This journal documents my travel in Europe from May 21, 2003 through June 12, 2003. At the beginning of May I was notified that I was nominated for an award at Les Trophees du Libre in Soissons, France. This was the first International Free Software Awards ceremony. As a nominee I was given a plane ticket to Soissons and a place to stay. As an added bonus I was able to pick the return date on the plane ticket and decided to stay about three weeks longer so that I could travel around Europe.
As this was my first trip to Europe seeing a number of countries and cities was a priority. During the trip I saw Paris, Barcelona, Milan, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and a number of smaller towns.
This travel log was composed entirely on my Palm pilot during the trip. I used the QED document editor for lack of any good free program, but it worked quite well. Once home I have gone over the contents to spell check it.
A few notes about the contents will help you to better understand what I'm
talking about. I live in Tucson, Arizona in the United States. Arizona is in
the Southwest region of the US just east of California. Tucson is in southern
Arizona and is in the Sonoran Desert. It's hot and dry, but I quite like it.
While a desert, it is significantly less bleak than what most people think of
as a desert. No Sahara here. That said, Tucson usually has at least 100 days
a year with a temperature over 100 F (38 C), though the humidity is typically
around 10-15%. Needless to say, Europe was quite a change.
My flight from Tucson to Dallas was delayed by 1h30. The plane I was on
had come from Dallas and actually had to return to Dallas due to some
technical problems that were fixed. The flight was okay and not very full.
The trip was short, but the plane could not stop at the terminal since another
plane was already there. After a 10 min. wait we got off. I had to actually
run to catch the next flight and the person at the gate was even calling my
name over the PA system. I barely made it but my luggage did not.
The flight to Paris was terrible. 9h30 on the plane in a seat not made for a tall person. I slept very little. Upon landing it was as suspected: my luggage was still in Dallas. The American Airlines people apologized profusely, gave me a bag of toiletries, and gave me a number to call to have my luggage delivered.
The train ride from the airport to Paris was 30 minutes and cost about €8. From Gare du Nord to Soissons, the train ride was 1h30 at a cost of €10. Quite cheap and fast.
I had apparently lost my paper with instructions on what to do once I arrived in Soissons. Luckily I remembered much of it so getting to Soissons was not hard. I wasn't sure what to do at the train station, though. I was supposed to be picked up and my paper had said when. I waited for a little while and then I asked someone in the train station for help. We looked in the phone book for CETRIL, but found nothing. I decided to check my email for the info, and the woman at the station suggested I try the Hotel du Ville. I later discovered this was really the local government offices, not actually a hotel. Nobody there spoke English.
Due to no small amount of serendipity I managed to find some small signs hanging up on some posts pointing the way to "Trophees du Libre". I followed the signs for a while. Unfortunately I ran out of signs when I found the truck that was hanging them up. The men in the truck spoke no English, but through energetic gestures I was able to indicate that I need to get to where ever the signs were to ultimately point. They pointed the way and I eventually arrived at the Centré Cultural. Very fortunately, there were people there who helped me. I was then taken to the CETRIL office.
Over time, other nominees arrived. I used their computers to check my mail. The computers used an AZERTY keyboard which slowed my typing considerably.
Later, some of us went for a walk in the city with a friendly guide who spoke English. Soissons has many old buildings including a beautiful (and large) cathedral. There was also another large old building. It looked like a church building, but during the war it had been an arsenal. The cathedral, I was told, is about 600 years old, though has been rebuilt once or twice.
Many of the old walls in the city show signs of bullet fire. Soissons, not far from the Maginot Line, was in the middle of both world wars as well as Napoleon III's conquest in the 1870's.
The city center was very interesting and full of many shops. Compared to some cities in the US, this one had several lingerie shops and many bakeries. I saw quite a few people carrying one or more loaves of French bread (which is also served at every meal).
That night, all the guests stayed at a very old chateau. The food was
"French only because it was being served in France," but it was okay.
The day of the awards ceremony. We all got on a bus to the Centré Cultural. In the morning there were speeches about Free software by Richard Stallman and Roberto Dicomo, and then a press conference at the Arsenal. As these were all in French, I didn't understand anything beyond some of the basic topics.
After lunch was the awards ceremony. By this time it was evident that the primary reason for the competition was to generate press for the efforts underway in Soissons. CETRIL and many local and regional political officials are trying to make Soissons a Free software capital as a way of reviving the local economy. Since this was the focus, very little time was spent discussing the nominated software projects. That said, I can understand their intentions. Also, this was the first competition and I'm sure it will be refined for next year.
The ceremony began with several short speeches, but fortunately there was a translator sitting near those of us who didn't speak French. While the awards were presented a pair of artists (twins) painted a large mural at the back of the stage. They wrote the name of each winning project on the painting.
Weasel Reader was in the "General Public" category and won first prize! On stage the announcer asked me a few questions about who I was and what I did in Tucson.
I think they were a little surprised that I was just a student and that there was no company behind Weasel's development. Along with a very nice Trophee du Libre, I also received a Sun LX 50 server. It is a rack mount machine and I'm not quite sure what I will do with it yet. Perhaps it will make a nice file server for home? After the ceremony there was a buffet and time to talk with the other attendees.
By 6PM my luggage had still not arrived and I could not take the bus back
to Paris. I stayed the night in a hotel just outside Soissons.
Francois, who works at CETRIL, called several places to track down my luggage. Apparently, the shipping company screwed up and couldn't find the Centré Cultural even though it's an easily found building in Soissons. American Airlines did authorize $200 for my expenses, though.
I ate lunch with Francois and talked about all manner of subjects from Free
software to astronomy. Afterwards, I bought a new shirt and other clothes and
washed the clothes I'd been wearing for three days. Then I slept for a very
long time.
Still no word about my luggage, though I did tell them where to deliver it tomorrow. I walked into Soissons, about 30 minutes away on foot. It seems France all but shuts down on Sundays. I did find an open bakery, though.
The TV in my room gets nine channels, all in French of course. If this is
indicative of TV elsewhere in France, then they seem to import many of their
shows. Of the imports, most were American with the others from Europe. There
was the Olsen twins' show (they're global now, I guess), Walker: Texas Ranger,
a terrible French reality show called "Nice People", and a French equivalent
of American Idol (very scary). Also, the French dub of Looney Toons is
awful.
The train ride to Paris was nice, in a very uncrowded train. Paris is immensely big. It sprawls like cities in the western US, except it is also very dense. Nearly all the buildings are at least six or seven stories high. Someone in Soissons told me that the Paris area has about 15 million people (1/4 of France).
I called the Aloha Hostel for directions and took the metro there. The hostel was in the southern area of Paris, not too far from the Eiffel Tower. The hostel wasn't that great, but I suppose it's typical. I'll try a different one next time. The other three people in my room were friendly. There were two Americans and one German.
You need to rent sheets for your bed if you didn't bring any. When I went out for dinner I tried to get some cash from an ATM only to find that my bank card didn't work. It works as a check/credit card, but not in ATM's. I tried a few other ATM's, but no luck. In the hostel I tried to call my bank, but it was Memorial Day in the US, so it was closed. Fortunately, there is a blanket on each bed in the hostel, so the sheets weren't really necessary.
I have no more Euros now, which is a problem. I'll try to withdraw from a
teller tomorrow instead of an ATM.
In the hostel, you get up when everyone else does because you can't sleep with the noise. Luckily I had gone to sleep early.
The shower was pretty bad, having a push button design which only turns on the water for three seconds. At least I got clean, because it broke immediately after I finished and the next person had to use a different shower.
After leaving the hostel, I walked to the Eiffel Tower, about 2km away. The walk was nice as was the temperature. Finding the tower wasn't too difficult because of its height, though I did have to guess a few times because the tall buildings hid it and the streets are a little maze-like.
The tower sits right on the river bank with nice large parks around it. It really is quite enormous and the four base pillars are grand indeed. I bought a ticket to the second platform, and then from there bought a ticket to the top. The top is significantly higher than the second platform and gives a great view. All up and down the tower could be seen men at work in climbing gear. They were rigging the tower with something, but I don't know what. After the tower, I sat in one of the adjoining parks for a while to eat.
At this point I really needed some cash, so I headed back to the Gare du Nord via the metro since there were a lot of businesses there. I got a cash advance with my bank card. Since it's not really a credit card, I think it will be just like a regular withdrawal. Hopefully no big fees when I get home.
I decided to leave Paris then. I wanted a ticket to Barcelona for Wednesday, but there were none left. Instead I got a ticket for today. I'll see the Louvre when I come back for the flight home.
The train left at 20:30 and the three others in my cabin didn't talk
much. One was a man from West Africa who works for Coca-Cola. He was on his
way home.
The train ride was pretty decent and we arrived in Barcelona at 8:30 in the morning. The train station in Barcelona is interesting because all the trains are underground, taking a tunnel underneath the entire city.
I know a little Spanish and it certainly helped. Being able to ask even simple questions, such as "Where is..." or "How much...", goes a long way towards making a better trip. I also got a nice city/metro map at the tourist desk. And, learning from before, I bought my next train ticket (to Milan) right away.
In front of the train station I caught a tourist bus. It was €15, a little high, but allowed riding all day. The bus let me see quite a bit of Barcelona, including Montjuic Hill, the 1920's world expo facilities, the 1929/1992 Olympic facilities, and the water front. This was my first sight of the Mediterranean Sea.
I got off the bus first at MNAC, the Museo Nacional d'Art de Cultural. It's a very large building built for the world expo sometime in the 1920's. Entrance for students was very inexpensive and the museum had a large collection of Romanesque and Gothic art spanning the 9th to 16th centuries. Unfortunately, the collection of Renaissance and more modern art was closed for renovation.
Back on the bus I stopped briefly at a garden and then got off at the Plaza Catalunya. The plazas in Barcelona are a nice feature over Paris. They're more open and you can see the shops more easily. Near the plaza I found a very nice and inexpensive Internet cafe. For students it was only €1.20/hour and the computers worked well.
I decided to try to find a hotel to stay in rather than a hostel since I hoped they would be relatively cheap in Barcelona. Unfortunately, there was some sort of fair or convention underway. Most hotels were booked and all rates were way up. I found that most of the hostels were full too. Fortunately, phone calls in Barcelona were very cheap, so I could call many hostels. I eventually found one in the Plaza Reial.
Barcelona exhibits a very day/night quality. The open areas with many people are usually very clean and nice. As soon as you step away from that, there is much more graffiti and twisty streets and alleys. These weren't too bad, though, just not as nice as the main areas.
The hostel I found appeared rather run down so I instead stayed at a one
star hotel a block away. It was €50 and the whole place was recently
painted and cleaned. The room was okay, but the bathtub was very small and
the shower didn't work.
I got on the metro to the waterfront. At one of the piers there is a very tall statue/monument to Christopher Columbus.
I decided that today I would visit L'Aquarium. Out on the pier is the Mare Magnum, the entertainment area. The aquarium was fairly large and fortunately nearly all descriptive signs were in English too. The best part was an underwater tunnel through the aquarium's biggest tank. The view was similar, though not as nice, as the underwater view port to the mini-ocean at Biosphere 2 or the main tank window at the aquarium in Charleston, South Carolina.
Afterwards I had a plate of octopus for lunch and headed over to the IMAX theater. I finally got to see their 3-D space station movie which I had missed in the US. The first movie was all about skiing and people engaging in "extreme" sports/stunts. The space station movie was great, even if it was el version de Castellano and I couldn't understand much. The visuals as 3-D were spectacular. You get a good idea of the huge size of the station, even in its under-realized state. The 3-D shots of the Proton and shuttle launches were very nice too.
Before catching my next train I stopped by the Internet cafe to make some phone calls. Their rates for these were cheap as well. I wanted to call American Airlines to demand an upgrade. I first called reservations, who told me they can't authorize that, but to try the luggage people instead. I called the luggage people in Paris who said they can't do it either. I should write to customer relations instead. I managed to get the phone number, but it was in Dallas and they were closed. I hate AA.
I boarded the train for Milan and found that none of the other three people in my cabin spoke English (they were all Italian). One spoke Spanish so we attempted a little conversation and managed a few questions.
A note about Castillian Spanish: The Spanish I know I learned in the US. I
often hear that such Spanish taught in schools is Castillian rather than
Mexican (or otherwise). This is definitely not true. Castillian Spanish has
quite a few different words and different pronunciations. One of which I was
already aware is that 'c' is spoken like 'th'. The end result is that everyone
sounds like they have a lisp.
The ride to Milan wasn't too great since two of the others in my cabin were frequently in and out until late and then again early in the morning.
Milan's train station didn't appear to be very tourist friendly as I couldn't find any place to get a map or info.
I bought a ticket to Paris on the TGV and then found a nearby hotel. This time the room was very nice. I wandered a bit and found a good Italian restaurant. The food was excellent and I found then when you just ask for water, what you get is a bottle of lightly carbonated water.
I returned to the hotel to fetch my camera and then headed downtown on the metro. I visited a 15th Century castle which was very large and impressive. It had been the stronghold of old Milan where the old city walls met. In the castle was a museum of antiquities and old art. They also had a very interesting collection of Egyptian artifacts, presumably collected when Europe controlled that area of the world and Egypt had yet to reassert itself. Next I headed back to the hotel to relax.
Italian TV was rather odd. There was a strange show called Ruseo, or
something like that, which at first had two song and dance numbers with
several women in lingerie and one man. Then they all ran around for one
minute with a gift box passing it around, but never opening it. Then
everybody and the audience started singing. A better title would have been
the Big Italian Freakout Show (no offense intended). The Italian dub of the
Simpsons was quite well done.
At 9:15 I got aboard the TGV train for Paris. I even had a 1st class ticket. The train was very comfortable and the ride was smooth and quiet.
The train was delayed for nearly two hours in a small town in Italy because 2000 protesters were blocking the tracks. They were protesting high speed trains because they were cutting up the mountains, though the impact, from what I could see, hardly seemed noticeable, especially with all the tunnels. Also, since this is in the mountains, the train travels rather slowly, and, being an electric train, isn't too noisy. Besides, the roads for vehicles appear to carve up the mountain much more.
When we crossed the border into France, I was in the dining car eating lunch. A border guard came through to check passports. Next to me was young man whom I suspect was from somewhere in Eastern Europe. The guard asked for his passport, but the man just showed him a ticket stub. The guard asked again in French, English, Spanish, and (I think) German, but the man never said a word. After calling another guard in, the man was escorted off the train.
The ride through the Alps was very nice. The mountains are quite beautiful. To my surprise, many of the higher peaks were still snow capped. I hadn't thought we were that high in elevation.
Once out of the mountains and onto the plains in France, the train really picked up speed. The TGV is fast. At speed the train was doing at least 200 kph. Needless to say, this really shortened the rest of the trip. Traveling that fast, the train does make quite a bit more noise, but the ride was still smooth.
In Paris I boarded the Metro to Gare du Nord to catch a Eurostar train to London. These trains have their own area at the station since at the end of the trip you will be in another country. This isn't unusual, but I suppose with the UK's odd position in the EU, it's understandable. They also stamp your passport in the station before boarding.
This train blasted across northern France at high speed as well. Soon we arrived at the Chunnel, which had a surprisingly plain entrance. Travel through the Chunnel took just over 20 minutes. Once in England I noticed that the train never traveled at high speeds. Perhaps the track there isn't properly equipped. In total, it was about three hours from Paris to London, and I had been on a train for about 12 hours by then.
From Waterloo station, I took the Underground to Tottenham Court Road station and walked to the hostel. The hostel was leaps and bounds above the hostel in Paris. It was Astor's Museum Inn, directly adjacent to the British Museum.
Just down the street on the other side of the museum was an Indian
restaurant where I had a very good meal. When I returned to the hostel my
three roommates had returned. They were three young women from Ireland, but
they were already in bed and didn't say much.
As it was Sunday and no banks were open, I could not withdraw any cash so my choices for activities were limited.
In the hostel I found a flier listing many of London's theaters. There were about 40 theaters within 20 minutes walk from the hostel.
I started walking towards the theaters. Near the museum, I stopped for lunch at an English restaurant called Munchkins. I had a shepherd's pie and enjoyed the food very much.
I walked down to Leister Square to a theater. It was one of the few open on a Sunday. The Reduced Shakespeare Company was playing "The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged)". It sounded like an interesting comedy so I bought a ticket. While biding my time until the start of the play, I wandered around the area. I walked over to Trafalgar Square. On the way I spotted Dr. Who's tardis just north of the intersection of Regent Street and Pall Mall.
Trafalgar square has some very nice statues and a huge fountain. At one end is the National Gallery. There were also a huge number of pigeons in the square. A little later, a man with a trained hawk arrived and scared most of the pigeons away. I'm not sure if he worked for the city or just enjoyed such activities.
At the appointed time I returned to the theater for the show. The theater was small, but nicely furnished with finely crafted woodwork. My seat was near the center only a few rows back. I enjoyed the play very much as did the rest of the audience. Behind me were some American tourists. Most were teenagers, accompanied by a few adults, and they were more than one family. Their conversation before they play was rather amusing:
"Nobody would tap my dad's car."
"What is your dad's car?"
"A Mercedes."
"What kind? I've seen Mercedes ice cream trucks here."
After the show I took the Underground from Piccadilly Circus to Baker Street. The London Underground is really an excellent subway. It's clean, well designed, and even nicely decorated. Unlike most subways, which lay a pair of tracks in a tunnel, the tunnels in the Underground are very aptly named tubes. Sometimes, as the train speeds up, you can actually feel your ears pop from the change in air pressure.
Once at Baker Street, I walked to 221B, the home of Sherlock Holmes, but it was closed. Nearby was Regent's Park. I decided to walk through it, thinking that once on the other side I should be close to the hostel. But, I did not yet have London well mapped out in my head, and after a long walk I was in Camden Town. The walk was nice, though, and there was a very light rain as I walked. Regent's park is quite large. I walked through Camden Town towards the Underground station and stopped for dinner along the way at a Japanese restaurant named Bento.
Back at the hostel my roommates didn't return until much later. They had
been out celebrating one of their birthdays.
Since the banks were now open, the first order of business was to withdraw some sterling. One hour and five banks later, I had some currency.
Next I went to a nearby laundromat as my clothes were all dirty by this time. The man running the laundry took his time returning from lunch, though, so this activity took longer than planned. Afterwards I ate lunch at another English pub and had a plate of sausage and mash (also very tasty).
I've noticed that there are quite a lot of fat people in England. Not nearly as many as in the US, but still too many. Perhaps this is one reason US/UK relations are so close. In this particular pub, two large women came in with an equally rotund and exceptionally ill behaved boy. He looked remarkably like Pugsley from the Adams Family.
After returning my bag to the hostel, I returned to theaterland to get tickets to an evening show of "The Madness of George Dubya" as well as tickets to a Tuesday matinee of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap".
I was left with a bit of time to kill, so I headed back to Waterloo station to buy a Wednesday train ticket to Edinburgh. Then I headed over to Abbey Road to take a picture of the now famous crosswalk. With the traffic, getting a good picture was a little difficult, but eventually I succeeded.
Nearby was the Lord's Cricket grounds which I walked to. Unfortunately it was closed so all I could get a picture of was the sign.
I whiled away the remainder of my time in a park near the Underground station by reading the Evening Standard.
You can, not surprisingly, learn a great deal about a place by reading the paper. I would like to have done this in other places, but there were no English papers elsewhere. The major developments in the UK were the pending announcement that the UK would still not join the common currency and the boiling debate over whether or not the PM had doctored the report about Iraq's weapons capabilities in order to gain support for the war. It took me a minute before I realized that "No 10" was referring to No. 10 Downing Street, just as the US media refers to the White House as meaning the current administration.
As the play time neared, I headed towards the theater and ate at an Italian restaurant across the street from the theater. At 7:30 I went to the play. It was a very biting satire on both the US and UK. The man playing Tony Blair was very good. The subtitle of the play was "Dr. Strangelove Revisited" and was very fitting as the play was a retelling of that story, reworked to fit current events (which it did rather well). One of the few somber moments of the play was when the Iraqi ambassador, Farriq Tazziz, explained why Arabs hated the West by listing all of the West-led screw ups that have taken place since WWI.
After the play I returned to the hostel and found that I had the room all
to myself that night. I finished reading the paper in the lobby amidst all
the idle conversation between people of various nations. Their major
preoccupation at the time (other than smoking... everybody smokes over here)
was learning profanity in the various languages that each knew. They also had
a lengthy discussion on the general melodic qualities of each language.
I slept in rather late today. When I finally rose I headed again to the theater area for the matinee, grabbing a hot dog along the way.
Today's play was Agatha Christie's whodunit "The Mousetrap". This had been playing in London for just over 50 years and there had been over 21000 shows. Quite a record. The play was quite good and I found the ending more than a little surprising.
Afterwards I headed over to Green Park via the Underground, picking up a newspaper in the station. I read in the park for quite a while and also watched several groups who were playing soccer. I attempted to use my yo-yo in the open areas, but it was windy and I quickly reconsidered that plan.
As it got later, I began walking back into the city looking for a restaurant. I soon found that this area of town was dominated by very expensive shops and almost no restaurants. As an idea of the wealth of businesses here, I even passed by Sotheby's. Eventually I found another Underground station and headed up to Camden Town as there were far more restaurants there. Even there I failed to find anything that looked decent, so back I went to Tottenham Court Road where I ate at Garfunkel's. It was more of a chain restaurant than a local place, but the food was good.
That night I had two new roommates arrive. They were two women who,
judging by their accents, were from France. But it was very late and we
didn't converse.
Up early today, I took the Underground to King's Cross station to catch my train. The trip was uneventful, but the scenery was excellent. The train followed a route along the eastern coast of England and passed several thousand sheep. Some cows and horses, but mostly sheep.
Edinburgh is a very beautiful city. The train station is roughly in the center of town. On one side is Old Edinburgh with many old and weathered buildings, while on the other side is the modern New Edinburgh. In the center of town on a large steep hill is the impressive Edinburgh Castle.
After figuring out where to catch the correct bus (no small feat), I headed to a hostel in the southern end of Edinburgh. I picked up a tourist map at the hostel and walked back towards town. I had hoped to visit the Royal Observatory, but was a little misled by the map. After asking for directions, I found that it was about two miles to the south in the hills. I couldn't make it that far before closing time so I took a bus back to the city center.
Along Prince's Street are the Queen's Gardens, overlooked by the castle. I walked through them and took a path that led around the castle. Unfortunately, the castle was already closed. I walked down the other side of the castle and caught a south bound bus, eating dinner at an Indian restaurant near the hostel.
I read in the commons room at the hostel before heading to bed. Later, two
of my other roommates arrived. They were the first "soccer hooligans" I had
met and were very loud as they came in. Luckily, being heavily inebriated,
they fell asleep quickly.
I had to rise very early today because my train left at 8:00 in the morning. I would have liked to stay longer in Edinburgh, but with a nonfunctional ATM card, I had to make sure I arrived in Ireland while banks were still open.
The train going south was nearly empty and picked up only a few people along the way. At Carlyle, an old couple got on and I had a nice conversation with the man. He was retired from British Railways. We talked about all manner of subjects including Margaret Thatcher, privatization, Britain's Winter of Discontent, and the French public sector strikes.
At Crewe I had to switch trains for Holyhead. I had a little time so I walked into town and at lunch at a fish & chips shop. It wasn't very good.
In Holyhead I boarded a huge ferry for Dublin. With all the wind, this was the first time during the trip that I was actually cold, and I finally got to use the jacket I brought along.
The ferry was enormous with two shops, a theater, and two lounges, but very few people. I finished reading the copy of The Guardian I had bought that morning. It's a good idea to explore the ferry because you'll be able to discover where all the people aren't.
In Dublin I took a bus to the city center and walked down to the O'Callahan bridge and checked into the Litton Street Hostel.
The hostel had fairly decent facilities, but the room I received smelled simply awful. One of the less intelligent patrons had decided to air out his shoes and socks. To do this he cracked open the window slightly and put the articles on the window sill. This had the effect of acting like a filter, befouling all the air entering through the window.
I ate next door at the restaurant attached to the Arlington Hotel. A bit pricey, but the food was very good. There was also a live band playing all manner of Irish music. They were very good and played a number of songs I'd heard the Dubliners do (on CDs, of course). My meal was a large bowl of Irish stew and I topped it off with a pint of Guinness. I never drink, actually, but I figured I couldn't very well come all the way to Dublin and not have any Guinness. Guinness is... pretty good. But after a certain amount, it begins to taste less good. Perhaps the taste becomes better once you've had several.
There were also, briefly, some dancers from a local Irish dance school.
The dancers were children, but quite skilled. Traditional Irish dancing
involves a lot of hopping and fast foot work while keeping your upper body
nearly motionless.
After a smelly night at the hostel, I decided to leave Dublin for the country. In the hostel I had flipped through the Independent Hostel Guide and found a listing for the Jamaica Inn near Limerick.
Before leaving, though, I had to stop by the bank for some cash since Ireland uses Euros. This time I only needed to visit two banks.
I then took a bus to Heuston station to catch my train. The ride was uneventful and lasted a little under three hours. The coach had almost no air circulation and it got very warm.
In Limerick I bought a round trip bus ticket to Sixmilebridge for €6.30. The bus ride was a bit more troublesome than it should have been. I didn't know where Sixmilebridge was and quickly missed the stop. The driver said he would drop me off on the way back. The bus drove all the way to the Shannon airport, so it was about an hour later when we again passed the stop. This time I thought the driver would stop, but he passed it again.
The driver suggested I wait for the next bus in about 30 minutes, which I did. This driver, however, was kind enough to inform me that these buses didn't actually go to Sixmilebridge, but rather stopped at the turn off to the town. It was another four or five miles from there. Armed with this new information, I opted to take a cab instead for about €20. The cabbie was most friendly and we had a nice conversation on the way.
Sixmilebridge is a short distance northwest of Limerick in County Clare. It's a very small country town centered around a small river. In fact, there were only four pubs, that's how small it was.
The hostel, the Jamaica Inn, was very near the town center. It was the best hostel so far and inexpensive at only €14 per night for a dorm bed. The facilities were also new and clean. It was a very welcome change.
The town had only two restaurants and at eight o'clock, when I had arrived,
one was already closed. So I ate at the other, Min Lin, a Chinese
restaurant. I had asked the hostel owner, a very friendly man, for
suggestions. He mentioned the two restaurants and said there was also a chips
place, but warned that it was only okay as long as one steered clear of
anything with meat. I decided that it was best to heed his advice.
I had a small breakfast and then studied a map of Clare County in the lobby. I wanted to hike up to the top of a nearby hill, 310 meters elevation according to the map.
By following a road out of town, I could find a small stream and follow that up the hill. I did this, but to my dismay I found that all of the land was fenced in with large hedge walls, or blocked with gates and no trespassing signs. If I lived in the area, perhaps I could have gone anyway, but being a foreigner I decided not to press my luck. I stuck to the country roads and walked about six kilometers in all.
When I returned to town I purchased some post cards at the local store. They did not have any with pictures on them, unfortunately. All they had was a booklet of blank cards. I wrote five of these to friends back in the States using some stamps I had bought before leaving Dublin. I wrote the postcards at a little park area adjacent to the river. This was where all the ducks and geese congregated.
In the evening I decided to eat at the local pub, the only other restaurant in town. When I arrived I was informed by the owner that the cook had to go home early because he was very sick. So I got some takeout from the Chinese restaurant again.
Going to sleep was a little more difficult than it should have been. There
was another person in my room who was leaving very early in the morning to
catch a plane from Shannon and he was busy packing (and taking his time doing
it). Eventually the hostel owner came in and suggested he wrap things up so
we could all get some sleep.
Now my trip is starting to wrap up. Checkout was at 11:00 so I rose and ate my leftovers for breakfast. When I had arrived, the hostel owner had said he would give me a ride to the nearest bus stop so I could get back to Limerick.
We arrived at the bus stop in Bunratty about two minutes after the bus had been there so I had to wait for the next one which was about two hours later. To bide my time I went across the street to the Bunratty Woolen Mills shopping plaza. It consisted of a few stops intended for tourists. Not exactly my thing, but it did give me something to do. While there I bought a postcard to send to my grandmother and I also managed to find a very nice wool scarf. Tucson, of course, is certainly not ever cold enough to really need a scarf, but when I ride my scooter at upwards of 50 mph, it makes for a much more pleasant ride in the winter.
This time the bus ride was uneventful and I arrived at the Limerick train station to catch my train with about an hour to spare. My train to Dublin actually traveled via Limerick Junction (which is surprisingly far from Limerick) where all of us destined for Dublin had to switch trains. The train ride was just fine, though the coaches had a few peculiar features. My coach was just fine, but when I went to get a snack I had to walk through most of the train since I was near the front. As I walked I passed through a coach that was stiflingly hot and I also passed through the only smoking coach. That was a scary sight. There was precious little circulation so the entire coach was filled with smoke. A lot of smoke. I was glad to be through it.
In Dublin I tried a few hostels near the train station, but they were full. I didn't want to go far since the ferry leaves early Monday morning and I don't know the layout of Dublin. I ended up staying at a hotel near the train station. The accommodations were very nice at a price of about €88. Quite a bit higher than a hostel, but at least it was comfortable.
I partook of a couple episodes of the Simpsons (in English too) since it
was now late evening and there was no time left for exploration. Afterwards I
walked into the city to eat. I attempted to go again to the restaurant at the
Arlington Hotel, but when I arrived they had just stopped serving dinner. I
walked across the O'Callahan bridge looking for a good place to eat, but most
were either unappetizing or done with dinner. North across the bridge again,
I eventually found the Oval Bar, a nice authentic Dublin pub. It was a rather
typical pub with the late evening drinkers (all old men, of course), though
not quite so dim and dank. They did, however, have an excellent beef stew
which I enjoyed with another pint of Guinness.
The day for travel back to London. I walked over to the bus terminal only to find that the bus to the ferry port leaves very infrequently and wouldn't leave again for a couple of hours. With that time frame I would miss my ferry so I took a cab instead. The cab was quite cheap though, at only €7 for the ride.
Like the first ferry trip, this one was smooth and uneventful. After commenting to the bartender in the forward lounge that the price for a soda was astronomical, he was nice enough to let me have a pint soda instead for the same price.
In Holyhead I once again found that I had a little spare time before the train was to leave. Just north of the train station were a few pubs so I ate lunch there before hurrying back to the train station. The trip to London lasted a few hours while I enjoyed the scenery in Wales (very very green). In London I took the Underground to Tottenham Court Road and checked into the same hostel I had before.
By this time I really wasn't feeling all that well. I seem to have picked
up a cold yesterday, but it's not too bad. I ate dinner at Munchkins since
it was close and I didn't really feel like wandering through the city. I had
an English Hot Pot which is a dish of small vegetables, meat, and gravy with
some slices of potato served on top. It was good, but not as good as the
shepherd's pie.
The day for travel back to Paris. I was not in much of a rush this morning since the train was scheduled for 1PM. Unfortunately, my cold has only become worse and I don't feel so well. I ate lunch at Munchkins and had a very large avocado sandwich while reading the paper.
I took the Underground back to Waterloo station and was running just a bit late, but upon arriving I found that the public sector strikes in France were causing mayhem with the Eurostar trains. The two trains bound for Paris preceding mine had been canceled. My train was still okay, but had been delayed. The delay was not too long, though. I read a bit on the trip back to Paris.
When I arrived in Paris I found that the strikes had caused the Metro to be running very slow all day. I certainly didn't want to miss my plane back home so I decided it was best to stay near to the train station since that was where the RER to the airport would leave from. I called quite a few hostels before finding one near Gare du Nord. I began walking towards it when I realized that I was feeling very bad. I then decided to stay instead at a hotel I had just passed (which was even closer to the station). The room was €65 and rather small, but the bed was comfortable.
After checking in I walked further down the street to find someplace to eat
dinner. I eventually found a nice sushi restaurant. The waiter only spoke
French, of course, but since the names were Japanese, I could at least read
the menu in some limited capacity (having eaten sushi plenty of times
before).
The day for travel back home. I hurried from the hotel, feeling even worse today than yesterday, to the Gare du Nord. I found that the RER, and probably the Metro too, were in quite some disarray with many of the workers on strike. Many of the schedule screens were not on, but several whiteboards were placed around to direct passengers to the proper trains. I also could not find a place to buy a ticket, which in the end did not matter since the gate to the trains was wide open. The trains themselves were very packed with commuters since there were so few trains today. After a 30 minute ride I was again at the Charles de Gaulle airport. After leaving the RER, I had to hop over the exit gate since I had no ticket.
Much to my dismay, I found that boarding for international flights, at least on American Airlines, stops a full 45 minutes before the flight actually leaves. Because the trains had been so off schedule, I had just missed the flight to Dallas. The airline people were, surprisingly, quite helpful and quickly had me set up for a flight to Tucson via Chicago.
Check in was a bit of an odd procedure. At this terminal it was a three step process. Step one was to talk with a security woman who asked me a great many questions about where I had been, where I had stayed, how I had traveled, who I visited, who bought the plane ticket, and many more. I went along with this interrogation, but when she was done I asked her what this was for. She told me that it was to screen for terrorists. Very very lame, indeed. The next step was to show my bag to a second security person. I opened it and he looked it. He could easily realize that it was fully and tightly packed so he just gave it a quick check, not wanting to have all the trouble of repacking it. Finally, I was able to give my bag to the woman at the counter.
The Chicago flight left much later than the Dallas plane so I had several hours to wait in the airport. I ate an expensive lunch in the airport which really didn't taste all that bad. Then I bought several magazines and proceeded to the gate to wait some more. While at the gate I made my last attempt to gain a first class upgrade for my luggage troubles. But, of course, by this time first class on an international flight was already full. I really hate American Airlines.
The flight to Chicago was exceptionally long. The movies were awful and so was the food. Since it was midday, I got no sleep on the plane. In Chicago all passengers must go through customs with their bags even if connecting to another flight. This mean picking up my bag, waiting in the customs line, then waiting in the line to re-check my bag. Having done this I boarded a tram from the international terminal over to American Airlines main terminal.
More waiting. I bought a muffin and a brownie and read some more. The flight to Tucson was on a much smaller plane and was completely full. Much to my surprise, I was only three seats away from Dr. Fink, a professor who works at the Lunar and Planetary Lab at the University of Arizona. I have been working with him for quite some time on the University's Cubesat program.
Eventually I reached Tucson, and picked up my bag. The baggage clerk for
American Airlines couldn't give me a check tonight since they were already put
away, so I'll have to go back later. I'd been up for over 22 hours and wasn't
about to argue with anybody. At least I made it home, very tired and sick.
Thus ends my European journey. It really was a great deal of fun, even if I did come home with a bad cold. This is definitely something I'd like to do again, hopefully I will be able to visit other countries like Germany, or other large cities like Madrid or Rome.
The good news is that I've collected so many frequent flier miles from this
single trip (and the bonus from lost luggage) that I should have enough for
another ticket to Europe. Huzzah!