Step 1: Fly back to Ireland and see Gideon, Hannah and Kathie again. Observe what happens when travel-addicts live in one place for over six months.
Step 2: Fly back to Oregon to spend holidays with the fam. Surprise sister. Notice the big cars and people, huge supermarkets, and cheaper everything – even most products imported from Europe.
Step 3: Fly back to Dublin and then… Continue reading: Steps Retraced
After exchanging drinking stories with a local on the bus ride from Galway to Belfast, I met up with my next host, Richard, a Belfast native and website designer, fitness fanatic and entrepreneur. That night we joined a few of his friends for a pint at a pub known for its traditional Irish bands, but which actually had a screamcore-folk group playing (not as cool as it sounds).
The… Continue reading: Belfast and Carrickfergus | 2 Comments
My first night in Galway, I went to a packed bar where an Irish acoustic-guitar duo was playing. They sang a few Irish songs, then some American favorites like “Proud Mary,” during which a homeless man in camoflage started dancing crazily outside. A small group of people from the bar went out and joined him, starting an impromptu sidewalk dance-off.
Later that night, conversation with my new Spanish host… Continue reading: Galway | 4 Comments
Preamble: My travels are moving faster than my travel blog. But rather than posting one very long blog entry about the past four cities I’ve visited, I’m parsing it out into three or four entries to post in chronological order over the next few days. The first is Kilkenny, the town I visited last weekend (meaning nine days ago).
Within two hours of meeting my new English-Irish host, Hannah… Continue reading: Kilkenny | 6 Comments
Over the past week, I’ve been upgraded from CouchSurfer to freeloading flatmate by my new friend Gideon and his roommates (two Italian guys and a Spanish girl). Because someone moved out, I’ve had my own room and key through most of this week.
As my new flatmates’ nationalities imply, Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland, is not a very Irish city. Probably fewer than 50% of the… Continue reading: Dublin, Ireland: Overcast but Warm | 5 Comments
I will remember New York by its scents. The airsickness bag someone filled as we landed, the stale urine smell of the humid subway, and the sweet, vinegary wine sun-cooking on the sidewalk on my way to Times Square. The fresh double-egg-and-cheese-on-a-roll from a street vendor near the exhaust of honking traffic, and a real-life pigeon lady’s fistful of seed with rock doves flocking as I walked past.