Gotta Love the Irish

Hey everyone!

Sorry its been a while since I've blogged, as you can guess I've been very busy living and traveling. I actually just took a trip to Wales VERY last minute to spend the night at what I planned to be a bed and breakfast by the sea, but I'm in a cheap hotel instead. The plus side is I'm sitting in the lounge/bar downstairs with wireless internet listening to these men play some beautiful jazz music with some wonderful saxaphone tones. Our program allowed for 75 pounds to go towards sleeping accommodation IF we stay in the UK, and since the republic of Ireland is technically part of europe, my hostels there won't be reimbursed -- SO I decided to take a little getaway trip by myself to a little town called Llandudno (double L = Cl sound, and I don't know about the "dn" part) and stay the night here compliments of LC. The train ride was beautiful and surprisingly packed, I lucked out when a man missed his train and so i could take his reserved seat at a table and do some work on my papers.

I'm in Northern Wales just north of snowdonia national park, I'm going to see if I can at least train my way back through the park tomorrow.

I guess it's almost been TWO weeks. Two weeks ago I had a crazy week. For the past two months I've had extremely irritated itchy skin, esp at night, and after seeing many doctors I found out that I had scabies--tiny mites that burrow into your skin and lay eggs. So Thursday night after seeing a wonderfully bizarre play called the Homecoming (about a truly odd family, but with very good acting), my entire flat had to be treated for scabies (I live with 18 other people). Luckily my friends here are incredibly awesome, and we sort of turned it into a party. You have to cover your skin in a creamy lotion and leave it on for 24 hours. So "operation drunk and creamy" was taken on, whether or not people drank-- it was really nice of everyone to take this potentially awkward uncomfortable circumstance and make it a celebration! Since the treatment I've been doing much better. I think we've all bonded a lot as well since that! I was upset with doctors i'd seen for not catching what I had sooner, I was thinking of spreading scabies awareness so no one has to endure such terrible itchiness as I did! Thats for another time though.

Saturday morning I left way early in the morning for Ireland. Spencer and I took a bus to find Rachael Maddox at her hostel in Dublin, and the three of us wondered the streets and met lots of nice dubliners. Then we met up with Tessa and Kelsey and the amazing guy they were couchsurfing with -- Eric! He took us to a 2pm pillowfight just at the top of Grafton Street (where Once was filmed). I participated in a much larger pillowfight in Portland my freshmen year, and they've been spreading around the world. Complete strangers meet in a specified place and at 2pm a horn blows and they pull pillows out of their bags and hit eachother with pillows! It was a little intense but really fun. Then the police broke it up, guess they didn't like the pillowfight idea.

Eric showed us all around Dublin, we got the best chips in town, saw lots of cathedrals and the castle there and Trinity college, and ended at one of the oldest pubs in town for a half-pint of guinness. We all liked him so much that Spence, Rach and I asked if we could stay at his place on Tuesday night after we went to Galway and the west coast of Ireland, and he agreed! That night we went to the famous Temple Bar and Rach and I danced a lot and met strangers, and the night ended with live street performers and dancing in the streets! I have some video :) It was very hippy and amazing. We slept on Dylan's friends floor that night, which was unbearably COLD and we all woke up shivering! I moved to a tiny couch and fell back asleep all crouched in a ball. Not ideal! but free.

Sunday morning (Easter!) we spent on a bus going to Galway, slept most of the way, and checked into a hostel there. In honor of bakeries being closed for Easter, there were people giving away fresh baked bread that was going to get thrown away, so we ended up walking around with this loaf of bread for a while! Theres a lovely river that goes through town, and we walked along there... returned to the hostel for a nap, got Doner Kebabs! And ate our fresh bread with Nutella. That night we went out to a pub which ended up being really amazing, fun music, followed by LIVE amazingly talented performers doing mostly cover songs ranging from The Who, to Rage Against the Machine, to Muse. It was really really good though! And we were right up close. Galway seemed like a pretty welcoming city. Pretty diverse and seemed pretty gay-friendly as well from what I could tell.

That night we had a experience I probably shouldn't write about because people will fear for the rest of my travels! We stayed in a mixed hostel with 12 bunks, and at 4 in the morning we wake up to some guy yelling at this other guy... then i hear a stream of piss, and quickly dash to the foot of my bed to gather my coat from the floor, fearing that there is someone peeing on the floor. But its WORSE, my clothes were fine, but this guy had gotten out of bed, and PEED on this other girls bed, like on her hair and pillow and everything! It was absolutely disgusting. I felt sooo bad for this girl. The guy got kicked out of the hostel and they changed her mattress and sheets and mopped the floor and she took a shower, and we all fell back asleep. SO bizzarre and gross. Needless to say I'll be sleeping on the TOP bunk from now on, just in case. And female dorms are much more preferrable as well! eesh.

The next morning we caught another bus South to Killarney National Park. We found a nice cheap hostel with nice people in our rooms and no troubles. It was raining when we arrived and sort of cloudy but after walking to the tourist info center, we found out the national park was within walking distance and there was a bike rental place across the street! So we rented bikes for the afternoon, and the lady said we could return them in the morning. This transformed the whole day into magic. We rode to these beautiful glacial lakes alongside mountains and castles, and walked out on some rocks and took in the peacefulness of the water. The sun even came out a few times!

That night we made the best burrito/fajitas (fajitos?) They were delicious!! we got groceries at the store, and they lasted us for dinner that night and lunch the next day. That night we crashed and went to bed really early so we could wake up early for more bike riding. We made it to this waterfall called Torc waterfall, and ate lunch there and then rode back, it was really exhilirating and a little challenging but mostly beautiful and wonderful. I love riding bikes! Esp in such a beautiful place. I need to buy a bike for Portland this summer.

After bike riding we got a bus back to Dublin and met up with Kelsey, Tessa, and Dylan and the two friends they made. They went to Northern Ireland when we went West, and they had a really good time, it was fun exchanging stories. That night we went to a pub with some singer songwriters, and had to hurry back to catch the last bus to Eric's flat 15 minutes outside of Dublin with a perfect view of the city. He took us in and made us tea and hung out for a while, and we all slept so soundly on the floor with matress pads, and woke up to the sun pouring in through these floor to ceiling windows (I love waking up to the sun on my face!) And we had breakfast there and he left for class and we cleaned up his livingroom/kitchen and did all his dishes and left a thank you note! He was really really sweet, made me feel better about the whole couchsurfing idea. If you don't know, couchsurfing is a website where you can sign up and have a profile and find peoples couches to sleep on while traveling for a night or two. They get reviews from ppl who have stayed with them, and pass some security clearences. I know it sounds dangerous and maybe it could be, but it also opens up doors for a really cool way to get to know a stranger and a new place. In this case it turned out wonderfully.

Wednesday morning we went back to town and ate at a cafe and then went to the Guinness Store Factory. I didn't know what to expect but it was really cool, you learn all about how beer is made, and you walk up 7 stories of the store house til you get to the top with an amazing view. We even got to pull our own pint of guinness, and I got a little award for "pulling the perfect pint" I tried to make a shamrock in the foam but it didn't turn out too well! Then we drank the beer with a 360 view of Dublin. Not bad! Rach and I even met some scottish guys celebrating a birthday and talked to them for a while. It was really fun! That afternoon we flew back to London (an hour long flight! really quick). And Rach came back to London a few hours after me with Tessa and Kelsey.

Thursday Rach and I walked through the Kensington Gardens and over to Hyde Park and the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. It was nice to walk through there because theres so much of the gardens I haven't even seen yet. It was a wonderful day out too. Some friends from Lewis & Clark are spending their spring break here so thursday night we all went out to this Gay club called "The Ghetto" which was really interesting. I'd never been to one before, its completely different not having guys seeking after you, it ended up being a lot of fun.

Friday I did a little work in the library and then we all went to the Tate Modern Art Gallery. That night rach and I went to see this really awesome live performance of A Brief Encounter. The actors sang and played instruments as we walked in the theatre, mostly 1950's standards, and that music was the backdrop of the play, which mixed film with live performance really well! I was so impressed and pleased on so many levels. I think the film originally primeired at the same theatre that we saw the live performance, so that was really cool too!

Saturday Rach and I went to Brighton, which is a beach town on the south coast of England. I expected it to be different and smaller than it was, but it was still really beautiful. the beach is covered in pebbles instead of sand. it was really cold out, but we walked around and ate some food on the pebble beach next to raging waves and then found a cafe to hang out in and write postcards and journal. When we returned there was a sign on our door that said "Earth Hour, please turn off your lights from 8-9pm") SO of course we participated, and all gathered around ONE candle and with some of the a cappella singers visiting from LC we sang and later played guitar and had many sing a longs and it was sooo soo nice! I missed singing with everyone so much. Rach had to leave at 3 in the morning (because of the time change!) to catch her flight back to Italia, but it was so nice being able to spend spring break with my best friend from home. Now I'm in Wales! I want to get a start on my papers but I almost feel like resting and waking up early tomorrow.

Pictures are still coming... I have a lot to post! If worse comes to worse I will make an amazing slide show and have a party in MD and then in Portland and invite you guys to come see everything, I'll pick out highlights, though there are so many!

I'm planning my after-the-program travels. My studies end April 15th!! which is very soon! Right now I'm planning to go back to scotland and try to meet my distant relatives there, and then go to Florence to visit Rach, possibly go to Switzerland, and then Barcelona and then Tunisia to visit a friend, and end in Sicily to hopefully be with relatives. IF you have travel advices for areas close to the ones I'll be in, please email me! Or if theres any friends of friends I could stay with, let me know!

Thanks!! Have a great week,

Jo