So here is my travel journal from my backpacking trip to Europe. It's more involved than my day log stuff that's already been up the site. There has been some complaining (you know who you are) that my daylog was rather boring and that it focused too much on the details of transportation. I can't promise that this is less boring, but's there's certainly a hell of lot more of it. Occasional parts of the journal have been omitted to protect the (not-so)innocent. These parts really weren't that common, but hey - use your imagination. Keep in mind that this is a journal and things like punctuation, sentence structure, paragraph breaks, grammar, and spelling may or may not been a part of the writing process. Not to mention my almost criminal use of parenthesis. Like my pictures, the writing is quite erratic as far as consistency of content. The journal style kind of mutates over the course of the trip. Read at your own risk.
 4/28 Cincinnati 4/30 Paris 5/02 Paris 5/03 Paris 5/04 Bayeux 5/06 Toulouse 5/07 Barcelona 5/08 Barcelona 5/09 Madrid 5/11 Salamanca 5/12 Salamanca 5/13 Barcelona 5/14 Portbou 5/15 Narbonne 5/17 Nice 5/18 Venice 5/20 Naples 5/21 Rome 5/22 Rome 5/24 Florence 5/25 La Spezia 5/26 Lucerne 5/29 Interlaken 5/30 Interlaken 6/03 Amsterdam 6/04 London 6/06 Salisbury 6/09 Nottingham 6/11 Edinburgh 6/13 Kyleakin 6/15 Dublin 6/17 Dublin 6/23 Hamburg 6/27 Brussels 6/29 Berlin 7/01 Prague 7/02 Munich 7/03 Munich |
6/13 - Kyleakin, Scotland I'm sitting in Skye Backpackers hostel in Kyleakin.  It's a nice cozy little hostel, very friendly staff, all of whom seem to have just arrived at some point and never left. Let's see, 2 days ago I caught the bus to Glencoe early in the morning fortunately not hungover. I got there in early afternoon, not really knowing where the hostel was (I knew it was a bit of a walk). Followed a sign incorrectly and walked about 15 minutes in the wrong direction. Asked a local if I was going the right way and she pointed me toward a footpath that was a way back to town, which was a really pretty walk. I got back on the road and walked for what seemed like a really long time. I actually flagged down a passing car to make sure I was going in the right direction. For most of the way I was rather enjoying the novelty of not having the hostel immediately available. By the time I got there, I'd been carrying my pack for over an hour and it was beginning to get tiring. The hostel was alright, I didn't really like the manager, he wasn't quite rude, but just kinda short with me. I walked back into town and walked around the lake a bit. Oddly enough, the quiet beauty was interrupted by low flying fighter jets (only a few hundred feet up) a few times. I had planned to go to the visitor's center where there are some hikes. Unfortunately it was also a couple miles out of town in the opposite direction. I grabbed some food at the little grocery store in town and went back to the hostel. Basically sat around reading the entire night. I was just feeling kinda antisocial. I wish I'd talked to more people because the crowd there was a bit older, mostly over 50. The next morning I walked back to town and caught the midday bus to Skye. The bus ride was great, I just plugged into my headphones and stared out the window endlessly. I was actually somewhat disappointed when I realized I had to get off the bus. Once I checked in to the hostel, I spent a while talking to a couple of girls who worked there, Tali(Israeli) and Anna(Canadian). Oddly enough, they had a coal fire in the common area. I'd never seen one before, guess coal is cheaper than wood there. We got offered free food by this girl named Teresa who was making more pasta than she could eat. Sat talking with her and her friend Kirstin for a long time. Eventually we went out to Saucy Mary's, one of the two local pubs. Drank there until they kicked us out, which left us with an hour at King Haaken's, the other pub. When they closed we went back to the hostel, beer in hand (they provided to-go cups upon closing). Finished off the evening with a drunken game of chess vs. Teresa, which I actually won. Today I did lot of walking and just generally staring off into space. I spent some time over by the ruin of a castle right next to town, which is basically just a wall on a hill. Took the very short bus across the bridge to Kyle, and bought some contact solution; somehow I managed to lose the one I bought in Nottingham. Decided to walk back instead of the bus, and the walk was quite nice. Spent some time down on the rocky beach down under the bridge. Ended up taking the bus back to Kyle to get online (the one in Kyleakin was broken). Made a plane reservation to Belfast for tomorrow. I actually meant to do Dublin, but I wasn't paying attention. It turned that it would have been twice as much anyway, so I guess I'm going to Belfast.
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