Europe 08 Here we go, my first trip out of the states and its a big one, 48 days (thanks ZOOM!)

Sorry it took a bit to get this thing started, we haven't been in one place long enough to get anything done. We're now in Cork in the south of Ireland, we spent weds night in Galway near the western coast and the night before that (Tues) in Dublin. I need to get our photos organized and then I'll be uploading them tomm (fri). The cities are nice, public transportation is a bit confusing, however efficient and cheap (cheaper if you know how to get on and off before they check for tickets :) don't worry, you can always play the dumb tourist and offer to buy a ticket on the spot.) So far we've spent more time on buses than exploring but the countryside is beautiful. Its pretty much like you have seen before (my crappy pics don't do it justice, I'll get better tho) there is every shade of green, cows, sheep, horses. A few things are different here, and everything is more expensive (McDs "Euro Saver Menu" is 2 euro (3.20$ ouch!) for a double cheeseburger (1$ back home). Driving on the other side of road is a bit odd, and unnerving at times as you really feel like an accident is about to happen every time someone makes a turn. We saw the "tallest building" in Ireland today, which I must say is a bit deceiving, for one its only 20 or so stories tall and there are several churches in the country  w/ spires taller, go figure. Also it doesn't get dark until around 10pm so its been throwing us off a bit. We usually dont head out for the night at home till 10/11ish and the vast majority of the bars here close at 11/12.

We'll be in Cork for a few days before heading back to Dublin (we made one big triangle around the country)  and from Dublin we catch a flight to Prauge and really get this trip started. Ireland is sorta our starter country, we've got enough things to try and figure out so its nice to start in a place where everyone at least speaks English, even if they have to say everything 3 or 4 times for you to understand them. Speaking of which we were waiting in the park for our bus to come and we randomly started talking to this very nice older gentleman (Frank), who then offered to buy us our first pint of Guinness in Ireland (momentous occasion). Needless to say we stayed for another, yum, and caught a later bus. In other news I'm working out a way to call home cheaply, we were planning on using the cell phone we have but its exorbitantly expensive to call the states from it. Anyways I'm gonna get a shower and some much needed sleep. Hope everything is well back home, laters.

-fjd