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 |
6/17 - Dublin, Ireland Ahhh...back on a train. Since I'm out from under British rule, I can use my Eurail Pass again (stubborn pom bastards). I'm on my way to Galway. Yesterday was my getting back into the swing of being a tourist day. Dublin was alright, but big cities really are starting to wear on me. Got up at a leisurely 10 or so, and put my pack in a locker cause I was changing to a cheaper room. Started my day at Trinity College  to see the Book of Kells (the only reason I wanted to see it is because there's an INWO card for it). Somewhat unimpressive, but it was still neat to see all the history of book making they had there. The really neat thing was the old library. It was a hall with two story sections of books on each side. Apparently this was the basis for a scene in the Phantom Menace (I only vaguely remember it, I've tried my best to block out that whole movie). After that I stopped in a bookstore and picked up A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. I'd read one of his books a while ago and it was interesting, albeit really out there. After that I wandered for a bit, stopping to get some fish & chips, which I ate in the castle garden at Dublin Castle. After that I tackled the Guiness Storehouse. I almost choked on the admission (€13.50 - includes a pint and a souvenir paperweight). Still, it was much better than the Heineken Experience, if only for the advertising section, which is really funny. You can watch videos of a bunch of their past commercials as well as see all sorts of bottles, labels, and other ads. You finish off the tour with a pint of Guiness in the Gravity bar on top of the building with a panoramic view of the city. Disappointingly, the pint wasn't the best I've had, it tasted a little off. I then walked back to the other side of the city in hopes of seeing one of the other museums. I decided it was too late, and ducked into one of the train stations to check times for Galway. I ended having to take a bus all the way to the other side of town (amusingly, very close to the Guiness Storehouse) to find out the times. I did find a bookstore with a more mainstream selection than the first one. I bussed back to the hostel and got into my new room. I wanted to see some Trad (traditional Irish music), so I went on a long walk to a pub named Cobblestone that the guidebook recommended. I sat in the pub reading until the musicians showed up. It wasn't really a band, just a bunch of people who showed up to play. The music was good, but it gets a little repetitive after a while (I was hoping for some vocals, which were lacking). I left and headed towards the Temple Bar area. I think Dublin is a lot prettier at night, with the way they light up the river. I managed to catch the end of another band at bar called Fitzsimmon's. They seemed to be an actual band, and they had 3 girls doing the Riverdance style dancing, which was really good. Unfortunately, I only got to see two songs before they finished their set. There didn't seem to be any more music anywhere, so I headed back and went to bed. I dunno, something about the music and the walk at night gave me a better outlook on the rest of my trip. Travel has been kind of wearing on me lately.
|