If I were a Vegan, I would not live in Ireland.

Ok, so I'm going to tell you about our first real day in the Aran Islands. This was on the 20th of August. The Aran Islands are located off the western coast of Ireland in County Galway. They are very very secluded and very very different from the US but very very cool. The day after we got there we had basically the whole day to do whatever in the world we wanted to do, which was heaven. Well at least for me. Marina was sick (and had a little bit of culture shock) so she chose to sleep the entire day, but I, of course, got right out there. Our B&B was owned by this family that we found slightly nerve wracking because we felt like we were always intruding and were always in the way. They did make breakfast for us in the morning though and were very helpful, if a little high strung. A full Irish breakfast, by the way consist of eggs, sausage, bacon, black and white pudding (basically...sausage that looks wierd and tastes a little funny), and usually tea or coffee. All of which being a bit different than the usual US variety. And since we don't drink tea or coffee, I think the lady of the B&B thought we were like, crazy. Anyway, so after breakfast, I walked the 20 min scenic route to the village and rented a bike. The whole rest of the day I just biked all over the western side of the island and oh my gosh it was amazing. I don't think I've ever been anywhere that was more consistently beautiful. Though part of it, I'm sure, was that it was just a kind of beauty that I'm really not used to. It was like the misty, foggy, romantic, misterious type of beautiful. Think the moors of Wuthering Heights. Or for you non booky types, think maybe "Waking Ned Devine" or even better, "Secret of Roan Inish." So anyway, I bike along, and of course go down all the random paths that most the tourists could care less about and of course find all the cool stuff that they never find. Like, how much cooler is it to bike up this random famer path where only the towns people really go and meet up with a famer leading his cattle into a different plot of land and just chatting with him for a while. Oh, and by theh way, when I talk about plots of land, this is how it is. The entire Island is like low rolling hills with huge amounts of GREEN GREEN grass. Also, it's all separated into little tiny plots of land that are bounded simply by rock walls. I dunno, hard to explain it so it sounds as amazing and cool as it is. Anyway, so other than all the random paths I went down, along the "main" road I first found this gooorgeous dock where I took a bazillion pictures of this cute little boat that was floating in the very romantic fog. Next up I stumbled upon this old cemetary that looked to be just about to topple of the edge of this cliff and down into the sea. I wandered around and took a bunch of pictures in there too (I actually love cemetaries) and found that within it was like the oldest church still standing or something. I don't know exactly because the info was really vague, but it was built in like the 4th century or something and was really small and just in the middle of this little cemetary on a cliff. Then I came to the end of the path (the sea) and decided to turn left and go down this path which led to a little beach. Now, once you get to the beach, the path ends, but there are still a bunch of rolling hills to the left and beyond that, on a diff but really close little island I knew there was a light house. So I ditched the bike for a little while and hiked through underbrush that was just about as high as I was til I reached another beach opposite the first. This one had no one at all on it however and was humongous. See, unlike a normal beach where you have a little sand and then a lot of water. This beach had this huge expanse of sand enclosed by the grassy hills and just at the end toward the part that opened up into the sea there began to be actual water. Well, for some reason I thought there was a path at the complet opposite side of the beach wherer I could walk easier to the tip of the island and look across at the lighthouse (i was VERY set on seeing this lighthouse). So I proceeded to treck across the sand. Now, the sand was very wet and very deep and would swallow my foot with each step. It was an interesting experience because about halfway across the space, there came a time when if I looked behind me, there was a huge way to walk before there was real land and if I looked in front of me it was just as long. Basically I was stranded. At about this time, the sky grew dark and ominous and it began to rain. And I've got to say I really just stopped right there for a second and laughed to myself and thougth "WHAT in the WORLD am I doing RIGHT HERE on a random island in off the secluded western coast of IRELAND???" It was a fabulous moment. And you'll have to remain in suspense until my next entry because poor Marina just arrived from Paris! To be continued.

Internet!

Hey everyone! So I just got to London today and I should actually be able to regularly get internet! Turns out that in Paris the only time we really got internet was when we sat on this dirty grubby street corner in this random random section of paris next to this restaurant that we just stumbled upon that happened to have free wi-fi. Well either that or when using the personal computer of the guy who owned our ghetto (but sweeet) hotel because we were basically his favorites and he bent over backwards for us (diff story, diff day). So now we're in a regular old hostel where as of now I'm paying £1 for 40 minutes (except someone left 40 min on already) and tonight I'll get free wi-fi in my room because there's a really random free wi-fi signal that that room gets that the others don't but my computer's messed up and can't get wireless right now. Long sentence <--short sentence. So I'll get it tonight and not now because tonight Marina will have flown in from London with her computer that actually gets wi-fi. At that point I may also be able to transfer some pictures onto Marina's computer so as to put pictures on the blog!!! So basically, point of this blog would be to say, yay, there shall soon be pictures and more blogs.

"Planes, Trains and Ferries" continued

Ok, so we drag ourselves off the ferry so tired that Marina literally fell asleep in like 2 seconds right after I'd just woken her up to tell her we needed to get off. When we disembark, we start just wandering around in the general direction of the village not having a clue where our B&B is when this guy (seeing that we were obviously not doing well) comes up and asks us where we're headed. He ended up being a bus driver and convinced us to pay him to take us to our B&B which wasn't too hard after he informed us that our B&B was on like the exact opposite side of the bay. So he sits us down in the empty bus and starts to tell us how he hates french people and why. This all comes into context when next, a tour group full of like 20 French people gets on. I could definitely go on, JUST about that bus ride, but I won't. Anyway, our B&B was pretty nice, though the lady in charge made us a bit nervous and it was pretty awkward a lot of the time because she always made us feel as though we were intruding on something. The rest of that night we didn't really do much, except sleep, for a LOOOONG time. To be continued in Paris, tomorrow.

"Planes, Trains and...Ferries?"

Ok, so sorry that I still can't put pictures up. It's actually killing me because I have a bazillion that I want to put up, but I still haven't been able to connect MY computer to the internet. In fact, i'm in Edinburgh at a hostel paying for some internet access...and actually the money to pay for it came from this random guy who let me give him dollars for pounds :-). Anyway, also, for the last like 2 or 3 days (losing track) we've been on this REALLY secluded island with NO internet access at all. Which actually leads me to the actual content of this blog, which is how we GOT to this island. So, i've already detailed how we were in the airport for who knows how long and told all about that whole ordeal. Well, then we took the 8 oclock bus from the airport to Ennis (only option actually). It dropped us off there for like 2 hours with our tons of luggage to wait for the next bus at 10:25 (only option). Well, we saw this far away steeple and we're just like "alright, steeple, let's go!" and cart our luggage all the way to the church. Mind you, this is our first experience being OUTSIDE in Europe, so we're pretty freakin excited. Anyway, we go inside and look around and notice this coffin. So we go over and check in out and this old extremely typical irish guy comes over and starts telling us about the guy in the coffin who apparently had died like the day before and invited us to the funeral in an hour (which unfortunately we'd have to miss in order to catch the bus). So then, he launches out on a string of like 20 stories (because, as he explained he kissed the blarney stone and has the gift of the gab) which was really long but actually really cool because he was SOOO irish and because WE were actually talking to a LOCAL whose name was PATSY. Sadly though we only understood like half of what he said. Anyway, so he directed us to a good market where we got some fruit then we wandered down this cute little street with a bunch of shops. And this whole time we have no idea what the deal is with when you cross the street and every two seconds we'd freak out about the cars going the "wrong way." Anyway, so we finally get back to the bus stop and take the bus to Doolin, where we wait another hour to take a ferry at 1. The ferry, however, only takes us to the first of the Aran Islands, where we wander around for like an hour. But wait, first, the ferry ride was veeeery interesting because it was basically just this little teeny fishing boat and if you stood outside (which we did) you just had water flying at you like notstop. So, basically, by the end of the trip we were COMPLETELY drenched. And best of all, our trusty schooner was entitled "The Happy Hooker," which we OF COURSE took a picture with. Anyway, on the first island we wandered up to this old ruin, but that was it. It was pretty cool though and very pretty. Then we caught another ferry at 3 to our island (Inishmor). And this will now have to been continued since I only have 2 minutes left before I get kicked off!

First....day?

Ok, so I'm still in the airport, but I'm in Europe!!! Here's a little recap of my saga so far. So I got to LAX around 6 and met up with Marina (the girl I'm traveling with). She'd been there since one and managed a prime spot with internet plugs and had made friends with some guy named Steve who'd also been there since one. Our flight (and Steve's incidentally) was delayed and was to leave at 11:10 instead of 9:20. So, we chatted, read, ate etc. til going through security. Then we chilled some more before finally getting on the plane at around 10:30. Before we leave LAX, can I just say it's definitely much different (as well as much more exciting) being in the INTERNATIONAL terminal. Way different feel. Makes me wonder where everyone's going and why. Anyway, so we took a shuttle to the plane. Also, an interesting experience as it was packed to the brim, the lights were out and there seriously was this strobe light thing. I think we all felt like we were at a club or something and we were all kind of chuckling. Anyway, flight was alright. Not too interesting. Took 10 hours and I'm horrible at sleeping on planes. I wasn't next to the window, or on the right side of the plane, so I didn't really see London much. Apparently if I'd been next to a window on the right I'd have seen Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and Parliament. Once we got to Heathrow, we walked FOREVER through winding hallways before reaching a conglomeration of people trying to fit through a tiny opening for "connections." About this time I went to the bathroom and the only reason I mention this is there was this wiered hanging towel thing that you dry your hands on. It looked like a normal paper tower dispenser, only with...an actual towel hanging out of it. Anyway, my bag was too big because the size allowance changed and I had to check it. So I had to separate from Marina, go through customs, they kept giving me bad directions, I waited in a lot of pointless wrong lines and such before finally checking the bag. Then I had to somehow get from the part of the airport they'd sent me to to where Marina was which was probematic because she went a completely different way. Anyway, we ending up having a very random meeting wilst I was running the wrong direction and she happened to be walking toward me. Good thing. Anyway, we waited more (flight was delayed again) and then finally got onboard Aer Lingus to Shannon, Ireland. It was cool looking out over Ireland and England and the many many clouds and it still doesn't seem like i'm in Europe because we've barely ventured outside at all. Anyway, we got to Shannon and since we missed our hostel reservation, we were going to have to sleep in the airport. First we ate at this Cafe/Bar thing (Bars are different in Europe - family friendly - OK) and got a cold yucky sandwich for 5.96 E (about $7.50?) then after walking around awkwardly for a while and talking to a travel agent lady who kept asking us awkward questions like (well, where are you staying), we decided to pull some benches together in this little back corner under the stairs-ish kind of area and make a cool little sleeping place for ourselves (pics will come later). We couldn't really sleep well, though we sure tried, so we've been up pretty much the whole night just wandering around this little airport. And I must say, its kind of wierd being in an airport when it's all quiet and empty and the only people there are the staff and little colonies of sleeping people. I felt very much like a "seat of you pants" backpacker. Also wierd thinking that it's like 11pm at home and I'm really not quite sure which day I did what on or how long I've actually been in airports. Anyway, the cafe will open soon. At which time we'll probably get some breakfast and get all ready to catch the 8 o clock bus to Ennis. More later!
p.s. I can't put pics up yet because I'm not using my comp right now.
p.p.s. I can put picks up now! Here ya go:

By way of introductio...

Welcome to my blog. I've created this blog so I can keep everyone updated with what is going on with me without having to write letters to everyone! If you're here, you probably already know that I'm participating in a BYU Volunteer Program in Romania this fall and that I'm traveling a little bit around Europe too. Specifically, I'm going to Ireland, Scotland, Paris and London before going to Romania. During the program I'm going to Hungary as well. And lastly, afterward I'm going to Italy before heading back home on the 23rd of December. If all goes as planned I'll be writing about all my adventures on this blog every day! So just read the blog and I'll see you all when I get back!

P.S. Oh, and by the way, the picture is of the Palace of Culture in Iasi. My apartment is apparently right next to it!