Don't order Irish Car Bombs in Ireland (It has a more literal meaning in the north)

We arrived in Dublin around 9:30. We took a short bus ride to the city center and then from there walked 15 min to our hostel. It was not time to check in yet, so we put our bags in storage and headed out to see the city.

Our first target was St. Patrick’s Church. Great church! I have been to St. Peter’s Basilica and many other beautiful churches around Europe at this point, but this is my favorite. It is not ornately decorated with bright colors and beautiful paintings. It is simple in its decor. It has a classic feel to it… almost medieval. There are British and Irish battle flags from WWI and WW2. These were heavily tattered and faded which left an impression on the viewer. Jonathan Swift was also minister of this church at one time and is buried here. From there we planned to bypass the Guinness Brewery, but only for a couple hours because we were trying to save the best for last.

We walked passed the brewery on our way to Kilmainham Gaul (gaul is synonymous with prison). The gaul was all the way across the city and slightly out of town. Early on we experienced just how nice the Irish people are. As we were walking out of town I became worried we passed it at this point. I asked a couple walking on the sidewalk if they knew where the gaul was, but they said they were from out of town and did not know. I local riding by on his bike overheard our conversation with them and stopped in the street to ask if I needed help. Who does that?!  Well, the Irish do. And this kind of courtesy continued on for our 6 days there. There doesn’t exist a nicer breed of people on earth.

The Kilmainham Gaul was easily the best bang-for-our-buck deal in all of Europe. It was 2 euro and this included a 2 hour tour of the prison. It turns out this gaul is one of the most historic buildings in all of Ireland. Many famous Irishmen were held here and killed. Leaders of their rebellions against the British were put here and sentenced to death (which was usually hanging, but the leaders of the 1918 revolution were killed by firing squad).

Now time for the best! The Guinness Brewery. We had an hour and a half to get through this colossal building of 6 stories, which ended at an enclosed rooftop bar that had a 360 degree view of the city. We made a grave error in saving this for last. We were slightly rushed through the brewery because we wanted to make it to the top floors in time to receive our free Guinness. We got to the 5^th floor and were part of the last small group allowed to pour their own Guinness and be taught the proper technique. It may be boring, but I’m explaining it anyway to show that I know how to pour the perfect Guinness and so you can make sure future bartenders do it right, as well.  We filled it about 5/6^th full and then you let the beer settle as the nitrogen gas leaked out. After it had settled in a minute or two you slightly pulled back on the tap. This only allows more beer to filter in and no more nitrogen gas. And Guinness is definitely better in Ireland! Here is where we made the mistake, though… many people will go through the whole routine of learning to pour, but don’t bother to drink their Guinness. Insane? I think so, especially to a poor backpacker who doesn’t turn down anything that’s free. So we powered through our first Guinness as I spied a couple of full glasses across the room. After punishing our first glasses I ran across the room to round up some reinforcements. So we each had two Guinness’ and went to the roof tower feeling pretty good. Now we understood why the two American, middle-aged women we got directions from on the way to the brewery seemed to be in high spirits after their tour. We proudly began displaying our “Perfect Pour Certficate” that was awarded to us to everyone and saying, “I don’t know if you heard yet, but…” and held up the certificate. When I get home I am replacing my U-M diploma with it. When we came down from our buzz we decided to stay in tonight since we were going to catch a train to Belfast, which is in Northern Ireland, early the next morning. That and the fact we received 3 hours of sleep the night before.

                                                                        Perfection!

                                                                       And the proof. Cocky.

We took the 11:00am train (we thought there was a 10am, but there wasn't) to Belfast. This train went along the coast and offered some beautiful views. After we came into the station we took a free shuttle from the train station to the city center. As soon as we arrived we were attacked!

This wasn’t your typical Northern Ireland attack, though. It wasn’t some crazy protestant trying to spill our catholic blood. These we tour guides trying to convince us their tour was the best and a must-do. We collected the brochures and then sat on the front lawn of their government building to deliberate. We decided on a tour that offered a city tour of Belfast today and a day trip to the Giant’s Causeway, which is at the northern tip of Northern Ireland, at a later date.

                                                           Capital building in Belfast

As we walked with the tour guide to catch the bus for the city tour he asked us if we had a hostel booked for when we came back to Belfast in a couple days to do the Giant’s Causeway. No we didn’t. So he called up a friend and told us he had a hostel for 10 euro a night. Sold! At a price that low you have to be a little leary of the hostel you just booked, but you can’t say no to that price! Finally we boarded the bus for the city tour.

We grabbed a seat in the top half of the bus that was uncovered because it was a beautiful day. Turns out this was the worst seat on the bus. It was near impossible to hear her through the side-mounted speakers over the bus and the wind. We finally decided to abandon our seats after they took us on the highway (who the hell takes an open-roof tour bus on the highway?!). Now we could finally hear what was being said, at least.

                   How to insure you won't be getting tipped? Take the open-air bus on the highway

Belfast is a fairly big town, but there isn’t much to do there or much to see. They are still very proud of the fact the Titanic was built here, and when questioned about why they are so proud of a ship that sank they readily toss out the phrase, “She was fine when she left here, but she had an English captain and a Scottish navigator.” We passed by the building where their government debates. This building was expensive to build and one of the nicest buildings we have seen in Ireland, so in order to prevent it from being a bombing target during WWII they rubbed manure all over the outside walls. Our guide said that even though they have since taken the manure off, any Irishman will tell you that the building is still full of shit.

The highlight off our tour was the murals. These paintings on the sides of buildings acted as a marker for protestant or catholic neighborhoods. Some of the murals depicted men in ski masks holding guns and claiming they protect this area. Other murals pay tribute to those that have died in “The Troubles.” A few murals are neutral, like one dedicated to the Titanic. After our tour we decided there wasn’t much to do in Belfast and we headed home. But before we did I remembered that grandma’s friend, Diane, had given us money and told us to use it to buy a 1/5 of whiskey while in Ireland. That was what this money was intended for so that’s just what we did. From there we hopped on a train back to Dublin.

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We were in Ireland for a long time so I (Brandon) am taking over the second half of this story.

The next morning we made our way to Galway and ended up getting in around 2pm. Once there we wanted to go see the Cliffs of Moher but soon found out that in order to see them you either had to have your own car or go on one of the many tours that leave in the morning so going to them that day was out of the question. So we bought tickets to go on a tour of them the following day and then started to stroll around the town.

The tide change was a lot bigger than we thought

Picture of the same area during high tide

There was also a helpful warning sign that looked like it was created by a high school student warning you of the tides.

After that we headed back to the hostel where we ended up meeting one of our roommates Mike who was from London and invited us to go out with him and these two other German guys (whose names I can’t recall) in our room. As we waited for ze Germans we decided to go back down to the harbor have some beer and drink some of our fifth of Jameson. Headed back to the hostel around 10 and from there we left to go to go out.

The main square was full of different club promoters so we randomly chose when and went in. Upon entry we had to show them ID as we got scanned by a metal detector at which point we began to wonder what the hell we were going into. Once we get inside the music was bumping and the lights were going wild, but there was no one there. It wasn’t till after midnight people began to pile in. We also find out why they came so late, because their pregame is on a whole new level. Never have I been to a bar, or probably even a house party, with this so many smashed people. It seemed like at least one out of four had no idea what was going on.

On the dance floor people just used their bodies as battering rams and others we just fall backwards in the hope that they would fall onto someone. After being subjected to this for about 2 hours (and working up a good sweat) we headed out so we could get some sleep before our 10 am tour the next day.

The hostel we stayed at didn’t have a free breakfast so we bout some eggs, ham, and bread and had one of the most delicious breakfasts since we left the states. We then packed up our stuff and headed out to the tour bus. The first stop on the trip was some guys personal farm that has been in his family for generations. He walked us around for a little over an hour and explained to us Irelands diverse landscape along with some of the local landmarks we could see from the top of the hill on his property.

Back on the tour bus we saw a few castle ruins along the way until we got to the main attraction, the Cliffs of Moher, except the crappy thing was is that they were covered by clouds. There was a few minutes when they broke up a little allowing for some decent pictures.

We did stop by some other cliffs later in the tour that weren’t as impressive, but at least weren’t covered by clouds.

The last stop of the trip was Kerry Castle which I really don’t remember to much about but was where the a royal family lived until the floor collapsed and killed all the servants so they decided to move.

Our hostel that night was in Belfast and the best way to get there was to take the 6:30 train to Dublin and then take a 2 hour bus to Belfast so we ended up getting in a little after midnight. The hostel we had was the one that the guy found for us when we were in Belfast earlier in the week. We were in an 18 bed room, but luckily there was only one other person in it besides us.

The next morning we headed out on our tour to the Giants Causeway. On the way to it we drove along the coast for a large majority of it and stopped at some of the more scenic points. One spot had a rope  bridge you could walk across that cost 4 euro and was about 20 feet long. It was a complete tourist trap but we fell right into it.

Soon after that we arrived at the Giants Causeway. It is a causeway that consists of these very weird rock pillars that jut out of the ground and are shaped like hexagons.

After checking that out for a while we took a different way back up to the top that gave us some really good views of the surrounding area.

The last stop of the tour was the Bushmills distillery. Way back when it wasn’t required to label what percentage your alcohol was so you didn’t know if you where getting Parrots Bay or Everclear. For that reason they required sellers to get certified that their liquor is what they say it is and Bushmills was the first ever distillery to get that verification in 1608

.

After the tour we got on the train back to Dublin so we could get our 6 am flight out to Nantes, France. We still had about a third of the fifth of Jameson left so we did some work on it on the train ride back.

Thanks Diane!

Once back we headed to our old hostel we stayed at in Dublin to get some internet access so we could get some details about what to do in France and book some hostels and then left about midnight to go sleep at the airport. We ended up getting there around 1 am and slept by pushing two chairs together and using our pack as a pillow.

We woke up around 4 am after getting very little sleep due to the uncomfortable position and due to the fact that they were blasting the air conditioning. So we got up, got in line, checked in (without getting any fines) and feel back to sleep on the plane.

B

We left Amsterdam to get to Dusseldorf so we could fly to London. It took about 3 hours to do it, but it didn’t cost anything to get there because of our Eurail and the flight only cost 50 euros each. Our flight was scheduled to fly out at 9:05 PM but that actually didn’t take off until about 10. The terminal also didn’t actually connect to any of the planes, but rather you just waited at one of four doors and then would walk out to your plane.

By the time we got into London it was 11:30. We arranged to stay at our buddy Sherry’s place that we met in Budapest. He lived about two miles away from where we were so we decided to take the bus, but not just any bus a double-decker. Not trying to seem like a tourist at all I naturally ran up the stairs and grabbed the seats right at the front of the bus. It was pretty crazy sitting up there and realizing how close those bus drivers get to hitting things. Once we got to London Bridge Station we had about a 15 minute walk to his place and by the time we got there we were to tired to go out. So we just hung out and watched Big Brother. I didn’t realize it at first, but we were watching the Big Brother Channel, not the 30 minute or hour show it usually is, in which it was just a 24/7 feed from the house they live in for 3 months which I thought was pretty crazy.

The next day Sherry had to head out to a friends wedding for the weekend so Jeff and I left to go check into our hostel. Once getting there we dropped off our bags and headed out to this suggested walking path by one of the people that worked at the hostel that would bring us by a lot of the famous London sights.

First sight Shakespeare’s Globe Theater

The London Eye

Some stud in front of Parliament

Parliament Square where all the protesters hangout. 

One protestor has been there every day since 2001 and was also the location where William Wallace and Guy Faukes where killed.

The next spot we went to was Westminster Abbey where a lot of  famous and influential people are buried but naturally pictures aren’t allowed inside and they seemed a little more keen on spotting people with cameras so we didn’t risk it since it was 12 pounds to get into.

View of the courtyard with Parliament in the background

Fish and chips and as you can tell from Jeff’s face it is really good.

We continued up the street to Trafalgar Square where there was a celebration for the World Cup going on. It is also the location of the National Gallery where they have a ridiculous amount of art work that is free to the public so they can deal with the fact that most of it was taken back when they were imperialist of the world.

We then headed back to the hostel and moved our stuff out of storage to our 22 bed room. Not wanting to stay there long we headed out to the bar attached to the hostel, but it turned out the major crowed there was a whole bunch of people in their late 20s and early 30s so we headed out to find a local pub.

We went to a bar we walked by earlier that had a large group of people standing outside of it, but surprisingly we were able to walk right in. It was then we understood when Sherry told us that more people are outside of a pub than inside. It wasn’t too hard to find a seat and so we chilled at the bar. When Jeff went to the bathroom I was standing outside to see these two guys put an open bottle of ketchup in front of the door so someone would kick it over. Naturally I connected with their childhood since of humor and started talking to them. They were both in their late twenties named Max and Matt. Max was an English teacher for elementary students and Matt was a lawyer. The conversation switched from drunk talk about where the best looking girls are to religion. When they left Max gave us a good 5 minute speech that pretty much came down to do lots of drugs and bang dudes, if you want. After that we headed to chill outside of the pub. When we were out there Jeff started talking to some older woman and out of nowhere this girl yells at Jeff “don’t try to shag my mum.” After that Jeff’s main objective was flirting with the mom, going on about how large his bed was. I starting talking to some other people that looked like they were born in our generation and it turned out one of the guys only left England once and was to visit his girlfriend who went to school at University of Michigan. He said he went out a few nights to Good Time Charlies and Brown Jug but wasn’t ever subjected to Ricks. I found it to be a pretty crazy coincidence. After they left I told Jeff to wrap it up with the mom so we could head back which we did.

The next day, June 12, we took “The Tube” to Trafalgar Square and when we got off we saw a whole bunch of barricades and policemen. When we asked what was going on the officer told us they were celebrating the Queens birthday. So we rushed down to catch the parade, but it was pretty much over by the time we got there. We snapped some pics of the last part of it and then were going to head out. However, people began to walk down the street the parade was on and when we found out everyone was going to Buckingham Palace where the Queen and the Royal Family were to come out and greet everyone. So we joined the masses and wormed our way towards the front.

 Once the road reached Buckingham Palace we were pretty close and once the horse mounted police stopped guiding us, everyone started a mad dash towards the gates of the palace and naturally screaming followed. Not partaking in the running and screaming we still managed to get a descent spot about three rows back from the gate. Then came the Queen.

Once on the balcony they started the flyover.  There was about 5 groups that flew over and naturally the best was last.

After the flyover the Royal Family went back inside and the guards began to march out and the show was over.

After we went to the Churchill Museum, which was part of the War Cabinet Bunker, where they went to hide during the bombing raids on London by the Germans.

I thought this gas mask was pretty interesting because it would let them still work the circuit board in the case of toxic gases being released. Jeff managed to miss the turnout for the Churchill Museum which ate up about an hour so he was waiting outside and after a little while figured I left so he left himself.

Rather than taking The Tube back I decided to walk back to see some different sites around the city. By the time I got back it was almost 8 PM and the USA v England soccer game was at 8:30. Right when I was walking up to the hostel, Jeff was leaving. He said after he left he went to the park to go relax. He ended up getting kicked out of his lawn chair because he didn’t realize you had to pay to sit in them so he moved to the grass. A little later some other guys started grabbing chairs to sit in and he told them how you had to pay because one of the guys had an American flag as a cape he figured they weren’t local. He ended up talking to the guys for a while as they sat there and listened to their stereo they brought and played songs form Born in the USA, to Party in the USA, to the song by Team America. They told him to meet up with them later at some bar and when I ran into Jeff that’s where he was heading, figuring I wasn’t going to get back in time.

When we got there we realized that they actually rented out a room in the bar and it was full of people from the states that worked in London. The bar was below us and I was sure from the loud chants and stomps coming from us that there was going to be a group of England fans waiting for us if USA won. It turned  out to be a tie so there wasn’t any bloodshed. Two people from the group headed out with us as we tried to find a place to continue boozing.  The first pub we went to the bouncers stopped Jeff and I at the door, and I thought we had to pay a cover which would have been ridiculous for a pub. The other people we came with walked right on through and that is when he asked to see our ID where the legal drinking age is 18 lol.

Pubs all close at different times and this one decided to close at 11 PM. So we headed out in search of a new bar. As we were walking we noticed some subtle differences such as woman with adams apples. That is when we realized we found the gay district. After seeing our far share of transvestites we were out of the area and saw this bar called “The Yard” which looked pretty cool. As we were standing in front of it trying to decide whether or not to go in the bouncer told us that it was a gay bar (apparently we didn’t get all the way out) and with that we called it a night and headed our separate hetero ways.

(Jeff)

                So i'm taking over the 2nd half of this trip to London. This blog has become quite the choir to do and I guess I need to make up for all the time Brandon updated it while I was sick. After reading Brandon's I realize he left something important out. While I was on my solo adventure after the Churchill Museum I stumbled upon a group of cyclists. It was crazy to see cause there were so many of them... o ya, and they were all naked.

There were literally hundreds of them and people were watching them with their 7-10 year old kids. Just a different culture across the pond. I couldn't imagine anyone in the States letting their kids see that. It looked like the cyclists were having fun, though! Maybe something to add to the bucket list...

Now, to pick up where Brandon left off. Brandon was attending free seminars from Sta Travel while he was still in Ann Arbor. At one of these they raffled off tickets for bike tour of London. Someone won the tickets, but gave it to Brandon because he had no use for them. We booked the tour in Ann Arbor on the day we left for Europe. We booked it in the middle of when we were supposed to be in London, according to our itinerary. This is why we didn't go on it until the 3rd day. Ideally, the we would have done it the 1st day. The tour left at 2:00pm, or so we thought.

                To kill some time in the morning before our bike tour we agreed to go to a public market. The couple we met the night before, Greg and Cara, told us about this market and said it was something straight out of Asia. It had to be seen. So the first thing we did when we woke up was to head to this market on Brick Lane. Upon doing so we crossed the Tower Bridge, which is an ornately decorated structure (turns out The ugly bridge over Telegraph on I-94 is more impressive than London Bridge. It is a plain concrete bridge 4 lanes wide for cars and has a guard-rail. We didn't even snap a picture of it). We then walked through the Arabic part of London on our way to Brick Lane Market. This is a rather large community which is prejudiced against in London. There is a group called the EDL (English Defense League) which is a KKK-type organization, and everytime they march violence breaks out. I'm sure some of this racism has arisen from the subway bombings in London from Islamic radicals. At the end of this section of the city was the market.

                We were lied to! It is a huge street market; we can't argue that. Probably the biggest we have seen. However, it didn't seem comparable to the flooded Asian street markets I see in movies, which is the sole basis for my comparison. We walked the market and picked up some fresh fruit and chinese food, which was everywhere. From there we headed to our bike tour.

                When we arrived at the spot we were supposed to meet the tour Brandon looked over his voucher and realized that the tour didn't leave until 3:30pm. So no we had an hour and a half to kill in a boring end of town. We ended up going to the park across the street and planning out the rest of our trip in Europe until the tour began.

                The tour first headed into a park just outside of Hyde Park. This park, Kensington, used to be the royal gardens, but has since been open to the public. Our tour guide showed us one of the palaces, Kensington Palace, where the royal family used to stay before they made their home at Buckingham Palace. this palace he showed us was also the same one Princess Diana lived in. From there we headed to Buckingham Palace, then to Hyde Park, then a memorial for Princess Diana, to the Westminster Abbey, and finally to Parliament. Brandon and I had already seen most of these sights because this was our third day in London, but it was nice to hear a little more about the places.

                Now it was about 7:30pm and there was one thing I told Brandon I had to do before leaving London. Brandon found out where it was the day before while we were separated. So we hopped on "the tube" and took it to the stop nearest Abbey Road.

                After walking through some shady parts of town we finally found the crosswalk where The Beatles shot their album cover. Abbey Road records was right there, as well. After about 30 minutes of failed attempts to get a good picture while not getting run over or having car headlights in the background, Brandon finally snapped a picture I could live with. I also signed my name on the concrete wall near the intersection. Mission accomplished. Time to go home. We have a long day planned for tomorrow.

                The next day we woke up at 8am and headed out the door as soon as we could. We still had so much to see in England and knew we weren't going to get to it all today, but we wanted to get to as much as we could. First target, the British Museum. We arrived around 11 am.

                Don't let the name fool you. This museum doesn't document the history of British culture. Rather, this museum displays items from the cultures that England ransacked. There were Asian artificacts (that we didn't even make it to), Egyptian, Native American, African, European, Greecian, Roman, and Middle Eastern. The most impressive were the Egyptian, Greecian, and Roman. When we were in Athens we saw a number of signs whining about waiting for the return of Parthenon artififacts taken by England. Obviously, the English display had a different message. Anyway, I can see why the Athenians were upset. This museum had more artifacts then Athens itself! This museum also contained a complete temple from the Lykans (a Greek community closer to the present-day Middle East) and huge Roman building remains. However, the Egyptian exhibit outshone all others. Tombs, statues, and mummies! We unfortunately couldn't go to Egypt on this trip (maybe I'll go next summer when I do this again), so this was a great opportunity to see Egyptian relics. The rosetta stone was here! Don't know what it is? You're dumb. Look it up. Just kidding, but seriously look it up. And the mummy of Cleopatra was on display. Impressive statues from Egypt. One statue was about 100 ft tall, but they only had the top 20ft of it (his head and shoulders). Great museum! Best I've been to.  And it's free! Probably to appease all the cultures they stole this shit from. The halls of the British Museum held our attention until about 4:30pm.

Easter island, what?!?!?!?!

                                                        Rosetta Stone in all her magnificence

                                                                Cleopatra's mummy

                We could have stayed longer at the British Museum but there was something I had to see and refused to miss. We blew through the European history portion of the museum in about 30 min as I pushed Brandon along, arguing we have been all over Europe and we already know everything about everything, so let's go to the next important place before it closes! Well it worked and by 5pm we arrived at the British Library with an hour to spend before they closed their doors.

                Before you jump to the assumption that I am the biggest dork alive (though you might think that anyway), let me explain why I rushed to this museum with the enthusiasm of a frenchman running for the last baguette in the grocery store. This museum houses original written notes from The Beatles! Song lyrics that John and George scribbled on napkins and their sons' birthday cards. i couldn't leave without seeing this. I discovered The Beatles are one of the few people on earth with worse handwriting then myself. This library also housed the Magna Carta. Don't know what it is? You're dumb. Look it up. This was the document that knocked the King of England down a few pegs and was the first documented contract designating certain inalienable rights all men should have (life, liberty, speech, etc.). Also here were Leonardo Davinci's journals where he took notes when doing scientific research. These were interesting to look at because Davinci wrote backwards, or practiced "mirror writing" I guess it's called. There were also Chinese scrolls from the 3rd century and old Bibles from over 1000 years ago. The Alice in Wonderland original copy is here, along with some of Shakespeare's original plays, first edition.

 

                                                  Shitty picture of Beatle's collection

After 30 minutes of waiting for an opportunity to snap a picture of The Beatles display case without the guard catching me I finally caught my break when we went to lock up. I snapped two fairly shitty pictures before jetting to the exit.

From there we headed over to Parliament, where we could watch the House of Commons deabate. We received our security clearance badges, all free of charge, and walked into Parliament. The building opens into a beautiful foyer which was originally built during medieval times and meant to strike awe upon the royal families that would attend banquets and balls here.

After walking through the hall we were led by security to a seating area overlooking the room where the house of Commons deliberates. We listened as the (government?), the name given to the majority party, and the opposition, which consists of the multiple minority parties, debated the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip where the Israelis attacked an aid convoy trying to go through the Israeli blockade. The speaker from the government dropped many jokes at the openning of his argument, but other than that it was rather boring to watch. We left after 20-30 minutes.

We had called our buddy Sherry, who was now back in town, from one of those tacky, red British payphone booths. We were supposed to meet at 6pm, but we wanted to go into Parliament so changed it to 8pm. Well, Parliament, grocery shopping, and leaving our hostel took longer and expected and we didn't get to his place until after 9:00pm. We buzzed him. No answer. We had the front desk try his cell and apartment. No answer. So we sat in the lounge as they continued to try him. Finally, answer! Sherry "allegedly" passed out on the couch and didn't hear us. Considering we arrived late our first night in London due to plane delays and got to his apartment around 11:30pm, then agreed to meet at 6pm this day, then 8pm, then showed up at 9:30pm, I'm thinking Sherry had enough of our "punctuality." He probably wasn't too excited that he would also have to sleep on the couch while we shared his queen size bed. Oh, and we were setting an alarm for 2:00am. I still feel sort of bad about the situation because I had a lot of fun with Sherry in Budapest. We dragged his ass to go spelunking, which we wouldn't normally do, checked out the thermal baths, and partied the night away. But Budapest was much more laid back and here we had so much to see! We were definitely an inconvenience and we didn't have much free time to sit and chat and be pleasant guests.

                the next morning we awoke at 2:00am, left Sherry's by 2:20am, caught our city bus at 2:40am, then hopped on our bus to the airport at 3:00am. We arrived at the airport around 4:00am for our 6:30 flight. When we first got there I pointed out that the flight number was different, but Brandon remarked, "It's just Ryanair being Ryanair" and that was the end of it. Big mistake.

                When baggage claim opened we hopped in line and reached the front at 5:30am. She couldn't find our flight. She was about to pick up the phone to call someone when I glanced at the boarding passes for the first time (Brandon had booked the flight) and saw a different airport listed. Shit! With only an hour we didn't have time to make it to that airport. I tried not to get too frustrated with Brandon because the airport's name wasn't completely obvious and it is easy to assume we would be flying out of the same airport we flew into, but human nature can't help you get a little frustrated. Plus, Brandon did all the work to book it so I shouldn't complain. It cost us 100 British lbs. to re-book a flight for that morning. This was hard to swallow (equivalent to about $150). We did get very lucky with the fact that there was another flight leaving to Dublin at 8:10am. I have missed layovers before and lost an entire day on vacation because of it. Here, we only lost an hour and 40 minutes. Losing a day in Europe would have been just as bad as the money... I don't think I could have handled both. But since our next flight was so soon after our intended one, this wasn't that bad of a situation and both of us were able to put it behind us rather quickly. If this is the worst thing to go wrong for us as we travel through foreign countries for 2 months then I say we did pretty good. It's ironic that it happened in an English-speaking one, however. Doesn't give us much of an excuse. Anyway, Ireland! I have been looking forward to going hear for years and now we were on the doorstep! 

We arrived in Dublin at 9:20am.

A Quaint 3 Days And 2 Nights in Amsterdam

Brandon and I arrived in Amsterdam around 7pm Monday night. We were quick to make friends with a couple girls in our room from Canada and later befriended some students from Atlanta, GA at the hostel bar. We all went out for a nice peaceful evening. Nothing too special or worth blogging about. We left on Wednesday night for a 9pm plane to London, England.

        By the way, here is a picture from our buddy we met from Georgia during our quiet night out in Amsterdam.

In Bruges... just like Colin Farrell

     We arrived Sunday, June 6th, in Brussels. It was well past sundown. We headed out to our hostel, The Van Gogh. This hostel was our last resort as all the other hostels we considered were booked. From what we could gather in the dark, Brussels looked like a pretty nice city. Since it is the capital city of the European Union it also contains many impressive modern buildings that commingle with the historic city. After a 25 minute walk we arrived at our hostel.

The hostel seemed to have a hipster and hippie feel to it all at the same time. It wasn't exactly our crowd. This was also, by far, the dirtiest hostel we have stayed in to date. Garbage cans were overflowing with trash and our room, which was more humid than most Indonesian sweat shops (believe me, I've been), smelled of feet from the last 20 backpackers that slept there (side note: foot order is the backpacker's most unpleasant attribute. We walk around in the same shoes day after day, which causes us to rank somewhere between a baby's diaper and a street bum on the pleasant-odors-scale). We shared this particular room with a Serbian and Australian. Anyway, we overcame all obstacles and fell asleep a little after arriving.

The following morning we planned to walk around Brussels, which didn't have much to offer it turns out. And the graffiti covering the buildings was easier to see during the day. Its a city of unique contrast; it has some of the most eye-catching modern buildings I have ever seen, but the rest of the city is not well maintained and garbage cans on the street tend to be overflowing with filth (maybe where our hostel got the idea). Other than enjoying a famous Belgian waffle and having a beer at a bar that holds the record for widest selection of beers there isn't too much to talk about that we did. We saw the famous statue of the boy being, Mannikan Pis. Brussels has one museum whose man attraction is the different outfits they dress him in... starting to get the picture of just how much there is to do here? We left around 4:30pm and headed to Bruges, Belgium.

                                                                    Brussels, Belgium

We arrived in Bruges around 7pm and found out we had a 30 minute walk to our hostel. Great, I love walking with my pack on. So we walked to the hostel and took in our first views of Bruges.

Bruges is unique from other cities. This city was once the richest city in the world during the 15th century and has laid dead since the 16th century when it's harbor silted up, when it's harbor silted up. It remained a beautiful, but dead city, until tourists rediscovered it and have brought Bruges back to life (I'm convinced tourism is keeping most of Europe alive. It certainly isn't the laid-back work ethic). It has quaint streets that are all one-way because they are too narrow to accommodate more than one car and a few bikes at a time. Though overrun with tourists, it still has a peaceful ambiance to it. I really liked this city.

We arrived at our hostel and it was a vast improvement. also, it turns out we are the only people staying in our 4-bed room. Bonus! I was still feeling sick so I went to bed early. Brandon went for some food before going to bed himself.

The next morning we rented bicycles from our hostel for the entire day for the low, low price of 9 euro (about 12 American for those of you who aren't as cultured as ourselves). Bruges is quite small so having the bikes allowed us to easily see the whole city in a day (and a couple miles outside the city when I missed a turn trying to find some windmills).

We first went to a town square that housed an old clock tower, a medieval castle, and a church that contained the blood of Christ (yep). So we had to check out the blood of Christ! Brandon actually went to the altar and placed his hand on the holy plasma. Only 1.5 Euro! Can you believe it?! I think he had hoped, much like the ninja turtles and the ooze, that by touching it he would inherit the power to turn water to wine. I was hoping he would, too, to save me some money at the pubs. After Brandon's Coming-to-Jesus moment we climbed up the 700 year old clock tower for a beautiful panaromic view of the city. After climbing the 366 steps to the top we discovered that 270 of the 360 degree view was closed off due to restoration.

Altar with Christ's blood (the woman up top has her hands on the vial encasing it)

                                                

 Clock tower at night (courtesy of Brandon and his wandering around cities at night, by himself, taking pictures. Worried yet, Mom?!)

                                        
                                                       Our 90 degree view from the top

We then road our bikes farther down the road to get some grub and found clothes to be real cheap in Bruges. Everywhere else in Europe clothes tend to be more expensive than in the U.S. However, Bruges was on pair with a J.C. Penney-type store. i picked up a couple shirts and 2 pairs of boxers for 29 euro. Brandon freshened his wardrobe, as well. Then we grabbed some cheap food just outside the store before continuing our bike ride.

We then headed to the western part of town. Along cobblestone streets, we made our way to a garden previously occupied by the Beguinage, but now claimed by a nunnery. The Beguinage were...? Only one is still in existence, and she is a officially a UNESCO national heritage site. The garden was kind of, well, plain. We didn't even bother to take a picture. But the cobblestone street leading to it was beautiful. 95% of the streets in Bruges are cobblestone, by the way. From there we went to a local bookstore. I had powered through 4 books at this point and Brandon would read them for free when I was done buying them and reading them. Pretty nice system for him. Well, here I made him repay the favor. The books were only 2-3 euro each, so I still feel slighted having been dumb enough to buy new books for 12 euro each. We picked up 4 books here. Next store we did the Halve Mann Brewery Tour. It was pretty interesting and full of dry humor. the beer, I think was good. I still had a really sore throat and it was difficult for me to taste anything at this point. Only headaches in the morning though! We then headed back to the hostel to drop off the clothes we had bought earlier, and on the way stopped at a chocolate shop recommended by Rick Steves himself. it was the best chocolate either of us has ever had. A Hersheys will never taste the same.

                                        Cruising like a gangsta. Ya, it's a girl's bike. It's all they had left.

On a side note, I'm convinced my hygenic lifestyle has been my downfall here. My filthy, unkempt brother who eats food off the ground and licks salt water off rocks has built up quite an immune system by ravaging is body with all different kinds of bacteria every day. Myself, always washing my hands after the bathroom and before eating, have rendered myself at a disadvantage when it comes to the dirty world of backpacking. I have no problem with wearing the same shirt, or not always being able to shower (in fact its been 3 days as I type this), but my lymphocytes have never seen the kind of germs that can be found in a 12-bed dorm room. Because of this I have been consistently sick for almost two weeks. Starting with having to run to the bathroom every 2 hours, or whenever I sat up. This was followed quickly by a fever, then headaches, then neck pain from a nerve that tightened overnight consistently and had to be remedied with motrin (which broke the fever and headache, too), followed by terrible sore throat and cough that wouldn't allow me to talk in the mornings, followed by a simple cold (runny noise, sneezing). This cycle lasted 2 full weeks. It later ended on my second day in London, which I realize the blog isn't up to yet. However, in Amsterdam i only had a sore throat, cough, and cold so I was able to start going out again... i don't think anything would have stopped me from going out there, though. Come to think of it, maybe the consistant drinking had something to do with it. ...Naw.

Back to Bruges. From the hostel, we took our bikes to the perimeter of the city and followed that around. Located here were the gates that originally protected the city. The walls have since been demolished, but the six gates to the old city still remain. On the one gate was a replica of a skull that used to hang on it. This skull belonged to a traitor who opened the gate to an invading army. From there we went along a river that hosted 4 windmills on it's bank. These windmills, I don't believe, are historic. however, they were built in a classical style and were cool to see. We then headed back to the hostel. I went to bed as soon as we got back, trying to do everything in my power to make sure I would feel good enough to go out when we got to Amsterdam the next day. Brandon went out to walk the city at night and take pictures.

                                                 The skull is just to the left of the top of the door

the next morning I slept in as long as I could. I even slept past check-out, which doesn't seem to be an issue at hostels. Brandon woke me up around 11:00am and was worried I was feeling more sick. I told him my strategy was to milk this nap as long as I could so I would be up for going out tonight in Amsterdam. We got on a 1pm train to Amsterdam and arrived at 6:00pm on Tueday, June 8th.