the summer before i came to college i went on a 40 day euro trip with my brother. we went to dublin, spain (malaga, cordoba, granada, madrid, barcelona, san sebastion, pampalona, figueres), greece (athens, corfu, ‘that mountain town we ate breakfast in’, delphi), amsterdam, & london. we did the whole trip on a VERY tight budget.
we began to write a journal…it lasted for about 2 days. none the less its a nice memory shock. I hope to post many blentries from my upcoming time in germany (departing auf 31!).
EURO MEMOIR
DAY 1 - Dublin
we arrived at the airport at 755 am well rested - but a little nervous. we grabbed our backpacks off the belt and began marching in random directions with no which way to go. once outside we discovered we would need to purchase a €5 one day rambler ticket. on the bus we went to the second floor of a double decker bus. from that height we could observe a nice veiw of the city as well as the wild driving habits of the city’s bus drivers. 15 minutes into the bus ride we realized we had no idea where we should get off or the location of our youth hostal. we got off in the temple bar area - one we had read about and thus assumed was close to our hostal. we climbed down the bus with our 50 lbs packs and began our aimless march once again. it was 815 when we got off the bus and 25 minutes later when the streets began to fill we were able to find soeone to ask drections from. two attractive girls were standing infront of a shop handing out tickets for free coffee - seemed like a win-win situation. even though they werent able to direct us to our hostal,we took our coupons and decided to get our free coffees despite the fact that neither us was tired or coffee drinkers. we crossesd the liffey river and got our drinks from the stand. we began walking asking questions every couple of blocks since we were unable to decode the irish - english we traveled what we found later to be several spirals around our hostal. Having only eaten a weak meal on the airplane the coffe began to take its toll. with our stomachs going wild from the coffe and our backs sore from all the walking we finally found our hostal.
The Irish hippy who worked at the front desk of the four court youth hostal told us we couldnt get to our rooms, more importantly- our beds until 4 oclock- 3.5 hours later. we set down our bags in secure area in the basement, explored the hostal then toured the city a bit and grabbed 2 sandwiches to bring back to the hostal. then returned to the hostal and found two couches to rest on. after an hr i woke up and went to the room next door where residents can shoot pool / watch tv. i played with two irish kids and a canadian. two games later david came in and shot a couple of games. after everyone had spent enough of their 50 cent peices on pool we sat and discussesed what to do and where to go in dublin. we asked about the pub crawl we had heard so much about found they felt that the crawl could be done without paying be a part of a group but was an excelent way to meet other backpakers. at this point our rooms were ready so we went to our room. it was a 14 person room with nobody in it. david had a bottom bed, i had a top several bunks over. it was 4 oclock so we decided to get some rest before our the crawl that night.
when we woke up at 730 we realized we hadnt eaten anything since earlier that morning but we decided we shouldnt stop to get food at the risk missing of missing the crawl. so we quickly got dressed and headed to trinity university, the starting point for the crawl. as we came near the meeting location a man with an australian accent in bum’s clothing and ski hat asked us if we were a part of the pub crawl and if so we should every one else and introduce our selves. the first pub we went to was one on the Trinity school campus. we were told that it was the cheapest if we bought 4 at a time, so not to dissapoint our guide, we did. we bought a 4 pack of bavarian beer, their cheapest brand. we then went outside, sat on the large stone stes leading up to bar over looking a field where a team practiced cricket. to our right sat cassandra from australia and a boy from the states. we spoke with them for a while, i then turned to my left in an attempt to speak with some native Irish folk. i asked a question about the game going on in front of us which led to a half hour disccussion about the game, how terrible the players in front of us were, the cost of tuition for Trinity (free) versus one in the US, and other strories about living in dublin. that night we went to 6 pubs. we decided to sit out the third pub and get some food. we went with casandra to a pricy italian food restaurant and ordered two mini pizzas and bread which somehow amounted to 32. the last place we went to was a dance club called fireworks. while in there we found that boys and girls tended to dance in their own separate groups- kind of odd.
After an hour or so we decided to leave the group and we followed our tour guide’s (who seemed to be a bit intoxicted) directions for about a half an hour until the city the friendly city we had gotten to know was far behind us. after rejecting the possibility of hitchhiking we asked a passerby the quickest way back to the temple bar area.
DUBLIN - Day two
Today we went to howth, a city north of Dublin. twenty minute train ride. beatiful cliffs over lookong the ocean with large pastel houses lining the coast.
at night we went to brazen head, the oldest pub in Ireland. i decided to try the guiness again and my brother got an ale. we went to a room in the back of the bar where a group was playing some jazz music with an irish twist. we began to talk to a man in his late forties about the music, the government in ireland vs that of the US; specifically how the frivolous law suites that are regularly tolerated in the US wouldnt fly with more blunt / realist supreme court judges of ireland. afterwards we headed across the street to another bar, also quite old but much more active. the crowd was generally 40 +, but an enthisiastic one nonetheless. there was a live band playing and a group people swinging parters around in a circle then systematically switching up pairs according to the music.
afterwards we headed to the temple bar area and found several clubs which proved to be much better and lively than those from the previous night.
DUBLIN Day two
two day we walked arond the city for the last time and found a very interesying archeological museum. it tools clothes and weapons dating back 4000 years. it showed the gradual evolution in weapons used in ireland. after we walked back past our hostal and ate lunch across the street from the brazen head. we ordered a soup, fries and a salmon entree which totalled to €17 somehow. ok food but the salmon dish ended up being locks sitting on a heap of zesty cream cheese with two rolls.
after we grabbed our bags from the hostel and went to take the bus to the airport. we had gotten there fifteen minutes so as not miss it and we saw it come rolling up to our stop driver sped by shaking his finger. broke, frustated and exausted we decided to sit a building ledge until the bus came an hour later. in the meantime we dropped a basball cap down infront of us while we sat with our heads down and our enormous packs at oursides - just to see what ould happen. 10 minutes later someone had dropped €4 in the hat; after being amazed at how easy that was by the guilt of taking another person’s money who might have needed it more than us (but we reasured ourselves by rembering how we regularly gave change to people on the streets who asked).
finally the bus came and we departed for airport. when we arrived wefound hat it was packed with others sleeping there that night aswell. a mixture of backpackers and those whose plane’s had been delayed. after scouring the airport for the most comfortable benches we found an empty 8ft one in the departures area which we would share. we each ate an extremely tasty roll of bread with jam and butter (which we took thinking they were free but later found they werent), dessert tea cackers and a granola bar and apple then pulled out our sleeping bags and attempted to go to sleep. airport departures terminals have about a 3 hour window in which they are semi-quiet (130 - 430) otherwise its like sleeping in a zoo. 445 i sat up on the bench frusrated that i couldnt sleep and a man sat down immedialty next to me. as my eyes adjusted to the brightness of room i saw another man who looked tired and eager to sit down, so ioffetedhim my seat as i packed up sleeping bag. 20 minutes later david got up, we had crackers and an orange for breakfast and prepared to depart enroute to Malaga.
7/2 - malaga
food- whole fresh beats, canned tuna, and tomato all from ‘opencor’
went to the one armed cathedral and alcazaba with the guys (historians) from belgium
7/3 - malaga
went to visit a castle then on the way home we cut off the road and headed in the direction of the beach. we ended up walking down this hill through bushes and backyards until we got the beach. we basically saw the beach destination and we made our way in that direction.
At night at the hostal we asked two spanish speaking guys about what there is to do at night in malaga. they just muttered to each other in spanish then just stood up and walked to the stairway down to reception. there they told us about the various places we could go in the area. we thanked them both for their help returned to our rooms. 5 min later he came back and told us about a neat spot that they were going to. the place was called ‘benalmadenas’ [i think] we asked how to get there and he said he was driving. we asked if we could have a ride and he apologized saying the car was full. an hr or so later he knocked on our door and and said his friend would make to trips in order to give us a ride. we were shocked by this gesture of kindness. we felt bad taking the ride but were eager to see what benalmedinas was like. we accepted. he said there was one conidition though…he could not garuntee us a ride home. we werent worried, we would figure that out later. we got ready and packed into a little hatchback. his friends didnt seem to thrilled about taking the two trips so it was a quiet ride as far as the other friends, but the kind guy, i beleive he was from madrid, was very friendly. when we got there we realuized it was an areaa just full of hotels bars clubs and resteraunts all packed side by side by the beach. we went to a couple bars and clubs and eventually were ready to sleep. we figured we would sleep on the beach and worry about getting back to malaga city tommorow. we slept on the beach. Mike awoke to find a huge black guy standing over him. the man startled said “why u sleep here??!!” at this point i wake up as well. mike yelled something back like “what?! why do u care!” and the man walked away. he was no doubtedly about to rob us in our sleep. lucklily we woke up. started be the situation we decided to get up and find a better place to sleep or wait a couple hrs till sunrise. we jumped fence to one of the amazing hotels that lined the water, and layed down on some beach lounges around there pool area. the whole time we were worried we would get in trouble and still shaken up by our near robbery, we didnt really get to sleep. in the morning we walked around around and found where to get on the bus back to malaga. the bus was gross. a bunch of people who had just partied and sweat the night before. girls makeup was half dripped offf there faces. we finally made it back to malaga.