♣ May 28th, 2008 Youth Hostel, Brussels

Well I woke up at 7am. No one was up and i was freezing from the rain soaked clothes i slept in. I took a warm shower, they always make me feel ok. Refreshed and relaxed, warm and secure i fell back asleep while reading. When I awoke later around 11am. I was awaken by Ian asking if we were ready to go soon. I said yeah and we were out the door in 10min. We caught the Subway to the Locals train station then took a train to the furthest stop. There we ended up in a small town. We took lunch-breakfast. It was another Dönner Kebab. These stands that serve sliced lamb on a pita bread with lettuce, tomato, onions and cabbage, have been our saving grace. We have been feasting on these stands almost everywhere we go. With this break we began hiking. We walk to the road to Senlis and stick out a thumb. We caught a ride from an Algerian who took us to Senlis. We hiked through the town till we reached the highway. We started hitching again from the on ramp to the toll booth. Soon after the Gerndarme showed up and we went and asked them about hitching and they told us that we could actually go on the other side of the toll booth. All the way to the parking lot. We thought maybe this is why Le Mans was so impossible, a short while later a man picked us up. He wanted some money for a ride. We offered 10€ to help with the cost. He spoke no English and with our horrible French we ended up 10 km from the Belgian border. Nowhere near Lille our original goal. We tried from there to hitch to Brussels another 100km out. After being dropped at a crappy parking spot we finally caught a ride to Mons out side of Bruselles. We were picked up by a nice gent who also spoke no English but he dropped us off at the train station where we caught a train to Brussels. We arrived and quickly grabbed a map of the city. We took the metro to the Hostel that i stayed in the 1st time i was in Bruxelles. We arrived at 10pm and the hostel was full, we ask for another close hostel. They pointed us two blocks away. The hostel made some space for us. We lucked out. We walked around for a few hours, grabbed some cheap pints and then headed back to the hostel where we finished up the night with some more pints. Sleep came on vinal mattresses that grew sticky as your body sweated and it was a hot night in Bruxelles.

♣ May 19th-27th, 2008. Leo´s House, Pantini, Paris, France.

This entry is going to sum up Paris. Paris was great. We spent the afternoon with Gretchen, Ian´s friend from Fort Collins, she is a cool art nerd who we spent our first full day in Paris drinking near the waterway and enjoying the true French life. As we sat there drinking, the Gendarmie, (Police) stopped us from drinking there and told us that we had to chill away from the river (safety I think). We complied. Cops in Europe are generally easy going and prevent things unlike American cops who just escalate things. We just putz-ed around Notre Dam and saw things from a lackadaisical world. No rush, no stress, just bliss. We later met up with Leo. Leo is a Bald headed bad ass who put us up for almost a week straight.

We cooked for him and cleaned his house a bunch for the free place to live. 7-10€ a night in food was the least we could do for his hospitality. Especially when hostels would cost double that. We spent a good majority of the days seeing sights and then at night we chilled with a nice dinner and dinner conversation. Leo is an art student, and staying there he inspired me to want to draw and live the studio art student lifestyle. Awesome. While in Paris we saw the majority of the tourist spots like everyone else but after the first day of sight seeing we saw all that was needed to be seen.

By day three we felt the true Paris the one Americans never see in their 1-3 day vacation to Paris. We, while in Paris, ran into a “Gréve General” general strike over social security. We found some members of the CNT the anarchist group in the march and we marched with them until we reached the end of the march at La Republique.

After the manifestation we grabbed some beers with a few members of the CNT protesters, who asked us to join them in a squat party. We would have joined them to but Leo, our host asked if we would tag along to a house party that his friends were having. So we went to the party with Leo.

It was a posh part of town we agreed and in the end we had a great blast getting drunk with a bunch of french students who spoke bairly a lick of English, but it was great. Fun was had by all. The next night we made diner for Leo´s Father, Brother, Sister, and Brother´s Girlfriend. It was great, especially to see a normal family get together. We watched rugby (Munster v. Taluse) and then later Futball (Paris v. Leon). It was a great cultural experience. I read a lot on this leg of the trip. The Last day and night need there own section…

Flogging Molly…

We were itching to leave Paris but we couldn´t, why? Ian had got in contact with Dennis a guitarist in the Band Flogging Molly. He got us some free concert tickets to the sold out show in Paris, France. We went to the show and had a blast singing and dancing and having a great time. We partied with the rock stars in Paris. I met Dennis,

Nate the bass guitar player, Nick the accordion Player and also “shaggy” Rick from the light team, all after the show.

We drank the night away and met two other Flogging Molly fans from Paris. It was a blast. Wound up walking home in the rain. We hitchhike out the next morning. Paris was out of this world.

♣ May 18th, 2008. Aloha Hostel, Paris, France.

It was at least a 15km hike into Le Mans. I say at least because it was way longer than we wanted to measure, or even could measure. We waited for over 7 hours if not more again today trying to catch a ride. Ian now has determined that hitching out of Le Mans is by far worse than Dallas, and that blows. When we arrived in Le Mans we found the train station. It was under-construction and was a Sunday so no one was to be found. We tried to find tickets to Paris but the machines were not reading any of our cards. The machines here were looking for the microchip on the card that almost all European debit and credit cards had. Ours didn´t. We went to an Internet café to search for the train ticket and we bought them on line. Still the machines would not read the card to give us the tickets. At the last minute the station manager appeared and he led us thought some obscure part of the construction zone which we would never have found on our own, until we arrived at the train´s head quarters. We had lucked out and were even able to grab the earlier train out of Le Mans. Don´t go there, No reason to go to Le Mans. As we were on the train headed to Paris we met the Stereotypical Annoying American Tourist. I completely understand why Americans get a bad rap. This lady starts talking English to everyone and she kept talking. She just kept talking, she just wouldn´t stop telling everyone about her trip. Her husband, her hometown, what ever was running through her mind was running out her mouth. Another stupid American not thinking about others. At least by this point Ian and I have been a number of times mistaken for Italians, Spaniards, English, Irish, German, Austrian, Danish, but no one has asked if we were Americans. We look European. We pull into the Gare dÁustelitz on the east side of Paris. It still being a Sunday hardly anything is open, and we need to find a place to sleep, cuz frankly, urban camping in Paris is just not an option… We found one of the only phone card shops open on a Sunday and we called the Brazilian girls who we met at the Guinness Factory. A real let down that was, cuz not only could they not give us a spot to crash on the floor but they also made it seem as if they were to busy to hang out with us, so i guess… se la vi. We had to make our way to an Internet Café. There we made some reservations for a room. We have to stop doing that 20 € a night kills our budget. WE Check in to our hostel and bunker in for the night. We meet one of our roommates. He was a bit sketch but we talked to him for a while. He was from Algeria and he told us about there. Ian and I made an exit a short while later to the lobby. We socialized down there for a while. We talked til lights out. That´s right a curfew. I haven´t been on curfew since 11th grade. We went to bed.

♣ May 17th, 2008. Outside of Le Mans, France.

A full day of travel. I mean it. We caught our flight out of Shannon and landed about 5km from the town of Nantes, France. We hiked the whole way till the outskirts of town and caught a tram into town. After we got into town we searched out a Internet Café. Hard when you don´t speak French. We scarfed two baguettes that tasted wonderful. Sausage. Mmm.

The first think is the crappy keyboards. The As and Qs and Zs and Ws were switched as well as a number of other minor keyboard changes. A serious pain. We hiked to the outskirts of the north side of town to catch the local highway. We hitched our way out of Nantes and after 2 hours we got a ride from two Moroccan fellows. Quiet car ride. Little to no words could be made sense of by both parties. They let us off out side of Angers. We grabbed some water and were off to the side of the highway. We waited there for about 45 min before a service vehicle arrived. They told us it was illegal to hitch from this part of the highway and that we needed to hitch from up on the ramp. We did and 3 minutes later we were picked up. Another ride all french speakers made for no conversation. But at least some music. We got a lovely scenic view of the French countryside. All beautiful buildings and towns, yards and forests. I wish i knew french to make it here traveling with more ease. The nice kid and his grandmother dropped us on the on ramp to Paris about 15 km out of Le Mans just before sundown. We weren´t going to make it to Paris tonight.

♣ May 16th, 2008. Airport in Shannon, Ireland

We were sad to go but we said our goodbyes, They wanted us to stay in Galway and if we didn´t have tickets we might have. We marked up a sign and headed down to Shannon. We arrived a short while later in Shannon. We entered the Lidel, a discount food mart, and stopped for food. Bad Mistake, the food made our stomachs upset for the next 4 hours or so. We kept searching for the town square in Shannon as well as the bus to the airport. After a few hours of searching, it turns out that Shannon is the worst town in all of Ireland, the people were rude, when they got in your way, and they picked fights. It also came to our attention that the City center we were looking for was a shopping mall. No plaza, no Cathedral, no nothing. Just a crap mall in a crap town, we collectively decided we couldn´t sleep in such a shitty town and so we left, and left fast. A cheap fair to the airport we caught up on journals and reading, not so much on sleep. 12 hours i have been waiting. I´m going to nap.

♣ May 15th, 2008. Spanish Arches, Galway, Ireland.

Woke up late, it felt great, I fell asleep talking in Spanish. I´m sure i dreamt in Spanish. I just can´t remember. I can never remember my dreams. Maybe by the end of the trip i will have some dream entries, who knows. I woke up and looked around, I saw a silent apartment with book, stickers, computers and televisions. I saw a book on Libertad by a guy named Osho. I enjoyed the intro, when i get a chance i want to read some more by him. When i finished Ian started to awaken, soon after Clara and Ernesto came down. They ate a toast breakfast, I was not hungry. We, Ian, Clara, and I decided to go on a walk a long way up the river to some old castle in ruins.

The sun was shinning and it was a glorious day for a walk. Actually the weather here has been remarkably warm, not at all what you would expect from Ireland. Very few clouds and only two rains. The locals say we couldn´t have picked a better week in Ireland if we tried. We sun bathed and later one of Clara´s friends Rosario joined in the adventure. We played some volley ball and a simple game of rubgby-american football. We warmed up so much so that we all jumped in the river to cool down…. the water was cold i wont lie… but after a short while swimming you warmed up. We, Ian, Rosario, and I, swam to the other side and visited the Castle. It was a small scale castle, or a large house- mansion looking structure. The inside was amazing, moss and vines covered the whole structure. It reminded you of the stereotypical Renaissance movies. After exploring we swam back across the river and warmed up by laying in the sun. After drying a good ways we headed back to Galway. When we returned we were famished from eating very little. So we went to the store and grabbed stuffs to make pasta with meat sauce. I cooked the meal to utter perfection. We then went down to Spanish arches, joined once again by Fatima the 5 of us hung out at the Arches until the Guarda asked us to pour out what we were drinking and leave. “This wasn´t a beer garden” they told us. We ended up going back to the patio at Ernesto´s and Claras. We hung out for hours. I taught them how to play silent football. It was a blast.

♣ May 14th, 2008. Spanish House, Galway, Ireland.

Woke up to street crews loading and unloading kegs, all in all making a huge ruckus. The time was 6 am. I got up and grabbed breakfast, some toast, tea, and jam. Then went back to the room and fell back asleep. About 20 past 9 am we checked out and started a long day walking around Galway. We saw the cathedral and grabbed some foodstuffs. We saw the river and the beach. We decided where we were going to sleep for the night, we picked the beachfront knoll for an after dark urban camping experience. We spent the day in leisure, playing hakie sac and reading and writing. We planned on leaving tomorrow to Shannon. When sun down approached and the sun grew heavy the few hours before dusk, we made our way to an off license (a liquor store) and bought some booze. We ended up sitting out long past dark talking with some of the local college students. I met a fellow named Ernesto who was from Madrid. I began immediately speaking Spanish and soon after, we were having a full on Spanish conversation. His roommate Clara arrived a while later with another girl also from Spain, Fatima. I was in Ireland, drinking and speaking Spanish. Best part was they offered us a spot on their floor. Geeze the people you meet while hitching are great.

♣ May 13th, 2008. Barnicle Hostel, Galway, Ireland

I’m woken, dazed as a morning for in Bray and feel not so much like a million bucks. Sam jolted me awake and told me that she couldn’t find Ian. I rally, with a hangover and all, soon realize I actually in my drunken stooper managed to get in my sleeping bag and bivy. I guess I am an impressive drunk in that respect. The sun is just rising, I pack my gear and begin to search for Ian. I check everywhere mind you. Behind stone gray walls, abandoned-half lived in cement buildings (mostly filled with cans and broken glass bottles) phone booths and even the squatter’s heaven of a park behind McGann’s Pub. He is no where. We (Sam and I) Search for the better part of 3 hours and then head off to an Internet Cafe to leave a message for Ian… “looked for you everywhere headed to Galway”… After about 10 am we had to leave, Sam needed to make her way to the rental agency to return the car by 1 pm and Galway is a 3 hour drive away. We did a quick last minute pass through the town and headed out. I figured we were headed originally to Galway so then we would just meet there. The ride was very picturesque, with hills, ocean side and a green that lets you know exactly why it is known as the Emerald Isle. The island is indeed as green and precious as the stereotypical cliche. We arrive in Galway and check into a hostel (Barnicle). Still worried about Ian, I made my way to the Internet Cafe. No new news from Ian so I told him to meet me in the Kennedy Plaza in center of Galway. I went back and did laundry. The majority of my clothes needed a good cleaning because the wet night in Bray started the molding process. I hand washed the clothes then hung them out to dry. Hang drying seem almost a blast from the past with modern day dryers but it is Europe and costs no money to dry. I take a warm shower and then go to explore the town with Sam. We get aquatinted with the city and find a cheeper Internet Cafe and I check on Ian.

 

 

He is in Galway. We start looking for him and he was in the Erye (Kennedy) Plaza, kinda figured. We went to meet him and after talk’n to him we come to find out he did pass out be hind the phone booth but Johnny ended up calling a cab and he saw Ian behind the booth and threw him in the cab and later his couch back at Johnny’s home. Ian then woke up in an awkward, where am I state. He ended up getting another taxi back into town 3 km out and began looking for us around 11 am. He ended up catching a ride up to Galway in a RV with some Italians who stopped in Doolin for directions. Lucky Chum. We checked Ian into the Hostel and after a while we (Ian and I) made lunch-dinner of pesto pasta. Good travels call for good meals. I felt lethargic after that feast and so I went for a nap. I awake with a room full of 7 other people talking. I come to and start talking with them. A guy named Sven from Germany strikes up conversation and we end up grabbing a pint across the street at a pub called the Queys (pronounced keys). The building is like a renovated wooden church turned pub and it is amazing. Tired and not wanting to drink anymore we went back to the hostel and to bed.

 

♣May 12th, 2008. MaGann’s Pub, Doolin, Ireland.

Woke up early, I have never naturally been an early riser but on this trip i seem to be doing it more than not. Got up grabbed a quick breakfast in the mess hall and then went upstairs to pack. A short while later we were out the door. We hiked for about 20 min to a nice spot out of town and we put up our sign 5 minutes later a lady named Liz gave us a lift to Mallow. We talked politics almost the whole way and when she let us off in Mallow we stood on the side of the road for about 30 secs. before the next ride picked us up. An older man from the South of Ireland who was passing by on business. We talked water politics and energy conservation with this man all the way to the outskirts of Limerick. He scared the crap out of us at one point. He passed a lorry (trucker) about halfway before on coming traffic had made a 2 lane highway hold 3 three vehicles. When we were dropped off all we could do was pray to the maker. We walked into Lemerick took a small lunch and check the emails and we left. 10 mins out of town we were caught a ride with Sam. Sam was an Aussie girl headed to the Cliffs of Moher, we were planning to head that way anyways so we tagged along all the way there. Her previous road companions told her to pick up some nice hitchers on her way to Moher, and she made good on her promise. We ha blast at the cliffs of Moher especially since we visited them without paying the high priced entrance fees.

We parked just down the coast and had a just as spectacular a time there as if we paid entrance. After saw this amazing veiw we all stopped vy the local tavern/ pub, McGann’s to grab a pint. We met two local brothers, Denny and Johnny.

(Me, Denny, Johnny, Sam)

The two look nothing alike and i doubt if they were really brothers, but who knows, they had an amazing story about how they grew up so different from each other. Johnny got all the chicken but denny always got the wish bone. One day Johnny asked Denny what he always wished for because you always best my wishes on the wish bone… so what are they he asked? ” I was always wishing to have some of the chicken…. We drank and drank with those two even to the point that some of the night is just pure fuzzy. I drank a lot, but its Ireland. Puking. Throught is sore now fron the stomach acid. 3 pints ahead just found himself 1 meal behind… oh wait… no meal it all makes sense now.

♣May 10th and 11th, 2008. Kinley House, Cork -Blarney, Ireland.

We spent the night at the bus stop watching the dodgy drunks go home. Lots of hellos and two sets of people telling us to just go to the homeless shelter. It was just a little earlier that a drunk kid stopped his car and leaned out of it with beer in hand as we sat on the side of the road eating some food. He leaned out of the car and said “Eat up ya dirty fuck’n bums” Ian and I laughed of course for he was no more than a drunk. Another group asked for some change and that the girl in the group was hungry cuz she was pregnant. Well she smelt like alcohol and cigarettes, what a great life her kid has ahead. As for the last character we met was a guy, drunk and definitely on some other drugs. He kept hanging out with us and asking the same question… when were we catching the next bus. He was on something for sure. “Tom” was his name, he was dodgy as well. But who cares we packed up and searched out coffee. We walked the town in search of an open store, but to no avail. we walked around til 9 am when the bus stop reopened. We went in when they opened and we used the Internet and drank coffee. The Internet pointed us to all the rooms in Cork to stay. We then went searching but everywhere was filling up fast. We barely found room at the last hostel, the Kinley House. We ate and showered before we headed back out to the streets again, check-in wasn’t until later. We decided to look for the anarchist bookstore and collective society in Cork but we had arrived an hour too early. So we made our way to a pub just near by. As we entered an awkward silence fell upon the bar. There were a handful of old men drinking their pints . We felt the tension all over, you could cut it with a butter knife. We walked up and ordered two pints of our own and sat at the bar. The guys st aired at us for a while before returning to ignoring us. It wasnt until a local soccer hooligan stopped in, still piss drunk from the night before did we have a conversation. He started to speak and honestly we couldn’t make heads or tails of anything that was coming out of his mouth. It was as if we were speaking different languages. After having travelled to Spain you think i would be use to it, but it was shocking i guess mostly because it was the idea that i understood many of the words but hardly the meaning. We talked to this kid for a while but after our second pint we gave up and went for the bookstore collective. They still weren’t open and knowing that anarchist collectives don’t always stay on schedules we went back to the hostel. Ian passed out and i went to the common area and made some new friends. I met Laura, Halfdan, and Elise. We all hit it of right away. We sat and watch a few showes before i had to hit the sac… too tired ya see from an all night-er at the bus stop. Ian and I awoke in just enough time to grab a bite to eat then head out with our new found friends on a Cork Pub crawl with another friend who we met from New Zeland. He had been to Cork a few times before an knew the town and best pubs. We met another girl from Brazil it seems to be a reoccurring theme. Her name is Marica and she was studying in Rome… she said we can bum a couch if we make it there. We always like meeting these type of friendly people. We all partied till the bars closed… 12am not big partiers not like the Spaniards. The next day we all got up said our goodbyes to Marica and the Kiwi and then the remaining 5 went to Blarney to Kiss the stone.

We took the city bus there and skipped paying for a guided tour. Cheaper and better. Blarney is a little town lusciously green and quiet. We walked around the castle and rock close spending the whole day in leisure. Blarney Castle is very gorgeous tower located on top of a rock hill. As we walked to the top of the spiral staircases that lined the castle, i could look out ac cross the vast field of green that was rigidly divided and parceled with grey stone walls and vines growing up the side. You feel as if you are at peace and are content at where you are.

After exploring every crevasse of the castle and kissing the Blarney stone…I hear the locals piss on it as well as the number of rumors about it giving you herpes…. i kissed it anyway. I mean how can you have gone to Blarney and not kissed the stone. That would be like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower. The rest of the day was spent climbing trees, picking flowers and lunching in the local green. We played Hackie Sac, drank Cider and gabbed all afternoon until the sun began to set. 5 ciders later and 1 bus trip down the road we made it back to the hostel and then to sleep for the night.