The Plaza Hotel Dublin

... 4 lane main streets in this huge city, we park and run in to check into the hostel for a bit and forget to pay for parking...whoops! Needless to say, if you've ever seen Parking Wars, they dont just put a parking ticket in your window. They full blown CLAMP or BOOT your car tire...whatever you wanna call it. Its a huge yellow metal thing that stops your car from moving...no one will come take it off until you call and pay ...

... for me to convey the exact meaning of this little exchange in words, but I’ll try. During the months of planning for the trip, there were several occasions when I was looking at websites of historical sites that featured old castles and other medieval buildings. I’m such a dork about old places – I get excited about history! Anyway, a couple of these times, I was excitedly showing K the photo of the castle or building and I would say “See those long, narrow ...

... for she saved us. Needless to say, my mother and I were quite stressed, so we opened up the small bottle of white chocolate liquer that I had given her as a gift from Salzburg right there in the airport. Shortly after consuming that beverage, we literally walked out onto the tarmac and entered our plane. Upon arrival to Dublin, we gathered our luggage and took the shuttle to Bewley’s Airport Hotel. After chatting online until 1:30 am, we went to sleep. What a day!

... We didn't get to bed until 1:30 in the morning.

Tuesday morning we finished packing up all our things in the cabin and then went to breakfast and devotions. The ship was planning to leave at 11am and the crew had to do some prep work so we though we'd leave at 9:00, drop our luggage off at the hostel, and return to watch the ship leave at 11:00 since most of our day would be spent on the south side of the river anyways. We found the Wests to say ...

... he was and that is appearantely just the way you normally act in Poland. Fine. Fair play, I wouldn't know I've never been. Prob won't ever really understand that guy, nor him me as it seems. But that's fine and that's just another experience. The rest of the weekend I spent chilling, real nice to just relax and do nothing for a while. Of course some of it over at 10 Chancery Hall as well : ) Then last week. Monday, again Greg asked me out for a pint but I was just too freakin ...

... Bryan and Sean's first time at a gay club, too, and they both said they had a blast! After stumbling home at 2.30a, we all crashed (Bryan used to be in our dorm, but he had to go to a different hostel because this one was booked up) then got up a few hours later for the incredible free breakfast. Sean left today, but in the morning he, Jana, and I did some of the 'hop-on, hop-off' sightseeing tour and checked out Trinity College and St. Stephen's Green ...

... space. We made ourselves comfortable on two couches near the dancers to watch the people around. Behind us was a man who would occasionally awake from his alcohol induced sleep to grumble and mumble to himself. Across to our left was a man trying to keep himself steady by hanging on to the side of a banister, all the while singing and laughing to himself. In front of us were always a group of eight dancers discussing which moves they were going to do next ...

... to go to Kenya and volunteer to teach kids with HIV and AIDS to speak English. My placement is for two weeks and I am being placed with a company called I-to-I.'
Based in southern Kenya, near the market town of Voi, Gerard will be working with orphaned and disadvantaged children, providing them with a positive role model, building their social skills and confidence, helping with various aspects of their education and giving staff members at the project a much needed helping hand.
Dublin, Ireland gez_skip

... I didn't actually know what I was going to do in Ireland. I had booked a tour last minute for Northern Ireland and a hostel for the rest of the week in Dublin. Luckily, Dublin is the most touristy city EVER. And they speak English!!! I know that seems obvious but I had some major reverse culture shock when I realized how extremely easy it was to figure everything out. As soon as I got off the bus, I also spied, right next to the James Joyce ...

I concede that I haven't been overly diligent in updating my blog lately, but in my defense, I've had my hands full trying to stay employed and staying awake. To say the last fortnight has been a whirlwind of this, that and everything in between would be an understatement...but let me not lament my outstanding sociability of the last while and rather dive into what the feck I've actually been up ta! Grand. So, my long lost American pal Megan heard about my little stint over in ...