drinking chocolate

it's 11 pm here in county mayo, ireland right now. in about 15 hours i'll be in the air over the atlantic. i've been here for such a time now, that america feels like it needs exploring all over again. i've learned alot in just a few short weeks. about all the nuances and intricicies involved in proper travel. and what i'm glad i saw and what i wish i had more pictures of. and what i want to get out of it all the next time. but that's all important come next time. i tried very hard to make the most of it on different levels and considering everything, i think i did pretty well. but it's almost time for bed and then farewell tomorrow.

time for the goodbyes.
goodbye funny horses that always run around across the street when i walk by. goodbye tacky irish fashion and dogs that chase the car when you drive by. goodbye to austrian pastries and 30 and 40 cent pints of beer from the grocery store. goodbye long museum lines. goodbye italian trains that are always late andmake me miss my connections. goodbye bumpy cliffside austrian busrides to stops on top of a mountain. bye to the friendly and kindof goofy small town irish people, goodbye to the 16 pubs in tiny tiny ballyhaunis. so long to the chinese resaraunt owner with the irish accent. adios to the people i've met, all over the world. bye bye hayfever, yardwork, coalfires, irish tea, nightly moonlit walks, dialup internet, looking for eggs in the morning, looking for the chickens at night, and goodbye nightly bedtime drinking chocolate.

helllooooo usa

a midsummer nights dream

i am back in ireland now after the whirlwind of travel. and i am glad. it becomes stressful after a while, constantly carrying your home with you and deciphering train schedules in new places. what's stranger is that in the beginning i felt like 5 weeks could never end. and of course, you enter a routine and lose track of it all and suddenly, your off of the air plain and your hair stands on end in irish night. feels like a dream really, like those bizaar afternoon naps you take accidentally, and wake and wonder what time, or day, it is. the days, they go fast. but it always does when you are enjoying the moment, every moment. now though, i am recooperating. physically and nutritionally. its hard eating a round meal without spending an arm and a leg. ha, and its like im back at henning road. i'm helping dad with yard work and doing the daily fire routine. and of course, am enjoying the immense luxury of cleaning my laundry without cost and long, hot, comfortable showers.

i wonder what home will be like. word has it in the papers here, theres been a coup in america. and also, the yankees have some how started winning again.

ha i know, hard to believe. but lets just see if they make the playoffs

bonjour

bonjour from paris
today is the last full day of travel for me. funny because at the outset, it seemed like 5 weeks could never end. but this is a good place to finish. the wine is good and cheap, the streets are beautiful and clean, the people are rude and everything is expensive. ha, it really is everything people say it is. well i shouldnt say that, the people are sort of nice, sometimes. its an easy city to not do anything in. just walk or find a bench for the afternoon. a lazy city in a weird way. super efficient, but lazy. its strange, people only work 6 hours a day here, or thereabouts. when i arrived saturday morning, it seemed the city was closed until 10 or 11 in the morning. different than the excitement and hustle you see in philly at 5 in the morning. back to ireland though and the chance to sort through the many many photos. and this keyboard is a pain to work... more soon though

i am in italy, still, and somewhere...

italy
bella
my travels.
superb
its strange to be where i dreamt of being for so many years, and doing it, but i am. and now that i am here, there are breif moments when i wonder what i always wanted. the way you look at a photo of a meadow with flowers and you want nothing more than to walk be there, in the photo. when you find yourself in the meadow, or in my case, atop an alpine forest or on a dark, windy tuscan alleyway, its a strange thing to confront such an intangible longing. because its not like a restaurant you admire. you cant just go and eat and be done. i dont know, its the environment that i appreciate, and the feeling of watching a little old lady watching me from her third story balcony and stare blankly at a map. i spent hours last night walking slowly down every alley i could find, feeling unmistakebly italian texture of weird stucco plaster and bricks.

its nice. all of it. and i met 10 zillion people, and they all have a story, and i want to hear every one. like this buy on the train here to nowheresville, italy. (not true, im in the middle of tyrolian wine vineyards i think. very good whites come from here apparently) but his name is matthew. hes big and fat and blond and has a ponytail and grew up in santa cruz but moved to this place in italy for 8 years and in a few days or weeks is finally going back to cali, to the bay. we talked all about stuff, italians, culture, politics, and they (his ex wife) helped me find a destination and a place to sleep. i hate to break it to you all but this is the beginning.

hello, innsbruck

i am in innsbruck. and i am tired. its been a hectic couple of days. i left salzburg the other day in the morning to go to a little town i heard about called halstatt. its a nice place, up against a lake and back against mountains. really, its just one street. one kilometer. small. and very touristy if you can believe it. seems all of austria makes 90% of its money on tourism. but i hiked a mountain and stayed the night, but it was rainy the next day so i thought id travel. so i did. i wanted to go to krimml to see the krimmle waterfalls. not easy to do. turns out, its rather easy to get public transport from almost anywhere in austria. the trouble is its hard to get anywhere directly because of this. so i had to take a train with 5 connections or so. which i almost finished before i thought i should stop and finish in the morning, so i stop in zel am see because it was the biggest town i encountered. also huge with tourism. sometimes these places dont even feel much like a town. i didnät like zel am see. so i was off in the morning, to mittersville, then some otherplace, and a finally krimml. yeah! i made it. krimml was amaying. 380 meters of waterfall which i hiked with my packs on. i got to the top and found that austria has a lot of mountain houses which you can stay at high in the alps if your willing to find it. i thought a minute about maybe doign this and hopping mountain peak to peak, but i know im not prepared for that sort of thing. besides, time is of the essence and getting on to innsbruck was a priority, so i hiked back down adn after asking a few people where exactly i was and how to get where i thought i wanted to go, a couple escorted me on bus to a place 10 or 15 km up the road to koniegsleighten or some nonsense. then to a small town called finkau i believe, high up between two mountains and a glacier in a meadow, around 1400 meters elevation. yikes. and it was small. i think the village had a population of one family. really. it functions as a family mountain resort thing. lots of guests. then another bus to zel am ziller where i met a family from belgium on holiday and hiking the alps with their two sons. s 45 minutes later northwereeed i was in jenbach, where i almost left my camera on the bus and bought a train ticket for my last leg to innsbruck for 5 euro or something. this is only an excerpt of the madnes. today though, i slept in the grass in a park for several hours. i think i looked dead. soon though to italy. yaaaawn..

ok ok, just a few more, just for fun.

this is what it looks like to backpack

not sure quite how this got in the mix, but this is a picture of st. lukes church, obelisk, PA. messenger was performing later that night.

a typical building facade in hamburg. its beautiful. not gross "tag" graffiti, but art. this is hamburg.

this is the harbour area in hamburg. one of the more "postcard" like scenese, but not typical.

this is the side of the hostel in hamburg. this was the best hostel i stayed in by far. very far.

the belvedere palace in wien. it is now an art museum but these are the royal gardens out back. haha. not bad... i guess...

the imposing salzburg castle and the imposin countryside its built upon. that mountain is 1800 meters high or so

ahhh!!! this is mirabell garden in salzburg!!! funny, the hostel i am at plays the soundof music movie once a day. when they run around the countryside and town singing the "do, re, me" song, they circle that fountain in the middle! the entire city is everything sound of music and mozart.

ok, photos!

so i have finally found affordable internet and time to show what i have seen and done!!! amazing doesnt justly describe the experience so far, as you will see in the following pictures which i again, have posted backwards accidentally. its strange how strong a personality each city has. i am finding there is a very strong skill and much to learn in order to travel best. i enjoy places the most when i am with people and they tell me about themselves and where they are from and what its like. the spaniards i met were sensational, though i found i couldnt understand what it must be like to think the way they do. alas, this is a limitation of the whirlwind tour, of travel in general; you remain an outsider. but this is ok, because the first trip for all persons is a reconisence trip. i gather information, i am a voyeur to the city. in future travels, now i know what to do and look for. like hamburg. not the kind of place you visit for the sites. it is a place you stay and dig the scene and the people and the highly artistic and progressive lifestyle. you need 3 months in hamburg, not 3 nights. some cities i would never stay. prague... no. it is like disneyland. beautiful yes but ultimately it feels less like a city and more like a giant carnival. there is a section of the city almost quarantined to preserve the fairytale, and from high on the hill you can see the taller, modern buildings of the prague that tries to be an actual city. many cities unfortunately have this split personality. this is why i like london and vienna. the are naturally charming, through and through.

ice cream, my first night here in salzburg. perhaps not a local delicacey, but yummy.

ahhh!!! saltzburg!!!
the danue river in wien. sitting with wine with javier. wine is super cheap here around 1 or 2 euro.
mi amigos espaniol! these are a few of the boys i met in wien, the spaniards. terrific. i think i want to move to spain if everybody is like them.

enjoying typical wien treats with my friends silvia and sales at a cafe. i did manage to have aphelstruddle, sachertorte, and wienerschnitzel!!! and the local beer of course. i like this though, austrians are very big fans of chocolate drinks instead of coffee all the time.

haha!!! look where i am.
the rathaus. there was a festival here all week. amazing. and this is javier. he lives in mexico city. we are going to visit machu pichu together.

this is the austrian parliament at night in wien. i sat here for an hour. i find that most cities have to be explored twice, once in the day and once at night, to see both faces they show you.

this is herbert. i met him on the bus to wien. he is amazing. he has traveled the pacific ocean in his boat for 2 or 3 years. a native of austria, he told me places that i should visit. his english is very good because he has traveled much of his life. haha, when he talks, you hear an amalgomation of accents; australian, english, scottish, american.

again, inside the cathedral
this is my, you must be kidding face. inside the cathedral

this is the cathedral inside prague castle. st. james i think...

the view from the castle about the city. prague is built around this feature. you can see far in the distance the industrial and modern prague.

me in front of one of the more famous cathedrals in the old part of town, prague.

this is the museum of natural science in prague. i went inside and it was terrific! much about prehistoric czech republic and much much more. and only 70 crowns for a student. ( about $3.50)

this the view at night up the river, looking at the famed charles bridge and prague castle, built on the hill. this is where it all happens.

this is currywürst wich i came to love in berlin. a little street vendor sold this for €1,40 and i had it all the time with the scotts. maybe not classsy, but great!

the brandenburg gate in berlin. history history history, this is berlin.

this is me crossing what used to be the mighty berlin wall. what a strange feeling

this is the sony center in berlin
my hostel in east berlin. hmm... and how many years since the wall came down?
ha!! these guys are great! matt and dave, the scotts i met in hamburg came with me to berlin. we had a great time together.
here we are just off the train in front of the german parliament, reichstag.