Blog Title: dontresist

Ireland/London Photoroll

I know it has been a while since I last posted, but I think it may best for me to post photos rather than write from my journal to the web. Below are an assorted number of photos that either Dan or I took on our trip.

A dorm that we stayed at in London. Even though we stayed in a 28 bed room, the atmosphere and people we met were amazing.

Shayla, myself, and Dan with the Tower Bridge in the background (London).

Another picture of me, but this time standing on the bridge.

On the London Underground subway system. I discovered there was a stop called Russell Square.

In London, we enjoyed the musical The Little Shop of Horrors

Dan holding our hitchhiking sign to get back to Galway.

Now it is my turn.

"Beware of the Risen People" is a quote within the historical Kilmainham jail (Dublin).

Dan readying himself to be taken away to his jail cell.

Walking along the Cliffs of Moher.

A castle we saw on the way back to our hostel (Doolin).

Returning from surfing on the western coast of Ireland.

Dan looking over the Cliffs of Moher.

Walking up to the Cliffs of Moher.

On our trip t o the Guiness factory we found this quote, which we were glad to hand over to our roommate Ryan (a homebrewer).

As you enter Trinity College, Dublin, you first encounter a tower as seen above.

Ireland: Day 5 (Killarney/Pubs)

Today we said goodbye to Doolin and decided our next adventure lie in Killarney. We jumped on a bus, and settled in to our normal state of sleeping on our long ride to the pub packed town.

When we took a 15 minute break in Kilkenny, Dan & I discussed why we slept so much on the bus rides. Dan suggested it was probably due to the slow rocking motion of the bus. While I still do not have a solid idea, I thought at the time that the sleep could be caused by the amount of Guinness we drink the nights prior to catching a bus. One suggestion I received by another tourist was that it could be the cause of jet-lag. While I like the visitor's suggestion much better than ours, especially my alcoholic one, I realized that this wasn't the case because we had already been in Ireland for 5 days. What do you think?

On arriving in Killarney, I first reacted by exclaiming, "Damn, how many pubs are in this town?" According to our Lonely Planet guide, it states there are approximately 50 pubs in this small town which contains it's own style. Once we settled into our hostel, I secretly thought that it would be fun to challenge ourselves to see how many pubs we could visit in one night (rule: need to drink one pint at each pub). Did this turn out to be bad hang-over on the next day? Tune in tomorrow to check.

Ireland: Day 4 (Cliffs of Moher)

The size of the cliffs are amazing. I have yet to see something of its magnitude in my life. As Dan & I layed near the edge as well as we protected ourselves from the whirling wind, I thought that nature was on mysterious creature. How on Earth were these cliffs formed? Gigantic waves? Earthquakes? Wind? Maybe all or some of these contributed to its current form.

Ireland: Day 3 (Bus to Doolin)

Most of the day was spent on a bus from Dublin to Doolin. Although it was great to the countryside, I would rather have not watched from the seat of a bus. Once we arrived in Doolin , Dan & I took a break from the long ride and took a nap at the Rainbow Hostel which we decided to stay.

Ireland: Day 2 (Run/Guinness/Night)

I started off the day with a run through Trinity College. Each building that I passed had a history, which the US could never match. I also noticed something else while I ran through the city and Trinity...there are not that many people that run in Dublin. Although I don't know why, in Portland there is someone running on the streets whether it be rain or shine.

Later on, Dan & I visited the Guinness Storehouse (where they brew the sweet black stuff). While it was interesting to see how they blended the barley, wheat, hops, yeast, and water, the true attraction was the pint tasting on the seventh floor (really the 8th floor since the ground level is considered zero and not one...they do this throughout Ireland). The panoramic view of the city gave us a chance to see where we had gone or wanted to visit.

After the tour, we took a break in a local park nearby St. Mary's Cathedral before hitting the pubs hard. In one pub, I had an interesting conversation with the owner about who is the biggest asshole in the world. We came to the conclusion that she was the biggest since she was the oldest one in the pub (plus the owner's word was stronger than mine). We then visited a local dance pub near our hostel and then jumped in to bed. I'll try to catch up with our adventures in the next few days. Thanks for reading about us.

Ireland: Day 1 (Flight/Check-In/Pub)

Ireland Trip: Dublin Ashfield House

Yesterday, Dan and I booked our first hostel in Dublin for two nights at the Ashfield House. According to our Lonely Planet book, the hostel is a converted church next to the Temple Bar (around Trinity College). I'm excited about staying at this hostel since it is in the heart of a college community.

Also, our flight is leaving tomorrow and we'll be in London the next day. Dan or I will be posting an article to give a quick re-cap as two Americans in Ireland.

Tucson: Crap-Hole or Paradise?

Coming from the Northwest, I have been blessed with forests and a hearty amount of blossoms (These blossoms can be the devil rather than a beauty if you have allergies), while Tucson on the other hand has been blessed with a scorching desert. My first impression of Tucson was that the town was a crap-hole. I had no idea that people would want to live in temperatures that neared the inside heat of an active volcano. Once I started meeting people and finding activities to do, I started to like Tucson a little more.

In the arena of activities, I would suggest hiking or visiting Mt. Lemmon. The drive up the 9000 ft. mountain gives you four different ecological stratas (cacti, pine, sharp rock faces, etc.). If you are there during the winter, you can even go skiing or sledding during the day.

Although I was only in Tucson for a few days, I found some time to party with the University of Arizona students on 4th Avenue. The best night of the week is probably Thirsty Thursday's since the beers at a few of the bars are only a $1.

Overall, I would suggest checking out Tucson if you're driving through the area. It's not a crap-hole, but it's not paradise either. It's a great getaway for a couple of days while on a road trip or visiting friends in the area.

Ireland Trip: Camping

After discussing my trip with my advisor from Portland State, he told me a really cool story about camping in Ireland. Here is an "unquotable" recount of the story: As he told it, he was walking down the road with another friend when he met this older man in the road. He asked the older man if it would be alright to camp in the green field off to his right. The old man suggested that the green off to the right wouldn't be the best, but he should try another one off to the left. The old man said that the one off to the left is owned by "McHannohan." He said that he would let him know when he went down to the pub. Supposedly, later that night my advisor went down to the pub to party with these guys and it was insane.

The story my advisor told me has inspired me to bring along my tent and sleeping bag. If you think this kind of story is unreal, then let me know. I'd like to hear more about camping in Ireland.

Ireland Trip: Lonely Planet Guidebook

Although I always feel very touristy when I buy a guidebook, I find that the guidebooks such as Frommers or Lonely Planet provide great insight to hostels, activities, and more. I primarily use Lonely Planet (I'm not getting paid) since their material is more update to date. When I went to Japan last summer, I used a Frommers guide to find accommodations (particularly a capsule hotel) and discovered that the place had shutdown. I'm not sure who to blame, the hotel or Frommers, but I know that such an incident has yet to happen with Lonely Planet.

As I was looking through the Lonely Planet Ireland Edition, I found many new surf shops which provide lessons. One that I am quite impressed with is T-Bay Surf & Wildlife. It provides surf lessons and equipment for about $35 and is quite well known in the Irish surfing community. I will continue to look for more surfing operators. If I happen to find anything interesting than I will let you know. Also, stay tuned since I will be posting an article regarding kayaking very soon.

Most Dangerous Roads (in the World!)

While I was procrastinating (school work), I came across a link (Most Dangerous Roads) which details with photos and descriptions the top five dangerous roads. They also detail more dangerous roads around the world. I expected to see cityscape roads in Mexico or in Costa Rica, but instead discovered the roads were risks I might never encounter.

Actually, I am hoping some day to visit at least a few of the named locations since the roads appear, from photos, to be beautiful. Particularly, the road in Taiwan seems to be very interesting. Go check out the link to see roads in Bolivia, Russia, China, and many other countries.

Ireland Trip: RYANAIR

The original idea was to fly in London (Gatwick), and then take the train/ferry systems to arrive in Ireland. But Dan was discussing the trip with his family and one person suggested that we fly into Dublin since it's "dirt cheap." After doing some investigatory work, I found out that they were indeed correct.

Currently, Ryanair is offering airfare (all taxes included) from Gatwick to Dublin for 10 GBP (or approximately $20 US). By flying into Dublin, we will be saving about $20 each way. I wish I knew about their cheap service earlier, since they are offering this special for all serviced locations. Hypothetically, we could fly from Dublin to anywhere in Spain for $20. If you're planning a trip to Europe from May to Oct, then you should get your tickets now since the deal ends April 30th.

Ireland Trip: Surfing

Surfing?!?!? How is that possible in Ireland? I thought the same thing once I heard about it. After doing some research, I discovered the island is quite good for surfing. During certain times of the year, some waves so massive that you need to be towed in on a jet ski, such as in a Dreamcatcher Productions film, "And then the wind died...".

Although I am not going to be catching waves the size of those, I still want to catch some decent sized waves like I have done before down in San Diego. I have been emailing a few surf schools along the Irish coast to see how the waves will be during my visit in May. Most of them say it is a hit or miss occasion during May and June. Based on the advice they've given, I have decided that the best course of action will be to have a list of surf shops in the area I plan to visit (just in case the perfect waves hit). During our trip I will keep you informed as to where we've or will go surfing. If you know of any smashing spots, then drop us a comment.

Ireland Trip: Budget

After I bought my airfare, I soon realized I had no idea how much my trip would cost. As soon as I looked at a few accommodations (hostels, B&B's), I realized my budget did not have to resemble a backpacker's wallet. A few estimations later, I calculated that my overall expenditure of the trip would most likely be in the range of $1700 to $2000. Below is a not so detailed list of what I will be spending my money towards.

• Plane Ticket - $540
• Accommodations - $400
• Avg. Cost Per Night - $25
• Food & Drink - $400
• Avg. Cost Per Day - $25
• Transportation - $200
• Activity Cost - $300
• Gas to San Francisco from Portland - $50

Lost Bags. Lost Souls

As a travelogue Lost Bags. Lost Souls hits the mark perfectly. It is more than just a normal travel narrative in which two Americans decide to climb the 21,000 foot Kang Yatse are thoughtful, innovative, and fun to watch. After watching the episodes on their site, I am considering creating something similar for my trip to Ireland.

Ireland Trip: Planning

Without saying much, my friend (Dan) tells me he is traveling to Ireland this May or June. I chimed in that I would like to trek along as well. Soon after we conversed I jumped online to find ideas and airfare for the trip. With the help of Kayak and other airfare sites, I found airfare to London for $540 from San Francisco (I recently just bought the tickets for the both of us from Northwest Airlines).

Both Dan and I have been doing extensive research for activities, places to go, and breweries to visit. A couple of activities that I wish to do before I come back home are to go surfing (I'll have more on this in later posts), visit a few brew tours, and bike for a few days. In particular, the brewery/distillery tours we know that we want to go on are:

• Jameson Whiskey (Midletown) (link)
  
• Guinness Storehouse (Dublin) (link)
  
• Smithwick's Brewery (Kilkenny)

Back Again & Language Learning: Spanish

After a drought of posts, I am back again with a rejuvenated enthusiasm towards writing about what interests myself. I am going to start my series of posts off with a rant about language learning.

While I was away during Christmas break for school, I visited Costa Rica with a group of my friends from school. The experience of visiting another country enthused myself to learn a language (this time I am for real). I am hoping to learn Spanish by using the Pimsleur CD Lesson program and by using various website references. As I learn Spanish, I will post new and interesting phrases, grammar, and vocab to keep myself striving towards my goal. The first word I am going to start my series off with is the verb to win, which in Spanish is ganar. The noun most commonly used on the other hand is victoria.

I'll be back at least every other day to post on my Spanish progression, or on one of the many other activities that consume my life.

Taiwan & Japan Photoset

I just setup a Flickr photoset for the trip. There are currently 26 photos, but I plan on adding more later. Also, I am going to develop my black & white film soon. I will develop a CD of the negatives once they are ready and post them as well. The link to the photos is below.

Japan/Taiwan Photoset

After Trip Reports...Soon

Life back in Oregon is just as I left it with a few exceptions, but overall I am glad to be back. One thing that I am glad to have back is the temperate weather instead of walking around in Japan/Taiwan humidity. I am starting to write alot of short journals detailing events that myself or Doug ran into while we were on our journey. I will post the writing as soon as I get more free time on my hands. Also, I am in the process of sorting through the pictures I have taken and promise a link to the slideshow by the weekend.

I Love Tokyo

I am sure that if I lived in Tokyo for more than a month, then I would start to miss the wilderness. At the moment though, I am in love with how Tokyo runs. The subway systems are designed to perfection with people bustling through ticketbooths and entryways without confusion. Even though I can only speak a little Japanese, I have found the subways and rail systems in Tokyo to be fairly easy to navigate. I hope the US is able to adopt a similar transportation system in the future.

Yesterday, we arrived in Tokyo a day early since we decided against climbing Fuji. The weather report showed that it would be raining until today, so we dropped our Fuji plans. When we arrived at the hostel I had overheard that a typhoon had been developing south of Fuji, which had brought in the rainstorm for a day. Today the rain has cleared and we found it a good day to explore the busier sections of Tokyo. We first stopped off in the Ginza area, which is popular for its shopping. Our main concern was to visit the Sony building and visit a couple of bookstores. The Sony building is one of the coolest stores I have been to in my life. It contained eight floors of Sony products that were either coming out or had just been released. Also, they had a car showroom where a BMW Z4 Roadster was decked out with all sorts of Sony gear. The next area we visited was the Shinjuku district. The area contains all sorts of electronics, new and used, which are cheap. If I had the money, then I would have bought some gear there since most of the items were not coming out for another year or two in the states.

Our plans for tonight consist of going to Roppongi (the nightlife district) till about 3 in the morning. The reason for that is because the subways close at 12:30 and do not open again until 6am. Since we will be close enough to the Tsukuji Fish Market, we will head over there at 4:30am (supposedly best time to be at market) to hopefully view some of the auctioning. After that, we will catch one of the first trains back to the hostel to catch some sleep for the day. Since I am morning person and not usually a night owl, I will probably be downing Red Bull's all night to keep myself from shutting down to soon. I will let you know how the night goes. Sayonara.

A Little More Laid Back Today

After we took a 2 hour bullet train to Hiroshima, I wasn't sure what to expect out of the National Peace Museum (main reason for visiting the city). The information was amazing since they produced details history books in America don't usually provide. After the museum & standing in awe of the A-Bomb Dome, we took the Shinkansen back to Osaka. Later that night, we decided to go to a sushi bar (sushi goes aroound on a conveyor belt). The employees loved having us there. Our Americanism won each of us a free beer since they loved hearing us say cheers in Japanese (Kampai).

Since we had been running on overdrive ever since leaving America, we decided that a laid back day was much needed for today. After leaving the hostel, we visited Osaka castle for a short bit & then visited a couple music & book stores. We will be going out for a bit tonight before getting some rest for tomorrow. The idea is to hike Mt. Fuji, but if it rains, then we will have to do something else. I'll let you know how it goes once we reach Tokyo.

Unsure of Where To Go; Osaka?

We left early in the morning to Mt. Koya. It took about 2 1/2 hours to arrive at the mountain. As we took the train to the temples, we passed rainforest type plants, towering cedars, and off & on fog banks. The area was very scenic to say the least. Once we arrived in Koya-san, we check in to the temple, Haryo-in. In the town, there were temples every twenty feet, gardens every city block, and cars driving by only once every 10 minutes (the bus). It was one of the quietest moments of my life.

After a stroll through town, we headed back to the temple for our vegetarian dinner. I was suprised to see that my taste buds enjoyed the tofu, cabbage, and rice so much. We were served a similar meal for breakfast, which pleased my mouth just as much. Before eating breakfast though, we attended a morning prayer which the monk had explained in both Japanese and English.

Since Doug and I were both a little unsure of what to do after checkout, we cruised along to Osaka to stay at a youth hostel for three nights. The Nagia YH is a little different than most hostels around the world. It is built into the side of an athletic stadium and is the nicest hostel I have seen by far.

After checking in, we decided to walk around and check the sites the city had to offer. While walking past another stadium, we noticed that a soccer game was going to start soon. We soon found out that the match part of the Prime Minister Cup for the elite universities in Japan. Tomorrow, the plan is to go to Hiroshima to visit the A-Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Park/Museum. I'll hopefully write before I head off to Fuji. Sayonara.

Headed for Mt. Koya

The previous day, we headed to Nara park. We had heard that deer roamed free all over the town. When we arrived, the deer were everywhere and they were very tame. We could pet them and even just sit with them if we wanted. Since the largest Buddha and oldest free standing wood temple was not far, we headed to that area. I didn't expect much since I had seen so many temples in the last 4 days, but the Buddha and temple were gigantic. It was well worth the trip to see both.

After spending 4 days in Kyoto, I have found only one complaint about the city. It is very difficult to find a decent place to eat. Most of the places to eat are bars and they only serve grilled meat. I love meat, but every once and a while I need some grains and greens. Next, we will be heading to Mt. Koya, a Buddhist temple, to stay the night with some monks. We will participate in morning ceremony as well as eat two meals with them. After one or two nights there, we will be heading to Takayama to stay the night. Soon after, we will head to Mt. Fuji to ascend to the top to check out the sunrise. Once we finish visiting all of those places, I will finally be in Tokyo (July 5th or 6th) where I can update my blog. If I get a chance though, I will update in between Kyoto and Tokyo.

Biking Around Kyoto

Last night, we went to the Uji river to watch cormorant fishing. We were not able to fish, but we were able to watch from a boat. It was so close that I was able to pet one of the birds before it dived back into the water. After that, we took the train back to Kyoto and had dinner at a small diner before crashing.

After a long night of rest, we were determined to see more of Kyoto. Before arriving in Kyoto, we decided that the second day would be spent biking around Kyoto. Since most of the town is flat, the bike ride was not that bad. We traveled from the south to the east of town to the north and west. Along the way we visited the Golden Pavillion and other temples. When we were travelling from the south to north part of the city (Golden Pavillion area), we totally got lost and travelled way to far east.　 We went into a mini-mart and he told us that we had gone in the wrong direction (for atleast an hour). Since we wanted to see most of the city, it wasn't a big deal. The whole ride lasted about 5 1/2 hours.

Tonight we plan on going out with a few people from the hostel (get a few drinks and some food). I'll let you know how everything goes.

Days Since Last Post

Sorry for not updating in quite a while. We have been too busy to access the internet. Anyway, we are in Kyoto, Japan. We arrived in Nagoya and stayed in a Capsule Hotel (Sauna & bath). It was kind of weird to go into a sauna and bath naked, but we eventually get used to it. The next day, we took a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. The train was going atleast 150mph. We were zipping past mountains and unable to see things that were closer than 20 feet to the train (feels like the speed of an airplane).

Kyoto, is a really old town with a lot of old classical Japanese style buildings (makes it really easy to take good pictures). The hostel we are staying at in Kyoto is really clean and nice. Since it was our first night in the town, we decided to head to a bar. The people there were very funny and challenged us to eat some weird chicken parts (I think it might have been the intestine).

We just got back from Arashiyama (monkey mountain). There were a ton of monkeys at the top of the mountain running wild. After taking a ton of pictures and feeding a few monkeys some nuts, we headed to the river to take a nap from the humid heat (similar to Portland's humidity). Tonight, we plan on going to the　Uji river and watch some cormorant fishing. The men fishing throw cormorants (birds attached to a rope) into the water and the birds catch fish. We might be able to try fishing for a small fee, but I'm still unsure about if we can.

I'm hoping to set up a slide show of all the pictures I have taken while I have been in Taiwan and Japan. I will post it on the blog or a link to Flikr(?) when I get back to Portland (July 12th). Well, I'm off to take a shower. I hope to write again before we leave for Mt. Koya.