1/9/11-1/29/11 Ireland

OKAY SO!

Ireland. Trip was amazing.

Had to chill in Heathrow for like 6 hours for my layover, which sucked really bad because I hadn't gotten any sleep. I kept like nodding off on a bench and then waking up a minute later freaking out cause I thought I missed my flight. Finally though I flew over to Dublin.

Stayed in Dublin forrrrr 5 or 6 days. The city was cool, and city life seemed very similar there as it seems in New York, with slight differences. The first day I got there I slept... like the whole day, I literally think I slept 24 hours, which was amazing at the time, but reeeeeally shitty when I woke up. Took me the whole to get on a good sleeping schedule. Went sightseeing and pretty much just walked around til we got lost really. There is this a lot of amazing architecture there, like Christ Church and Dublin Castle and St. Patricks. Took a lot of really nice pictures that my sister has to upload. All in all I think the best part about Dublin was it's history, there are so many interesting historical places. Also we went into this museum and they had recovered these 3 corpses from like the 1600's that got preserved in local bogs, which somehow has some amazing preservative quality, because the corpses were so intact you could see details like facial hair. Really weird, first time I've ever actually seen a dead body I think...

So yeah, by day we explored, and by night we went to Pub's and whatnot. The Irish stereotype, unfortunately, is quite true, and people drink A LOT there haha, but I felt it was a lot more laid back than it is here. There's a college there called Trinity College, which was BEAUTIFUL, but so the night life was very college-like, especially in this area called Temple Bar, which is where everyone suggested we went. Explored a lot of Pubs, eventually chose to stay at this one called Gogarty's because there was live performances every night with traditional Irish music. This other pub I really liked just outside of Temple Bar, but it was really like... old-man bar haha, I soon found that hanging out with old Irish people was actually a great time as well though.

pub music from Jordan Rebolini on Vimeo.

One night my sister fell asleep but I was restless so I wandered down to Gogarty's alone and along with music this guy and girl were doing sick Irish step dancing, and it was awesome everyone was loving it.

step from Jordan Rebolini on Vimeo.

bar tap from Jordan Rebolini on Vimeo.

Drank some Guinness (which is also true of the stereotype, everyone in Ireland drinks Guiness,) and some whiskey and met some obnoxious American people and then turned in, but I'm glad I went out by myself haha I was feeling very nervous for the first couple of days but I think that that really helped me get comfortable with being in a different country and meeting people and whatnot.

Also, in Dublin, I discovered that cider drinks are my favorite things in the entire world. Hope I can find some good American ones.

So that was pretty much Dublin, there isn't MUCH to say about it, overall I rarely got the feel of being anywhere out of the country, because most cities are like most other cities. It was charming though in some places, and people were very nice. Our hostel room was just us two the whole week and then the last night this guy Ross moved in, and he is the nicest guy in the ENTIRE WORLD and we met up with him a week or so later elsewhere in Ireland.

After Dublin we hopped on a bus and drove over to Sligo, which was a much smaller and more quaint little area. It was still urban-esque though, I really liked Sligo, and had amazing history as well. W.B Yeats lived there (my dad's favorite poet,) so he made us promise we would go to his grave site up by this church a ways outside of town. It was a little anticlimactic, but I did get a sweet collection of his poems and I like them. Everyone in Sligo swears by him haha it's funny, there's like statues and memorials and whatnot. In Sligo we couchsurfed with these 3 French exchange girls who were the nicest ever. Very hospitable, didn't speak much english, which was comical a lot of the time, but other times made things sort of difficult. We took them out for food and drinks and I enjoyed them a lot. Every French girl I met in Ireland all said the same thing; shirts and skirts in Ireland are a lot smaller haha, I thought that was really funny especially because they never failed to bring it up.

One night in Sligo, then we bussed to Tralee, and met up with this guy named Vinny who we were couchsurfing. Vinny was a fucking boss. He was like 6 foot 6 lanky redheaded guy, real nice and all, cooked us a great soup, took us through town, took us to get groceries, introduced us to his friends. Later on in the night he invited these two Swedish girls we had met earlier, (one of which Vinny described as a "proper lesbian," as opposed to the other girl who was just a lesbian. Not quite sure of the difference, but proper is a cool word,) and we all drank and had a good time, but I was too tired to go out with them. Also cool lingo Vinny used that I liked, the word "class," to say something is good, and the phrase "dead handy." But yeah pretty much Vinny was only to be described as a boss and he let us keep our luggage there to save us money and encouraged us to come back on the 22nd for a rockin' party. Good night's rest, threw on my hiking gear, and set off in the morning.

ireland hike from Jordan Rebolini on Vimeo.

(These clips aren't in any particular order, I just threw them all together as to not post like 50 separate 30 second videos up.)

SO! The hiking trip was amazing. The route we took was called the Dingle Way, which is an 8 day hike if you follow the guides, but we wanted to do it in 7 so we could get back and go to Vinny's party. The first day was a bit underwhelming at first, and I really just couldn't wait to get out of inhabited areas and be somewhere just completely out of the way, and that came about quite soon. The first day we walked alongside this amazing mountain, the second tallest mountain in the Dingle peninsula (second to Brandon, the second tallest mountain in all of Ireland.) Saw SO MUCH SHEEP as expected but sadly realized soon we were probably never gonna get to chill with any because they ran away when you got too close. Along the mountain were a lot of strange like, old foundations and things we couldn't really figure out, but I'm assuming were significant in some sort of Irish history. there were also a lot of ruined buildings, ruined churches, etc. I haven't seen the pictures yet but I'm sooo pumped. We stopped hiking in this town called Camp, and Camp is really sort of where all the greatness started happening. We had contacted a bed and breakfast, but of course we had no idea where it was, so we went in a gas station and asked an employee, who was talking to a woman we had seen power walking earlier. They informed us that by foot the place was an hour away, and then without us even asking, started calling a bunch of people asking if there was any open places closer they knew of. The power walking lady got off and said that she found a place and her friend ran it and was gonna come pick us up, and then power walked out of the store haha. I never expected them to have been so helpful and like genuinely kind, but as the trip went on I kind of found out that that's just how people are in Ireland. Whenever you need anything or start talking to anybody, they will drop whatever else is going on in their lives and you become like, the center of their universe. So this guy came to pick us up, his name was John, and he turned out to be American, at least by birth. He lived in New York for a while too, and was a big Bears fan so he told me we should watch the game later and go out and get a beer. He was SO COOL and nice haha, and the place he ran was amazing. Also, in Ireland, I guess it's sort of a mannerism to repeat peoples names a lot when their talking to them? And with the Irish accent my name sounds like "JAHR-din," which is fucking sweet. Me and John quickly became BOYS, and me and my sister went to get food at the pub across the street and went to the next pub over to meet up with him and have drinks and watch his dad play music, but we couldn't find him. We went back to the house to see if he was there but we still couldn't find him, and then we fell asleep, and I was pissed, because John was my boy, and I wanted to hang out with him.

The next day he cooked us a traditional Irish breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, eggs, cereal, toast, blood pudding (DISGUSTING AND IT'S ACTUALLY MADE OF BLOOD AHHHH,) yogurt and tea.) Then he offered to drive us back to the path we were hiking, and gave us both his number in case we were in the camp area and needed to get picked up, or if wanted to come with him to Kilarney one time to hang out. Seriously, SUCH a nice guy, and that reminds me that the guy Ross (in our Dublin hostel,) gave us his number as well, and was like "I live in central Ireland, and it's 2 hours from anywhere pretty much, so if you ever need anything gimme a call and I'll come get you. SO FUCKING NICE!

Next day was the hike to Anascaul, and this was my second favorite day. Hiked through peat bogs and a conifer forest and the landscape was amazing. We were sort of in a valley between two mountains and for some reason natural Irish grass on its plains is like really well-kept-looking, it was picturesque. Played the Irish tin whistle a bunch haha. Anascaul was my least favorite town, it wasn't nearly as welcoming as the others, but the hostel was alright and I even got to check my e-mail and stuff, and we got some pretty good food at a pub. Pretty drained though, and we didn't go out and do anything, anyway there wasn't much to do there.

Day 3 was the hike to Dingle, which was first disappointing, because for the first 5 miles or so we were on farm roads near houses and I was really just all about the trail hiking, but I grew to appreciate it because being by farms meant seeing a lot of sheep, and a lot of horses, and a lot of cows and one weird thing we couldn't really classify, it was like a donkey mule horse cow, and when we pet it it tried to eat us. I think this was also the day I realized that I have no idea what to do if a dog charges at me, because it happened, and if the dog had any intent to kill me it would have certainly accomplished that. SCARY SHIT, but the owner finally came and got the dogs (there were 6 of them,) and we quickly left that area haha. Finally Dingle town was in sight, and on the long walk down the mountain towards it, THE BEST PART OF THE TRIP EVER HAPPENED. This fucking sick sheep like baa'd at us and came up close to the fence and like, HOPPED UP ON IT, but it wasn't really a fence it was a stone wall and I couldn't reach it, so I went a little further down and hopped in and I pet the SHIT OUT OF THAT SHEEP, for like 5 minutes, and hugged it and it was pretty much everything I could've ever dreamed of. Fuck yeah, sheep.

Dingle town was THE BEST, it wasn't big but it had everything you could need, and it was the kind of place where everyone who lived there was there their whole lives, so everyone knew each other and everyone had their own little niche and it was awesome. We couch surfed with this guy named Greggoire (also in the part of Ireland we were in, Gaelic was the first language, but luckily everyone spoke english as well.) Greg was the man, he was like 50 I think? He was such a nice welcoming man, he had like 9 kids with a couple different wives and his relationship history was INCREDIBLY complex but he was on great ties with everyone and all his kids and even some of the kids that his wives had had without him, they still all stayed with Greg for a bit out of the week. We met a couple of his kids and they were so nice and called him dad (one wasn't actually his kid I don't think.) Greg also had an amazing past of traveling, and showed us all the places and pictures he's been and the pilgrimages he's done and whatnot. Cooked us a good meal, gave us all the tea we could ever want, and let us crash on his couch.

Woke up, got a decent breakfast, and headed out to Dunquin, the most western point of the peninsula. This was sort of where things got really hairy and semi ruined haha. It was by far the most beautiful day of hiking. We hiked Mount Eagle, which was beautiful, and all day was just amazing landscape and wildlife. At the top of the mountain we came upon 3 horses, who I really don't think could have had owners... we were very far from any property. Anyway they were three beautiful horses and we walked with them for a while and it was amazing. I loved this day so much. Describing the landscape is impossible, and even capturing it on video and picture is impossible. There were a lot of great cliffs and views of the bay/ocean, it was all like too beautiful. We were rounding the mountain and about to come near Dunquin and it started getting dark out. The original plan was we were gonna hike around Dingle for another day, explore a bit, and stay at Greg's house an extra night, but in an effort to finish the hike in just 3 more days to get to Vinny's party, we set out and traveled a bit longer than usual. So with the original plan we were gonna call this lady who owned a B and B in a town called Ballyferiter, near Dunquin, and she would pick us up and take us to her place to stay. BUT she didn't answer in the morning, and the route we took detoured around the only other town before Dunquin... so we figured we would just make it to Dunquin and call her and hope it wasn't too late, and if it was we would just find a place there to stay. That, however, was a terribly misguided plan, as we soon found out that not only were there no more than 3 stores in Dunquin, all of them were closed for the winter. So it was dark now and we were planning for a night of camping, which we were wanting to do anyway, but then also realized all we had was 3 special K bars, and since there was nowhere open we couldn't stock up. So it was a pretty scary situation, and of course my Bear Grylls mode kicked in (a mode I definitely do have (not really),) and made the executive decision for us to walk until we found civilization or until we had to sleep, then we would wake up, eat our special k bars, and do the same thing the next day. Bear Grylls would be proud, and also I was pumped to try and start a fire WITH TWO STICKS.

But, we came upon a pub, and it was open, and we went in and asked if we could get food or a bed, and both of which she couldn't do for us.

So now we had 3 Special K bars, a chocolate bar, and some drinks. As we were discussing our situation I guess the guy next to us caught on, and he started talking to us about his adventures and his life and whatnot. He was a pretty interesting guy, he was about 65, and was American as well. He was traveling with his 2 friends, and they were traveling folk musicians (I later found out that, as it turns out, he's a pretty big deal in the traditional American folk scene.) Jack, Pat and Rosie were their names, and after talking a bit and having a couple drinks he told us to come with them, and that he would cook us a nice hot meal and take us to an open place to stay. So obviously we said yes, and we got in his car, and he was like we gotta make a quick stop first. Then he took us to this beach... it was in between two cliffs, like some secret cove or something, and it was a full moon and it was incredible. They hung out and they were honestly so cool, they were running around and acting as if they were our age or even younger and it was amazing. Apparently the night before was Pat's birthday, and they came to this beach and lit a fire and drank a bottle of whiskey, and he said it was the best night of his life. It was all like really amazing, and I got like really worked up ,and I don't really know why haha, they just seemed like the happiest people I've ever met and just genuine and kind. I guess I was just overwhelmed by it all and it made me happier then I think I've ever been ever.

We got to his house and they put a fire up and he cooked us delicious lamb stew, and we sat and talked and drank tea and they all told us stories and we talked about music and the old folk scene they helped to create and they were all three of them so interesting. They took us out to a town called Ballyferiter, where they bought us a couple pints and we kept on hanging out and having laughs and chats. Eventually he figured it was just better off we stayed at his place, so we went back and he made us up two beds and we stayed. In the morning he made us hot pouridge and drove us off to our path. Easily one of the best night of my life.

That day we were headed out towards Cloghane, the second to last place before we trekked back to Tralee, and it was gonna be a long walk. We decided since we were really tired to stay in Ballycurane, which was only like a 5 mile walk. At the beginning of our walk, we came across this really friendly dog, and we pet it and whatever, but then it like ran ahead, and kept like sitting in one spot til we got to it, then would run off ahead some more, and as it turns out, he was running on the exact path we needed to take. So this dog sort of led our way for likeeee almost an hour honestly. The entire beach hike and through some marshey areas, even over some bridges that definitely weren't designed for dogs haha. Really amazing. It was a short day with some nice cliffs and some billy goats, and we ended up at a REALLY expensive B and B, but it was worth it because we got the best food in all of Ireland. Relaxed all night.

The next day we were supposed to hike Mount Brandon... unfortunately my sister had some really really REALLY serious blister action on her feet... she couldn't walk really. We had ran out of money just about so we couldn't afford the B and B again, so we were just gonna suck it up and walk the road to dingle at a really really slow pace. Setting out, the people offered us a ride to Dingle, so we took it. Our journey had ended early, but I didn't mind because the 5 days was more than enough for me, and it was amazing nonetheless.

So we stayed at this woman named Paula's place who everyone told us we should go see, and she was real nice as well. Had a really well deserved relaxing night in, picked up a few books in the town, and slept early. The next day we took a bus to Tralee for VINNY'S BUMPIN PARTY!

...which we totally skipped out on. The bus was offering a really good deal to Galway and we really wanted to go there instead of Dublin again, and we got some money from my mom, so we went to Tralee, got out bags from Vinny's house, broke the bad news to him (he's such a boss it didn't even matter to him,) and got on a connecting bus to Galway.

We stayed in Galway for the remaining week of the trip. It was a much cozier city than Dublin, but still just a city. The night scene there was WILD though, like crazier than anything I've ever seen, people just walking around drinking liquor straight up, so much mischief and it was really amusing to see, I never really drank heavily in Galway because I was making sure I had enough money to eat haha. We went out a couple times though and had a few, saw some traditional music again. Explored the Galway University campus (lovely,) and sort of lazed around the week, meeting people here and there, and some really nice people at our hostel. The first hostel we were at we got roomed with these two kids from down south named Josh and Lindsay, and at first they kind of seemed douchey... but we actually talked to them in the morning and she was pretty much the single coolest person I've ever met in my entire life. Josh was really nice too, but the stories Lindsay told about her life were the most captivating and interesting stories I've ever heard and I've really like never been more interested in hearing someone talk ever haha. She's only 20, and she was talking about how she left home one year and traveled with some random band she met in Birmingham, and they invited her to play a couple shows with them (she played Banjo and guitar and I think the Cello,) and then they invited her to train hop out west. It was honestly an amazing story, about how she tried to get west to the coast and eventually succeeded by finding a car and traveling with this escaped jail mate, who she traveled the country with, somehow finding ways to get food and gas. At the end of the trip he gave her a tattoo, which she drew and was, as far as I could see, really really really beautiful. Besides all that though, she was also really really smart and creative, and had won some award for doing this audio-visual project using some algorithm based on the structure of a bacterium? It was really complex sounding, and I admittedly got a little lost, but the reason she was in Ireland in the first place was because since she won that award, she got asked to submit more stuff to be presented at this festival in Chicago over the summer. She went on and on and on but eventually had to catch a bus. When we asked her how long she was staying in Ireland she said she didn't know, and might try to find a job and live as long as she could there. I wish I was courageous enough to do stuff like that, and I also wish I could hang out with her again at any point, but chances of either of those things happening are slim. So it goes.

One night in Galway our boi Ross came through and took us to Salt Hill and showed us around and we went out for drinks and he bought me a whole fuckin pizza from Dominos. Ross is the man and we chatted on facebook while I was writing this and I hope to be as cool as him when I'm 30.

Another night, when we had switched hostels, we were about to go out when we looked into the kitchen/lounge area, where a bunch of people were sitting drinking tallboys and vodka. They invited us in and gave us a bunch of free alcohol and I stayed and hung out with them all night, my sister went out. There were a few old Irish men, a young couple from Canada, and these three French girls who were 19 or 20. We played some games and some cards and got a couple rounds of poker in, then eventually I was just playing cards with the French girls while the old men were being old and weird. At one point one of the old guys was leaving (he was the drunkest I've ever witnessed anyone,) and he was shaking everyone's hand goodnight, and he got to this kid name Abus (sp?) Abus came in late and was Pakistani and was traveling alone and he was a really nice guy, a little odd, but really nice, and for some reason the old Irish man was shaking his hand, and then wouldn't let go, and then threatened to cut Abus' head off if he was there in the morning. It was really scary and me and the Canadian dude had to like hold him down while the hostel employees got him out of there. That was pretty much the only bad thing that happened the whole time I was in Ireland. ANYWAY: kept playing cards, the french girls knew how to play asshole which was awesome, and they taught me some games and it was a blast. Salwen, if all the girls in France were like these girls, you are indeed a lucky man. Hung out with them til I went to sleep pretty much. Oh just kidding about that being the only bad thing that happened, because when I went up to the hostel room two people that had just moved in there were totally fucking, and they totally didn't stop for more than the 30 seconds it took me to change my shirt and climb in bed. Sick guys, sick.

Last day we went to the Cliffs of Moher, which I can't describe, and if anyone goes to Ireland, I urge you to go here, but I also urge you to hop the barrier and walk a ways to the left, cause the barrier they put up leaves you like a good 10 feet from the edge, and you can't really experience it for all that it is unless you're right up next to it. It was amazing.

So that was Ireland. Great vacation, great people, great memories. Now I'm home and this semester off is looking to be fantastic already. If you read all that text, I commend you!