Travel Journal

Just a few pages of my travel journal. Every new city that i go to gets a page. The idea is that in 50 years when i can't remember a thing about the best years of my life i will be able to crack open this bad boy and smile as i read about my adventures around the world. It is also a fun creative outlet. So far everything i have posted on this blog has come (almost) word for word from my entries in this journal. Now that i have an audience other than my future self i will try to direct my writing in a more interesting direction. Enjoy :)

Ireland

Ireland

November 25^th 2011

Woke up around 5 am to catch my Giant’s Causeway tour bus. We drove along the coast on what is apparently one of the best coastal drives in the world. It was lovely. I had no idea that northern Ireland and the republic of Ireland were different. But they are totally separated and northern Ireland belongs to the UK. When king hentry the 8^th invented the protestant religion the north sided with England and the south decided to stay catholic despite much turmoil. It is still bad between the two religions there. Especially in Belfast. Our first stop on the tour was the carrick a rede rope bridge. This tiny, terrifying rope bridge in the middle of nowhere. They closed the bridge due to wind and hail right after I crossed. Then I had to walk about 15 minutes to the bus in the hail and wind. It hurt so bad. I thought I was bleeding. This guy I met on the bus named jim helped me. After the rope bridge we went to the Giant’s Causeway. We had lunch there. Not as good as the seafood chowder in doolin. I walked with jim to the giants causeway. It was amazing. I was freezing considering that my clothes were totally soaked from the hail. And the wind was harsh. But the causeway was incredible. We left there and went by dunluce castle which is apparently the inspiration for c.s lewis’s chronicals of Narnia castle. Then we went into Belfast for about an hour. Walked around a Christmas market and to the river where the titanic was built. Then we headed back. I got in around 8:30 and went right to sleep. I figured I would go out the next night. But forgot that I had to be at the airport at 5 am for my flight.

November 26^th 2011

Woke up around 9 and got breakfast. Walked around shopping and trying to find h&m for a long time. Went back to the hostel for lunch and went back out to h& m and got some sweaters. I went to the hostel and got ready to go out. I went to a little pub and had some drinks with a sweet older couple.  Then decided to go to jim’s comedy night thing at the banker’s pub. It was pretty funny. After that I got some food with jim and started walking back. On my way in I saw a cool bar and noticed it was 1:30 and I had to wake up at 3 so I might as well stay out. So I did. I went back to the hostel and packed at 3 and headed to the airport. And made it back home!

Ireland

Ireland

November 23^rd 2011

Woke up at the butt crack of dawn (4:50am) to get ready to go on my cliffs of moher day tour. Had to curl my hair in the hall at 5:30 am because there are no plugs in the room and everyone was sleeping.

Got to the pick up point with plenty of time to spare. I was worried the bus wouldn’t come or that I was in the wrong place. But it did come. The tour went into Galway and had some really interesting stops at abandoned churches and buildings. We ate lunch in doolin which is a tiny little fishing town. The seafood chowder was probably the best soup I have ever had. Then we went to the cliffs of moher. They were gorgeous. Huge. It was cold and very windy. I can totally see how someone could fall off. The wind pushes you around. I loved the country side there and on the way back. I definitely saw some of what I wanted to see.

I had planned to try and skype with the family while they were at grandmamas for thanksgiving dinner but she didn’t have wifi so it didn’t work out.

It was jackies last night so we went to a few pubs. I accepted a marriage proposal from an old crazy guy.

The showers in this hostel suck. The water stays on for about 30 second and then turns off. And you cant control the temperature.

November 24th 2011

Thanksgiving day (for me)

Thanksgiving this time last year I was cooking for family dinners because aunt tiana was pregnant with Nathaniel and on bed rest. I was living at will and marys and now im in Ireland. I wanted to stay close to the hostel today because the family is having lunch at grannys and I wanted to skype them. I walked around after breakfast and booked a day trip to giant’s causeway tomorrow. I walked around some more and went to st. stephens green (a beautiful park) and watched ducks for a while before going back to the hostel to eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I got to skype with the family later. It was so sweet. I got to see Nathaniel then went to sleep early for my tour in the morning.

Ireland

Dublin

November 21^st 2011

Woke up feeling rough from the night before. Managed to get dressed and have breakfast. I spent some time trying to figure out the Dublin bus system with no luck. So I bought a ticket for a hop on hop off tour bus thing. Which actually ended up being really helpful. I went to Guinness which I loved. The gravity sky bar was amazing. You can see like all of Dublin from it. I didn’t get a lot done today because I spent so much time being hung over.

Went to sleep early so I wouldn’t have the same problem again.

When I got to the hostel I met a girl named Jackie. Shes from Canada. She convinced me to go with her to some pubs. We went to temple bar. It was precious.

November 22^nd 2011

Woke up early and had breakfast in the hostel then me and my new Canadian friend Jackie got on the hop on hop off bus. First we tried to go to Dublin castle. But it was closed. So went to kilmainham gaol which was awesome and very informative. I learned a ton about Ireland and was actually interested in it. From there we went to jameson. Which was super cool. The tour was great and at the end they asked for voulenteers to taste different whiskeys so of course I voulenteered. I tried a scotch, an American whiskey and jameson agenst each other. I got a certificate thing. Its so cool. Im going to frame it.

After that we walked around trinity college and decided not to see the book of kells because it was 9 euros. After that we grabbed some pizza and walked around some more. Went across an awesome bridge with tons of swans.

I went back to the hostel pretty early because I had to wake up really early for my cliffs of mohr tour the next day and my feet hurt.

Dublin

Dublin

November 20^th 2011

Flight went well. Easy even. I arrived at my hostel by air coach just in time for check in and got settled and changed before heading out. I walked around and decided to try to find o’connell st. where I saw a movie theater on my way in. I got there just in time to see a 4:20 showing of Breaking Dawn. I was so excited. I couldn’t see that in Germany because they don’t have many English theaters. It was wonderful. The movie ended around 6:30 and I went to find somewhere to eat. I didn’t see any food places. Just pubs. So I went to a pub. A super nice old man bartender gave me my first big girl Guinness. I loved it. Then I went to another pub close by. I went to the bar to order another beer and this guy started rapping in my ear. So I moved over to a group of people and started talking to them so he would leave me alone. We stayed at the pub for hours having beer and music. One dude was from Kenya and a few others from Scandinavia and some irish. We had tons of fun and went to a club from there. We danced. i took a cab back to the hostel. Good day.

Frankfurt

Frankfurt

November 19^th 2011

Woke up at 3 am to go with the letchers at 4:00 to Frankfurt (4 hour drive) to pick up keith and sandy. I took the train (s bahn) from the airport to where my hostel was for the night. I have a knack for finding hostels in red light districts. But I made it there, fairly easily dropped my bags and began exploring Frankfurt. Near my hostel was pretty shady so my first impression was a little bad but I found the good parts. They were setting up for the Christmas market. The weather was perfect.

Im in Frankfurt because when planning my trip to Dublin I coordinated my flights with keith and sandy’s flights so that the letchers wouldn’t have to drive to the airport twice. Keith and sandy told me that they were coming Sunday the 20^th-Sunday the 27^th. But apparently they read something wrong and were coming the 19^th-28^th so I decided to just stay in Frankfurt to make things easier.

I am excited about Dublin. A little nervous about going alone and being out of place but still excited. In Frankfurt I saw an occupy Frankfurt thing going on. It made me laugh a little. I thought that was only going on in the states. I am going to try to stay up till dark and then get some sleep since I have been up so long. Wonderful day in Frankfurt though. Im glad I did a day here. I spent some time sitting in a park on the river and walking around looking at the beautiful architecture around Frankfurt.

Sweden and Denmark

Sweden and Denmark

Wednesday November 9th 2011

The Letchers and I took trains to Kiel, Germany to get on an overnight cruise ship across the Baltic Sea to Sweden. Trevor fell asleep on my chest on one of the trains. We had a buffet dinner on the sip. it was very good and the ship was really really nice. Trevor and I shared a room and he slept extremely well without his pack and play. 

Thursday November 10th 2011

Woke up at 7:00 to get ready. The boat docket at 9:00 and Trevor woke up around 8:00. We had breakfast on the ship and packed up to leave. A dude from volvo picked us up after we got off the ship and took us to the volvo factory to get Ken's new SUV. We had lunch there and then started driving. We stopped in Gothenburg and at some small town on the coast. We got out of the car and walked on the rocks and took pictures. Then got back in the car to drive to Copenhagen. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Copenhagen and stayed in a very nice hotel. Trevor and I shared a room with a king sized bed. 

Friday November 11th 20ll

had breakfast at the hotel and packed up to go. Stopped in the airport to get starbucks. Then we drove to see the mermaid statue by the water. And kept driving... We stopped in Hamburg, Germany to eat at hard rock. left there and went to starbucks. We drove from there all the way back home. It was a lot of driving. 

i will definitely have to go back.

Munich

October 22nd-23rd 2011
Munich

I had been talking with a childhood friend of mine, Elizabeth Kays for a while about meeting up in Munich. It all worked out for this weekend and we planned our trips to meet up. She was staying in a lab that her job provided and offered me a place to stay with her. I arrived at the train station around 11:40 and she was waiting for me. We walked from there to the main square where we went to a market where i got some christmas presents and a bottle of federweisser - fresh wine which has holes in the cap and no cork. i of course did not know this and looked like an idiot while tipping the bottle over and wondering aloud why it was leaking. A friendly German lady informed me that this is normal. From there we went to the  U bahn to catch a train from there to Dachau concentration camp. I wanted to go again since i didn't get to sepend as much time as i wanted there with the kids. It was a long walk and my gps failed us a few times but the walk was lovely with with all the leaves changing color. We finally arrived and spent about an hour wandering through the museum. It was very interesting. We left there and found a bus back to the U-bahn where we got a train to the main square where the glockenspiel is. We tried going to the hofbrauhaus but it was Saturday night and crowded so we went to a quiet cafe and had pizza. After dinner we went to the glockenspiel for it's 9:00 night show which was extremely uneventful. We went back to the lab after that for some sleep. The next morning we woke up and got ready and went to St. Peter's church for mass which was interesting because it was in German and i'm not at all catholic. It was a beautiful church though. Then we went to the Jewish history museum and had lunch there. We tried going to the bier and oktoberfest museum after that but it was closed so we decided to try the hofbrauhaus again and shared a liter and some pretzels. From there we went to the train station and i departed for home. Wonderful trip!

Rothenburg

October 30th 2011
Rothenburg

I went with the Letchers today to Rothenburg. I had been wanting to go so i was excited when Ken suggested it. It was about 2 hours away and the weather was perfect. Not hot and not cold. We arrived around 11 and had lunch at a doner place. We walked around and Tag and i walked up a big tower. The boys all walked along the wall of the city for about an hour while Michelle and I went shopping. We went to Kathe Wohlfahrt (haha) and i got some ornaments for gifts. I got two bottles of wine. They have different shaped bottles here. It was a gorgeous town but it was a little touristy for me. Just having a few hours there was perfect. I’m almost done with all of my Christmas shopping now. I spent all day yesterday talking to all the ones i love most. Mom, dad, Jeremy, Nola, Mary, Will, Ashten, Brooke, Aunt Tiana, Nathaniel, Granny and Grandaddy!