating all the wonderful foods, I decided I cannot live in Belgium because all I would do is gain tons of weight from eating all of the unhealthy (but amazing)! The next morning I went to the European Union headquarters and took the tour there. It was interesting in seeing how their form of government differs from the US. After spending quite a bit of time at the EU, I went next to the Museum of Music, which basically goes through all instruments from around the 1200s to present from all over the world. I loved it and only wish that I could have actually tried all the different instruments instead of just seeing them and hearing samples of what they sound(ed) like. There are so many little things to see in Brussels, so I won’t mention them all, but name it and I probably saw it! Next up on the list was Amsterdam. The whole town was really nice and chill, with very few cars around and of course most everyone high, which is why it was so chill. The main places that I went here was the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank’s house. I was actually rather disappointed with the Van Gogh Museum, not because I don’t like Van Gogh (because I do!) but because they made it seem like they actually had his infamous Starry Night there, when in reality, they didn’t. I mean you would think if it was a museum all about the guy, and they were selling paintings/posters with Starry Night on it, you would assume…..but I guess that’s what I get for assuming. Other than that I had no complaints about it, other than maybe a bit of a steep price, but then again I think most museums should be cheaper. Anne Frank’s house was definitely one of the places that if you are ever in Amsterdam is a must see! Especially if you ever read The Diary of Anne Frank. As I was walking through, I actually was recalling most of the diary even though it has been around 12 years since I’ve read it (back in grade school)! You actually get to go through the rooms that they had and hid in. What a sad story, but what a good thing that it was able to be shared with the world. All because of her diary, we were able to see this crucial time in the world from a completely different perspective, even if it was just in the eyes of a 14 year old. Amsterdam usually is given a bad wrap just because of the main two things, pot and the red light district, but I actually found that it was a really nice place worthy of another visit someday.

Deutschland

The first day I spent in Germany was long but great! I had to travel for quite a while, but upon getting to Kaiserslautern, the first thing I had was a doner. For those who have no clue what a doner is, it is like a gyro, except with different sauce and thinner slices of meat.  We (me, Xavier, Rousseaux, and Forrest) were really happy because we were at an actual house after each of us being out on the road for quite a long time! The first full day in Germany, we went to Ramstein Air Force Base, ate at Taco Bell (which I surprisingly missed), went to the mall on base, and even to the skate park (although we used scooters). Of course, when you have a group of guys together, you are bound to have something interesting happen, and thus we had a run in with the police that night! We had been at a pub for an open mic night, listening to bands, and were about to head home when Forrest decided to take the car for a ride. Well lucky for him, a cop car was coming down the road and decided to follow us back to where we parked. Even luckier, he didn’t have his passport or drivers license on him. The cops were really chill though and put him in the back of their car and followed Lizzy (our chauffer) back to the house where they just looked at his ids and were fine with it and left. Definitely caught an extremely lucky break there, technically all of us did! The time there with the Sitter family (the family I stayed with) was incredible and a great break from always on the go day to day! We did tons of things like dollar bowling night, went to a water park, spent time playing games, hanging out watching comedy things, play music, and just chill. I absolutely loved it and already miss being around them all! Well Xav, Rousseaux, and I made some plans to take a small trip to Switzerland and Austria for a few days and be back for Easter Sunday. We decided to go to Zermatt to see the legendary Matterhorn! On the way to Zermatt, we met some awesome people who we ended up hanging out with all the way there. The trip would not have been the same if we had not met Pamela and her daughters for sure! We learned a whole lot of information of what to do and also a lot of the history of the area too, which I love that kind of stuff! When we got to Zermatt, the Matterhorn was covered up, but a short time after, you could see it. It looked just like the mountain off The Grinch! Such an amazing creation! We actually found an old abandoned cabin closer to the base of the Matterhorn than any houses in Zermatt so we slept in it that night. Free place to stay and a beautiful view when waking up in the morning! That day, we took a lift up the alps to be close to the Matterhorn. Now one of my goals in life is to attempt to climb it! I found out that you can actually climb it in 2 days, but its crazy to even try to attempt it in the winter, so I guess I’ll have to come back during the summer! After a full day in Zermatt, we headed to Salzburg, Austria. We got there about 2 in the morning and found an area that no one would come by so we just slept out under the stars that night! Salzburg was beautiful! We walked through the gardens, saw the palace, saw many places that was used in Sound of Music, Mozart statue, large churches, and tons of other random things. Even a giant Easter egg! Also, we had some homemade streusel, which was to die for!!!! I’m definitely getting spoiled with all these foods and will never be able to have the Americanized versions without comparing them all the time. We made it back home late that night and went to church the next day for Easter Sunday. The service lasted about 3 hours long, but was really good! Debbie made an amazing Easter meal, which included one of my new favorite things, German white asparagus soup! We all spent some time just hanging out, as I was leaving the next day. They all were definitely such a blessing, more than I could have ever imagined!

Am I Lazy? Or Long-Winded? Or both?

Alright, its taking me a lot to actually sit down and type this, because I’ve been constantly going/and or sleeping, or just lazy…. From Rome, I went to Bari, Italy to catch a ferry to Patras, Greece. I was told when I reserved my seat on the train that the docks to the ferry were right next to the train station…..boy were they off!!! I found an info center that said that you had to take a certain bus to the docks, but then found out that the bus that would get me there left 5 minutes before my train arrived and there wouldn’t be another one for an hour. My boat was leaving in an hour so I was out of luck there. Luckily, I ran into two girls from Korea who were needing to get to the boat too, so we all split a taxi making it much cheaper, and got there with a little bit of time to spare. I slept most of the time we were on the ship, but was able to see Greece in the morning when it was light. Once we docked, I headed to the train station and found out their train was not working, sooooooo we had to take a bus to Corinth, and then take a train to Athens. The cool part was that I got to go to Corinth. The bad part was that the station in Patras was pretty sketch. After a long day of traveling, I made it to Athens late that night and got to hear updates on both my Dad and Granddad as they were both having surgery that day. The next morning, I went straight to the Acropolis. It was incredible to see the ancient ruins of beautiful temples that had been constructed so many years ago. I walked around to the theater of Dyonassaus before going up to the top of the Acropolis, and so it was here that I actually had to jump over a fence to get back to see the Parthenon. I figured it was ok, since I paid for it, that if I got in trouble for hopping the fence I would just pull out my ticket. After walking through the Ancient Agora, more ruins, I had a typical Greek lunch consisting of soufflaki, or a gyro. One of the easiest meals to make and sheerly amazing! After this, I went to the original Olympic Stadium. Definitely not as big as you would think, but for as old as it is, I would say it’s a good size.

On Sunday, I finished up my time in Athens by seeing the Temple of Zeus, the Royal Gardens, the Sunday Market, Athen’s Changing of the Guard(quite interesting), and even saw the new Olympic Stadium. Its actually rather sad there because the only real area that has been kept up with is the main stadium, only because it now belongs to one of Athen’s futball teams. After a long day, I headed to the train station because I was supposed to take a night train from Athens to Bulgaria. Well, according to the people at the station, there was no train running to Bulgaria any longer, which would completely change all my plans. They said I could go to Thessaloniki and see if they had a train, so I figured that was my best option. I actually met 3 guys while I was waiting for my train, which wasn’t leaving for about 3 hours. They seemed real chill, and they said if things didn’t work out with going to Bulgaria, I could come chill with them in Germany for a little while. While we were waiting, we went searching for some soufflaki, and we just happened to find the most amazing place. I still have yet to find another place that compares with it! I got to Thessaloniki about 2 or 3 in the morning and the person there confirmed there was no train to Bulgaria. I didn’t want to pay for a hostel, because I didn’t want to miss the guys when they came through, so I slept outside the train station on the street. What a crazy night! I met up with the guys and we just hung out the whole day in Thessaloniki. We even read through Thessalonians together, which was definitely very befitting for the place we were. The guys introduced me to slacklining, while at a park, which for those of you that don’t know what it is, look it up on YouTube. A definite workout! We all actually ended up staying the night at the airport and took a flight to Germany the next morning. I’m catching up! Only about 3 weeks behind now at this point!!! ;)

Pasta, Pizza, Tiramisu, Gelato......I don't think I'm in Missouri anymore......

So this blog is going to probably be a long one. So much has happened since the last post that I may split it up into two sections for your sake. Let’s see, first off right after Barcelona was Italy. I stopped off in Milan for a short time, because I was told by a local back in France not to worry about it since its mostly fashion and there are much more beautiful places to see. So I headed to Venezia(Venice)! What an awesome place! I can definitely see why its such a romantic city. Plus all those rumors about it smelling really bad and the water being really nasty….not even close to being true! Also on my way there, I met a couple from Dallas on the train, which was pretty awesome to talk to people from home. In Venice, there are so many small museums and churches that I stopped off and saw. One of my favorite ones was a music museum that actually had lots of old stringed instruments from the 1600s and even a harp guitar! Those are extremely expensive and yet so amazing! I had some legit gelato here as well as some amazing Italian pizza. Definitely different from American pizza, but quite good! On a side note, the entire time I was walking through Venice, I felt that I had already been here before……all thanks to Assassin’s Creed II. Next I went to Firenze! This town was extremely beautiful. I headed first to the Piazzo Michelangelo, which is an amazing plaza on a hill overlooking all of Florence! I also had THE BEST gelato I have ever had (and most likely ever will have) here and a place called Vivolvi. Ask me for directions if you ever go to Florence, because I will forever remember how to get here and make sure I go back at least once more in my life! There are so many different art galleries and museums here, and for every single one you are guaranteed waiting at least a half hour, sometimes more, to get into. I went to one of the galleries that had the original statue of David. It is so incredible to see it in real life, with a height of at least 25 to 30 feet. You aren’t supposed to take pictures inside, but I managed to take a few really good shots while security wasn’t looking. Also, one of the key things in Florence and mostly all of Italy, its really expensive and adds up quick! So from this point, I headed to Roma(Rome) to see all the sights there. The most important thing I wanted to see there was the Colosseum. I’ve always wanted to see it ever since I was a kid, which is kind of random, but I finally got to see it!!!! It is still so amazing. Just think what it was like back when it first opened. I believe it said there was over 200 days of celebration when it was first opened, where they had at least a couple fights/battles there every single night for over 200 days! Its so incredible that something that is almost 2,000 years old and been in the midst of rebellions and all out wars is still standing. One of the few for sure, I can definitely understand why it is one of the 7 Wonders of the World. From here I headed to the Palentine and Roman Forum, which consist of ancient Roman ruins and artifacts. It still amazes me how they were able to build so much amazing architecture back then with such limited technology. Next I went to Trevi Fountain, which is definitely one of the most impressive fountains I’ve ever seen, and the Pantheon of Rome.  Then I left Italy (technically) and entered into the Vatican. There is so much security just to even get in, its crazy! I was able to actually go up to the top of the capula (the very top of St. Peter’s Basilica) and could see for what seemed like miles and miles! I actually watched a mass from the dome of the Basilica, which was a pretty cool experience as well. Now after being here, as well as Sagrada Familia and Notre Dame, I’m pretty sure no other churches could ever compare. I actually went back to all of these places at night (except the Vatican) and they looked even more impressive! Maybe lights just makes things look cooler…..who knows. Also, random insert, the food in all of Italy was amazing! The pasta, the pizza, the cannolis, the tiramisu....all are like none other and is definitely worth the trip here! There is also a part of Rome that I visited that Hollywood has used many times in any movie set in Rome. The ironic thing is that its actually a block away from the US Embassy. There is a large strip where all you pass by are cafes that are outside. If they are not all one after another, then it is at least every other building. Apparently this spot was very famous in many of the American movies done in the 50s through the 70s. At the end is a nice park where you can just spend hours walking through and stopping off at more galleries inside of it. This is going to be where I stop this 2 parter for now and I will tell about some of the craziness that happened while in Greece very soon!

The rain in Spain does fall mainly on the plain…..except….

Spain. What a time there! I took the night train from Paris to Madrid, where I met up with people I actually knew! I spent the day with Adriana Gonzales, who I have known since middle school and haven’t seen since the summer after high school, and her boyfriend Aaron Turkle. We spent the day exploring different museums like the Sofia and the El Prado. They introduced me to Boccodillos, which are small sandwiches with either ham(jambon), cheese, or calamari. The Spaniards surprisingly really like calamari. We went to Madrid’s Mercado, which was an amazing market with everything that you could want. These markets are amazing to see and give you a real sense of the culture. There are some of the weirdest and yet coolest things here too! That night ended up being quite crazy with Adriana, Aaron, and Alice(Adriana’s roommate who came later in the day) missing their bus and a bit of a problem with the police in the Atocha station, but it all ended up good in the end and we all got to hang out more. The next day, I was back to exploring by myself, and got to see all of the other sights that I had yet to see. There were so many, that I barely made it to all of them, plus rain in the latter part of the day made me slow down just a bit. The following day, I went to Sevilla, and I didn’t see a single barber there! It was a beautiful town, with the gardens of Real Alcarez and the Cathedral. It was actually quite a larger town than I thought it would be. While here, I found one of the coolest things! Cheetos that were soccer balls! I do wish they had those in the US, but since most of the US doesn’t follow soccer like the Europeans, I guess its understandable. In Sevilla, I made some new friends with many people from all over Canada, and actually ended up on the same night train to Portugal with one of them. It is always nice to be able to travel with other people you have already met or know. Getting off the train, I actually thought that Portugal was just the same exact as Spain, until I went to the top of Castelo San Juan. Lisbon has a giant bridge that looks like an exact replica of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and has gorgeous views out towards the Atlantic Ocean. After exploring the town, I went down to the docks and sat down by the water, fell asleep for a bit and then realized what a bad idea that was. I had no sunscreen on and being a ginger, this most likely won’t turn into a tan sadly. Just more red. I actually was sitting at the train station waiting for my night train to go back to Madrid, and this guy started talking to me in Portuguese, which I had no clue what he was saying. He kept on talking to me and I finally was able to understand what he was saying. From what I could gather, he was saying how English people don’t ever learn the language of the country they are visiting, but if he were visiting another place, he would be expected to speak or understand English. That is very true, and I do wish that I knew at least another language fluently and not just bits of other languages. He then talked to me about what was going on in Libya, but I wasn’t exactly sure what he was saying with that, so I just nodded. The following day, I ended up at my friend Adriana’s town of Tomelloso. It’s a smaller Spanish town, but has quite a few people in it. I got to try some more crazy Spanish food, and also found out how much Spaniards like mayo with everything! The next day, Adriana, Aaron, and I went to Barcelona. It was all our first time there, so we wanted to explore basically everything. We went to Sagrada Familia, a beautiful cathedral that is done inside, but won’t be finished on the outside until around 2020. It was started back around the 1890s I do believe, completely designed by the famous Spanish artist Gaudi. Although it was a bit costly, it was definitely worth seeing. Most of the other things in Barcelona were free such as the Gothic Quarter (although you have to pay to go inside some places, but they look the same inside as out), La Rambla, Princesa St, and the Olympic Village. The beach at the Olympic Village was pretty amazing and full of people. I can just imagine during the summer how overpacked it must be with all the tourist! We actually lucked out too, because that weekend was the first Sunday of the month, and most museums are free on the first Sunday of the month, so we got to go to the Picasso Museum, which actually shows the progression of him from some of his first paintings to some of his last paintings, which is what most people know him by, with the crazy faces and displaced parts. We all left Barcelona on Sunday night, with Adriana and Aaron going back to teach, and me going on to Italy. I was really glad I got to see them. It honestly was nice getting to be around people that you know, especially after being on my own for a month. The only bad thing was, I lost my voice because I wasn’t used to talking so much, but it is slowly returning thanks to meds. Now, if only I could have a teleporter……I guess that’s a little harder to get than meds. 

Un baguette.....ah ha ha, baguette!

Bonjour! I have been in France since the last blog was posted (actually I was in Paris when I posted the last one, so technically I could have added more but I didn’t feel like it then). Right now it is the 25^th of March and I am sitting on a night train from Paris to Madrid. When I last wrote, I was headed to the ferry in Rosslare to Cherbourg. Once again, the ferry (Irish Ferries) was very much like a cruise ship and pretty cool. It was overrun by students from France, but I actually had made a friend from Paris who was on the same ship so we talked most of the time. Once we arrived at Cherbourg (part of Normandy) I went exploring throughout the town. Unfortunately, to get to Omaha Beach, the famous D-Day beach, you need a car, which I don’t have. Oh well, next time I’ll just get a car! I did find out that Cherbourg was were the Titanic was made and it is quite famous for its creation of massive ships and other such things. Quite amazing I would say! From there, I went to Paris where I saw so much stuff! The very first day I ended up walking over 14 miles just so I could see all that I could! First thing I went to was the Catacombs, then the Pantheon, Notre Dame, little Italy, and then I decided to purposefully just wander around and not use the map. I ended up going southwest and after about an hour and a half of just walking seeing random things, I found out where I was and walked towards the Eiffel Tower. I actually didn’t go up the tower as it is pricey, and my bucket list includes the Eiffel Tower, but one thing was missing, so I’ll wait til I go back (which I will) and then all will be right. Of course my bucket list does include climbing Everest, seeing the Northern Lights, finding Nessie, trekking through the Himalayas and finding a yeti….you know, the sensible things! I met a couple who were from China on their honeymoon and they wanted me to take their picture in front of the tower, which is in turn how I got my picture that’s up on Facebook. Their camera was much nicer than mine, so I figured they were safe to let take my picture! I took way too many pictures of the tower, but love some of them, and I will have to figure out how to post some on here! I went to the Louvre the following day and spent 8 hours there! Still didn’t get to see it all too! I met up with my new friend from Paris that night, Eric, and he showed me some of the more “local” things. It was really awesome to get to see Paris through the eyes of a local, plus he had loads of information about anything and everything. Pretty much, my brain was on information overload that day and needed some time to just wind down before sleeping. I did run into some problems with the ticket agents in the Paris stations with them not wanting to reserve me seats on my trains for the next few days so I didn’t get to go to Lyon or Geneva. I did get everything resolved later though by talking with someone who was head of the ticket agents and they ensured that I was treated fairly. The person earlier said they were completely full for all trains from Paris to Lyon, which I guarantee you not that many people traveled on all 14 trains for that day just for the trains to Lyon. Oh well, I got to spend more time in Paris, which actually gave me the opportunity to see a few things I had yet to see/didn’t even realize they were in Paris like Arc de Triumph and I got to go to the top of Notre Dame, which was incredible! While in line for that I met some wicked awesome people, Clare and Ali, both from London, who I will be meeting back up with at the end of my travels when I spend my last days of my journey in London. I think one of the most fun parts of this trip is not just seeing all the sights or tasting all the different foods, but its getting to meet incredible people and connect with them and find out about them.

Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day....I'm just Irish year round!

It’s hard to believe that it has already been over a week since I last wrote. Time has been flying by and I’ve had so much fun. I’m currently on a ferry headed to Cherbourg, France, which is about a 19 hour journey. When I last wrote, I was headed to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was absolutely beautiful there! Stepping out of the station, you could easily spot Edinburgh Castle high up on the hill. The main tourist spot is the Royal Mile, which is full of shops with anything and everything, kilts, scotch whiskey, Scotland rugby paraphernalia, and other things the Scots are known for. Even the Queen of England has her own palace there called Hollyrood. There’s a park near the palace, which has some mini mountains that you can climb up and one mountain, called Arthur’s Seat, the highest point in all of Edinburgh. The first day I was there I climbed up the mini ones to see the city from a different view. All around it was amazing, with the ocean off in the distance and beautiful architecture everywhere. I actually did climb Arthur’s Seat on my last day there, which was a bit difficult, because I was taking the uncommon path trying to climb almost directly straight up. I had to switch over to the common path because the rains from the previous day had made quite a muddy mess of things, but it was still well worth the climb! I got to spend some time at a Farmers Market in Edinburgh as well, which made me really wish that I lived there and was able to buy and prepare all the different foods that we don’t have in the states. Speaking of foods there, I went to a pub to watch one of the 6 Nations matches (rugby) and had some nachos. Not at all the same as in the US, but good none the less. While in Edinburgh, I decided to take a quick trip to St. Andrews, the home of golf. It was only an hour train ride, so I figured I could spend a few hours walking the course and town and then hop back on the train to be back in time to watch Man U play Arsenal. Well I got there, and it was raining quite a bit, which didn’t stop me from walking around. Even in the rain, it was amazing to get to see the Old Course. I stopped in a few shops to escape the rain, of course had to get a St. Andrews golf towel, and ended up having some nice chats with some locals there. After some more walking I headed back to the train station, only to find that all trains to Edinburgh had been cancelled due to a transmission problem at one of the stations between Leuchers(the station you have to take to go to St. Andrews) and Edinburgh. After patiently waiting for a bit (because if you are patient everything will soon be fixed), one of the rail attendants had a solution. We had to take a bus to a different station, and then take the rail from there to Edinburgh. In the end, what should have only been an hour ended up to be over 3 hours, but I got back fine, and just had to settle with reading the scores online. Now the next day was insane, because I ended up not sleeping for over 40 hours. I got up at 9 to pack things up, climb Arthur’s Seat, spend a few more hours in Edinburgh, and then I had to catch a train to Holyhead, Wales, so I could take the ferry to Dublin. Now at this time, there was a strike on the rail station in Wales, so I had only one train that I could get on that went to Holyhead, which I luckily made. It got into Holyhead at 11pm and my boat left for Dublin at 2:45am. At this point I bought a cup of coffee, and waited around for the boat. Once on the boat, I couldn’t sleep, but was able to sit and just relax a bit. We arrived in Dublin at 6am but nothing was open yet, so I took some time to sit and readjust my itinerary some, and figure out what things I wanted to hit up later on. At this point I would like to thank Miss Lauren Silva for the caffeine pills that she gave me, because I took one and was wired the rest of the day! In fact I didn’t sleep until about 1:30am. I went all over Dublin, seeing Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Park and Cathedral, the Guinness factory, Phoenix Park, and spent some time at O’Connell Street. I actually stayed up late talking to a guy from Brazil and finally had to crash after a long day. The following day I ended up at Jameson Distillery, many of the different National Exhibits; museums and galleries, and explored the back streets that were away from the main touristy things, which is hard to do because most of Dublin is set for tourist. The following day, I went to Cork, which is in the southern region of Ireland. It seemed like it had a bit more tourist than normal, due to St. Patrick’s Day, but not nearly as many as Dublin. I actually ran across a music store in Cork, where I took some time to play some guitar. I think one of the things I miss most is playing almost every other day and I haven’t gotten to play since sometime in February. I tried finding some Irish folk music that night but was unsuccessful and it seemed like most of the places I came across only had DJs, which made the pubs seem more like a club, so I didn’t bother to stop. However, the following day was absolutely AMAZING! There were rowing races out on the river, there was a parade downtown, there were live bands out on the street and two really good ones up on a stage set up by the city. One was an actual Irish folk band with a banjo, accordion, guitar, and violin, while the other was a swing band with a piano, drums, trumpet, sax, and singer. The piano actually doubled up as piano and played the bass at the same time, which he was quite talented. After looking through a few pubs by 6, most in the pubs were already drinking quite a bit and it was definitely the more club atmosphere so I headed back to my hostel to drop a few things off and check for my trains time tomorrow. When I was about to leave to go back downtown, I met a girl from Australia and we talked for a bit. We ended up going around town trying to find a pub that wasn’t overrun by tourists and drunks but had good music. After going into about 5 different places, we found a pub that seemed like fun and a band just started to play. Funny story, the band started playing an Irish jig so Brittany started to get up and do an Irish dance, which was amazing, and she later on admitted it was completely fake. Well after that, some of the locals came over and started talking to us. They all thought it was legit which made it even funnier! We had such a great time with all the people there dancing, chatting, and listening to stories, that we ended up not getting back to the hostel til well past 2 in the morning. I actually only got about 4 hours of sleep that night because a bloke in my bunk wanted to talk and I had to be up at 8 to catch my train to Killarney. Now Killarney is definitely the least touristy of the other places I had been, but it still has its fair share, and I’m sure more so in the summer time. I got there around noon and got to see most of the town that afternoon, and decided to take a short nap before that night. Another funny story, it so happened that my new friend Brittany ended up in Killarney that day too at the same hostel so we hung out again that night, not as late as the previous night, but it was still fun. We actually found a small pub that was packed with people but had real Irish folk music. We actually were talking to a gent in the pub who said the best folk music is in Dingle, which I will have to go back sometime so I can experience that! The following day I went out to Killarney National Park and ended up riding 40km the equivalent of 24 miles. Not bad for someone who hasn’t really ridden a bike in about 2 years I would say! Everything there was absolutely gorgeous! I saw waterfalls, lochs, Ross Castle, Muckross House and Abbey(graveyard), the Meeting of the Waters, which is where the two lochs meet. You can actually see the water going in one way and out the other! I had to travel about 6 hours by train to go to Rosslare Harbour to catch the ferry, but the last bit was absolutely beautiful. From Dublin to Rosslare, the train is following the coast, so you are constantly looking out over the ocean. Its just like looking into a painting constantly. In many ways, I wish that I wasn’t going over to the continent, because there is so much more of Ireland that I want to see, but the way I see it, I think this will happen a whole lot while I’m on the go. There will always be much more to see, which just means I’ll have to come back! If I get completely bored with the continent, or have difficulties with the language barrier, maybe I’ll just come back to Ireland and stay the rest of my time there! I’ll try to write a bit more than just a week, because I just realized how long this post is. All 1715 words of it. For those of you that read it all, congrats, you are now at the end! :)