Bus tour and beyond

Well the last two days have been, well, a sort of blur really. Someone asked me yesterday what I all saw on the tour and i couldn't even remember the third thing...i still can't....what was it?...whatever, apparently it did not capture my attention.

Today I was a better little tourist than yesterday. Yesterday I went to Christ Church Cathedral and did a tour of "Viking Dublin," called "Dublina." I'm not a fan of reading things in museums and although I learned quite a bit of interesting stuff about the early days through the medieval days of the city, i was ancy by the end of it. Would have been an amazing way to learn about medieval europe back in gradeschool.

a little viking man having a rough go at it in the bathroom. complete with, well, sound effects

Since I paid 8 euro for the church/exhibit, I decided just to parooze around the St. Patrick grounds.  I may go back to hear the choir sing one of these nights. Then I hopped back on the bus (it's a hop-on, hop-off  2-day tour) and headed to the Guinness brewery. It wasn't a bad deal, considering I have my ISIC (student ID) card that Karl made for me and is saving me OODLES of money. But, come on now, I've been on so many brewery tours and well this one was a self-guided tour that didn't actually let you see, smell or touch anything. Basically, it was amazing architecturally speaking, but the actual tour was "eh." However! at the end you do get a "taste." A full pint of Guinness in their Gravity Bar on the top level. Great view of the city and great beer made for a decent stop.

Guinness settling!

Apparently a couple liked my photo skills after I snapped this one, cause they asked me to take their photo as well.

This is where i can't remember what i did next. A combination of missing lunch and pounding a beer at 2 left me a little unaware apparently. That's not true. I ate some bread. Oh yea. I tried to find some soup and ended up getting a bowl of meat something or other stew and trotted off back home. While I ate my soup in the common area I must have looked a little pathetic because some guy gave me a bowl of pasta. Very nice. very not yummy. I'm not a big pasta fan and getting a huge mound of it reminded me of the stomach ache-days of Costa Rica.

That night the Aussie (Susan), the Taiwanese (Agrin I believe), Suzy (Canadian) and two British sisters (Jenny and Lucy) and I went to a bar for some beer and a little Irish music and dancing. We all had a really good time. The poor Irish couple that we shared a table with probably got real sick of our rather loud conversation. But the old guy did wave at us a little bit as he left so maybe not.

Karl and I were able to sort of skype tonight (which means we could actually hear and see each other for awhile) so that gave me a much more pleasant night of sleep than the first night.

Happy, well rested Teresa

Today I continued the bus tour thing, going to the Kilmainham Gaol (jail). That was an excellent tour. After this I went to Phoenix park, the largest enclosed park in Europe I believe, and one of the first. I went to the park because I saw this little tea house that one of the bus drivers said was from the 1800's. It was adorable and had really good food. I had to double check with the waitress to see if it really was old because my goodness, the Irish are sarcastic. Or maybe it's just Dubliners. I dunno but I'm a pretty sarcastic person, I love a very sarcastic boy, and these people still constantly confuse me with their dry, tricksee humor. jokes abound, but it's all well and good. I've even grown skeptical of some of the plaques and things that indicate different sites of importance. I can't really explain why, but it just would not surprise me if someone labeled something of absolutely no importance to mislead tourists just for kicks and giggles.

Jail

Tea Room

I had planned to shop today. But i really have no room in my bags sooo I am distracting myself by blogging instead : ) I AM however going to see Harry Potter tonight with the Aussie and a friend of hers studying here in Ireland. It goes without saying that "Harry Potter Puppet Pals" have been stuck in my head all day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

DUMBLEDORE!

I have arrived

Two flights, one bus ride and a band-aid later, I have arrived in Ireland and successfully navigated the mean streets of Dublin (not really). Currently I am sitting in the lobby of Globetrotters Hostel awaiting a clean room. Alright, mom, clean-ish.

The flights were pretty uneventful. I got a wicked headache/nausea between my flight to JFK and my layover in the airport. Luckily I somehow managed to get some sleep on the flight to Dublin that cleared up the whole bit.

For once picking the window seat paid off! As we approached Ireland the sun was just rising over the horizon. I will not be going to the eastern coast of Ireland but! I got to see the Cliffs of Moher (or what I can only suppose are the Cliffs of Moher) from the plane.  http://www.elainelisle.com/images/Cliffs%20of%20Moher2.jpg

I had my first "scare" while in the shower. Well two actually. First of all the bathroom was freezing and the shower ice cold. I almost didn't shower for fear of getting chilled but i smelled pretty bad. So anyways I jumped in and thank God it warmed up. Then, I heard voices in my room. Ok. Roommates...hmm, those voices sound male and French....omg they are male and French. Am I in the wrong room? Did I reserve a male/female room on accident? So I "man-ed" up (ha ha) and finished up in the bathroom. I figured that I needed to make it look like I knew i was going to be in a mixed room to avoid any trouble. Lo and behold there was no one there. The walls are just paper-thin and there is a courtyard outside my window where people can sit and smoke. Hence. a troupe of french males. A few moments later a Taiwanese girl stumbled into the room and she and I are planning to get supper together.

Starting tomorrow I hope to have many exciting adventures. As for today, I just took a much needed nap and am about to set out looking for food and water and a Radioshack.... technology foils my plans once again. If i don't find the right adapters to make everything work Ireland is most definitely not going to see the more feminine side of me. That may be just fine.

So I'm not actually gone yet...

Dear family and friends,

As many of you know, I will be leaving on November 16 for a little rendevouz in Europe. I won't be able to send emails and letters and postcards to everyone, so I've decided to jump into the twenty-first century and blog. (sound trumpet here)

I'm going to be gone for quite some time. My rough itinerary is as follows:

Nov 16-24, Ireland
Nov 24-Dec 22, Austria
Dec 22-Jan 8, England

After Ireland I will be meeting up with my friend Kati in Austria. I met her in 2008 when she came to UWEC to study for a semester. That fall we celebrated Thanksgiving together with my family in West Bend and now we get the chance to have another go at it two years later in Austria! Christmas will be spent with Karl, Auntie Chris and Grahm in Ripley, England. New Years is up in the air but will hopefully be followed by a trip to see Janet and Dave Herring in Bury St Edmunds, England.

If I posted anymore details at this point I'd make your head spin over the next couple of months as you tried to keep up with all the changes and "tweaks" I'll most likely be making to my trip.

I did promise Auntie Kris that I'd try very hard to write in complete sentences as well as utilize paragraphs and punctuation from time to time. I'll do my best. Might as well use that college education.

Please email me at tjhansen.23@gmail.com or try and catch my on Skype, username TeeJayHay. Remember that while I'm in Ireland and the UK, I will be 6 hours ahead, and in Austria, 7.

That's all for now, wish me luck!