Dublin

So, very sleepily, Emily and I made it to our ferry to Dublin very early the next morning. Sleeping most of the ride, we got to Dublin and quickly booked our next ferry ride to come, to Holyhead (with an accompanying bus to London). A nice cab driver took us to the city centre, where the first thing we did was look for some food, having not really eaten all day. We were dropped off in the famous Temple Bar area, and so there were tons of great places to eat all around. The first one (and probably closest in proximity... we were very hungry) that appeals to us drew us in, and actually had some really great Italian food. Once finished we called Gary, our host. Gary is my good friend Becky's uncle, and he and his daughter Kayleigh were kind enough to host Emily and I for a few days!

After a bit of attempt with the busses, we made it to where they live just outside of Dublin, a town called Saggart. We had a great time meeting the two of them, who were both extremely nice and welcoming, and promptly passed out from exhaustion not much later.

The next day Emily and I were off to the Oxegen Festival, our number one reason for visiting Dublin! Oxegen is a huge annual music festival held 10 minutes outside of Dublin, with tons of bands and artists that Emily and I like. After Gary insisted that we had to take a couple pairs of his and Kayleigh's "wellies" with us, we found the shuttle bus to the site in the city centre. Over the next few days, we saw a TON of bands play, and had a really great, yet rainy time in our crappy £10 tent. The notes I have written in my Moleskine describe Oxegen as: muddy, rainy, young people, constantly loud, crowded, messy, smallish, FUN, wet, diferent popularities of bands, great greasy food, refreshing, much security. Among my favorite bands who played there: Jay-Z, Vampire Weekend, Empire of the Sun, Yeasayer, Hot Chip, Florence and the Machine, Earth Wind and Fire, Local Natives, and much much more.

Leaving our crappy tent and some wet supplies behind, we headed back toward Gary's house the (actually sunny) morning after the festival had ended. Though Gary and Kayleigh were at work, we got into their house via key he'd left with me, and showered up before heading out to explore Dublin for the rest of the time we had there! Emily and I walked around the Temple Bar area for a good period of time before selecting a restaurant in which to treat ourselves to an expensive meal, after eating too much greasy food at the festival. The food was amazing, and afterward we spent the remainder of the night hanging out with Kayleigh back at the house, downing many Bulmer's Irish Ciders.

The next morning, Emily and I ate some breakfast, and then headed straight toward the Guiness Brewery for the quintessential tour. It was a really amazing factory, and we enjoyed the awesome views from the top of the Gravity Bar (the tallest point in Dublin), with 360º views of the city in the circular all-glass bar. After getting soaked from walking back to the busstop, we chilled back at the house with Kayleigh again and headed to sleep relatively early to wake up for our ferry ride the next morning.

FYI: The map of my progress has been updated as well! Check it out, click the link on the left side toolbar.

Manchester / Liverpool

So it was a smooth ride into Manchester, where we were greeted by my friend Jack. As some of you readers might know, I actually hosted Jack through CouchSurfing at my place in Amherst back in May; he had no hesitation in returning the favor! He actually lives just outside Manchester in a very small town called Stockport, but a short ride into the city. Crashed the first night at Jack's, and woke up the next day to sort out some transportation details.

After all was said and sorted, Jack showed us around the town of Stockport. The town had a very 1800'sy feel to it, with many cobblestone streets, stone buildings, and rolling hills with walking paths. We saw the town's "Torrs," which were the huge stone structures underneath the town which keep the bridges from falling. We later took the train into Manchester, and walked around much of it's northern quarter, stopping in many vintage stores by request of Emily for some ridiculous clothing for the music festival to come. Several beers were had with a delicious Italian dinner, and we soon headed back to Stockport to call it a night.

The next morning Emily and I smoothly made it from Jack's, to the train station, to the bus, to Liverpool! Apart from the fact that we weren't sure where we were going to be sleeping, we were doing great. Pretty easily, we found the cheap and friendly International Inn, dumped down our bags, and latched onto the free internet on my ipod. I had gotten a message from someone we'd sent a couchsurf request to, and so we texted him about meeting up later at a pub to watch the World Cup. After unsuccessfully wasting our time trying to sort out the ferry to Dublin, and stuffing our faces at a local Chinese buffet, we met up with Daniel (the couchsurfer) at the Pilgrim, a pub which was actually very close to our hostel. We had a great time meeting Dan, a couple of his Liverpool friends, and the two French girls who got to him first about CouchSurfing at his place. Several pubs and many beers later, we parted ways and promised to meet up for the next World Cup match the following night.

First things first in the morning Emily and I booked our ferry tickets, and wandered down to Albert Pier, home of the Beatles Museum. By recommendation of the two French girls, instead of touring the museum and/or going on the touristy Magical Mystery Tour, we bought a bus pass and sought out to find the landmarks ourselves. Frenchies Lucy and Camille came with us to see Penny Lane, John Lennon and Paul McCartney's childhood homes, and Strawberry Field. It was a great day of touring Liverpool, and we had a bit of time before going to meet up for the World Cup so we stopped into the famous Cavern Club as well, where a Lennon lookalike was performing for (coincidentally) Ringo's 70th birthday. We were soon back to the Pilgrim for the Spain/Germany match, but our friends ended up not coming out to meet us. By this point, Emily and I had heard back from another, and this time positively responding, CouchSurfing host, and so we sought him out at the pub he was visiting. Anders turned out to be a very friendly and accommodating host, and paid for our taxi ride back to his place to get some rest before waking up very early to catch our ferry to Dublin.

I'm not that far behind on the blog anymore! Dublin and Oxford are coming soon, really.

London

Here goes, getting caught up. England...

Emily and I spent a pretty long day getting to London from Paris, but it went very smoothly. We got there via Eurolines (the bus company in Europe)... so it was a bus ride from Paris to Calais, the bus drove onto the ferry to Dover, and then picked up again and headed toward London. The ferry was actually really nice, comparable to the ferry that I took in New Zealand between the north and south islands. Anyway, the bus dropped us at Victoria Station in London, and we were off to figure out how to reach Brockley (just a tube-ride away), and meet our new CouchSurfing host.

Rogerio turned out to be another great person from CouchSurfing. He's in his 40's, Brazilian, and working at an Australian pie shop on Portobello Road... home to one of London's busiest weekend outdoor markets. We passed out relatively quickly the first night reaching Rogerio's place, and rested up for our first day in London.

The following morning, Emily and I geared up for a trip to London Bridge, first thing. We took in some of the typical grey London atmosphere, and went for some shelter in the Tate Modern. The Tate is one of London's most popular and busy art museums, and it was well worth a visit. It was huge, and it had some really great and interesting art. We weren't able to finish seeing the entire thing, because we'd promised to meet Rogerio at his pie shop at a certain time for some free pies for lunch. After a pie and grabbing some sweet shades for the music festival to come in Dublin, Emily and I found a much needed internet cafe, in order to plan our next few steps. For dinner, we'd heard that there was a lot going on in the Picadilly Circle area, so we tried it out. It turned out to be a great idea, and we treated ourselves to a huge meal of tasty Moroccan food, with leftovers to spare. We fell asleep very easily upon return, even with an additional couchsurfer in the room with us whom we hadn't known about prior!

The next morning, we met this guy, Philip, and invited him out with us for our day spent at Wimbledon. Philip was a very nice Chinese guy, actually getting his Masters degree at Pace in NYC (we planned to meet up once I'm back). After buying some food and beer to bring into the grounds of Wimbledon, we successfully made it in and spent the day watching two awesome semi-final matches: first Berdyk v. Djokovic, then the real one we wanted to see, Nadal v. Murray. Once Nadal inevitably defeated Murray (yeah yeah England, boo hoo), we showed Philip around Picadilly Circle a bit before turning in for the night. To our surprise, Rogerio was now hosting three more couchsurfers! Roberto from Brazil, and Joao and Rebecca also from Brazil, but living in Ghent. The place was turning into quite a party...

Joao and Rebecca came with Emily and I the next morning to Portobello Market, since it only happened during the weekends. It was a really great flea-market type atmosphere, with everything from antique cameras, to touristy London memorabilia, to high-priced silver. Joao and Rebecca decided to continue on to find some comic book shop that a friend had recommended, so Emily and I next tubed it over to beautiful Regent's Park. It was a perfect day to walk around a park, and we took in Queen Mary's botanical garden inside, and hiked it all the way up to Primrose Hill (alllllll the way in the back of the park), for an incredible view of all of London.

We texted Joao and Rebecca about meeting up in a little while to go out for some drinks, but in the meantime checked out Trefalgar Square. Nice area, but we ended up having to leave soon thereafter to find our friends again. Via my friend Jess's recommendation, we all headed to Dublin Castle; a tiny Irish pub where many music legends have gotten their starts (Coldplay, U2, Jimi Hendrix, etc). Everyone watched Paraguay's World Cup defeat by Spain, and then headed to the music lounge in the back to have some more fun. All in all it was a great night, and we got to meet many local Brits as well.

The next day (have you been keeping track?) was Independence Day! Except it was our day of independence, not England's. And therefore in order to celebrate, Emily and I were reduced to having burgers and fries for lunch. GO AMERICA. Anyway, before that, we had woken up early to make it to the Changing of the Guard, which was a bit too packed with tourists for me. I guess it's a must-see, but we made it a see-very-quickly-and-get-the-hell-out-of-there. We had planned on returning to finish the Tate Modern, but ended up not having enough time to do that, as we needed to get back to Rogerio's place to grab our bags before making it to our bus to Manchester. We rushed back to get them, said hi to the two additional Chilean couchsurfers (Rogerio was a very generous man), and literally ran through the tube stations Amazing Race-style to make it to our bus... except we were about 5 minutes too late. Fret not though, because instead for a small fee we made it onto the next bus, only an hour later.

Paris

Alright, still a bit behind, so here I am trying to get caught up. Everything's in my Moleskine, so fear not, the rest will come in due time.

Paris was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. It was both mine and Emily's first actual Couchsurfing experience (actually surfing, I've hosted before), and it couldn't have gone any better. The couple who accepted our request, on the website were simply called "Pickles and Monkey," and so we didn't even know their names until we got there. Emily and I had to take separate trains to Paris, and so when I arrived first and met Enora (Monkey), I knew that we were in for a fun week. I hung out in Enora's apartment getting to know her a bit while we waited for Jack (Pickles) to get back from work, and Emily's train to get in. Once that was all settled, we all passed the hell out from all the traveling from Belgium to Paris.

Our first day in Paris was filled with something quite unexpected, but turned out to be one of the most fun things we've done anyway. Apparently our first day in Paris happened to be the same day as their Gay Pride parade, and so Jack and Enora recommended that it was something that we couldn't miss. They were right, as it turned out to be a perfect way to do a walking tour of Paris, as well as drinking plenty of beers in the sun, simultaneously. It was also a great opportunity to meet a slew of their friends, and brush up on my French. After a couple croque-monseiurs, we headed out to find Quinn, a friend from high school, at a local bar close to the Pont des Arts. It was pretty fun to be able to see her and catch up a bit, and Emily and I ended up walking back to Jack and Enora's relatively late, admiring Notre Dame on a clear night on our walk back.

The next day we decided to attempt to be more touristy. Emily and I headed down to the Musee d'Orsay, but with the length of the line and timing we had before meeting up with Jack and Enora again, it wouldn't have been worth it to try. Instead we walked around a bit near the Eiffel Tower, and got some ice cream in les Jardins Tuileries. After again meeting up with our Frenchies, we all went out to one of their favorite cheap Chinese food places for dinner. Again walking by to take in Notre Dame, we later grabbed a couple pints at an Irish pub that Jack used to work in, before heading back to their place to pass out.

The next morning I left semi-early with Enora to grab some bagettes, croissants, and pains au chocolat for breakfast. After consuming it all in about 2 minutes, we got ready and left for la Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise... a cemetary where many famous French are buried. We spent a good amount of time there, taking in the graves of Jim Morrison, Chopin, Delacroix, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Seurat, and many more. Jack and Enora then took us to Monmarte, where we got an awesome view of the entire city. It felt great to relax for a bit on top of the city, and had a good time also checking out Pigalle, Paris's red light district. Apres ca, we went to check out L'Arc du Triomphe, as well as the Tour d'Eiffel. We accidentally got to the Eiffel Tower at the perfect time, just able to see it begin to light up for the night. This night was topped by polishing off an impressive amount of French wine at Jack and Enora's, very French indeed.

Attempt number two at seeing the Musee d'Orsay happened the next day, and this time Emily and I were successful. We spent a good amount of time at the museum checking out Van Gogh's, Matisse's, Monet's, etc, and then headed back to meet up with Jack and Enora. For our last night in Paris, we were on a mission to gather as much wine and cheese as possible to indulge in in front of the Eiffel Tower. A large screen was set up in front of the Eiffel Tower, and the Spain v. Portugal World Cup match was played out to several thousand people. After much pandemonium after Portugal's defeat, we walked down to Notre Dame to finish up the remainder of the wine and cheese, and listen to all of the random people playing music there. Emily and Enora tuckered out almost right as we got back, but Jack and I lasted until about 4:30am before giving in to sleep.

After typing this all up, I feel like what I've typed doesn't really give justice to how our time in Paris really was. Jack and Enora were the best hosts we could have hoped for: they hung out with us almost the entire time we were there, and really treated us as if we'd been great friends for years. It was an amazing Couchsurfing experience... strangers opening up their home to you and acting as tour guides to their city was something that Emily and I definitely didn't take for granted. We've hoped that the rest of our Couchsurfing experiences could be more like our time in Paris, and are realizing now that though the majority of people on the site are very generous, we were extremely lucky to have found hosts like them. Anyway, an update on London will be coming very soon... I'm now in Manchester for my last night, and onward to Liverpool in the morning. Check back soon!

Belgium

Trying to get caught up now. After Amsterdam I got better of keeping track of things by writing notes in my precious Moleskine that I bought before leaving, so I've now got some more details for y'all.

Emily and I took a bus from Amsterdam to Brussels on the 24th and arrived mid-day. We were staying with a family friend of Emily's named Mary, who turned out to be a very nice host. When we got to Brussels we met her at the United States embassy where she works, and dumped our bags into her car while she was still working so that we could explore the city with a bit less weight. The embassy was right across the street from the Parc Royale, so we soaked up some sun there before heading down to la Grand Plaz to explore further. We only had a couple hours to walk around since she was to be driving us back to her house when she was out of work, so we just loafed around the city, noting down things to check out later on.

Mary made us an amazing meal of salmon, lamb chops, salad, fresh bread, and numerous sides; which we ate with her two daughters adopted from China, Nora and Ellen. It was soon bedtime for them, so Emily and I caught up with emails and such on Mary's computer before crashing out ourselves.

The next day we got a fairly early bus to Brugges, which I'll simply describe as the kind of town/city "your mother would like." It was definitely a very pretty town, with lots of cobblestone roads and churches galore, but wasn't exactly the kind of small town I needed to spend more than one day in. We went on a brewery tour, boat tour through the canals, and visited all of the touristy shops. A fun day, but I was more excited to see Brussels again the day following.

We awoke the next morning to explore Brussels, and almost got caught on the metro into the city without paying (we didn't know how to, really, but hadn't made a big effort trying to figure it out either...). We reserved Emily's train ticket to Paris for that night at Gare du Midi, and I got my separate train as well. After that we headed out into the city, firstly by checking out the Rene Magritte Museum and grabbing some much needed Belgian waffles. A good amount of time was also spend again in the Grand Plaz, but we also checked out Brussels' "Manneqin-Pis:" their landmark statue of a boy happily peeing into a fountain. After watching a bit of the Brazil/Portugal World Cup match, we headed back to Mary's for our bags and then back out to the train station to hop onward to Paris... barely making it.

All in all Belgium was certainly a good time, and a nice way to relax at a real home, but Paris was certainly going to be a much more fun and fast-paced time. Update coming soon, my fingers are too tired right now.