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.

vienna is out there somewhere

well iäm here in vienna, but not really... herre..... on the last subway stop out of town. just got on off the bus from prague. everything is going well, so nobody panic. haha. and the other problem.. these silly hostels, its really the luck of the draw, the people, the employees, the accomodations, everything. and this one, FREE INTERNET!!! except they donät tell you that there are only two computers.... and a couple hundred guests_ yea. so when i i see a cafe in town, iäll sit down and do this proper with pictures.

everything good though.

bring on the weinerschnitzel and aphelstrüddle!!!

now in prague

oh my this is crazy. so now i'm in prague and i have a little time to write. funny story, the other night we did a bar crawl in berlin and i met some guys from the states on their way to prague yesterday morning at 645. i was going to get a train at 1230 or something. i decided to take their train but needless to say, i lost them before the night's end. no bother, i took the train anyway and talked with a woman from around prague-ish; a teacher. and i got there and of course, elected to walk instead of take the subway which in czech, is impossibly intimidating to figure out. but after getting lost and a map and found again, i got to the hostel. the budec hostel. ahhhhh relax finally. it's good, and only 12 euro a night so i think i'll stay a few more days. but i was so tired yesterday i slept all afternoon when i got here. when i woke i thought i'd walk the streets of night so i went up to the fat part of town with the charles bridge and what not and who did i see walking down the street up there, right at me? those wacky americans. ha, so we've arranged to try and find eachother today near the bridge for lunch or something.

look up prague if you don't know anything about it, i didn't. but i see now what i was missing. the best word for it is enchanting. cobbled streets everywhere, every building in the greater metro area is just sensational. even the lowliest of apartments have decaying plaster sculptures and such adorning the facade. i'm actually heading off in just a second for the lunch thing, but i'll try and get photos coming later. may not happen here, the computer i'm on is fossilized i think, but i'll try.

ahhhh!!!! ich bin eine berliner

ok everything is frantic. sorry i havenät been able to write, but iäve been so busy. i jumped on a train yesterday for berlin and have been running around the city here since. and iäve been cruising with some scots that made the trek with me from hamburg. i promise when i get to prague, which will be tomorrow, iäll make better posts and all that when i have the time, which i should because itäs not as massive as berlin and iäm staying longer. but berlin is surreal. ahh!! almost out of time

look at a map of berlin. itäs huge. subway is the only option. iäll say much more later. ahhh!!!!

alles gut!!!

i am in hamburg right now. i had a heck of a time trzing to find my way. and if i keep making tyzpos it#s because the keyboared is different here. anywaz, after a bus from lubeck, and then a subway and another bus and a few hours walking i found a hostel and had a terrific time with all the people here! havent gotten around tooo much yet, i#m in a pretty beat part of town, at least it seems. hamurg is impossible to describe. but iäll try a little bit later. so spread the word, everything is fine.

oh man

attention everybody everywhere. london is the most unbelievable city i've ever been. sensational. beautiful. efficient, clean, remarkable in most every way. so here is your homework assignment: everybody who's had the pleasure of reading my awesome blogs has to return the favor by telling me of all european connections you have. this includes places for hire, cheap ''flats'' to ''let'', connections to be made. all of it. not necissarily london either. if this is a sign of what is to come for me then i had better take a couple deep breaths and hang on.

we arrived by dint of ryan air in london around 19:00 and swiftly made our way into the city. i sat next to a nice woman from norther london on the plane ride here who i later learned has a pretty high position for the bbc. posh! she helped us navigate the ''tubes'' (subway) which took about 45 minutes from stanstead to liverpool street station, where we took the circle line to paddington. we're currently staying at the best western at paddington court. it is an ultra efficiency. two beds, tv, bathroom, in the space about the size the master bed at the beach. maybe a bit bigger. it's tight nonetheless. the subway is the best i've ever seen. good lines, it's easy to understand, clean. i think it moves millions a day. there's a lot going on here. after a late dinner outside we just took a walk around and stopped in an internet cafe for a minute so nobody worry, everything is all right. not sure what we'll try to accomplish in the morning, but i'm going to be in germany by tomorrow night. yikes! i wish i had more time, but doesn't everybody always.

really though, i think i'll live somewhere new for a year or something. it's a good idea. i have one once in a while. that's all for now that i can think... so long!

oh one more thing. some things i've read recommend renting a room for a week or so to hang out and get a feel for local life. considering my frantic pace and such, this is going to be hard to investigate. if somebody wouldn't mind sparing a few minutes, forums like craigslist.com and stuff have sections in 'housing' that offer rooms for rent for a week. i'm thinking, this might be a good idea for paris, considering dad may meet up with me for the final 4 days. i'm leaving teusday, the 21 so i don't know, this is probably insane to even posture, but maybe look into this? i don't know how plausible, but i'm just putting it out there. another option would be lyon until the 18th or 19th or something, because i still need to get to paris to fly out. haha i'm so insane.

settling in before taking off

you know, i've always been skeptical of the way blogs just pile post after post ontop of eachother. i should make a blog about how unhappy i am with blogs. i'm sure i'd be the first with that..... but maybe it's just me that it bugs, considering i'm on dialup when i check from home and have to automatically allow some 40 pictures to load. ugh... you're all spoiled, what with your broadband highspeed connections and whatnot.

so i'm nearing the end of my stay here in ireland. on monday, dad and i ship out to london and then teusday, i'm off to hamburg. i'm going to arrange the hostel for the first night of my stay tomorrow i think, but after that it'll be a bit more improv. alot more... a little nervous, but you always are before big events. i'm usually better when i'm a little off kilter anyway, keeps me alert i suppose. but it's been great here. i've enjoyed my time with dad here in the cottage. we eat like kings. every morning we have alpen cereal with fruit, there are numerous tea and scone breaks throughout the day, and in the evening dad flexes his cooking arm. tonight we're having salmon cutlets, or steaks. whatever you call it, it smells great. mushy peas, mashed potatoes, and later we'll have our drinking chocolate. it's become something of a daily routine. life has been good on this side of the atlantic. ha, we've packed quite a bit of sight seeing into our time here. it seems i've already seen a great deal more than most locals already. i guess you're not as anxious to get around when you live here. i'm glad though we've been busy. there's a lot more to come though so i'm going to try and prepare for it all as best i can.

so here's one more batch of photos before i'm off to the continent. enjoy



me inside the kitchen on a nice day
we turned the cottage on its side for this photo. better composition. notice the nice new arbor dad built.
colorful streets in ballyhaunis
i'm sure you've all seen it, but the lovely front of the cottage with the lovely garden
landscape scribbles
a drawing of the front gate at the cottage

ok... so lots of photos today!!!! sorry, i'm in a bit of a rush and they're sortof backwards, butttt, i trust you'll manage. we've been up to alot of fun stuff. aran islands, taking walks when the weather allows, all sorts of things. the weather though is just awful. sorry, i know ireland rains alot but it's rained almost everyday since ive been here. even the locals, the radio jockeys, everybody is sick of it. haha well, what can you do. just get wet!!



this is dad pumping some water from a pump in the neighbors field. we brought a bunch of jugs with us but turned out the water was dirty. no bother, a neat thing to see
this is a night time photo i took of the cottage. just playing with all the funny gadgets on my camera. i'll get better


haha, this is a bank on the aran islands. haha dad says it's like a piggy bank. the population on the island is 800. you do the math.




whoops, sideways. sorry, can't figure out how to fix it. anyway, this is dun angeus on the aran islands, the premier attraction. it's a big semi-circular fort at the top of a cliff. it's really something to see



this is the view looking down from the top of the fort. the water for some reason is clear and spectacular. it'd be tropical if it wasn't blistering cold, windy, and rainy all day.



here's us, dry as a bone, at the top of the cliff. i was tempted to take a dive in if i wasn't already so refreshingly soaked to the bone!!! good stuff though



here's dad at the top. not sure how high, but this give you a little idea of the proportion and scale. windy too, don't get too close there pops



same one, i can't get it to delete. sorry




hmmm....... think i'll keep my distance.




this was neat. the aran islands are basically large chunks of limestone coming out of the ocean, so you get these neat fields of boulders. this one stretched for a mile in each direction.




an old bar. well kept




ahh that's all for now. more to come

independence day

today may be the 5th, but yesterday was July 4, or as some people refer to it, independence day. you may or may not know this, but apparently this is a holiday limited to americans. color me surprised to learn that there's not much fuss made here in ireland. not to worry. in honorary celebration, dad and i had a little cook out. he remembered that he had some little disposable grill in some closet somewhere so we decided the thing to do was have a good ol' fashioned american cookout. here's what transpired.


here you can see me diligently monitering our fine steak burgers we picked up from the butcher in town.


welcome to flavor country boys.

actually, much like forth of july celebrations of yore, the food didnt' work out. the grill never really became hot enough to cook the burgers through, and when i finished them on a pan inside, they smell so much like lighter fluid i didn't want to touch them. luckily we had a few others that hadn't been tainted by the mini-disposable-grill. all in all though, minus bud light in icy coolers, we had beans and salad, a good overall cookout. happy 4th of july!



On another note, in the morning we went to galway which i really enjoyed actually. it's a major city still, but less the metropolis that dublin is, and thus as markus put it "retaining more of an irish feeling". we intend on traveling to the aran islands next week, which if you haven't heard of, click here!

otherwise, it's rainy here. suspiciously so. and i know i'm supposed to expect rain being in ireland 'n all, but according to the locals even, this is too much. dad of course is immune to it all and claims this is normal, but i've seen the sun for about 15 or 20 minutes in 4 or 5 days or more. and to put it in perspective, wimbeldon is happening right now, and they claim it's the rainiest wimbeldon they've had in 25 years. yikes. rain rain go away, come again some other day.






anyway, here's more photos



you won't see many sheep on the beachs of ocean city

this was a street performer in galway. a photo doesn't do him justice, it was really really good.



this is the river in galway. i forget the name, i'll get back to that. but nice.