Dangerous London

I’m sure most of you have heard about the carbombs found in London.

The first day everyone at the hostel hovered around the television which didn’t have much to say. There was also a grenade that went off in Dublin back on Tuesday night. It’s all very troubling, but I’ll try to keep my head down.

Long nights on O’Connell

DUBLIN — Didn’t sleep much last night.

The new hostel was a 12-bed room full of a bunch of guys from the states. And one guy from Belfast.

The Belfast guy managed to stir everyone up and we were all wandering around until 4 a.m. Then we decided to stay up until 7 a.m. so we could go get breakfast. So I finally got some rest at about 10:30 a.m. Everyone crashed pretty hard.

I just booked my next two nights at a place farther west called Litton Lane hostel. It’s a lot cheaper and hopefully it won’t be just a dive. The new place is supposed to have wi-fi, so maybe I’ll have access up and running again. Then I can really start planning the rest of this trip as far as moving south and west.

I hope the family is having a good time at the barbecue. And everyone else is staying out of trouble.

Along the River Liffey

DUBLIN — I moved a bit today.

Last night was my last night at the Ashfield House hostel. My new roommate was  young aspiring playwright from Pittsburgh. He had studied abroad in Dublin, so he showed me a couple pubs over Guiness while we listened to some decent music and talked politics/music.

Now I’m staying just across the Liffey at Abbey Court. I haven’t actually seen my room yet, but the location seems nice. I dropped off some bags and headed up O’Connell Street to the Dublin Writer’s Museum where I looked at artifacts and verses from Shaw, Joyce, Wilde and countless other great Irish writers.

Dublin day two

For some reason the wi-fi is down. I only have 5 minutes and 47, 46 seconds for this post, so I’ll make it fast. And this European keyboard sucks.

This morning I got up at 8 a.m. and headed down for a pretty basic breakfast at the hostel of buttered bread, juice and tea. Then I set out to find a newspaper. Something about this town makes me always start out in the wrong direction.

So I walked probably a couple miles before picking up an Irish Independent at a small deli/newstand. Unfortunately, having been on my feet for most of the last three days, my soles are a  bit worn. My feet started to ache to the point of limping and then the blister popped — soaking my foot.

I made it back to my room and took a nap around noon to rest it for a while. It’s doing much better now. I had a great lunch with guiness and whisky. Will write more later. Take care all.

The coast

Out of London

DUBLIN — The sun never really set over the ocean.

My flight out of Vancouver flew up through the Arctic Circle going around nightfall. We outflanked the moon. So I saw about 28 hours of straight sunlight.

That probably helped me stay up for the 33 hours it took to finally get all the way into Dublin.

But now I’m here, out of London safe and sound. The city is up and running by 9 a.m. I got about six hours of sleep last night, but I’ve already seen a large part of the city. Dublin started out simple when my first dose of Irish hospitality was a free bus ticket from the airport from some girl who wasn’t going to use it.

Then I was able to figure out the City Centre and check in at the hostel. Actually keeping your bearings in the city at night is a bit more complicated.

Spokane to Seattle to Vancouver

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Right now, I’m sitting at Gate D54 in the Vancouver airport and waiting for British Airways flight 86 to London.

A little kid is playing with his mother in a large toy boat. A kid with long hair and Vans shoes is plucking away at an acoustic guitar. And a half dozen people are lounging around the media center watching Lou Dobbs on mute, which is the best way to watch Dobbs.

The weather is overcast, but warm. The terminal is quiet and the airport, in general, makes very little sense.

We’ll see how this works

Finally. I’m going to Dublin.

Thanks to my brother, Landen, I can at least attempt to keep everyone up to speed on my trip via the Internets. Right now, I’m in Vancouver, B.C. trying to figure out the formatting for this thing.

 So enjoy. We’ll see how this works.