Dublin

Well, to start in Dublin, I sure had a Lego up the nose! I got a late flight to Dublin, then our plane had some technical difficulties, so I didn't get in until about 11 or 11:30. I went to check for directions to my hotel, but either a) I didn't book them (which is CRAP b/c I remember doing it), or b) hostelbookers.com didn't send me a confirmation email (possible, but not likely). Anyway, I started looking for a hotel, but the cheapest I could get was about $130, so I just decided to sleep at the airport until early morning and then check into my hostel for the next day (there were already masses of people sleeping there anyway, so it didn't seem like a big deal). This actually turned out to be a GREAT idea, except that in the morning the aiport was ABSOLUTE MAYHEM!! Because of this, and the nice, comfy stay I had 2 nights ago, AND the fact that my plane leaves at 6:45 Tuesday morning, I am going to sleep at the airport again tonight b/c I don't trust myself to get up in time to get there and get aboard my plane while only relying on my watch alarm to wake me up.

Anyway, yesterday was a VERY busy day when I got a lot accomplished, but today was not so good. It was raining when I got here, and has been doing so on and off the entire time, and the weather has been worse here than Scotland, but that didn't put much of a damper on my stay. I started off by checking in and going to the Bad Ass Cafe for a "Huge Ass Breakfast"... it was pretty good, but I didn't like the white or black pudding so much (I think black pudding is dried blood that is cooked and served in a little hash brown-like patty, but I don't know what white pudding is). It was a great start to the day though, and I was ready to tackle Dublin after that.


At first, I stopped at Trinity College, a small college here that is beautiful but small. There was an exhibit of the Book of Kells going on (I don't even know what that is, but there was a long line for it), but it was too expensive to be bothered with. I just kinda walked around campus, and in doing so I noticed that any patch of grass in the university was "off-limits" to walk on.

After the college, I meandered through a nice park and enjoyed the sunshine, after which I came upon a shopping center (which was one of the things on my to-do list of Dublin), so I browsed for a while. Next, I just wandered around the city toward the Guinness Brewery, and came upon many buildings that were nice-looking, including Dublin Castle (hardly a castle), St. Patrick's Cathedral, and a few other small churches.

When I got to the main gate of Guinness (not the tourist gate, but the one for workers), a bird shat on my head. I didn't like it. Not one bit. While I was working my way from the front gate to the tourist center, I stumbled upon a film crew shooting a scene for a new moving that is based on a Charles Dickens book, though I was unable to find out what movie it really was. They were having lots of problems, and I don't think they got any filming done in my presence, but it was kinda cool to see what a movie set in the middle of the backroads to a city is like.

Once I finally made it to Guinness, I stood in line for about 15-20 minutes, and took the tour. I have been on the Miller tour in Milwaukee before, so I thought this one would be roughly the same, but I was dead wrong. This tour was a much flashier one. It even included a giant sandbox-like vat of barley (I guess for beer-drinkers to play in). One of the really interesting things that I learned there is that they contend that the most important ingredient in making their beer is the fresh water supply that they get from the mountains nearby. A lot of the minerals and impurities are filtered out by the time they get the water, so it is very high-quality. Actually, the founder of Guinness defended the water supply with a pickaxe when government officials came to inform him that he had used more than his permit allotted him. We need more beer drinkers like him. Anyway, at the end of the tour, I got a free pint of Guinness to enjoy at the top of the builing with a full panaramic view... I could even see the Washington Monument!

Next, I went to the Killmainham Gaol, which was sort of an Alcatraz in its time here. Not too much to say about it, I just took a guided tour and got some pictures. It was pretty similar to Alcatraz but less interesting and much smaller (possibly less interesting because I knew none of the 14 people that were executed there due to my lack of knowledge of Irish history). One thing that was interesting was the vote on the death penalty (visitors could vote):


I finished off the evening with the backpackers pubcrawl, where a group of us travelers (2 Canadians, 2 Germans, 1 Scottish/Aussie, 1 Aussie (tour guide), and 1 Kiwi) just went to various pubs and had a good time with one another. I think I'll be doing one of these in Amsterdam as well... it was a great way to meet people and have more fun going out at night.

Today was fruitless, as it rained all day and all the national museums (I was planning on going to these) are closed on Mondays. So, I went shopping (actually bought a few things) and came to the internet cafe. I'll probably eat dinner, hang out at the hostel for a bit, then head to the airport to sleep before I fly out at sunrise tomorrow.

Just a few things that I've noticed since I've been travelling that I thought I would mention:
-People say, "Cheers!" here instead of, "Thanks!" I'm still trying to get used to that.
-The Scots by far have the hardest accent to understand of the three main types you find in the UK.
-The UK is not nearly as "24-hour friendly" as the US is... you have to be a bit more careful in planning.
-Their streets are a bit more idiot-resistant, because at crosswalks, they always tell you which way to look (it's painted on the ground).
-My dad has always told us that Grandpa Bosiljevac often said, "I may not be rich in money, but at least I'm rich in friends." Since I heard this, my life goal has been to be the kind of person such that when I die people say, "There went one great guy." A lot of times, statues are built of people as a result. I don't want that, because there are about a million statues of people over here, and I don't want to just be another one of those (unless it's the size of lady liberty). I guess this is just a roundabout way of saying there are a lot of statues of people over here.
-People always say that Ireland is green. Scotland is greener if you ask me (at least in vegetation). However, the Irish wear more green clothes.
-The UK has street signs on the side of buildings instead of sign posts at street corners. This makes things a bit easier, I think, because you don't have to look around for signs as much.
-The UK is very expensive. I'd say Edinburgh, then York/London, then Dublin, in order from most expensive to least (Dublin's still more expensive than back home though).

Well, if you can't tell, I'm having a GREAT time, and I hope you readers are enjoying my mind-droppings! I'm going to wrap up my Dublin journal now (pictures aren't uploading very well, so I'll probably come back later and add more).

See pictures of Dublin here

Edinburgh 3

Well, I thought I was done writing about this place, but there are a few things that I forgot to mention and a few things I did after my last entry (though I only added a handful of pictures to the album). Anyway, here are a few of them.

One night, when I didn't have much to do, I ventured to the top of Calton Hill to get some pictures (the one with the tower and moon in the background was on Calton Hill). On my way down, there was a guy who noticed me taking pictures, and stopped to chat. He was really friendly, and he talked about his travels (which were VERY extensive). Our conversation was going pretty well, until he made a rather inappropriate comment out of the blue, and I then decided that I was getting rather chilly and needed to go back. It wasn't until I told someone in the Judo club about the story that I found out Calton Hill is known to be a meeting place for gay men at night, so much that the city decided to chop down all the trees that hid their meeting places. The club had a good laugh at me.

On an entirely different subject, I went to a club called "Frankenstein" (I was going to buy a gift for my brother J from there b/c Frankenstein is his favorite monster), and it was a pretty sweet place. Lots of people dressed up in constumes, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein was constantly playing on several TVs around the bar, lighting disks and Frankestein posters covered the walls, and there were three floors with bars and booths and such. Fun time (though it is very difficult to go to a club by yourself, so I didn't stay too long... just long enough for a beer). I thought my brother would like it (and my friends as well).

One thing that I forgot to mention about the Edinburgh Castle trip, I got to see (but we were allowed to photograph) the crown jewels, the scepter, and the sword for the royalty. It was all pretty beautiful, except the sword was kinda beat up and the sheath was in bad shape. I don't even want to think about how much it all costs!!!

On my last day in Edinburgh, I went to the Royal Museum, which was pretty cool (especially because it was free). They had all sorts of stuff from pre-historic times to modern times, but I found the industrial stuff to be the most interesting I think. The picture to the left was a robot that could spell your input (my name in this case) and arrange all the blocks, then put them all back in the same spot. Not a huge technological feat, but watching the robot's movements was pretty interesting.

Another cool part of the museum is that I was able to dress up! I felt almost like I had stepped many chapters backward in history... very intense emotional experience. The big exhibit they had though was a Pixar exhibit, which had a lot of information about the story writing, design, and production of their films. A lot of the stuff I already knew about b/c my brother Jimm is in the advertising business and has shown me the process (it really doesn't differ all that much), but the one thing that they had on display that was REALLY cool (again, no pictures allowed) was a giant wheel with about 15 or so figures on a disk that spun around really fast and they played a strobe light on it at the right frequency so the 15 figures appeared to be moving. It was a really intricate piece of animation, then after looking at it play for a while, they stopped to strobe light to show you how it looked in real light, then slowed it down so that you could see the 20 x 15 figures all glued on the giant disk. It was pretty cool.

That being said, I spent the rest of my time in Edinburgh reading The Count of Monte Cristo in the park just below the castle and enjoying my day. The book is fantastic for any readers out there... I recommend it (I'm reading the 500-page abridged version, but I've heard the full version is better). I went to the airport, then flew to Dublin, where I will begin my next entry.

For more pictures, click here.

Edinburgh 2

Before you read this: Note that I have added links to the previous blogs (at the end of each blog) to my Kodak Gallery albums. If you want to see more pictures than I am including in the blog, just go to the link. Also, since the biggest complaint about my Japan video was that I was not personally in very much of the footage, I decided to include myself a bit more in this trip in an attempt to reduce the number of complaints (I hope this makes you happy!). I have been a few days behind on the pictures... sorry.

OK, here is another round with me still in Edinburgh. I like it here, though I probably stayed a bit too long (I waited too long to get a plane ticket to Dublin, so I had to schedule a bit further out). Tomorrow, Saturday the 26th, I leave. Since I've been here, I have been doing a lot of aimless wandering, which has served me VERY well, especially when I just decided to go for a walk yesterday down to the palace (there is a palace, and a castle here, so mind the difference). Anyway, I just walked down to the palace, and wanted to see what the surrounding grounds were like, so I walked around the whole thing. Since I had quite a bit of time before Judo started, I decided to just sit down on a bench behind the palace in a little grove. About ten minutes later, I hear a helicopter land about 50 yards from me, and out comes the QUEEN! I only got 2 pictures of the helicopter before a police officer told me to stop taking pictures, but it was pretty cool anyway (I asked him who it was, just to make sure, and he said it was indeed the Queen).


I also went up to Edinburgh castle, which I think I talked about in my last entry. This castle is really neat from several different angles though:
I think one of the best parts of this place is that there is beautiful architecture everywhere you go. Most people here don't notice it, but when you are from the States, and you see buildings that were in existence before our country BEGAN, it's pretty cool (like ninjas!). Here's another picture of the castle, at night:

This is not from the bottom of the hill, as was the last one, but you get the point.

Today, though, I spent the morning climbing up to what is known as Arthur's Seat, which is just a rock on top of a hill that overlooks the city. Although it is no Everest, it is still VERY treacherous, and I actually almost died!!!

OK, so not really, but you get the point. It had a great view of the city, but it was really cold and windy up there. Speaking of weather, Scotland's weather really sucks. I have worn jeans and a hoodie every day since I've been here (except the first) because it only takes about 5 minutes to go from hot to cold, so it's always a good idea to keep some warm clothing nearby. In fact, I must have put on and taken off the hoodie about 5 times today. One thing I've noticed about Great Britain is that it has a certain smell to it... not a bad smell, but I just notice it every once and a while (it was the same down south too). Just kind of interesting I thought. OK, that's all about Edinburgh for now... you can see pictures below (once they are uploaded), and I'm going to go to my last Judo practice with this club (which really sucks, because there are about 7 of the 14 Great Britain Judo team that work out here... and consequently kick my ass pretty bad). Good bye from Scotland!
A very special thanks goes out to the Edinburgh Judo Club... they were incredibly friendly and welcoming, and I had a great time getting to know them as well as getting to know how badly they could whoop me in Judo.

For more pictures, click here.

Edinburgh

This place is a great mix of historical and modern. The architecture is BEAUTIFUL! Some of these buildings are older than the entire States, so it's really unlike anything I've seen. I'm in Edinburgh now, and I have been able to work out with a fantastic Judo club here... some of whom are members of the Great Britain world team. I believe that one is actually ranked pretty high in the world rankings, so this place is pretty top-notch. It's nice going to practice with about 20 black belts, whereas in the States we're lucky to have 14 total people show up at all.

So far, I've just kinda walked around and enjoyed the scenery. The city has lots of hills, so it's pretty easy to get a good view of the city. I went to Edinburgh Castle, and it was pretty cool too... lots of war history in that place, including one exhibit in particular (I took a picture of it, but haven't put it up yet) which contained a Nazi German flag, a Japanese flag, and a katana all together (obviously from WWII). Pretty sweet.


Yesterday, I actually played a proper game of football (soccer) with the Judo club here, and I scored a goal! I haven't played a game in about 12 years, so it was lots of fun, but I wasn't very good. It's amazing how intense they get here about their football. Last night was spent again with the Judo club at a party (they just finished a series of tournaments, so they cut loose a bit, something that they only do about twice a year). It was great fun, then after the party we all went to a club downtown. I actually got thrown out after an innocent mistake of OPENNING, not even entering, the girls bathroom door... apparently that was enough to convict me of being a pervert and ejecting me. Anyway, the party was winding down, so no big deal anyway. Now, I'm going to do a bit more sight-seeing before Judo practice tonight, then maybe update a bit later tonight. Don't want to spend all my time at the computer though:) Cheers for now!

See more pictures here

York

Well, I guess it's time for another installment (sorry about the wait). After London, I went to visit my friend Tim at the University of York. York is an interesting town with lots of history. First thing I did was watch the biggest college football (soccer) game in college sports... the finals between Chelsea and Manchester United. It was fun.

While in York, I was able to see the Yorvik viking museum (with authentic viking smells), which is an archaeolgical excavation of a viking culture. It was kinda cool (kinda cheesy), but they also had uncovered skeletons of vikings who had sustained some serious skeletal damage during sword battles... things like ribs that had dents and skulls that were half gone (pretty sweet).


I also got to go to the York Minster. Now, I've never been a religious man, but this place was GORGEOUS!! It was big, beautiful, and best of all FREE! Anyway, we encountered this while walking around the city walls, where we found a couple of cool things like ruins and walls (I'll make this stuff all available when I have a computer that can handle the high capacity). Anyway, I spent most of my time in York with Tim and his girlfriend Lauren just hanging out and wandering around and just having a good time. One thing I really noticed is that there are major differences between their bars, pubs, and clubs. Pubs are generally where people go to eat. They have nice carpet and good food. Campus bars are like cafeterias with beer. Clubs... they are clubs. Another thing about this place (Great Britain in general)... it is so EXPENSIVE! Things cost about twice as much as the states. A big thanks goes out to Tim for showing me a good time and saving me some money on a place to stay for a few days:) Anyway, after a couple days in York, I headed off to Edinburgh (see next installment).

See photos here

Hey kids, LOOK! Big Ben!

I got into downtown London on Friday at about 11 AM, where I found my friend Tim's dad's office, and I dropped off my stuff and he gave me info where to go... I felt kind of bad popping in with my travel garb, especially since they were all dressed in suit and tie kind of dress. Anyway, I went straight across the street to the British museum (history museum), where I saw a dead, mummified Cleopatra and several other old things (pictures to come). Next, I met back up with Tim's dad, where he took me to lunch at this Belian restaurant with lots of good beer and DELICIOUS food, not to mention that they were all dressed as Belgian monks... good stuff.

Next, I went downtown London, where I saw tons of stuff from a big marketplace with lots of dudes painted like statues that stand up on soap boxes to a guy juggling on a tall unicycle. The statue guys looked REALLY good... it's hard to imagine that they put on their makeup to do that all day (I'd never be able to stay that still). They DO move a little, but in some cases it's no more than just a wink here or there. Next, I moved down to Trafalgar Square, where they have statues and pillars and a national art gallery. I have never been much of a fan of paintings (especially religious paintings), but the gallery had so many BEAUTIFUL paintings. I'm sure I've seen some of these in books before, but they really don't do justice to the real things. The colors used are so vibrant and the detail is amazing... it is almost as if these paintings come to life. It is really remarkable. Unfortunately, no photos allowed:-(

Next, I headed down toward Big Ben and near some governement buildings and such. Big Ben was really much more impressive in real life than I thought it would be. The architecture of the entire area was AMAZING! It was hard for me to choose my pictures. I took a stop over to the London Eye (a big ferris wheel), but I didn't go up b/c the line was so long and it was £14 (about $28) to go up, so I just took pictures of it instead. The real interesting part of that, in my opinion, was that the "spokes" of the wheel were cables instead of solid metal bars, which means that the whole wheel hangs from the hub in the center. I thought it was pretty neat.

Onward to Westminster Abbey, which was beautiful on the outside and expensive on the inside (I was about to pay the £10 to go in, then I peeked in and it didn't look special in any way, so I decided that the charge was more likely for a "religious pilgimage" type deal, so I left). Not much more to say about that. I headed over to Buckingham Palace next, which was a bit smaller and more contemporary-looking than I had anticipated. The gates were pretty elaborate, but the palace itself didn't seem to have any notable features about it. It was still pretty impressive though.

On the way back to Mr. McEvoy's office, I walked through a beautiful park and just enjoyed the beautiful weather (a bit cooler than back in the States). Once I got back, we hopped a train to his house, I took a shower (which felt AMAZING after all the traveling), had a nice kabob dinner, and I fell asleep on the couch at about 9:30 or so while we were watching TV, so I turned in for bed (and slept until about 11 the next day!). Although my stay with the McEvoy's was short, they were delightful people who catered to my every need and made sure I was comfortable while in their home (Thank you McEvoys!) In the morning, I woke up and took a train to York to see my friend Tim, which will be discussed in the next chapter.

See First set of pics here! (I'll request that my mom make this album shared without a password)

See more pictures here

Good Bye

I'm leaving today.... I don't think I'm forgetting anything, but we'll see. Pretty pumped and sleepless (I did that on purpose though, to make travelling faster and to eliminate jet lag). I have a pretty sweet deal to start, where I'll be staying with a friends' parents for a night, then the friend for two nights or so. Here's a picture for your pleasure!

Tentative Itinerary

Many of you have asked, "Where are you going?" Well, here is what I would LIKE to do, but we'll see how much I really get:

-London
-York
-Edinburgh
-Dublin
-Brussels
-Amsterdam
-Cologne
-Vienna
-Rome
-Italian Riviera
-Barcelona
-Paris
-London again (to return)

Considering I'll be spending about a week and a half in the UK, I doubt I'll get this all done, but who knows. Also, people have asked who I am going with... the answer is NOBODY! I'm going alone. I am seeing a friend Tim in York (staying with his parents in London too), then I am going to a Judo club in Edinborough that people back home know... and I am seeing Dominik in Vienna... that's about it. Just me, a backpack, and a month of fun!!!

2 days before

So I'm here, two nights before I'll be on a plane to London, and things are still very hectic... I need to finish my graduate project (essentially a thesis), I need to write a report about a project for one of my classes, and I have to pack. Anyway, I ran around all day gathering several things that I deem as important for my trip: nalgene bottle, some pens and tiny pocketbooks to help me get around, travel size hygene stuff, chamois (pronounced "shammy") so I don't need a big bulky towel, a 1 1/4 inch rubik's cube (there will be a lot of entertainment packed into that tiny little $5 box), a poncho for keeping me and my pack dry, and most importantly, a camera. A nice camera. A camera that had better not get jacked while I'm wandering around (and I'll watch it like a hawk to make sure it doesn't). Oh, and some locks to keep my stuff in the right spot. Anyway, I'm extremely excited to go, and I will be updating this blog (at least in outline form or abbreviated (which is a very long word) form) whenever I have access to a computer, so feel free to read when you can. I'll also try and post my pictures as frequently as possible, but without my own computer, I don't know how this will all work. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!!