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 |
6/15 - Dublin, Ireland Sitting in my room in the hostel, I probably would have been out socializing, if it hadn't been for the damn Harry Potter book I'd been reading (the 4th one). I picked it up in the hostel in Kyleakin, started it yesterday, and finished about an hour ago. I hate to admit it, but I simply couldn't put it down. I see why everyone's so excited about the release of the next book. Anyway, enough about Harry Potter, this is supposed to be a travel journal, not a book column. Unfortunately the last day or so has been rather unnoteworthy. The last night I stayed in Kyleakin, I spent most of it talking to a girl named Jen who was returning to Kyleakin to stay for the summer (a month previous, she had worked at the hostel for two weeks). I spent a while watching her senior project from film school on her video camera(most of it anyway, she kept fast forwarding through the parts she didn't like). Spent a little time in King Haaken's, after a while I went back because Jen was catching up with someone and I didn't want to bother them. After listening to some very rowdy guys in the common room, I sat out on a bench with my headphones and watched the last of the sunset over the water.  The next day was pretty much a travel day. I took the bus to Glascow, which was of course very scenic, if only I could get my nose out of my book. When I got to Glascow, I decided to spend my few hours by seeing a movie. It was in this giant 18 screen theater which managed to be right in the heart of the city by being many stories tall instead of wide. I saw Igby Goes Down, which was highly entertaining. I then went to the airport to catch the flight to Belfast, which was barely 45 minutes long. I didn't get into Belfast until almost 10 pm (the shuttle from the airport takes about 30 min). Unfortunately, I had no reservations (no real excuses, just plain laziness). I spent over an hour walking around trying to find a hostel that wasn't full (I had forgotten it was Saturday night, the worst night to be without reservations in any city). It was amusing to get odd looks and random comments (due to my carrying a pack) from all the people dressed up to go out on the town. The nightlife looked fairly lively, but by the time I got to the hostel, I had no desire to go out (that and I was already knee deep in that damn Harry Potter book). The next morning, I went to the train station having no real plans to see the city other than a vague desire to see the political murals about 'The Troubles'. At the bus station, I ran I into Teresa and Kirstin, the two girls I met in Kyleakin. We had breakfast before they got on the bus to wherever they were going. I may see them again in Galway in a day or so. With about an hour til my bus left, I decided to find some of the murals; the Protestant ones were supposedly near the bus station. I found a couple, but there were also a bunch of other political statements, including a bunch of anti-Israeli/pro-Palestinian ones. All in all Belfast seems peaceful, yet with the armored police cars and razor wire around so many buildings, you have to wonder what's going on beneath the surface. After the 3 hour bus ride to Dublin (no passport required, oddly enough), I got into the first hostel I tried, which was right next to the bus station. I then went and grabbing some food before heading back to the hostel.. Unfortunately I managed to get myself completely lost for about an hour. At one point I had this random guy following me for several blocks, talking about Mike Tyson or something. I kept thinking he was going to ask for money, but he never did. I tried reading out in the courtyard, but I couldn't concentrate because of some people with acoustic guitars massacring various songs from Blowin' in the Wind to Bohemian Rhapsody. After finishing the book locked in my room, I had to go rent a towel from reception so I could shower, because I'd managed to leave mine at the hostel in Kyleakin. I then spent a little while talking to a couple who were in my room. And now I'm going to bed.
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