SPOKANE – I made it home.

Farewell beautiful island. I will never see the world the same again.

“May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.”

VANCOUVER, B.C. — I am not pleased.

Right now, I should be sleeping in my own bed at home. Instead, I am sitting in a hotel room in Vancouver, B.C. because British Airways can’t keep the trains moving on time.

It’s a nice hotel (I just checked and the cheapest room is $330/night), but it’s 6 a.m. and I can’t sleep, even after staying up for 24 hours straight trying to get home. And I’m sure there’s a reason, but there is a motion sensor pointed at my bed that blinks when I move. Problaby a good reason for it, but it’s kind of just freaking me out.

My last night in Dublin went well. I stopped by Gogarty’s and Knight’s bars because they always seemed to have some of the most reliable traditional music. I enjoyed my last pint of Guinness and walked across the alley to my hostel.

I got up early and hauled my gear over to Connolly station to catch a bus. Everything went fine in Dublin, then Gatwick slowed things down with the baggage and the ridiculous shuttle to Heathrow. I hurried through check-in at Heathrow and raced to the gate. Then learned my flight would be delayed an hour and a half because they towed the plane to the wrong terminal, which is a big deal at an airport the size of Heathrow.

So finally we loaded and it was a decent flight until the guy next to me all but stopped breathing. He had a bit of an asthma attack. The crew had to hook him up to the oxygen and try to force steriods on him and all sorts of nonsense. The crew was kind of intense because apparently they had a heart attack earlier in the flight and someone else died on another recent trip.

So I tried to stay out of the way and watch movies (300, Blades of Glory, TMNT and Hot Fuzz).

I got to Vancouver 30 minutes before my Seattle flight, but apparently getting from gate to gate is not simple enough to make that connection happen. I wanted to run for it, but they just stuck me in a hotel.

But it is nice to be back on Pacific Time. Hopefully, I’ll be home by 5 p.m. PST.

CRUISING ALTITUDE OVER THE ATLANTIC — Ever wonder what Hell will look like when it freezes over?

Greenland.

I have more pictures, but WordPress says I’ve reached my upload quota. Bastards.

It’s a sad sight.

And here’s some photos from my bus trip through England:

DUBLIN — The clock is ticking.

I’m almost headed home. Just have to pack up the last of the gifts and make it to the airport. This will hopefully be my last night in a hostel for a while. Not that it’s been bad, but home will be nice.

The trip down from Belfast took longer than expected. About three hours to go 100 kilometers (60 miles).

It’s nice being back in a town where I know where things are located. Tonight should be low key, a couple drinks and some music. Just one last night.

Welcome to Sandy Row.

City Hall at Donegall Square.

Pretty self-explanitory.

Random church.

Queen’s Unversity or something.

Titanic Memorial.

That’s enough for now. Coming soon — the road from Belfast to Dublin and probably the last few posts.

BELFAST — I got hit with an egg last night.

Welcome to Belfast. Some little bastards drove by and threw a brown egg at me as I walked down the street. Thankfully, it just bounced off my leg and broke on the ground, but what the hell?

Other than that, Belfast seems pretty okay. It’s expensive because they use pounds (which is the most arrogant form of currency I’ve ever seen). And the city is a lot more spread out than the other cities in the Republic, so it’s a little bit harder to explore, but I’ve wandered around most of the city centre.

A lot of things are the same, and a lot are different. It’s weird to see British flags flying over everything.

Yesterday, I walked down to see the BBC Northern Ireland building. Then strolled around the very impressive City Hall at Donegal Square. The City Hall is this huge, intricate building surrounded by a platoon and a half of statues, at least a dozen dead heroes just frozen in stone.

There is also a memorial for the Titanic disaster since the ship was built in Belfast.

Later, I walked up past a bunch of churches and wandered through the city’s botanical gardens. The architecture is great and the city tourism council seems very proud of it.

Today I just looked around the westside of town. I found a few political murals regarding Ulster freedom fighters. Strange stuff to see in a city. There’s a lot of political graffiti and a lot of random coffee shops.

Tonight is my last night in Belfast. Then one last night in Dublin before catching the big bird home.

See you all in a few days. Cheers.

BELFAST — Ireland is beautiful.

I have to admit that I slept most of the way from Galway to Sligo, but after that, I could barely turn away from the window. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t stop to read. The countryside was gorgeous.

For most of the trip, the land has gone back and forth from impressive to boring, but today’s seven-hour trip to Belfast proved beautiful. Plenty of pictures.

So I left Galway at noon, barely catching my bus, and headed north. The country was full of beautiful mountainsides, lakes, rivers and everywhere it was salted with the tiny, white specks of sheep roaming the hills.

As I have tended to do most of this trip, I sat on the wrong side of the bus for scenery, but even the bad side was great. The weather was decent for most of the trip. The only problem was when I accidentally got off in the wrong city and walked about a half mile from the station before I figured it out. I hustled back to the bus and managed to just catch it before it headed out. I also saw a double rainbow arching over the road (insert pot o’ gold/leprechaun joke here). And pictures:

GALWAY — So this is an awkward thing to try to film by yourself, especially without editing, but here is some footage of me casting along the bank of the River Corrib. I don’t know if it really worked out how it should have, but you might find it entertaining.