The Cliffs of Moher

Early on Sunday morning, the three of us boarded a tour bus that would take us all the way to the Cliffs of Moher and back, stopping at several tourist sites along the way, for a total journey of about 8 hours.

As we left Galway city and entered the countryside along the western coast of Ireland, we saw more and more rolling green hills (Ireland really is as green as they say!), thatched-roof cottages, and dry stone walls (walls that have been built up with rocks from the surrounding limestone and fit together in such a way that there is no need for mortar to hold them together).  Our first stop was Dunguaire Castle, which was breathtaking both in low tide (on the way out) and high (on the way back).

We then entered the Burren, an area that is known for its wide expanse of limestone cobbles and endemic flora and fauna.  We saw an earthen ring-fort (also known as a fairy fort) dated to the Iron Age.  Click the link for more info on that; it's actually pretty interesting!  We passed by a couple of dolmens and a cairn, all left over from Neolithic times, before arriving at the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, probably the oldest thing I've ever seen with my own two eyes.

After passing through the lushest, greenest pastures I've ever seen, all dotted with cows, sheep and horses grazing, we arrived at Kilfenora Cathedral, a partially ruined 12th century church with a particularly interesting cemetery.  From there we headed to the small town of Lisdoonvarna, the self-proclaimed matchmaking capital of the world.  Every September, singles from hundred of miles away gather here to be matched up with their potential soul mate!

Next was lunch, and as usual, I ordered soup from a small cafe.  After lunch, we finally arrived at the Cliffs of Moher, but we were utterly disappointed to find that the typical Irish weather had turned on us, and the entire area was obscured by thick clouds and mist.  Where we should have been able to look over the side and see the Atlantic Ocean 700 feet below, all we saw was whiteness.  We took the opportunity to visit the gift shop and watch the cows lazily grazing in a nearby field, and just as we were about to give up and write off our losses, the clouds cleared away for a brief moment, just long enough to see the breathtaking drop into the sea and snap a few pictures.  Elated and exhausted, we piled back into the bus, ready to sleep the rest of the way back to Galway.

Olé olé olé! Euro Cup Final Game in Galway

That night, Jenny and Rick and I headed out to the Quays, where all of Galway's most popular nocturnal venues could be found.  We randomly picked a place called the King's Head, as it seemed to have the most craic (and the biggest TV).  In the spirit of competition, Jenny and I went head-to-head, Jenny rooting for Italy and I rooting for Spain in the Euro Cup final game.  The pub was standing-room only, as throngs of Spaniards, Italians, and other fans packed the place, shouting and tossing balloons in the air.  We found a good spot by the TV and took turns pushing our way to the bar to get rounds of beer.

The game turned out to be a blowout, with Spain winning 4-0.  Jenny wasn't too amused by the outcome, and she and Rick left shortly after the game was over.  My team had won, however, and I was having much too much of a good time to call it quits just yet!  While I was outside smoking, a very tall man with very large blue plugs in his earlobes came to join me.  "Are you from Alabama?" he asked, much to my surprise.  I admitted it, but he never told me how he knew that. (I assume he caught a glimpse of my wallet as I was paying the barman)  He was from Galway, and he was out with a group of friends that night.  We all made introductions, and I was instantly a part of the group.  Jimmy (blue plugs guy), Damien, Elizabeth (Damien's girlfriend), and the rest of the group escorted me to not one, but three nightclubs that night, and all took turns paying for my drinks!  The city was alive with sportsfans running through the streets, and nobody was a stranger.  I danced to Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, met people from all over the world, and got to see Galway from the locals' perspective.  Elizabeth could speak Irish, and did so quite frequently (though I sort of think she was insulting me more often than not, as her boyfriend did more than his fair share of buying my drinks), and by the end of the night, I was known to all at the club by my nickname, Alabama.

When the club got so crowded that I was having trouble keeping track of my friends, I decided to call it a night before I was too drunk to find my way back to my hostel.  Armed with a city map and a very poor sense of direction, I eventually found my way home and fell into bed, oblivious to the comings and goings that are so common in the wee hours at a hostel.

The next day would bring me to the Cliffs of Moher, and a full day of sightseeing, so the sound sleep I so miraculously enjoyed was very much appreciated!

Galway or Bust!

On the morning of the first of July, I packed my bags, left a postcard and a small gift (a Birmingham fridge magnet and a bag of pecan brittle) for Ronan as thanks for his hospitality, and set out for Galway on the west coast of Ireland.

I met Jenny and Rick once again at the Spire, and we hopped over to the internet cafe to print out our bus tickets, purchased the night before.  Then it was around the corner to the bus station, and two hours later, we had arrived in overcast and slightly misty Galway city.  Our hostel was up the hill and about half a mile from the bus station, and dragging a fifty-pound suitcase was starting to wear on me, but we finally made it, a bit wet and a lot tired, to the hostel.

We couldn't check in for another hour, so we dropped our bags in the luggage room and headed out to find some lunch.  A surprising number of pubs in Galway don't serve food, so we stumbled in upon McSwiggan's pub for a Guinness before realizing we'd have to go somewhere else to satisfy our rumbling stomachs.  Across the street was a Spanish place whose name eludes me, so we went in for what we thought would be a quick bite.  Jenny, Rick and I shared a pitcher of sangria while we waited for the very "European" service (i.e. slow as molasses).  I ordered the special, fish soup, Jenny ordered some chicken and potato tapas, and Rick ordered the paella.  Our server informed us that the paella was made fresh and would take at least 30 minutes, but we went ahead with it.  A very long wait later, when our stomachs had begun to digest themselves, our food finally arrived, and well worth the wait!  Who would have thought Spanish food in Ireland could be so delicious, but as for my dish, I blame the extra-fresh Galway seafood.  My soup was a clear broth packed full of clams, mussels, and different kinds of fresh-caught fish, with hints of paprika and saffron... divine!

After lunch, we headed back to the hostel to change and get ready for our first night out in the city.  Rick and Jenny stayed in a private suite, but I was roughing it, and opted for a 9-bed female dorm room.  When I first walked in, there were two American girls from Arizona already in the room, and we chatted for a while before I changed clothes and got ready to hit the town.  When we were ready, Jenny and Rick and I headed out towards the Quays, where all the best pubs in Galway were, so we could watch the Euro Cup Final game between Spain and Italy.

That night made for a very good, but rather long story, so I'll save that one for another time...

The Wandering Rocks

Post-Pub crawl hangover (which didn't end until well after noon) I decided to shake the cobwebs off and get some fresh air.

I met Jenny and Rick at the Spire and we set out in search of some lunch.  We ended up at The Stag's Head,  which has been open since 1864 where I had my usual pub grub meal of homemade soup and brown bread, accompanied by a fresh Guinness.  After that, we continued to aimlessly wander around Dublin, seeing what we could see.  We passed through Trinity College, up and down O'Connell Street, got lost north of Parnell Square in search of James Joyce sites, finally found number 7 Eccles Street (where Leopold and Molly Bloom lived in Joyce's Ulysses), and only gave up our wandering when it became apparent that nothing was open except for pubs.  Summertime in Ireland finds the sun setting close to 9:30 or 10 pm, which is very disorienting, as it can become very late without you realizing it.

Since I didn't get to spend much time with Ronan the night before, due to pub crawls and hangovers, I decided to make an early night of it and head back to the house.  I picked up a couple bottles of cheap South African pinotage and found my bus stop.  After boarding the bus, it took me about 45 minutes to realize that I was going in the wrong direction, as it's only a 15-minute ride from the city center to Ronan's place.  I had to get off the bus (by this time, it was pouring rain) and carry my bags across and down the street to the bus stop going in the right direction, then ride 45 minutes back plus the 15 minutes I should have taken in the first place.  Exhausted, frustrated, and soaking wet, I finally arrived back at Ronan's.

It just so happened that Ronan was hosting two other couchsurfers at the same time - Peggy from Roswell, New Mexico, and her 18 year-old son, Alex.  They were making a cross-European trip and their last stop was in Ireland.  After I got changed and dried off, Peggy and Alex and I shared travel stories while Ronan and his boyfriend, Ned, cooked us a delicious dinner.  Ned called it "The Thing", as he basically just invented it on the spot.  It was a sort of casserole with mashed potatoes as a base, and chicken, lamb, and vegetables in a tomato sauce on top.  After Peggy and Alex went to bed, Ronan, Ned and I stayed up into the wee hours of the night, sharing wine and swapping stories.  Ronan told me a great deal about Irish history that I didn't previously know, and we talked extensively about American politics as well.  I always find it striking how much foreigners know about American current affairs and history, while Americans know virtually nothing about foreign countries.

Exhausted from a long day of wandering Dublin and a long night of food, wine, and conversation, I headed to bed.  The next day I would be leaving for Galway for three days... on the road again!

The Pub Crawl: A Downward Spiral into Temple Bar

For my first night in Dublin, it was decided that the best way to cap off the evening was a proper rowdy pub crawl through Temple Bar, the area where youngsters from all over the globe flock to for booze, music, and craic.

Jenny had plans for the evening, so Rick and I ventured out on our own.  At the first bar, we met Robbie, our tour guide, who promised not to leave us behind, but neither to take care of us if we got too drunk to take care of ourselves.  We got a couchsurfing discount, so ended up paying €8 each for cover, which included one free beer at the first bar and drink specials for the rest of the night.  We ended up paying about €3.50 per beer at each place, and often got a free shot as part of the deal.  I found that one beer at each of the five bars we visited were more than enough to warrant a taxi ride home and a nice hearty hangover the next morning.

The best thing about a pub crawl is that you'll meet other travelers from all over the world.  As soon as we got to the first bar, the Workman's Club (sorry, but that'll be the only pub whose name I can recall), we met Steve (not his real name, but an Anglicized version I came up with) and Louis from Paris, Julia and Ashley from Seattle, and Mick from Dublin (actually, Mick is one of my couchsurfing hosts and had planned to meet us anyway).  We all got along instantly, except maybe for the two American girls who ended up living up to the "obnoxious American" stereotype to a tee.  But Rick, Steve, Louis, Mick and I were a team, and we had a blast!

The Irish way to go out drinking with friends is to participate in the "rounds" system.  One person will buy drinks for all of his friends, and then when it's time for the next round, someone else will buy, until everyone's had a turn.  Of course, you can imagine how fun (and expensive) this gets, the more friends you have in your group!  Somehow, I managed to only spend €5 for the entire evening, besides cover charge, and considering that beers were €3.50 a pop and I was buying 5 at a time, I have a nagging guilty feeling that someone got ripped off.  All in all, though, it was an excellent time with some great new friends.  We got to hear some live "trad" music, meet people from many different countries, and pose for some hilarious pictures (coming soon).

Arrival in Dublin

For my first two nights in Dublin, I was couchsurfing with a guy named Ronan.  Before I left Birmingham, he sent me detailed directions to his house, which I meticulously copied into my journal for future reference.  In hindsight, this is the only clever thing I've ever done in my life.  Reason: streets in Dublin are not very clearly marked, and by that I mean that they are not marked at all.  If they are marked, the sign is intentionally placed behind a bush or flipped the wrong way around in what is obviously a joke on the throngs of tourists that get lost there every day.  When you ride the bus, you have to intuitively guess which stop to get off at, or else you can ask the driver, in which case he might remember to tell you.  Luckily, my driver remembered, and three elderly gentlemen carrying canes and sporting bowler's caps (no, they were not James Joyce) escorted me from the bus stop to my destination, simply because Dubliners are the nicest, most helpful people on the planet.  (No sarcasm here, my friends.... the friendliness of the Irish is unparalleled!)

When I arrived at Ronan's house, despite being tired, smelly, sweaty, frazzled, and confused, I sat and talked to my host for an hour or so in his kitchen while he poured tea and I chugged water like I was trying to drown myself.  He was a great guy, and told me lots of interesting points of Irish trivia (people in Dublin hate Bono as much as I do) and we had a lot of good laughs.  I was originally set up to sleep on the couch in the living room, but his roommate happened to be out of town for the week, so I got my own room with my own bed and sink!  Fabulous.  After having a chat and the grand tour, it was time for a shower and then leaving to meet with friends.

I met Jenny and Rick at the Spire in the city center.  They had been in Dublin for several days already, and were very helpful in explaining just how things worked in the city.  The Spire, at 700 feet tall, is an excellent meeting-place, and you'll often see tour groups with matching t-shirts gathering there.  So, what was the first thing I did in Dublin with my new friends?  To the pub, of course!  We picked one at random (there are so many, it would be impossible to make an informed decision) and I had my first real Irish Guinness along with some chicken and veggie soup, served with homemade brown bread and butter.  Soup, by the way, is a budget traveler's dream.  At €5 for a very large bowl of homemade soup and a giant basket of hearty brown bread, soup is more filling and half the price of pretty much anything else on the menu.  I have actually had soup every single day that I've been here, at every meal, and I'm addicted.

After some great craic (pronounced "crack", it's a general term for having a good time), we headed back to Jenny and Rick's guesthouse to relax before my first big night out in Dublin.... but that's another story entirely.

Goodbye, Birmingham! Hello, Dublin!

I'll try to make this brief.

The flight from Birmingham to Chicago was a breeze, but the oppressive heat and humidity in Chicago was pretty much a day-ruiner.  Luckily, I didn't have my giant suitcase with me, as it was checked through to Dublin, but I did have my heavy backpack, full of laptop and books, as well as my purse, which somehow had also been packed full of books.  I made plans to meet up with Cindy from my Cambridge program, who lives in Chicago, but we soon realized that it's very difficult to organize a meeting when one of us doesn't have a phone (guess which one).  How did people live life before smartphones?  (a.k.a Technology Is Making Us Stupid)  Anyway, we finally found each other, and she very kindly bought me a gelato (a welcome cold treat in the middle of a very hot day) while I let my sweat dry and tried not to smell too bad.

When I finally made it back to the airport for my evening flight, I got lost in the maze that is O'Hare and made it to the terminal just a few minutes before boarding.  Unfortunately, my good timing was a waste, as we waited on the tarmac for a full two hours before takeoff, due to a technological malfunction in Dublin.  Of course, this was doubly disappointing for me, as I immediately fell asleep on the plane and when I awoke two hours later to see that we had "landed", my seatmate apologetically informed me that we hadn't even taken off yet. Luckily, the pilot was talented enough to shave a full hour off our flying time, so I only made it to Dublin about an hour late.

TSA in Dublin was surprisingly lax.  I walked through customs with my bags without seeing a single person of authority, and my passport check was a simple question:  "How long will you be in Ireland?"  "Eleven days." "Okay."  And all of a sudden I found myself outside, enjoying the fresh air of a surprisingly sunny day in Dublin.  I bought a phone card and a bus ticket, and 45 minutes later, I was standing in the middle of O'Connell Street in Dublin's city center, ready for my next adventure.

What to Pack for 2 Months Abroad (When you have to look fancy sometimes)

Normally I prefer to pack light. The last time I was in Europe, backpacking for nearly 3 months, I fit everything I needed in a hiker's backpack, with room to spare. This time, however, I can't look like a dirty hippie everywhere I go, so I had to bring along a suitcase. Here's what I packed:

• 6 dresses (2 semi-formal, 2 nice-casual, and 2 sundresses)
• 2 pairs of high heels
• 2 pairs of jeans (1 pair worn on the plane, and 1 pair crops packed)
• 1 pair khakis
• 2 pairs cute flats
• 1 pair Tevas (sneakers worn on the plane)
• 5 pairs socks
• 1 pair yoga pants
• 5 t-shirts
• roughly 15 tops (I didn't count, I just threw in tops I like to wear)
• 5 cardigans (1 bulky, 2 short-sleeved)
• 2 pairs PJ pants
• 3 bras (1 worn on plane)
• 10-15 pairs underwear (again, didn't count them)
• 1 extra-large towel
• various bathroom stuff (everything I use on a daily basis to get ready, except for hair dryer and flat iron, which will be purchased in England)
• 3 boxes Kraft mac & cheese (as a gift... they were requested, so... yeah)
• 1 folding umbrella
• 3 scarves / pashmina

Carryon luggage:

• laptop (including charger cord)
• 4 books (1 guidebook and 3 reading books)
• journal
• camera (including battery charger)
• cell phone (including charger)

Purse: 

• iPod (including charger and earbuds)
• passport / ID / money
• smaller journal / pen
• sunglasses
• small bag of TSA-approved cosmetics

It seems like a lot, but my suitcase comes in at 48 pounds even, just under the 50-lb weight limit imposed by Irish Ferries.  My backpack (carryon) is virtually empty, as is my purse.  I packed clothes for warm and cool weather, with many options for layering.  My purse is a Kavu Rope Bag, perfect for use as a day bag while I'm out, and my backpack is a laptop case, which I can use for my schoolbooks while at Cambridge.

I'll make a separate post at the end of my trip detailing what I actually used, and what could have been left at home.  I know I probably packed too much, but if it's under the weight limit, I figure it's better to have too much than too little!

Hosteling: A How-To Guide

Even though I'm diving head-first into my first Couchsurfing experience this summer, I will probably end up staying in hostels for at least two or three nights. Whenever I travel solo, this is usually my favorite form of accommodation, and even if I was offered a room in a 5-star hotel for the same price, I'd pick the hostel nine times out of ten. I'd like to think I have enough experience hosteling to create a fairly basic how-to guide for those that feel overwhelmed (or even scared) by the idea of staying in hostels while traveling abroad. I have stayed in sixteen hostels in ten cities in five countries (the list: Edinburgh- 2 hostels, Glasgow, Paris- 2 hostels, Amsterdam- 2 hostels, Munich, Florence, Rome, Nice, Barcelona- 2 hostels, and Madrid- 3 hostels), and I think by now I have a pretty good idea of what makes a "good" hostel and a VERY good idea of what makes a "bad" hostel.

1. Location, location, location
This should be fairly obvious, but it is the biggest factor that could make or break your hostel experience. When selecting a hostel, don't simply be satisfied to find a place to sleep anywhere in the particular city you want to visit (some cities, like Amsterdam, are tiny, and some, like Madrid, are enormous!) so make sure to place the hostel on a map and compare its location to the various sites you will be visiting. Google maps makes this very easy, using their "search nearby" feature. If there are lots of pubs and clubs on the same block, you'll likely not get any sleep due to loud music and drunken dorm-mates stumbling in at 4am. However, if you pick something too rural, you'll end up spending more than you bargained on public transportation. Pick a place that is central, but not too central. Look for nearby bus or underground lines, grocery stores (more on this later), ATMs, and police stations or outposts.

2. Freebies
Find out what's included in the price of a bed. Everyone will have their own idea of a must-have freebie, but my list is: wi-fi or internet cafe, breakfast, towels, luggage storage, and bed linens. Yes, you'd be surprised at how many hostels will offer you a bare mattress and make you pay to rent sheets! Free internet used to be a big perk, but nowadays it's nearly standard in Western Europe, especially in big cities. If you're staying in Paris or London and you don't get free wi-fi, you're getting ripped off. Free breakfast is usually the same wherever you go: bread with jam, and either coffee or hot chocolate. This is a big deal when you're on a budget, and I'm not ashamed to say I've stashed an extra bagel or two in my daypack for lunch later on! If you have a big breakfast, you can usually skip lunch and have cheap street food for dinner. Hostelers are not normally the type to eat at restaurants every day, after all.

3. The "Vibe"
This is something very personal, and only you can decide whether the hostel will have the right atmosphere for you. If you're booking in advance, you can gather this information from the reviews (at a third-party booking website), the hostel's own website, and picture galleries. If the place looks boring, it probably is boring, and not worth a stay. My favorite hostels have graffiti and murals on the walls, lending libraries, on-site pubs, and lots of planned group activities. If you're in a city already and need a place to stay on a later date, ask around. When you meet other travelers, ask where they're staying and whether they like it or not. Hostels will give you a tour of the facilities if you ask, so ask before you book!

Okay, you've booked your room, arrived at your destination, and checked into your hostel... now what?
This is the fun part, and the part I wish I knew on my first night. As soon as you check in, you're probably going to be very tired and very smelly. Before you hit the town, you'll want to settle in a bit, even if you're only staying for a night. Find your room and locate your bed. Most hostels have dorm-style rooms with bunk beds, and sometimes these beds are assigned, so make sure you're not taking someone else's spot. If there is someone else in the room when you arrive, introduce yourself! Some of the best friends I have made were people that stayed in my hostel dorm with me, and if you're traveling alone, this is imperative. If you've arrived in the afternoon, this is the best time to take a shower, as there is almost always a line (and cold water) in the mornings when everyone is just waking up. This might sound silly, but it happens... if you can't figure out how to operate the shower, don't be embarrassed to ask! At my first hostel in Paris, you had to hold a button on the floor down with your toe to keep the water running, and it took me nearly 20 minutes of standing around, naked and confused, to figure this out. When you're all cleaned up, go and explore the hostel before you head out. You'll want to know where the toilets, kitchen, and common areas are. Whenever you see someone, always introduce yourself... many of the other guests will be traveling solo, even if they are sitting with other people, and will be glad you took the first step. When you've got your bearings, you are ready to head out! Ask the staff at reception if you have any questions, no matter how silly they may be.

Things to Know About Your Hostel:
1. Is there a curfew or lockout? Some hostels let you come and go as you please, but others lock the front door after a certain hour, and you might get locked out. Others have a "lockout" period so that they can clean the rooms, where you must be out of your room between certain hours during the day. During this time, you may not have access to your bag or to showers, so make sure to ask!
2. Are there lockers? I never had issues with security in hostels, but I may have just been lucky. If you leave your bag in your room, anyone who stays there can access your things while you're out for the day. Ask reception if there are bag lockers or a locked luggage room. If not, invest in a small padlock for your suitcase or pack and keep it locked at all times. Never leave your money, passport, or other valuables in your room when you're not there.
3. Are there any planned activities? Many hostels will offer free walking tours or pub crawls. Take advantage of these, as you will meet other guests, make friends, and learn lots about your host city! Some hostels have themed nights so that guests can get to know each other. My favorite was in a hostel in Edinburgh - the pub downstairs had "crazy hat night" on my first night there. I didn't have a hat, but I didn't think it was a big deal, so I went anyway. It WAS a big deal! Everyone there had on a funny hat of some sort, and as silly as it sounds, it was a great icebreaker. A French guy, Olivier, made a hat for me out of newspaper, and I ended up making some great new friends that night.
4. What are the hours for the kitchen? The hostel kitchen is your new best friend, especially if you're staying for more than a couple of nights. It's much cheaper to get your food from the corner grocery and cook for yourself than it is to eat out for every meal, and some of the best times I've had in hostels were spent in the kitchen, making group meals and eating together. In Paris at the Woodstock Hostel, my group of friends (all of whom I had met at the hostel) would go to the bakery and the grocery every day, and everyone had to bring one baguette, something to put on it (cheese, tomatoes, tuna, etc), and one bottle of wine. Every evening, we set all our loot in the center of the table and shared the lot of it. Some of the best nights of my life!

The whole point of staying in hostels is to meet people from all over the world and make new friends. You can't get that in a hotel, no matter what you pay for it. Sometimes you'll be "roughing it" a little bit (no air conditioning and ice-cold showers in Rome at the height of summer is no fun at all) but the experiences and the stories you'll get out of it make travel so rewarding.

Tentative Itinerary for Ireland

38 days and counting!

Okay, so thanks to the magic of couchsurfing.com, I am officially staying in Ireland totally for free! Here's a breakdown by date of where I'll be and what I'll be doing:

June 29: Arrive in Dublin. I'm staying with Ronan and his two housemates near Dublin city center for two nights while I do all my initial touristy things, and have arranged to meet up with several others who have offered to show me around. This is the fun part: meeting people and seeing Ireland with the locals!

July 1: Leave Dublin for Cork to see Blarney Castle (and the Blarney Stone, obviously). I'm going with Jenny, another Cambridge program participant, and her friend. We've given ourselves two full days to travel back and forth, with a full day to sightsee. Apparently, hitchhiking is legal and quite common in the more rural areas of Ireland, so we're going to give it a go once we get outside of Cork. I'm currently reading Tom Robbins' Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, which is about a girl with a natural talent for hitchhiking, so it's pretty appealing to me, even more so that it's illegal and generally unsafe in the States. You only live once, right? If I get sliced up by a traveling serial killer, at least I'll be out in the gorgeous green hills of Ireland when I die. We are currently looking for a Couchsurfing host in Cork, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find one.

July 3: Back in Dublin, and this is the only night I don't have a host yet. I'll either extend my stay with one of my two other hosts, or I'll find someone who can put me up for a night. There are SO MANY couchsurfers in Dublin, it should be a breeze!

July 4: Staying with Mick for the rest of my time in Dublin. He's promised to do something special to help me celebrate the 4th of July, even though fireworks are probably out of the question. I'll be fine with a hot dog and a Budweiser, and will probably run into some of the many American backpackers in the city for a proper holiday!

July 7: Doing a sail-rail combo to get me from Dublin to Cambridge. It'll be an all-day journey, but a scenic and worthwhile one. Several other Cambridge students will be joining Jenny and me on the 6th, and we're traveling as a group out of Ireland. We'll take a ferry from Dublin to Holyhead, Wales, and from there take a train (or several) to get to Cambridge. The ferry takes about two hours, and the train about 6, so we'll catch some great scenery along the way and have time to chat and get to know each other before we arrive at the University. If we time everything just right, we'll arrive in Cambridge that night just in time to see the Olympic Torch passing through. This means extra tourists and crowded buses, but it's worth it for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We can't check in to Caius until after noon on the 8th, so we'll likely split the cost of a B&B or just find a hostel in the area. Pointless to try and couchsurf when you're a group of nine people.

July 8: Arrive at Gonville and Caius, already with tons of travel stories and new friends to start the semester out with a bang!

Staying with local hosts along the way will guarantee that I have Internet access to write blog posts, so expect frequent updates from Ireland. It will be rather spotty when I get to England, but I will do my best to keep on top of my updates.

Summer in Cambridge

As of this writing, there are 57 days left until I grab my backpack and set out on yet another adventure. This time it'll be six weeks in England, studying at Cambridge University, preceded by a week or so in Dublin and interspersed with a few weekends of leisure travel in and around England, with a possible trip to Paris or Prague.

I've always wanted to do a semester abroad, and now in my senior year of college I'm finally making it happen. You can't do much better than Cambridge, the number one university in the world, especially for an English Literature major. Among Cambridge's literary alumni are John Milton, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, and A.A. Milne, to name but a few. I'll be staying at Gonville and Caius College, founded in 1348, and will have the opportunity to experience Cambridge student life while studying Shakespeare, J.M. Barrie, Lewis Carroll, and Phillip Pullman. I'll travel to London to see the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, to Stratford to see two Shakespeare plays in performance, and to Grantchester to have tea at the Orchard, where Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group spent their summers. I can't imagine a more perfect summer for an English student!

Right now I'm in the planning phase: making packing lists, sorting out airfare and rail tickets, and soaking up as much information about Cambridge as possible. It's the end of Spring Semester now at UAB, and my enthusiasm for the coming summer has become quite a distraction from the paper-writing and studying that should be consuming my time these days.

Right now, my travel plans are as follows: I fly from Birmingham, AL to Chicago, IL on June 28th for a long layover with an old friend before setting off for Dublin. I arrive in Dublin early the next morning, and will be there until July 6th or 7th. As a new "Joycean", I'm disappointed to be missing the great Bloomsday celebration, but I'll make up for it by exploring Sandymount Strand, the James Joyce Museum, and taking the Leopold Bloom walking tour through Dublin. I'll also visit the Guinness Brewery, the Jameson Distillery, and Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. From Dublin, I'll take a ferry and a train straight to Cambridge, and from there, my plans will probably be made on a day-by-day basis. I hope to explore England, as I've never really been out of London before and I'd love to see the English countryside. I also hope to travel to Europe, possibly to re-visit Paris (it's close and familiar) or explore Prague (I've wanted to go there for ages), or possibly somewhere else.

I'll try to update as much as possible, with pictures and stories, or you can keep up with me via Facebook. If you'd like my mobile number, e-mail or inbox me and I'll be glad to hear from you! I will post sporadically as my plans solidify, until June 29 when I arrive in Dublin. I'd love to be able to bring gifts back for everyone, but as my funds are extremely limited, I'll have to settle for postcards. If you'd like some real mail this summer, e-mail me your address and I'll be sure to send you something!