Wonder Where I'm Wandering

I'm not the biggest fan of the holidays, but I am all about any excuse to take a break from hectic schedules. This past semester has tested my time management skills more than ever before. Even though I'm not sitting in classes making to-do lists and weekly calendars, I still find myself struggling to make time for friends and family around the country.

Some of my Florida Family

This holiday break I will be spending the first few days with my Florida family.

Junior & Bailey - some more of my Florida family :)

Like many children of divorce with new ideas of 'family', I'm lucky enough to celebrate multiple Christmas'. After sunshine & shopping in Florida, it's back to Vermont to squeeze in some holiday hours at work in order to justify the next phase of my Winter break...

Dipping chocolate fruit up until Christmas Eve Day

After spending some quality time with my coworkers at EA, I will attempt to drive my lemon down to Connecticut on Christmas Eve. Hopefully the noises coming from Brandi's engine are nothing more than the ghost of roadtrips past, and maybe - just maybe - she'll get a new belt for Christmas! I'll squeeze in as many folks as I can see in the five days I will be in Connecticut, and then hop a train to New York City from the 29th-1st, to see Phish's NYE run at MSG!

NYE 2011 @ MSG :)

Absolutely stoked to be working the Waterwheel Foundation table at one of the shows, and boogieing down with some phine pholks on the 30th and 31st! Can't wait to dance the night away with H-jams & Shmeally!

Oh but it doesn't end there. After another epic NYE in NYC at MSG (gotta love acronyms), Becka, Andrew & I will be switching coasts for a few days to check out the San Francisco Bay area. Since we're all thinking about moving there after graduation (Cinco De Mayo!) we figured what a great excuse to go out for a visit.

No matter where you are or what you are celebrating this holiday season, it's important to not get wrapped up in family drama and stress. You may not be able to seek refuge across the country with a family-free vacay, but try to schedule in some 'you-time' this winter break. 

Cheers!

Occupation Relations

My last blog post was in Ireland, so it's been a while since I've stepped up to my digital soapbox. There's been plenty to write rant about, but I think life after Dublin left me lacking the motivation to share. I was actually going to retire this blog as only my semester abroad memoirs, but my mind changed today when I saw a video of police brutality at an occupy protest at Berkeley in California. I don't understand why mainstream media isn't covering this, but where CNN and FOX drop the ball, it's our responsibility to pick it up. People need to see what is actually happening and how police forces are reacting. It's absolutely disgusting but check it out for yourselves.

I don't completely grasp the concept of occupy, which is why I'm not camped out in City Hall Park, but one thing that is clear to me is police brutality. These people are students and professors. The job of a police officer is to protect and serve and this video doesn't exactly showcase either of those responsibilities. Who are the protecting and serving? Clearly not the 99%.

Occupy Burlington faced a very serious situation today when a man died in City Hall Park from a self-inflicted gun shot wound. Obviously this will effect the occupy efforts as town officials will have to ask questions and make decisions that could interfere with the movement. 


Read the latest article from the Burlington Free Press here.

I believe in what the Occupy movement stands for, but I can't help be a little turned off when I see videos of police beating student protesters across the country and a suicide in my city's park.

Fires and mountains and wine, oh my

My lovely sister Victoria spent her April break with me in Ireland. I wanted her to see more than Dublin so we took off to Killarney on Thursday right after my last class of the week. The class happened to take place in the Davy Byrne's pub off Grafton street. I'm really going to miss having class in pubs... Anyways, we caught the 6 hour bus ride right after class and made it to Neptune's Hostel in Killarney around 10:30. Neptune's was a legit place for her first hosteling adventure and it was bustling for the Easter holiday. We had some very interesting chats with some folks at a local pub over some trad music and then called it an early night.

Killarney at night

The next day was Good Friday, which in Ireland means everything is closed unless it relates to the tourism industry. Thankfully, we're tourists so we were only effected by the closed pubs, which is fine since Vikki isn't really of legal drinking age in Ireland (not that it would matter in Co. Kerry). We explored the Dingle peninsula via bus with a very entertaining tour guide. I've never taken a day tour before and although I did expect to be able to spend more time at the stops, it was an efficient way to experience the peninsula in one day. We had about six fifteen minute 'photo-op stops' along the coastline.

Cause why open your eyes?

Vikki and I tried to take a decent picture together at each stop to send to all our loving family members, but naturally with the wind and the squinting sunlight, it was a struggle. In this particular picture, I was apparently distracted by my charming surroundings and the blinding sunlight. The experience was complete with a cover of "Thousands are sailing" by The Pogues performed by our talented bus driver. Hopefully my sister sends me the video we took of him actually singing it so I can share his glory with the blogging world. Besides the live entertainment, my favorite part of the tour was our short stop in Dingle. It wasn't nearly long enough, but we managed to speed shop our way through the town, finding the perfect gifts in the most adorable shops.

Vikki at the Craic House, Dingle

After pretty much emptying both of our bank accounts on gifts, we returned to our hostel for a deliciously cheap frozen pizza dinner. Then we adventured into the Killarney National Park to find a good climbing tree. It was getting dark pretty quickly so after a quick hoop sesh in the woods we went back to Neptune's to attempt to pack all of our newly acquired belongings into our backpacks. This involved wearing all of the clothes we brought for the weekend and stuffing our bags full of random trinkets. We bussed it back to Dublin on Saturday morning, took an extended nap upon returning and indulged in some homemade lasagna :)

 Sunday was my friend Ciara's birthday so we headed to the Wicklow mountains for a short, celebratory camping excursion. Every time I get outside of Dublin I'm reminded of how much I love Ireland. It's not necessarily that I don't love Dublin, but there's something about the countryside that gets me. Concrete's not really my thing. Since my friend's are scout leaders one of the sites was complete with a mini ropes course and dozens of children running around... It was a way more legit set-up than any of the boy scout camping trips I went on when I was younger (I wasn't really into the whole girl scout scene). They really do 'Play Harder' as their motto suggested. Anyways, I shimmied across the monkey bridge, flew down the zip line and escaped the scouts by retreating back to Ciara's camp site. That's where things started to get a little dodgy.

It's not a proper camping trip without a fire, and it's not a proper fire without me burning myself. The pyro in me can never stop messing around with the sticks and the flames, even (especially) after a few drinks. But wait, it get's even better. After scorching my finger on a flaming log it was suggested I treat it with some burn-ease from the first aid kit.

I forgot to mention that our little fire happened to be located about 4 feet from a very steep drop off and silly me overlooked this minor detail. Down the mountain I went, how far exactly I'm not sure. The only proof I have that this happened is a nasty burn on my finger and a giant bruise on my leg...oh yeah and this picture taken by my caring sister as Ciara was climbing down to rescue me. We won't mentioned what happened after this, but let's just say I was conquered by fire, mountains and of course, we can't forget the wine.

Wicklow: 1, Swan: 0.

No worries, Wicklow. I forgive you. The wine on the other hand... Hopefully it was entertaining to everyone there. I know I had a good laugh the next day.

All in all, I had an amazing time visiting with my sister. I was able to show her Dublin, Co. Kerry, and even her first camping trip. The semester's almost coming to an end and I leave in ten days. I'm not sure how I feel about it, one part wants to start over and the other is ready to get back to my pup. As Natalie Imbruglia would say, I'm torn.

Her life was saved by rock & roll

If you've ever been to Ireland, or more specifically an American in Ireland, then you are very familiar with the song 'Galway Girl'. In case you've been living under a rock in western Ireland (there's plenty to choose from) it's a catchy little ditty that is sang by Gerard Butler in the movie P.S. I Love You. Well, we went to western Ireland last weekend and stayed one night in Doolin and one night in Galway. I didn't hear Galway Girl in any legitimate pubs, however we sang the chorus every time anyone within earshot said Galway 'aye yay aye yay ayee!' - which amounted to be approximately once every 6 minutes.

The Cliffs of Mohor

Once again, the weather was on our side, which if you know anything about the climate in Ireland - damp is an understatement. Thankfully it's been a very sunny March and April is working out to be just as bright :)

Anyways, it was sunny and a tooch windy at The Burren National Park and The Cliffs of Mohor. We were lucky enough to not only get to see it from this perspective, but we also took a ferry cruise on our way home from the Aran Islands and was able to look up at the massive formations. Both views were excellent and we got to see some pretty epic cliffs. Backtracking, we stayed in a little town called Doolin on Friday night. Caught some spectacular landscape, ate some tasty pub food, watched some Champlainers jam out with some trad musicians (and eventually take over the scene) and  had a model United Nations meeting late night on the beach...

Tomb at The Burren

Naturally, I brought my hula hoop and rocked it all over the west. I've taught some of the guys in the program how to hoop and some of em are getting pretty good. At The Burren, while hooping on the Karst (really old crazy looking limestone!) I met some little boys who ran up to me and asked to try out my hoop. Look at me making friends with the local children. I didn't even need to bribe them with candy, the hula hoop was all it took....

Mad rocks. Mad skills.

The trips that Champlain organizes for us are pretty sweet and exploring the west of Ireland wasn't an exception. I loved the pub in Doolin. It was hilarious to see Champlain kids littered all over this small town pub and was even more epic when the entire pub was croonin' to "Wagon Wheel" (recurring theme of this study abroad experience?) along with Andy on the guitar, Kyle on the harmonica and Hannah singing along. I thought I was getting an overdose of "Wagon Wheel" in Burlington but it seems to have followed me here too.  Good times to say the very least. Lots of fond memories in Doolin, even on Friday post-pub when a bunch of us decided to adventure to the beach for a UN meeting. The beach by the way was completely covered in uneven tricky and trippy rocks that made it extremely difficult to navigate after a few pints and a couple Baby Guinness' (Shots of Kahlua and Baileys).

rock me mama like a [west] bound train :)

Saturday we took a ferry to the Aran islands and spent to day biking around the maze of stone walls. There was mad rocks. 

I'm researching Karst and The Burren for my term project in Enviro-earth science, so I happen to know that the Aran islands used to be connected to the mainland thousands of years ago by even more loads of Karst. The people who live on the island had to dig up the limestone in order to free up some land for farming and grazing so they had no choice but to compile the rocks into 
hundreds of intricate stone walls that parade all over the tiny island. Since we were incredibly mobile on these rented bikes we were able to see sights all over like the shipwreck, a burial ground from the 10th century, a burial ground from the 6th century, climb on some castle ruins, some church ruins, get spun and swung on a sick playground, and frolic in some grassy knolls. 

Sean enjoying the green scene

We left the Aran islands via ferry that brought us under the Cliffs of Mohor so we could gaze up at these massive rocks. We may have been exhausted and it may have been a tad windy on the open sea, but seeing these cliffs from the bottom up was a once in a lifetime kinda thing so I didn't waste anytime inside the cabin of the boat. The bus ride to Galway was sleepy. I woke up well rested and ready to rage in Galway (aye yay aye yay aye!) I ate an indulgent dinner of seafood chowder and mussels drowned in a white wine butter sauce...nom nom nom. After dinner we hit some lame pubs. Seriously questionable locations with even more questionable music taste, but the cocktails were cheap and the craic was mighty. I ended my night in Galway at The Kings Head to a cover band rocking out to some Kings of Leon and Radiohead which was vastly superior to the other venues I was unfortunate enough to spend my euros at.

We woke up in Galway and had a few hours to explore before heading back to Dublin. Of course I took this opportunity to pop off some champagne and toast to hula hoops, seafood, breathtaking landscapes and the luck of the Irish. 


I spent the rest of my morning walking around Galway with some of the guys, hula hooping in exchange for strange and awkward looks from the locals. We boarded the bus back to Dublin and said goodbye to the picturesque Ireland I dreamed about when I was back in the states. 




 It was some good craic, and best of all it was all approved by Jesus.

Stay up late, shoot the moon

Es el combinacion perfecto.

What a birthday. I didn't think it was possible to top last years birthday debauchery, but somehow the mischief was managed. Special thanks for the birthday gift funding that made it all possible ;) and of course everyone in Barcelona and Dublin who helped me celebrate my 21st.  

Basically I'm obsessed with Barcelona. It was an incredible place; astounding architecture, fun people, good food... quite stimulating on so many levels. I couldn't help but imagine myself living there on some kind of perpetual vacation. We beached it everyday, including a Sunday morning sunrise session with my trusty hula hoop.

The weather was on our side too and it was sunny and warm all weekend. I also managed to jump into the ocean for a hot minute...even though it may have been at 8am and freezing. We ate some tasty tapas and some scrumptious paella too, but mostly we drank lots of champagne. Mas cava con mis amigos. 

Buenos dias Barcelona

What else could a birthday girl ask for? Barcelona was the perfect place to celebrate a 21st birthday. We hiked up to Park Guel and caught an amazing view of the city and then went back to the beach to sip some sangria. The epitome of relaxation. Barcelona was incredibly good to us and the Sunday afternoon flight back to Dublin came too soon. But as always, I was delighted to get home and crawl into my bed. Plus, I had to get at least a little rest in before celebrating my actual birthday on Monday. 


I woke up a little late for school on Monday but there was no way I was rushing anywhere. Eventually I made my way to campus and sat through 2/3 of my Monday classes. That's pretty good compared to previous birthdays when I usually make my only obligation to enjoy and celebrate my life. Anyways, I counted down the minutes until I could grab margaritas and nachos with my roommate and purchased a bottle of Maker's Mark on my way home from school.

Margs at From Mexico to Rome in Temple Bar.

So we celebrated. Hard. Somehow I got a hold of a microphone (uh oh) and butchered a drunken version of 'Wagon Wheel' at Shebeen Chic (aka The Irish counterpart of the Radiobean in Burlington) with Vaughan & St. Bridget, a sweet folk band. Good times, good people, good music.  After that, we headed to the Temple Bar area for some late night tequila shots and some more sloppy renditions of classic songs by The Band.  That's all I got so far. Definitely had a fabulous and [partially] memorable 21st birthday.

Oh and I almost forgot about my birthday cake! Lora found an AMAZING birthday cake shaped like a champagne bottle :) Epic, delicious and remarkably appropriate. I'll leave ya to imagine the almondy ice-creamy goodness while enjoying this Ryan Montbleau song - Only 50 days til Strangecreek!

Have love will travel

Here we go again! I'm off to Barcelona on Thursday to commence the 21st Birthday celebrations. I'm also almost completely broke. I knew this time would come at some point, but due to unforeseen medical issues, unpredictable accidents with expensive toys like macbooks and ipods, and an addiction to airfare and sushi - it has come sooner than expected. I know. Some of you may be thinking, "hmm and you're going to Barcelona for the weekend?" Well yeah, it's my TWENTY-FIRST birthday folks, and may I remind the skeptics that Barcelona is a much more cost effective way to celebrate an epic birthday than Dublin (or so I hear). Thankfully I am staying with a good friend who is studying in Barcelona, who happened to be present for the madness of my 20th birthday in Montreal. 

Blame Canada for this birthday

Seriously, that party was crazy and I want nothing more than for all of my glorious friends who attended those festivities to be present with me for my 21st. It really won't be the same without y'all and honestly, I don't want it to be. As was evident last April, usually I treat my birthday as the biggest holiday of the year and the shindig lasts for about a week (sometimes more). But this year I don't really feel like going all out without everyone. All I really have planned so far is a maybe a tour of the Jameson Factory with a proper whiskey tasting to follow and hopefully a trad band playing an Irish rendition of  "Wagon Wheel". Even I can't believe how much I miss hearing that song live. We'll see though, a weekend in Barcelona could change all that ;)

Sunset on our roof

 With all this travel goin' on, it's worked out so that the fine city of Dublin isn't getting much spotlight here. I thought I might throw in some pictures from my Irish adventures for a change. Above is our view from the rooftop of our apartment building. Since we live in a hotel of sorts, finding the roof wasn't too hard. Of course after Sean and I discovered it, we couldn't keep our mouth shut and started showing everyone. Last Friday we went ceili dancing for our music class. Since I hurt my foot over break and couldn't dance, I had no choice but to post up at the bar with a Guinness and some good company.

Music class

Life's pretty good right now. 

I may be broke and slightly injured but I'm also a world traveler and pretty damn happy. 

Strugglin' in Berlin

I guess all the wandering and drifting through Bohemia and late night gallivanting took a toll on my feet. The right foot the be exact. After reaching Berlin by bus and collapsing on my hostel bed, my friend (who was not out until the ungodly hours of morning) wanted to explore Berlin. Normally I would have passed on that adventure and napped until it was time to see the stars & moon again, but since we had less time in Berlin than the other cities I sucked it up and stumbled out of the hostel. Unfortunately the stumbling this time wasn't due to indulgent matters, but to a foot injury I procured from strutting around the previous old cities. At first, cobblestones seemed so quaint and wholesome. Not the case anymore. Thankfully I managed to limp into an orthopedic pharmacy right near the hostel and impulsively purchased the first insoles I could get the German speaking salesman to give me. At the time, these insoles saved my tourist life. Although it still hurt to walk around, it wasn't the struggle it had been before. 

After fulfilling an intense sushi craving that had been building up for days, we set out to find the remains of the Berlin Wall. Thankfully, our hostel was quite near the remnants of the structure so there wasn't too much of a struggle.  I have to admit, seeing the wall on Friday was a bit underwhelming. Maybe this was because we were incredibly under-prepared (and under-dressed) for the weather in Berlin. Friday was cold, wet and windy. So after walking the first half of the Berlin Wall, we ditched out and I went for my nap!


The Berlin hostel we stayed in was definitely my favorite of all the accommodations. It was the one I chose so of course it was incredibly modern and was fully equipped with a bar and very friendly staff. There was also LOTS of travelers there. It was quite different from the first two, low-key smaller places. 


After napping we started getting ready for a rowdy night out in Berlin. This time my friend decided to join us out on the town. So Laura, Mina, Militza and I began our night at the Kleopatra hookah bar and then changed venue to an underground club. The club was recommended to us by the guy at reception in the hostel. So we took the metro into what appeared to be the ghetto, wandered around with a map for a few minutes until we found what looked like the projects. We were a little hesitant at first, but after seeing a bunch of people getting out of taxi's already partaking in late night antics, we thought we should check it out. Good choice, girls. We entered a sweet underground club that was dimly lit and pumping bass around 2am and blinked back into daylight around 6:30. 

So happy she almost cried.

Around that time we realized that Dunkin Donuts should be opening soon. Laura is a Dunkin enthusiast so we made a quick pit stop at the shop before heading back to the hostel. Unfortunately, it was closed then but it didn't stop us from taking a quick nap and heading to DD first thing, around noon.

Neptune Statue in Alexander Platz

Our friend Jesse decided to stop in Berlin for Saturday night on his way to Amsterdam. So we met up and walked around the city, exploring Alexander Platz, The Berlin Aquarium and the other end of the Berlin Wall. 

Pretending we got into the zoo...

We tried to go to the Berlin Zoo, since my guidebook referred to it as the most important zoo in Europe with the highest number of endangered species, but we got their a little too late and had to settle for the aquarium. The fire ant exhibit was cool but didn't seem to be adequately containing the creatures. Laura isn't fond of insects so she opted out of that room. Probably a good choice. 


My favorite part of the aquarium was probably the turtles. Over the break was a good friend's birthday back in Burlington, so I purchased his gift in Berlin. It is a turtle puppet. Since the weather was so chilly I decided to walk around with the puppet on my hand. There wasn't really an excuse for this inside the aquarium except for theatrics of course.

Happy Birthday Thomson!

The other side of the Berlin Wall was where the memorial was and also the East Side gallery. Even though we were there at night and it wasn't exactly easy to see all the graffiti and dedications, it was totally worth it. It's really unbelievable to think about how recently the wall went down and all the turmoil that took place exactly where our steps traced. 

Berlin Wall Memorial

 

 Not only was I strugglin' with my foot, but also with my camera (as usual) so it wasn't easy to get a picture that didn't use the automatic flash. But I tried. After this it was time to warm up to some German food and a liter of tasty German beer. We found a place in Alexander Platz that served up our needs and then some, and was probably my favorite meal of Spring Break overall . I absolutely loved Berlin. Going from the cultured and cobble stoned(ugh) old cities of Eastern Europe to a modern city in historical despair was an intriguing route. Needless to say I was thankful to limp along flattened concrete in between delightful trips on the public transportation systems.


So that concludes my blog posts for Spring Break. I have been seeing the chiropractor in Dublin for the fallen arch in my foot, and am getting orthotic insoles tomorrow. My birthday is on Monday, 4th April and I'm off to Barcelona on Thursday to commence the 21st birthday celebrations. Til then the time has come to buckle down and get some actual school work done before I drown in Dublin literature and essays.

Drifting through Bohemia (a.k.a. Partyin' in Prague)

We arrived fresh off a 7 hour train ride from Budapest. Laura and I had our own cabin (mostly) but the train itself was quite the experience; rolling hills, industrial blocks, a crying (non-English speaking) Hungarian man who was robbed of his passport and wallet, and a loquacious man from Barcelona who chatted with me about a variety of random subjects and offered up his sage European wisdom. Good times.

When we finally found our hostel, and we were let in by some fellow hosteling females, and we got acquainted with our new accommodations over a bottle of absolutely awful red wine that tasted like metal. Venturing out into the city to find some food was our first adventure following the disappointing vino - hell, I'm in Prague I should be drinking Pilsner. Which I did savor over a meal of goulash, at the same time discovering goulash isn't really my thing...Pilsner on the other hand, definitely my thing.

 

We walked around on our first full day, grabbed a tasty breakfast and started to walk towards Prague Castle - a steady uphill climb. Once we ascended the millions of stairs to the top, a sign for the toy museum caught my eye - it happened to be Barbie's 50th anniversary, and I wasn't about to pass up this opportunity to celebrate her existence. We saw way too many Barbies of all shapes and types but don't worry I'll spare you the excessive photographs and just share a couple of my favorites...

Badass Dready Barbie

Scary prego barbie

Then we saw the castle. Epic doesn't even begin to describe the extravagance and history behind it. The view from the castle, which I assume is the highest point in Prague, was equally as astounding.

Prague Castle

More Castle

I went out that night with my new friends Nina and Militza, two girls from Montenegro, staying in our hostel. We danced, we drank, we made some new friends....and then we went back to the hostel around 7am. As for the next day, add some more sight seeing, and repeat the previous night...

Lost in a park in Prague

We walked around on our last full day for a while, ate some street food, drank some baileys & coffee in honor of paddy's day and wandered some more around the city. I went out again with the girls for our last night, this time only until about 4am, and then woke up at 7 for our bus to Germany. No regrets about that, the bus had some comfy seats so I rested up then for our Friday night in Berlin. Oh yeah I forgot to add that the girls were going to Berlin on the same day, on the same bus and staying in the same hostel. Miracle of miracles - Berlin was going to be just as silly.

Me and the girls before going out

 

Ballin' out in Budapest

Springbreak 2011 began on Saturday evening, when our plane touched down in Budapest. After fumbling with the ATM buttons and getting thoroughly confused with exchange rates (Hungarian Forints>Euros>Dollars) we hopped in a taxi and headed to The Goat Hostel. Needless to say, I was not too impressed with the place, or maybe I was just discouraged with the sketchy dark entrance, since we checked in at night. Walking into the front foyer did remind me of some Eastern European horror movie...so I did a quick internet search and found a hotel outside of the city center & close to the thermal baths, for the same price of the hostel. We stayed in Goat Hostel for one night and after an indulgent breakfast checked into our second accommodations, and headed to the thermal baths. 

Hero's Square - on the way to the thermal baths

 We went to the Szechenyi baths on Sunday. The public baths were remarkable - what a scene! All types of people frolicking and relaxing in giant heated pools. There were outdoor and indoor pools and after a few mimosas I decided to indulge in a pedicure, foot massage and back massage as well. If I thought I was a princess in Sweden that I must have dreamed of being a Hungarian queen. Seriously though, after all that champagne and relaxation I managed to fall asleep as an old Hungarian woman massaged my feet. After getting properly pampered I floated into the thermal baths and soaked in the mineral waters.

Loungin' in the baths

Lunch on the island

The next day we went to the indoor market and ate up several hours of our day and a decent chunk of our spending money on hundreds of little shopping booths. We also took a river cruise tour down the Danube River and opted out of the electronic headphone tour in order to climb up to the roof and enjoy the sunshine. We took in some breathtaking views of statues and buildings and got off the boat at Margaret Island for lunch. Here we enjoyed a little lunch of bread, cheese and mimosas and laid in the grass. After wards we hustled to the nearest cafe for a little baileys and coffee pick-me-up and then climbed the hill to the highest point in Budapest, The Liberation Monument.

The thermal baths were the highlight of my time in Budapest, although the chicken paprikas was delish. Obviously if you've read my previous rant you know I struggled with not getting to explore the nightlife. The days were full of sightseeing and day-drinking but the nights were clearly not living up to my expectations of springbreak. Thankfully all that changed in Prague ;)

Spent a little time on a mountain...

Although it has been about two weeks since I had my Wicklow Mountain adventures, it absolutely has to be documented. Anyone who knows me can vouch for the fact that I thrive in an environment with an abundance of trees ;) Pavement isn't really my thing and although visiting all of these stunning European cities has been sensational, there really isn't anything that can compare to the country. Well lucky enough for me my friend Andy feels the same way. So we booked it out of Dublin with backpacks full of bread & cheese snagged at the Temple Bar market on our way to the bus, as well as water & some Tullamore Dew - you know, the essentials - and headed for Glendalough.

Half-way up the mountain

 There were a few options of paths to take around Glendalough but we decided to make our path and bushwhacked our way up the mountain, headed towards the highest point we could see. It was a bit ambitious for me at this hour but somehow I made it to the top.

Success!

What a reward. Not only did we get out of Dublin, but a few hours later we're on top of a mountain eating some heady cheese and frolicking with goats. I wasn't even mad when it started to rain....and then hail with no tree cover for protection. Okay maybe I was a little, but if the goats could do it then so could I.

New mountain friends

 After the hail storm we scaled down the mountainside and made a beeline for the lake to find a place to sit in the dirt and eat cheese and bread like civilized people, as opposed to squatting on a wet rock in a hailstorm. Neither setting deterred me from enjoying that yummy cheese....

After devouring our snacks we climbed a tree, frolicked in a field and then decided to explore the ancient monastery that Glendalough is known for. It was built in the 6th century and was probably one of the most spiritual places I have ever been. Although parts of the ancient cemetery were completely covered in the most menacing thorns that have invaded my nightmares ever since.

See the highest point on that mountain? So did we. & we climbed it.

It was around this time we prepared to purposely miss our bus and find our own way back to Dublin. I guess we just weren't ready to give up on this mountain town dream. We walked to the village only to find out that we couldn't afford to take a taxi to Bray and catch the train - it was cheaper to stay in the hostel. As the very helpful receptionist (who acted more like a travel agent) pointed out, there was a live band in town, a friendly hostel full of young kayakers, and we could catch the bus to Dublin in the morning. After considering our options over a pint, and realizing we still had a full bottle of whiskey and a half loaf of bread it all seemed to come together. 

All-in-all, this weekend marked a turning point in my European experience. Now I know how easy it is to get lost in the country, and find myself in the mountains. Spring break starts this weekend, and Lora and I will hop a plane to explore Eastern Europe and see what Budapest, Prague and Berlin have to offer. Spring break also means this semester is half-way over and now that I'm about to round this corner, I can finally say I'm not ready to think about leaving. Blame it on the mountains.