So The Critter is nice and comfy back in the States. He has gone ahead and sent out his last mass email regarding his year long trip around the world. The following starts from when he left me and continued on to Dublin...
I'll start with when I left London. I was expecting a really hard time from immigration leaving the UK and possibly entering Ireland, based on prior experience. Only question leaving London: "Where are you going?" "Dublin." They didn't even open my passport. In Ireland: "How long ya here for?" "Less than 2 days." And I got my second to last stamp in a passport that's completely full (they stamped partially over my UK one). All the worrying, printing up itineraries just for
customs, etc. was all for not. Thank tha Lawrd! I got into Dublin at 10pm. After briefly considering sleeping in a bed that night, I decided to rough it one last time and unfurl my sleeping bag on a nasty nasty bench at the airport. I slept in an area by myself, but that's because it was right by the resting area for security guards (where they eat and change shifts). I got a solid 4 hours of sleep or so. I got into the city by 6:30am and checked my bag into a hostel, who unfortunately told me that I couldn't see the room until 12:30 or 1 that afternoon since they had to clean it.
I decided to walk around town, seeing a few sites like Four Courts (the big courthouse), Bank of Ireland, and the river, whatever its name is, before paying a visit to the Old Jameson Distillery at 10am. I figured I might take a tour, and if they have a free shot at the end, then so be it. Sure enough, I took the informative tour, and the guide needed some 'volunteers' to taste-test three Irish whiskeys, a Scotch and American whiskey (Jack Daniels). He passed me over for a birthday boy from Finland, but he said he liked me so much from talking to me that he'd
"take care of me." He ended up making me an extra volunteer, and I know he was happy with that decision when I told him that it was the last day of a year-long hiatus. He ended up announcing his birthday and my trip to the entire crowd. So I obliged and drank the 5 shots, followed by a few more (larger) freebies at the counter.
For volunteering, we all got a certificate, which I plan on hanging next to my one for building the houses for tsunami victims, and of course my minister certificate. I took this certificate (coiled inside of a gold cardboard tube) with me when I marched down to the Guiness factory for a tour and free beer there. The guy in front of me turned around and said, "Hey, I know what that tube is! I got my certificate yesterday." His name was Matt, and he ended up being from St. Louis Abisbo, CA, which is where my friend and co-Thai house builder Nate was from. We walked around the factory for a bit (which wasn't nearly as good as the tour at Jameson) before making our way upstairs and finding the bar, which gave us our free Guinness, that overlooked the entire city. We stayed there for a while before heading out into the city to hit few pubs.
First, I really wanted to eat something so we walked to a bar advertising fish and chips. I walked in and saw that it was really dark inside and the cashiers were busy doing something, and it wasn't getting the food ready. Two seconds later, Matt yelled, "Dude, get the fuck out of there! Can't you see it's on fire?!" The greaser caught on fire right before we'd walked in, and the smoke was just building up. 10 seconds after I exited, the cashiers (and I think owners) ran out cursing the store as black smoke billowed outside. Then we found out that some guy was still inside, on the john. I almost ran back inside until he came back out. We were also concerned since three stories of apartments sat atop the store, but we didn't stick around to see what all happened; we just waited for the firetrucks to arrive and we split.
We toured the Temple Bar area and drank nothing but Guinesses for a few more hours. At one point, we learned that Guinness was bought out ten years ago and is today only 0.4% Irish. This is really disappointing, especially considering how well it treated its poor Irish workers for a few hundred years. Anyways, 4pm rolled around, and I told Matt that I'd have to lay down and get some sleep if I was to go out that night. My head was swimming -- lack of sleep, not a lot of food, and a good amount (but not too much) of beer made me pretty tired. So we'd agreed to meet 8 for a pub crawl.
Unfortunately, I ended up sleeping until 9:15 that night, at which point I decided to sleep through the night. I felt bad that I wasn't able to meet up with him again since we had some interesting conversations. It's funny since he tried pulling off some surfer dude-tough guy combo that just didn't work. He talked tough in general and against the war, immigrants, and people on welfare, but when we went to jaywalk, for example, he'd run to the other side of the street even when no cars were coming. That was pretty funny.
So that was my time in Dublin. The next day, I arrived at the airport about 3 hours before customs let me through for my flight so I had some time to kill there, reading and writing in my journal. I also bought a ton of postcards that I hope to hand-deliver to many of you in the U.S.
So I'm back in the United States, after the most epic journey of all time. OK, not really, but it has given me new insights into the country I call home, which has some of the highest rates of drug use (though I wouldn't say alcohol..), mental illness, poverty, child molestation, capital murder, theft, and supporters of War on Iraq. I'm happy to be back, but I don't know if I'll always call it home. I don't mean to leave America forever or anything; I'll just try to incorporate more time abroad, such as organizing soccer tournaments in Macedonia, for example. (I'd love to do this, but obviously I have some things to think about.) But I know that thinking globally, no
matter how much I did before, is much more solidly engrained in me than I could've imagined.
I learned so much about myself, my limits and my capabilities, than I would've guessed. There's a lot to learn about the world that we aren't taught here. Histories of certain regions, goals and values of different peoples, and especially how the U.S. is perceived, which is certainly not as cut-and-dry as I thought it was. I encourage everyone reading this who hasn't traveled to take 3, 6, or more months out of their time to consider a trip outside of this country. No matter how
busy you are or what responsibilities you have, it'll be worth it. And the younger you are (starting at I'd say 20), the better off you'll be. As long as you keep an open mind and are able to talk to people, either very much like you or completely the opposite, you'll learn tons.
Well that's it.
Ok, so here's the story line. Roughly 1 year ago, an amazing woman from South Central Los Angeles decided after receiving her Master's degree to expand her horizons and venture off to London. So over the course of the next couple of years she will hope to bring two continents together through the eloquence of her words...ok that is complete and utter bullshit! Your not doing shit so just stay a minute for the hell of it!
Location: In a London borough not far away from 3 tube lines, England
About me: 1. Lover of all things Chocolate 2. Terrified of Texas flying Tree Roaches 3. New lover of roundabouts 4. The world is my oyster...w/out the fishy smell 5. God, does not like ugly...so rearrange yourself and your face
