Guinness, Gaudi and Good Times!

New pictures in "Some Pictures!"

The last 11 days have seen me pass through five countries. Unfortunately, riding a train through half of those countries doesn’t really count! I last spoke of Cologne and there is where the tale will resume.
I left Cologne in the early morning hours to make the long journey west and across the water to the land of green and Guinness. I already told you of the disgustingly tiresome hours I spent traveling by train and boat so I will skip to the better parts.
I arrived in Dublin to the warm welcome of my friend Liz. Liz and I met “way back” mid-college when I started attending Newman Catholic Student Community (to do what else but sing in their choir!) at Davis. She is currently getting her MBA at Trinity College. I have to say that unfortunately Dublin is lacking in a few things: interesting sites, an efficient public transportation system, and wireless internet access. All things that I have come to depend on throughout my trip. Some highlights though, included the Guinness Storehouse with it’s “Gravity Bar” that gave a great view of the surrounding city and St. Patrick’s Cathedral where I happened upon an a cappella choir at practice. The rest of my time in Dublin consisted of catching up with Liz, most often at a pub with her classmates where one was forced to pay a ridiculous 5 Euro (~$6.50) for a pint. This came as a surprise to me coming from Germany where a half liter could come as cheaply at 0.45 Euro. Needless to say, I was sad to say goodbye to Liz but happy to return to the mainland and cheaper drinks!
But I get ahead of myself. How could anyone travel to Ireland and not lean upside down to kiss a stone on the top of a castle ruin?? The Blarney “Castle” has unfortunately been turned into somewhat of a “Disney-esque” theme park ride. For only 10 Euro you can take home a red faced picture of yourself kissing the glorious stone. They have even stooped so low as to compare the stone to a “Harry Potter - like sorting hat” on one of the parks many comedic informational signs. Blarney isn’t exactly a city of easy couches so I spent a night in Cork where, along with my day trip to Blarney (Do they sanitize the stone?), spent the evening watching a quirky production of Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame”. I also spent a relaxing day in Killarney National Park. When you think of Ireland, you probably think of the rolling green hills of Killarney. Killarney also offered some entertainment in the form of ridiculously costumed and wigged girls staying in my hotel. I guess the Irish have a tradition of looking like oversized Barbies when they compete in Irish dancing.
After the exceptional two day experience of getting to Dublin I decided to fly back to the mainland. My airline of choice was Ryanair. You have probably heard of it as the amazing airline that gives you flights for 1 penny. This is true, until you begin to read the fine print. When I arrived at the airport at 5:30am I was still satisfied with the $50 that I had paid for my flight to Madrid. Here is the problem. Unless you plan to travel with a bag that contains practically nothing, you get the delight of paying excess baggage fees! In the end my ticket price doubled…and Ryanair lost a customer. The flight was uneventful, as was the train ride from Madrid to Barcelona.
Barcelona! A city with many cool sights and (the better part for me) warm weather! I arrived in Barcelona and checked into my hostel with plenty of time for an evening stroll to La Sagrada Familia. Of the sights, I focused mainly on the Gaudi. Park Guel was amazing, even with the hundreds of tourists swarming around. The Pedrera, with it’s serpentine roof had a great Gaudi museum and amazing sights of La Sagrada Familia in the setting sun.
Glad to be back in the land of cheap drinks, I spent my evenings in Barcelona playing loud card games with my loud and raucous American/Australian/Irish hostel mates , watching a great selection of Spanish dubbed American movies and obtaining free entrance to clubs with the hostel. It’s still amazing to me that you can walk into any club in Europe and get transported back five or ten years with the music selection!
I had an enjoyable morning walk to the train station with a fellow American traveler as we headed to Montpellier, France. Don’t ask…it was basically the only place in France that I could find a train to. And here I sit in a McDonald’s using their free wireless. I’m staying in Montpellier for a few days to plan out the next few weeks of my trip. It looks like I will be heading through Switzerland and Austria.

Until next time….Au revoir!

Peace in your hoods.