Never Gonna Leave NOLA again

So, I've been back almost two days.  Apologies on not blogging.  I'm sure that those of you I hadn't already talked to assumed that I in fact made it home rather than dying trapped in Newark (a real possibility for a while there).  Apologies if I did in fact cause anyone any concerned (it was unintentionally done and I'm sure of short duration).

It's good to be back; will be better once I am able to sleep past 4 am (10 am London time).  But there is air-conditioning, preservatives, good food and warm showers, so a little sleep deprivation isn't too big a deal.  I've gotten rather used to it.

The trip was amazing, wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, but six weeks is a long time to be away from home.  And everything you know.  And your dog.  I'd say the traveling bug is out of my system for at least a year or so.  

It appears that my blog has come to the natural end of its life cycle; otherwise I will be one of those people constantly broadcasting all of their thoughts and emotions into the universe.  And I don't think anyone really wants that.

So, I leave you all.  I'll see all of you in the real world soon.  Thanks to those who tolerated my incessant whining about bad weather, unremarkable food, and basic cultural differences.

Cheers!

Why Am I Not Home Yet?

We are entering hour 18 of traveling.  I'm in Newark (have been for the last 6 hours).  Naturally, I could not sleep on the plane.  I don't actually look like death warmed over, which is fairly shocking (or perhaps the exhaustion has affected my perception? unclear).

In 5 hours, I'll be home!  Yay, New Orleans!

Goodbye, London, United Kingdom, and Europe!

So I get on a plane in 13 hours, so this'll be my last post until I'm stateside. Yay for seeing all of y'all again! And talking to someone who's not Colby! (I couldn't pick a better person to hang out exclusively with for 11 straight days, but right now my accent is somewhere between Louisiana, Irish, and Texas).

The past two days in London have basically been us looking at each other going, "Is there anything else we need to do here?" The answer has always been "No," we were here for two weeks, so everything on our respective lists have been checked off.

If you have to stay at a hostel in London, I'd recommend St. Paul's. They serve a real breakfast (read: not cornflakes and toast) and the accomodations are fairly comfortable. We ended up in a dorm with 4 German girls, so I feel like I've probably learned a bunch of German just by diffusion.

So, anyways, see you in the States! Cheers!

Back in the (Cold and Uncomfortable) Embrace of London

We're back in London!  We missed it (against our better judgment).

We've developed a (somewhat labored) analogy for the cities we've visited: London is the abusive boyfriend, but he cuddles with you afterward, so you put up with it; Edinburgh is the boy who calls you fifteen times a day and always wants to talk about feelings; Belfast is the boy who used to return your calls, but now that he's gotten out of prison, he's uninterested; and Dublin is a one-night stand that leaves the napkin with your number on it on the bedside table as he goes.  

This will make sense to anyone who has visited all those cities in a week (read: Colby).

So, yeah, little to report.  Good to be out of Dublin; nice city but we were there WAY too long (interesting tidbit: we met girls in our hostel who were planning on staying there ten days, we're assuming they'll die of boredom on Day 6).  We have spent literally the entire day traveling.  Like, five hours in an airport all day.  I never wanna be in one of those again.  Yay, Tuesday!  Boo hiss, Continental/American Express/whatever demented clown messed up my flight.  Sorry, had to get that out of my system.

So, tomorrow is a packed day of doing everything I need to do before I leave and finishing up my souvenir buying.  Then, all planes all the time.

In 72 hours, I will be back in the States, getting fat on preservative-filled food and not walking more than 10 feet!  So excited!

Escape from Manfest 2008

In our hostel (Paddy's Palace, yes I picked it for the name), we're in a mixed dorm. Evidently, this means that you can go to sleep at an early hour (we've been travelling since you were in kindergarten, leave us alone) and wake up COMPLETELY SURROUNDED BY MEN. Seriously, it's a 12 bed dorm and we're the only women in there. We woke up to a sea of naked backs and hairy legs. And they were all passed out drunk and sweating out Guinness. I'm considering sleeping on a park bench, just to escape the awkward. If we stay in that room too long, we might turn into boys (I don't wanna be a boy).

We got up this morning and headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral (it just seemed wrong to not go there). It's a gorgeous Gothic(ish?) building and the stained glass windows are amazing (and naturally, impossible to photograph). Once we long off here, we're probably gonna head off to the Trinity College Campus (provided the weather holds). We really could have done Dublin in two days, so we're kinda moving at a snail's pace.

Because I actually checked the news for the first time in forever: seriously, John Edwards? Seriously?

Perfect Pint of Guinness

So we went on the Guinness propaganda tour today. I have to say, after 2 hours of hearing how perfect Guinness is, I still don't like it. Though it is way better here than in the States (still bad, though).

Yesterday, we went to go pay homage to Mr. Wilde. His house was closed down, but his statue was still there, so we hung out around it and acting snarky. We also went in the National Gallery of Ireland and wandered around Temple Bar area.

Confession: we did the math and we've done four cities/countries in five days. We're exhausted. It's awful. Thank God we're spending three days here in Dublin, I don't think we could move again tomorrow.

In other news: the idiots who make these determinations have moved my flight back to the US (Freedom!) up 16 hours and left me with a 12 hour layover in NEWARK. This has such catastrophic potential. And, since I'm abroad (shocker), I can't get them on the phone to fix it. So, I'll have to fly out at midnight, start whining at anyone who'll listen to me in Newark to see if I can get my flight bumped up, and then basically seeing how the wind will take me. Stupid gas shortage!

On a happier note: we're probably off to the Dublin Writer's Museum (yes, we're geeks, don't judge us!) and then perhaps St. Patrick's Cathedral. We're taking Dublin at a kind of half speed, but that's all that's keeping us from collapsing.

Cheers!

Dublin!

We're here. We haven't seen or done anything yet, but we're here. In Ireland, you can't buy Dramamine, but you can buy some similar product called Kwellis which basically makes you feel drunk for 6-8 hours. But at least you don't get sick on the 3 hour bus ride.

Through either serendipidity or good planning (let's face it, it's the former), we got a hostel right next to the bus station, so we only had to walk a block with our heavy stuff, rather than 2 miles (uphill, barefoot, in snow). Dublin looks pretty, not as idyllic as Edinburgh (but then again, neither is a snow globe), but way less rough around the edges than Belfast. Also, there are other Americans here! Yay!

Will write back tomorrow when (hopefully) I'll have something interesting to say. We're probably going to spend part of the day stalking Oscar Wilde (we know he's dead, but really, why would that stop us?).