♣ May 9th, 2008, Cork Bus Depot, Cork, Ireland

Packed Day. I woke up all damp, bivy sack works best if you don’t face up in the middle of the night. I opened my bivy and mist filled my face. It was bitter cold to the touch and it was then that i got a small taste of what Ireland is really like. We wandered down to town, drenched like muskrats, looking for coffee or tea to warm us up. We wondered into the train station to buy a cup of coffee. We started walking out of town to catch my first real hitchhiking ride. I think we must have walked for four miles with full packs and it was literally up hill the whole way… about 35 degrees up hill the whole way.

We reached the on ramp to the south. We had waited about 5 min. before a nice lady who worked at a nursing center picked us up after her long night shift. She was a lady maybe in her 50’s or so. She was a good talker and enjoyed pestering us with some good political questions. After her gab-full skill ceased we were left on the hight way with a fog. The same one we woke up with on the edge of the cliff. I love fog. Something about it calms my soul and makes me feel at ease. However this fog became a hindrance when trying to hitch a ride. When the fog finally did lift we were forced to move on. The Guarda, local police, forced us to leave the place we were hitching from. So we made our way into Arklow. We stopped at the Internet cafe for a spell and then pushed on to the next on ramp 2 miles down the way, hoping the Guarda would leave us in peace. They did but was no good. We waited a long long time. 3 hours we were waiting and throwing up our sign. It was after this wait we got a sympathy pick up from a pair of lovely mothers who explained how we would be hard pressed in these parts to pick up hitchers because apparently some women were kill in this area from hitchers. So we ended up catching the next bus from Gorey to Waterford. We waited around for 3 more hours for the next bus. While waiting we met a local skateshop owner and swapped stickers and stories. It was a great time. We talked till we had to catch the bus. Both Ian and I miss the stop at Waterford, we slept most of the way, but actually we really didn’t miss the bus, we got on the wrong bus. The buses were running so far behind that we ended up on the wrong bus. We ended up in Wexford. We were upset to say the least. But we soon came to realize that we could still catch the last bus out to Waterford, it was a wonderful bus ride of relief. We arrived late and began looking at where we were going to urban camp tonight when we noticed a bus left for cork in a short while. We caught the bus and we were on our way to Cork. Half dazed and groggy we arrived in Cork about 12- 12:30 at night and so we started to look for hostels. With no luck so late at night and in a city we never had been. We searched for a place to urban camp or squat. No luck… We readied ourselves for an overnight at the bus station.

♣ May 8th, 2008, Bray, Ireland.

We spent the day In Dublin, Touring the Jameson Factory and now have a full grasp of whisky tastes and processes. I still hate the taste of the Whiskey but on the tour I got a real feel for the flavors. After the tour Ian and I met up with my friend Xango’s brother, Oihan in Dublin. We got a pint at the famous Temple Bar.

We also then grabbed a bite to eat, we all spent a good couple hours relaxing and talking. After the great meal and company Ian and I said our good byes and headed to St. Stephan’s Greens on the South side of the city where we slept for a while. While napping we were briefly awoken by a rather loudly spoken Italian guy. Loud and rambuncious, the type of person i get along with. We later bused our way to the far south of town and ended up in a small town called Bray. It was here on the south side of the city we bedded for the night. On top of some cliffs just over the sea, a picturesque view and sleeping spot.

♣ May 7th, 2008, Dublin, Ireland

Within the first twenty four hours i have been all over Dublin. I have visited a good portion of the sites and have even visited the Guinness Factory. To start of with the flights were long. The shortest leg of the trip was from Denver to JFK in New York… Jet Blue was a wonderful carrier and i have nothing but great things to say about the airlines but with a 4 hour layover in JFK anyone would start to be restless. When we finally did catch the flight to Ireland we were in for a long flight that was rather uncomfortable.

We flew on Air Lingus and the plane was an older one in the fleet so it wasn’t too accommodating. After that rather unlucky flight we found ourselves in a long line waiting through customs. After about and hour of waiting we finally made our way out of Airport. In Ireland at last. We caught the local Air Link Bus Downtown and we started wondering. We made a good dent in the city. We had a gorgeous day and nothing but excitement and adrenaline pumping through our veins. We walked to almost every site in town and a few different stores where we ran into a character or two.

After that we made our way to the Guinness factory where we were bought two extra drinks by some bougie Corperate types from New York. We also made some contacts from two Brasilians who offered to show us around Paris when we get there. After the three pints hit us we made our way to the Dock Yard and found two nice benches to make our Nights resting spot. Free beach front views for our first night in Ireland…

♣15:00, April 10th 2008, Fort Collins, Colorado

Today, the snow covered day it has become, was originally suppose to be my last day of work. And like originally planned and I was suppose to be leiasurely departing come mid to late, next week. Plans have changed and with those changes I will have to wait another two weeks to Jet, ’til Ian, my co-traveler/co-transient and not in the bad way, ’til he can get off work. The latest estimated departure date has now been disappointingly pushed back until the last week in April/ the first week in May. Either way I am itching and have been itching since January to get out of Dodge so to speak.