Lou's Epic Adventures

Home Time Soon.

llouisiana — Mon, 6 Oct 2008 02:49:00 GMT

Well, I'm going home a lot sooner than I had hoped. However, as reluctant as I am to leave, I am quite glad to be going home. This means a reliable shower (YAY!), clean sheets (well, when I do laundry), and not having to deal with catty girls getting pissed off at me. YAY. About the girls.

I seriously dislike them. =P

With a few exceptions. Those ones I deal with. The ones I don't know, and who are automatically snotty drive me up the wall. So. I want to be in Europe and not be in a hostel. Seeing as though that is impossible at the moment -- I can barely afford the hostels! -- I am on my way home on October 16th. Which means I will have been away for exactly one month. Kinda funny.

Overall, it will have been 3 weeks in Ireland and one week in Scotland. Next trip I will reach out to the rest of Europe.

Maybe I will go to school next fall and spend the next couple years getting training, and try to find a job in europe that way. Or perhaps I will apply for a nannying job. There are so many in London! That way I could be in Europe for two years. Which would be incredibly fun. I actually joined this nannying website out of curiosity, and had 3 job offers! Too bad I need a visa, and I can't start working immediately. So next fall, that's a viable option. Put off a real job for two more years? Why not? haha.

Cha. I'm pretty excited for Scotland. And the accents. <3

Now I just need to entertain myself in Dublin for 3 more days. I see lots of aimless wandering in my future! And lots of coffee. Cause I found the starbucks. And the coffee everywhere else (except this place I found today) is way too gross to pay the expensive prices.

Anyways. Cheers for now.

Decisions, decisions.

llouisiana — Wed, 1 Oct 2008 23:35:00 GMT

Yay for deciding where to go!

I will spend the next week and a bit in Ireland. The cheap flight I could find leaves Dublin on the 9th, so I am going to head south for a few days, and spend a couple last days in Dublin. Then I head to Glasgow for a week. I might have somewhere to stay for the weekend (yay for making friends!), but will be hosteling it for the remainder. The cheapest flight left exactly a week later, so it'll have to do.

From Glasgow I go to Barcelona!!

WHEEE.

I am so bloody excited.

Spain rules.

Or so I will imagine. Anyways. I have a hostel booked for the first couple nights, and I will decide what to do from there. I might end up just spending the last of my money and coming home. :P Quite possible. And then going home to save up moneys for next year's trip. Which might be a little less sporadic? Nah. This has been a blast so far - having no idea where to go, or what to do. I think a structured holiday would be too much for me.

I think I will probably come home fairly soon, and start looking at college options, so that I can spend a couple years in college, and COME BACK TO EUROPE! Forever. Bwahaha.

We'll see. :]

A Night in Dublin & Plans for Glasgow!

llouisiana — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:49:00 GMT

So when I left you guys last, I had no idea where I was going next. Well, I have figured it out!

We met a couple of Scottish people in our hostel yesterday, and spent the entire afternoon with them, and then went out on the town with them as well. Laura & Chris are from Glasgow, and after the wonderful evening we had, Laura decided I was coming to visit her. And they told me about this wonderful website at ryanair.com where flights start from freakin' €10. A flight from Dublin to Glasgow with taxes and everything is gonna cost me €35. Which is great. I can fly to Marseilles, France, for the same price. Love it! Instead of paying $500 to get to Southern Europe, I'll fly & spend $50 + whatever it will cost to get my bag on the plane. Whoo.

I also met this nice Spanish man who told me all the super good places to go in Spain, and that it's really nice and cheap to tent, so I think I will probably ditch some of my things (well, I was planning on sending stuff home in a duffle bag with Kayla anyways) and pick up a small tent. He was saying that it can get pretty cold this time of year, and so I might not want to camp, but I could try. And then I asked him how cold. BAH. Ten degrees is warm for camping! I have a good sleeping bag. Hahaha. He didn't believe me when I said it got minus forty.

So I'm definitly thinking about spending next weekend in Glasgow, and heading to Spain. And trying to get a job & live out of a tent for a while.

Oh, and I love Irish punk bands! Haha. We found this bar that had live music going on downstairs, and so we headed down. There were four different Irish punk/emo bands, and the three that we caught were really good. It was quite funny. Cause we are loud. Alll of the time. And Laura shouted 'when are you coming to Glasgow?' And then we of course had to ask when they were coming to Canada. And they all looked at us as if we were insane. What on earth are two random canadian girls doing in the dingy basement of a bar in Dublin, listening to boys from Belfast play music? Haha. It was brilliant.

Anyways. Will keep you all updated on where I end up. :D

Galway!

llouisiana — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:11:00 GMT

Galway was amazing - I loved it. We are now in Dublin, and we spent a total of four nights in Galway. We got there at about 3 in the afternoon, and with our good directions actually managed to find our hostel. Couldn't really find the door, but we found the signs for it. Eventually decided that the door in front of us was the door, and we rang the bell. (which was a little odd, as most of the time you can just walk in, and find reception.)

This old man answers the door, and leads us up a flight of stairs to the teeeeny "reception" desk which isn't really anything. Its like a nightstand. Pretty funny. But yeah, he didn't want us to pay yet cause he wasn't sure how much we owed him, so we went upstairs to our room. Ten beds in a fairly large room. Goood? nah. There was one key for the room, which is a skeleton key so you need it to lock the door from the inside or the outside, and you can't really lock up and take the key with you unless everyone's together. So our first two nights was good cause we were the only ones in the entire hostel. Which was also a little creepy. Mind, it was a wednesday so we were expecting quiet.

Anyways. So the main reason it was shady is cause Friday night the rooms were full, but we were the only ones that stayed over from Friday night to saturday night. And none of the sheets were changed. And I found this massive slug on my backpack. And now there's this massive slug poop trail on my bag. Haha. Imagine a room of eight girls freaking out about a slug.

But yeah.

it wasn't disgusting or anything, but it certainly wasn't as good of value as the other hostels we've been staying in. For example, we're paying €1.50 less right now, and our room has ten beds, biiig space, and an ensuite bathroom. And the hostel has a super nice rec room with a pool table, and TVs and sitting areas, and a nice kitchen and eating area.

So after all that babbling, Galway's expensive. Except to drink. Their drinks are cheaper than anywhere else. Figure that out. =P

We spent the entire four days enjoying the outdoors. We have definitely decided that we are not touristy people in the least, and we enjoy hanging out with the locals, and drinking with the locals, and doing locally things. HAHA. We spent a lot of time on this gorgeous grassy area close to our hostel, and right on the Galway Bay. So pretty. We spent a lot of time playing cards, listening to people play the guitar, and chatting with the random peoples. We felt so at home. Oh, and. Although it is technically illegal, after dark, not a single person is seen outdoors on the grass without a drink. So we joined. LOL. We tried out some new bottled drinks (well, okay, I stuck to my favorite Bulmers Cider, and Kayla tried out new beers.) There was monty python beer! And some sort of Angel somethingerother organic beer. It was gross. Screw organic.

We enjoyed the cheaper drinks, and the outdoors at the same time! And didn't get arrested! Whoohoo.

I've been trying to decide what to do with the remainder of my trip. Stay in Ireland? I love Dublin and can see myself staying here. And I've already met a couple friends who could help me out finding a place to live, and show me the cheap places to go and stuff.

However, why come to Europe and not see something else? I've been told that France is a pain in the ass and not really that much fun. I still wanna go though. I've been told that Romania and Bulgaria are super nice places to go, and cheap. So I might go there. I had really wanted to go to Corsica, cause it looks gooooorrrrgeous! But it'll cost me like $500 to get there, and I know there's cheaper places to go. AAAAHHH. I cannot decide!! And I kind of want to go warm so I can pick up a tent and cheap it out. plus I think i'd rather tent by myself than hostel by myself, as odd as that might sound. hmm. We'll see.

oh, and I cannot decide when/where to leave Ireland. Cause I saw a random poster in a pub in Galway advertising one of my favorite bands EVER is playing a random gig in a bar in Galway. They play at 9:30pm in Galway. But I cannot find the tickets online anywhere. Cause its a random gig cause they're in town recording a new album. GAAH. So I'm sitting here in Dublin, pissed off I can't find the tickets, and sad that if I did go I wuold have to go by myself. But so in love with Snow Patrol that I would go by myself. AH DILEMA.

Italy is high on my list, too. As is Spain and Morocco. AH. I have decided (now, hold on. Don't freak out! lol). I have decided that I need to find the perfect man somewhere along my travels so I can get married and have an EU passport. So then I can work and travel ANYWHERE. Whooo.

Plus get the cheapest schooling EVER. You pay like €4000 (about $6000) for four years! Sign me up. Plus once you get to post-grad, they start paying you. Pfft.

Anyways. Enough random babbling for now!

Cheers.

The Blarney Castle

llouisiana — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:28:00 GMT

Okay, the best place. EVER. So much fun!

Its absolutely gorgeous. We took the bus this morning from the big station just a couple blocks down the road. It was about fifteen minutes out of the center of Cork. Once we got there we walked through green grass & trees, towards the Castle.

It was a very sunny day - which made for gorgeous ground and a nice opprotunity to kiss the Stone. Actually, we haven't experienced any heavy rain since we got here. this is very wierd, we're told. In August, for example, out of 31 days, it rained 25. But in the seven days we've been here, it hasn't rained once. Odd. Mind, five were in Killarney, and two in Cork, but still. No rain. I'm almost really sad.

Anyways. We walked around the bottom of the castle, and randomly climbed in caves and hills at the bottom. Then we went up towards the Battlements, and finally inside the caslte. I want a castle! They had everything you would need - a family room, the ladies' bedroom, the chapel, the banquet hall, the murder hole (where they pour boiling oil on intruders), the earl's bedchambers, and the battlements. And a huge firepit in the kitchen. And the most amazing spiral staircase.

And at the top, we totally kissed the Blarney Stone. Yes.

We are more eloquent now.

Still just as chatty - hopefully not more. But hopefully more eloquent. :D

We go to Galway tomorrow. I am very excited!

Killarney & Cork

llouisiana — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:51:00 GMT

We spent a total of five nights in Kilarney. Which includes arriving at noon one day, and leaving at 10am on the last. For the majority of the time in Kilarney, we didn't do the proper touristy things. In fact, we didn't do any.

We spent the four full days in Killarney doing the local things. Like eating Irish stew, and drinking. Actually we ate Thai food in there once also. But the drinking in the pubs was the local part I'm refering to.

On sunday we were going to go to the national park and walk around & see the tourist sites but that didn't happen. See, at 3pm was the biggest football game in Ireland. The All-Ireland final match of the season. It was either county Kerry (where we were) and county Tyrone. So we had to go. So in the morning we went to this cute little church we had seen, and went for the service. And we walked around in the sunshine until game time, and headed to a local pub to watch. It was quite interesting.

It wasn't football like the europeans play. Apparently Ireland is the only country that plays that way. Its like a cross between American Football, soccer, and rugby. Hilarious. The players can hold the ball and run, as long as it touches the ground after a few seconds. They can be rough (shoving and stuff), and there's two different ways to score. A normal one point goal is getting the ball between two american football post type things. The second type is worth 3 points and there was only one scored the entire game. You have to get the ball in the soccer net. So they have two different score places. Example: Kerry - 0-11, Tyrone 1-10. Because they have a one in the first spot, they actually have more points than Kerry. Confusing! We had no idea what was going on.

And we were quite sad when Kerry didn't win, cause Killarney would have gone wild if they had. it would have been quite fun. Instead everyone seemed to stay and drink at home. Or at least we think so. We went to bed quite early as we needed to be checked out the next morning.

Now we are in Cork, which a really big city in comparison. I don't know how big it actually is, but someone told me it was tiny, and boring. Absolutely wrong. The buildings are all so gorgeous. We sat and had lunch right beside a river, just down the street from our hostel today. I'll put up pics as soon as I can. Tomorrow we are doing our first actually touristy thing! Go us! We are going to go visit Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone.

Then the next morning we head to Galway, which I am very excited for. We spend 4 nights in Galway, and 3 in Dublin before Kayla heads home. I have no idea what i'm doing after that. I've seen so many 'Help wanted' signs its really tempting to stay here, I love it. I might go to the Mediteranean until I run out of money, and come back here. :D

Ta for now

Flight & Killarney

llouisiana — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 02:25:00 GMT

Hi Everyone!

So this is my online journal. Where I will update you on my tres exciting life. :D

At the moment I am sitting in an internet cafe in Killarney, Ireland. Its gorgeous here.

To start, we left Canada at 6:30am on September 16th. The hours previous to our flight were ridiculously without sleep - we were at the airport at 3:30, after an evening of delicious good bye supper at Julios Barios. A 1:30am visit to Walmart, and no nap. So arriving at the airport at 3:30 we sat around until 4:45 when the customs offices opened. We carried our bags through, undressed (You have to take off everything. Shoes, belts, any outer sweaters even if they have no pocekts), and went through security. No problems with anything. Going through customs wasn't a problem either. They wanted to know where we were going, and how long, but the girl putting me through was more interested that I was getting away then checking if I had return flights. Kayla got a guy who was a little snobby and needed to see everything, but that was expected.

We waited until our flight left at 6:30, and boarded the tiny plane. It was probably a 40 seat? I don't really know. It was four seats wide, probably 10 or 12 long. Maybe more. We spent all of half an hour in the Salt Lake City airport, and just had time to catch some breakfast before boarding our second plane to New York City. We were seperated this time. I was sitting between two older guys, both of whom hogged arm rests, and one who really didn't like me. Maybe cause I accidently spilled my coffee when the otehr guy needed to get out to pee. Whoops. So that 3 hours was a little uncomfy.

once we got to NYC - JFK airport, we were exhausted. Hadn't really slept yet. I dozed on the first airplane, but the second wasn't really good for sleeping on. So we wandered the airport Delta section. There were 3 starbucks in a very small area of the airport. So much for getting the AMAZING cheesecake near the starbucks. haha. We spent about 5 hours in that airport. It was quite boring. We played cards, drank a lot of coffee, and tried not to pass out in the food court.

Finally boarding our last plane we were quite excited to sit together, and quite excited to sleep.

But now we had free movies, so we had to watch a movie. WE both watched Made of Honor, which was quite cute. Then I tried to sleep, but I think I was so tired my body couldn't handle sleep. Haha. But, whatever the reason, I couldn't sleep. And I was so tired it hurt. Bah. So we arrived at 8:30 in the morning with no sleep for two whole days. It was gonna be interesting, that's for sure. WE arrived and bought bus tickets to Killarney. We had to go to Limerick first, and then change buses. We waited for the bus whilst sitting on our backpacks, feeling very backpacker. Haha. Then we got on the bus and spent probably close to two hours trying not to pass out and miss our stop.

Once arriving in Killarney, we asked about four different people for directions to our hostel. We got the same directions each time, but the first time it was a block away, then a block later it was still a block away, and so on. For four blocks. :D We found it soon enough, and got our bags into our room. We wandered a bit, and went to a restaurant for supper with 'Of Gold' in the name. I can't remember the rest. We had traditional irish stew & a chicken dish. Good, but we've discovered that Killareny is quite expensive.

And instead of going straight to the pubs we decided we needed something to do that would keep us awake but wasn't a bar. So we went to see a movie. Went home after and booked hostels for the next two weeks. We went to bed around 1am, and didn't get up til 3pm. Whooops. Didn't mean to do that. That evening we visited a pub across the alleyway from our hostel. Teeeny tiny, but it had a pool table (one of the only nice places to play pool we were told), and we each had a beer. Kayla played a game against someone who was playing, and chatted with the two guys.

Mark, our new Irish buddy, ended up taking us to his favorite places. It was a great way to see the bars we probably would have anyways, but he seemed to know everyone. The second of four we went to had these three guys playing, who were AMAZING. They played cover songs, but seriously the best bass player i've seen in a long time, and a suuuuper good vocalist/rythmn guitarist. We quite enjoyed it.

That bar closed at 11:30, as all the pubs are closed at 11:30. The late bars, or nightclubs, stay open till 2:30. So we moved on and found this other amazing bad, who were playing Guns n Roses Sweet child of Mine as we walked in. They were young guys, who were all really good looking, so we were quite enthralled. hahah. We had a few drinks there while they finished playing. I have discovered that I quite like drinking cider. Now, as we discovered, this is the nightclub to go to. They put foil on the windows and lock the front door, and serve alcohol until people leave. Which is apparently often 6 or 8 am. Whoooo. Haha. We only stayed till 2:45 though, as we would be locked out of our hostel at 3.

We plan to go back tonight to actually see the whole show, because the guys are playing again.

Today we walked around Killarney. We found an amazingly beautiful church playing the bells. There was a wedding happening, and the bells were so beautiful. We also found a little walking path and brook. Tomorrow we are going to spend the whole day in the National Park, hopefully seeing Muckross House & the waterfalls. Apparently the waterfalls are better when it rains.

We have actually had superb weather. We got here on the only sunny day in 3 months! We keep telling people we brought the sun with us from Canada. it hasn't rained very hard at all since we arrived. I'm waiting for it to pour.

The plan at the moment is to travel Ireland until October 1st. Kayla will be returning home around then, and I will take a ferry to France. If anyone is looking for a travel partner for anything, let me know! I'll hopefully be in the Mediteranean soon. I cannot wait to see that area.

Pictures are on facebook!

I'll keep you updated on our travels.

- Lou